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LIHRARY 
 
 University of California. 
 
 
 Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. 
 
 R ea 7 -.-v./ October, i8q4> 
 \ , , . SlTO *+-% i Class No. 
 
/ 
 
GO UP HIGHER 
 
 RELIGION IN COMMON LIFE 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THB HOUR WHICH COMETH," " TEN GREAT RELIGIONS," " STEPS OF 
 BELIEF," "ORTHODOXY, ITS TRUTHS AND ERRORS," ETC 
 
 Z^ OF XH1 
 
 uhivbrsitt; 
 
 BOSTON 
 LEE & SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM 
 
 1877. 
 
£63 
 
 Copyright, 1877, 
 
 BY 
 
 LEE & SHEPARD. 
 
OTE. 
 
 This volume contains a number of sermons which 
 have been preached during the last three years to the 
 Church of the Disciples in Boston. In making the 
 selection, I have taken those which I thought would 
 be most interesting and useful to the general public. 
 I have avoided those dealing with speculative and con- 
 troversional questions. These discourses concern the 
 realities of the spiritual life, rather than theories afcout 
 it. They avoid the obscure regions of thought, and 
 those profounder discussions, of which we may say, 
 in the words of the apostle : " He that speaketh in an 
 unknown tongue, speaketh not to men, but to God; 
 for no man undcrstandeth him, howbeit in the spirit 
 he speaketh mysteries. But he that prophesieth, 
 speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and 
 comfort." 
 
 J. F. C. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Sermon. 
 I. 
 
 Is- 
 
 II. 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 "- V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 IX. 
 
 X. 
 
 XL 
 
 XII. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 XV. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Page. 
 Go Up Higher i 
 
 " Set Thy House in Order." . . . . 12 
 
 The Two Handles 21 
 
 The Nearest Duty 34 
 
 How to Change Time into Life. . . . 45 
 
 Bare Grain. re 
 
 In His Name 63 
 
 If any Man be in Christ, he is a New Creature. 73 
 Spiritual Mnemonics; Or Rules for Improv- 
 ing the Memory 84 
 
 Mercy and Truth Meeting Together. . . 96 
 No Temptations but what are Natural. . 106 
 The Spirit of Fear and the Spirit of Power. 117 
 
 "Uncertain Sounds." 129 
 
 Ethnic and Christian Views of Divine In- 
 fluence . . . !4i 
 
 Transition Periods. 152 
 
 The Word of God not Bound. . • . .162 
 Many Mansions in God's House. . . .173 
 Not Unclothed, but Clothed Upon. . . 187 
 All Things for Good 198 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 Sermon. Page. 
 
 XX. Making all Things New 209 
 
 XXI. Not to Destroy, but Fulfil. .... 220 
 
 XXII. Voluntary and Automatic Morality; Or, 
 
 How Progress is Possible 231 
 
 XXIII. Symmetrical Development 241 
 
 XXIV. The Personal Equation in Religion. . . 253 
 XXV. Latent Goodness and Latent Evil. . . 265 
 
 XXVI. Possessed with a Devil 279 
 
 XXVII. Get Thee Behind Me, Satan 295 
 
 XXVIII. Birthright Goodness and Goodness which we 
 
 Pay For 305 
 
 **- XXIX. The Difference Between "Come" and "Go" 
 
 in Religion 316 
 
 XXX. The Three Salvations. . . . * . . 326 
 
RELIGION OF COMMON LIFE. 
 
 GO UP HIGHER. 
 " Friend, go up higher." 
 
 THERE is a climbing instinct in man which makes him 
 love to go up higher. The great popularity of Long- 
 fellow's little poem, " Excelsior," is due, in part, to its 
 touching this much-loved note. To go to the top of high 
 places is attractive. Therefore, in travelling, we love to 
 ascend spires, towers, mountains ; to go to the top of the 
 Pyramids, the dome of St. Peter, the spire of Strasburg or 
 Antwerp, or the lantern of our own State House. For to 
 mount a few hundred feet above the level of the earth 
 seems to lift us for the tim^ above its cares into a more se- 
 rene state. We look down from the summit of Trinity, in 
 New York ; or St. Paul's, in London ; or Notre Dame, in 
 Paris, upon the streets which swarm below. The currents 
 of life move on, but we seem far away from them ; the roar 
 of business comes up to us, softened through the interven- 
 ing air. We look down upon this hurrying crowd with a 
 certain angelic composure, and wonder at its impatience. 
 Its hurry and haste appear quite unnecessary. To us^in 
 our sublime elevation, bathed in the circumambient air, 
 life has suddenly become calm, and our soul is serene. 
 Much more is this the case when we go to the summit of 
 
2 t GO UP HIGHER. 
 
 a mountain. A deeper calm comes over us, and we pass 
 into the region of nobler thoughts. Climbing mountains 
 has, in fact, become to the English a matter of business, 
 and they have an Alpine Club, the members of which 
 search for virgin peaks not yet scaled, and who publish 
 each winter a volume describing their summer triumphs. I 
 confess to the charm of these descriptions. I do not wish 
 to run the risk myself, nor can I think it right to peril life 
 and limb for no adequate object ; yet there is something 
 very interesting in these accounts of strenuous exercise; of 
 the long, patient ascent from the Swiss valleys, up over the 
 steep meadows, over the rugged glaciers, over the long daz- 
 zling fields of snow, until, at last, the sharp mountain edge, 
 with precipices on either hand, is the only method of pro- 
 gress ; where crevasses are to be crossed on thin bridges of 
 snow, and walls of ice are to be climbed ; where the axe 
 must cut a foothold for every step, and perpendicular walls 
 of rock are to be scaled ; with certain and terrible death 
 the penalty for a moment's dizziness or a moment's care- 
 lessness. " Friends, go up higher," something seems ever 
 to say, till at last the mountain is conquered, and they 
 stand victorious on the submissive peak, looking down upon 
 the immense solitudes below, the valleys far away, the 
 frozen rivers which plunge amain adown enormous ravines; 
 the motionless torrents and silent cataracts ; the deep, deep 
 blue of the half buried lakes ; the sister mountains, whose 
 silver peaks cut the air near by or far away. In that lofty 
 realm of silence, amid pure airs and snows, and rocks piled 
 by the hand of God, and untouched since the morning of 
 creation, the soul within us is also lifted, also purified. 
 Therefore I do not wonder that men like to climb, for this 
 does give us a certain experience not easily gained in any 
 other way. 
 
 But all this is but the type and image of moral climbing. 
 
GO UP HIGHER. 3 
 
 If the British Alpine Club, for scarcely any reason, runs 
 these risks, and goes through this toil, seeking always some 
 new danger to surmount, ought not we all to become an 
 Alpine Club, to climb mentally, morally and spiritually to 
 loftier and still loftier heights of excellence ? The Master 
 says to us all, " Friends, go up higher." 
 
 This is what Jesus Christ has done for the human race. 
 He has told it to go up higher, and it has heard his voice. 
 Christianity has been in the world a principle of progress, 
 moral and spiritual. Jesus said this in his first sermon on 
 the Mount. What was the substance of that marvellous 
 discourse ? It was that to enter heaven was to be " pure 
 in heart," humble in spirit, meek and merciful ; that his 
 disciples were sent to be " the salt of the earth " and 
 "light of the world;" that, therefore, their righteousness 
 must " exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees ; " that 
 their goodness must strike in from the action to the motive; 
 that their religion must be in the heart, their goodness heart 
 goodness, and that they must be " perfect as their Father 
 in heaven is perfect." Wonderful words, uttered at such a 
 time, among such a people ! Wonderful confidence, that 
 there was in man something to answer this appeal ! Dr. 
 Channing once said to me in conversation, that the thing 
 which astonished him most of all in the character of Christ 
 was just this, that he had such profound faith in the capa- 
 city of men for goodness ; that he could say such words to 
 a people so bigoted, so ignorant, and hard. " Why," said 
 he, "we should have as soon thought of saying to these 
 chairs and tables, ' Be perfect, as your Father in Heaven,' 
 as to those Jews." 
 
 But there is something in man which does respond to 
 this call — some chord in the soul which rings in answer to 
 every noble appeal. We are told that when, in a play of 
 Terence, these words occurred, which have a Christian 
 
4 GO UP HIGHER. 
 
 tone to them, " I am a man, and what concerns man con- 
 cerns me,'' the whole theatre rose to its feet in sympathy. 
 And did you ever notice that, in our own theatres, any ex- 
 pression of generous sentiment, no matter how hackneyed, 
 always brings applause? If the actor says, "I must do 
 right, no matter though I die," or if he says, " There, friend, 
 take my last dollar," the pit and gallery thunder sincerest 
 applause. The sentiment is tawdry and claptrap, no doubt ; 
 but it proves, nevertheless, that what every man likes best 
 is generosity, magnanimity, heroism, elevation. 
 
 We are all mean enough, and selfish enough ; but that is 
 not what we like. No orator, no writer, ever became wide- 
 ly popular by appealing to low motives. But popularity 
 comes by appealing to this moral sentiment. It was because 
 Charles Sumner was always true to justice, freedom, hu- 
 manity, progress, that he had the heart of the people 
 with him. Politicians often hoped to defeat him, and 
 wondered they could not do it. It was because he was true 
 to a sentiment of honor and justice, and he had his re- 
 ward. 
 
 The power of Jesus over the human heart has been just 
 here. He saw the evil of man, but also saw his good. He 
 saw that man is a sinner, but knew that his sin is an alien 
 element, not natural to him. Jesus appealed to his better 
 nature. Men of the world assume that man is essentially 
 selfish, and to be moved by selfish considerations. But 
 Christianity has called on him to make sacrifices, and he 
 has denied himself, taken up his cross and followed his 
 Master to the ends of the world, seeking to save souls. 
 Man is sensual, fond of ease, fond of pleasure ; but, at the 
 voice of Christ, he has renounced the world, and devoted 
 strength and life to heroic labors for his Master. Man 
 loves to get and keep money ; but Christ-has taught him 
 to find a higher pleasure in using it generously for great 
 
GO UP HIGHER. 5 
 
 purposes. Jesus, because he dared to say " Go up higher," 
 has infused a new element into the world, and has been the 
 salt of the earth. 
 
 I sometimes think that the old lines which separate relig- 
 ious sects and parties will be obliterated in this country, 
 and new ones drawn. Just as the old political parties of 
 fifty years ago have passed away, and we no more hear of 
 the Federalists and Democrats, with whom the question 
 was centralized government and local administration, but 
 other parties have arisen, and the dividing lines have been 
 drawn anew ; so, 1 think, Christians hereafter will cease to 
 divide on the question of the Trinity, Atonement, and De- 
 pravity, but will group themselves around new issues. 
 What will these be ? Some persons say that the new issue 
 will be ''Naturalism" and "Supernaturalism." I do not 
 quite think so, for that question seems to me rather too 
 scholastic to interest common people. It seems to me that 
 there is now, and will be henceforth, one principal distinc- 
 tion between Christians — between that class which thinks 
 that Christianity is only to save us from a future hell, a?id 
 put us into a future Heaven by means of its sacraments, its 
 doctrines, or its mystical experiences ; and that class which 
 believes that Christianity comes to make us go up higher, 
 to make men holy and generous ; to make them magnan- 
 imous and brave. The real distinction between Christians 
 is this, that some believe Christianity to be a kind of amulet, 
 to be worn round the neck, in order to save us when we 
 die ; and others believe it to be an inspiration and law to 
 keep in the heart, to ennoble us while we live. In short, 
 some believe the influence of Christ to be magical, and 
 others believe it to be moral. 
 
 The best way to escape many difficulties which beset us 
 on a lower plane is to go up to a higher one. It is some- 
 times easier to go up than to stand still where we are. In 
 
6 GO UP HIGHER. 
 
 climbing a precipitous rock, if you stop, you may grow 
 dizzy, and be in danger of falling; but if you push upward, 
 you are safe. So, sometimes, if you find it hard to do your 
 duty, try to do more, not less. Adopt a higher standard, 
 go up to a higher ground. Then you have more motive, 
 purer air, better inspiration. If it is hard to be a moder- 
 ately good Christian, try to become a better one ; you will \ 
 often find that easier. To give yourself wholly to what is 
 true and good is easier than to halt between two opinions. 
 When you try to compromise between right and wrong, to 
 be moderately just, to be truthful to a certain extent, and re- 
 ligious without ceasing to be worldly, it is a hard matter. 
 But if we say, " We will do whatsoever things are just, 
 whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are noble," it 
 simplifies the matter amazingly. To stand still and be de- 
 cimated by the enemy's cannon is harder than to charge, 
 and many a lost battle has been retrieved by a leader who 
 knew how to inspire his troops with hopeful ardor, and to 
 fling them on the foe. Everyone who has to collect money 
 for a good object knows that it is often easier to get a large 
 sum than a small one. 
 
 One thing which caused Christianity to triumph over 
 Judaism was that it was a higher religion, demanding more, 
 but also giving more. The old Jewish system was a heavy 
 work, a task work, a routine of duties and ceremonies, 
 " which," say the Apostle, " neither we, nor our fathers 
 ^Avere able to bear." But Jesus made it easier to do this by 
 giving them more to do. He did not say '* I am come to 
 give you rest, by giving you less to do ; " but he said, " except 
 your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the 
 Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter the kingdom of 
 heaven." He said that not a jot nor a tittle should pass 
 from the law until all of it was fulfilled. It is hard to do 
 our duty, when duty is a task, a drudgery, s^ much tot-; 
 
GO UP HIGHER. 7 
 
 done every day. But when it is a spirit inspiring all of life ; 
 when it is the love of God and man ; the love of all ex- 
 cellence; joy in fighting a good fight ; the happiness found 
 in making others happy ; when it thus takes in all of life, 
 then it becomes at once a great deal more, and a great deal 
 easier. 
 
 And so of religion. If religion is " saying our prayers " 
 so many times a day ; if it is going to church on Sunday ; 
 if it is joining the church, and " making a prof ession ; " if it 
 is adopting a certain tone in conversation, abstaining from 
 certain amusements, and doing certain works ; then, though 
 it does not amount to a great deal, it is not a very easy mat- 
 ter, because it is a burden and a yoke. But if religion 
 consists in " going up higher," if it is progress from bad to 
 good, from good to better ; if prayer is simply being with 
 God all day long, talking with him when we feel like it ; 
 enjoying sunlight and summer the more because he is in 
 them ; bearing trial and sorrow cheerfully because the 
 Heavenly Father sends them ; sure that all things are right 
 which he ordains, and glad to do the smallest service, to 
 any one of his children, however humble, because he 
 loves them all — if this is religion, to trust, to hope, to love ; 
 why, then it is a great deal higher than all the old formalities, 
 but it is also a great deal easier and simpler and sweeter 
 than those. 
 
 If we live in such a spirit as this, then life itself will 
 lead us up higher. As we grow older, we shall become 
 better. Men and women of good-will, whose aims are pure 
 and true, do grow better as they grow older. They are like 
 those clear October days, when the air is so pure and so 
 exhilarating ; when the heats of summer are gone, when 
 the grapes are growing sweet on the vine, the apples grow- 
 ing mellow on the trees. Decay has scarcely begun to 
 touch the green leaves with its effacing fingers ; the red 
 
8 GO UP HIGHER. 
 
 battle-flags of autumn are just beginning to wave in the 
 forest, the advanced guard of the winter. So, good men 
 and women, as they advance towards age, are apt to grow 
 more mellow and tender, to bear better fruits in word and 
 deed, purified from the hot passions of youth, and redeemed 
 from the struggles of ambitious manhood. 
 y But besides this gradual ascent of life, our road some- 
 times rises over hills, from which we again descend into 
 valleys. On the hills we rest a moment and look over the 
 level plain below, breathe for a little while the purer air, 
 enjoy the larger landscape, and then pass down upon the 
 more even level of common days. Such a hill-top is the 
 Lord's day, when we rest from tormenting cares, dwell for 
 an hour or two in contemplation of higher themes, and then 
 turn refreshed to the work of every-day life. The Lord's 
 day is no more holy, no more sacred, than other days ; for 
 every day that dawns comes to us direct from God, and 
 on every day we are to serve him. But each returning Sun- 
 day is a little hill-top on which we rest, and from which 
 we look forward. 
 
 And there are other mounts in life, when we go into some 
 mountain summit of thought, as Jesus and his disciples 
 ascended the Mount of Transfiguration. When God gives 
 us a dear child, or when he takes the dear child away, we 
 are taken up into a mount of transfiguration. We are taken 
 away from the lower world, and our faces are transfigured 
 in the light of an open heaven. Holy hours come some- 
 times to all of us, freighted with love, when life seems 
 worth living, and we feel a profound rest. All weariness 
 is gone, all loneliness ; we have a perfect peace in our heart. 
 We say, like Peter. " Let us stay here. Let us put up 
 tents here, and live always on this enchanted ground." But 
 the inexorable current carries us on, and we descend again 
 from that mountain. It recedes into the pale distance, and 
 
GO UP HIGHER. 9 
 
 stands at last almost a transparent cloud on the far horizon ; 
 yet we occasionally turn back and look at it, and are en- 
 couraged by the knowledge that there are such moments in 
 life, worth all the rest, which remain as the master lights 
 of all our seeing ; which strengthen us in our weakness 
 and comfort us in our sorrow. They are sent to teach us 
 to "go higher." 
 
 A lady once said to Mr. Whittier, " I must thank you 
 for your ' Psalm,' for it always suits me exactly." " I wish, 
 madam," the sincere poet replied, "that it always suited 
 me." It is not to be expected that we shall forever remain 
 on the elevations we are competent sometimes to reach. 
 We have hours of perfect peace, followed by other hours of 
 discomfort and impatience ; hours in which we almost 
 forget that God or man has ever loved us. Be thankful 
 that, thougk we may thus forget God, he does not forget us. 
 And be thankful if you know, by your own experience, that 
 there is such a thing as peace, even though you may for 
 the time have lost it. You have not really lost it, if you 
 have ever really had it. God never takes back his gifts. 
 If he ever gave you a sight of his truth and love, you have 
 it still. Clouds may pass between you and the sun, but the 
 sun is there and will shine forth again. It may be a stormy 
 night, but the -stars are shining permanent and pure, behind 
 the driving rain, and will again look out upon you with 
 their calm eyes, and say, from their inaccessible and infinite 
 heights, " Be patient, little child ! be patient ! and wait till 
 all storms and all darkness shall have passed away forever." 
 
 Sometimes one who has gone up high may learn a lesson 
 from one who seems to stand much lower down. 
 
 An Oriental story tells us that they asked the famous 
 Hatim Tayi, the most generous of mankind, " Have you 
 ever met any'one more independent than yourself ? " He 
 replied : " Yes ! One day I gave a feast to the whole 
 
10 GO UP HIGHER. 
 
 neighborhood, and had fifty oxen roasted. As I was 
 proceeding to the place, I found a woodcutter, tying up his 
 faggots. I said, ' Why do you not go to Hatim's feast, 
 which is open to all ? ' But he answered, ' Whoever can 
 eat the bread earned by his own labor, will not put himself 
 under obligation to Hatim Tayi.' Then I knew that I had 
 found one more independent than myself." Sometimes, a 
 man who is on a low level, a man who pretends to no good- 
 ness, and perhaps has very little, does some action far 
 above the reach of common virtue. The Publican, who 
 stood afar off, and uttered his immortal prayer, the echo 
 of which teaches Christians in the nineteenth century how 
 to pray, was not as good, it may be, as the Pharisee, whose 
 petition to God was only a piece of egotism. The worst 
 men may shame the best, sometimes, by actions much 
 nobler than they ever perform. The publicans and 
 harlots sometimes enter into the kingdom of heaven before 
 us, and the people of Nineveh, who repented at the preach- 
 ing of Jonah, shame us, who listen to the words of Christ 
 unmoved and unchanged. 
 
 Let us, then, go up higher. That is always the safest, 
 happiest, easiest thing to do. It may seem harder at first, 
 but in the long run it is the easiest. It is easier when we 
 have a high and noble purpose, which animates life with a 
 good object, which makes the world a good place, which 
 prepares us equally to live and to die. So, sometimes, 
 pain, and darkness, may carry us up higher, no less than 
 light, peace and joy. For when Jesus ascended the Mount 
 of Transfiguration and talked with God's saints, and his 
 face shone like theirs, he did not go up so high as when he 
 ascended Mount Calvary, and in the darkness of his anguish 
 cried, " My God ! why hast thou forsaken me ? " Sorrow 
 and evil may carry us up nearer to God than peace and 
 joy. We all go down as well as up, but only in the gospel 
 
GO UP HIGHER. II 
 
 do we find that going downwards as well as upwards may 
 bring us nearer to God. 
 
 To him, from wanderings long and wild, 
 I come, an overwearied child, 
 In cool and shade his peace to find 
 Like dew-fall settling on my mind. 
 From book and speech of man apart, 
 To the still witness in my heart ; 
 With reverence waiting to behold 
 The Eternal Beauty, New and Oldl 
 
 0b y Of THE 
 
 fTJHfVBRSITY: 
 
II. 
 
 "SET THY HOUSE IN ORDER." 
 " Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live." 
 
 THERE was once a German nobleman who led a fool- 
 ish and dissipated life ; drinking, gambling and ne- 
 glecting his vassals, his family and his affairs. He had a 
 dream, one night, which vividly impressed him. He saw 
 a figure, looking at him with serious face, and pointing to 
 a dial, where the hands marked the hour of IV. The fig- 
 ure looked at him sadly, and said these words, ** After 
 Four ! " and disappeared. The nobleman awoke in great 
 terror, and thought that vision foreboded his speedy death. 
 " After -Four ! " What could it mean ? It must mean that 
 he was to die after four (fays, so he determined to set his 
 house in order. He sent for the priest, and confessed his 
 sins, and received absolution. He sent for his family, and 
 begged their forgiveness for his offences against them. He 
 sent for his man of business, and arranged his affairs as 
 well as he could. He then waited for death. The four 
 days passed, and he did not die. He then thought that 
 perhaps the vision meant that he was to die after four 
 weeks. He had a longer time for preparation ; so he de- 
 voted these four weeks to making atonement for all the 
 evil he had done in the world, and doing all the good he 
 could. The four weeks passed and he still was alive. Then 
 he thought it meant four months, and so he spent these 
 
"set thy house in order. 13 
 
 four months in a more thorough repentance : he did all the 
 good he could in that time, on his estates ; he found out 
 all the poor and the sufferers, and helped them. The four 
 , months passed, and he did not die. Then he said, " It is 
 plain that the vision meant four years. I have four years 
 to live ; let me do all the good I can in that time." So, 
 during that four years, he gave all his thoughts and time 
 to others ; did all he could for his neighbors, his vassals, 
 the poor • and also took useful and honorable part in pub- 
 lic affairs. At the end of four years, instead of dying, he 
 was chosen Emperor of Germany, and became one of the 
 best Emperors that ever was elected. The expectation of 
 death had taught him how to live. It was natural that it 
 should do so. 
 
 ^""" If each one of us here should know that we had only 
 four days, months or years to live, we should, in like 
 manner, very probably, make an effort to improve our life, 
 and to spend the time that remained to us in the best way. 
 For one thing, we should value more the time remaining 
 to us, and try to use it to better purpose, if we knew that 
 we had only a precise and definite quantity. Now, it seems 
 to us that we have an indefinite,* therefore an unlimited 
 quantity, and therefore that it is not necessary for us to be 
 careful in the use of it. 
 
 \S The German nobleman of whom we have spoken thought 
 he was preparing to die ; but, in fact, he was preparing to 
 live. He was setting his house in order ; getting ready to 
 live. And this is the point which is most worth our 
 attention — the preparation necessary in order to live. When 
 one is dangerously sick, it is common for religious persons 
 to inquire whether he is prepared to die. We feel — and feel 
 rightly — that, before such a momentous change, it is 
 important to be prepared. One wishes to arrange his 
 affairs, to make his will, to take leave of his friends, to 
 
14 "SET THY HOUSE IN ORDER. 
 
 forgive his enemies and to ask their forgiveness, to finish 
 any work which he has begun, to leave some token of 
 affection with those he loves, to do some good to those 
 who depend on him and whom he can help ; lastly, to make 
 his peace with God, and to give his heart, in prayer, sub- 
 mission, penitence and faith, to the Almighty. 
 
 This is all natural and right. But all this would be 
 better done if it were done while we live, and for the sake 
 of life — not merely when we are about to die. Let us, 
 therefore, see how we can set our house in order, that we 
 may live. 
 
 This command is for all of us. God says to each of us, 
 to-day, " Set thy house in order, for thou shalt live." Life 
 is the serious thing, and we have to live. Death is serious ; 
 but life more so. We have no responsibility about dying, 
 but a great deal about living. When we die, we fall into 
 the hands of God, to go where he shall take us, to have 
 what he shall give us, and to be what he shall make of us. 
 All we have to do is to wait and to receive. But when 
 we live, we take up our own work, and have our own lot 
 to choose. We fall into our own hands every morning, 
 and that is far more alarming than to be in God's hands. 
 \S When men are about to die, they begin by setting in 
 order the house of their affairs. But they ought to do this 
 the more when they are about to live. 
 
 One dpes not like to die, and to leave his accounts un- 
 settled, his papers in confusion, his letters unassorted, his 
 property in an entangled state. Therefore he sorts his 
 papers, burns his letters or files them, makes his will, that 
 there may be as little trouble for his executors as possible. 
 This is right, no doubt. He ought to do it. 
 
 But why not do this in order to live ? Why not do it to 
 save himself trouble ? Why not, in order to do all his work 
 well and easily ? 
 
"SET THY HOUSE IN ORDER." 1 5 
 
 ^ I like those persons who are their own executors — who 
 give away all they can while they are alive. Then they 
 have the pleasure of seeing themselves, the good their 
 money does, and also the satisfaction of managing it them- 
 selves. 
 
 iiS Mr. Girard left two millions with which to build and en- 
 dow a college, and he gave, in his will, minute directions as 
 to how it should be built and conducted. The city of Phi- 
 ladelphia and the Philadelphia lawyers contrived to evade 
 his most positive directions. He ordered a perfectly plain 
 fire-proof building, of stone and iron. But it would have 
 looked like an ugly stone barn or prison ; and an architect 
 was found to testify that it needed a portico of columns 
 around it to hold it up. So they added a portico of thirty- 
 four columns, each fifty-five feet high and six feet in diam- 
 eter, making the most splendid specimen of Greek archi- 
 tecture in America. If Mr. Girard had set his house in 
 order while he was alive he would have had such an one as 
 he wanted. The poor man who gives away his surplus every 
 day has more satisfaction out of it. 
 
 K But besides the house of affairs, there is also the house 
 of the thoughts to be set in order. Many people wait till 
 they are about to die before they think at all on the most 
 important subjects of thought. Then, into the confusion 
 of a sick man's brain, they try to introduce order, and to ar- 
 range a creed. So we hear of death-bed conversions from 
 one belief to another, if the unfortunate patient falls into 
 the hands of a proselytizing minister. A Kentucky lady, 
 whom I knew, went to New Orleans, and there died. But 
 on her death-bed she sent for a Presbyterian minister, who, 
 when he found that she was a Unitarian, began to talk to 
 her about her opinions, and tried to convert her to his own. 
 But she said, " I formed these views and came to these 
 conclusions when I was well and strong. That was the 
 
1 6 " SET THY HOUSE IN ORDER. 
 
 right time to form them. This is no time to unsettle them. 
 Let my opinions alone, but increase my faith if you can. I 
 believe in God ; I wish to believe more entirely. I trust in 
 Christ j I wish to trust in him more. Help me to repent, 
 to submit, to love." So the good man put away his creed, 
 and prayed with her. She had set her house of thought in 
 order while she was well, and in this she did wisely. 
 
 We need a clear and systematic belief to live by, not to 
 die by. We need it to save us from hesitation and uncer- 
 tainty when the time of action comes. We need it to guide 
 others who are in doubt, to see all events that occur in the 
 holy light of Christianity ; to see sorrow and trial glorified 
 by a divine love j to comprehend, with all saints, what is the 
 length, and breadth and depth and height of the love of 
 God. 
 
 Then there is the house of the affections to be set in 
 order, and this ought to be done while we live. 
 
 Many wait till they are about to die before they look 
 into their heart to see what is there. Then they find how 
 cold their love has been to their friends ; how they have 
 neglected opportunities of showing affection and good will j 
 how, absorbed in selfish thoughts and pursuits, they have 
 not thought of the happiness of others. In the stillness of 
 the sick chamber, as they look back, how empty their years 
 seem of good ! What return have they made for the ex- 
 ceeding love of parents, of husband, of wife, of brother and 
 sister, of friends ? Love has been showered on them like 
 sunlight ; but, as the sunlight falls on the inaccessible 
 summit of some frozen Alpine peak, so it has fallen on 
 their hearts, leaving them unmelted into any tenderness. 
 44 Oh," they cry, " if I could only set this house in order, if 
 I could only have time to love as I ought those who have 
 lov.-d me so well ! But it is too late now ! " What bitter- 
 ness is in that thought ! But the bitterness is wholesome, 
 
17 
 
 and it often happens that the man who has been cold and 
 hard through life softens in his last days, and in his sick 
 chamber, into an unspeakable tenderness and gentleness 
 of spirit. And such is the nature of the human heart, that 
 these last hours of unproductive tenderness seem to atone 
 for all the hard years that preceded them — and the wife 
 and children remember him as he was in his dying room, 
 and say, " That was our father, that was his true life." 
 But is it well to waste fifty years in cold, hard, self-folded 
 indifference, and to set the house of the heart in order 
 only when just about to go away ? Would it not be better 
 to have a little thoughtful love spread over each day ; a 
 few kind words, uttered every morning and every evening, 
 some little acts of good will to refresh life all along its 
 route ? Would it not be well to fill one's life full of that 
 which Wordsworth says constitutes the largest portion of a 
 good man's life — 
 
 " The little, nameless, unremembered acts 
 Of kindness and of love ? " 
 
 I know that the human heart is sometimes like the Amer- 
 ican aloe, which stands fifty years a dry dead stalk, and 
 then springs up, and in a few days clothes itself with 
 flowers. Let us be thankful for that, if we can have no 
 more. But in the parable of the talents we are taught that 
 the good servants were those who used their Lord's money 
 so that it was increasing all the time they had it, and not 
 merely during the few hours which preceded his return. 
 
 We also need to set in order the house of the Spirit. 
 This preparation, more than any other, is apt to be left to 
 the hour of death. Men, about to die, bethink them of 
 making their peace with God, and turn to religion. Then, 
 for the first time, they remember that they are sinners, 
 and ask for pardon. Then, first, they feel their own weak- 
 ness, and pray for help. It is good to do so \ it is good 
 
 2 
 
1 8 " SET THY HOUSE IN ORDER." 
 
 to pass through this experience then, if one has never had 
 it before. 
 
 But how much better it is to set in order the house of 
 the spirit, all through our life ! Religion, true religion, is 
 to help us to live — nobly, truly, generously. It is to en- 
 able us to perform every-day duties faithfully, to endure 
 common trials, patiently. False religions, the religions of 
 priestcraft, offer their ceremonies as a viaticum, to help the 
 soul to escape unknown dangers hereafter, and obtain mys- 
 terious joys. 
 
 It used to be said, by way of objection to liberal Chris- 
 tianity, that it is a good religion to live by, but bad to die 
 by. The objection is illogical ; any religion which is good 
 to live by must be good to die by. No religion can be 
 good to live by which does not make men live noble and 
 pure lives ; and what better preparation for death can 
 there be than this ? When Jesus said, u The tree is known 
 by its fruits," and gave this as a test by which to distin- 
 guish true teachers from false ones, he referred to fruits 
 which could be known in this life, else his warning and 
 test would be useless. According to this, he is a true 
 teacher of Christianity whose doctrine enables men to live 
 good lives here ; not he who merely gives them a ticket by 
 which they may be enabled to enter heaven hereafter. 
 We need religion, we need the sense of a divine presence 
 and a divine love, to enable us to be true and faithful in 
 this world. We need forgiveness for this life, not for the 
 life to come. 
 
 Nations are also called on to set their house in order. 
 When a form of government, intended to protect the people 
 in their rights, is abused to put a monopoly of power in 
 the hands of a few, it is time to set the house in order. 
 Our country was called upon, in 1861, in the Providence 
 of God, to set its house in order. If there is a flaw in a 
 
19 
 
 cannon, it may be fired a great many times, but each time 
 the flaw grows a little larger, the crack a little wider, and 
 at last the cannon bursts. An unsettled question as to the 
 relation between State sovereignty and the Federal sover- 
 eignty was the flaw in our Constitution. The Constitution 
 nowhere decided that conflict of sovereignties. Very good 
 arguments were made on both sides, but the fact that argu- 
 ments had to be made, showed that there was a defect in 
 our Constitution. We fired the cannon eighteen times ; 
 on the nineteenth it burst. We passed through eighteen 
 Presidential elections ; on the nineteenth came the Rebel- 
 lion. 
 
 Then behind this difficulty lay the greater inconsistency of 
 Slavery — another fatal defect. There existed the irrepres- 
 sible antagonism of two contradictory elements — the Aris- 
 tocracy of Slaveholding, and the Democracy of Equal Rights. 
 
 The nation was called upon to set its house in order. 
 It had to put down the rebellion, but in doing it it must 
 also repair forever these two original defects. We had to 
 restore the Union, but in restoring it leave out these two 
 fatal inconsistencies. We had to decide two points — 
 whether the States are supreme, or the Nation ; and 
 whether Slavery was to be supreme, or Freedom. 
 
 Thank God, both were decided the right way. We 
 waited till we were at the point of death before we set our 
 house in order. But how much better it would have been 
 to have settled the question of State sovereignties at 
 the time of the South Carolina nullification, when we 
 had General Jackson for President, and he on the right 
 side ! Henry Clay then made a compromise which settled 
 nothing — as, in 1850, he helped to make another com- 
 promise of the Slavery difficulty which settled nothing. In 
 neither instance did we set our house in order — we merely 
 
20 "SET THY HOUSE IN ORDER." 
 
 patched over the surface of the wall with badly-tempered 
 mortar, so that "if a fox went up, he would break it 
 down." But by the dread arbitrament of war these two 
 questions have been absolutely settled, and by that settle- 
 ment the nation is prepared to live. They might have 
 been settled, and would have been better settled, without 
 war j but better a settlement by war than the nation's death. 
 
 Europe looked at us with astonishment and complacent 
 satisfaction, and said, " The great republic has gone to 
 pieces. Art thou become like one of us ? God has said 
 to it, Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die, and not 
 live." But God was really saying to us, " Set thy house in 
 order, that thou mayst live, and not die." We have risen, 
 through this awful struggle, to a higher national life. We 
 have become one people, — one in the supremacy of Free- 
 dom, one in the triumph of true Democracy, one in the 
 final destruction of the heresy of State sovereignties. As, 
 when the fiery tide of lava breaks its way through the su- 
 perincumbent rock, and pours up its liquid raging mass 
 through the limestone or the silex, it changes them as it 
 passes into precious stones and marbles; so this great 
 fiery tide of war, pouring up through the national institu- 
 tions and habits, changed our barren lives into something 
 higher, — gave to us nobler aims, clearer insights, more 
 generous sympathies, and lifted the whole nation to a 
 higher level of life. 
 
 Let us, then, set our house in order, that we may live ! 
 The house of our affairs, that we may act efficiently and 
 usefully ; the house of our thoughts, that we may see 
 clearly what to do, and how to do it ; the house of our 
 affections, that we may shed warm sunshine around us, on 
 all the hearts near us : the house of our soul, that bein^ 
 led by God, and inspired by him, we may have his peace 
 in our souls evermore, and live his eternal life. 
 
III. 
 
 THE TWO HANDLES. 
 . " Take hold of this." 
 
 EPICTETUS, the wise slave, who was in Greece what 
 Dr. Franklin was in America, and whose proverbs 
 have the same touch of common sense in them as have the 
 Proverbs of Solomon, gives us in one place a parable of 
 " The Two Handles." " Everything," says he, " has two 
 handles. By the one it can be easily carried ; by the other 
 not at all. Thus, if your brother has injured you, do not 
 take hold of this event on the side of the injury, for that 
 handle will not support it " (it is, as we say, intolerable), 
 " but take hold of it by the other handle, and say, ' Well, 
 he is my brother, after all, we were brought up together 
 in the same house/ " 
 
 Precisely the same idea is expressed, and the same illus- 
 tration used by Jesus in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. 
 When the elder son returned from the field, and saw the re- 
 joicing over his unworthy brother's return, he took hold of 
 the fact by the handle of his brother's bad conduct and his 
 own good conduct. " I have always done right, and he has 
 behaved shamefully. You never gave me a kid, and you have 
 killed the calf for him." But notice how the father pre- 
 sents to him the other handle : " This, thy brother, was 
 dead, and is alive again. All I have is yours ; you and I 
 are doing this together for him." Observe the value of 
 that little pronoun " we." He does not say, " It was meet 
 
22 THE TWO HANDLES. 
 
 that /should do it," but " It was meet that we should make 
 merry and be glad," thus assuming that the brother and 
 father were both united in this generous reception of the 
 penitent. 
 
 Almost everything has a pleasant and an unpleasant 
 handle ; there is something agreeable and something disa- * 
 greeable in all that we see and meet and have to do with. 
 Some take such things by the pleasant and agreeable handle, 
 and others take them by the opposite one. 
 
 Many persons, in travelling, seem bent on seeing only 
 what is disagreeable. They go from Dan to Beersheba, 
 and find it all barren. On the same trip, even in a horse 
 car going through Washington Street, you may often meet 
 both classes of travellers. One is complaining of the dust, 
 the noise, the disagreeable people in the car. Everything 
 is flat and commonplace to him. Another cannot go from 
 Boston to Dorchester without encountering some agreeable 
 stranger, or some interesting adventure. I have read books 
 of travels, where the journey led through a charming coun- 
 try and a curious society ; but the traveller saw nothing of 
 it. His book was full of personal annoyances ; how he 
 lost his dinner here, and ate a bad one there ; how he was 
 cheated in this inn, and could find no soap in that. He 
 judges the country, its customs, its people, its laws, by the 
 habits of his own village in Connecticut or England. So he 
 sees nothing and learns nothing. He began his journey 
 with a full purse and empty head ; he has emptied the first 
 without filling the second. 
 
 Washington Irving walks through England, and its vil- 
 lages, its ancestral homes, its rural population become warm 
 with tender and pathetic life. Theodore Winthrop goes to 
 Katahdin, and the rude farmer and patient ox grow fasci- 
 nating in his sympathetic narrative. The man who travels 
 must learn the art of taking hold of everything by the right 
 
THE TWO HANDLES. 23 
 
 handle, or he throws away his time and money, and comes 
 back poorer than he went ; for he has lost an illusion. 
 
 He who really sees a thing, really possesses it. " To 
 see is to have," says the French proverb. The proprietor 
 of an estate may not be its possessor ; for he may be una- 
 ble to see it. The man who reaps the field does not always 
 know what mystic fruit his acres bear ; what charm of as- 
 sociation, what delights of memory, what harvest of the 
 quiet eye and the brooding heart, are to be found in them. 
 Another man pays thousands of dollars for a gallery of 
 paintings, and some boy or girl comes in, with open mind 
 and poetic fancy, and carries away a treasure of beauty 
 which the owner never saw. We must know how to take 
 everything by the right handle. 
 
 I once lived in a city which was supremely and emi- 
 nently ugly ; I ought to add that it has grown very pretty 
 since. But when I went there the houses were ugly, the 
 streets were dirty, the horses were starved and there was a 
 half-finished and slovenly look to everything. I suffered 
 much from the sight of this deformity. At last it occurred 
 to me that what was not beautiful might yet be picturesque. 
 So I ceased looking for beauty, and sought for pictures. 
 Then, at once, all things became interesting. The ragged 
 negro boys munching their apples under a cart made 
 groups like those of Murillo. A dirty and lean dog, sitting 
 close to a brick wall to keep himself warm in the sunshine, 
 became a desirable object from an artistic point of view. I 
 had found the right handle by which to take hold of these 
 deformities, and afterwards derived a certain satisfaction 
 from their study. Then I saw what was meant by those 
 who say that everything depends upon your point of view. 
 
 Why does genius glorify and transfigure all that it 
 touches ? Because genius takes all facts, all events, by the 
 right handle. There were heroes before Agamemnon, but 
 
24 THE TWO HANDLES. 
 
 no man of genius was there to describe them, so they per- 
 ished unknown. Thousands had seen the little country 
 churchyard of Stoke-Pogis before Gray came, to make it 
 immortal. The beauties of Loch Lomond, Loch Katrine's 
 lake and isle, fair Melrose and the Trosachs were there be- 
 fore Scott ; but who saw them ? The castled-crag of 
 Drachenfels looked over the wide and winding Rhine, 
 and the blue-eyed peasant girl offered early flowers to 
 the travellers, during hundreds of years. At last, Byron 
 passed through the valley and ?aw them, and now all men 
 behold them through his eyes ai>d verse. Many saw apples 
 falling before Newton, but no one perceived the law of 
 gravity pulling them down, till he read in that insignificant 
 fact the majestic order of the universe. In truth, to genius 
 no fact is insignificant. Genius, like piety, calls nothing 
 common or unclean. 
 
 When we look upon life as tame and commonplace ; when 
 we complain of our sphere as mean and poor ; when we 
 think our home uninteresting, our work drudgery, it is that 
 we are tame and commonplace ourselves. To a dull youth 
 it seems a poor drudgery to stay in his country home, and 
 plough the fields ; but Robert Burns walked in glory and 
 in joy, following his plough along the side of the mountain. 
 To work at a forge, and to hammer horse shoes on an an- 
 vil, is stupid work to the boy who thinks himself a genius ; 
 but one who is a genius, like Robert Collyer, feeds his ima- 
 gination with the sparks which fly from his anvil, and learns 
 the secrets of nature from the blazing forge and malleable 
 iron. Genius is the power of taking everything by the 
 right handle. 
 
 I have, in my life, heard many young people complain 
 bitterly of their circumstances, so unfavorable to the devel- 
 opment of their character, so unsuitable to their tastes and 
 capacities. They should take these things by another 
 
THE TWO HANDLES. 2$ 
 
 handle. If the Rhodora complains because its blossoms 
 are unseen in the lonely woods, and because its charms 
 are wasted on the marsh and sky ; Mr. Emerson tells it 
 that if it is beautiful it ought to be satisfied with that, for 
 that is its ample excuse for being. Suppose the street 
 lamps in some outskirt of the city should lament because 
 they cannot stand in the central square where many would 
 enjoy their light ; you would explain to them that in light- 
 ing up those remote and lonely places they were doing the 
 greatest work of all, and the most necessary. The swan on 
 still St. Mary's lake may possibly think its merits unrecog- 
 nized ; it is a misunderstood swan, and has a right to rail 
 against its hard fortune. But wait, swan, for Wordsworth 
 *is walking this way, and directly, when he turns the corner, 
 he will see you floating double, swan and shadow, and then 
 you will become immortal. Faithfulness in any place and 
 work which God has given us, where God has placed us, 
 wins at last the crown of rejoicing. Take hold of it by that 
 handle. It is my work ; I am here to do it. I am a senti- 
 nel at this post, and the safety of the whole army may de- 
 pend on my loyalty and truth. No one lives to himself and 
 no man dies to himself. Every one can learn and impart 
 some random truths from the commonest things around 
 him, if he has a quiet eye in which to harvest them. Geese 
 may save the capital by opportune cries — which is a com- 
 fort to geese everywhere. We are members, all of us, of a 
 great body ; and God himself watches us, day by day, to 
 see whether we are faithful to our task. 
 
 Some people cultivate their taste only on the side which 
 is turned towards evil. Good taste is to them the same as 
 fault-finding and fastidiousness. A gentleman was once 
 mentioned to Daniel Webster as being " a man of very fine 
 tastes." " I think him a man of very fine distastes," 
 replied Mr. Webster. True taste consists in a relish for 
 
26 THE TWO HANDLES. 
 
 good things — in the power which finds beauty everywhere, 
 in the fine test which detects its charming presence in the 
 midst of the poorest environment. The best taste is a 
 generous sentiment, rejoicing not in iniquity, bearing all 
 things, and thinking no evil. It takes hold of everything 
 by the handle of beauty and good, and finds them in all 
 things. 
 
 In like manner critics are of two kinds — those who are 
 fault-finders, and those who are merit-finders. The Edin- 
 burgh Review took for its motto a Latin sentence meaning 
 " The judge is condemned when the guilty is acquitted." 
 The idea of the Review seemed to be to search for crimin- 
 als and punish them relentlessly. Such criticism, however, 
 is usually unjust, because it sees only half of a man's work. 
 It sees his failure, but is ignorant of his success. It com- 
 putes in part what he has done or failed to do, but does 
 not know his essential and inward excellence. Destructive 
 criticism is supercilious, and affects omniscience. ,It adopts 
 ultramontane and priestly assumptions, and puts on the 
 airs of infallibility. But productive criticism is modest 
 — it judges each work, not by an artificial standard, but by 
 the intention of the author. It detects the soul of goodness 
 in things evil, and so helps us by enlarging the boundary 
 of our likings, and enabling us to see more good in the 
 world. To condemn or acquit is easy ; but to disentangle 
 the threads of beauty and truth from their enveloping error, 
 requires a higher skill, and has a more lasting reward. 
 
 Christianity may be taken hold of by the handle of Love, 
 or by that of Fear. The Church has too often taken hold 
 of it by the handle of Fear, making God an arbitrary King 
 and Christ a Judge, instead of showing us God as a Father 
 and Christ as a Friend. In the funereal papyri of Egypt 
 there are pictures illustrating the judgment of each soul 
 before Osiris. There is a pair of scales — in the one are 
 
THE TWO HANDLES. 2J 
 
 put the good deeds of the man, in the other his evil deeds, 
 and his fate depends on which scale is the heaviest. In 
 like manner hell and heaven are presented by many Chris- 
 tian teachers as the only alternatives hereafter. But the 
 probability is that there, as here, we may often be in heaven 
 and in hell, too ; or pass from hell to heaven as we choose 
 the good and reject the evil. There, as here, we may be 
 working our way up with occasional or frequent relapses. 
 Christians backslide here, — why not there ? Who has told 
 us, with authority, that the Eternal World may not have its 
 varieties and alternations, its progress and its arrested 
 progress, no less than this ? This is probable ; but what 
 is certain is that Christianity was taught by Jesus and his 
 apostles as good news ; that it was a gospel of hope, not 
 of fear ; that its primary announcement was not " Hell is 
 at hand," but " The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand ; " that 
 Jesus came not as the Judge of sinners, but as their Friend ; 
 that he did not favor the self-satisfied Pharisee, but the 
 penitent Publican ; that the word which fell most easily 
 from his lips was " Thy sins are forgiven thee ; go, and sin 
 no more." What is certain is, that the essential power of 
 the gospel is in revealing a Father loving all his children, 
 letting His sun shine on the evil and the good, and sending 
 rain on the just and the unjust ; revealing a Father who 
 provides for all his children, forgetting and neglecting none. 
 It reveals a Father accepting our love for each other as 
 identical with love for himself, and charity as one form of 
 piety. Does that seem strange ? You are a father or a 
 mother ; you are obliged to go away and leave your children 
 at home alone. You come back at night, and find that the 
 oldest child has been taking care of the younger ones all 
 day long. Do you not accept that brotherly, sisterly love 
 to your little ones as service done to yourself ? Do you 
 not say, " Inasmuch as you have done i-t to the least of 
 
 t 
 
 YX^ 0? TBDB 
 
 TJHIVBR 
 
28 THE TWO HANDLES. 
 
 these you have done it unto me ? " And can we serve God 
 better, or show our love for him more truly, than by taking 
 care of his poor, his sick, his tempted, his sorrowing chil- 
 dren ? 
 
 These, then, are the two handles always presented to us, 
 and every day, if we listen, we shall hear God say to us, 
 " Choose to-day which to take ! " We can take hold, in 
 everything which befalls us, of the handle of doubt, of 
 anxiety, of fault-finding, of fear ; of pleasure, custom, expe- 
 diency, personal gratification and self-seeking ; or we can 
 take hold of the handle of trust, of hope, of candid liberal 
 judgment, of duty, of personal conviction, of right, of 
 generous, self-forgetting good-will. Our days will be sweet 
 or bitter, events will seem gloomy or bright, the world a 
 good world, or a bad world, according as we take every- 
 thing by one handle or the other. The art of life consists 
 in taking each event which befalls us with a contented 
 mind, confident of good. This makes us grow younger as 
 we grow older, for youth and joy come from the soul to the 
 body more than from the body to the soul. With this 
 method and art and temper of life, we are well known even 
 if unknown ; we live, though we may be dying ; we rejoice 
 always, though in the midst of sorrows, and possess all 
 things, though destitute of everything. 
 
 There was once a poor woman — a very poor woman ; 
 she was a widow, and found it hard to support herself and 
 her children. One day, she was going to church, and 
 said, " There will be a collection to-day ; had I better put 
 anything into the box, or not ? " She found she had only 
 two cents that she could spare, and she felt ashamed to 
 give so little. She thought it would be best to let the rich 
 people give. But she remembered about the little drops 
 of water and the little grains of sand, and so she put her 
 two cents into the box. She took hold of that question by 
 
THE TWO HANDLES. 20, 
 
 the right handle — by the handle of duty, not appearance. 
 "It is right for every one to give what he can," said she. 
 It so happened that Jesus, with his disciples, was standing 
 near, and saw her do it, and he said, " She hath given 
 more than all of them ; " and because she did her duty, 
 she had the commendation of Jesus,^ and went into the 
 Scriptures of mankind, famdus forever, and an example to 
 others in all time. That was because she laid hold of the 
 handle of right, instead of that of custom. 
 
 We are troubled, some of us, every day, by the question, 
 " Shall I do this, or not ? Shall I do this thing, or an- 
 other ? " You will commonly find that each of these ques- 
 tions has two handles — the handle of duty, and that of 
 pleasure ; the handle of right, and that of expediency ; the 
 handle of gratification, and that of usefulness to others ; 
 the handle of custom, and that of personal conviction. All 
 depends on this — on which handle do we take hold. It 
 seems wise and safe and prudent to do as others do ; to 
 consult the probabilities of success or failure ; to do what 
 all men will approve ; to do what we shall enjoy doing 
 ourselves. But no one can tell, but he who tries it, what 
 a contentment there is when we simply decide to do what 
 is right, whether others will hear, or whether they will for- 
 bear ; what a satisfaction comes to those who go the way 
 where their own soul calls them, though they go wholly 
 alone ; what peace there is in the heart when we have once 
 made up our minds to listen to the small and still voice of 
 God speaking to the conscience -, what ample compensa- 
 tion there is when we take life by this handle — compen- 
 sation in a certain solid assurance of rocky foundations 
 beneath our feet. 
 
 Many of us here may be disposed to take our share 
 of politics. In this country it is every man's duty to be 
 interested in politics, and to do some work in politics. To 
 
30 THE TWO HANDLES. 
 
 work effectually, he must usually belong to a party. But 
 let him take hold of this work by the right handle. The 
 two handles here are those of profit and duty. 
 
 There are two classes of politicians. One class makes 
 politics a trade ; the other makes it a noble profession, a 
 beautiful art. We have had many men in Massachusetts 
 who have regarded politics as a serious religious work, to 
 be entered upon — as the marriage service says one ought 
 to enter marriage — "not lightly, or unadvisedly; but dis- 
 creetly, reverently, soberly, and in the fear of God." The 
 most thorough and most successful politician we have ever 
 had in this State was John Quincy Adams ; he took part 
 in political life when a mere boy, fifteen years old, and 
 continued in politics till he was eighty-one. His diary, a 
 part of which has been published, shows that he was actu- 
 ated, during these years, by a sense of obligation to God 
 and to man. So, too, did Charles Sumner become a poli- 
 tician, not lightly, or unadvisedly, but in the fear of God. 
 So did John A. Andrew, also, enter politics. These men 
 are dead, but their fame is immortal. They were followed 
 to their sacred graves by a nation, grateful for their virtues, 
 hardly consolable for their loss. They were often misun- 
 derstood in their lives, often opposed, and bitterly cen- 
 sured ; but they knew they were right, and knew that the 
 people would know it too, sooner or later. For the people, 
 at last, know their true friends ; the people, at last, honor 
 goodness, manliness, truth, more than they honor success- 
 ful trickery, or smartness, or cunning. These men took 
 hold of politics by the right handle, by a solemn sense of 
 duty, and their memory is immortal. 
 
 But we have seen, in these last years, a different class 
 of politicians — trading politicians — men who care nothing 
 for the good of the country, but only for personal success ; 
 men who think the nation is for the sake of office seekers 
 
THE TWO HANDLES. 3 1 
 
 and office holders, not office holders for the sake of the 
 nation. They buy votes, and bribe electors ; they go to 
 Congress to make money out of jobs ; they belong to rings, 
 who rob the people and fill their own purses, who steal 
 their millions and govern great cities as they please. We 
 have seen these men shine as stars in the sky, have every- 
 thing in their own hands, rewarding their friends and punish- 
 ing their enemies. Where are they now ? One has been 
 murdered in consequence of his debaucheries ; one was in 
 the New York Penitentiary, and escaped, and has been re- 
 taken ; some of them, who yesterday ruled the world, to- 
 day have fallen, like Lucifer, and none so poor as to do 
 them reverence. " I have seen the wicked in power, and 
 flourishing like a green bay-tree ; I went by, and lo ! he 
 was gone, and his place could no more be found." Take 
 politics by the right handle, and your course shall be ever 
 onward, shining more and more to the perfect day ; take 
 it by the wrong handle, and, " living, you shall forfeit fair 
 renown, 
 
 " And, doubly dying, shall go down 
 To the vile dust from whence you sprung, 
 Unwept, unhonored, and unsung." 
 
 Every to-morrow has two handles as we go to meet it — 
 the handle of anxiety, and that of trust. Pagan and Chris- 
 tian wisdom agree in teaching us that we ought not to be 
 anxious. "As to what the morrow may bring, do not 
 trouble yourself," says Horace. " Let the morrow take 
 thought for the things of itself," says Jesus. And yet we 
 allow our days to be spent in anxious thoughts, our hearts 
 to be corroded with care, all the joys of life turned to gloom, 
 all its sunshine shaded by this anxiety. How shall we 
 live ? How shall we provide for our children ? How shall 
 we meet our engagements ? And then, to these anxieties, 
 
32 THE TWO HANDLES. 
 
 we add others about our soul ; and the Church teaches us 
 to be anxious about the other world, in addition to our 
 anxieties about this. And so black Care rides behind the 
 horseman, and modern civilization seems darkened more 
 than ever before by these gloomy shadows thrown up from 
 below the horizon by the clouds which hang above the 
 setting or rising sun. 
 
 But "consider the lilies, how they grow;" "consider 
 the birds, how they build their nests ; " consider the Indian 
 in his wigwam, the Arab in his tent. How little we really 
 need of all these supposed necessities of civilization ! You 
 go from homes full of various comfort and ornament, and 
 spend a month in the Adirondack woods, sleeping on a 
 bed of spruce boughs, eating trout from the lake and mush 
 from the pan, and you say, " This is true life ; I never 
 knew what it was to live before." Now you are taking life 
 by the right handle, cutting down your necessaries to the 
 lowest mark, and then having the luxuries of sky and lake, 
 forest and waterfall, peaceful days, and sweet sleep in the 
 open air ; yet you come home and forget all this experience, 
 and calmly resume the whole burden of anxiety, and become 
 the slaves of routine, of housekeeping, of living in a cer- 
 tain style in which other people live ; and the Sermon on 
 the Mount goes for nothing. 
 
 Consider the lilies, how they grow! Consider the day- 
 laborer coming from his work at night. He has no stocks, 
 no real-estate, nothing to fall back on — nothing, but God. 
 He has his two dollars a day, and if he falls sick it stops. 
 But he is not anxious, because he has nothing between 
 himself and Divine Providence. He has always got along, 
 has always been taken care of, and so he expects to be. 
 He is not tormented by fears as to what the morrow may 
 bring forth in State Street, or the probable condition of the 
 money market ; he cares nothing about inflation, he takes 
 
THE TWO HANDLES. 33 
 
 no thought of high taxes. He lives from day to day as 
 the little child lives. The child has nothing to rely upon 
 but its father and mother. So this working woman, this 
 laboring man, has nothing to rely upon but Providence ; yet 
 that seems enough. 
 
 Every sorrow, calamity, disappointment, comes to us 
 with two handles — if we take hold of, one, we can bear it ; 
 if we take the other, it is intolerable. 
 
 You have lost a dear friend — one in whose life you lived, 
 and apart from whom life seemed not worth living. The 
 child, in whose future you placed your own hopes, is gone ; 
 what hope is left you now ? Cling to this handle of irre- 
 parable loss, and your life is blighted. You walk sorrow- 
 ing all your days. You are of no use to others or your- 
 self. 
 
 Suppose, then, you look at the event differently. Your 
 friend has left you, but who gave him to you ? Was it 
 not God from whose gift this joy of your life came ? Is 
 he not the perpetual giver, and have not all these years 
 taught you to place some trust in him ? Poes not he 
 love his child as well as you do ? 
 
 3 
 
IV. 
 
 THE NEAREST DUTY. 
 " Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with thy 
 
 MI GHT." 
 
 f 
 
 DO the duty which lies nearest to thee!" So said 
 Carlyle, following Goethe. When he said it, years 
 ago, it seemed to many of us like a new revelation, an 
 eleventh commandment — come to make many things clear 
 that before were dark and vague enough. 
 
 And, certainly, it is a very important maxim. It is a 
 good thing for us all to be fastened to a chain of daily 
 duties ; not to have to decide afresh, at every moment, 
 what to do, but to have the hour decide for us when it 
 comes. This chain of duties, which we often complain of 
 so much, and wish to be emancipated from, keeps mind 
 and body in health and peace. The man and woman may 
 be accounted happy who have regular work to do, to which 
 each hour of the day invites them ; work which is useful to 
 others and themselves ; work not involving anxiety, but, 
 rather, relieving it. We are not anxious when we are at 
 work, but when we are not at work. To have something 
 to do for a sick friend takes iway a little of the burden of 
 anxiety concerning him. 
 
 This chain of daily habit, therefore, is a most excellent 
 gift to us all. No one can dispense with it. To have to 
 get up in the morning at a fixed hour ; to dress ; to break- 
 fast j to be needed and expected in certain places during a 
 
THE NEAREST DUTY. 35 
 
 good part of the day ; and, besides the work, to have some 
 regular study, some regular reading, some special pursuit 
 — scientific, artistic, philanthropic, social ; this regular 
 course of events in our lives helps us along, prevents stag- 
 nation, keeps away the fiend of uncertainty and indecision 
 which harries the life of the unoccupied person, who, 
 because he can do what he pleases, is very apt not to be 
 pleased with doing anything. 
 
 We often complain of these conventional and common 
 duties ; but much mental, moral and physical health comes 
 out of them. The first demand we make on work is that 
 it shall be regular, not spasmodic ; habitual, not occasional ; 
 something which does not require new efforts of will, but 
 which we are led to do by the expectations of others, the 
 requirements of circumstances, the conventions of society, 
 the tacit understanding which people have with each other 
 not to leave the highway of custom except for some good 
 reason. 
 
 The nearest duties, then, are, first, the regular and cus- 
 tomary duties of our life. This makes the rule ; but there 
 are exceptions to every rule, and important exceptions to 
 this. 
 
 While we ought, all of us, to begin with the duties which 
 come to us, and are laid upon us by circumstances and the 
 recurrent necessities of life, it does not follow that we are 
 to remain there always. 
 
 The nearest duty may take another form, and become 
 that nearest to our ability, that which we are the most fit 
 to do. The nearest duty may be that " which our hand 
 finds to do," not that which is found for it. To find any- 
 thing, usually implies some independent looking, not mere 
 passive reception. A duty which finds us may not be that 
 which we find, and so not the nearest. 
 
 The customary routine of life is an excellent support, a 
 
36 THE NEAREST DUTY. 
 
 good thing to lean upon ; but we must not be enslaved by- 
 it. No one can dispense with routine, but we must some- 
 times rise above it. 
 
 The danger in this maxim is that it may lead to narrow- 
 ness, keeping us in a little rut where we only plod along, 
 caring for no one outside of our own small circle, taking 
 no interest in the concerns of humanity around us. How 
 many families there are in Boston, to-day, who do nothing, 
 from January to December, for any persons outside of 
 themselves ! Yet they are doing with their might what 
 their hand finds to do — only it all concerns themselves, 
 their own children, their own kindred, their own friends. 
 They are very respectable, very worthy people, but pro- 
 foundly indifferent to all that concerns the happiness of 
 others, here or hereafter, who do not belong to their own 
 little circle. 
 
 Now, if Christianity consists in following Christ and imi- 
 tating him, it is evident that such as these are not Chris- 
 tians. They may be very good people, but their goodness 
 is not Christian goodness, for Christ " went about doing 
 good," and they do no good, except at home. Christ tells 
 us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and in the parable of 
 the Good Samaritan he teaches us that our neighbor is 
 every man who needs our help, and whom we are able 
 to aid. 
 
 When the Samaritan saw the wounded man lying by the 
 wayside, he might have thought his nearest duty was to 
 himself and to his own family ; that the robbers might re- 
 turn, and, if he stopped to help the Jew, he might lose his 
 own life. " My nearest duty is to get home as soon as I 
 can," so he might have said ; " I ought to take care of my- 
 self, and not risk my life for this Jew, who is one of the 
 enemies of my people." But he did not reason this way. 
 He believed it his nearest duty to help every one he was 
 
THE NEAREST DUTY. 37 
 
 able to assist, whoever it might be ; and he counted this 
 stranger, though of another race, and of an alien religion, 
 as his neighbor. 
 
 There are times when our nearest duty is not to our- 
 selves, nor to our family ; times when we must, like Abra- 
 ham, go out from our own city and country. The nearest 
 duty of some persons may be to serve as missionaries to 
 the Chinese or the Hindoos ; the nearest duty of others, to 
 visit the prisoners, or to console the sufferers not of their 
 own house or kindred. No one lives to himself, and no one 
 dies to himself. The great power by which Christianity 
 redeems the world is by making us see that our neighbor 
 is the suffering man, the needing man, though as far off as 
 degrees of latitude and longitude can place him. 
 
 When a young girl, a peasant and shepherdess on the 
 eastern frontier of France, left her quiet fields, her silly 
 sheep, her humble daily avocation, to encounter the dangers 
 of war in order to lead the armies of her prince to victory, 
 that was her nearest duty. When, four centuries later, a 
 young man, a student in Paris, determined to go to India 
 to find the scriptures of a dead religion, and translate them, 
 that was his nearest duty. The nearest duty of Socrates 
 was to spend his life in showing pretenders to knowledge 
 how ignorant they really were. The nearest duty of Lin- 
 neus was to study the Flora of the world. The inventor 
 leaves his routine of work, and spends days, months, years, 
 in baffled efforts to put into visible form some idea of his 
 brain. If he succeeds, at last, men admit that this was his 
 nearest duty. Others besides Socrates have their demon, 
 who tells them to scorn delights and. live laborious days 
 in doing what seems, at the time, folly to those around 
 them. ^ 
 
 The nearest duty, then, may be that which is not nearest 
 in space or time, but that which is nearest to the heart and 
 
38 THE NEAREST DUTY. 
 
 soul. When the woman in the Scripture left her domestic 
 duties, and took her alabaster box of ointment, and went 
 to anoint the feet of Jesus, that was her nearest duty. 
 When Dr. Howe left his land to go and fight for Greece, 
 that was his nearest duty. When Florence Nightingale 
 left her happy home in England to nurse soldiers in the 
 Crimea, that was her nearest duty. The demon in the soul, 
 the divine voice within, calls us to our work ; the new oc- 
 casions teach new duties, and so the prophet goes to his 
 mission — goes, perhaps, reluctantly, in the heat and bitter- 
 ness of his spirit, but the hand of the Lord is on him, and 
 he is obliged to go. 
 
 Most of us are not called to be prophets or missionaries, 
 martyrs to the truth, or leaders in a forlorn hope. But we 
 are all of us called to take an interest in something outside 
 of our own private business and family affairs. Charity be- 
 gins at home, but, if it ends at home, it is not charity, but 
 selfishness. 
 
 How many noble enterprises there are in this commu- 
 nity to which men and women are devoting time, thought, 
 strength, heart, life, and only ask of us a little sympathy 
 and a little aid ! Some labor for the poor ; some for the 
 children who have no homes nor friends ; some for those 
 who have fallen into temptation, but are not depraved ; 
 some for the poor animals, mute sufferers, unable to com- 
 plain of their wrongs ; some for neglected infants ; some 
 for aged people left alone^n the world ; some for young 
 men, thrown amid the risks of a great city. All they ask 
 of us is to help them in their work, give them a little sym- 
 pathy, a little aid ; but how many of us think it rather an 
 impertinence in them to ask, and believe that on the whole, 
 we are not our brother's keeper ! " No ! we must attend 
 to nearer duties. We have bought five yoke of oxen and 
 must go to prove them. We have built a house, and are 
 
THE NEAREST DUTY. 39 
 
 rather short of means this year to help your society. We 
 have had a great many calls lately, and have relatives who 
 depend upon us. We doubt the use of these philanthropies ; 
 would it not be better to do it in some other way ? If these 
 people are helped now, they will have to be helped again ; 
 there is no end to it." A man whom I once asked to con- 
 tribute to missionary work told me he thought that until 
 people asked for truth it did no good to send it. I told 
 him it seemed to me fortunate for us that Christ and his 
 apostles did not agree with him in this opinion. Another 
 man used to say that he did not like to interfere between 
 Providence and the man who was suffering in consequence 
 of his own faults or defects. I asked him if my coming to 
 him might not possibly be a call of Providence, also. But 
 those who argue in this way are great advocates for doing 
 the nearest duty, and for doing nothing else. 
 
 But the Lord never meant that we should make of our 
 immediate and daily work prison walls to shut ourselves in, 
 so as to take no part in the vast interests of humanity. 
 Every man stands under an arch of heaven, infinite in 
 extent, with the constellations of the universe lighting their 
 solemn fires above him every night, and the unwearied sun 
 marching over his head every day. Once in every twenty- 
 four hours the earth carries us wholly round so as to face 
 the entire universe. We all belong to the whole of God's 
 world, and nothing which concerns it ought to find us 
 indifferent. When we walk in the woods, the sweet breath 
 of the ferns takes us back to past geologic ages ; the 
 fragrant breath of the firs and pines recall the Psalms of 
 David and the Hymns of the Vedas. " Over us soars the 
 eternal sky, full of light and of Deity." It is not meant 
 that we should live to ourselves, but we are all called on 
 to live for every truth, every human interest, every human 
 need, as the Lord sends them to us or sends us to them. 
 
40 THE NEAREST DUTY. 
 
 Then the nearest duty may sometimes be to ourselves, 
 to make ourselves fit and able to be of use to others. 
 
 Before the mechanic begins his work, no matter how 
 important it is, his first duty is to sharpen his tools and put 
 them in order. So it may be our first duty to put our body 
 and mind in order before we begin any other duty, however 
 necessary. We often say we have no time to rest, no time 
 for recreation, no time for reading, no time for outside 
 interests, no time for church work ; our business is so 
 pressing, we have so much to do. Men refuse to give 
 themselves a little relaxation, and so they break down at 
 last, and then can do no work for months or years. A 
 stitch in time saves nine ; a little rest or recreation taken 
 in season may save years of the enforced idleness of the 
 invalid. I once was in northwest Wisconsin, taking my 
 summer vacation with my brothers on a great wheat farm. 
 Coming away, I passed a Sunday in a little town on the 
 upper Mississippi, and went to a Presbyterian church. 
 The minister preached on " Recreation," and said that he 
 had known cases of men who came to him gloomy and 
 anxious about their souls, and he found the difficulty was 
 not in their souls, but their bodies, and so, instead of telling 
 them to read the Bible, he advised them to take exercise 
 and recreation. That was their nearest duty — to put their 
 body in order, and then they could attend to their souls. 
 
 My Presbyterian minister was a wise man. But some- 
 times it is the soul which needs to be put in order before 
 we can do any duty as we ought. If the soul is sick, we 
 shall put no heart into anything we do. To finish any work 
 well, we must have faith, courage, confidence, and be able 
 to put our heart into it. But if the heart is cold and dead, 
 we shall do everything in a cold and dead way. The 
 nearest duty, therefore, way be to let alone all other duties, 
 and to take care of our mind, our heart and our soul. To 
 
THE NEAREST DUTY. 4 1 
 
 come into the presence of God, to give ourselves up to him, 
 to begin a new life of obedience, faith, submission, patience, 
 hope, this may be our nearest duty. 
 
 When I was in the Divinity School, I bought the com- 
 plete works of Goethe in forty volumes, and put them on 
 my table. I had not much money, and it was a pretty large 
 expense to me. One of my friends came into the room and 
 saw these books, and said, " What in the world have you 
 bought these books for ? How will Goethe help you to 
 study theology ? " I replied, " In order to study theology 
 or anything else, we must have our mind wide awake and 
 full of interest in all intellectual matters. I find that the 
 study of Goethe makes my mind more wide awake, and 
 gives me more power to study everything else." And he 
 was so candid that he admitted I might be right, and feel- 
 ing the need of something to rouse his mind, he procured 
 a volume of " Fichte," of the most difficult sort of meta- 
 physics, and studied it diligently, and afterwards declared 
 that it did him more good than any other book he had read 
 in the school. To read Goethe and Fichte would not seem 
 to be the nearest duty for theological students, but to us it 
 was so. » 
 
 If a mechanic must get his tools in order before he can 
 work well, much more must the delicate and subtle organs 
 of the soul be put in right condition before anything else 
 can be well done. For this purpose, we must sometimes 
 leave, for a time, routine and -the narrow rut of life, to re- 
 fresh and quicken the soul to new life and power. 
 
 It is often assumed that the sphere of woman is home, 
 and home only. She is to stay at home and attend to 
 housekeeping and the dinner — the care of the children, and 
 oversight of the domestic work. But to do these well, she 
 ought to do something more than these. Man shall go 
 forth to his work and labor until the evening, seeing a va- 
 
42 THE NEAREST DUTY. 
 
 riety of people, hearing many new things, bathing in the 
 current of life. But woman needs refreshment, too. If 
 man needs his club, why should not she have hers ? 
 
 In a rude society women did all the indoor work, and 
 man the outdoor work. She was the cook, and nurse, and 
 the tailor — he the hunter, the woodman and laborer out of 
 doors. Now, he delegates to others the digging, hunting, 
 ploughing, and becomes physician, editor, merchant, me- 
 chanic or minister. If she has the ability for it, why should 
 she not do the same ? At all events, to keep house well, 
 she must have the stimulus of other occupations to sharpen 
 the delicate tools of thought and feeling with which both 
 men and women work. 
 
 The highest work that we can do is that which we ought 
 to do, because there are fewer able to do this higher sort 
 of work than the lower. If a man or a woman can do pri- 
 mary work, they ought not to do secondary. A good me- 
 chanic ought not to spend his time in breaking stones on 
 the road if he can get work to do in his own trade. A man 
 or a woman who is able to teach, or to practise medicine, 
 or to practise law, or to preach, or is skilful in any art, 
 should not do mere manual labor, but let others do that for 
 him. I do not see why this law does not apply to women 
 just as much as to men. The tools to those who can use 
 them. The highest work we can do well, and have an op- 
 portunity of doing — that is the nearest duty. Whatever thy 
 hand finds to do, do it with thy might. Work done in a half- 
 and-half way — in a slovenly, inefficient way — is a wretched 
 business. How much work is done in that way ! How 
 little thoroughly good work is done ! The great artist told 
 his pupils to mix their colors with brains. The reason of 
 so much poor work is that so little thought is put into it. 
 It is mere routine. General culture is necessary to do any- 
 thing well. I mean that anything which makes the mind 
 
THE NEAREST DUTY. 43 
 
 active, free, large, vigorous, helps us to do well the small- 
 est matters. Give your children all the education you can, 
 no matter what they are to be. No real knowledge, no 
 real thinking, ever comes amiss. It helps us to do things 
 with all our might, and that is the only way to do them 
 well. 
 
 A thing not done with our might is not worth doing at 
 all. Slovenly work is bad for the doer and the thing done. 
 But to do things with our might, we must have might to do 
 them with. Therefore we must cultivate might. And to 
 do things mightily, we must do them thoughtfully, do them 
 heartily, and do them prayerfully. Thought, heart, and 
 prayer feed the roots of the soul, and give it strength. 
 Thought put into work makes it interesting, turns it into 
 art, gives to it the joy of accomplishment. We can work 
 heartily when we see the meaning of our work, the value 
 of it, the good of it. When we do our work not for our- 
 selves only, selfishly, but for others also, then we do it 
 cheerfully and happily. But to do work with our might we 
 should do it prayerfully. I do not mean that we should 
 say formal prayers over it. But to have the conviction that 
 God is with us — that we are working for him when we 
 work for ourselves or others — and so to keep the channel 
 of communication open upward, for inspiration to come to 
 us — this gives great might and efficiency to work. Usu- 
 ally men have sought this divine inspiration only for what 
 is called religious work, and have supposed that it came by 
 some miraculous answer or special intervention. But we 
 need inspiration just as much for the commonest duties of 
 life as for preaching the gospel. To have the right spirit 
 in our common talk we need some inspiration — to have 
 the right spirit in our daily dealings with our fellow-men 
 we need it. We need this spirit in the parlor, the kitchen 
 'and the shop just as much as in the church — and we can 
 
44 THE NEAREST DUTY. 
 
 have it in all of them. For just as the river flows and flows 
 unceasingly, when there is an open channel, so the spirit 
 of God flows into human hearts by a continuous unending 
 current, when we have the channel open. Trust in God 
 and a desire to do what is right — this makes the channel 
 from the soul up to heaven. But, at all events, let us all do 
 something, and do it with our might. Let us not think any 
 honest work degrading. The lowest work done in a good 
 spirit elevates us — the highest work done in a bad spirit 
 degrades us. I call the preacher's work degrading when 
 he preaches from vanity, or without truth and love in his 
 words. I call the work of a President or a member of, 
 Congress degrading, when either of them is the slave of a 
 party. If one is eloquent as an angel, and has no love in 
 his voice, the sound is as hollow as that of a drum, and he 
 degrades himself by his speech. A man may be a popular 
 poet or novelist — and his books reach twenty editions — 
 but if he panders to low appetites, prejudices and passions, 
 his work is degrading. But let one sweep a room for the 
 love of God, or cook a dinner for the love of man, then his 
 work is heavenly work, and raises him towards God. 
 
 From scheme and creed the light goes out — 
 
 The saintly fact survives ; 
 The blessed Master none can doubt, 
 
 Revealed in saintly lives. 
 
V. 
 
 HOW TO CHANGE TIME INTO LIFE. 
 
 W I AM COME THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE LIFE; AND THAT THEY MIGHT 
 HAVE IT MORE ABUNDANTLY." 
 
 THE purpose for which we exist is to turn time into life. 
 A regular allowance of time is given to men — the 
 same ration, every day, of twenty-four hours to each of us ; 
 then we are to see what we can make of it. How much 
 can we get of real life out of each day, so that when the 
 day is gone it will leave us so much more alive than we 
 were before. Some men continue to increase in the 
 amount they have of mental, moral, spiritual life and ener- 
 gy, as long as they remain here. While the body is grow- 
 ing old, mind and heart are growing young ; while the out- 
 ward man perishes, the inward man is being renewed day 
 by day. 
 
 This is the real alchemy, the true ( philosopher's stone 
 which can turn baser metals into gold. Time has no value 
 in itself ; it is a base metal ; its only value is in our ability 
 to transmute it into something valuable. Time cannot be 
 kept ; it slips through our fingers forever ; but while it is 
 passing through them we may be able to change it into 
 something which will last always, that is, immortal or un- 
 dying life — or what the Scriptures call eternal life. For 
 immortal life, eternal life, simply means that kind of life 
 
 which does not decay and change ; not future existence, 
 
 (45) 
 
46 HOW TO CHANGE TIME INTO LIFE. 
 
 but present fulness of being. Bodily life decays with years ; 
 physical life is liable to disease ; our bodies grow old and 
 die ; but all of immortal life we have within us will last 
 unchanged, never growing old, never wearing out, never 
 losing its first freshness, light and power. Our business is 
 to change the bodily existence, measured by time, into 
 spiritual existence, belonging to eternity. 
 
 For there are some conditions and states of soul which 
 take us directly out of time into eternity. There are often 
 moments in life when time disappears, moments in which 
 a whole world of thought, love, purpose are concentrated, 
 so that we live a great deal in a few seconds. There is no 
 telling, therefore, how much existence may be collected 
 into a few such burning moments, when the light of years 
 is collected into a luminous focus, and the picture of a 
 large existence is brought to a point. Add together all 
 such experiences in our past days, and they would occupy, 
 perhaps, only half a dozen hours of time ; but, then, these 
 hours would have more real life in them than all our barren 
 years of routine, languor, inertia, doubt, fear, all put togeth- 
 er. I say, therefore, again, that the great object of exist- 
 ence is to change time into life ; to transform bodily ex- 
 istence, measured by the clock, into spiritual existence, 
 measured by experiences of soul. 
 
 How, then, is this to be done ? It is by taking interest ' 
 in things, in nature, in events, in persons, in truth. Those 
 who are interested in anything live ; those who are interest- 
 ed in important things have the most life — have it abund- 
 antly ; those who are not interested in anything are virtu- 
 ally dead ; those who are interested only in superficial 
 things, in vanity and temporary affairs, are only half alive. 
 As the apostle says, " She who liveth for pleasure is dead 
 while she liveth." 
 
 We all of us have our dead hours ; hours in which 
 
HOW TO CHANGE TIME INTO LIFE. 47 
 
 we are really dead ; in which nothing interests us ; in 
 which we turn languidly from work to play, and return 
 languidly from play to work ; in which " man delights not 
 us, nor woman neither ; " morbid, sickly, wretched hours, 
 in which time passes and brings no life with it. We may be 
 working, but we do our work mechanically, with the hand, 
 putting no heart into it; we may be reading, but what we read 
 passes before our brain, leaving no impression ; we may 
 be talking with our friends, but we do not enter into their 
 thoughts, nor they into ours. Nothing real enters into us 
 from God's universe; nothing real goes out of us into God's 
 universe. This condition is death in life. 
 
 And yet, as vanity is a weed which grows everywhere, 
 people are sometimes found who are vain of this condition, 
 proud of their emptiness, taking a certain satisfaction in 
 being tired of the world, bored with everything which is. 
 These little insects which have just begun their ephem- 
 eral existence are already fatigued by it. Everything 
 is tedious, they say. God's universe does not come 
 up to their expectations ; they confess that they have ex- 
 hausted the world. " Omnia fui, nihil expedit" said the 
 Roman Emperor. "I have been everything, and it 
 amounts to nothing." No, Roman Emperor, you have not 
 been everything ; you have not been anything. In many 
 and many a home in your vast empire, loving fathers and 
 mothers have seen more of real life than you have seen, 
 for to love is to live. Many an earnest patriot, loving his 
 country ; many a serious thinker, in love with truth ; many 
 a loyal worker, doing his work not to be seen of men, 
 but to be seen of God, has been living. But you, O Em- 
 peror, have only seemed to live in your great position. 
 You say " you have been everything ; " you have not been 
 anything, for you have not been seeking realities, but vani- 
 ties, and we only live when we take interest in what is real. 
 
48 HOW TO CHANGE TIME INTO LIFE. 
 
 Love is life, and we can only love reality ; we cannot love 
 appearances. 
 
 Whenever we give ourselves, with a real interest, to any- 
 thing in which God's eternal nature is to be found, we get 
 life out of it. God is in nature, and so the serious student 
 of nature, who loves and studies it for its own sake, gets 
 life out of that study. That is why such men as Agassiz 
 and Jeffreys Wyman were full of vital power to the last, 
 going forward, ever forward, forgetting-things behind, reach- 
 ing out to those before ; perpetual seekers, with no past 
 behind them. How little did such men care for wealth, 
 for fame, for position, compared with knowledge ! To 
 know, and to know truly, exactly, thoroughly — that fed their 
 souls. Every day they were turning time into life, because 
 they were in love with God as he is seen in his majestic 
 universe. They saw him in its mysterious processes, in its 
 beautiful adaptations, in its deeply penetrating laws. A 
 scientific man, loving science, not for its wages, but for it- 
 self, he has life and he has it abundantly. 
 
 But God is present, not merely in nature, but also in 
 man. Those who are really interested in their fellow-beings, 
 who are laboring for the progress of humanity, seeking to 
 save the lost, advocating good reforms and necessary im- 
 provements, helping their neighbors — they, also, become 
 full of life. They are in communion with God, and feed- 
 ing at the great source of eternal life. Their work may 
 be conspicuous or humble, they may be helping mankind 
 or one lonely soul ; but if it is done not from egotism or 
 love of notoriety, but from a real sympathy with their 
 fellow-men, then they show, by ever-increasing interest, that 
 they are drinking at the fountain of life. 
 
 Did you never have such an experience as this ? You 
 were weary or empty ; you were discontented and dissatis- 
 fied ; dissatisfied with others because you were dissatisfied 
 
HOW TO CHANGE TIME INTO LIFE. 49 
 
 with yourself ; discontented with things about you, because 
 things within you were not in good order. But then the 
 Lord sent you some one to be interested in ; some poor 
 little child, who needed to be taken care of ; some forsaken 
 - and fallen wretch, who needed to be set on his feet ; some 
 one struggling with a hard fate, who roused your sympathy 
 by his courage. Your heart was drawn out ; you came into 
 communion with him ; you began to be really interested in 
 him ; and so God poured His own divine life into your soul 
 through this brother's need. You were dead and became 
 alive again. 
 
 That which gives us power and motive, faith and hope, 
 which excites our interest in nature, in truth, in humanity, 
 is to know those who largely possess this interest. That is 
 why we have such unfeigned gratitude and reverence for 
 the generous philanthropists, the noble men of science, the 
 artists, devoured by love of beauty, the earnest lovers of 
 truth, the great poets and thinkers and workers of former 
 times and of our own. These are our saints, and they help 
 us all by giving us some of their own love for truth and 
 humanity. Such men inspire us all with new hope, awaken 
 in us all new interest. The Romish Calendar of Saints 
 has many grand persons in it ; but the true Catholic Church 
 which is to come will have a larger and still nobler army of 
 martyrs, a more goodly company of prophets, and a more 
 angelic choir of saints. For it will include all serious 
 thinkers, all earnest workers, all generous givers, all honest 
 seekers, all who love God by loving truth and loving man. 
 
 What we need in order to turn time into life is to have 
 faith in the value of things ; to believe that there are strange 
 and marvellous mysteries all around us, waiting to be known ; 
 that our life is surrounded by wonder and awe, -ready to be 
 revealed ; that man is capable of immense progress, and has 
 in him depths below depths of capacity ; that God is in the 
 
 4 
 
50 HOW TO CHANGE TIME INTO LIFE. 
 
 world, and that he is and must be good ; that evil is tran- 
 sient, good permanent ; that, notwithstanding all the 
 wickedness around us, there is more good than evil in hu- 
 man nature ; that the good in man is permanent, the evil 
 transient ; that it is God's will to save the world from its 
 sin and woe, and that it will be saved. With this sort of 
 faith, all things, aU persons become interesting ; we love 
 our work, and pursue it with ardor. Life then seems hope- 
 ful, and we have not time enough to do all we wish, to see 
 all we wish, to learn all we wish. This it is to do all things 
 to the glory of God. 
 
 It was by giving such a faith to the world that Jesus 
 gave it life, and gave it more abundantly. He renewed the 
 decaying existence of the human race, by being himself 
 filled with this profound faith in God and in goodness. 
 He inspired all around him with like convictions. He gave 
 to the world a new impulse, and poured into its veins 
 a new vitality. In order to take interest in anything, we 
 must have faith in God. I do not mean any technical or 
 theological faith ; but I mean a confidence in goodness — 
 its reality, its permanence, its power to conquer evil. We 
 must have a confidence in truth, beauty, love, as supreme 
 realities. Then the whole world becomes interesting, life 
 becomes interesting, time becomes precious ; the years as 
 they come and go give us more and more of life ; we grow 
 young as we grow old ; when the outward man perishes, 
 the inward man is renewed day by day. 
 _ Less in degree, but similar in kind, is the influence 
 exerted on us by other great souls who have been full of 
 this profound faith in the reality of goodness and truth j 
 and have hoped and worked, and lived and died, going 
 before other men as examples and inspirations. 
 
 Such a man was our good and wise James Walker. He 
 was one in whom faith and hope were not blind enthusiasms. 
 
HOW TO CHANGE TIME INTO LIFE. 5 1 
 
 but steady and serene lights, shining on all things. He 
 was interested in truth, and, as thinker and student, pursued 
 truth all his days, calmly, but earnestly. He was interested 
 in man, in human progress, in the education of the race, 
 and worked for these ends, calmly, wisely, earnestly. He 
 loved the young, and they loved him. He went through 
 the difficult ordeal of the college presidency, where so many 
 strong men have broken down, with eminent success. All 
 the students who were in college during his time loved him. 
 No matter what other and more famous men appeared at 
 the college festivals, he was the one always welcomed with 
 the most abounding enthusiasm. They loved him for his 
 genial sympathy, they revered him for his sagacious wisdom, 
 they trusted in him as a faithful friend. 
 
 Such a man, also, was Gerritt Smith : a man who has 
 increased our faith in human disinterestedness, in human 
 devotion to good, in sincere liberality of heart and hand. 
 He was one not corrupted by wealth ; capable of using it 
 as a steward, as something not his own, but a talent in- 
 trusted to him for the good of others. A man whose 
 perfect conscientiousness no one ever doubted ; a man 
 whose large soul gave us all a sense of great freedom ; 
 whose interest in every good cause kept him ever young ; 
 who lived pure amid surrounding venality and corruption ; 
 forgetting what was behind, reaching out to that before ; 
 full of interest in all good things to the end ; a life-bringer 
 to the society around him, and to all who knew him. So, 
 while his outward man perished, his inward man was 
 renewed day by day. 
 
 Such a man, also, was Ezra Cornell ; a self-made man ; 
 who, having received only a common-school education, 
 gave, during his life, $700,000 to found a noble university, 
 where others might be taught the best message of science 
 and be imbued with the best knowledge of letters. His 
 
52 HOW TO CHANGE TIME INTO LIFE. 
 
 name he has connected with this institution, where liberal 
 studies are pursued in the most liberal spirit ; where women 
 study with men without injury to their health of body or of 
 mind. When he left the world, he left it richer, not only 
 in this noble institution, but in this new example of one 
 who regarded himself as a steward of his wealth and who 
 used it so as to give new mental and moral life to others, 
 and to gain more and more for himself. - 
 
 Such a man also was Charles Sumner, whose death in 
 March seems a still recent event, and one of the most 
 important of the year which has just closed. His life and 
 his death have both given us new faith in human nature ; 
 his life, because it was steadily devoted to generous and 
 noble ends; because no one ever saw or suspected in it any 
 element of corruption ; because it proved again that man 
 can rise out of reach of those temptations which destroy so 
 many souls, that honesty can become a parcel of the fibre 
 of the brain, and the particles of blood, and be incorporate 
 at last in bone and frame. His life shows us that men may 
 become at last incapable of falsehood, wholly inaccessible 
 to vulgar vice. His death also showed that mankind 
 appreciates real virtue ; that though they may be deceived 
 for a time by party feeling and political interests, they at 
 last know who is truly to be honored. Charles Sumner 
 did much for the country during his life, but he did as 
 much for it at his death, by revealing the fact that men 
 after all only honor what is honorable, only love what is 
 lovable, and that every man shall reap what he has sown. 
 
 In April last, the remains of Dr. Livingstone were 
 interred in Westminster Abbey, giving another proof of the 
 appreciation wjiich mankind has for generous lives, devoted 
 to pure objects. His soul was large enough to take an 
 interest in men and things both in God's world of nature, 
 and God's world of humanity. He travelled for years 
 among the tribes of Africa, who are considered to be the 
 
HOW TO CHANGE TIME TNTO LIFE. 53 
 
 most savage, and found them only kind and friendly. Just 
 so the Catholic missionaries, Father Hennepin and Mar- 
 quette, travelled among the American Indians, and found 
 them also friendly. Those Catholic priests and this Pro- 
 testant missionary had the same spirit ; both were interested 
 in the study of God's world, and the reform of God's chil- 
 dren ; and both have left a permanent testimony to the 
 truth that an honest purpose of doing good will tame the 
 most savage, and change cruelty into good- will. 
 
 We live only by progress ; if we attempt to stand still, 
 we go backward, and lose our vital power. Religion, in 
 its true essence, is at the root of all progress, because it 
 inspires that faith in truth, in goodness, in God's world, 
 which makes us Interested in all things. The worst effect 
 of atheistic opinions is not that they dishonor God ; for 
 he cannot be injured by human doubts or denials, any 
 more than the laws of astronomy can be displeased by 
 being disputed or opposed. If any man chooses to 
 deny the law of gravitation, that law is not offended, but 
 continues as before, to lend him its beneficent aid. If any 
 man denies God, or opposes Christianity, God continues 
 to befriend him, and Christianity continues to bless 
 him. But the real harm done by the denial of a divine 
 presence and providence in nature and life is that in the 
 long run it will destroy our interest in the world, in men, 
 in events. Such atheistic, pessimistic, cynical views take 
 the life out of us. I see young, men who are tainted by 
 such notions, and what strikes me in them is that they seem 
 to take very little interest in anything. Their inward man 
 perishes, though the outer man may be renewed by God day 
 by day. It is sad to see an old man whose heart is dry and 
 whose soul is withered ; but it is still worse to see this in 
 the young, to whom God has given an inheritance of 
 faith and hope, and to whom all things ought to appear new 
 and fair. 
 
54 HOW TO CHANGE TIME INTO LIFE. 
 
 " Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach 
 the kingdom of God." Dreamy meditators on the past, 
 active strivers in the present, hopeful prophets of the future j 
 preach, all of you, the kingdom of God, by faith, by hope, 
 by love. As time and all of its works, possessions, joys, 
 are passing rapidly away, secure that which is unchanging 
 and eternal. Have faith in God. Faith, not opinions, or 
 dead belief ; but faith. Faith, which learns to see God 
 present in nature ; present in providence ; present in the 
 soul ; which finds him in all changes, him in all joys and 
 sorrows, him in the near duty of the hour, him in the 
 large vision of the ages. Have hope, active hope, which 
 shall enable you to work in the cause of justice and 
 humanity ; to Work, though in a minority ; to work, though 
 no success nor reputation seems to come. Work, not 
 merely conscientiously, but hopefully, and you will work suc- 
 cessfully. Hope to do some good thing for some one. 
 Hope to make joy and peace where you go and where you 
 stay. Hope to serve God by serving man. 
 
 And most of all, have rove. If there is any bitterness in 
 your heart towards any human being root it out. It is a cor- 
 roding poison in your soul ; get rid of it. Love ; that is, go 
 out of yourself j go forth in sympathy with others ; go forth 
 to do them good, by the power of God in your own soul, 
 by the grace of God in your own heart. By your own hope 
 of a grand future, lift others out of their skepticism, their 
 doubts, their despair. These things shall last ; they shall 
 not pass away. Nothing can separate us from the love of 
 God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Faith, hope, and 
 love, the heavenly sisters, the three Christian graces, with 
 arms sweetly intertwined, like yet unlike, as becomes sis- 
 ters; not the same aspect to each, yet not wholly different ; 
 these three shall cause that you be not barren nor unfruitful. 
 Begin life so, and it will pass joyfully \o its close. 
 
VI. 
 
 BARE GRAIN. 
 " Thou sowest not the body which shall be, but bare grain." 
 
 DURING the last week we have had a second edition 
 of our summer, which seemed almost gone — a sec- 
 ond edition, abridged, condensed into a few days, but 
 charming, because unexpected. We thought the summer 
 over ; it has suddenly returned, like a friend who has taken 
 leave of you, and, when you go back solitary, feeling a little 
 lonely, into your empty house, lo ! he comes back, and 
 says he will give you another day or two. So summer comes 
 back to-day, as Indian summer, the steady south-west winds 
 sweeping up from tropical regions some strange aroma, 
 hinting of the equator ; long days full of purple light, the 
 air soft and balm to the lungs. No wonder the poor In- 
 dian, with untutored mind, lonely in his narrow thought, 
 feeling after God, if .haply he might find him, dreamed that 
 he saw in the haze illumined sky of October some glimpse 
 of the happy hunting-fields where his fathers roamed. 
 
 We enjoy the more this little scrap of summer, this 
 crumb fallen from the table of Mother Nature, because it 
 is something extra, and something unexpected. Work- 
 people in Europe, beside their regular wages, expect some 
 little extra gift, which they call, in Italian, buono-mano. 
 And they seem to take more pleasure in their buono-mano 
 than in their regular wages. These warm days in Septem- 
 
 (55) 
 
56 BARE GRAIN. 
 
 ber are Nature's buono-mano. It is something extra. We 
 become accustomed to that which comes regularly, and 
 think it our right. We consider ourselves hardly used if 
 we do not get our regular allowance of food, sleep, health, 
 amusement, and the like. Give a child the thing once, 
 and the next time he claims it as a right. He says, " You 
 gave it to me once, papa." We are all children in this. 
 As soon as any of God's gifts become regular, we transfer 
 them from the category of favors to that of rights, and ex- 
 pect them as a thing of course. And I think, therefore, 
 that God has left this margin of the unexpected, the casual, 
 around all the majestic machinery of law, in order to give 
 us the joy of feeling the gift, to give himself the joy of being 
 loved as the giver. Around the steady order of things floats 
 evermore this uncertainty of events. The worldly man 
 calls it chance, the religious man calls it Providence. We 
 have detected law everywhere, and extended its domains 
 more and more, and so built up scientific knowledge. We 
 can calculate an eclipse a thousand years forward, a 
 thousand years backward, to the fraction of a minute. But 
 there are. some things which remain forever incalculable. 
 Who can calculate beforehand an eclipse of the heart ? 
 And who would wish to do so ? Who can predict before- 
 hand, by algebra, or calculus, the unexpected advent of a 
 new affection ? Let us be thankful that there are some 
 surprises in the world, some things which elude mathemat- 
 ics, some Indian summer days which come when no one 
 has predicted them, to warm the heart through and through ; 
 because being unlooked for, they seem more like a direct 
 gift from God. 
 
 This return of summer in the form of Indian summer 
 has suggested to me the subject of returning events, of re- 
 currence in human affairs, of the circular and spiral move- 
 ment in history and life. 
 
BARE GRAIN. $7 
 
 Things come back, but when they come back they are 
 seldom exactly what they were before. Summer returns 
 as Indian summer ; history is always repeating itself, but 
 on a higher plane. Even the good man commits the same 
 faults in age that he committed in- youth, but in a nobler 
 way, so that the fault almost ceases to be one. Every 
 living thing which seems to die revives again, and comes 
 up in a new and higher form. So history repeats itself, 
 not in a circle, but in an ascending spiral. We return to 
 the same spot, but always a little higher up. 
 
 The difference between two men, one having Christian 
 faith and the other not having it, is this :• both commit the 
 same faults, and repeat the same experience, but the one 
 repeats it always high up. He rises to a higher spirit : he 
 sinks to a deeper insight. He has more faith, more hope, 
 more love to God and man. Thus he takes the past with 
 him, as precious seed of a better future. He loses nothing, 
 leaves nothing behind. His youth departs, with its golden 
 summer days, but returns again an Indian summer with 
 mellower warmth, and a more enchanting peace. Let there 
 only be faith in the heart in God as a friend and father, 
 and it fills life with hope, and hope leads to constant pro- 
 gress. The Christian army marches ever to the East, with 
 the dawn shining on its white shields of expectation. 
 
 But just in proportion as this faith is wanting, life goes 
 round and round, in a mere mill-horse circle of routine. 
 Faults repeat themselves exactly as before. 
 
 " Experience, with a world of sighs 
 
 Purchased, and pain and heartbreak, have been hers, 
 And taught her nothing ; where she erred, she errs." 
 
 The planets move round and round forever in the same 
 ellipse. The seasons of the year return with little change, 
 and no seeming progress. Man's life is a repetition of 
 work and rest, day and night, eating, talking, sleeping, 
 
58 BARE GRAIN. 
 
 " We live and die ; eat, drink, wake, sleep between ; 
 Walk, talk, like clockwork too ; 
 So pass, in order due, 
 Over the scene." 
 
 If we look only at this, life grows very tiresome. The 
 despair of the Book of Ecclesiastes comes over us, and we 
 say, " What profit has a man of all his labor that he takes 
 under the sun ? " For all " things return, according to 
 their circuit." 
 
 But the New Testament teaches another lesson than the 
 Book of Ecclesiastes. It is a proof of the divine origin of 
 these Gospels and Epistles, — that they are full, through 
 and through, of the spirit of hope. They have filled the 
 world with faith in progress, with an undying expectation 
 of improvement, with a trust in something better to-day 
 than we had yesterday. Throughout they cry to us : " The 
 life we sow to-day is seed of something better to come to- 
 morrow. We do not plant that which is to be, but only its 
 seed. Our present life, which we are leading now, com- 
 pared to that which is to come to us, is only as naked seed 
 is to the green and graceful plant which springs from it." 
 
 The Old World, of Pagan religion and philosophy, was 
 very much ennuytd. It had grown morose and cynical. It 
 expected nothing, it had little hope left in its heart. One 
 man said, " It is better to stand than to walk ; better to sit 
 than to stand ; better to lie down than to sit ; better to 
 sleep than to wake ; better is a dreamless sleep than 
 dreams ; death is better than even a dreamless sleep ; and 
 never to have been is the best of all." 
 
 Now, I think, that the new life of Christianity consisted 
 very much in giving hope to the world. See Paul, the 
 poor Jew, writing to the Romans, masters of the world, 
 telling them to take courage, and to hope. " Now the 
 God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, 
 
BARE GRAIN. 59 
 
 that we may abound in hope, through the power of the 
 Holy Spirit." 
 
 The power of the Holy Spirit! What else but that 
 could have filled the hearts of this handful of Jewish teach- 
 ers with a hope so immense that the despair of mankind 
 gave way before it. As when a glacier pours its enormous 
 river of ice through Alpine ravines, descending into the 
 valleys, it wastes away imperceptibly, and turns to moist 
 vapors, filling the valley with masses of foliage — so this 
 glacier of despair melted in the warm breath of the new 
 Christian life. I want no other evidence of the inspiration 
 of the New Testament than this spirit of hope which fills 
 its every page. Where do you find in it any hesitation, 
 any relapse into doubt, any fear ? All sacred books pos- 
 sess this element of hope, and that gives them their power ; 
 but most of them hope for better things only in another 
 world and a future life, while the New Testament expects 
 heaven to come first here below. Its daily prayer says, 
 " Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is 
 done in heaven." The letters of Paul and Peter are full of 
 expectation of Christ's coming to reign on earth. That 
 great expectation of Christ's coming was the seed that the 
 New Testament planted in civilization ; and it has borne 
 its fruits in all human progress. 
 
 It is true that they planted not the body which was to 
 be, but naked grain. The faith they planted was of 
 Christ's return in person, sitting on a throne in heaven and 
 judging all nations. That was what the first Christians 
 expected ; perhaps the apostles themselves sometimes ex- 
 pected it, interpreting Christ's own words too literally, 
 when he said he should come in the clouds of heaven, 
 " with the sound of a trumpet, to summon his elect." But 
 the truth which Jesus intended in this parable has come to 
 pass. He has come to us, this same Holy Jesus, in all 
 
 if U a I ¥ B * 
 
60 BARE GRAIN. 
 
 those Christian influences which have made a new heavens 
 and a new earth. New heavens ; for instead of the old gods 
 of terror whom the Pagan world saw, we now see in the 
 opening heavens the Son of man by the side of his Father. 
 God looks on the world now as its Father and Friend. A 
 new earth ; for Christ has made us believe in the brother- 
 hood of man, and' that makes all things new below. 
 
 Every living seed planted in human history comes up 
 again, but in a higher form. Judaism was a living seed. 
 It had a real faith in the One true and living God. The 
 Jewish religion fell into the ground and seemed to perish. 
 Its -sacrifices ceased, its temple was destroyed, its great 
 priesthood came to an end. But go to Rome, and there, 
 in St. Peter's, you will see the Jewish temple worship 
 revived, but in a higher form. There is the priestly pro- 
 cession, the Pope as high priest, the Levites and the altar, 
 there are the great annual festivals. It is Judaism re- 
 turned. But it is Judaism on a higher plane. If you wish 
 to see what the Jewish worship was, do not go to the syna- 
 gogue on Warrenton Street, but go to the Church of the 
 Immaculate Conception on Harrison Avenue. I call the 
 Catholic worship Jewish rather than Christian ; but I call 
 it transfigured and ennobled Judaism. 
 
 The one thing needful, the only essential in Christianity, 
 is to have Christ formed within us, the hope of glory ; hope 
 of glory here, in all forms of growing goodness, generosity, 
 honor ; and of glory, honor, immortality hereafter. Christ 
 himself was- the seed planted in Palestine, which has come 
 up in Christianity in that new body which pleased God. 
 As Paul said, " I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me," 
 so we all may say, so far as we have any real spiritual life, 
 "I live, yet not I, but Christ, who is love to God and man, 
 lives in me." Christianity is Christ come up in a new 
 form. 
 
BARE GRAIN. 6 1 
 
 When in the world Jusus worked outward, physical 
 miracles. He works miracles still, but in a new way. 
 " The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the deaf 
 hear, the dead are raised," but not now by a mere touch 
 or word. If that kind of miracle had been continued, it 
 would soon have become a mere routine too, and been 
 thought a matter of course. So instead, we have the same 
 end accomplished by the same power, only indirectly and 
 mediately in all Christian civilization. We have blind 
 asylums, and deaf and dumb asylums, and sanitary asso- 
 ciations. These all proceed from the Christian spirit of 
 humanity, and so come from the seed which Christ's mira- 
 cles planted. Those miracles were symbols, prophetic of 
 the Christian civilization which was to follow. They were 
 bare grain, to which God gave the body which pleased 
 him. 
 
 Visitors to Rome, looking out from its lofty walls over 
 the Campagna, see with delight the long line of arches 
 which cross the plain, converging towards the city from the 
 distant mountains. They are the remains of the ancient 
 aqueducts, which formerly brought supplies of water to 
 the immense population of ancient Rome. Visitors of 
 Chicago are carried down to see a tunnel running two 
 miles under the lake, which brings pure water in inexhaust- 
 ible supplies to that new-born metropolis of the prairies. 
 The methods differ, the water is the same. Forms change, 
 but the needs of men remain. So the soul of man needs 
 always to drink the same living water of faith and hope. 
 Without it, he dies of thirst, in doubt and despair. What 
 is life without it ? What are all the gifts of this world 
 without it ? All are vanity and vexation of spirit, unless we 
 have faith in God, duty and immortality. But if we have 
 that, no matter how it comes. The water is the same, 
 whether it is drawn up from Jacob's spring, or brought 
 
62 BARE GRAIN. 
 
 through a Roman aqueduct, or spouts from an artesian 
 well, or is pumped up through a Chicago tunnel. So, if we 
 have love to God and man, and have faith in the great and 
 blessed future, if we believe good stronger than evil, and 
 life more permanent than death, it is no matter by what 
 Jewish or Roman aqueduct or modern creed that pure 
 water comes. God gives it the body* which has pleased 
 him, and to every seed its own body. 
 
VII. 
 
 IN HIS NAME. 
 " His name, through faith in his name, hath made this 
 
 MAN STRONG." 
 
 THE story told in the book of Acts is that a man afflicted 
 with congenital lameness was instantly cured by Peter, 
 who simply said to him, " In the name of Jesus of Nazar- 
 eth, the Messiah, rise up and walk." It also appears that 
 he was a man well known to have been lame all his life. 
 
 Instances are not unknown in history of persons healed 
 instantaneously of chronic disease by some strong influence 
 exerted on the mind. If the body acts on the mind, as we 
 know that it does, it is quite as certain that the mind acts 
 on the body. A piece of news communicated suddenly to 
 the mind will cause the body to faint away, or produce what 
 is called syncope. That is to say, that without any physi- 
 cal cause there is a physical effect, a loss of sensation and 
 voluntary motion, with diminution or stoppage of the action 
 of the heart and of the function of respiration. 
 
 But the point on which I would lay stress is this, that in 
 the case before us the cure seems to have been effected by 
 what we should now call a magical process ; by a charm ; 
 by the utterance of a name — the name of Jesus of Nazar- 
 eth. If this fact stood alone, we should suppose mistake 
 or interpolation ; but in truth we have numerous instances 
 in the New Testament where some special potency is 
 attributed to the utterance of a name, especially the name 
 
 of Jesus. Some of these I will enumerate. 
 
 (63) 
 
64 IN HIS NAME. 
 
 Jesus promises that he will be with every two or three 
 who assemble in his name (Matt, xviii. 20). He promises 
 to help those who pray in his name (John xiv. 13). He 
 repeats the promise, " If ye ask anything in my name, I 
 will do it " (John xiv. 14). " Whatsoever ye ask the 
 Father in my name, he will give it to you •" (John xv. 16). 
 " Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name ; ask and 
 receive, that your joy may be full." " At that day ye shall 
 ask in my name," &c. (John xvi. 23, 24, 26.) It appears, 
 also, that devils were cast out by the use of the name of 
 Christ. 
 
 This, at first sight, seems like magic. For magic is 
 essentially this, a power obtained over the supernatural 
 world by the use of charms and talismans. To bring down 
 supernatural power by natural means is magic. Magic 
 consists in the use of the right charm, without regard to 
 the moral character, good or bad, of him who uses it. All 
 depends on using the right words, no matter whether they 
 are used rightly or wrongly. Asia has always been full of 
 magic. Thus in some of the sacred books of the Hindoos 
 we read of very wicked men who, by means of enchant- 
 ments, at last compelled the gods to do their bidding. So 
 that wonderful story-book, " The Arabian Nights," is full of 
 magic. In the story of the Forty Thieves, the door of the 
 cave opened by enchantment to whoever used the right 
 word, and said " Open Sesame," whether it was said by the 
 robbers or by the good man. According to magic, the 
 supernatural world, the angels, genii, spirits, gods, or devils, 
 are compelled to obey the charm when it is rightly pro- 
 nounced. The motive is nothing, the object in view is 
 nothing, the character of him who does it is nothing ; it is 
 merely the outward act which accomplishes the result. 
 
 If, therefore, we believe that by merely putting the word 
 " Christ " at the beginning or end of our prayer, we shall 
 
IN HIS NAME. 65 
 
 obtain some blessing from God which he would not other- 
 wise bestow, we degrade Christianity to the level of a 
 magical process, and demoralize it. And in the same way 
 we turn the Christian sacraments into magical charms if 
 we suppose that they act of themselves, irrespective of the 
 moral character and motive of him who uses them. To 
 suppose an unconscious child to be spiritually changed by 
 the application of water, accompanied by a certain formula, 
 so that the child would be more likely to be saved if it 
 were to die after this sacrament than if it had died before 
 it, is to turn baptism into a charm powerful enough to 
 compel God to do what otherwise he would not do. This 
 is to take the name of the Lord in vain, and has the same 
 evil as there is in profane swearing. The man who uses 
 profane oaths calls on God to send his soul into everlasting 
 perdition on the condition that what he says is not true, or 
 on the condition that he omits to do what he proposes. 
 That is, he undertakes to say how God is to pronounce 
 judgment on his soul. He informs the Almighty*on what 
 conditions he intends to be saved or lost. If his language 
 is not utterly senseless, this is what he means by it. 
 
 Now, I think it quite clear that the whole spirit of 
 Christianity and teaching of Jesus is utterly opposed to any 
 such magical notions. According to Jesus, men were saved 
 not by the use of his name as an outward formula, but 
 by obeying his precepts and doing good actions. In the 
 Sermon on the Mount he distinctly rejects any such merely 
 outward use of his name. " Many will say to me, in that 
 day, Lord ! Lord ! have, we not prophesied in thy name, 
 and in thy name cast out devils, and done many wonderful 
 works ; and then I will profess unto them, " Depart from me ; 
 I never knew you, ye that work iniquity." Elsewhere he 
 says, "Many deceivers shall come in my name." "Not 
 every on that saith unto me, ' Lord, Lord ! ' shall enter 
 
 5 
 
66 IN HIS NAME. 
 
 into the kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of 
 my Father which is in Heaven." 
 
 This is enough to show that Jesus, himself, attributed no 
 power to the mere use of words, however sacred. What, 
 then, does he mean, when he says that God will hear us 
 and help us if we pray " in his name ? " 
 
 To answer this question we must understand the peculiar 
 way in which the Jews regarded the name of any person. 
 
 A name, with us, is an arbitrary appendage, having no 
 relation to a man's character. We call one of our children 
 Frank and another Prudence with no expectation that their 
 characters will correspond at all to these names. But,' 
 to the Jew, a name carried a mysterious power, expressive 
 of what was deepest in the parent's heart, and capable of 
 influencing the child's destiny. If the man or woman ap- 
 peared to develope new qualities, the name was changed. 
 Naomi, whose name meant " Pleasant," asked her friends, 
 in her desolation, to call her not " Naomi," Pleasant, but 
 " Mara," Bitter. So Jesus added to Simon's name that of 
 Peter — a rock ; and Saul's name, which meant " a de- 
 stroyer," was changed to Paul, which means " a worker." 
 The apostles altered the name of Josas to that of Barna- 
 bas, which signifies " a son of consolation." Jesus, in like 
 manner, called his two disciples, James and John, " the 
 sons of thunder," perhaps on account of the fire which he 
 saw in their characters. 
 
 Thus it happened that to come in the name of any one 
 meant to come in his spirit. So John the Baptist was said 
 by Jesus to be the Elijah that was to come, because he came 
 in the spirit and power of Elijah. When the Lord said to 
 Moses, " Thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know 
 thee by name," it means that the Lord knew his character, 
 and that it was equal to his work. 
 
 Whenever trust " in God's name " is spoken of, it means 
 
IN HIS NAME. 67 
 
 trust in his wisdom, or his love, or his providence. When 
 it is said that " a good name is better than riches," it means 
 a good character. When Jesus says that " he who receives 
 a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's 
 reward," it signifies that he who is in sympathy with the 
 spirit of the prophet, and helps the prophet on that account, 
 shall have the reward of being himself filled with the same 
 prophetic spirit. To give a cup of cold water " in the name 
 of a disciple " means that the smallest good action done in 
 the right spirit shall have its reward. When Jesus says, 
 " I am come in my Father's name and ye receive me not ; 
 if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive," 
 I suppose he meant that he came in the spirit of his 
 heavenly Father, which was alien from their own, and so 
 they did not receive him, while another, who should come 
 in his own earthly will and worldly spirit, they would accept 
 as their Messiah. When Jesus said in his prayer to God, 
 " I have manifested thy name to the men thou hast given 
 to me," he meant that he had revealed God's character to 
 them. When he said, " Holy Father, keep through Thine 
 own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may 
 be one as we are one," he evidently prayed that God might 
 keep them by his spirit in a spirit of unison and brotherly 
 love. When he added, " While I was with them in the world 
 I have kept them in thy name," he seems to intend that by 
 his influence over them he kept them in sympathy with God's 
 character and will. And so when he tells them to " pray 
 in his name," he means to tell them to pray in his spirit ; 
 to " cast out devils in his name," is to cast them out by 
 the power of a Christian spirit. His words were spirit and 
 life. The whole of it is expressed by Paul when he says 
 that " God has made us able ministers of the New Cove- 
 nant ; not of the letter, but of the spirit ; for the letter 
 killeth, but the spirit giveth life." It is not by trusting to 
 
68 IN HIS NAME. 
 
 words nor names, to forms or ceremonies, to creeds or cate- 
 chism, that we come near to God and Christ, but by keep- 
 ing ourselves in the Christian temper and spirit, and being 
 in sympathy with the purpose of Jesus and the will of 
 God. 
 
 " In my name they shall cast out devils," said Jesus. 
 We can cast out devils, if We do it in the spirit of Christ. 
 
 There are a great many devils in the world — devils of 
 pride, of vanity, of lust, of dishonesty, of falsehood, of 
 cruelty. Now, if we attack these devils in the name of the 
 devil, we can do nothing. If we meet pride with pride, 
 falsehood with cunning, selfishness with self-will — if we 
 try to put down evil with evil, we shall never succeed. We 
 must cast out devils in the name of Christ — that is, " over- 
 come evil with good." 
 
 There is a wonderful power which belongs to him who 
 allies himself to truth and right. As Wordsworth said of 
 "Toussaint L'Ouverture : " 
 
 " he has great allies — 
 
 *• His friends are exultations, agonies, 
 
 And love, and man's unconquerable mind.' 
 
 He seems to be defeated, as Jesus seemed to be defeated. 
 But he triumphs very surely, as Jesus triumphed. The 
 stars in their courses fight for him. The laws of the uni- 
 verse are on his side. Just as the disciples, after the 
 crucifixion of Jesus, still believed that he was coming to 
 reign as King, and spoke of "his coming" as something 
 certain and near at hand, we may be sure that every 
 just man's triumph is near by. John Brown was hung in 
 Charlestown, Va. ; but the cause of John Brown, the cause 
 of freedom for the slave, was even then near at hand. 
 When that came, he came. The soldiers of the Union, 
 who -carried their conquering arms and victorious ideas to 
 New Orleans and Mobile, Charleston and Richmond, sang 
 
IN HIS NAME. 69 
 
 as they went, that, though the body of John Brown lay in 
 the grave, his soul was marching on. His soul was free- 
 dom and humanity — that was marching on. The soldiers 
 were right. 
 
 When we " overcome evil by good," then, only, do we 
 cast out devils in the name of Christ. 
 
 And so, to pray " in the name of Christ " does not mean 
 to put the name of Christ at the end of our prayer, and 
 say, " We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord." But 
 it means when we pray to be in Christ's spirit ; to forget 
 our vanity, selfishness, egotism ; to desire the good of 
 others ; the coming of God's kingdom of love. It means 
 to pray in faith, relying on God's love ; to pray in submis- 
 sion, saying " not my will, but thine, be done." If we 
 pray thus, we may ask what we will and it shall be done 
 unto us, for we shall ask only what God wills. We shall 
 ask for his holy spirit, for power to do good, and be good, 
 and that power will certainly come. We shall be lifted out 
 of our doubts, our anxiety, our fear of evil, and be inspired 
 with courage, hope and power. 
 
 To meet together in the name of Christ, means to meet 
 for the purpose of doing good and getting good. It is not 
 always in churches that men really meet in the name of 
 Christ. They may bow to his crucifix, but with spiritual 
 pride in their souls ; they may bend the knee when his 
 name is mentioned, but only with satisfaction at their own 
 superior piety. They may utter loud responses, but with 
 no heart in them. When pride, bigotry, sectarianism, enter 
 the church, Christ goes out of it. Those who think to 
 exalt him by denouncing those who do not believe about 
 him as they do, treat him, says a great writer, as their pro- 
 totypes treated him at first. " They bow the knee and 
 spit on him ; they cry ' Hail ! ' and smite him on the cheek. 
 They crown him ; but it is with thorns. They cover with 
 
yO IN HIS NAME. 
 
 purple the wounds which their own hands have inflicted ; 
 and inscribe magnificent titles over the cross where they 
 have fixed him to perish in ignominy and pain." 
 
 But, meantime, while the church may be empty of Christ, 
 others may be really meeting in his name, and making a 
 true church, outside of formal and nominal Christianity. 
 While the Church of England was asleep in decent cere- 
 monies, Wesley and his friends were creating a true church 
 of Christ at the corners of the streets and in the woods and 
 fields, where two or three met in his name. While the 
 Romish church, in its splendor, wealth and power, was 
 preaching crusades against heretics, and inflicting untold 
 tortures on innocent women and children, a few peas- 
 ants met in the recesses of the Alps, under the shadows 
 of the everlasting hills, to worship God, who is a spirit, 
 in spirit and truth. Where the spirit of Christianity is, 
 there is the coming of. Christ. Not in crowds, nor in meet- 
 ings reported in newspapers, but where a cup of cold water 
 is given in simple good will, or two or three unite in any 
 good work, or the widow puts two mites into the treasury 
 of some charity, or the poor woman takes an orphan out of 
 the street to take care of it, or the black women of Africa 
 give Mungo Park a drink of milk, or a hand of help is 
 held out to the helpless, there is the work done in " the name 
 of Christ." 
 
 Therefore, when Peter said to the lame man, " In the 
 name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise and walk," he did not utter 
 these words as a charm. But he thus openly avowed his 
 faith in the Master he had denied a few weeks before, and 
 the man was healed, not by the magic of words, but by the 
 wonderful power which attends a sincere faith in God. So 
 Peter himself says, " You must not think we cured this 
 man by any power of our own, but his name, by faith in 
 his name, hath given him this perfect soundness in the 
 
IN HIS NAME. 71 
 
 presence of you all." Not the word Jesus, but the faith in 
 Jesus cured him. Not the word, but the thing, makes the 
 power of Christianity. 
 
 When I see a man walking the road of duty, faithful to 
 every obligation ; true and just, when those around him are 
 false ; when I see him hold his principles of honesty, 
 though the world grows dishonest and refusing ; to join 
 rings and political lobbies, but standing by his purity, no 
 matter what comes ; then I say that this man is casting out 
 devils " in Christ's name." 
 
 And when I see a youth, beset by temptations from with- 
 out and within, making a brave struggle to be true to his 
 mother's counsels and his father's honor, and saying to the 
 Satan who tempts him to go astray, "Get thee behind 
 me," I say that this boy also is fighting devils " in Christ's 
 name." 
 
 And when I see a young girl, in the midst of a happy 
 home, surrounded by love, called to leave life and all its 
 hopes, and go to' meet the great mystery, and going tran- 
 quilly, peacefully, trustingly, comforting all around her 
 with the comfort wherewith she herself has been comforted 
 by God, I say that she is going to heaven in the strength 
 " of Christ's name." 
 
 The name of Christ stands for immortality, for he is the 
 resurrection and the life. He puts into the human soul 
 that living conviction of the reality of God which makes 
 eternity real, and time unreal ; which makes us say " The 
 things that are seen are temporal, the things not seen are 
 eternal ! " 
 
 The name of Jesus Christ means Saviour and King. Jesus 
 means Saviour, Christ means King, and the whole means 
 that he who saves men is the King of men. It means that 
 love is to conquer hatred, that truth is mightier than false- 
 hood, life than death, eternity than time. To believe in 
 
72 IN HIS NAME. 
 
 the name of Christ is to believe that the principle which 
 he embodied, the life he manifested, are to be triumphant. 
 And this is the faith which enables us to cast out devils, 
 and rise superior to evil. It is the victory which overcomes 
 the world. 
 
VIII. 
 
 IF ANY MAN BE IN CHRIST, HE IS A NEW CREATURE. 
 
 "Therefore, if any man be in christ, he is a new creature; 
 old things have passed away; behold, all things are 
 become new." £ . / ? 
 
 WHEN the Apostle Paul said this, I suppose he was 
 thinking of himself. What a different man he 
 had become since he was a Christian ! I do not wonder 
 that he thought himself a new man, a different creature 
 from what he was before ; almost a new creation by the 
 Almighty Maker. How many old things had passed away ; 
 how many new things had come ! His whole manner of 
 thought had been revolutionized. Before, he was a Phar- 
 isee, zealous for the law ; a Ritualist, believing in sacra- 
 ments and ceremonies. Now, he had broadened out so 
 that he could say, " In Christ Jesus neither circumcision 
 availeth anything, nor uncircumcision ; but Faith working 
 by Love." Before, he was on the highway to position and 
 honor in the Jewish Church ; now, he was hated and reviled 
 as an apostate by all his old friends. He was of the stock 
 of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the He- 
 brews — blameless in all the righteousness of the law. Now, 
 he was glad to throw away position, influence, honor, world- 
 ly hopes, in order to become one with Jesus. It must have 
 seemed to him a thousand years since he was a fierce and 
 bigoted Jew, fighting for ceremonies, arguing about ritual. 
 He had entered a new world of thought and life. The 
 
 (73) 
 
74 IF ANY MAN BE IN CHRIST, 
 
 Pharisee, the formalist, the pedant, were far behind j Je- 
 hovah had disappeared ; the Heavenly Father had come. 
 The Jew, narrowed into his own small pride of sect, had 
 gone ; all mankind were now his brethren. He had broth- 
 ers and sisters now among the Ephesians, Galatians, the 
 pleasure-loving people of Corinth, the brilliant Athenians, 
 the strong and grave Romans. He had passed through 
 all the porticos and vestibules of religion, and entered its 
 inmost shrine, and found it to be Love. And so Paul may 
 have well said, " If any man be in Christ, he is a new 
 creature ; old things have passed away ; behold, all things 
 have become new." 
 
 But notice the stress laid by the apostle, here and else- 
 where, on that little preposition, " in." It is to be in Christ 
 which makes one a new creature. So he says, " My wish 
 is that I may be found ' in him ; " and in another place, 
 " When God revealed his son in me." 
 
 It is one thing to be with Christ, and another thing to 
 be in him. If we had been with Christ when he was walk- 
 ing the streets of Capernaum or Jerusalem, we might not 
 have cared much about it. Many who were with him grew 
 tired and went back, and " walked no more with him." 
 We might have done the same. ,Nicodemus was with him 
 one evening, and had a long conversation with Jesus, but 
 does not seem to have come again. Judas was with Jesus, 
 during all his ministry, and then betrayed him. We are all 
 of us with Jesus, in a certain sense, by being taught about 
 him from childhood, by growing up in the midst of a Chris- 
 tian society, by hearing Christianity preached from Sunday 
 to Sunday, by enjoying the blessings of a Christian civiliza- 
 tion. But we are not necessarily in sympathy or union 
 with him on that account. Our purposes may be very dif- 
 ferent from his. Contiguity is not union. We can be 
 with people all our lives, and never be in them, never know 
 
HE IS A NEW CREATURE. 75 
 
 what is passing in the depths of their souls. How often 
 parents and children, brothers and sisters, husbands and 
 wives, live together, side by side, for years, in utter igno- 
 rance of each other's inmost thoughts, interests, sorrows, 
 experiences and hopes. They do not understand each 
 other at all ; for it is mutual love, not proximity, which leads 
 to mutual knowledge. 
 
 Nor is it enough even to be strongly attached to others, 
 and clingingly devoted to them. That does not necessarily 
 produce real union. We may cling to them externally, yet 
 never be in them, never understand them, never get a 
 glimpse of the real secret of their lives. Strong affection 
 is not enough. I have seen such a friendship — as people 
 called it -r- between two boys or two girls. One was so 
 attached to the other, clung to her so, that she could hardly 
 bear to be out of her sight. Yet she had no real union 
 with her, and had no idea of her friend's character, and 
 could not really sympathize with it. It was the sort of 
 feeling with which a snail sticks to the rock, or a barnacle 
 to a ship's bottom — because they need something strong 
 and solid to cling to. But as to the nature of the rock or 
 the ship, or where the ship is going, or what is its use and 
 purpose — of this they know nothing. To cling to anothel 
 for our own comfort is not to be in him. 
 
 So some persons cling to Jesus — for their own salvation. 
 Weak in themselves, they need something to hold them up. 
 They may cling thus to Christ for salvation, and see some- 
 thing of his real character and divine glory, and then they 
 are, so far, really united with him in love. Or they may 
 cling merely for their own sake, only to be saved. Then, 
 when they sing 
 
 " Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
 Let me hide myself in thee " 
 
y6 IF ANY MAN BE IN CHRIST, 
 
 they are only in a cleft of the rock ; still on the outside of it, 
 , only superficially connected with it. They know no more, in 
 reality, of the Rock of Ages than the snail knows of the 
 structure of the granite ledge to which he adheres. • They 
 have not entered into the mind of Christ, or the heart 
 of Christ, at all. 
 
 Nor is it enough to have a great deal to say or to do 
 about Christ in order to be in him. You may spend your 
 life in talking about him, preaching about him, using his 
 name on all occasions, and yet be in no real union with 
 him. During the late Presidential campaign, there were 
 many prominent leaders of the Republican party who went 
 through the States making speeches in its behalf, who yet 
 had not the least sympathy with its ideas. So the Apostle 
 Paul tells us that men may preach with the tongues of 
 men and of angels about Christ, but, because there is no 
 real love for him in their hearts, they are like sounding 
 brass. Men may fight for him, and die for him, and not 
 be in him. The crusaders who went to Palestine to die 
 under the banner of the cross were, many of them, in no 
 sympathy with him. The monks, who gave up all their 
 wealth and went into convents, were not necessarily in 
 sympathy with Christ. Even the martyrs who died in his 
 name may not always have been in real sympathy with 
 him, for Paul assumes this to be possible when he says, 
 " Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and 
 though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it 
 profiteth me nothing." 
 
 To be in Christ, we must love him. But love means 
 much more than blind affectionate instincts, or clinging 
 attachments, or sudden emotions. It is far more noble 
 than that. It is that flame in the soul, caught by the sight 
 of superior beauty and truth and good, which animates and 
 elevates one's whole being, bringing one into harmony with 
 
HE IS A NEW CREATURE. 77 
 
 the ideas of those we love. It implies some intelligent 
 sympathy, however small, with their best aims and purposes. 
 Love, true love, attaches itself to that which is better, nobler, 
 higher, than what we have in ourselves. Love looks up to 
 receive a higher influence, to be inspired by a purer life. 
 Love must elevate us, or it is not really love. 
 
 If so, you may say, how can there be mutual love ? how 
 can two persons really love each other ? since if neither is 
 better than the other, there can be love on neither side ; 
 and if one is better than the other, then only the lower 
 nature can love the higher. Thus it would seem there can 
 be no such thing as mutual love. The answer is, that 
 each may have some quality higher than the other. God 
 has made us different, to this end, that each may be a 
 revelation of some truth, beauty, good, to another mind. 
 He has made every one of us capable of manifesting some 
 special grace, some peculiar charm of sweetness, or noble- 
 ness, or truth. He has made every one of us capable of 
 manifesting something of God's divine beauty to our fellow- 
 men, and when we really love, it is because we see that, 
 and love that. We see and love something of "God^ 
 manifest in the flesh.'' 
 
 We read that Jesus " loved Martha, and Mary, and 
 Lazarus, v and that having loved his own disciples, "he 
 loved them even to the end." This was not merely with 
 the love of pity and compassion, but of personal commu- 
 nion, for he prayed that they might " be in him and he in 
 them," and so " be made perfect in one." It is the privi- 
 lege and power of the higher nature to be able to find 
 hidden qualities of good in the lower. The heavenly mind 
 of Jesus could discover seeds of good, elements of beauty, 
 in Peter, James, John, which no one else then saw, and 
 which they did not see themselves. As he was God mani- 
 fest in the flesh to them, so they, in a lower measure, were 
 
78 IF ANY MAN BE IN CHRIST, 
 
 God manifest in the flesh to him ; not by their attainments, 
 but by the special divine spark of heavenly fire, which the 
 Creator had originally placed in each of their souls. He 
 loved that in each of them. 
 
 Modest persons sometimes wonder what others can see 
 in them to love ; for they see nothing in themselves but 
 weakness, folly, and faults. But love, if it be true, never 
 makes a mistake. It penetrates to the mysterious centre 
 of another's being, deeper than any plummet ever sounded ; 
 it detects in us capacities for good, secrets of excellence, 
 unknown to ourselves, and which, alas ! we may never 
 unfold. If it sees a mere glimpse of what is noble, if it 
 has ever so inadequate a perception of what is good, then 
 it is love, then it unites us intimately and interiorly with 
 another soul. 
 
 True love, therefore, because it sees something of God 
 in another soul, partakes of reverence, is grave and earnest, 
 and has a religious seriousness in it. It is a step upward 
 towards the love of God, for he who loveth not his brother, 
 whom he hath seen, how shall he love God whom he hath 
 not seen ? Love for God is not a blind sentiment, but an 
 affection created in the soul by the sight of an infinite 
 beauty, above all, through all, and in all. 
 
 If any man loves, he is in the person he loves. He has 
 entered into his soul, and has something of his spirit. 
 
 If any man loves Christ, he is in Christ, because he has 
 something of Christ's spirit, and is a new creature. He 
 has something added to him, or developed out of him, 
 that was not there before. 
 
 All of us who are born and brought up in Christian 
 lands, are born and brought up with Christ. We are with 
 him when we hear about him, read the gospels, go to 
 church, and have an intellectual belief in his religion. But 
 we are not in him till we love what he loved, share his con- 
 
HE IS A NEW CREATURE. 79 
 
 victions, imbibe his spirit, and do what he did. We are in 
 Christ when we love him ; he is in us when we put his 
 spirit into our actions. For " if any man have not the spirit 
 of Christ, he is none of his." 
 
 There is nothing sudden, nothing artificial, about this. 
 This change is as natural as that by which "the blood re- 
 news the body ; the body seeming to continue the same, 
 but always becoming different. It is a growth, and all 
 growths are gradual. Conversion is always sudden, for it 
 is simply turning round. But regeneration is gradual, for 
 it is a growth. Paul was converted in a moment, on his 
 way to Damascus. He changed his mind about Christi- 
 anity. He began a new life. But it took him a long time 
 to become a Christian. He was blind for several days, 
 thinking about it. Then he had to be taught by Ananias. 
 Then he went into Arabia, and stayed three years, during 
 all which time he was thinking out these new ideas, and 
 growing into a new creature. And so by slow degrees, 
 Saul, the Pharisee, changed into Paul, the Christian. 
 
 In all such changes the crisis, may be sudden, but the 
 development is gradual. See how a tree grows from its 
 seed, and becomes a new creature. See how Winter melts 
 into Spring and all things are new created. See how 
 changes come into society, manners, law, education, civil- 
 ization. What struggles, what reactions, what gradual 
 creeping up of the tide on the sand, wave after wave ad- 
 vancing and receding ! Thus slow, by imperceptible 
 growth, is the advance into all true life. And so, if we 
 are in Christ, we find that old things have gradually passed 
 away, and that all things have gradually become new. 
 
 Thus, if we are in Christ, we grow into new convictions. 
 Not into new speculations or beliefs, for these may change 
 suddenly, or may not change at all. Belief puts us with 
 Christ, but not in him. A creed is like a carriage, which 
 
80 IF ANY MAN BE IN CHEIST, 
 
 may take us to the place where our friend is, but cannot 
 put us into communion with him. But if we are in Christ, 
 we have new convictions. Spiritual things become more 
 real to us. God becomes to us more real. Before, the 
 thought of God was a solemn one, to be avoided when we 
 were cheerful, but a duty sometimes to recall. We ought to 
 think of him sometimes, and we tried to do so, tried to say 
 our prayers, but it was rather hard. Now, to our surprise, 
 we find it to be very natural to think of God, and that the 
 thought gives us- pleasure. He seems to be near us all 
 day, to make all things around us more alive and fair. 
 
 The reason is that by sympathy with Christ we have 
 come to feel the infinite tenderness of God filling all in 
 all. We have realized that his love comes to us in all 
 our joys, so that when we see a friend, or hear a piece of 
 pleasant news, or walk in the glad sunshine, we have a 
 sense of God's goodness in it all. What was a matter 
 of belief before, we know to be substance and reality. It 
 has grown into our life, and become a part of it. 
 
 So, also, if we are in Christ, we grow into new affections. 
 A change of heart, as it is called, does not mean any new 
 faculty or power of loving implanted in us, which we had 
 not before. It means having new objects of love. What 
 we did before merely from a sense of duty, we now do with 
 pleasure. The prophet foretold the day of the Messiah as 
 the time when the law should be written in the heart. 
 There is pleasure in serving God when God seems lovable. 
 There is pleasure in following Christ when Christ seems 
 lovable. There is pleasure in helping men when men 
 seem God's children and our brethren. There is pleasure 
 in fulfilling any task when we feel inspired and helped to 
 do it by the spirit of God, softly breathing strength into 
 our souls. This is what is meant by a new heart — to love 
 to do our duties. 
 
HE IS A NEW CREATURE. 8 1 
 
 So, again, the Bible is a new book if we are in Christ. 
 I recollect the time when the Bible seemed to me the most 
 uninteresting book in the world. It was covered all over 
 with law. I looked at it as a kind of master whom I ought 
 to obey. Just as the slave feels to the overseer I felt to 
 the Bible. I thought I ought to read it — so I did ; but 
 only the surface of it. It seemed wholly apart from life, 
 having nothing to do with every day, nothing of home 
 about it. Now I read it as a revelation of man as well as 
 God ; as a revelation of myself. I go to it as the Califor- 
 nian goes to the field, where he thinks when he strikes 
 down his spade he may turn up a shovelful of gold sand. 
 I read with this constant expectation. I go to it, not as 
 to an authority, a master, but as to a book compact with 
 human life, and so it is a new book to me. 
 * All depends on how you come to the Bible. Suppose I 
 go to Pompeii thinking it a city that people just began to 
 build last year, and left off because it was in the wrong 
 place ; or as a city just burnt down, with the walls still 
 standing. There would be no interest then. But go realiz- 
 ing its past — that it is something out of the ancient life of 
 Rome, a place left as it was when the apostle John was 
 yet alive, and then you walk through those lonely streets 
 and into those empty rooms with the deepest interest. 
 
 If you stand outside of the Cathedral of Milan, or the 
 Minster of Cologne, and look on . the vast windows of the 
 choir, they seem dark and dingy. But go inside and let 
 the light stream through them, and they turn into emeralds 
 and sapphires and rubies, and are gorgeous with the forms 
 of saints and angels. So enter into a book, sympathize 
 with the spirit and aim of its author, and you can under- 
 stand it. We call the Bible a supernatural book. I call 
 it the most intensely natural book ever written. It is a 
 revelation of human nature, showing its motives and work- 
 
 6 
 
82 IF ANY MAN BE IN CHRIST, 
 
 ings. It is like a watch with a transparent dial, through 
 which we look and see the movement. 
 
 Again, if we are in Christ, life becomes new. Nothing 
 prevents life from seeming old, stale, flat and weary, like 
 having an object — something we are interested in, some- 
 thing we love to do. The higher and better this object is, 
 the more of interest it adds to our life. Did you ever 
 watch a beehive and see the interest these small creatures 
 take in their work, sailing, full freighted, through the air, 
 dropping down hastily by their front door, and how they 
 cannot wait for each other to go in ? The good God has 
 put into the hearts of these little things such an ardor of 
 work that their brief lives are as interesting to them as 
 possible. 
 
 But God has provided better things for us than for bees 
 and ants and birds. An infinitely deeper and richer life 
 may be ours, only we have to find it for ourselves. We 
 find it when we are living in the spirit of Christ. Any one 
 who is doing a Christian work from a Christian motive 
 finds life becoming interesting to him, and he is straitened 
 till it be accomplished." There is no end to the joy 
 and freshness of existence, if we can have Christ in our 
 hearts, and be in his heart, by drinking his spirit ! 
 
 O sacred heart of Christ ! worshipped by Catholics in 
 their prayers ! if we could only understand thee aright, 
 only feel the infinite longing of love with which that heart 
 beats for us all, only feel how Christ comes for each of us 
 to-day, how he sends help which we never know of into our 
 souls, how the throbs of expectant and impatient desire for 
 good which we sometimes feel are dropped into our hearts 
 by angels sent from him, how he waits, day by day, looking 
 for us to come ! 
 
 And if any man be in Christ, death is new. Death has 
 lost its terrors. Why be afraid to die ? All must be right 
 
HE IS A NEW CREATURE. 83 
 
 and all good which comes from God. We are going home. 
 The boy is not afraid to go home from his school. He 
 enjoys his school, his play, his study ; but when vacation 
 comes he enjoys going home. So we, knowing how Christ 
 has gone to make a home for us above, a home of love, 
 thought, work, of everything we need, cannot be very sorry 
 when God says, Fall asleep, my child, and you shall pres- 
 ently awake again in the society of all your loved and lost 
 ones, and with that dearest of all friends " whom, not hav- 
 ing seen, you love, and in whom, though now you see him 
 not, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 
 
 I do not close this discourse with any exhortation to 
 "come to Jesus." You are already with him and he with 
 you. You have grown up with him and been taught his 
 words from the first. You shall also be in him by partaking 
 his spirit and living in it, if you are willing to make his 
 objects your objects, his purposes your purposes, his work 
 your work. His work is to help, save and bless his breth- 
 ren. Join him in this work, and you will come to love 
 him, and he shall be in you and you in him. You shall 
 come into conformity with him. Use your power, your 
 gifts, your talents, as he would have you, then you are his 
 disciples. Then you have the right to feel that he is your 
 friend. Then you will find more sunshine coming into 
 your day, more love into your heart. Old things will pass 
 away, all things will become new. 
 
IX. 
 
 SPIRITUAL MNEMONICS; OR RULES FOR IMPROVING 
 THE MEMORY. 
 
 " He beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway 
 forgetteth what manner of man he was." 
 
 IT is a bad thing to have a poor memory. What a dif- 
 ference there is between people in this respect ! How 
 little impression events make on some persons ! How 
 easily they forget names, dates, faces, the books they have 
 read, the scenes they have visited ! And how wonderfully 
 others remember all these things ! Macaulay could repeat 
 from memory books he had read when he was a boy ; 
 could repeat the who.le of " Paradise Lost," or one of the^ 
 books of Homer. Indeed, there seems to be hardly any 
 limit to the power of memory. A professor at Padua could 
 repeat verbatim all the sermons preached in Lent, could 
 remember every cast and move in games of dice and chess, 
 and had in his mind, ready for use, 20,000 passages of 
 civil and canon law, 7000 of Scripture, and many more 
 from other writers. Generals have been known who recol- 
 lected the name of every soldier in their army, and politi- 
 cians who could call by name every man to whom they 
 had been introduced. A good memory is the necessary 
 basis of all intellectual action. I think the time will come 
 when we shall know how to educate and discipline the 
 memory, and keep it from forgetting. There will be rules 
 
 for memorizing and systems of mnemonics taught in our 
 (84) 
 
SPIRITUAL MNEMONICS. 85 
 
 schools, to strengthen the memory and keep it in a healthy- 
 condition. 
 
 The most important element of such a system will pro- 
 bably be to form a habit of attention with the purpose of 
 remembering. Much that we see and hear and read we 
 do not mean to remember, at all. It is a want of interest 
 in what we see or hear which causes us to forget it. What- 
 ever deeply interests us we have no difficulty in remember- 
 ing, A boy forgets the errands he was told to do, forgets 
 the lessons he has been trying to study ; but he does not 
 forget his engagement with another boy to go a fishing. 
 How we recollect times, places, scenes, adventures, experi- 
 ences, in which our whole soul was interested ! I have 
 heard a woman describing the last days of her husband's 
 life, or that of her child, and every minutest incident was 
 photographed on her brain — all his last words and looks, 
 everything the" physicians said, or friends suggested, or 
 that she herself had done. So the Evangelists recollect 
 and record all the sayings of their master, word for word. 
 So the man who has been in a shipwreck, or a railroad ac- 
 cident, or a battle, describes, with intense minuteness and 
 accuracy, all the details, till it rises before you a vivid pic- 
 ture, which you also will remember always, though hearing 
 it at second hand. The stories of travellers are interesting 
 for the same reason, because the novelty of the scenes 
 they visit rouses their attention, and the vivid impressions 
 made on their own minds excite a like interest in ours. We 
 remember that in which we are interested, because we give 
 our attention to it. 
 
 But when we are not interested in anything, and so do 
 not give our attention to it, we are sure to forget it. An 
 uninteresting speech or sermon, as we say, goes into one 
 ear and out of the other. You may make a child commit 
 to memory, by a desperate effort, a Ion list of uninterest- 
 
86 SPIRITUAL MNEMONICS. 
 
 ing names in history, or dates in chronology ; but you can- 
 not make them stay in his memory. Facts and lessons 
 which do not interest us are like the plants which have no 
 root in themselves, and soon wither away. I heard 
 a worthy gentleman, the other evening, arguing that 
 studies ought not to be made too interesting, because boys 
 and girls should have the discipline of hard work. But 
 who works the hardest, I should like to know, he whose 
 heart is not in the work, and who has to force himself to 
 do it by main strength of will, or he who enjoys it while he 
 does it, or does it with the hope of future joy. It is hope 
 and joy which give us strength to work, not disgust or in- 
 difference. The hardest intellectual work, perhaps, which 
 man can do, is playing a game of chess, and it is also one 
 of the most interesting of purely intellectual exercises. 
 
 But we weaken the memory by inattention, which results 
 from the absence of a deep interest and a living purpose. 
 If we read for mere amusement, without the expectation or 
 intention of recollecting what we read, we weaken the mem- 
 ory. Most men read newspapers, not meaning to remember 
 what they read, not selecting what they wish to remember, 
 and so they are really cultivating the habit of forgetting. I 
 think that newspaper-reading in a community, during two 
 or three generations, unless it be balanced by some oppo- 
 site mental practice, will sensibly impair the memory of the 
 nation. 
 
 The reason why we do not recollect faces or names is 
 that we do not take an interest in them. We scarcely no- 
 tice the face or attend to the name. A portrait painter, in- 
 terested in the study of faces, can see a person once, and 
 go away and make a good likeness of his features. 
 
 The general rule, then, for improving the memory is, 
 " Take an interest in anything, and you will attend to it ; 
 attend to it, and you will recollect it." 
 
SPIRITUAL MNEMONICS. 8? 
 
 But what cure is there for moral forgetfulness ? Here is 
 a man who forgets all the lessons of experience. He com- 
 mits the same faults over and over again. Each time, he 
 says to himself, " This is the last time ; I will never do so 
 again ; I will keep my resolutions hereafter." But he goes 
 his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man 
 he is. He is like the woman of whom it was said that 
 
 " Experience, with a world of sighs 
 Purchased, and groans and heart-break have been hers. 
 And taught her nothing. Where she erred, she errs." 
 
 When I was a boy at the Boston Latin School, our mas- 
 ter introduced one day a learned-looking gentleman, who, 
 he told us, had come to teach us a new system of intellec- 
 tual mnemonics. The word was new to us and its sound 
 was rather appalling ; however, we found it only meant a 
 system of artificial memory. The good gentleman wished 
 to teach us how to help our memory in difficult cases, so 
 that we might remember long catalogues of kings and emi- 
 nent persons, recall the annals of a nation, and, in fine, re- 
 peat easily the dryest tables, historical, chronological, bio- 
 graphical, geographical. The thing was done by help of the 
 law of association. We first fixed in our mind a list of famil- 
 iar objects, and then associated these with the names of kings 
 and queens. I have seen many other similar contrivances for 
 assisting the memory. Intellectual mnemonics is a received 
 science. But where is the science of moral and spiritual 
 mnemonics ? Who shall teach the conscience to remember 
 its duty in the hour of temptation ? the heart to remember 
 its best love when drawn aside to the world ? 
 
 There are many marked instances of moral forgetfulness 
 which show the importance of such a science as this. We 
 are very apt, for example, to forget the religious and moral 
 truth which we hear. We are forgetful hearers of the Word. 
 
88 SPIRITUAL MNEMONICS. 
 
 Consider the quantity of church-going there is — the 
 amount of preaching ; the amount of sermons a man hears 
 in his life ; the moral instruction which has been poured 
 into our ears by parents, by teachers, by preachers, by ex- 
 horters I If we had been marble, so much doctrine falling 
 on us should have worn and moulded us into the desirable 
 form. It has been " line upon line, precept upon precept, 
 here a little and there a little." What a singular want of 
 memory we all have in moral and religious matters ! How 
 we forget sermons, however eloquent, splendid, convincing ; 
 in a week they have fled ; like the early dew which glittered 
 in ten million diamond globes on the grass but an hour ago, 
 and now all is gone. Where is all the instruction which 
 has been poured into our ears and heart from childhood, 
 by ever-faithful parents, aunts, sisters, brothers ; by teach- 
 ers, professors and guardians. It has all gone. Ask us 
 about these systems of religion, of ethics, of morality, of 
 theology, and we stand helplessly silent. Again, how we 
 forget our own good resolutions ! We arrange our life, at 
 the beginning of the year, into a perfect order. We select 
 the faults to be conquered, the virtues to be acquired, the 
 studies to be pursued, the good actions to be done. At the 
 end of the year we look back and find that all these reso- 
 lutions were presently forgotten, and we went on as before. 
 Again, we forget our duties. " You are one of the most 
 perfect, of men," said Lamb to Coleridge, " with only this 
 one slight fault, that if you have any duty to do, you never 
 do it." We remember everything but our duties — these 
 slip from our memory too,easily. We forget our promises 
 and engagements. How very mortifying to find that we 
 have promised to do a multitude of things, and that we 
 have forgotten them all ! We think we shall never do so 
 again, we are so ashamed of it ; but directly we find our- 
 selves in the same lamentable condition. So at last, in 
 
SPIRITUAL MNEMONICS. 89 
 
 sheer despair, we abstain from promising anything, think- 
 ing it better not to vow, than to vow and not pay. Alas ! 
 and worse, we forget the kindnesses done to us. At the 
 time we feel very grateful, but gratitude becomes burden- 
 some, and so, after a while, we have forgotten our benefac- 
 tors and their good deeds. How little we think of those 
 who took such care of our childhood, who devoted them- 
 selves to protecting us from outward and inward evils, who 
 took pains to help us when we had no claim on them, who 
 gave us their good-will, unbribed, unbought. We forget 
 them, but do not forget those who have injured us, who 
 have wounded our pride, opposed our views, uttered some 
 words of severe censure or idle satire. Ah ! we remember 
 all that too well ; " the deadly arrow adheres to our side ;" 
 we treasure up for years the very words of every supposed 
 innuendo, or slight, or neglect; we remember the evil and 
 forget the good. We forget the holy love of Christ, the 
 ever-present providence of God, the impending judgments 
 of the future, the certain retributions of conduct and eternal 
 laws of heaven. Who shall give us the system of moral and 
 spiritual mnemonics by which to remember these things ? 
 
 And yet these truths which we forget are the all impor- 
 tant truths which we need most of all to remember. And 
 the same law applies to those spiritual and moral truths 
 which we have seen to be the rule for the memory of ex- 
 ternal objects. " We remember that to which we give our 
 attention and we give our attention to what interests us." 
 
 The difficulty is that we are not really as much interest- 
 ed in the love of God, in duty and spiritual progress as 
 we are in other matters. The whole world of spiritual 
 realities is not as interesting to us as the world of sight 
 and sense. We do not give our mind to these highest and 
 noblest objects, as we do to the others. They do not in- 
 terest us, that is why we forget them. 
 
90 SPIRITUAL MNEMONICS. 
 
 It is a law of constraint, and not a law of liberty, by 
 which we act. That is why we forget so easily. We try 
 hard to do our duties because we think we ought, and that 
 is something — that is a good deal. But we do not really 
 care for them. 
 
 But we have all seen those who did not suffer from this 
 fatal want of memory. Some people we all know who 
 never forget their friends, never forget their work, never 
 forget to be helpful and sympathizing, whose aid is always 
 at hand when it is wanted, who are full of good deeds and 
 overflowing. How is it that they remember so well ? 
 
 It is love which quickens all the powers, memory among 
 the rest. What we care for much we are not likely to for- 
 get. Conscience, solemn and austere, is the great lamp of 
 human life, but it is not the chief motor-power. Without 
 love we dawdle over our duties, we postpone them till to- 
 morrow, we forget them, we excuse ourselves for not doing 
 them. 
 
 But see those children, that youth and maiden, who have, 
 as we say, fallen in love with each other. Yesterday 
 they hardly knew each other. To-day, they can think 
 of nothing else' but the strange, sweet attraction which 
 has given a new charm to their lives. No danger of their 
 forgetting each other ; no danger of their forgetting any 
 engagement they make to meet. No. Every act, look, 
 word, is graven on the tablets of the heart ; every scene 
 where they have met, and as long as life lasts it shall not 
 be forgotten. 
 
 Did Dr. Howe ever forget his blind people ? Did Mr. 
 Garrison ever forget his slaves ? Did Howard ever forget 
 his prisoners ? Did Dorothea Dix ever forget her insane 
 persons ? Did Florence Nightingale forget the sick sol- 
 diers ? Did Lincoln forget the dangers of the country 
 which he served ? Or did Jesus ever forget his disciples 
 
SPIRITUAL MNEMONICS. 91 
 
 or his work ? No. All these, having loved their own, 
 loved them to the end. Where the heart goes, there 
 memory watches, a sleepless sentinel, ready for every occa- 
 sion. 
 
 Only to hear about truth, therefore, profits nothing. We 
 must do it ourselves in order to know it. Lazy acquies- 
 cence in another's opinion is not knowledge. Easy assent 
 to the established creed is not belief. Enthusiastic ad- 
 miration of the eloquence of some favorite teacher is not 
 faith. Truth helps no one who has only heard about it. 
 Truth helps those only who see it with their own eyes. All 
 that we can do by preaching is to testify of what we have 
 seen of God and God's truth, that others may be moved 
 to look at it, as we look at it. Therefore the apostle says, 
 " He who looketh into the perfect law of liberty." To 
 hear one talking about the perfect law of liberty does not 
 help you unless you look into it yourselves. You may see 
 your face reflected in his words as in a glass, but when you 
 have gone away, when the sound of these words grows 
 faint in your ears, you will straightway forget what sort of 
 a person you are. 
 
 Do you think that confessors, martyrs, heroes of the 
 faith, were ever made by listening to sermons ? No, in- 
 deed ; but by one's own insight, by the sure knowledge of 
 the truth we have actually seen for ourselves, do we grow 
 strong and brave, and not otherwise. 
 
 Until we are doers of the word, as well as hearers, we 
 are like the clocks and watches in the watchmaker's shop. 
 He sets them all to the right time, and winds them up ; but 
 till he touches the pendulum and sets in motion they can- 
 not keep time. So we go to church every Sunday, and the 
 minister winds us up by convincing arguments and by the 
 truths of the gospel ; and then he appeals to our feelings, 
 and touches our hearts, and we are set exactly right. The 
 

 92 SPIRITUAL MNEMONICS. 
 
 hour-hand and minute-hand are right to a moment. The 
 moral chronometer is regulated to a second. But we our- 
 selves must set the pendulum in motion, and begin to go ; 
 else what does it profit us ? To be set right and regulated 
 every Sunday morning, what use is there in that, unless we 
 keep going through the week ? 
 
 Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving 
 your own selves. 
 
 When we are hearers and not doers, we deceive ourselves. 
 We become cased around externally in a whole system of 
 excellent opinions, which is like an outside armor ; not 
 making any part of our own real life, though good for pro- 
 tection against any outward attack. All our thoughts are 
 excellent, our ideas of duty correct, our sentiments noble : 
 we take the highest grounds on all occasions. But this is 
 all outside of our central life. We wash our hands, but 
 not our hearts. We make clean the outside of the cup and 
 the platter. Because we are so familiar with what is true 
 and right, we forget at last what manner of men we are. 
 So we deceive ourselves. We can easily mask every selfish 
 motive under some plausible pretext of duty. If we like 
 to do anything, we can always show that it is our sacred 
 duty. We can easily prove that gain is godliness. 
 
 All this comes from hearing and not doing. Hearing the 
 truth, when we refuse to act it out, ends in opinion, and opin- 
 ion in talk, and talk in self-deception. There is a good 
 deal of cheating in the world, but people usually cheat 
 themselves more than they do others. We repeat by rote, 
 what we hear, and think that we know it. We talk well 
 and imagine that we are what we say. We hear a truth, 
 and imagine that it is a part of our own character. So we 
 deceive ourselves. 
 
 The man who is only a hearer deceives himself. He thinks 
 himself a better man for listening to good things. Because 
 
SPIRITUAL MNEMONICS. 93 
 
 noble sentiments have gone through his head, he imagines 
 himself noble. Because he has listened to pious senti- 
 ments with joy, he thinks himself pious. Because, away 
 from the rush of life, the stress of business, the temptations 
 of the shop* and street, the parlor and kitchen, he approves 
 of righteousness, purity, generosity, patience, he thinks 
 himself to have those qualities. But we all approve good 
 in the abstract. It by no means follows that all the young 
 ladies who admire the heroines of their novels are capable 
 of being heroines themselves. All sentiment must be 
 brought to the test of action. Hearing good things and 
 talking well, require to be supplemented by work ; for we 
 really do not know any truth to be true until we have ap- 
 plied it. 
 
 The divine power of truth can only be realized when it 
 is put into action. If we are hearers, but not doers, we 
 deceive ourselves and the truth is not in. us. ' We carry the 
 truth, then, in our memory, perhaps to reproduce on great 
 occasions. But we have not ate it, nor drank it, and so 
 made it a part of ourselves. Jesus said, " You must eat 
 me and drink me, or I shall not help you." We must eat 
 and drink all truth, if it is to do us any good. Else we are 
 only forgetful hearers. Until we have put a truth into ac- 
 tion, we do not really know it. The artist may study colors 
 and forms forever ; but until he tries to paint a picture he 
 is only a dilettante artist. The carpenter may hear lec- 
 tures on the use of tools, but till he learns to use them we 
 do not call him a carpenter. The youth who graduates in 
 a law-school, full of the theory of law, is not yet a lawyer. 
 Do anything, and you come to know it, and then truth be- 
 comes knowledge and creates love. 
 
 We have in Boston a "Free Religious Association," as 
 it is called. Yet true religion is always free, and always 
 sets us free. It is a law of liberty ; liberty and law in one. 
 
94 SPIRITUAL MNEMONICS. 
 
 Religion is the source of all real freedom, for true freedom 
 is not wilfulness, but self-direction. And we can only di- 
 rect ourselves when we have some rule or law by which to 
 direct ourselves ; some aim of life, and some method by 
 which to pursue that aim. But if we pursue earthly ends, 
 we cannot be wholly free. The politician whose aim is 
 earthly office or power, must make himself the servant of 
 the people, or of party leaders ; it will not do for him to 
 go his own way. Thus also the ambition for position in 
 society ; for literary success, for wealth, for popularity ; all 
 take away something of our freedom. But religion eman- 
 cipates us by making us servants of conscience, and so 
 setting us above human praise or censure. That is the 
 first law of religious liberty. Then it emancipates us again 
 when it makes us love goodness and right. This is the 
 perfect law of liberty. Conscience breaks every other 
 chain but its own. Love takes off that chain, also. 
 
 The rule for strengthening the memory, then, so that we 
 shall not be forgetful hearers, is, first, to give our atten' 
 tion to what we hear, to put our mind into it. A common 
 phrase in English is " to mind a thing," meaning " to re- 
 member it." Another meaning of mind is to obey. 
 " Mind your father and mother, child ! " To put our mind 
 seriously into anything, leads, first to memory ; next, to 
 action. And this action, if we continue therein, becomes 
 at last interesting for its own sake, and so we make it a 
 part of ourselves. We eat it and drink it, and it enters 
 into our life, and life's most secret joy, so that finally we 
 become u blessed in our deed." Thus continued, persistent 
 attention, given to what is true and right, leads to action ; 
 and persistent, continued action, leads to love. And love 
 sets us free, uniting law and liberty, and causing us to be 
 blessed in our deed. 
 
 Put your mind, then, into your duties, if you wish to re- 
 
SPIRITUAL MNEMONICS. 95 
 
 member them, and to enjoy them. Learn to believe in 
 them, and not to do them merely because they are duties. 
 When we do our work, do any work, thus, earnestly, it be- 
 comes an object of love. So our rule for the mnemonics 
 of morality has an addition to it, and it now reads, " What- 
 ever you attend to you will remember ; whatever interests 
 you, you will attend to ; and whatever you do with your 
 whole soul, that you will come to take an interest in." 
 
 Whoever, says the text, is a doer of the word, and not a 
 hearer only, is blessed in his deed ; that is, he enjoys it. 
 He enjoys doing it, he takes an interest in it ; it become a 
 part of his life. Do with your might whatever your hand 
 finds to do. Put your heart and thought into it, not merely 
 the ends of your fingers. Then you grow, by degrees, to 
 love it, and when you love to do your work, your work will 
 be its own reward, and its own satisfaction. 
 
 r usriyi 
 
MERCY AND TRUTH MEETING TOGETHER. 
 " Mercy and truth have met together." 
 
 I ONCE read in the papers extracts from a sermon preach- 
 ed in San Francisco, by Horatio Stebbins, on the 
 character and career of a great California banker. It was 
 an acute and fair analysis of the man and the influences 
 which made him what he was. It recognized his manliness, 
 generosity, brilliant and keen faculties ; spoke with tender- 
 ness of his faults : but distinctly saw his limitations. In 
 the face of a community full of admiration for energy and 
 enterprise, Mr. Stebbins pointed out the essential weak- 
 ness and littleness of this splendid materialism, this blind 
 worship of the senses. He considered the typical Califor- 
 nian, made by California, and with clearness and a direct- 
 ness which no one could misunderstand, told Californians 
 how their own lives, their own defects and dangers, were 
 manifested in this splendid specimen of a man in whom 
 " the whole universe of things tapered the wrong way." 
 
 It required great courage to say all this in San Francisco, 
 and when I read it, I said to myself, " Here, for once, 
 mercy and truth have met together j righteousness and 
 peace have kissed each other. Here is a man who speaks, 
 as the day of judgment may be expected to speak, with a 
 light which will illuminate the darkest corner of the soul — 
 an infinite, divine light, made tender by an infinite, divine 
 love." 
 
 It is very seldom that we hear things said in this way. 
 
 (96) 
 
MERCY AND TRUTH MEETING TOGETHER. 97 
 
 We hear . indiscriminate flattery and eulogy on one side, 
 indiscriminate condemnation and criticism on the other. 
 But once in a while there comes a voice like this, strong 
 and calm, without passion, without prejudice, finding more 
 good in a man than his best friends ever saw, saying better 
 things in his praise than his warmest admirers know how 
 to say ; but then bringing him to the bar of absolute truth 
 and right, and showing, so that all men see it, his essential 
 radical defects. As we listen, we know that it is not the 
 critic who condemns ; it is Truth itself which sentences ; 
 as Jesus said, " I judge him not ; but the word that I have 
 spoken, the same shall judge him at the last day." 
 
 This last day, this day of judgment, is not always post- 
 poned until the end of the world. There comes a last day, 
 a winding up, in this life, to many men, and things. False- 
 hoods and shams glitter and shine for their hour ; but 
 finally their last day comes ; then they explode and disap- 
 pear. But it is well when they disappear, that some voice 
 at once friendly and honest, shall indicate the lesson writ- 
 ten in their history. Cold, hard, merciless severity will 
 not do ; weak, passionate sympathy will not do. But truth 
 spoken in love is what purifies the air and makes the world 
 healthy again. 
 
 Theodore Parker was not usually thought to put much 
 mercy into his judgments. He was often terribly severe 
 on those who took views opposed to his own. But on one 
 occasion, at least, mercy and truth met together in his 
 final criticism on a great opponent. When Daniel Webster 
 died, not one of his idolatrous admirers painted the splendid 
 faculties and original majesty of his mind as did Theodore 
 Parker. He described him as Milton described the Prince 
 of Hell : 
 
 " With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear 
 The weight of nations," 
 
 7 
 
98 MERCY AND TRUTH MEETING TOGETHER. 
 
 and telling how Webster's speech 
 
 " Drew audience and attention still as night 
 Or summer's noontide air." 
 
 He showed how he, too, had honored and loved that king of 
 men — the greatest man, intellectually, New England ever 
 produced ; how he too, hid "lived in his mild and mag- 
 nificent eye." He bent himself with sad sternness to his 
 task of judgment, as a Roman judge might ascend the 
 tribunal to pronounce sentence on his father. 
 
 We need men like this — men who can be just, and yet 
 loving. We need them at the bar, on the bench, in the 
 pulpit, in the editorial chair. We need them to keep us 
 from drifting into a state of public opinion in which there 
 is no conscience, no sense of right, no reverence for the 
 majesty of justice, no reliance on principle. Those men 
 in any community who can speak the truth, but speak it in 
 love, are the salt of society, saving it from rottenness and 
 ruin. 
 
 There is always truth enough in the world, but it is mer- 
 ciless truth. Men are quick enough to see the faults and 
 sins of their neighbors. If truth is merely fault-finding, 
 then there is plenty of it everywhere. No man ever com- 
 mits a sin but some one sees it and points it out. But 
 this truth which has no love mixed with it has the effect of 
 error. It is the nature of truth to convince ; it is the 
 province of truth to convert — to make people see what 
 they ought to be and to do, what they can become. It is 
 the lever to lift them to a higher plane, to awaken the pur- 
 pose of going up, to give new aim and inspiration to the 
 soul. But cold, hard truth never convinces ; it only pro- 
 vokes. It drives men away. It hardens them, instead of 
 converting them. It seems to them like injustice, cruelty, 
 wrong. Truth without love has therefore, virtually the 
 effect of falsehood. 
 
MERCY AND TRUTH MEETING TOGETHER. 99 
 
 It is often said that men are seldom converted by argu- 
 ment or controversy. This is because controversy is so apt 
 to be carried on in a spirit of coldness and hatred, rather 
 than love. Men want to triumph over their opponent, to 
 put him down, not to help him up. But argument and dis- 
 cussion ought to be the very best way of getting new light, 
 of correcting our errors, of making progress. It will be so 
 when men argue with entire candor, in the spirit of mutual 
 respect, with a desire to learn as well as to teach — to im- 
 prove themselves and help others. 
 
 There is also enough love in the world, if love means 
 only kind feelings, weak good-will, which is too full of 
 sympathy to see the faults of others and point them out, 
 which will concede or suppress truth for the sake of peace. 
 
 If love only means good-nature, there is no lack of it. 
 How very good-natured we all are ! Men commit all sorts 
 of crimes : they swindle, they lie, they violate sacred trusts, 
 and almost every one takes them by the hand, and treats 
 them as if it were nothing. Pretty soon the world forgets 
 all about it, condones the transgression, and the man goes 
 on as before. This is all very good-natured, no doubt, 
 but is it love ? 
 
 No. Love which has no truth in it is not love, but real 
 enmity. To treat a bad man as if he were not bad, is a 
 cruel kindness. It puts darkness for light, and light for 
 darkness ; bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. It con- 
 founds moral distinctions. It encourages the man who 
 might be cured by vigorous remedies to go on from bad to 
 worse till he is incurable. 
 
 It is not easy to unite these great forces, for they are 
 polar forces and antagonist. A truthful man tends always 
 to be too hard j a loving man tends to be too soft and 
 yielding. It is so with churches. Some churches empha- 
 size truth; make sharp the distinctions between orthodoxy 
 
100 MERCY AND TRUTH MEETING TOGETHER. 
 
 and heresy ; between heaven and hell ; between sin and 
 salvation j between God the sovereign and man the crea- 
 ture ; between this world and the world to come. These 
 religions are stern, uncompromising, almost cruel. But they 
 have their place and do good, until something better comes 
 which can give us a truth yet more divine ; as full of holi- 
 ness, more filled with benignity, tenderness and pity. 
 Some other churches re-act from these into the opposite 
 extreme. They emphasize love. They think that God 
 does not lay much stress on opinions. They draw no 
 sharp lines between truth and error. No matter what a 
 man believes, they say, if he is only kind and ^ood-natured. 
 They are very liberal, and hospitable to all creeds, true or 
 false, right or wrong. 
 
 The same contrast is to be found between nations and 
 races. The southern races of Europe are kindly, affection- 
 ate, and have an attractive good-nature, but they tend to 
 falsehood. They are not much afraid of lies. They will 
 tell any number of lies out of pure kindness, so as not to 
 hurt your feelings. They hold it a duty to lie if it will 
 give any one pleasure. The northern races are more truth- 
 ful, sincere and honest ; but they are not so agreeable. 
 Their sincerity is rough, rude and harsh, as their east winds 
 and northern storms. 
 
 But all real excellence of character unites the two ele 
 ments. What is a gentleman but one who is both manly 
 and gentle ; like Douglas, " tender and true " at once ? No 
 character really excels, or is worth anything, in which the 
 two do not meet. We find them united in little children, 
 who are affectionate and loving, and yet know no secrecy, 
 no disguise. They are united again in the aged and wise, 
 who have grown benign, yet keep their knowledge of the 
 world ; who can see evil, but tolerate and forgive ; who are 
 not deceived by appearances, but can speak the truth in 
 
MERCY 'AND TRUTH MEETING TOGETHER. IOI 
 
 love. In childhood which is un perverted ; in age which is 
 full of wisdom ; mercy and truth meet together, righteous- 
 ness and peace kiss each other. 
 
 In good society the same is true. In low and bad society 
 people are either rude or deceitful. They are either too 
 rough or too smooth. They wheedle or natter, or else they 
 scold. People who scold usually say what they think : 
 they are truthful enough, but the truth is uttered so brutal- 
 ly as to do no good. It produces no conviction, but rather 
 resentment. But the manners of civil society are both 
 honest and kind. The spirit is frank, candid, independent ; 
 but also good-natured. It makes us feel at home. It re- 
 moves all impediments from the easy flow of thought. It 
 welcomes all opinions, and is hospitable to all varieties of 
 taste and humor. 
 
 Wherever this spirit exists, it makes good manners. 
 The sign of it is that all feel free ; all are drawn out 
 of themselves, and are able to do their best. Good so- 
 ciety puts every one at his best. It allows no despot- 
 ism or monopoly in conversation ; it does not permit a 
 monarchy or aristocracy, but is wholly democratic. The 
 sign of good manners is to treat all with equal respect. 
 The real gentleman and lady are to be found among rich 
 and poor, high and low ; wherever honesty is joined with 
 kindness ; wherever mercy and truth meet together. Gen- 
 teel society may not always be gentle ; sometimes it only 
 has an artificial surface of polish over a very coarse and 
 hard interior. 
 
 It is often very hard to join mercy and truth in conduct. 
 We wish to tell the truth, but it will hurt people's feelings ; 
 shall we tell it, then, or not ? Here is a good man, who 
 has been led to a bad action ; shall we expose him for the 
 sake of truth, or connive at its concealment for the sake of 
 love ? Here is a man in some public office for which he is 
 
102 MERCY AND TRUTH MEETING TOGETHER. 
 
 manifestly unfit. But his salary is the only support of his 
 family, who would suffer if he lost his position. Justice to 
 the community demands that he be removed ; sympathy 
 for his wife and children persuades that he be retained. 
 Here is a young woman, a teacher, who supports herself 
 and her aged mother by hard work. She is good, but a 
 poor teacher. Justice to the children requires that she be 
 dismissed ; but pity pleads that she be let remain. In most 
 of these cases justice goes to the wall. Sympathy for per- 
 sons is very apt to be too strong for the abstract sense of 
 right. A whole school of children -are sacrificed to a bad 
 teacher ; the interest of all the stockholders in a corpora- 
 tion is sacrificed to our sympathy for some inefficient offi- 
 cial ; public morals are sacrificed because we will not tell 
 the truth about some good-natured, kind-hearted man, 
 whose course has been bad and wrong. But there ought 
 to be somewhere some one to tell the truth on these oc- 
 casions, and I am glad when a man can be found, like our 
 friend in California, who can say what all men know, but 
 no one else is willing to say, and yet say it in tenderness. 
 These men are the chivalry of our time — the Douglases, 
 " tender and true." 
 
 It is reported by Herodotus that Amasis, King of Egypt, 
 was a wild boy, and did wrong things, for which some of 
 the priests and oracles rebuked him, but others condoned 
 his faults because he was a prince. But when he became 
 king, he deposed the priests and oracles which had flatter- 
 ed him and paid honors to those who had condemned him. 
 " For," said he, " what is the good of oracles which will 
 not tell the truth ? " So Jesus says, " If the salt have lost 
 its savor, wherewith shall it be salted ? " The salt for our 
 society is found in the teachers of truth, in public life or 
 private ; especially independent pulpits, independent jour- 
 nals, independent judges and courts pf Jaw, independent 
 
MERCY AND 1RTII MEETING TOGETHER. IO3 
 
 statesmen, and independent thinkers and scholars. Poli- 
 ticians are weak and yield to public opinion ; but we must 
 have something fixed, something which will not yield to the 
 currents and eddies of opinion ; some fixed mark, which 
 can look on tempests and not be shaken. 
 
 It is hard to speak the truth in love ; hard to know 
 when to speak the truth and when not, when to give way to 
 sympathy and when to refuse. James Walker preached a 
 famous sermon on the text, "Thou shalt say No." It is 
 often very hard to say no, when it seems so easy and sim- 
 ple and good-natured a thing to say yes. But we must have 
 the courage to do it. 
 
 This conflict between truth and love is sometimes pre- 
 sented to us as a problem in ethics. If a robber asks me 
 which way his victim has gone, shall I tell a lie and deceive 
 him, or not? Shall I tell a lie to an insane person or a sick 
 person for his good ? Is it right ever to deceive ? These 
 questions, when put in abstract form, cannot always be an- 
 swered. But the practical answer comes to us if we have 
 learned to live in truth and love. When these are united 
 in our character, they will not be divided in our speech or 
 our action. We shall not tell any lies from good nature, 
 but we shall be taught in the hour of exigency what to do 
 and say. The promise of Jesus will be fulfilled : " Take 
 no thought what ye shall say, for it will be given you in 
 that hour what ye ought to say." If we live in the whole, 
 a united life ; we shall not act partially or in a one-sided 
 way. The Lord will help us in each exigency, to say and 
 do the right thing, not sacrificing truth to love or love to 
 truth. Life often teaches us that way which logic fails to 
 find. 
 
 The only live work, too, is that which has both truth and 
 love in it. We must love our work, to do it well ; we 
 must also believe in it, to do it well. The lowest drudgery 
 
104 MERCY AND TRUTH MEETING TOGETHER. 
 
 becomes a fine art when we put our mind and heart into 
 it : a fine art becomes mere drudgery when we practise it 
 only to make money or get reputation out of it. Work is 
 very hard when we do it only because we must ; it is very 
 easy when we have faith in it and love it. I know men 
 and women in every kind of business who contrive thus to 
 put love in what they do, and it makes it very interesting. 
 I have seen two such persons very lately — one is the man 
 who invented the machine by which the Hoosac tunnel 
 has been bored through. He made very little by his in- 
 vention, though those who bought it of him have made a 
 great deal, and the State of Massachusetts has saved mil- 
 lions by it. But this man did not look at all unhappy. 
 His joy was found in making the invention, and in me- 
 chanical processes of delicacy and difficulty. Lately, I 
 saw a lady who. is a teacher of little children. She told 
 me she had never seen one bad child ; never had one 
 really bad child. Though educated a Calvinist, she does 
 not believe in infant depravity. Of course, some of the 
 children inherit faults from their ancestors. They are 
 careless, passionate, stupid sometimes, cross sometimes, 
 they tell little fibs occasionally, they tease each other, they 
 fret, they get angry and cross. All this, but they are not 
 bad. That is because she loves them. Her love sees 
 something good below the evil. Love always does. My 
 friend may be clear-sighted and see all my faults ; but he 
 sees something in me more real than my faults, which will 
 outlast them and redeem me from them. So Jesus loved 
 Peter, seeing his faults, and knowing that Peter would 
 deny him thrice, and yet calling him the rock in his faith, 
 on which the church should stand. So God loves us, 
 though all our sins are naked and open to him ; but he 
 sees something in us beside our sins. I know that this 
 teacher, who had never seen a bad child, must be a good 
 
MERCY AND TRUTH MEETING TEGETHER. 105 
 
 teacher, and doing a good work. The atonement of Christ 
 consisted, as it seems to me, just in this — that in him were 
 perfectly united these elements of truth and love. In him 
 mercy and truth met together : they were made at one — 
 that was the atonement. He could abhor sin, and yet love 
 the sinner. He could see the faults of his disciples, and 
 yet have faith in them and hope for them. His was no 
 soft good-nature ; no mild submission to evil. He stood 
 up and rebuked the Rulers and Pharisees, and exposed, 
 in awful severity, their hypocrisy. He pardoned sin, when 
 it was confessed and repented of, but the hardened sinner 
 he judged with the divine light of perfect truth. So he 
 baptized men with the Holy Ghost and with fire. He 
 showed how, in God, justice and mercy could be and were 
 always one. He showed how God could be just, and yet 
 justify those who repent and trust in him. 
 
 Jesus was the son of God, and if we are willing to be 
 led by the Spirit as he was led by it, we, also, can become 
 the sons of God. In our joy and our grief, in our doubts 
 and difficulties, in light and in darkness, we may still be- 
 lieve that mercy and truth can meet together. If we live 
 in that spirit, we shall also walk in that spirit. If our 
 inward life be united in love and truth, our outward actions 
 will easily follow the same rule. If we mean always and 
 strive always to be both true and also loving, this spirit 
 will flow out into our life. 
 
XL 
 
 NO TEMPTATIONS BUT WHAT ARE NATURAL. 
 
 "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is 
 common to man ; but god is faithful, who will not suffer 
 you to be temfred above that ye are able, but will with 
 the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be 
 able to bear it." 
 
 IT is well known that the same Greek words in the New 
 Testament which mean "temptation," and "to tempt," 
 also mean " trial," and " to try." A temptation is a trial ; 
 a trial is also a temptation. 
 
 Every machine made by man which has important work 
 to do, must be tried or tested. Steam engines are tested, 
 cannon are tested, watches are tested, the compasses of 
 sea-going vessels are tested, to see if they are able to do 
 the work which is to be confided to them. Government in- 
 spectors are appointed to test and try such articles as food, 
 fire-arms, hay, leather, milk, before they can be offered for 
 sale It would be well if this inspection were carried fur- 
 ther, and no buildings were allowed to be used for public 
 meetings till they were inspected and found to be strong 
 and safe ; no bridges or railroads allowed to be used un- 
 less all necessary precautions were used against accidents. 
 
 In the economy of nature tests are applied to plants and 
 animals. The whole of Darwin's famous system rests on 
 the theory of the survival of the fittest. But there is this 
 difference between the trial of a machine and of an ani- 
 
 (106) 
 
NO TEMPTATIONS BUT WHAT ARE NATURAL. 107 
 
 mal. If a rifle or a cannon is tested by having a heavy- 
 charge fired from it, though it may bear the strain trium- 
 phantly, it is nevertheless weakened a little by that trial. 
 But a tree standing exposed to bleak winds, if not blown 
 down by them, is made stronger by that trial, not weaker. 
 So a certain amount of exposure to hardship toughens the 
 animal fibre, and enables it to resist more cold or heat or 
 fatigue than it could before. Only the trial must not be too 
 severe, but proportioned to the strength. The body must 
 not be tempted above that it is able. 
 
 In like manner, that wonderful agent, the human soul, 
 created for great ends, fitted with curious powers, intended 
 for extraordinary work in this and other worlds, needs to 
 be tested in a great variety of ways. The Book of Job tells 
 us that Satan is an angel of God, whose duty it is to apply 
 these various tests in order to detect any latent weakness 
 in the character. What we call temptation is therefore 
 trial — trial which, if borne well, goes to strengthen the 
 character. That is why the Apostle James writes, " My 
 brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers tempta- 
 tions, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh 
 patience," to which the Apostle Paul adds, that " Patience 
 worketh experience, and experience Hope." 
 
 The soul of man, therefore, is exposed to trials and tests 
 in order that its weak places may be discovered and seen 
 by the man himself, to whom is committed the task of cor- 
 recting them. When it is the moral nature which is tested, 
 then the trial is called a temptation. When the test is ap- 
 plied to see whether the soul has the power to resist an 
 allurement to wrong, an invitation to evil, power to resist 
 the lower desires in the interests of the higher nature, 
 power to control the appetites, the passions ; which, when 
 controlled, work for good, when allowed to govern, lead 
 to evil j when these tests are applied, they are so critical, 
 
108 NO TEMPTATIONS BUT WHAT ARE NATURAL. 
 
 so important, that we give them a special name, and call 
 them temptations. 
 
 Now, people often think that their peculiar temptations 
 are such as no one else ever endured ; that their trials are 
 greater than those of any one else. They think they have 
 a right to complain and say, " Was ever sorrow like my 
 sorrow ? " They pity themselves, and spend so much sym- 
 pathy on themselves, and complain so much of Providence, 
 that they lose all the benefit of the trial. Instead of grow- 
 ing stronger by patience and trust, they become- full cf 
 complaints and bitterness. So they need to be told that 
 " there has no temptation happened to them but such as is 
 common to man," and that God does not suffer them to 
 be tempted above what they are able ; but with every 
 temptation makes a way to escape, that they may be able 
 to bear it. • 
 
 In order to see this more clearly, let us analyze human 
 temptations, and classify them. The common distribution, 
 which will answer well enough, is into those which come 
 either from the World, the Flesh, or the Devil. 
 
 The first class are the temptations of the flesh — that is, 
 those which come from each one's bodily organization and 
 temperament. The physical nature of one person tempts 
 to irritability ; of another to indolence ; of another, to too 
 much eating and drinking ; of another, to an excessive de- 
 sire to please and to be admired ; of another, to self-conceit 
 and pride ; of another, to self-will and obstinacy ; of an- 
 ther, to the opposite fault of self-depreciation and want of 
 independence. One man is by nature too sanguine and 
 hopeful, and so lacks caution ; another is too cautious, and 
 lacks hope ; one person is very sympathetic, therefore too 
 yielding, and unable to say " No ; " another, very conscien- 
 tious, and so judges himself and others too severely, or is 
 over-scrupulous. I have known people so afraid of doing 
 
NO TEMPTATIONS BUT WHAT ARE NATURAL. IOQ 
 
 wrong, so weighed down by the sense of responsibility, 
 that they never ventured to do right. Now, all these ten- 
 dencies, which are each the cause of a separate temptation, 
 are probably rooted in each man's bodily organization. 
 They constitute his strength and weakness. They make 
 up the temptations of the flesh. 
 
 . And the first great help we have in fighting against them 
 is to understand this — that they belong to human nature ; 
 that they are common to man ; that, therefore, they are 
 not to be conquered by a single effort, but to be brought 
 under control by systematic discipline. And, secondly, 
 we are to understand that we are not to blame for having 
 them, but only for yielding to them. This will prevent us 
 from being discouraged, as though we were responsible for 
 the temptations which come from our very organization ; 
 or, as though God sent to us more than our share. The 
 apostle says, and says very wisely, " Let no man say, when 
 he is tempted, ' I am tempted of God,' for every man is 
 drawn away and enticed by his own special desires." 
 
 First, then, see and admit that you have your special 
 temptations, and that others have theirs — probably differ- 
 ent from yours, but equally hard to resist. Then, secondly, 
 endeavor to discover what your own special temptations are. 
 You will find each one side by side with your good quality, 
 for every quality has its defects. The tares and the wheat 
 grow together in each soul. If a man is courageous, his 
 temptation is to be rash ; if he is cautious, his temptation 
 is to be timid; if he is firm, his temptation is to be obstinate ; 
 if he is sympathizing, his temptation is to be too yielding and 
 unreliable. Therefore it is a great point to see and know 
 what your own peculiar temptation is ; for, if you have any 
 good quality, you may be sure you will have a temptation 
 close to the side of it. And if you find for yourself 
 what your special trial is, then you will not need to have 
 
110 NO TEMPTATIONS BUT WHAT ARE NATURAL. 
 
 the Lord show it to you by a hard experience. " If we 
 judge ourselves, we shall not be judged," says the Scrip- 
 ture ; but if we are blind to our own defects and dan- 
 gers, then we may need to be made to fall, in order to be 
 aroused from our false self-confidence and security. 
 
 And in the third place, see and understand that with 
 every temptation God has made a way of escape ; and then 
 discover what is the way of escape. Different temptations 
 have different ways of escape. Temptations arising from 
 the bodily organization often need moral gymnastics and 
 ascetic discipline. Of some it may be said, " This kind 
 goeth not out save by prayer and fasting." We can compel 
 ourselves to abstain, to keep away from the temptation, to 
 avoid the beginnings of evil. We can surround our- 
 selves with favorable circumstances. When Alfieri, the 
 poet, was determined to write a tragedy, but found that he 
 could not resist the temptation to leave his desk and rush 
 out into the open air, he made his servant tie him into his 
 chair so that he could not unfasten himself, and ordered 
 him on no account to untie him until three hours had 
 elapsed. So, too, the wise Ulysses had himself tied to the 
 mast when about to hear the song of the sirens. We some- 
 times exercise our freedom in the highest way by thus re- 
 nouncing our freedom. If our fault is indecision, we may 
 take a step which shall make further indecision impossible, 
 and compel circumstances to come to our aid. 
 
 Self-denial, even ascetic self-denial, is sometimes the 
 way of escape. Luxury and self-indulgence enervate. We 
 must sometimes collect our energies by solitude, by deny- 
 ing ourselves recreation, even innocent recreation ; by 
 practicing rigid economy, and leading austere lives. So 
 the Apostle Paul said, " I keep under my body and bring 
 it into subjection ; lest I, who have preached to others, 
 should myself be unable to stand the test." The asceti- 
 
NO TEMPTATIONS BUT WHAT ARE NATURAL. I [ I 
 
 cism, which is objectionable, is asceticism for its own sake, 
 as though it were good in itself. This was the error of 
 mediaeval ascticism. 
 
 Self-denial is to the soul what gymnastics are to the body. 
 Gymnastics are to be practiced for the sake of gaining 
 strength and health, and not for the sake of gymnastics. If 
 people should retire into gymnasiums and devote the rest 
 of their lives to solitary gymnastic exercises, it would be 
 foolish. The monks committed a similar folly. But our 
 danger is not theirs ; our temptations are not in that direc- 
 tion — they are to self-indulgence, to luxury, to the love 
 of display, to love of accumulation. We should be all 
 the better if we were willing to practice more self-denial, 
 to accept a relative poverty, to give up the aim of being 
 rich or of having all the luxuries which the rich have. 
 This would give us more strength in our souls. 
 
 I find I have been led to speak already of the second 
 class of temptations — those of the world. They arise 
 from what is around us ; from the influence of public 
 opinion ; the immense power of example : the ease of 
 doing as others do ; the difficulty of standing alone. This 
 influence is immense, and often seems irresistible. By 
 refusing to live as others do, we not only offend our neigh- 
 bors, but often our friends and our own family. I might 
 be glad to dine on baked potatoes, but how can I ask my 
 friends to share that humble repast ? I might be willing 
 to wear very simple clothing, but if I became an object of 
 observation, criticism and ridicule on that account, it might 
 do more harm than good. Unless we go into the back- 
 woods or into convents, or turn Quakers, we must conform 
 in most things to social customs, making only the mild 
 protest of more economy and simplicity in our living. But 
 we can always escape the serious temptations and real 
 dangers of the world — " the evil communications which 
 
112 NO TEMPTATIONS BUT WHAT ARE NATURAL. 
 
 corrupt good manners " — by seeking other society, better 
 associates, the company of those whose influence on us is 
 elevating, inspiring and ennobling. 
 
 Sometimes the way of escape from worldly temptations 
 is to run away. The only thing we can do to save our- 
 selves is to run. A social atmosphere may be morally so 
 debilitating that it is like malaria — we had best get away 
 from it as soon as possible. So Lot ran from Sodom ; it 
 was the only thing he could do. An irritable person, who 
 finds his anger being excited by what is said, had better 
 take his hat and walk away. And sometimes, the way of 
 escape is to refuse to listen. There is an instinct of right 
 in the soul which will tell us, if we attend to it, that the ar- 
 gument we hear is a sophistry, and then it is best not to 
 hear more. When principle is on one side and a vast ex- 
 pediency on the other, we had better cling to the principle, 
 and say, as Jesus said to well-meaning Peter, " Get thee 
 behind me, Satan ! " "Thou savorest not the things which 
 be of God, but those which are of men." 
 
 And this brings us to the third class of temptations — 
 the temptations of the devil. These are always temptations 
 to our higher nature and they come disguised as angels of 
 light They are the temptations addressed to the con- 
 science, to the religious nature, to the love of doing good, 
 the desire for self-culture. When successful they pervert 
 that which is best in the soul, and are often the most dan- 
 gerous of all, because a good thing, when perverted be- 
 comes the worst. 
 
 Thus, the greatest cruelties ever practised by man to 
 man have been done in the name of religion, and by a per- 
 verted conscience. Let a man only think it his duty to 
 torment his brother, and he will put an amount of horrible 
 atrocity into it which no North American Indians can 
 equal. If you believe that men can only be saved from 
 
NO TEMPTATIONS BUT WHAT ARE NATURAL. I 1 3 
 
 hell by belonging to your church, it often seems a duty to 
 use every means to bring men in and keep them in. The 
 argument is that if burning alive or torturing a few hun- 
 dred thousand heretics will keep millions from becoming 
 heretics, and so from going to everlasting torments in hell, 
 you ought to do it. This was what was done by the Spanish 
 Inquisition. It actually destroyed heresy in Spain. The 
 cruelty which burned witches in Europe and hanged them 
 in America was exercised by the most conscientious and 
 religious people. In the same way falsehood has been 
 sanctified by religion. The mediaeval theologians laid it 
 down as a distinct proposition that pious frauds were right, 
 and so lying prophecies were invented, lying miracles 
 multiplied, and lying calumnies invented against all who 
 opposed the Church. To convince heretics old writings 
 were interpolated or forged, and this, says Lecky, in his 
 " History of Morals," continued till, in the Middle Ages, 
 the very sense of truth and love of truth seemed to be 
 blotted from the mind of Christendom. Thus a perverted 
 conscience and a perverted religion may make a duty of 
 cruelty and of falsehood. 
 
 So, too, in our day, what needless cruelties are inflicted 
 on young people by kind and good clergymen who think it 
 their duty to torment their sensitive consciences by pictures 
 of a raging hell and an angry God ! Many persons have 
 described to me how their life was made bitter and their 
 heart hardened by listening to such descriptions of the 
 Almighty. These clergymen are quite above the tempta- 
 tions of the flesh or of the world, but yield at once to these 
 temptations of the devil. He knows how to quote Scripture 
 to his purpose, and says, " Does not the Bible speak of hell 
 and its torments?" So kind-hearted and conscientious 
 young women beat little children cruelly in the schools 
 because they think it their duty to do so. So, once, a 
 
 8 
 
114 N0 TEMPTATIONS BUT WHAT ARE NATURAL. 
 
 clergyman of high standing and great purity shocked all 
 the mothers in the land by calmly relating, as a great 
 exploit, how he had broken the will of his little child, three 
 years old, who had refused to eat a piece of bread, by keep- 
 ing her shut up all day till she agreed to do what he 
 ordered. In such cases, the devil of self-will disguises 
 himself as the angel of Authority and Discipline. The 
 devil disguises himself as the Angel of Truth, and so makes 
 men bigots and sectarians. He disguises himself as the 
 Angel of Conscience, and makes men intolerant and 
 merciless to the sinner. 
 
 This class of temptations are the worst — and therefore 
 Jesus was so severe against the Scribes and Pharisees, in 
 order to arouse them to a sense of their hardness and cold- 
 ness and cruelty and pride. 
 
 But there is always a way of escape from this kind of 
 temptations, which beset the noblest and purest minds. 
 Some of the best of men are deliberately gloomy and 
 anxious because they think they ought to be so — so much, 
 they say, depends on them. Other good men destroy 
 themselves with work from a sense of duty. These per- 
 versions of conscience are hard to cure, but there are ways 
 of escape. Anxiety and care are sometimes cured, and the 
 mind restored to its true balance by leaving all work and 
 going where solitude and nature, or a change of scene and 
 society, can break the rigid associations of habit. God has 
 made the world so wide in order that we may find rest in a 
 change of scene. I do not know any more blessed influ- 
 ence for one harassed by the anxieties of business or the 
 turmoil of difficult duties than the immense peace of nature. 
 Mr. Emerson represents a man going out of a meeting of 
 excited reformers, and the stars looking down on him and 
 saying "Why so hot, my little man?" A month spent 
 among the great mountains of Colorado and the vast 
 
NO TEMPTATIONS BUT WHAT ARE NATURAL. II5 
 
 regions of Arizona would be likely to quiet the nerves of 
 most of us. Sometimes disease is sent, as a blessed help, 
 to take us out of our insane activity. But the best remedy 
 for all such anxieties is to believe in the providence of 
 God ; to believe that we and all other human beings are 
 in the hands of one who knows how to guide the world. 
 
 For this purpose Jesus, in rebuking anxiety, calls our 
 attention to the lilies of the field and to the fowls of the 
 air. If we believe that God takes care of us, of society, of 
 man, of the nation, of the church, of orthodoxy, as much 
 as he does of dandelions and bluebirds, we should not be 
 frightened as we are about them. Panic terrors are pecu-C" 
 liar to cities and crowds. State Street and Wall Street are 
 in a panic when Berkshire county and the Illinois prairies 
 are quite calm. You remember the story of Mungo Park 
 and the little flower in Africa. Some one says, " When I 
 believe in truth as I believe in nature, I shall not be 
 anxious about heresies and heretics, and not be afraid that 
 skeptics and deists shall overthrow religion. I do not 
 run to the window in the morning to see whether anybody 
 has carried away the mountain opposite, or run away with 
 the river." 
 
 The temptations of Jesus were all of this higher order. 
 He was only tempted by the devil, not by the world or by 
 the flesh. His temptation was to use his wonderful powers 
 so as to convince mankind by an irresistible persuasion of 
 his mission. The devil tempted him to work miracles, to 
 make bread out of stones, to throw himself from the Temple 
 — and the devil reinforced his argument by ample quota- 
 tions from the Bible. He asked him to make a little com- 
 promise with truth for the sake of doing a vast good ; for 
 the sake of a great right to commit a little wrong ; to wor- 
 ship the devil for one little moment in order to bring to 
 God the kingdoms of the whole world. Jesus surmounted 
 
Il6 NO TEMPTATIONS BUT WHAT ARE NATURAL. 
 
 these most subtle and difficult temptations, and so had 
 nothing else to fear. In each case he threw himself on 
 God. " God will feed me," he said ; " I must trust in him 
 and wait his time. I must worship him alone, the Infinite 
 Truth." 
 
 These trials are necessary for us. They are the common 
 lot. But there is always a way of escape if we will look 
 for it. Sometimes it is found in solitude, sometimes in 
 society, sometimes in prayer, sometimes in action. Some- 
 times friendship will help us ; sometimes the best thing we 
 can do is to tell our troubles to another, and sometimes 
 the only help is in telling them to God. The higher the 
 temptation, the higher the help. To live in the spirit of 
 trust and submission, of hope and faith and love — this is 
 the surest aid. If we live in the spirit, we shall walk in 
 the spirit. There has no temptation come to any of us 
 but what is common to man j no temptation which is above 
 our strength ; no -temptation from which there is not an 
 escape. All come to try us, and do us good ; to humble 
 and prove us, and let us see what is in our heart ; to show 
 us our dangers and our weakness. When we have learned 
 these, then we may pray, " Lead us not into temptation," 
 and we shall need it no longer, and God will command the 
 devil to leave us and angels to come and minister to us. 
 
XII. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF FEAR AND THE SPIRIT OF POWER. 
 
 " God hath not given us the spirit of fear ; but of power, 
 and of love, and of a sound mind." 
 
 "We may have boldness in the day of judgment; BECAUSE 
 
 AS HE IS IN THIS WORLD, SO ARE WE. THERE IS NO FEAR IN 
 LOVE; BUT PERFECT LOVE CASTETH OUT FEAR, BECAUSE FEAR 
 HATH TORMENT. HE THAT FEARETH IS NOT MADE PERFECT IN 
 LOVE." 
 
 "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to 
 fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption where- 
 BY we cry Abba, Father." 
 
 " Peace i leave with you, my peace i give unto you. Let not 
 your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.'^ 
 
 I HAVE brought together several passages in order to 
 show that the spirit of the gospel is not a spirit of fear, 
 that Christianity is not a religion of fear, and that Jesus 
 comes to deliver us from all fear. I will endeavor to show 
 how this is, and how we can experience this deliverance 
 from fear. 
 
 But there are some objections to be first considered. 
 
 If life is full of danger and evil, ought we not to be 
 afraid ? it may be asked. Is it right not to be afraid ? God 
 has placed us between two worlds — the world of life and 
 good, the world of death and evil, to choose between them. 
 Ought we not to fear lest we should fail, through our own 
 folly and sin, of choosing and adhering to the right ? Do 
 we not see thousands going carelessly and recklessly on in 
 
 ("7> 
 
Il8 THE SPIRIT OF FEAR AND 
 
 the way which leads downward, and do they not need to 
 fear ? ought they not to be afraid ? And if the Bible con- 
 tains passages which teach us not to fear, does it not con- 
 tain other passages which teach that we ought to fear ? 
 Does not Jesus tell us " not to fear those who can kill the 
 body, and after that have no more that they can do, but to 
 fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell ? " 
 St Paul says, " Work out your own salvation with fear and 
 trembling." The Apostle Peter says, "Pass the time of 
 your sojourning here in fear." And everywhere in the New 
 Testament and Old we are taught that " the fear of the 
 Lord is the beginning of wisdom." How are these facts 
 and statements to be reconciled with the assertion that it 
 is the duty of Christians not to fear ? 
 
 First, we may say that a distinction can be taken be- 
 tween fear as a subordinate motive and fear as a ruling 
 motive of human action. As a motive subordinated to 
 other motives, fear is always useful. As the sole or prin- 
 cipal motive of action, it is always evil. Fear acting alone 
 paralyzes, and makes one incapable of exertion. Fear as 
 the ruling motive of conduct is degrading, because it is es- 
 sentially selfish. But fear, when controlled by reason, 
 when subordinate to hope, when joined with courage, be- 
 comes caution, watchfulness, modesty. It causes us to sus- 
 pect and distrust ourselves till we have reason to trust in 
 ourselves ; makes us look around, look forward, measure 
 the difficulty to be overcome, see the full amount of risk 
 to be encountered, and so, at last, when danger arrives, it 
 appears as presence of mind and self-possession equal to 
 the occasion. This is our first explanation of the difficulty 
 suggested. The Christian fears, but is never governed by 
 his fears He fears, but also hopes. He has not a spirit 
 of fear but a spirit of hope and power. 
 
 But, again, how much we need to fear and ought to fear 
 
THE SPIRIT OF POWER, I -1 9 
 
 depends upon the progress of our inward life and Christian 
 experience. He who feareth is not made perfect in love. 
 But until he is made perfect in love he must necessarily 
 fear. The work of Christ is to deliver us from all exces- 
 sive fear, and to leave in its place calmness and sober 
 watchfulness and a profound peace. But this work is not 
 done suddenly; is a progressive work. Step by step, 
 through manifold experiences, we enter this region of 
 Christian peace, calmness and joy. Through manifold 
 temptation and trial it behooves us to enter God's kingdom. 
 And how this is let us now consider. 
 
 First, consider fear of sin and of its consequences. 
 
 The main purpose of Christianity is to save us from sin, 
 and thereby to save us from its consequences, which are 
 moral and spiritual death. And it saves us, not by inspir- 
 ing fear, but by inspiring faith and courage. It assures us 
 that " sin shall not have dominion " over us, because we 
 are " not under the law, but under grace," and because the 
 strength of sin is the law. What does this mean ? 
 
 The law of God shows us what our duty is, but gives us 
 no power to do it. The purer and higher the standard, the 
 less ability we feel to reach it. Therefore the Christian 
 law of love which says, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
 with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself," is the most 
 discouraging law of all. It tells us to do that which we are 
 quite sure we cannot do. The Christian law Of account- 
 ability, which teaches that we are expected to improve 
 every talent that we possess, and that if we merely stay 
 where we are without improvement we are wicked and sloth- 
 ful servants, is another most discouraging announcement. 
 The Christian law of truth and purity, which tells us that 
 we are to give an account of every idle word, and that a 
 sinful wish has in it the guilt of a sinful action, is again 
 discouraging. And, finally, the law which demands per- 
 
120 THE SPIRIT OF FEAR AND 
 
 fection, which says, " Be perfect as your Father in Heaven 
 is perfect ; " which says if we offend in one point we are 
 guilty of all ; which requires, not partial, but entire service 
 — prayer without ceasing, thanks for everything, all of life 
 saturated with holiness, this is eminently discouraging. 
 Yet all this the gospel does demand. All this Christ re- 
 quires. He who has any self-knowledge knows himself to 
 be unequal to this demand. The law, therefore, by re- 
 quiring so much, takes away his courage, and he does not 
 attempt anything. Thus it is that the law ordained for life 
 becomes death ; meant to make us better, it makes us 
 worse ; and the higher and better it is, the more discourage- 
 ment it produces, and the more, therefore, it palsies and 
 destroys our moral life. 
 
 Read Paul's epistles, and you will find this is precisely 
 what he is describing when he is speaking of the defects of 
 the law and how the law works death. Then look into 
 your own heart, and you will find the truth of his state- 
 ments reflected, as in a mirror, by your own experience. 
 "The law," he says, "worketh wrath. For where no law 
 is, there is no transgression." That is to say, "It is 
 not till we have transgressed some known law that we have 
 a sense of guilt, or a feeling of the divine displeasure." 
 "Without the law," he says again, "sin was dead. But 
 when the commandment came sin revived and I died." 
 Before we see the claims of duty and demands of God, we 
 have faith in ourselves, confidence in our power and cour- 
 age to undertake almost anything ; but every new revela- 
 tion of the divine law shows us new deficiencies in our 
 character, reveals our own tendencies to evil, our weakness 
 to good, and so discourages us. And discouragement is 
 moral death. 
 
 " Courage gone, all gone, 
 Better never have been born." 
 
THE SPIRIT OF POWER. 121 
 
 Is not this borne out by the experience of us all ? Trans- 
 late Paul's thought into modern language. Instead of the 
 law say moral teaching, and ask whether by itself and 
 alone it is not wholly discouraging. When we have our 
 duties pointed out, the first effect is to rouse the conscience 
 and make us take good resolutions. We resolve to do bet- 
 ter. We resolve to begin a new life, to correct such and 
 such faults, to take such and such steps forward. Perhaps 
 we really do better — at least for a time. If our purpose is 
 merely a partial improvement, a correction of some par- 
 ticular faults, we may succeed in effecting it, under the in- 
 fluence of moral instruction. But if we aim at anything 
 deep, radical, thorough, we inevitably fall. For a command, 
 a law, does not give life or power. And the more often 
 that we fail, the more we are discouraged, until, at last, it 
 seems idle and hopeless to take any new resolutions. And 
 when we reach this point, moral instruction has produced 
 moral death. 
 
 The most melancholy instance perhaps of the evil influ- 
 ence of this paganized theology is in the case of the poet 
 Cowper. Gifted by nature with exquisite tenderness of 
 soul, with susceptibility to all that is true and beautiful in 
 the outer and the inner world, made to be a loving child of 
 God, his life was darkened, his high faculties palsied, and 
 his reason at last overthrown by the influence of a pagan- 
 ized Christianity. The sun and the light and the moon and 
 the stars were darkened ; the silver cord was loosed, and 
 the golden bowl broken. Standing by Cowper's grave, 
 thinking of Cowper's experience, another poet, as deeply 
 religious as he, but blessed with a more generous faith, 
 has sung the saddest song over this blighted spirit : 
 
 " O, poets ! from a maniac's tongue 
 "Was heard the deathly singing. 
 
 O, Christians ! to your cross of hope 
 A hopeless hand was clinging. 
 
122 THE SPIRIT OF FEAR AND 
 
 O, men ! a man in brotherhood, 
 
 Your kindred paths beguiling, 
 Groaned inly, while he gave you light 
 
 And died while you were smiling." 
 
 Not so evil as this, but still very evil, is that Judaizing 
 Christianity which substitutes law for love, and gives us a 
 judge instead of a father. Instead of one dark gloom, we 
 have in this case a continued anxiety ; instead of one great 
 fear, continued self-distrust. We are not yet sons, but 
 only hired servants. We work laboriously, and have no 
 deep inward peace ; no profound satisfaction, but instead 
 of assured faith, we doubt our right to any of the Christian 
 promises. We cannot say " We know in whom we have 
 believed," not " We know we have passed from death to 
 life," but " We hope that we may be improving a little ; " 
 not " Nothing can separate us from the love of God," but 
 we hope to be accepted by him hereafter ; not a present, 
 certain salvation, but a future, probable salvation. 
 
 What we need is the spirit of adoption, whereby we may 
 cry, " Abba, Father ! " Then there will be no more fear, 
 neither fear of man nor fear of God, nor fear of sin, nor 
 fear of death, nor fear of what follows death. When we 
 are God's children, living in our Father's House, recon- 
 ciled to him, at peace with him, with his love shed abroad 
 in our hearts, then all fear is taken away. Then our work 
 is easy, our way is onward ; every day adds something to 
 our real life, every year witnesses some real improvement, 
 for the life we now live we live by faith in the Son of God. 
 We live, yet not we, but Christ who lives in us. And when 
 we are in him, and he in us, then we are always near to 
 God ; his peace always with us, his grace sufficient for us 
 everywhere. He is the vine, we the branches, and the life 
 of the vine causes the branches to grow year by year 
 more luxuriantly. And, when the winter of trial and 
 
THE SPIRIT OF POWER. 123 
 
 adversity strips them of their leaves, they shall renew in 
 the spring an abounding foliage, to be a beauty and a 
 shelter. And when the autumn of life comes they shall 
 bear fruit in large purple clusters for the comfort and joy 
 of all who need, to make glad the hearts of little children, 
 to moisten the parched lips of the dying, to assuage the 
 burning thirst of fever, and give delight to all. 
 
 But in order to be freed from fear, it is not enough to 
 be told not to fear. In the midst of a battle tell the 
 coward not to be afraid ; in the midst of a thunder-storm 
 tell the person who shrinks from the vivid flash and the 
 astounding peal that he need not fear. What good will it 
 do ? The source of fear is within, and that must be 
 removed. So preach, as much as we may, the mercy of 
 God, preach that he is a father, and that no one need fear, — 
 I tell you that men will still fear, will fear death, will fear 
 hell, will be afraid of God as long as unreconciled, unre- 
 pented sin is in their hearts. They may think there is no 
 punishment hereafter, but that will only cover up and hide 
 the fear, — it will not remove it. To cure our souls of 
 fear, to fill them with hope and trust, there is but one way, 
 and that is to look our sins in the face, to look God's law 
 in the face, to see the eternal connection between right and 
 good, death and evil; and then, when we have had an 
 experience of duty, of responsibility, of sin, of danger, we 
 are ready to enter into the deeper experience of pardon, of 
 hope, of entire, present joyous salvation. 
 
 But just as everything passes through natural death to a 
 new life, so it is in the progress of the soul. When most 
 discouraged, we are then most ready to receive a new kind 
 of encouragement. This the gospel gives. The gospel is 
 an assurance to us, from God through Christ, that we are 
 to conquer sin and be redeemed wholly from its power. It 
 is a promise - that what we cannot do in our own strength, 
 
124 THE SPIRIT OF FEAR AND 
 
 we can do through faith in Christ ; a promise of a continual 
 influx of new life from God while we look for it and ask for 
 it ; a strength sufficient for us, a peace passing understand- 
 ing, a love shed abroad in our hearts, a light from him in 
 which we shall see light. Now, this assurance, if we be- 
 lieve it, renews all our courage, and more than renews it. 
 It prevents the possibility of future discouragement. For 
 the sense of our weakness, which discouraged us before, 
 does not discourage us now. We are relying on something 
 else — a different strength, another energy. In this way 
 we surmount the fear of sin and its consequences. We 
 have a profound inward assurance that we shall conquer it, 
 and be fully saved from its power. And so the law no 
 longer discourages. 
 
 A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and 
 fell among thieves, who stripped him of his raiment, and 
 wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. This 
 man is the human soul on its journey through human life 
 and the experiences of earth. The thieves are temptations 
 from without and within, which strip the soul of its heaven- 
 given raiment of innocence, wound the moral nature, and 
 leave the human being, despoiled of peace and hope, per- 
 ishing in the wilderness of the world. Then there comes a 
 priest — a preacher of the moral law — and says, "Arise 
 and flee, or thou wilt perish on the sand ; or, if not, the 
 robbers will return and slay thee. Thou must exert thyself 
 and go to the city ; it is many miles distant, but thou must 
 reach it, or die." And having said this, the priest departs. 
 The man rouses himself, goes a little way, but, weak 
 through his wounds, drops on the ground more discouraged 
 than before. Then comes the Levite, who represents the 
 ceremonial law, and tells him that the holy church, by 
 its sacraments and its ministers, its holy creed, its holy 
 books and its holy days, will endeavor to obtain from God 
 
THE SPIRIT OF POWER. 125 
 
 his cure, and so passes by on the other side. Then comes 
 the gospel, as the good Samaritan, on its journey of grace 
 and peace through the world. It has compassion on the 
 soul because it is weak and sinful, It pours the oil of 
 God's forgiving love into the wounds of the conscience ; 
 the wine of inspiring truth and an infinite hope into the 
 mind. It sets him on its own beast, and brings him to the 
 inn, and takes care of him, and makes a provision for his 
 permanent relief and cure. The soul, made alive by Chris- 
 tian faith, feels that it has not to struggle unaided in the 
 work of duty. It feels the kind friend always near, the 
 supporting arms always ready, the provision for future need 
 all made ; and so, inspired with new faith and courage, is 
 able to begin a new life. 
 
 Thus delivered from the fear of sin by the power of the 
 gospel, we are also delivered from the fear of God. This 
 statement also requires some consideration. 
 
 There is a fear of God which is always right, and which 
 we shall always need to cherish. It is that spirit of rever- 
 ence for the greatness and holiness of the Divine Being 
 which elevates the character, purifies the soul, and brings 
 us evermore nearer to the Heavenly Father. This is not 
 a spirit of fear, but a spirit of reverence which consists with 
 perfect love. In this sense the word fear is often used in 
 the Bible, as where it is said (Eph. v. 33), " Let the wife 
 see that she fear her husband," which in our version is 
 properly translated reverence, as it should be translated 
 (1 Peter iii. 2) where, the pure and respectful or modest 
 behavior of wives are spoken of. 
 
 Where fear means dread, it is not applied to God. There 
 is an apparent exception to this (Matt. x. 28), " Fear not 
 them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul ; 
 but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and 
 soul in hell." But if this applies to God, then the word 
 
126 THE SPIRIT OF FEAR AND 
 
 fear has to be taken in two senses in the same verse. And, 
 directly after, we are told not to fear, because God protects 
 us. Hence, some interpreters suppose that, as God does 
 not destroy the soul, this must refer to sin, or the principle 
 of evil, which does destroy soul and body in hell. It is the 
 work of the gospel to substitute the spirit of adoption for 
 the spirit of fear in our feeling towards God. 
 
 It is, no doubt, natural for men in a low moral or mental 
 condition to dread higher powers. Pagan religions, there- 
 fore, are religions of fear. All forms of superstition make 
 men tremble before the anger of their gods. They transfer 
 to the character of their gods their own cruel and vindictive 
 feelings, joined to a superhuman power. So their gods are 
 remorseless, delighting in human victims, only appeased by 
 the sight of blood and human suffering. The Jews regard- 
 ed Jehovah in a much higher light — as a holy judge car- 
 rying out his laws, severe, nevertheless, and stern, reward- 
 ing the good, punishing the evil. As among heathen na- 
 tions power is the chief attribute in the deity, so among 
 the Jews justice is the chief attribute. But with the 
 Christian, love is the chief attribute. Heathenism says 
 God is power. Judaism says God is justice. Christianity 
 says God is love. According to these three different views 
 of God is the spirit and influence of each system. Hea- 
 thenism is a religion of fear ; Judaism is the religion of 
 conscience ; Christianity is the religion of grateful affection. 
 Where God is regarded essentially as an almighty ruler, 
 the chief duty of man is implicit, unquestioning obedience. 
 Where God is regarded chiefly as a judge, the principal 
 duty of man is righteous conduct. Where he is regarded 
 as a father, the chief duty of man is childlike trust and 
 love. So that there is a gradual progress in the concep- 
 tion which men have had of the Deity. Beginning with 
 power, they ascend to justice, and terminate in love. And 
 when perfect love is attained, it casts out all fear. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF POWER. 1 27 
 
 All these forms of religion recognize in the Deity the 
 attributes of power, holiness and goodness. But the su- 
 preme and ruling attribute differs in each, as we have seen, 
 by making one or the other attribute supreme. But, even 
 in Christianity, men have relapsed towards Paganism or 
 Judaism in their conceptions of the Deity. It ought to be 
 understood that there may be a Christian Paganism or a 
 Christian Judaism ; that is, there may be views of God taken 
 by Christians which make the attribute of power or 
 justice superior to the attribute of love. The essential 
 doctrines of Calvinism may thus be considered as a 
 relapse into Paganism. Calvinism is a backslidden theol- 
 ogy. It makes the highest attribute in the Deity to be 
 neither wisdom, justice nor goodness, but arbitrary power. 
 According to Calvanism, the reason to be assigned for the 
 Divine conduct in the last analysis is simply that he chooses 
 to do so. Philosophical Calvinism places an omnipotent 
 wilfulness on the throne of the universe. It does not say 
 God's will is holy, just and good, and therefore we are 
 bound to obey it, but it says it is the will of an omnipotent 
 being, who will cast you into hell if you do not obey. For 
 where the chief attribute of God is arbitrary power, the 
 chief duty of man is a blind obedience. Thus Calvinism 
 rehabilitates Paganism under the forms of Christianity. It 
 takes away the spirit of adoption whereby we cry " Abba, 
 Father," and gives us -the spirit of bondage again to fear. 
 
 In like manner as there is a Christian Paganism there is 
 a Christian Judaism ; that is, a system which makes jus- 
 tice the chief among the attributes of God. God is sim- 
 ply infinite law, rewarding the good and punishing the evil 
 in this world and in every other; incapable of mercy in any 
 true sense ; unable really to forgive sin ; incapable of any 
 real answer to prayer, of any personal intercourse with the 
 human soul. God, in this system, is no more a father, but 
 
128 THE SPIRIT OF FEAR, ETC. 
 
 a holy destiny, a righteous fate, an absolute judge. This 
 system is often taught and received, sometimes as Uni- 
 tarianism, sometimes as Rationalism, sometimes as Phre- 
 nology. But it may always be recognized, under whatever 
 name, by this, that it makes justice the highest attribute 
 in God, and obedience to Divine laws the chief duty of 
 man. 
 
 These two systems of belief will in general produce their 
 appropriate results. A backsliding theology will produce 
 a backslidden character in those who hold it. A Paganized 
 theology produces a spirit of fear, of anxiety, a servile 
 piety. It palsies the best life of the soul, makes the man 
 afraid to seek for truth, fills him with superstitious ter- 
 rors, and changes a religion of joy and progress into one 
 of gloom and austerity. Christianity ceases to be attrac- 
 tive; a shadow falls over the world, life is dark, and death 
 awful. Piety, instead of being childlike love, becomes 
 servile fear ; for just as perfect love casts out fear, so will 
 perfect fear cast out love. 
 
XIII. 
 
 "UNCERTAIN SOUNDS." 
 
 **If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall pre- 
 pare HIMSELF FOR BATTLE ? " 
 
 THERE are many sounds in Nature which are uncer- 
 tain and yet pleasing. The murmur of the winds 
 among the leaves of the forests ; the soft, regular lapse of the 
 waves on the sandy shore ; the roar of Niagara, confused with 
 the cry of blended and intertangled voices, as though every 
 particle of water in falling uttered its own wail of grief, or 
 shout of exultation or scream of fear ; the hum of insects 
 on a summer's day ; all such sounds are uncertain. Yet 
 all awaken in us some feeling, convey some sentiment. 
 The murmuring voices of Nature seem to express longing 
 and aspiration ; they sound almost like prayer and praise. 
 No wonder that the Bible should animate Nature with a 
 soul ; summoning the sea to praise God ; making the hills 
 clap their hands ; the storms to move as God's messengers, 
 shouting their triumphant strains of tempestuous applause ; 
 and calling the thunder the voice of God. These sounds 
 of Nature are so plaintive, seem so like the inarticulate 
 voice of a child longing to express itself, that the Apostle 
 Paul seems to say thit Nature groans and sighs and wails 
 to be emancipated from some burden of grief. As your 
 dog looks at you with wistful eyes, as though he longed to 
 
 commune with you and could not, so the whole creation 
 
 9 (129) 
 
130 
 
 looks up to God with its aspect of longing, and utters all 
 its inarticulate murmuring voices of gratitude. Bettina 
 Brentano, in one of her letters, says : " When I stand in the 
 night alone with open Nature, it seems a spirit, praying me 
 to give it redemption. Often I have had the feeling that 
 Nature was begging me for something tearfully, and it 
 grieved my soul not to be able to understand what she was 
 asking." 
 
 The poets sometimes regard these uncertain sounds as 
 the voice of God : — 
 
 " What if all of animated Nature 
 Be but organic harps diversely framed, 
 That tremble into thought, as o'er them sweeps 
 Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze, 
 At once the soul of each, and God of all." 
 
 And, sometimes, reversing this Pantheistic tendency, they 
 make Nature a living thing, crying to God from the moun- 
 tain tops and ocean depths, as Coleridge, in the vale of 
 Chamouni, calls on the majestic Alps to be a dread am- 
 bassador from earth to heaven ; and tells the silent sky, 
 the stars, and the sun, tfiat " Earth with her thousand 
 voices praises God." 
 
 These voices of nature, therefore, though uncertain, are 
 often full ot expression. But of man's voice we require 
 more. We ask that it shall be distinct and clear ; that it 
 shall convey meaning, that it shall not darken counsel with 
 vague utterance. God has given to man the Word, the 
 marvellous gift of articulate speech. This is one of his dis^ 
 ti notions from the lower orders. Their speech is inarticu- 
 late. Their parts of speech are all confined to interjections. 
 They say, O ! and Ah ! but they have no words. The proof 
 of this (as I have before said) is, that if birds, for example, 
 had a verbal language, we could learn it, in time, just as 
 
"UNCERTAIN SOUNDS. 131 
 
 we can learn the Chinese or Hottentot language. God has 
 given verbal language to men, and they should no longer 
 use uncertain sounds. 
 
 To speak plainly, distinctly, with precision, is one of the 
 first accomplishments to be studied, and one of the last to 
 be fully attained. Education begins and ends in telling us 
 how to express ourselves. For the word, in ancient lan- 
 guages, means not only utterance, but also the reason which 
 lies behind utterance. Where the Bible says, " The Word 
 was with God, and was God," it means that every revela- 
 tion of God is God himself, coming to man. Revelation is 
 not something which God said a long time ago, which is 
 put in a book ; but it is God speaking to us now, through 
 the Bible, through Christ, through history, through life, and 
 experience ; through every inspiration of love and hope and 
 trust and sorrow. So every true speech of man, is man 
 himself. My friend gives himself to me in his speech. If 
 his speech is obscure, perplexed, uncertain, vague, then he 
 is not in it. But a fulness of thought and life makes lan- 
 guage very clear. That is why we like simple, direct, 
 straightforward talk. It is sincere, it is moral. Vagueness 
 often comes from a double mind, which does not know 
 exactly what it thinks, and so does not know what to say. 
 It has no inward truth ; so has no outward truth. Vague- 
 ness is of the devil ; for the term devil is, perhaps, derived 
 from a word which means to divide or make double ; and 
 is opposed to singleness and sincerity. 
 
 To learn to be intelligible, therefore, is one of the most 
 essential elements in moral as well as intellectual culture. 
 "Let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay," says Jesus; 
 "for whatsoever is more than this cometh of evil." Uncer- 
 tain sounds, inexact expressions, extravagant utterances, 
 come of evil. They mean that the speaker cares more for 
 effect than for truth. They mean that he is speaking in 
 
132 
 
 order to produce an impression on his hearers, not to con- 
 vey his own conviction ; that he is trying to please, to per- 
 suade, to make them like him, and admire him. 
 
 Young people, especially, get into a habit of using ex- 
 travagant expressions, which do not, after all, produce as 
 much effect as a more restrained and exact statement. If 
 I should tell you that I saw a million men on the Common, 
 yesterday, it would not impress you so much as if I 
 said that there must have been, at least, ten thousand. 
 Professional story-tellers get a habit of exaggeration ; 
 their stories run so into the marvellous that at last 
 they do not astonish us at all, for we do not believe them 
 at all. 
 
 Perhaps the most uncertain sounds of all are the words 
 of a politician. Politics, the government of a State, the 
 laws which affect a nation, ought to be the most elevating 
 of pursuits. But it is like religion or art or poetry. They 
 ennoble those who give themselves to them with sincerity 
 and love ; but make a trade of them, and they degrade to 
 the utmost. Make a trade of religion, and you become a 
 hypocrite. Make a trade of art and you become a charla- 
 tan. So make a trade of politics, and you have a man who 
 goes about, with a smile on his face, agreeing to what every 
 one says, and, when he says anything himself, putting it in 
 such a cloud of words that the thought, if any were ever 
 there, is effectually concealed. One of the remarkable ex- 
 ploits of Abraham Lincoln was that he expressed himself 
 so as to be understood. His healthy Saxon English dis- 
 pelled the miasma of falsehood which hung over Washing- 
 ton. " And one of Plutarch's men talked with you, face to 
 face." 
 
 In great conflicts, when principles are at stake, uncertain 
 sounds are the refuge of timidity. There are always a great 
 many people who like to be neutral, who cannot make up 
 
133 
 
 their minds ; who think there is a good deal of truth on 
 both sides ; who affect a position of peculiar liberality and 
 largeness, by agreeing with every one, and especially with 
 the one who speaks last. They sometimes call this moder- 
 ation, and sometimes they call it charity. It is neither one 
 nor the other ; it is cowardice and indifference. Modera- 
 tion sees both sides of a question ; hears candidly all that 
 can be said ; and then makes up its mind definitely, one 
 way or the other. Or, if it cannot make up its mind, then 
 it says so ; but it claims no credit for this. 
 
 Charity does not mean indifference to truth and error. A 
 man is not charitable who is indifferent ; he can only be 
 charitable to the Other side when he has a side of his own. 
 If I do not care about the question at issue, I cannot be 
 charitable to my opponent, because, I have no opponent. 
 But when a man is in earnest, when he believes strongly 
 his own opinion, when he is ready to labor for it and make 
 sacrifices for it, then only he can be truly charitable ; then 
 it requires some effort, and shows some Christian spirit, to 
 be able to enter into the mind of an opponent, make al- 
 lowances for his errors, and admit his truth ; and, while 
 continuing to oppose his doctrine, to be willing to love and 
 help the man. 
 
 In the great religious questions which divide the world, 
 there is an essentiaftruth on one side or the other. * One 
 is essentially right, and the other wrong. We ought, if we 
 can, to see which is .right, and say so. We ought not to be 
 neutral. We ought to select our flag, and to stand by it. 
 It is not necessary to be sectarian because we like one 
 side better than the other. It is not necessary to be 
 bigoted because we have a distinct and fixed opinion. 
 Make up your mind, and then stand ready to be convinced 
 if you are wrong. Take your stand, and if you see reason, 
 alter it ; but take some stand somewhere. For, says Lord 
 
134 
 
 Bacon, " In this great theatre of life it is permitted to God 
 and the angels to be spectators, but all men must be actors.'' 
 
 People defend their indifference by saying, " Truth is 
 mighty and will prevail." Yes, it is mighty ; it will pre- 
 vail. But when it prevails, how soon it shall prevail, de- 
 pends on men. If men allow themselves to be indifferent 
 to the truth ; if they do not care much, one way or the 
 other, for this or that opinion ; if they will not inquire ; — 
 then no doubt truth will prevail, but it will be after error 
 has reigned for centuries, and has finally fallen, not by their 
 means, but by its own inward tendency to decay and to 
 corruption. 
 
 A clear, distinct meaning is so important in a speaker 
 that it is, of itself, almost enough. An audience will listen 
 very willingly to a man who makes himself perfectly plain, 
 even if he does nothing else. He need not be rhetorical, 
 he need use no figures of speech, no captivating oratorical 
 arts ; he need not be original, or profound. Let him only 
 be clear — that, of itself, is satisfactory. 
 
 Some great thinkers have made clearness the evidence of 
 truth. Anything which can be made perfectly plain must 
 be true, say they. This can hardly be, for we know that 
 error may be made as clear and as intelligible as truth. If I 
 say, " Five times five are thirty," I am intelligible, but I do 
 not tell the truth. If I say, " There is no God," I am in- 
 telligible enough. Opposite and contradictory propositions 
 may each be perfectly intelligible. It is just as intelligible 
 a proposition to say, " Death is the end of man ; he does 
 not live after death," as to say, " Man is immortal, and can 
 never cease to be." Nevertheless, intelligibility is one 
 test of truth. A man who knows anything can generally 
 make it evident. Knowledge, certainty, these fill our 
 words with light. 
 
 In religion, especially, we want no uncertain sounds. 
 
"uncertain sounds. 135 
 
 What all men need, what all men long for, is certainty. We 
 need to know ; not merely to speculate, not merely to think, 
 to hope, to wish, to fancy ; we need to know. 
 
 But how hard it is to be certain of anything in these 
 days of doubt, dispute and perpetual questioning. For- 
 merly, men were satisfied to believe whatever was told 
 them. They accepted all the doctrines of the Church 
 without investigation. They rested in a contented and 
 childlike faith. But now, this is no longer possible. 
 We are all compelled to think, and to hear the results 
 of other men's thinking. Everywhere is doubt, uncer 
 tainty or unbelief. Geology throws doubt on the Old 
 Testament ; textual criticism on the New. Able men de- 
 liver courses of lectures to prove that we can only know 
 the phenomena of the senses ; never anything real behind 
 Nature. Other men take the New Testament to pieces, 
 first leaving out all the miracles of Jesus, next denying the 
 authenticity of the Gospel of John and the Epistles of Paul, 
 and finally declaring that Christ himself was not greater 
 than Socrates ; and conclude by saying that we can know 
 nothing certain of God, duty or immortality, and that re- 
 ligion consists in admitting that we know nothing. 
 
 But, if so, life becomes infinitely poor, mean and wretch- 
 ed. Man becomes lower than the beasts, for they have no 
 wish to know, are not made to know ; but man is mocked 
 with a perpetual aspiration and expectation, always aspir- 
 ing to what he can never reach, always expecting what 
 never comes. If these doctrines are true, then " Let us 
 eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." 
 
 Now the difference between Christianity and speculation 
 is simply this — that speculation, by its very nature, gives 
 an uncertain sound ; but Christianity gives certainty. 
 Speculation gives us thoughts about God, Christianity 
 gives us the knowledge of God. 
 
136 
 
 I once read a lecture by an able writer, in which Christ 
 and Socrates were compared, rather to the disadvantage of 
 the former. Socrates was considered to be, on the whole, 
 rather the stronger and more manly person of the two. 
 But, if so, why did he not do more ? Socrates produced a 
 school in philosophy ; Christ made a religion for mankind. 
 One gave thought, the other life. Socrates and Plato and 
 all Ge^k literature might have perished in the great deso- 
 lation and fall of the Roman Empire had not Christ come 
 to establish a religion which has saved all the best results of 
 ancient civilization, and, among the rest, the teachings of 
 Socrates. The life of Socrates is known to a few scholars, 
 the life of Jesus is known to millions. The words of 
 Jesus bring strength, comfort, purity, peace ; not to stu- 
 dents, only, but to the ignorant, the lowly, the fallen, the 
 desolate. 
 
 Why this immense difference in the work of the two 
 teachers ? Because the words of the one give an uncer- 
 tain sound, those of the other a certain sound. One 
 teaches us how to speculate, to conjecture, and to think 
 about the realities of eternity ; the other lets us look into 
 the realities themselves, face to face. Striking opinions, 
 noble speculations came by Socrates, but truth itself came 
 by Jesus Christ. One was a great thinker about truth, the 
 other a revelation of truth itself. Therefore, while the one 
 is known only in the closets of scholars, the other marches 
 at the head of the civilization of the world. It is because 
 Jesus speaks of what he knows, and testifies to what he 
 has seen ; while Socrates declares what seems to him to 
 be, on the whole, probable. 
 
 Jesus Christ was the Word made flesh. He was distinct 
 utterance. He spoke of all things as one speaks who 
 knows, and does not merely think, believe, or speculate. 
 
"UNCERTAIN SOUNDS. 137 
 
 That is why the words of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, are for 
 scholars and thinkers, but the words of Jesus Christ for the 
 universal heart of humanity. 
 
 Jesus Christ, in his teachings, gives no uncertain sound 
 about God. To him God is as real and as near as man. 
 He knows God just as he knows himself. He and his Fa- 
 ther are one. 
 
 Jesus sees God in nature. Nature is not law alone, dead 
 law j nor force alone, blind force ; but it is a divine revela- 
 tion. When Jesus saw the sun's beneficent radiance pouring 
 over plain and forest and hillside, he saw how it cheered and 
 warmed all hearts with its impartial ray ; and when he saw 
 the rain pouring from the sky, he saw it penetrating into 
 the fields of the good and bad alike ; and so sun and rain 
 spoke to him of a Father who loved both the just and the 
 unjust. He spoke of the Father who sees in secret, and 
 will reveal openly ; of the Father who reveals his truth to 
 babes ; of the Father whose spirit speaks from the lips of 
 all sincere men. To him God was such perfect tenderness, 
 such boundless Providence, that no little bird would die in 
 its nest but that God was with it ; no lily bloom by the side 
 of a stream but that God dressed it in its raiment of purple 
 and gold. No human being is an orphan, for God is the 
 good Father who sees him when he is a great way off, and, 
 as soon as he begins to return, falls on the neck of his 
 child and kisses him. He is a God who does not need to 
 be appeased with long prayers, or Sabbath-keeping, or 
 ceremonies, but who asks us to worship him by helping our 
 neighbor and loving him as ourselves. He is a God above 
 all, through all, and in all, never far away from any of us. 
 He hides himself behind his works that we may be left 
 free, for he loves to have us free to unfold our natures 
 naturally. He is no despot, watching to punish ; but his 
 smile gives life to us when our hearts grow cold. We may 
 
I38 "UNCERTAIN 
 
 easily forget him, but his memory is better than ours, he 
 never will forget us. 
 
 So Jesus inspires faith in God, speaking out of his own 
 experience. As he speaks, God seems to come near. We 
 know our Father, and there is no doubt, no uncertainty as 
 to his being or character. 
 
 In the same way Jesus teaches us duty. His law of right 
 is not a system of ethics, but it is all summed up in love. 
 He who loves God and loves man fulfils the law. No one 
 can go wrong permanently and always who loves God and 
 loves man j for his love will lead to right. Therefore, he 
 tells of those who, in the day of judgment, will be found 
 to be Christians without knowing it themselves, because 
 they fed the hungry and clothed the naked. He teaches 
 that it is not how much we do, but how we do it which is 
 of consequence ; that goodness is in quality, not in quan- 
 tity. 
 
 So Christ gives no uncertain sound as regards future 
 life. 
 
 Death, Jesus says, is simply nothing. Only as we be- 
 lieve it something is it so to us. " He who believeth in 
 me does not die." Faith carries us through death and we 
 know nothing of it ; we leave this world alive and we enter 
 the other alive. So Jesus is the Life and Resurrection both; 
 the Life because he inspires us with faith in all living truth, 
 and thus fills the soul with life ; and he is the Resurrec- 
 tion because the power which raises us up in this world 
 and the next, which carries us above death and above the 
 grave, above all power of change and loss, is the same per- 
 fect trust in God and his love. 
 
 The resurrection of Jesus produced an immense convic- 
 tion, not merely because it destroyed the fear of death, but 
 because it showed that all life was moving up and on, and 
 that God was on the side of all truth and goodness. What 
 
"UNCERTAIN SOUNDS. 1 39 
 
 seemed to fail was really succeeding ; what seemed to die 
 was only entering into further life ; what seemed to go away 
 was really coming nearer than before. 
 
 So clear, so full, so decided are the teachings of Christ. 
 There is no doubt or hesitation when he speaks. But there 
 is no dogmatism. When men could not understand him, 
 Jesus preferred not to teach them. He wanted no blind 
 submission, but an intelligent assent. He wished for no 
 more belief in truth than they were able to put into life. 
 His truth was to be appropriated by life, not by specu- 
 lation. 
 
 It is the nature of Faith to communicate itself to those 
 whose minds are open. It is seeing ourselves which 
 helps others to see. It is impossible to counterfeit this. 
 Hypocrisy, Enthusiasm, Dogmatism, Routine all try to 
 counterfeit the clear utterance of faith; but they never 
 succeed. 
 
 A tone of genuine conviction cannot be imitated ; the 
 conviction must be there to give the tone. 
 
 Here is the real power of Christ and Christianity, a 
 power which can never grow old, never die. The power of 
 Christianity is not in the miracles which Jesus worked on 
 outward nature. It is not in any mysterious, terrible or 
 supernatural doctrines ; these may awaken wonder, and 
 move the imagination ; but they do not convince the reason 
 or touch the heart. The power — the undying power — of 
 Christianity is that it is everywhere a new revelation of the 
 eternal truth and love of God \ that it continually makes 
 souls alive ; that it continually renews itself in renewed 
 souls. Therefore it can never grow old, any more than 
 birth, marriage, death, love, can grow old. These have 
 been in the world since the beginning, but they always 
 come as new as at first. And Christianity, appealing ever 
 to new hearts, reforming manners, curing sinners, saving 
 
140 " UNCERTAIN 
 
 the lost, kindling the soul with faith, hope and love, is the 
 one certain sound in the world, never vague, never confused. 
 Theology is uncertain j speculation is uncertain ; creeds 
 are uncertain ; but Christianity is the same yesterday, to- 
 day, and for ever. 
 
XIV. 
 
 ETHNIC AND CHRISTIAN VIEWS OF DIVINE INFLU- 
 ENCE. 
 
 " By one Spirit, we are all baptized into one body." 
 
 SO much of our knowledge comes through the senses, it 
 is not wonderful that many persons believe that all our 
 knowledge comes through the senses. So large a part of 
 our time is occupied with this outward world of sights and 
 sounds, no wonder many think that this is all we have to 
 do with. Nature, the outward universe, appeals to us 
 through a thousand channels, calls on us by a thousand 
 voices. Nature, glowing with beauty, overflowing with life, 
 with enormous forces acting under grand laws, with its 
 sublime mysteries and magnificent revelations, is not this 
 the all? What is spirit, what is soul, but a higher develop- 
 ment of matter ? What do we know of either, except what 
 we see through forms of material organization ? 
 
 This is modern materialism, which does not deny spirit 
 but maintains that all we know of it is what comes to us 
 from without, through forms of matter. It is not wonder- 
 ful that there should be materialists, since the world of mat- 
 ter presses on us all so perpetually ; acts on us so irresisti- 
 bly ; demands so much of our time, thought, and love ; 
 conveys to us so much of our knowledge j bathes us in its 
 beauty ; excites us by its activities ; enlarges the horizon 
 of our thoughts ; and leads us on through the finite to the 
 
 infinite, from things seen and temporal to things not seen 
 
 (14O 
 
142 ETHNIC AND CHRISTIAN VIEWS 
 
 and eternal. That we can only ascend to God, Spirit, the 
 Infinite and the Eternal, through forms of matter, by the 
 law of evolution, is no unnatural opinion, and seems even 
 hinted at by Milton's angel, who tells Adam that all things 
 are created by God out of " one first matter." 
 
 " Endued with various forms, various degrees 
 Of substance ; and, in things that live, of life. 
 But more refined, more spirituous and pure, 
 As nearer to Him placed, and nearer tending, 
 Each in their several active spheres assigned, 
 Till body up to spirit work. 
 
 So, from the root, 
 
 Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves 
 More airy ; last, the bright consummate flower 
 Spirits odorous breathes ; "flowers and their fruit, 
 Man's nourishment, by gradual scale sublimed, 
 To vital spirits aspire, to animal, 
 To intellectual — give both life and sense, 
 Fancy and understanding — whence the soul 
 Reason perceives, and Reason is her being." 
 
 This seems to have been an anticipation by Milton of 
 the doctrine of evolution, now so popular, by which all 
 things, beginning in what we call matter, proceed upward 
 by a continuous process into what we call spirit. 
 
 It is not curious, then, that multitudes of men should 
 have been materalists ; for matter impresses itself con- 
 stantly and necessarily on all. But the really curious fact 
 is that the great majority of mankind should have always 
 been Spiritualists ; believing in spirit more than in matter 
 — in the infinite more than the finite; believing not in 
 evolution, but emanation ; accepting as the origin of the 
 universe a dropping downward out of the, infinite, into the 
 finite, or a creation of the world by the Gods. The majority 
 of mankind in all time, and among all races and all reli- 
 gions, have believed in direct inspirations from some higher 
 
OF DIVINE INFLUENCE. I43 
 
 world ; light descending from above into the human soul, 
 creating law-givers, discoverers, prophets, teachers, oracles. 
 That man can commune inwardly and directly with the un- 
 seen Gods, and be inspired by them, may be said to have 
 been the almost universal faith of the human race, taught 
 by the religions of India, Persia, China, Egypt, Greece, 
 Rome, Scandinavia ; by Zoroaster and Mohammed ; and by 
 all the savage tribes of Asia, Africa, America and the isl- 
 ands of the Pacific. 
 
 Christianity, then, promulgated no new doctrine in de- 
 claring that men might be inspired by the spirit of God so 
 as to acquire insight, strength and love from within the 
 depths of the soul. That had been universally believed 
 before. But Christianity, in its doctrine of the Holy Spirit, 
 differed from all other religions as to the nature and con- 
 ditions of this inspiration. 
 
 I. Christianity differs from all other religions, in main- 
 taining the universality of this influence. Other religions, so 
 far as I know, have limited inspiration, either to a few se- 
 lect souls, as prophets and saints ; or, secondly, to some 
 select class, as priests ; or, thirdly, to those who sought it 
 by seclusion, by meditation, by solitary prayer, by self-de- 
 nial, going apart into caves and cells to macerate the body 
 by starvation and asceticism. 
 
 The Jews, Greeks, and Romans believed in prophets 
 raised up and specially sent as seers and reformers. The 
 Egyptians and Brahmins believed in an inspired priesthood, 
 or caste, especially holy. The Buddhists, the New Platon- 
 ists, and others, believed in attaining communion with God 
 by intense meditation, shutting out the world, and forget- 
 ting the very existence of body. 
 
 But on the day of Pentecost, in the first words which 
 Peter said, he declared that the prophecy of Joel was ful- 
 filled — " It shall come to pass, in the last days, saith the 
 
144 ETHNIC AND CHRISTIAN VIEWS 
 
 Lord, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your 
 sons and daughters shall prophesy." Accordingly, through 
 the Book of Acts, and in all the Epistles, we find that 
 wherever the gospel was preached, all were told that they 
 were to receive the Holy Spirit. " By one spirit," says 
 Paul, " we have all been baptized into one body, whether 
 we be Greeks or Jews, slaves or freemen ; and we have all 
 drank of the same spirit." All Christians were regarded 
 as receiving this spiritual influence. When Peter went to 
 Cesarea to visit the Centurion, Cornelius, and told Corne- 
 lius and his friends about Christ and the pardoning love of 
 God, there came a powerful spiritual impression on all in 
 the room. They seemed to be Romans, but they were all 
 deeply moved ; and so Peter baptized them with water, be- 
 cause, as he said, they had already been baptized by the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 It is nowhere stated in the New Testament that only the 
 apostles and preachers were inspired. All Christians were 
 inspired ; but their inspiration showed itself in different 
 ways. It inspired some of them with knowledge, helping 
 them to a clear sight of truth. It inspired some of them 
 with wisdom, helping them to see what was the best thing 
 to be done in any emergency. It inspired some of them 
 with faith, enabling them to feel the presence and love of 
 God amid bereavement, loneliness, bitter disappointment 
 and sharp trial. It inspired some of them to be good phy- 
 sicians, tender and careful nurses of the sick. If they saw 
 a man or a woman who had a gift of healing, they said, 
 " She is inspired by the Holy Ghost to heal disease, as the 
 Apostle Paul is inspired to preach." When we see such a 
 noble and wonderful woman as the dear friend who has 
 lately left us ; * so tender, so wise, so firm, so skilful, so 
 
 ♦Dr. Susan Dimock, lost in the Schiller. 
 
OF DIVINE INFLUENCE. 145 
 
 modest, so strong, we trace it back to something in her 
 organization or education. The disciples of Jesus would 
 have said, " Susan Dimock is inspired by the Holy Ghost 
 with a gift of healing," and I think their explanation would 
 probably be as correct as ours. Do you not suppose that 
 the Lord put into that young heart some deep spiritual 
 strength and wisdom ? It seems to me quite rational to 
 think so. 
 
 Gifts were special, but the inspiration was universal ; one 
 and the same for all, from the lowest to the highest. God 
 was in every heart in this happy community of brothers 
 and sisters. 
 
 But, after a while, the Ethnic idea of inspiration was im- 
 ported into Christianity, and then people thought they 
 would make themselves saints by living in caves and eat- 
 ing roots, by living on the tops of columns or by becoming 
 martyrs. Then it was supposed that God selected some 
 Christians to be saints, and inspired them, and made them 
 a sort of aristocracy in the Church. But, at first, all were 
 saints, and no one was called so. There are no such titles 
 in the New Testament as St. Matthew and Mark, St. Peter 
 and St. Paul; all that has been put in since. Paul and 
 Peter were no more saints than the humblest member in 
 the church, and they seem to me to be degraded by such 
 titles. The only titles in the early church were brother and 
 sister. 
 
 This, therefore, is one of the characters of the true 
 Christian doctrine of divine influence, that God's influence 
 comes to all of us whenever we wish for it. This is what 
 Jesus says : " If a hungry child asks his father and mother 
 for bread, will they give him a stone ? No ! Do you think, 
 then, that if any of you ask God for power to do right and 
 be right, he will not give it to you ? So certain it is that 
 God will give his holy spirit to them who ask him." 
 
 10 
 
I46 ETHNIC AND CHRISTIAN VIEWS 
 
 2. According to the New Testament, the divine influence 
 is not only universal, but it is continuous, constant, an ever- 
 flowing stream, descending into every open soul. It is not 
 only for all men, but it is at all times. 
 
 The Ethnic view of divine influence makes it arbitrary, 
 occasional, intermittent ; sometimes coming, then going 
 away. This Ethnic view has also been imported into 
 Christianity. 
 
 The whole modern system of revivals rests on the notion 
 that God is specially present at certain times and places ; 
 that he comes to London or Boston with some revival 
 preacher ; that he is nearer to us at some times than at 
 others. Father Taylor told me that he once went into a 
 church in Boston where a revival was going on, and heard 
 the minister say, " The Lord is in Boston now ; Jesus is 
 here to-night ; he may go away to-morrow ; beware lest 
 you lose this opportunity." Father Taylor, who never 
 feared the face of mortal man, rose in his place and said, 
 " Brethren, that is not my Jesus ; my Jesus is always here. 
 He does not come or go. Do not believe that he can ever 
 leave you or forsake you." 
 
 Undoubtedly there are seasons when the human heart is 
 more tender, more susceptible, more open to divine influ- 
 ence, than at other times. So in this opening season of 
 the year, the seeds and buds are more susceptible to the 
 influence of the sun. The buds are swelling by millions 
 on the trees ; every day they become a little larger ; 
 presently they open into delicate, soft leaflets ; then they 
 hang out their pretty forms more and more unfolded. Some 
 immense force is pushing them from within, and attracting 
 them from without. The small plants in the sick girl's 
 window in some narrow city lane feels the same influence ; 
 the weeds and grasses over ten thousand miles of latitude 
 feel the influence. Every twenty-four hours swells this 
 
OF DIVINE INFLUENCE. 147 
 
 tide of vegetable life which flows in upon us like the 
 ocean. m 
 
 Thus, too, there are doubtless Spring seasons in the 
 human soul, when we are more susceptible to divine influ- 
 ence than at other times. God is not necessarily nearer 
 than at other times, but our hearts are turned more towards 
 him. The sun is no nearer to the earth now than it was 
 in winter ; indeed, it is really further off ; but the earth 
 has turned up towards it, so that in these northern latitudes 
 we receive his rays more directly. So, on the day of 
 Pentecost, the souls of the disciples, saddened by the loss 
 of their mighty friend, and comforted by communion with 
 him after his resurrection, were so turned up towards God 
 as to be able to receive more fully that divine influence. 
 In this way God sends seasons of refreshment and revival, 
 and makes one age more full of divine life than another. 
 But it is a relapse into Paganism to suppose that God 
 gives his influence at one time and withholds it at another 
 according to any arbitrary rule, or that he ever really goes 
 away from us. This is the view which the prophet Elijah 
 ridiculed, when the priests of Baal cried and shouted to 
 their God from morning to evening, saying, "O ! Baal, hear 
 us ! " " Cry aloud," said Elijah ; " perhaps he has gone on 
 a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened." 
 But Jesus says, " I and my Father will come and make our 
 abode with him." 
 
 3. A third peculiarity of the Christian v'ew of divine 
 influence is, that it considers inspiration as natural, rational 
 and practical. 
 
 It is rational. It does not come to confuse the mind, 
 but to give it more insight, deeper knowledge. Part of 
 our knowledge comes to us from the outward world by 
 observation ; but another part, and often the best part, 
 comes fb us from within, by intuition. 
 
I48 ETHNIC AND CHRISTIAN VIEWS 
 
 We learn facts and events from without, but the highest 
 idea come to us from within. The intuitions of substance, 
 cause, law, justice, co-ordinate and arrange into symmetry 
 and meaning the fast-flying events of the external world. 
 The reason is fed from God inwardly with these ideas, and 
 they are its. life. 
 
 I know good people who intellectually doubt the immor- 
 tality of the soul, and an immedicable grief comes over 
 them at the death of friends. But though they have no 
 belief in immortality, they have an instinct of immortality 
 which God gives them without their knowing it. For they 
 work generously, earnestly for good purposes, buoyed up 
 by an instinctive hope. Were it not for this, they would 
 lose the spring of life. Unconsciously to themselves, they 
 are strengthened inwardly by the spirit of God. 
 
 The Ethnic idea of inspiration is of an ecstasy, which 
 overpowers the reason, and makes the inspired persons 
 utter predictions the meaning of which they, themselves, do 
 not understand. They are thrown into a trance, rapt into 
 a frenzy ; the mind is confused by the paroxysm of the in- 
 coming God. Something of this confusion appeared also 
 at first in Christianity, in what is called " the gift of 
 tongues ; " but it was condemned by Paul, who, with his 
 usual consummate good sense, said, " I had rather speak 
 five words with my understanding, than ten thousand words 
 in an unknown tongue." " I will pray with the spirit, 
 and I will pray with the understanding also ; I will sing 
 with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also ; * 
 for " the spirits of the prophets are subject to the proph- 
 ets." It is said of Jesus, and of him alone, that "the 
 spirit was given to him without measure," and in all that is 
 told of him we find no moment of blind ecstasy, no irra- 
 tional enthusiasm, no vague raptures, no mystical sentimen- 
 talism, but such a luminous simplicity of statement that his 
 
OF DIVINE INFLUENCE. 1 49 
 
 words are easily understood by common people. Calm, 
 clear reason and good sense are the marks of Christian in- 
 spiration. 
 
 The divine influence, according to Christianity, is not 
 only rational, but also practical. We have seen that one 
 of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the gift of " healing." We 
 also read of the " gifts " of " helping" of "governing" of 
 " discerning of spirits." One man who believes in inspira 
 tion, and looks up for it, will be filled with a divine power 
 of helping those in difficulty, of showing them what they 
 ought to do, of lending a hand to a weak brother or sister. 
 Another man will, in answer to his inward prayer, be gifted 
 with executive ability to direct and guide and govern. We 
 know how some persons can govern without seeming to 
 govern. Some are born leaders, but some are also i?ispired 
 leaders. They are enabled by a power not their own to 
 guide, repress, restrain, uplift, and bring together many 
 hearts, till they beat as one. This is also a gift of the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 And others are made discerners of spirits. The eye is 
 made clear and penetrating to discern shams. The hypo- 
 crite and deceiver is unmasked in their presence. So Jesus 
 " knew what was in man, and needed not that any should 
 testify of him." He saw clearly the weakness of Peter, 
 and foretold his fall, but also saw that he would again be 
 strong enough to strengthen his brethren. He saw into 
 the dark mind of Judas ; into the poor, unhappy soul of 
 the woman of Samaria ; into the hesitations of Nicodemus, 
 into the differences of character in Martha and Mary. 
 This " discerning of spirits," or knowledge of character, 
 often comes from a deep religious experience. It is not 
 merely a natural power, but also a gift of the Holy Spirit. 
 I have known some very simple-minded people, who had 
 been strengthened with all might inwardly by the power of 
 
 ™ 
 
I50 ETHNIC AND CHRISTIAN VIEWS 
 
 God, who were able to read characters as easily as though 
 they were open books, by a divine sagacity " sharper then 
 any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asun- 
 der of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow ; " a 
 sagacity which was " a discerner of the thoughts and intents 
 of the heart," and of that sort that there is not " any crea- 
 ture not manifest in its sight." 
 
 These various powers of the soul are all as much quick- 
 ened and fed and vitalized by the Holy Spirit as that of 
 the prophet, who speaks with the tongue of men and angels, 
 or the rapt devotee, who wears the stones with his knees 
 in constant prayer. It is one spirit by which all God's 
 servants are baptized into that one body, the invisible 
 church of good men and women. 
 
 Although this influence is supernatural, it is also natural. 
 Our inward life, fed from a higher world, is unfolded into 
 outward activity here, according to natural law. In all 
 these operations of the Holy Spirit there is nothing unnat- 
 ural, abnormal, or out of harmony with universal law. The 
 divine life, flowing down through human souls into the 
 world, must be, and is in harmony with the same divine 
 life flowing down into the world through external nature. 
 Consequently, wherever God sends a fuller tide of religious 
 inspiration into any period,it is followed by a greater growth 
 of art, science, knowledge and civilization. All the great 
 civilizations of the world — those of India, China, Persia, 
 Egypt, Greece, those of Buddhism, Christendom, and Is- 
 lam — have been preceded by a period of special religious 
 inspiration. The prophet and seer prepare the way for 
 the lawgiver, discoverer, man of science and man of art. 
 And when the tide of inspiration recedes, the growth 
 of civilization is usually arrested. 
 
 What we ought to believe therefore, is, that God is always 
 inwardly near to us, in the depths of our soul, and always 
 
OF DIVINE INFLUENCE. 151 
 
 ready to strengthen us, and lighten our darkness, when we 
 turn inward to him. But it is a mistake to speak of any 
 irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit. God respects our 
 freedom, and, if we choose to resist these tender attractions 
 and illuminations, they are never forced upon us. We 
 can, if we choose, resist the spirit, and quench the spirit, 
 and, to use still another wonderful phrase of the apostle, 
 we can grieve the spirit. So, under the same calamity, one 
 man will harden his heart, and refuse to be comforted, and 
 remain bitter and rebellious ; while another will let him- 
 self be led by the spirit into the sweetest submission and 
 peace. This also is what Jesus meant when he repeatedly 
 said to those who heard his words, but persisted in misun- 
 derstanding them, " They have shut their eyes and stopt 
 their ears, and hardened their hearts, so that I cannot con- 
 vert them, nor heal them." 
 
 We lock ourselves, by our own prejudices, into a cham- 
 ber of the soul so dark that the light of truth cannot enter 
 it. Sometimes men refuse to be divinely influenced, be- 
 cause they have made up their minds that all such influ- 
 ence is absurd and impossible. Light has come into the 
 world, and they choose darkness rather than light — not 
 always because their deeds are evil, but sometimes from 
 the mere wilfulness of a system to which they have become 
 slaves. 
 
 Let us,dear friends, be children of the light and of the day. 
 Let us be willing to be led by the spirit of God, and to be- 
 come sons of God. Let us not harden ourselves against 
 the voice within, whether it comes to give us better insight 
 into truth, or to show us how acceptably to work ; whether 
 it open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, our hands to act, 
 our lips to speak, or our hearts to love. 
 
XV. 
 
 TRANSITION PERIODS. 
 " When people are neither one thing nor the other." 
 
 MY subject to-day is Transition Periods. And I will 
 first read the little parable of Jesus about the chil- 
 dren in the market-place, which we have given to us in 
 Matthew xi. and Luke vii. In the latter place it stands 
 thus : 
 
 " Whereunto, then, shall I liken the children of this gen- 
 eration? and to what are they like? They are like unto 
 children sitting in the market-place, and calling one to 
 another, and saying: We have piped unto you, and ye 
 have not danced ; we have mourned unto you, and you 
 have not wept. For John the Baptist came neither eating 
 bread, nor drinking wine ; and ye say, He hatha devil. The 
 Son of Man is come eating and drinking ; and ye say : 
 Behold, a gluttonous man and a wine bibber, a friend of 
 publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of all her 
 children." 
 
 This little picture of children's plays, which Jesus gives 
 us, is an illustration of the illogical objections made 
 against the truth, and shows us many things. 
 
 It shows us how uniform are the tendencies of human 
 
 nature in all ages and times. Jesus, passing through the 
 
 market of Nazareth, or Cana, saw the children playing 
 
 their games, just as children play them now. The little 
 
 O52) 
 
TRANSITION PERIODS. 1 53 
 
 Syrian boys and girls belonging to the great Semitic race, 
 living eighteen hundred years ago, amid Asiatic customs 
 and scenery, were just such little children as you and I saw 
 playing on the Common yesterday. They played games, 
 imitating the customs of grown people ; just as little chil- 
 dren now play soldier, play horse and driver, so they then 
 played weddings, and funerals. Jewish weddings and fu- 
 nerals were conducted with much ceremony, with proces- 
 sions and pomp, and so caught the eyes of the children 
 who stood watching the nuptial cortege, or solemn burial 
 march. As soon as it went by, they began to say to each 
 other, "Come, let us play wedding," and then they pretend- 
 ed to make the music to which the others were to dance ; 
 or, " Let us play funeral," and then they went gravely 
 through all the customs of mourning. But little children 
 were sometimes cross in those days, as they are now, and 
 so refused to play either one or the other, and their com- 
 panions could not please them, do what they would. This 
 little trait of childlike nature, breaking out of the solemn 
 distant past, out of another civilization, race, continent, age, 
 affects us like a song heard in youth, like the fragrance of 
 a flower that grew in the garden where we roamed in infancy. 
 Once I was walking along the ruined passage of an old 
 Norman castle,, and while thinking of the fierce race that 
 manned those walls six hundred years before, I came sud- 
 denly upon a child's plaything, lying on the gray stone. 
 Goethe has a lovely poem, in which he represents a traveller 
 who visits the ruins of a Greek temple, and finds a moth- 
 er and infant sitting thereon. Her hut was made of the 
 carved fragments of the architrave or frieze, and while the 
 stranger was admiring the elaborate stones, broken col 
 umns, and fragments of art, the mother was talking a moth- 
 er's foolish, loving talk to her sleeping boy. So this little 
 allusion to the children of the day of Jesus, and their plays 
 
154 TRANSITION PERIODS. 
 
 and quarrels (coming in the midst of that greatest event of 
 time), shows us how the life of nature renews itself ever- 
 more amid all the changes of human history. 
 
 Again. How this incident shows the habit of Christ of 
 taking illustrations from common things — from every-day 
 life ! If a minister, to-day, should illustrate a religious 
 truth by a boy's game at foot-ball, it would be thought sin- 
 gular, if not undignified. But Christ saw nothing undig- 
 nified in human nature, or human life. In his teachings 
 there is nothing conventional, nothing formal. . No fact in 
 God's world is to him common or unclean. 
 
 This whole incident also shows how much easier it is for 
 good men, though differing in ideas, tastes and methods, to 
 agree in a mutual respect and sympathy, than for self- 
 willed men to form any permanent union. No two were 
 more unlike tnan Jesus and John ; but they had a common 
 aim. It was to do God's will j to make the world better. 
 So they had a mutual respect for each other. John was an 
 ascetic ; he neither ate nor drank, like other men; he prac- 
 tised total abstinence j he lived in the wilderness an austere 
 prophet, denouncing war against tyrants and all evil doers. 
 Jesus came eating and drinking like other men ; not going 
 into a desert, but going to weddings, to the suppers of rich 
 men or poor, to the houses of his friends or those of stran 
 gers. He preached the gospel, not the law ; he preached 
 faith, hope, love, courage. He set forth God as a Father, 
 not as a judge. So he seemed to be very different from 
 John. If he increased, John must decrease. Their work 
 was not alike ; their spirit was very different ; their mis- 
 sions did not harmonize. But yet, because their deepest 
 aim was the same, John honored Jesus, and Jesus honored 
 John. John had the nobleness to recognize a superior 
 greatness in Jesus, though he did not understand it. There 
 was a real union between them. John said of Jesus, " Be- 
 
TRANSITION PERIODS. 155 
 
 hold the Lamb of God ! I am not worthy to untie his shoe- 
 strings. He must increase, I must decrease." Jesus said 
 of John, " Of all men born of women " — that is, prophets 
 by nature, in the order of natural genius and endowment — 
 " there is none greater than John." 
 
 John was the last of the prophets of that great race who 
 kept alive the spirit and power of Judaism amid the for- 
 malism of the Ritualists and Dogmatists. He. was the trans- 
 ition from the law to the gospel, the culminating point and 
 also the vanishing point of the Old Covenant. An obscure 
 text makes Jesus say that, " from the days of John the 
 baptist, until now, the kingdom of Heaven suffereth vio- 
 lence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets 
 and the law prophesied until John." 
 
 This passage probably means that John made the turn- 
 ing-point from the law to the gospel. For law works by 
 force j the gospel by love. The law drives ; the gospel at- 
 tracts. The principle of the Old Testament was command; 
 authority resting on the sanctions of reward and punish- 
 ment. The motive of the gospel is the love of God taking 
 the initiative — blessing us, that we, in return, may bless 
 one another. 
 
 Now there are three great periods in religion : 
 
 i. The period of law ; in which the motive is hope and 
 fear — hope of reward and fear of punishment. 
 
 2. The period of the gospel ; in which the motive is 
 simply the love of what is good without regard to personal 
 results. 
 
 3. The transition period, which is that of John the Bap- 
 tist ; when there is the sight of the gospel, and yet the ter- 
 ror of the law behind it ; in which men, though they love 
 God a little, are still afraid of him. 
 
 This transition period is indicated by Jesus in that phrase 
 which was probably not understood by the disciples, and 
 
I56 TRANSITION PERIODS. 
 
 therefore imperfectly reported : " The kingdom of Heaven 
 suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." 
 
 Such a transition period has continued in the Church 
 down to our time. Perhaps the majority of Christians are 
 now living, not under the dominion of law, nor yet in the 
 kingdom of heaven, but in the dispensation of John the 
 Baptist. Both orthodox Christians and liberal Christians 
 find it hard to escape wholly from law. They believe in 
 the Heavenly Father ; yes, certainly they do ! They be- 
 lieve in his mercy, in his forgiving love. But still they think 
 that they are not good enough to come to God with perfect 
 freedom and entire trust. They think they must somehow 
 fit themselves to be Christians. They are a little doubtful 
 whether they are good enough to go to heaven, or good 
 enough to meet their friends in heaven. 
 
 The orthodox show their allegiance to John the baptist 
 by their doctrines of the wrath of God, of eternal damna- 
 tion, of a judgment which is to separate all men into two 
 classes, of saints and sinners. This makes death to them 
 an awful thing, and adds a gloom to life, and an uncer- 
 tainty in regard to their own fate and that of those dear to 
 them. 
 
 The Unitarians have none of these fears, but they have 
 those of another kind. They think they have to earn their 
 salvation by good works, and as our best goodness never 
 amounts to much, they have no great confidence that they 
 shall ever deserve it by any merit of theirs. They believe 
 firmly in a law of moral retribution, applying to this life as 
 to every other. They believe In being saved by doing their 
 duty, and as their consciences are somewhat sensitive, they 
 are by no means sure of their salvation. Thus, neither 
 Orthodox nor Unitarians are living wholly either under the 
 gospel or under the law, but under a dispensation half way 
 between the two. 
 
TRANSITION PERIODS. 157 
 
 But half-way convictions are not very satisfactory, and 
 the remedy for this evil is to put both the law and the. gos- 
 pel in their right place. We cannot dispense with either, 
 but we wish to distinguish between their sphere and their 
 work. 
 
 Jesus did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil it in 
 love. No doubt as a man sows so shall he reap. There 
 is a strict and infallible retribution here and hereafter for 
 all our conduct. As we do right we go up ; as we do wrong 
 we go down. This is true in this world and in all worlds. 
 
 Therefore, as regards our outward position, our outward 
 privileges, our outward situation in the universe, we shall 
 have what we have earned and have fitted ourselves for, 
 and we are saved by works. We go up or go down accord- 
 ing to moral laws as certain as the law of gravity in their 
 operation. 
 
 But as regards our inward state, our inward relation to 
 God and to man, we are saved by the gospel and by faith 
 in the gospel. 
 
 Those who live under the gospel and believe in Christ, 
 cease to be at all anxious about their position in the uni- 
 verse. Wherever they shall be it is all right and good. 
 They will be inwardly happy anywhere, for they will be al- 
 ways in communion with God. They will have their heav- 
 enly Father and his love in all worlds. So they can say, 
 with David, " If I ascend into heaven, thou art there ; if I 
 make my bed in hell, thou art there, also." If they are to 
 have nothing outwardly, they shall possess all things in- 
 wardly. If they have to suffer hereafter, they know that it 
 will not be from the anger of God, but from his love ; be- 
 cause they need to suffer, and because suffering is the best 
 thing for them. But of one thing they are sure, that noth- 
 ing shall separate them from the love of God — neither af- 
 fliction, nor distress, nor angels, nor devils, nor heaven, nor 
 hell, nor things present, nor things to come. 
 
I58 TRANSITION PERIODS. 
 
 This puts an end to the time of John the Baptist, and to 
 the Transition Period. It puts the law in its right place 
 and the gospel in its right place. The law applies to ex- 
 ternal conditions of outward attainment, position, character 
 •and desert. The gospel applies to the inward life of the 
 heart and soul, to its deepest convictions, trusts and joys. 
 Our life is hid with Christ in God, and so all is well with 
 us while we trust in him. Our outward destiny depends on 
 ourselves, and that results from our own fidelity to duty, to 
 truth and to law. 
 
 The gospel gives us inward unity of faith and purpose. 
 It gives us unity with ourselves, and till we have that unity 
 we can be satisfied neither with ourselves nor with others. 
 How difficult to please those who are not at one with them- 
 selves ! 
 
 If a man is not at unity with himself by being at one with 
 God, nothing suits him. He is like the children in the 
 parable. Their companions said to them, " Come, let us 
 play a wedding ! " No, they did not wish to play that. 
 " Then let us play a funeral ! " No, they did not wish to 
 play that, either. For, until we have some inward union, 
 there can be no real union with others. 
 
 So, when John came, an austere, stern man, teaching ret- 
 ribution, rousing the whole moral nature, stirring the con- 
 science to its depths, people said : " He is a fanatic ! He 
 is mad ! He is crazy f He has a devil ! How singular to 
 live in a desert ! How improper, to preach out of doors 1 
 It is bad for the health to sleep on the ground. He is re- 
 sponsible for the lives of the people whom he has carried 
 out there. Religion is a rational thing. I don't believe 
 in such enthusiasm. We ought to be moderate in all things. 
 Religion is not sent in order to frighten people, it is to make 
 them happy. I believe that religion was never designed 
 to make our pleasure less. This John the Baptist is a mere 
 demagogue." 
 
TRANSITION PERIODS. 1 59 
 
 Then Jesus comes. He is not a fanatic. He allows his 
 disciples to walk on the Sabbath, and to pluck corn when 
 they are hungry. He heals a sick man on the Sabbath 
 day. He enjoins no strict ceremonies, no hours of prayer, 
 no fasts, no washings. He goes to a wedding, and makes*- 
 wine j he visits rich and poor ; he lays all stress on the 
 spirit, the motive, and very little stress on forms of any 
 kind. He will certainly please those who objected to John, 
 you think. Not at all. They say of him • " He is self-in- 
 dulgent, a wine-bibber, not dignified enough ; he is too lax 
 altogether. What! Did you hear of his telling them to 
 forgive a woman caught in an act of sin ? Why, he talks 
 with improper people 1 What is the world coming to, I ask ? 
 All the landmarks are breaking down between the respect- 
 able classes and the lower classes. Do you call such a man 
 as that a religious teacher? I call him a mere man of the 
 world. He preached a political speech, the other day, 
 against the Pharisees, who are the most respectable people 
 we have among us. He must be a bad man, and he ought 
 to be punished severely." 
 
 The difficulty was this : they did not like the austerity 
 of John, because they were not ready to repent of their 
 sins and begin a life of holiness. They did not like the 
 gospel gentleness of Jesus, because they feared that if the 
 terrors of the law were taken away, there would be nothing 
 left. They believed in the law, but did not like it. They 
 liked the gospel, but did not believe in it. 
 
 There are just such people nowadays. They do not 
 like Orthodoxy because it is too severe in its demands ; 
 but still they believe in it. They like liberal Christianity, 
 but they do not believe in it. They believe in terror and 
 punishment as the only motives which can influence men ; 
 but they do not like them. They like the Sermon on the 
 Mount, and the Good Samaritan, and the Prodigal Son, 
 
l6o TRANSITION PERIODS. 
 
 but do not believe in them. They think something stronger 
 necessary. 
 
 The difficulty, you see, is in themselves. There is no 
 unity within, so nothing suits them. If they would earn- 
 estly follow what they believe, obey the law, be good Ortho- 
 dox men ; by that path they would reach the full light of 
 the gospel, and be something better by and by. 
 
 When a man's conscience is pulling one way, and his 
 heart is pulling him another way, nothing pleases him. If 
 you ask him to do his duty, and tell him what he ought to 
 be, his conscience assents, but he does not like it. If, on 
 the other hand, you make excuses for him, and tell him he 
 is all right, then his feelings are soothed, but his con- 
 science remonstrates, because he knows you are wrong in 
 saying so. 
 
 Selfishness is thus always ill at ease, and has no inward 
 unity so long as there is any conscience left. 
 
 Men at discord in themselves can have no lasting unity 
 with each other. They may be united for a time by com- 
 mon interests, but there is always danger of a rupture. 
 
 The union of good men is internal, though there may be 
 outward differences. The union of selfish men may be 
 external, but there are always inward differences. The 
 children of folly may unite for a common purpose, may be 
 allied together as Herod and Pilate were allied against 
 Christ. Pirates may join for plunder ; the children of this 
 world, for power, pleasure and earthly gain. But there is 
 no inward union, and as soon as the outward advantage of 
 the alliance ceases, the partnership is dissolved. But good 
 men, though separated outwardly, are inwardly at one. 
 They belong to one invisible and indivisible church. By 
 and by they shall come together outwardly, and see eye to 
 eye. The inevitable logic of faith and reason shall at last 
 unite them, and then wisdom shall be justified of all her 
 
TRANSITION PERIODS.^ l6l 
 
 children. John the Baptist will understand Christ; Bar- 
 nabas will comprehend Paul ; Fenelon and Martin Luther, 
 Athanasius and Arius, Dr. Channing and Dr. Beecher, will 
 recognize each other's worth, and bless God together for 
 what each has accomplished for the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 So shall wisdom be at last justified of all her children. 
 So shall all good men, sincerely desiring to do right, be 
 found at last to be walking together on the same road 
 towards the best things. He who is faithful in the least 
 will find himself belonging to that family of which Christ 
 is the head, and will have for his brothers and sisters all 
 the great and the good of all climes and of every age. 1 le 
 will find himself in the society of the great intellects, the 
 cherubim with many eyes, and of the great lovers, the 
 seraphim hiding themselves behind their wings from the 
 intense glory of God's throne. Wisdom is not sectarian 
 nor bigoted ; she has a large church, and many children, 
 and is iustified of them all. 
 
 II 
 
XVI. 
 
 THE WORD OF GOD NOT BOUND. 
 "The word of God is not bound." 
 
 LIBERAL Christianity may be denned, not as any be- 
 lief, nor as any system of opinions, but as something 
 going deeper. It is a habit of mind ; a way of considering 
 all opinions as of secondary importance ; all outward state- 
 ments, methods, operations, administrations, as not belong- 
 ing to the essence of religion. Liberal Christianity comes 
 from that spiritual insight which penetrates the shell and 
 finds the kernel ; sees what is the one thing needful, and 
 discovers it to be not the form, but the substance ; not the 
 letter, but the spirit ; not the body, but the soul ; not the 
 outward action, but the inward motive ; not the profession, 
 but the life. 
 
 In this sense, the Apostle Paul was the first Liberal 
 Christian, and the founder of that Liberal Christianity 
 which is not confined to any sect or party, any denomina- 
 tion or church ; but which inspires and animates to-day the 
 best men in all denominations, from the Roman Catholics on 
 the one side to the most radical come-outers on the other 
 side. And the motto and maxim of Liberal Christianity, 
 everywhere, is given in our text, that " The word of God is 
 not bound." The most zealous Roman Catholic is a Lib- 
 eral Christian when, however strongly he believes in the 
 superior value of his own church, he yet does not believe 
 
 (16a) 
 
THE WORD OF GOD NOT BOUND. 1 63 
 
 that the word of God is bound to it, but cheerfully admits 
 that there may be good Christians outside of it. A Trini- 
 tarian is a Liberal Christian who, holding the dogma of the 
 Trinity himself, does not think it the only essential form of 
 words according to which God may be seen and worshipped. 
 A Unitarian is a Liberal Christian only when he believes 
 that a sincere believer in the Trinity can be as much of a 
 liberal and rational Christian as himself. Liberal Chris- 
 tianity does not exclude zeal for one's own church, or one's 
 own belief ; but it fully recognizes that these belong not to 
 the vital and eternal part of religion, but to the temporal 
 and fugitive part. 
 
 If this be so, why, you may ask, do I not call Jesus him- 
 self the founder of Liberal Christianity ? Because, as long 
 as he taught, all Christianity was liberal, and could not be 
 otherwise. The body had not come, the forms had not ar- 
 rived ; as yet dogma did not exist. Christianity was then 
 all life, essence, spirit. It had not begun to run into any 
 ruts of routine. There were no liturgies, no hours of pray- 
 er, no forms of worship, no church meetings. All was spirit 
 and all was life. 
 
 But Liberal Christianity began when the first struggle 
 began between the spirit and the letter, and that was the 
 great battle which emancipated Christianity from Judaism. 
 
 The first great question which came up to be debated 
 was this : " Ought the word of God to be bound to Juda- 
 ism ? Can any one be a Christian without being also a 
 Jew ? " So long as all Christians were Jews, this question 
 did not arise ; but the moment the Gentiles began to be 
 converted to Christianity, it was necessary to consider and 
 decide that point. The Council at Jerusalem (Acts xv.) 
 decided it so far as this, that Gentiles could become Chris- 
 tians, and be in full communion with other Christians, 
 only adopting those few Jewish rules which were laid on 
 
164 THE WORD OF GOD NOT BOUND. 
 
 the " Proselytes of the Gate." In other words, they could 
 become Christians by being about half Jews. It was, in 
 short, a compromise, and, like most compromises, left the 
 main question unsettled, and to be fought over again. 
 
 Paul took higher ground. He went back to first prin- 
 ciple's. He maintained that the only essential fact of 
 Christianity was faith in Christ and love growing out of it ; 
 and so he argued that the word of God was not bound to 
 Judaism. 
 
 The arguments on the other side were, however^ very 
 strong. " Of course," Paul's opponents probably said, " of 
 course Christianity is bound to Judaism. It is a part of 
 Judaism. Jesus was a Jew. All his apostles — Paul in- 
 cluded — are Jews. The very word " Christ" means the 
 Jewish Messiah. How can one believe in the Jewish Mes- 
 siah without being a Jew ? Jesus himself never broke with 
 Judaism. He attended all the feasts, he paid the tax to 
 the Temple; he said, expressly, "I am not come to de- 
 stroy the Law and the Prophets." He said, " The Scribes 
 and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat ; all, therefore, whatsoever 
 they bid you observe, that observe and do." He therefore 
 commands his followers to become Jews. And who is Paul, 
 who forbids it ? He is not one of the twelve. He is not a 
 real apostle, then, for there were only twelve apostles, and 
 they were chosen as witnesses of the resurrection, which 
 Paul was not. Besides, was not the Jewish religion estab- 
 lished by God himself — ritual, sacrifices, and all ? What 
 right have you to do away with any part of it, then ? Juda- 
 ism is the body of which Christianity is the soul, and every 
 soul needs a body. Paul says, "We are saved by faith, 
 without the works of the law." That is just like saying, 
 "Our thirst is satisfied by water, without any cup or vessel 
 to hold it." The cup does not quench our thirst, but it is 
 essential and necessary to hold the water, else we could 
 
the Word of god not bound. 165 
 
 not drink. We need a church, then, sacrifices, priests, 
 ceremonies ; this is the cup which holds the water of life. 
 The Jewish Church, with all its ritual and ceremonies, was 
 founded by God — as Paul himself admits. Why, then, 
 reject it ? If Jesus had founded another, that might be a 
 reason for relinquishing Judaism ; but he did not. Some 
 outward forms are necessary. Jesus did not give us any. 
 God himself gave the Jewish forms. Ought you not, then, 
 to accept these as the body in which your new life may be 
 able to act and move and grow ? 
 
 '•' Besides," they may have added, appealing to expe- 
 diency, " is it not safer to do too much than too little ? 
 It can do no harm to adopt the Jewish customs, and may 
 do good. Paul does not say that Jewish Christians cannot 
 be saved ; but we say none others can be saved. There- 
 fore, if you go with him you are in danger, in our opinion ; 
 if you go with us, you are safe, according to both opinions. 
 Therefore prudence requires you to go with us." 
 
 I have given this argument, as being probably that of 
 those who declared the word of God to be bound to Ju- 
 daism. I have given it, because it is stronger than any 
 ever since used to prove it to be bound to anything else. 
 If the word of God can be shown not to be bound to 
 Judaism, to Jewish ceremonies, the Jewish church, the Jew- 
 ish creed, it certainly cannot be bound to any other church 
 or creed. If Paul had an argument by which he could 
 emancipate Christianity from the Jewish letter, the same 
 argument must hold good against any other sort of literal- 
 ism. 
 
 The powerful weapon which Paul wielded on this great 
 occasion was the doctrine of justification by faith. " We 
 are forgiven our sins," says he, " not because of anything 
 we can do, but by believing what Jesus Christ teaches us 
 of God's love, and trusting in that, and only in that. As 
 
1 66 THE WORD OF GOD NOT BOUND. 
 
 long as you trust in God's love you are safe ; as soon as 
 you begin to trust in anything else you are in danger. It 
 is as dangerous to believe too much as too little. The 
 only safety consists in believing the exact truth. The 
 Jewish law was for the childhood of the race ; not its man- 
 hood. All the law is now fulfilled, and fulfilled in one 
 word, ' Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' To go 
 back to the ' beggarly elements ' of ritual, when we ought 
 to go forward to faith, hope and love, is a sin. It is as 
 though a learned scholar should go back to the study of his 
 alphabet. In Christ Jesus, neither Judaism availeth any- 
 thing, or non-Judaism, but faith which worketh by love." 
 
 In another place Paul shows the largeness of his mind, 
 by comparing the church of Christ to the human body, 
 where a variety of organs co-operate in a common life. 
 So, he argues, there should be variety in the church. Let 
 the Jewish Christians remain Jews, and be Christians too. 
 Let the Gentile Christians remain Gentiles, but be Chris- 
 tians too. Let every race keep its own characteristics, and 
 no one pattern of Christianity attempt to absorb the rest. 
 Let them all be united inwardly by a common life. So the 
 human eye which sees, and the ear which hears, and the 
 hand which handles, are united inwardly by the common 
 life of the body, but are divided and separated outwardly 
 by their different functions. " If the whole body were an 
 eye, where were the hearing ? If the whole body were an 
 ear, where were the smelling ? But now there are many 
 members but one body." 
 
 It is evident, then, that the word of God is not bound to 
 any particular church, or ritual, or sacraments, or ceremo- 
 nies. It was thought, at first, that it was bound to Judaism 
 and that no man could be a Christian unless he were also a 
 Jew. Paul rooted that weed out of Christianity, and won 
 for the whole Ethnic world — Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, 
 
THE WORD OF GOD NOT BOUND. 1 67 
 
 Persians, Hindoos, Germans — the right of becoming 
 Christians at once, just as they were, without first having 
 to become Jews. 
 
 But intolerance is the natural growth of strong soils. 
 Out in the West, when the primeval forest is felled, there 
 comes up in regular order, a whole succession of weeds, 
 which are killed out, one after another, by culture. So it 
 has been in the progress of Christian civilization. This 
 progress has killed off, one after another, a similar series 
 of weeds which came up in the Christian church. The 
 Jewish intolerance was the first weed. Paul weeded the 
 church of that so thoroughly that it never came up again. 
 The next weed was the Church intolerance, which said, 
 " No man can be a Christian who is not a member of the 
 Holy Roman Catholic Church, and partakes of its sacra- 
 ments, and submits to its authority." Martin Luther 
 weeded Christianity of this form of intolerance, and made 
 it possible for man to be a Christian without being a Roman 
 Catholic. But not being as liberal a Christian as Paul, 
 he left another weed growing in its place — the weed of 
 Dogmatic intolerance. The dogmatists said, " The word 
 of God is not bound to the Roman Catholic church ; but 
 it is bound to certain essential doctrines — the Trinity, 
 Total Depravity, the Atonement, Everlasting Punishment." 
 This weed has also been nearly eradicated in our time. It 
 is hard, to-day, to find a man who will tell you that you 
 will be lost because you do not believe the Trinity. 
 
 The principle of Liberal Christianity has pervaded ajl 
 denominations. It has taken the shells and husks and 
 outward coverings from the word of God, and these are 
 now seen to be like those envelopes which God puts 
 around the fruits of the earth, until they are ripe, but which 
 then are taken off, and thrown away. 
 
 Nothing abides, nothing is permanent in Christianity.. 
 
1 68 THE WORD OF GOD NOT BOUND. 
 
 says Paul, but faith, hope, and love. No man was more 
 profoundly convinced than Paul, of the importance of his 
 own belief, but he did not think that even his own belief 
 was to last forever. Paul said of his system of theology, 
 " I know in part, and I prophesy (or teach) in part ; but 
 when that which is perfect is come, then that which is part 
 shall be done away." But though Paul thought that his 
 creed was to be transient, there are those who believe that 
 the Thirty-nine Articles, or the Westminster Assembly's 
 Catechism, are to last forever, and cannot bear to hear of 
 their being altered. Paul said that he saw darkly as in a 
 mirror, that is, only relatively ; but they think they see the 
 absolute truth face to face. 
 
 The word of God is not bound to any church or to any 
 creed ; it goes outside of all churches and all creeds. 
 It does not run on any railroad track of our making, but is 
 like the wind, which blows where it will, circling the round 
 world evermore. The same cool breeze which fans the 
 hot cheeks of the laborers on the plains of Hindostan, 
 sweeps on across the Indian ocean, gathering moisture as 
 it goes, and pours it down in rain on the parched regions 
 of Central Africa. So God sends his prophets and teach- 
 ers of truth to every race, to help them according to their 
 separate needs"; sends some knowledge of himself, some 
 intuitions of duty, some hopes of immortality, to all the 
 children of men. 
 
 The word of God is not bound to the Bible. The Bible 
 which we call the Word of God, is certainly one word of 
 God. But it is the spirit of the Bible, not its letter, which 
 makes of it a holy book. It is holy, and it makes men 
 holy, because it is written by men whose souls were all 
 alive with convictions of right, of trust in Providence, of 
 belief in the triumphant victory of truth and goodness. 
 This is why we value it — not because of its geology, 
 
THE WORD OF GOD NOT BOUND. 1 69 
 
 which may be erroneous, nor its history, which doubtless 
 may contain mistakes. It is not the prophecies of the 
 Bible which are essential — " for whether there be proph- 
 ecies they shall fail." It is not its verbal inspiration 
 which gives to it its supreme importance — " for whether 
 there be tongues, they shall cease." Nor is its vitality even 
 in the doctrinal truth it teaches — "for whether there be 
 knowledge, it shall vanish away." But it is the faith, the 
 hope, the love which are in the Bible which will abide, and 
 will cause the Bible to remain always a permanent bless- 
 ing to mankind. "For now abide Faith, Hope, and 
 Love, these three." 
 
 Nor is the Word of God bound to any belief we may have 
 a*bout the outward history of Jesus — his miraculous birth, 
 his own miracles, or any particular outward facts of his 
 life. The essential thing, even in his resurrection, is not 
 the outward part of it, but the inward part ; not the partic- 
 ular way in which he arose, as that he did go up to a higher 
 life ; that he is now alive, and that death has no dominion 
 over him. Faith in Christ is not believing this or that 
 fact about him, but it is faith in himself, faith in the truth 
 and love, which are incarnate in him, and which were 
 breathed forth in all he said and did and was. Deny his 
 miracles, if you please ; you cannot deny the great miracle 
 of his influence on mankind. Such a vast effect must have 
 its cause. I read, the other day, a statement that the Jew- 
 ish sect called the Essenes taught all the truth which Jesus 
 taught. Why, then, did not the Essenes convert the world ? 
 Why did not they rise on the ruins of the Roman empire ? 
 Why did they not convert the German races, and build up 
 a new civilization, as the faith in Jesus did ? The Lord's 
 prayer goes up to heaven every morning from the lips of tens 
 of thousands of little children, and is chanted every Sunday 
 in the liturgies of nations. You say something very like it 
 
170 THE WORD OF GOD NOT BOUND. 
 
 is to be found in the Talmud. Why, then, when taught in 
 the Talmud, did it remain there unknown and dead, while, 
 coming from the lips of Jesus it lives forever to make in- 
 tercession for us ? The theory is evidently shallow which 
 does not recognize that such a vast current of spiritual life 
 must have had its origin in a proportionately profound 
 spiritual fountain. 
 
 But the Word of God is not bound to the letter of the 
 Gospels, or to the letter of the history of Jesus. Thus 
 Paul declares when he says, " God has made us able 
 ministers of the New Testament ; not of the letter, but of 
 the spirit ; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." 
 If we have faith in the spirit of Jesus, in the divine piety 
 which made him the well-beloved Son, dwelling always in 
 the bosom of the Father ; in the divine charity which made 
 him the friend and the helper of the humblest of God's 
 children ; if we have faith in these as the true life to lead 
 here and as salvation hereafter, then we have the real 
 word of God in our hearts, and believe in the real Christ. 
 
 Jesus, in his account of the Great Judgment, teaches us 
 that those who feed the hungry and clothe the naked and 
 do works of love are really doing it for him, though they 
 may not have ever known him. If we enter into the spirit 
 of Jesus, and act according to that spirit, then we have the 
 true faith in Christ. We may not know him according to 
 the flesh, but we know him according to the spirit, which 
 is better. So much better, that Paul, who had been under- 
 valued as an apostle because he had never known the 
 historic Christ, answered, "If I had known Christ after 
 the flesh " (the historic Christ), "yet now know I him no 
 more." Paul had entered into such sympathy with the 
 soul of Christ, the heart of Christ, that he had passed 
 beyond caring for the details of his outward history. The 
 historic Christ is no doubt of immense value ; every detail 
 
THE WORD OF GOD NOT BOUND. I/I 
 
 of his life touches the heart and informs the mind ; yet 
 the Word of God is not bound to it. He who loves God 
 and man is in communion with the true Christ, though he 
 may never have heard of the four Gospels. 
 
 Finally, the Word of God is not bound to any particular 
 religious experience. Men come to God in all sorts of 
 ways — the important thing is to come to him. Some are 
 converted suddenly ; others grow up, by an insensible 
 process, into the love of God. God has a great many 
 means of making men good. 
 
 The Jews imagined that no one could come to God 
 except by the great Temple worship at Jerusalem. The 
 Samaritans thought that the only way to come to God was 
 by worshipping in the temple on Mount Gerizim. But* 
 Jesus said, " Neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem 
 shall men worship the Father." Some men are brought to 
 God by a conviction of sin and of pardoning love. Some 
 by a sense of duty and a faithful endeavor to do right. 
 Some are made to love God by an experience of joy, and 
 gratitude opens their hearts to him. Some who are hard 
 and cold when God blesses them, are roused by sorrow, 
 by calamity, by trial. God has ten thousand ways of 
 reaching the hearts of his children. But we, who have 
 this treasure in earthen vessels, imagine that no one can 
 drink the waters of salvation except out of some pitcher 
 made just like our own. It must be the great Roman 
 Catholic urn, or the Methodist cup, or the Episcopal vase, 
 or the modern goblet of Rational Christianity. But, if 
 Faith, Hope and Love are dwelling in the heart, what 
 matters it Jiow they come ? 
 
 The Word of God is not bound to any church, any creed, 
 any profession of faith, any sacraments, any book, any 
 form of Christian experience. It overflows all boundaries 
 It enters human hearts and minds in a multitude of ways. 
 
172 THE WORD OF GOD NOT BOUND. 
 
 We hear the sound of it as we hear the wind breathing in 
 soft melody in the tops- of the pine forest, but we cannot 
 tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. So is every one 
 who is born of the spirit. It is not bound to any forms of 
 prayer. He prays well who loves well. One may pray to 
 God in words or without words, if only he has the soul's 
 sincere desire " uttered or unexpressed." The soul's 
 sincere desire is the essence of all prayer. If a man find 
 that formal and regular prayers help him, let him pray that 
 way. If he finds that he comes nearer to God by endeavor- 
 ing to live a pure and honest life, and leaning on God's 
 help to do it, let him pray that way. He who loves truly 
 prays well. Here is a poor woman who is obliged to be 
 away from her children all day, working hard for their 
 support. When she comes home at night she finds that 
 her oldest boy has been sawing the wood and bringing the 
 water, and that the oldest girl has been taking care of the 
 little children all the time she has been gone. That pleases 
 her more than all the affectionate words they could say to 
 her. That is the best proof of their love. If we take care 
 of God's poor, and his sick and his sorrowful children, that 
 will be counted to us, I think, for faith and prayer and 
 conversion and piety. 
 
 " Doing good and being good 
 Are laboring, Lord, with thee ; 
 Charity is gratitude, 
 And piety, best understood, 
 Is sweet humanity." 
 
XVII. 
 
 MANY MANSIONS IN GOD'S HOUSE. 
 
 " In my Fathers house are many mansions ; if it were not 
 so, i would have told you. i go to prepare a place for 
 
 YOU." 
 
 THIS is Easter Sunday, the day consecrated through- 
 out the -Roman Catholic and Protestant churches to 
 the memory of Christ's resurrection. No fact in the life of 
 Christ or the history of man has been celebrated with such 
 perpetual, continual, triumphant joy as this. Easter is a 
 greater festival than Christmas, which celebrates the birth 
 of Jesus ; greater than Whitsunday, which celebrates the 
 birth of the Church. It is the feast of triumph — triumph 
 of life over death, of good over evil, of faith and hope over 
 despair. 
 
 There is no doubt that the Christian Church was built 
 on faith in the resurrection of Jesus. We might almost say 
 that without this faith the Christian Church would never 
 have been, and that the resurrection of Christ was the res- 
 urrection of Christianity. Some great event happened 
 which changed the utter despair of the apostles into a new 
 faith ; their cowardice into courage ; their ignorance into 
 insight. What was that something ? What was the resur- 
 rection of Jesus ? 
 
 As we read the simple and candid narratives, and lay 
 
 them side by side, we seem only partially to understand 
 
 them. We see the event as in a glass, darkly. At first it 
 
 (173) 
 
174 MANY MANSIONS IN GOD'S HOUSE. 
 
 seems as if Christ came back in exactly the same body he 
 had before death. But further reflection shows that to be 
 highly improbable. That would only have been the reviving 
 of one thought to be dead, like the return of Lazarus to life, 
 and would have produced no such astounding impression. 
 A return to this world would not have opened the gates of 
 the other world. Nor, on the other hand, was it a mere 
 ghost that appeared to the disciples. Ghosts startle and 
 terrify. A ghost may give information, or comfort, or 
 warning, but could hardly so inspire the souls of men with 
 faith as to create a new religion. "We are born again," 
 say the apostles, " by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from 
 the dead, into a living hope." " If Christ be not risen," 
 says Paul, " our preaching is vain, and your faith is also 
 vain." 
 
 The conviction the apostles acquired through this event 
 was that Christ had abolished death and brought life and 
 immortality to light. They saw their risen Master as one 
 over whom death had no power. They seemed to be look- 
 ing into a higher world, and understood that death was 
 nothing to him who dies ; that he does not taste death, but 
 passes from life into a higher life. And so firmly rooted 
 in their minds was this conviction, so sure were they of it, 
 that they realized Christ's prediction, " He who believeth 
 in me shall never die." And this faith they transmitted to 
 all to whom they preached, so that the world gradually be- 
 came filled with a new conviction and a new hope. 
 
 Man, by nature, has an instinct of immortality ; and 
 through the inference of his reason he also has a belief in 
 it. Hence, all races, all nations, all religions, have had 
 faith in a hereafter. Brahmins and Buddhists, ancient 
 Egyptians and ancient Persians, Greeks and Romans, Kelts 
 and Teutons, Africans and Esquimaux, Mexicans and Pe- 
 ruvians, North American Incjians and South Sea Islanders. 
 
MANY MANSIONS IN GOD'S HOUSE. 1 75 
 
 have all believed in a future life. And so have all the 
 great thinkers, the philosophers, the poets. Serious Plato, 
 noble Socrates, Cicero and Tacitus, Homer, Virgil and 
 Dante, Descartes and Spinoza — all unite in the same tes- 
 timony. The exceptions are so few as to prove the rule 
 that man, both by his instinct and his reason, is a believer 
 in a future life. 
 
 Hear Goethe, for example : " I should be the very last 
 man to dispense with faith in a future life. I would say, 
 with Lorenzo di Medici, that all those are dead, even for 
 the present life, who do not believe in another. I have a 
 firm conviction that the soul is an existence of an inde- 
 structible nature, whose working is from eternity to eternity. 
 It is like the sun, which seems indeed to set, but really never 
 sets, shining on in unchangeable splendor." 
 
 In all the highest moments of life, death disappears 
 utterly from our thought. The fear of death ceases in any 
 moment when the soul is all alive. Even the excitement 
 of battle, which gives a temporary vitality to man, lifts him 
 above fear. But the martyrs, inspired by high convictions 
 of truth, walked gladly to the stake and flame. John 
 Brown, filled with the love of humanity, went to his Vir- 
 ginia gallows with a calm serenity which filled his deadliest 
 foes with admiration. 
 
 What, then, has Christianity added to the universal 
 human faith in immortality ? Not any clearer notion about 
 the hereafter ; it does not seem intended that we should 
 know much about its details or circumstances while we are 
 yet here. God means us, while we are in this world, to 
 think about this life, not about the next, and therefore has 
 hung a veil between the two worlds. What Jesus has done 
 has been to make immortality more real to all mankind by 
 putting more spiritual life into all mankind. As soon as 
 Christianity began its course, death ceased to be the King 
 
I76 MANY MANSIONS IN GOD's HOUSE. 
 
 of Terrors. The early Christians did not speak of dying, 
 but of going to sleep. They called their place of interment 
 a cemetery — that is, a sleeping-place. Even when Stephen 
 was stoned to death, they said of him, " He fell asleep." 
 Then there came over the world a sense of relief from the 
 old horror of the under world. And to-day, in all Christian 
 lands, faith in an immortality which takes us up to a higher 
 state — not down to a lower — is the universal hope. This 
 supports the sufferer on his bed of pain j this gives com- 
 fort to the worn-out child of toil. The slave, all whose 
 rights here are taken from him, looks forward to a com- 
 pensation hereafter. The victim of tyranny, of injustice, 
 to whom this world brings no redress for his wrongs, an- 
 ticipates a tribunal where all wrong shall be made right, 
 innocence vindicated, and the truth become clear. 
 
 We do not know, as I have said, much about the other 
 life. But we know this : that the same Being rules by the 
 same laws in this world as in all other worlds. As God is 
 always the same, we may be sure that his laws and methods 
 in this world are not contradicted or opposed to his methods 
 in other worlds ; and that we may learn something of what 
 he does for us in the future by what he does for us in the 
 present. The future life will not, indeed, be a mere repe- 
 tition of this, but doubtless will correspond to it. As 
 Milton has already suggested, 
 
 " What if earth 
 Be but the shadow of heaven ; and things therein 
 Each to other like, more than on earth is thought ? " 
 
 Let us look, therefore, at some of these correspondences 
 or analogies, in order to correct and elevate our ideas of 
 heaven. 
 
 When a child comes into this world, he comes into a 
 home which God has provided for him beforehand. He 
 
177 
 
 finds father and mother, brothers and sisters, a house, 
 rooms, books, schools, play — in-doors and out of doors, 
 young companions ; all made ready for his use. He 
 is at once absorbed in these outward interests, and does 
 not stop to look in and ask, " Who am I ? " and " Whence 
 did I come ? " All that is left for a future time. 
 
 So it may be, and very likely will be, with us when we 
 enter the next world. We shall find a home provided for 
 us ; a place made ready ; wiser and older friends to meet 
 and receive us ; enough around for us to see, to do, to love, 
 to enjoy. We may become little children again — all of 
 us. We may lay down the burden of years and cares, and 
 begin life anew under these glad, angelic auspices. All 
 the knowledge and faculty which we have gathered in this 
 life will seem childlike ignorance by the side of the wisdom 
 of these lofty and grand souls who may be to us guardians, 
 guides and friends. We shall feel ourselves little children 
 beside them in our ignorance and weakness, and shall 
 gladly be guided by their larger experience. 
 
 These homes provided for us beforehand may be infin- 
 itely varied there, as they are here. Variety seems to be 
 one of the most universal laws of creation. What infinite 
 variety in this world — of climate, vegetation, scenery, 
 races of animals and of men, national customs, modes of 
 civilization. The infinite Being has by no means exhaust- 
 ed his creative power in making this little planet. Through- 
 out the immense extent of the universe, during an infinite 
 past, he has been unfolding his power and wisdom in crea- 
 tion. So, no doubt, the worlds into which we shall enter 
 hereafter will be different in a thousand ways from this 
 world. In this world we have objects of sight, touch, taste, 
 smell, hearing. Who knows that in the future world, we 
 may not have other senses, by which to perceive other qual- 
 ities of things ? Why should there be just five senses, and 
 
 12 
 
178 MANY MANSIONS IN GOd's HOUSE. 
 
 no more ? We cannot conceive, to be sure, of another 
 sense, or how there can be another ; but neither could we 
 have conceived, if we had now only four senses, what the 
 fifth would reveal. Suppose, for example, that there never 
 had been any sense of hearing ; how, by any possibility, 
 could we then have imagined the harmonies of sound, the 
 articulations of speech, the melodies of rushing winds and 
 falling waters and singing birds, and the tender intona- 
 tions of human language ? Or, if there had never been 
 such a thing as sight or the human eye, who could have 
 conceived beforehand of the possibilities of form, color, 
 sunrise, starlight, the blue sky, the green woods, the beau- 
 ty of flowers, and the loveliness of the human face ? Many 
 more senses may hereafter be given us, by which new re- 
 gions of enjoyment and new gateways into nature may be 
 opened. " In my Father's house are many mansions ; " 
 who can limit in thought the creative power of the Almighty ? 
 In this world, all our activity and all our joy come from 
 three sources — Thought, Love, Work. First there is intel- 
 ligence, exercise of intellect, creating our knowledge, giving 
 the power of thinking accurately and justly ; there is that in- 
 spiration which all men share more or less, by which a 
 stream of new ideas flows into the mind from some upper 
 source. This is one fountain of human joy. A man who 
 is thinking and learning something has a certain content- 
 ment and satisfaction of mind in that. A second source 
 of contentment is work. To be able to exercise our pow- 
 ers, to accomplish something, to imitate God by creating, to 
 bring order out of confusion, to add something to the wealth 
 of the world — this is another great source of satisfaction. 
 And, thirdly, there is love. To be able to go out of ourselves ; 
 to sympathize with others, to enter into their needs and 
 perplexities, to help them forward, to enjoy and reverence 
 great qualities of mind and heart, to feel at home in the so- 
 
MANY MANSIONS IN GODS HOUSE. 1 79 
 
 ciety and friendship of other minds — this is another of the 
 essentials of happiness. But when we have them all united, 
 we have a sort of heaven, even in this life. We have a per- 
 fect contentment when we work steadily for a good end ; 
 work in sympathy and friendship with others, and work in- 
 telligently, with new thoughts coming to us, and getting 
 new knowledge out of our work evermore. That makes 
 heaven here, and that is why Paul spoke of sitting in heav- 
 enly places with Jesus Christ now. 
 
 Heaven hereafter is probably the same thing, only carried 
 upward and onward. A new world, new senses, new fac- 
 ulties, will give us more to know, so that all we have learned 
 in this life will seem like the ignorance of a little child. 
 And who can tell us how much there may be to do here- 
 after ? What great works may not be going on in the uni- 
 verse ? The insoluble problems of life, which daunt and 
 confound us here, are but the shadows thrown down on 
 our globe from the vast events going forward in worlds be- 
 yond. The conflict between freedom and fate, the antag- 
 onism of soul and body, the existence of evil in a present 
 world, these mysteries are suggestions of how much there 
 is to be known and done hereafter. 
 
 And how much, also, to be loved ! Love here is one of 
 the best things we have ; but love here is only in its rudi- 
 ments. What may it not become in the other world, when 
 we shall be lifted into communion with the wise, the good, 
 the noble, the beautiful, who have gone up and on ; when 
 we shall be surrounded by their sympathy, blessed by their 
 affection ; when Christ shall come to find us with the an- 
 gels and archangels ; and when we, in our mansion, in our 
 sphere, shall be able to work with them in theirs, for the 
 advancement and redemption of the universe. Love made 
 perfect which casts out all fear, shall bring us into a 
 heavenly sympathy with the whole creation of God. 
 
180 MANY MANSIONS IN GOD'S HOUSE. 
 
 The essential difference between heaven and hell, ac- 
 cording to St. Augustine and the early Church Fathers, is 
 this — that heaven is the sight of God, and hell is the loss 
 of that sight. This is the beatific vision, or sight of God, 
 which makes heaven, and the absence of which makes 
 hell. 
 
 But we may see God in this world — not directly, indeed, 
 for he dwells in light inaccessible and full of glory. He is 
 not hidden from us by darkness, but by light. As our ears 
 are only tuned to hear a few octaves of music, and all the 
 other harmonies of heaven and earth escape us, so, while 
 " this muddy vesture of decay " shuts us in, our eye can 
 only range through a certain scale of light. All above it is 
 too bright, all below it too dark. God is present in nature 
 around us. He is present in our own soul. But we only 
 see him in these indirectly. Yet we see him as in a glass, 
 darkly j see him as through a veil. In the order and won- 
 der of creation, in the majesty of sunrise and sunset, in the 
 infinite range of the midnight heavens, we see God's pres- 
 ence. 
 
 We have the sense of an Infinite Power behind all finite 
 forces : an Infinite Ordering Mind behind all law ; an In- 
 finite Love behind all goodness. And, in the trials and 
 perplexities of life, in hours of sorrow and of sin, the heav- 
 ens are sometimes opened and we see God. A calm peace 
 comes down into the soul, a new life, a new power fills our 
 heart and our thought. We realize the presence of our 
 heavenly Father. 
 
 Thus we can understand a little how we shall see God 
 hereafter. Though we cannot look directly at the sun, we 
 feel sunlight and see it all around us. So we may see the 
 shining of God, the sunlight of his love, all around us, as 
 by some other sense, by some deeper power than we have 
 now. The religious man is as sure of God's presence in 
 
MANY MANSIONS IN GOd's HOUSE. l8l 
 
 this world as he is of his own. He does not believe in God 
 because of any argument. He knows God by the intuition 
 of his own soul. When Paul said " In Him we live and 
 move and have our being," he was just as sure of God's 
 being as of the world around. 
 
 In the other world, what Paul and other religious men 
 have felt, we shall all feel. " Blessed are the pure in heart," 
 said Jesus, " for they shall see God." We all shall see God, 
 and know him, as we now know the reality of things which 
 the senses cannot show. We are not more sure of the ex- 
 istence of our bodies than we are of joy, sorrow, hope, fear, 
 choice, reason, beauty, love. These are realities, though 
 they cannot be touched, tasted, or seen with the outward 
 eye. So shall' God be known as near, as our life, as our 
 strength, as our joy, as the root of all we are, as the hope 
 of all we desire, as the boundless fountain of love, flowing 
 evermore into our heart and our soul. 
 
 But Christ said to his disciples, " I go to prepare a place 
 for you." He may prepare a place for them and for us 
 there, as he prepares it here. 
 
 But, if our mansions are already existing in our Father's 
 House, mansions so various and numerous as to suit all 
 needs, how does Christ prepare a place for his disciples ? 
 Why does he say, " I go to prepare a place for you," if all 
 these mansions already exist ? And in what way can he 
 prepare a place in the other world ? He can prepare us for 
 a place — that w T e are accustomed to believe — but how can 
 he prepare a place for us ? 
 
 Here is another difficulty : I answer it in this way — 
 Although God has made many mansions here for his chil- 
 dren, and introduces every one into his appropriate place in 
 this world, yet Christ prepares the place for us here, and 
 we enter a world Christianized for us by his influence. We 
 enter a home where the hearts of father, mother, brother 
 
1 82 MANY MANSIONS IN GOD'S HOUSE. 
 
 * 
 
 and sister, have been more or less influenced by the spirit 
 of Christ. The infant is welcomed into the world by a 
 Christian welcome. Christian waters of baptism touch its 
 innocent and unconscious brow. Christian love watches 
 its slumbers, prays by its bedside, and teaches it to be 
 true, just and obedient. The boy enters a school where 
 Jesus Christ has modified all the teachings by his truth and 
 life. This young man enters a society where Christian 
 churches shed a hallowing influence on all parts of life and 
 conduct. So Christ prepares a place for us here, and the 
 essence of this preparation is a spirit of love. There is 
 more of love in the world because Christ has been in it. 
 God is loved rather than feared ; man is loved rather than 
 hated. Jesus harmonizes, unites, and pacifies mankind. 
 His religion is the great element of concord in the world. 
 
 And so Jesus prepares a place for us in the other world 
 in a like manner. When he went into the other world, he 
 went not merely to seek there his own joy, but to prepare 
 ours. He went not to stay, sitting on a throne of glory ; 
 but, having prepared our place, to come and receive us to 
 himself. He did not lose his love for the world, or for 
 mankind, or cease to work for our redemption when he 
 entered heaven. His love for us did not diminish as he 
 went nearer to God, but increased. He went into his rest in 
 heaven, but his rest is a greater activity of good. He be- 
 came " highly exalted," but how ? ". to be the head over all 
 things ki his church," the living head, the active head, the 
 blessed Redeemer and Saviour, " who lived and was dead, 
 and behold he is alive forevermore." 
 
 Perhaps in the other world he prepares a place for us 
 by diffusing his spirit there among the angels. Perhaps he 
 turns the thoughts of exalted and ascending souls to earth, 
 and to man's needs. Perhaps he creates a heavenly sym- 
 pathy, an angelic pity, in those great spheres of thought 
 
i8 3 
 
 and life towards us here below. He causes that there shall 
 be greater joy in the presence of the angels of God over one 
 sinner that repenteth. Were it not for Christ, the grand 
 powers of magnificent spirits, ascending ever upward in 
 circles and spirals of rising thought, aspiring towards God 
 evermore, might lift them away from sympathy with our 
 low condition. Above, as below, Christ represents the 
 harmonizing element which is his peculiar gift from his 
 Father. He counteracts and balances the ascent of as- 
 piration with the descent of sympathy, the love of God 
 with the love of man. He prepares a place for us by 
 awakening in the spirits above a sympathy like his own for 
 the spirits below. His grace and truth penetrate the celes- 
 tial spheres, as they have leavened the earthly ones. Thus 
 with the great law of progress, by which souls ascend up- 
 ward more and more, is joined Christ's law of love, by 
 which the first becomes last, the highest archangel descend- 
 ing to the humblest work of sympathy. And thus is set 
 aside forever that doubt which intrudes so often into loving 
 hearts, whether those who were so dear to us in this life 
 may not in their upward ascent have soared far away from 
 our communion. " Can we be anything to them," we ask, 
 "there?" 
 
 Yes. For when Christ prepares a place for us, he comes 
 to us to receive us to himself. And what Christ does, that 
 do all those who belong to Christ and are like Christ. Jesus 
 does not soar away out of sight, and disappear forever from 
 human knowledge in a lonely flight to the lonely God. No ; 
 but his ascent is also condescension ; his progress is outward 
 into an enlarging sympathy to all, downward into a more 
 profound pity and tenderness for the lost ones, as well as 
 upward into greater knowledge of God. His progress is 
 not in one direction only, but in all three directions. And 
 similar is the progress of all Christianized spirits. They 
 
184 MANY MANSIONS IN GOD'S HOUSE. 
 
 do not go away from us by their progress, but come nearer 
 to us. They do not lose their love for us, but have more 
 of it, deeper, tenderer, larger, as they advance along the 
 ascending highway of being. As Jacob in his dream saw 
 on the ladders of heaven the angels of God not only as- 
 cending but also descending, so for ever do the good and 
 true come down into a greater sympathy while they go up 
 into loftier purity. 
 
 The next words confirm wholly this truth, if it needs 
 confirmation. " I will come again, and receive you into 
 myself, that where I am, there may ye be also." Christ 
 wishes us to be with him. It is not enough that he is 
 happy in his place, and we in ours ; we "must be happy to- 
 gether. True, we cannot go to him. He is so high above 
 us, his life so much more profound, his love so divine, that 
 his home is probably far above ours, inaccessible to our 
 feeble virtue. But though the lower cannot go up to the 
 higher, the higher can come down to the lower. He can 
 and he will come to us, and receive us to himself. 
 
 This, then, is the beautiful and divine truth taught in 
 this passage — that where law divides, love reunites. Sep- 
 arate mansions, but the same home. Each soul its own 
 place, work, opportunity, but each in union with the high- 
 est soul which loves it. The love of the pure and holy 
 spirit brings it down into communion with the lower spirit. 
 So all things are ours, whether Paul or Apollos or Peter ; 
 all the great and noble souls, Milton and Fenelon and 
 Luther; the noble men and women of all times ; they all be- 
 long to us. If our faces are turned upwards, they descend 
 to us, Socrates and 1 lato, Washington and Aristides, Cow- 
 per and Wordsworth, and those who have helped us here. 
 There we may hope to meet again Channing, and Theo- 
 dore Parker, and Henry Ware, and John Andrew, and 
 Ellis Gray Loring, all the noble men, and saintly women, 
 
MANY MANSIONS IN GOD'S HOUSE. 1 85 
 
 and darling children, whose lives have taught us what life 
 is worth, and who have gone up before us leading our 
 hearts upward where they have gone. The love of Christ 
 constrains them to be with us. 
 
 Sometimes in dreams we have the foretaste of this heaven. 
 Sometimes in dreams we feel ourselves visited by the 
 noblest and grandest natures, who come and talk with us 
 familiarly as friends. The barriers of condition, circum- 
 stance and character seem removed. We are at home with 
 these immortal and divine spirits. Magnificent in wisdom, 
 glowing with the glory of the skies, they yet treat us as the 
 mother treats her child ; they make us at home with them ; 
 they raise us into the same sphere as their own. I have 
 hid dreams of such superior essences, whom I seemed to 
 know well and intimately, and who seemed to know me 
 better than I knew myself. And this is my idea of heaven. 
 To every one his own place, his own work, his own posi- 
 tion, exactly fitted to his character, but every one visited 
 from on high by these perpetually descending souls from 
 more celestial spheres, taking us momentarily into their 
 own peace and light and purity. 
 
 Mrs. Browning, a modern prophet, because deeply in- 
 spired by the Holy Spirit of truth and love, has thus writ- 
 ten in a strain like that of John in the Apocalypse. 
 
 God reigns above, he reigns alone, 
 Systems burn out and leave his throne, 
 Fair mists of Seraphs melt and fall 
 Around him, changeless amid all — 
 Ancient of days, whose days go on. 
 
 For us, whatever's undergone, 
 Thou knowest, wiliest, what is done. 
 Grief may be joy misunderstood; 
 Only the good discerns the good, 
 I trust thee while my days go on. 
 
1 86 MANY MANSIONS IN GOD'S HOUSE. 
 
 I praise thee while my days go on, 
 
 I love thee while my days go on ; 
 
 Through dark and dearth, through fire and frost, 
 
 Wit emptied arms and treasure lost — 
 
 I thank thee while my days go on. 
 
XVIII. 
 
 NOT UNCLOTHED, BUT CLOTHED UPON. 
 
 U n ot THAT WE SHOULD BE UNCLOTHED, BUT CLOTHED UPON, THAT 
 MORTALITY MIGHT BE SWALLOWED UP OF LIFE." 
 
 THE doctrine of this text is that we do not wish to be dis- 
 embodied spirits hereafter, but to have another higher 
 body superinduced on this. I think the phrase indicates a 
 desire for a process of gradual development instead of a 
 sudden change, and that death shall not mean that the soul 
 has lost its body, but that a finer and more spiritual one 
 shall be developed around the soul. 
 
 The body, in this passage, is first compared to a taber- 
 nacle — that is, a tent — and then to a building. The 
 apostle means to say that the present body is like a tent, 
 which is a mere transient residence ; the body which is to 
 be is like a house or temple, meant to stand for a hundred 
 or a thousand years. Perhaps there flitted through his 
 mind the idea of the Jewish Tabernacle, or church tent, 
 which they carried with them through the wilderness — a 
 sort of travelling church, a movable chapel, where they had 
 their sacrificial worship every day- — which was so made 
 that it could be taken to pieces, and put up again. The 
 present body is like that; the body to come is like the 
 Temple of Solomon on Mount Moriah, built of solid marble, 
 immoyable, incorruptible, undecaying ; glittering white like 
 a glacier in the morning sun, glowing rosy in the evening 
 twilight — a beauty and a wonder of the world. 
 
 (187) 
 
1 88 NOT UNCLOTHED, BUT CLOTHED UPON. 
 
 No doubt the corruptible body weighs down the soul. In 
 one point of view there is no correspondence between 
 them ; they are deadly foes. Here is a poor soul strug- 
 gling to get at some truth, some beauty, some love, some 
 goodness, and it is imprisoned in a body which will not let 
 it do so. The bodily organization is dull and heavy, is un- 
 vivacious, is coarse and unrefined ; it tends to irritability arjd 
 wilfulness, instead of sweetness and beauty. It is a tragedy 
 in which we are all actors. The soul aspires, the body 
 drags it down. We have gleams of heaven ; we are caught 
 up to God ; and presently we find ourselves far down, with 
 thick clouds of earthly gloom and mist between us. We 
 have the treasure, but we have it in earthen vessels. 
 
 In all men there is some hereditary depravity. Some per- 
 sons have a good deal of it ; but they are not responsible 
 for having it. They are only responsible for not trying to 
 conquer it, and cure it. If they indulge it, if they defend 
 it, excuse it, lie about it, or try to make it out to be right, 
 then they make it their own, and become responsible for 
 it : not otherwise. Their ancestors, a thousand years ago, 
 may have been Norman pirates ; from them still runs in 
 their veins, perhaps, some rudeness of feeling or stubborn- 
 ness of will. They are not to blame for it ; but it is their 
 business to refine it — to get rid of the rudeness, and keep 
 the strength. Their ancestors may have been dark fana- 
 tics, and have helped burn witches or heretics ; and so some 
 black drops of that blood may make them wish to put down 
 by will the Reformers of to-day. But it is their business 
 to put down, not the innovators, but their own feeling about 
 them. God will take care of the radicals ; our business is 
 to take care of ourselves. 
 
 Nevertheless, the body is, with all its defects, the clothing 
 for the soul. All clothing does, in some sort, begin to cor- 
 respond with the wearer, and to express a little his tastes 
 
NOT UNCLOTHED, BUT CLOTHED UPON. I 89 
 
 and ideas. We see a man's mind somewhat in his dress, 
 just as we see it a little in his handwriting ; in the way in 
 which he speaks or walks ; in the church he goes to, the 
 profession he chooses. All these signs fail ; still they are 
 signs. So there is a truth in the sciences of Physiognomy 
 and Phrenology, though they may often fail. The body has 
 some kind of correspondence with the mind. The dress of 
 a Turk corresponds with his dignified character, his quiet 
 ways, his slowness and solemnity. He cannot run about in 
 it, or climb, or jump ; and he does not wish to. He is too 
 solemn for that. 
 
 Thus the human body has some sort of analogy to the 
 soul that it wears. You look at a face, you hear a voice, 
 you see the gestures, and an impression is made on you of 
 character. That impression is often the best and most 
 reliable means of knowing a man's character. It is spon- 
 taneous. It shows, whether he will or not. He may try 
 to conceal his purpose, but it speaks from his eye ; it gives 
 inflection to his voice ; it inspires involuntary distrust. 
 There is something false and hollow in the sound of this 
 man's words, because his intention is false and hollow. 
 There is something convincing in this other man's speech, 
 apart from what he says ; it is the sincere tone, the truthful 
 emphasis, the inflection born not of the rhetorician's teach- 
 ing, but of the pure soul itself. Men judge others, by their 
 actions ; women, more sensitive to the slighter influences, 
 judge people by the impression they make on them. They 
 are very apt to be right in their judgment, for this impres- 
 sion is the effluence of our total nature, which we cannot 
 make and cannot hinder, and which tells the story better 
 than our words. 
 
 Some people argue as though this body were all bad, 
 and say that in heaven we shall have none, but be floating 
 about the universe, pure disembodied spirits. Paul does 
 
I90 NOT UNCLOTHED, BUT CLOTHED UPON. 
 
 not say that ; he says the opposite j body is to remain, but 
 the mortal part of it is to be swallowed up of life. Body, 
 in its lowest form, is a mystery of wonder j the human body 
 is the most wonderful and beautiful thing on earth. It is 
 a muddy vesture of decay, but it is also a transparent veil 
 through which the soul shines. Look at it in little children, 
 before it is degraded by toil or sin \ what grace and charm 
 in their looks and motions ! See it in its ideal forms in 
 the statues of Greece ; what grandeur and dignity in the 
 Apollo of the Vatican ; what overflowing grace in the 
 Amazon of the Capitol, or the Flora of Naples ! Now these 
 forms give us hints of a more idealized, and higher beauty ; 
 In the future life, the body, "vital in every part, cannot 
 but by annihilating die." Sown in corruption, it rises 
 incorruptible j sown mortal, it rises immortal. Sown 
 weakest of all earthly creatures, needing clothing to keep 
 out cold, and houses to protect it from weather ; unable to 
 move through water like the fish, through air like the bird ; 
 behold ! it rises into poiuer, perhaps fleeter than the electric 
 current, more luminous with thought than the sun with 
 light, yet a body still, the human body still. Not unclothed, 
 but clothed upon ; mortality swallowed up of life. 
 
 A soul sheathed in a crystal shrine, 
 Through which all its bright features shine ; 
 A soul whose intellectual beams 
 No mists do mask, no lazy steams; 
 A happy soul, that, all the way 
 To heaven, hath a summer's day. 
 
 The thought the apostle expresses, "That we do not 
 wish to be unclothed, but clothed upon," is a very impor- 
 tant one. It is an essentially Christian idea; it distin- 
 guishes the Christian view of morality from the natural 
 view. It characterizes the Christian view of truth, the 
 Christian view of religion, and the Christian view of im- 
 mortality. 
 
NOT UNCLOTHED, BUT CLOTHED UPON. I9I 
 
 "Not unclothed, but clothed upon" — let us see what it 
 means. 
 
 The Christian view of all growth and progress is by 
 addition, not subtraction; by building up, not pulling 
 down \ by positive means, not negative ; by attraction, not 
 repulsion ; by love of good, not fear of evil ; by hope of 
 heaven, not terror of hell ; by power of love, not power of 
 law j by Christ as a forgiving and saving master, saying, 
 " Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more ; " not 
 by punishment, condemnation, and hell fire. Christ came 
 not to destroy, but to fulfil. The only damnation Christ 
 knows is loss ; that when light has come into the world, 
 some men choose darkness, and so lose the light. 
 
 Most reforms and inventions come by improving what 
 we have. The first farmer probably stirred the ground 
 with a sharp stick. After a while came a man who fasten- 
 ed another to it, and so made the original plough. By and 
 by, a piece of iron was substituted for one of the sticks, 
 and that is essentially, the plough of to-day. The first men 
 lived in caves ;, after a while they made huts of branches 
 and bark ; then of stones, then log cabins, until at last you 
 reach a palace on the Grand Canal of Venice. The wool 
 from a sheep's back was twisted with the fingers, next with 
 a distaff, then with a spinning-wheel, at last the same thing 
 is done by the spinning-jenny, and mule-spinning by steam. 
 
 The Puritans and Quakers tried to unclothe religion of 
 all its rites and ceremonies. They took off its royal robes 
 of architecture, painting, statuary, music, and left it bare. 
 That was a mistake. They should have exchanged the 
 earthly dress for a higher and more heavenly one. 
 
 This is the Christian principle, and it applies in a thou- 
 sand ways. 
 
 Here is a boy who has done wrong. He is a culprit ; he 
 has stolen, or he has committed some other offence. The 
 
1()2 NOT UNCLOTHED, BUT CLOTHED UPON. 
 
 law arrests him and puts him in prison. This the law must 
 do ; for the business of law is to prevent offences, to keep 
 them from going on and from getting worse. But the law 
 cannot cure the criminal ; it can only stop him in his evil 
 course. After a while, law opens its hand again and lets 
 the criminal go. He is not cured, so he begins again, and 
 falls into the clutch of law again, and is stopped again, and 
 let go again, and begins again, and so on, ad infinitum. 
 That is all the law can do — arrest evil, and check it for a 
 while. It cannot cure it. It is merely negative power. 
 But to cure evil, a positive power is needed. You must 
 show the boy some good thing ; you must attract him to- 
 ward a better life ; you must give him an opportunity for 
 something better. Law takes off for a little while his old 
 clothing of sin j Christianity must clothe him with a house 
 from heaven. 
 
 Any home is better than none. If you cannot get a 
 house, take a cabin. If you cannot have a cabin, then 
 have a tent ; if not a wall tent, then a shelter tent ; but if 
 not that, then find a tree or a cave. 
 
 Mentally, we do not wish to be unclothed, but clothed 
 upon. Mental progress does not consist in losing the old 
 knowledge, but in adding to it new. The principle of con- 
 servatism is a sound one. Keep your present faith till you 
 can get a better one. The greatest of modern philosophers, 
 Descartes — the John the Baptist of all modern reform — 
 emptied his mind of all its belief in order to begin at the be- 
 ginning. He started with no belief except in his own exis- 
 tence. " I exist," was all that he would begin with. He 
 thoroughly unclothed his mind of alj its thoughts. But men 
 not are made to live so. Anything is better than perpetual 
 doubt. We have no mental progress so. " To him who hath 
 shall be given." The man who believes something, can go 
 on and believe more. A perpetual seeker, with no past be- 
 
NOT UNCLOTHED, BUT CLOTHED UPON. 1 93 
 
 hind him, finds nothing. He is ever searching, and never 
 coming to the knowledge of the truth. Some things we must 
 know ; we are made to know them. The New Testament 
 assumes that we know them, and does not teach them. 
 Both Old and New Testament assume the existence of God, 
 duty and immortality. Some things may be taken for 
 granted in our belief. They cannot be proved, and are not 
 meant to be proved. Man is made to believe them, and 
 cannot help himself. We must believe in our own existence ; 
 in the existence of an outer world ; of day and night ; 
 men and women ; space and time ; cause and effect ; the 
 infinite and the finite ; right and wrong : God and nature ; 
 duty and immortality. As a good father does not send his 
 child out into the world naked, but gives him a trunk of 
 clothes, a chest of tools, a little money to begin with, so 
 God furnishes us with a mental outfit of common and uni- 
 versal beliefs to begin with. We are not to be uuclothed 
 of them, either in this world or in the next, but clothed 
 upon with more. 
 
 All negation is going backward. It may be necessary 
 to go back and to begin again, when we are going wrong. 
 So negative reforms, and negative moralities, are going 
 backward in order to begin again. All the " antis " go 
 backward ; even anti-slavery. Society organized on slavery 
 was badly and wickedly organized, but it was organized. 
 The abolition of slavery disorganized society, and if we 
 had stopped there, we should have only taken a backward 
 step, not a forward one. Free labor, therefore, had to be 
 organized instead of slave labor j and because the Southern 
 States refused to accept free labor and organize it, it had to 
 be done for them by the general government. Failing this 
 society at the South would have remained " unclothed, not 
 clothed upon." 
 
 That is the justification for the course taken by the North 
 13 
 
194 N T UNCLOTHED, BUT CLOTHED UPON. 
 
 in giving the ballot to the negroes, and in attempting to 
 aid the South in its re-organization. It is also its excuse, 
 though not its justification, for having gone too far and 
 interfered too much. The new body should be left to itself, 
 to grow ; we must not be 'forever interfering with it. It is 
 clothed upon with a new house, which, compared with the 
 old one, is like a house from heaven. Let it not be 
 perpetually unclothed, but learn to wear and use its new 
 raiment. It has been unclothed from slavery ; let it be 
 clothed upon and with freedom — freedom both for whites 
 and colored people. 
 
 Look at Nature in this affluent season of Spring, when 
 the voice of God is saying, " Let there be life." See how 
 Nature swallows up the old in the new ; see how she ab- 
 sorbs the old vegetation in the coming grasses ; how earth, 
 bare and dead, is clothed upon with new and wonderful 
 forms of growth. Little seeds in the earth have heard 
 God's voice, and begin to stir inwardly. Little buds have 
 heard it, and begin to swell. These million germs of life 
 are to sweep away and clear up the vestiges of decay. Dead 
 leaves and grasses are to feel the new summer. Presently, 
 in a few weeks, the whole surface of earth will be carpeted 
 with grass andilowers; the trees clothed with delicate, 
 fairy foliage, with fragrant, lovely blossoms ; mortality 
 swallowed up of life ; a resurrection of dead Nature into 
 a new existence. 
 
 The affections are a clothing and a home for the heart. 
 God's method is to give us always better and higher affec- 
 tions, and to made the lower a step upward to the higher. 
 " He who loves not his brother whom he hath seen, how 
 shall he love God whom he hath not seen ? " All human 
 love leads up to divine love. It is a Jacob's ladder, lead- 
 ing up to heaven. Everything which draws man out of 
 himself does him good. The smallest act of sympathy 
 
NOT UNCLOTHED, BUT CLOTHED UPON. I95 
 
 helps us. To say a kind word does him good who receives 
 it and him who gives it. I see two little girls walking hand 
 in hand. They are playmates. They play together, they 
 study together, they quarrel sometimes ; but they are little 
 friends. That is the first round of the ladder of love, the 
 highest step of which is the divine piety of Jesus towards 
 his Heavenly Father. 
 
 I see two young men, fellow-students, seekers of the 
 truth together. They struggle through the same doubts, 
 they have the same bitter experience of evil ; they may 
 commit mistakes together ; but amid all errors and wander- 
 ings there is this golden thread of a generous, unselfish 
 friendship for each other. That is good. Let them never 
 be unclothed from that love, but clothed upon with a higher 
 one. 
 
 Much of earthly affection is, no doubt, poor, weak, un- 
 worthy. It is idol worship ; it is a blind and foolish affec- 
 tion ; it is also weak and changeable. But such as it is, it 
 is always better than nothing. Do not destroy it ; fulfil it. 
 
 I would be very tender of any idolatry. I often find 
 people adoring very enthusiastically books, or artists, or 
 people, who to me seem poor and empty. But I am very 
 careful not rudely to criticize their faith They think some 
 poetaster to be a great poet. Be it so. I will not say a 
 word against it. They are groping after pearls. They 
 think a man a great orator, and burn with enthusiasm for 
 him, while to me he appears only a rhetorician, a man of 
 words. Nevertheless, I say nothing harsh against their 
 idol. They admire a preacher, who to me seems talking 
 verbiage and commonplaces. Well, who knows what real 
 religion may come to them through this channel ? We have 
 this treasure in earthen vessels. I will not be an iconoclast, 
 except when absolutely necessary. If truth requires me 
 to blow a jarring and dissonant blast, I will do it, but not 
 
10 NOT UNCLOTHED, BUT CLOTHED UPON. 
 
 otherwise. Idolatry, in the divine order, may be the first 
 step to true religion. Let it not be unclothed, but clothed 
 upon. 
 
 All love, so far as it is love, is good ; and it is good in 
 this way, that it takes us out of ourselves, making us for 
 the time unselfish, and also, that it makes us for the time 
 truly pure. Those who love are emancipated from doubts, 
 hesitations, terrors. Perfect love casts out fear. Two 
 friends who are together — two school girls, perhaps — 
 how they talk ! how they flow out, how they say all that is 
 in their heart ! That does them good, and prepares for 
 something better. With your friends you feel at home. You 
 dread no misconstruction, no censure. You do not have 
 to stop to explain, to define your position, to guard against 
 misconstruction. There is no envy, no jealousy, in that 
 relation. I do not think (as Cicero says) life worth living, 
 that does not contain such a friendship. Every one needs 
 to be able to be with those, sometimes, to whom he can 
 speak of anything he chooses, without any doubt or anxiety 
 or hesitation. Then he is at home. That is home, the 
 home of the heart. 
 
 So God educates us for himself ; teaches us how to love 
 him, by teaching us first how to love our brother. All true 
 love educates us for heaven. The love of nature is a nas- 
 cent piety. The delight in God's sky and land, his ocean 
 and mountains, his stars and flowers, his sunrises and sun- 
 sets, educates us to love him, the giver of it all. He sends 
 us little children to teach our hearts tenderness ; he takes 
 them up to himself, and our tenderness goes up to heaven. 
 The love for heaven, for books, for children, for friends, 
 leads us towards God. Every patient watching by the bed- 
 side of those we love teaches the heart something. Every 
 tear dropped on a friend's grave is another step towards 
 heaven. Every generous effort to do right, every noble 
 
NOT UNCLOTHED, BUT CLOTHED UPON. I97 
 
 struggle against evil, every warm throb of love for what is 
 good, true, fair ; every patriotic and courageous act of de- 
 votion to our country, is clothing us with a Ijojuse from 
 heaven. 
 
 These may, indeed, be only tents to live in till we reach 
 the promised land ; but we know that when these are struck 
 and folded, we have a building of God waiting us beyond 
 the veil of time. God, who provides the tent for us here, 
 will provide the house there. He who gives us in this life 
 the wonders and beauties of nature, the lessons of truth, 
 the opportunities of action and endeavor, the helps of 
 friendship, the charm of love, the nobleness of life and the 
 pathos of death, will provide for us better things beyond, 
 " which eye has not seen, nor ear heard." 
 
 Therefore, O human heart ! trust and hope and look for- 
 ward, and do not doubt nor fear, but go from truth to truth, 
 from love to higher love. We do not wish to be unclothed 
 of this world's affections and interests, but clothed upon 
 with higher. This life is not the end, but the beginning. 
 This poor body of ours, poor, but yet wonderful in its mys- 
 terious faculties, is the germ of a higher body. The friend 
 who has left us, the dear child, sister, brother, father, mo- 
 ther, we shall meet again ; and that divine grace which 
 charmed our heart shall smile on us when we enter heaven, 
 with a more profound and angelic beauty. The radi- 
 ance which flowed from those eyes shall be more radiant. 
 The inspiration which dwelt on that brow shall be more in- 
 spired. Yet that sublime and heavenly love shall be as 
 tender and near as in this world ; a home for our heart, as 
 it was below. 
 
XIX. 
 
 ALL THINGS FOR GOOD. 
 
 THERE is a strange, tender beauty in this month of 
 October, which we all must have felt. Some days 
 during the last week the air has been singularly pure and 
 full of health ; no mountain air, no Italian air, could be 
 sweeter or purer. The woods and hills have put on 
 their autumn dress of beauty and pride. The declining 
 year has robed itself in majesty before bidding us farewell. 
 These days are something to recollect when winter comes. 
 Sometimes at this season of the year, I have gone to the 
 top of the hills in this neighborhood, from which wide 
 views can be had — such views as I think are hardly to be 
 found anywhere but in the vicinity of Boston. Thence I 
 saw the panorama of villages stretching around the hori- 
 zon — fifty spires of churches, towns resting in peaceful 
 repose. Away in the west was Wachusett, rising in a long, 
 sweeping curve of blue, which reminds us of Byron's de- 
 scription of Mount Soracte, which 
 
 " Sweeps like a long, spent wave from out the plain, 
 And on the curve hangs pausing." 
 
 And away to the south-east are our old friends the Blue 
 Hills, of which we never tire, since they are the only ap- 
 proach to mountain scenery which we have near our city ; 
 and to the east the glitter of ocean, stretched away blue 
 and pale into the far distance ; and then, nearer by, the 
 (•98) 
 
ALL THINGS FOR GOOD. 1 99 
 
 woods aglow with scarlet and crimson, as if some great cer- 
 emony were at hand, and they had all come forth to greet a 
 hero or mighty chief in their most gorgeous attire. And I 
 thought, " O beautiful world ! World most full of beauty, 
 which God has given us, why do we not enjoy thee more ? 
 Why are we so restless and discontented and unhappy, at 
 war with ourselves, with those around us, even at war with 
 Providence, when it seems as if we had only to open our 
 hearts to all this infinite tide of God's love and be hap- 
 py?" 
 
 I will take for my text this passage : 
 
 " All things work together for good to them that love 
 God." 
 
 I have sometimes been told that I am too much of an Op- 
 timist — that I am too hopeful, see things too much on the 
 bright side, do not recognize enough the evils, failures, 
 moral disasters, spiritual tragedies, of human life. It may 
 be true that my temperament is sanguine, and that in read- 
 ing the gospel I love to dwell more on its hopes and promises 
 than on its threats and warnings. But let us consider 
 this a little, and ask what is Optimism and what is Pessim- 
 ism, and which is the truest and wisest view of life — that 
 which hopes, or that which desponds ? 
 
 Certainly, if we believe in a God of infinite perfection, a 
 God who loves all his creatures with an infinite love, of 
 whom the sun shining alike on good and evil is the symbol, 
 who desires that no one should perish ; who is infinite wis- 
 dom, knowing how to make his creatures happy in the 
 right way ; and infinite power, to carry out all his plans in 
 gard to them ; a God who is love, and who is above all 
 through all and in all things ; if we have this faith we must 
 believe that evil is transient and good permanent ; that evil 
 is a means and good the end ; that the final results to each 
 and all of God's creatures must be good and increasing 
 good. 
 
200 ALL THINGS FOR GOOD. 
 
 Christ was surely an Optimist in this sense. He sure- 
 ly believed the world was made and meant for good 
 and not for evil. God, to him, was the universal Father, 
 whosi providence was over all his creatures, and who num- 
 bered every hair of every head. When has Optimism been 
 put in plainer words than in the very first utterances of 
 Jesus in his sermon on the Mount, when he declares that for 
 all sorrow, poverty and hunger of soul, for all those in the 
 midst of frightful persecution and tribulation, there is to be 
 a profound blessedness, a divine comfort, a heavenly re- 
 pose, a joy passing all understanding ; that no matter 
 what burdens men have to bear, if they come to him, they 
 can have rest. 
 
 And certainly the power of Christianity is in this Optim- 
 ism. It helps the world, and gives to the world new cour- 
 age and new life by inspiring hope. It comes to bring 
 hope to all persons, at all times, in all situations. And 
 by inspiring this hope it has made a new heaven and a new 
 earth. 
 
 Now there is a false Optimism, I know, which shuts its 
 eyes to the existence of present evil, turns from it, dislikes 
 to see it, refuses to admit its reality. But Jesus does not 
 make light of evil. He saw more clearly than any one 
 else the evil there is in the world. He never deceived 
 himself nor deluded others with false hopes. He told his 
 disciples what terrible dangers they would encounter, what 
 sufferings be compelled to endure ; how, before his king- 
 dom of truth and love could come, there must be wars and 
 famine and pestilence and murder ; how that his coming 
 would set men at war with each other, and cause the fa- 
 ther to hate the child and the child the father. He told them 
 that, though they all thought they lored him, one would 
 betray him, and one deny him, and all forsake him. But 
 he saw ultimate success, the perfect triumph of truth, and 
 
ALL THINGS FOR GOOD. 201 
 
 a reign of peace beyond all this, and that he should ulti- 
 mately draw all men unto him. 
 
 True Optimism, then, does not deny the reality of present 
 evil, but declares that it is to become the means of future 
 good. But even thus limited it is not easy to accept it. 
 " Why is it," we ask, " when nature around us is so lovely 
 and so full of peace, that the human heart should be so 
 weighed down with anxiety, sorrow and sin ? Why cannot 
 we enjoy this beautiful world which God has given us ? " 
 
 Coleridge answered this question when he said, 
 
 " We receive but what we give ; 
 And in our life alone does nature live." 
 
 All depends on the attitude of our own mind and heart. 
 Nothing can make us happy unless we have the secret of 
 happiness within. Nothing can make us unhappy if we 
 have that secret within. " All things work together for 
 good to those who love God." Nothing works for good to 
 those who do not love him. 
 
 It is what we carry with us and in us which determines 
 what comes to us from without. It is so with knowledge. 
 What a multitude of things are to be seen all around us, 
 wherever we go, and how few of them we see ! Some one 
 says, " We do not see what is before our eyes, but what is 
 behind them." Two men are travelling. They pass 
 through the woods. One of them sees only limbs and 
 branches and green leaves. The other sees all the new 
 varieties of vegetation which belongs to the region, dis- 
 tinguishes plant from plant, discovers rare specimens. 
 One man sees pictures in the landscape, sees the fore- 
 ground and middle distance, sees the lights and shades. 
 He is an artist ; that is why he sees them. In every land- 
 scape we look at there is infinite knowledge quietly wait- 
 ing till we are ready to observe. Picturesque effects for 
 
202 ALL THINGS FOR GOOD. 
 
 the artist, strange plants for the botanist, stratification and 
 a whole world-history for the geologist, soils for the farmer, 
 and, hidden away in it all, the love of God and a Father's 
 smile for the loving heart of the Christian. " All things 
 work together for knowledge for those who love knowledge." 
 
 We receive what we give : we find what we seek. Things 
 come to those who are prepared for them. Every one 
 carries with him a polar force to attract or repel. To him 
 who has an inventive faculty, inventions come. To him 
 who has a poetical faculty, poetry comes. Events wait on 
 man as his servants, and things befall him according to the 
 quantity and quality of his character. 
 
 According to this law, all things work together for good 
 to those who love God. Those who love God ! — that is, 
 those whose hearts long for that infinite good, beauty and 
 truth which shall raise them above themselves, and purify 
 them from evil, conquer their sins, make them true, gener- 
 ous and noble. Those who love God thus, not with a self- 
 ish love disguised as piety, not merely wishing to escape 
 from hell and get to heaven, but wishing to be the true ser- 
 vants and helpers of what is good in this world, will find 
 all things working together for their good. Everything 
 will make part of their education ; everything will give 
 them new opportunity ; everything will help them ; as 
 sunshine or storm, summer or winter, helps the tree. When 
 the sun shines warmly, the tree opens all its buds and 
 leaves, and drinks in the warm air, and grows. When the 
 cold storms of winter beat upon it, it withdraws into itself, 
 and shuts its pores, and tightens its hold \>y the roots, and 
 hardens. So when all things are pleasant in life, we enjoy 
 them gratefully, and expand in God's sunshine with thank- 
 ful hearts. When disappointment and trial come, we learn 
 to be patient, trusting, submissive, hopeful, firm and true, 
 and that is good for us also. 
 
ALL THINGS FOR GOOD. 203 
 
 To those who love God, friendship and love come as 
 blessed gifts to open the heart and teach it all tender 
 affections. Human love becomes divine love when thus 
 received. The parents receive their child as from God, 
 and they see in him a promise of God for the future, as 
 well as a joy in the present. The family becomes a sacred 
 place ; the parlor is a church, the daily meal is a com- 
 munion table to those who love God. God's love comes 
 out of human eyes to bless us, and an ineffable tenderness 
 speaks to us in each word and act and look of good will. 
 We find a deeper meaning and a higher purpose in every 
 friendship, because God has sent it to us ; and we cease 
 to fear that it will prove transient, because we know that 
 what God gives he gives forever. 
 
 When, in his providence, God takes away our friends 
 and leaves us alone, then, also, we find that this bereave- 
 ment works for our good if we love God. We are alone, 
 but not lonely. Our friends come to us when they go 
 away. They stay with us when they ascend to heaven. 
 The love which was no mere earthly tie of convenience or 
 pleasure, which loved what was best in the friend, and 
 sought to impart good, as well as to receive it, does not 
 die — it lives. As the disciples, after Jesus left them, grew 
 much more intimate with him, and understood him far 
 better than before, and had him really nearer to them than 
 when they saw him ; so our friends who have gone away 
 often seem nearer, and they bless us by lifting our hearts 
 to the heavens which are their home, and we commune 
 with their interior nature as we never did while we had 
 them nearer to us. 
 
 So, also, errors and mistakes work for good to those who 
 love God. I once lost my way in Venice, which is the 
 most intricate of all cities when you try to walk through it 
 by the narrow streets, though it is the simplest of all when 
 
204 ALL THINGS FOR GOOD. 
 
 you go from place to place in a gondola. But I spent 
 hour after hour wandering to and fro, too proud to ask my 
 way, till at last pride had a fall, and I was obliged to give 
 a little fellow some baiocchi to show me the way to San 
 Marco. But I recollect how, in that walk, I saw many 
 things which I should never have noticed except I had lost 
 myself. The faculties wake up and are full of alertness in 
 difficulty, and we find ourselves in strange relations, and 
 learn fast. So the man lost in the woods becomes ac- 
 quainted with the looks and habits of the trees and birds 
 and living creatures. And so, when we are lost in the 
 great maze of life, and wander through the streets of this 
 world, feeling that the familiar path is gone : when we see 
 no landmark of duty, no inspiring light of attractive work, 
 and know not where we are ; then, if our trust in God does 
 not fail us, we learn lessons we should never otherwise 
 gain. We learn self-direction or humility ; we learn to 
 cast our care on him who cares for us ; we learn to be 
 grateful for every kindness that others can do us, and to 
 respect all forms of human life, and call no man common. 
 
 I sometimes think that a nation, like individuals, has a 
 sou/, and that this soul is either turned in the main to good 
 or to evil. The soul of a nation is either a worldly soul, 
 absorbed in selfish pleasure and gain, or it is a generous 
 soul, which cares for the great interests of justice and 
 humanity. Nations, like individuals, are put on trial. 
 Some do not bear the trial, and they come to an end. 
 
 Shakspeare wrote " A Comedy of Errors," but there are 
 tragedies of errors in the world, perhaps more common. 
 People make mistakes which seem irreparable. Take one 
 step in the wrong direction, and return sometimes becomes 
 hopeless. We are dragged along by the chain of destiny. 
 In the novel of <4 Deronda," we see how a single misstep 
 taken by the young girl, Gwendolen, destroys her whole 
 
ALL THINGS FOR GOOD. 205 
 
 life. The same things happen around us here. But the 
 novelist shows that, while her outward life and happiness 
 were ruined, she began to grow inwardly into something far 
 nobler than prosperity could have given. She learned peni- 
 tence and generosity, she learned to know herself, she 
 became capable of making sacrifices. And this also we 
 see in daily reality. This also happens here. Men and 
 women can be educated by wrong and sin into something 
 admirably good ; as the lava fires of geologic periods have 
 metamorphosed dull clay into adamantine gems. All this 
 if they love God — that is, if their main purpose in life is 
 good and right. 
 
 We can often see, ourselves, how evils work together for 
 good. As we look back over our lives, we see how disap- 
 pointments, which seemed at the time most bitter and 
 intolerable, turned out at last to be the best things we could 
 have had. And so we may believe that when we cannot 
 see the good, good may yet be there. The child cannot 
 see the good of his having to go to school and study when 
 he wishes to play. He cannot look forward ten and twenty 
 years, and see how his present studies are to help him. 
 And, if we are immortal beings, our present trials and dis- 
 appointments are perhaps a part of the discipline we need 
 for some great result preparing for us hereafter. Whether 
 we feel this, or not, depends on whether we love God, and 
 believe really in him. If God is our father, then it must 
 be right, whether we see it or not. 
 
 All as God wills, who wisely heeds 
 
 To give, or to withhold, 
 And knoweth more of all my needs 
 
 Than all my prayers have told. 
 
 The most terrible tragedies of life are not usually those 
 which appear, but those which are hidden. Under the 
 smooth and smiling surface of social life what dark, myste- 
 
206 ALL THINGS FOR GOOD. 
 
 ries of sorrow are concealed ! The heart knows its own 
 bitterness, and does not talk about it. 
 
 I once had a friend whose mind was well balanced ; 
 taking its steps slowly but surely, and it ever looked 
 at the highest as well as the broadest and deepest 
 truth. One always felt, when she had added her few 
 well : considered words to the discussion, that no more 
 need be said. There was a judicial equipoise in her 
 statement;, as when the judge delivers his charge at the 
 close of a well-argued case. She aimed only at perfect 
 justice and exact truth. She never said much, but what she 
 said lifted us out of all narrow limitations into the serene 
 atmosphere of impartial, unsectarian, unprejudiced and 
 crystalline truth. This all saw j but what many did not see 
 was, that her whole life was centred in aspiration for the 
 highest possible religious state. During the thirty years 
 that I knew her, her mind had but one purpose, to which 
 it clung with unexampled tenacity, the purpose of rising 
 into the highest religious state. Her continual longing was 
 to become perfect in love to God, and love to man. This 
 purpose so completely dominated and controlled all her 
 mind, that she only gave the outside of her thoughts to 
 other things. No Catholic saint, living in a perpetual round 
 of devotion, ever led a life more fixed on the one thing 
 needful. No one ever more entirely fulfilled the apostolic 
 command, "to pray without ceasing." For, this great state 
 of perfect love she did not expect to attain by any effort of 
 her own, but only to receive it as a gift of God. Therefore 
 her life was a perpetual prayer. All outward things, the 
 world and its ways, the doings of men and women, politics, 
 business, daily duty, grew pale, dim, and unsubstantial, while 
 she looked ever at things which are unseen, but eternal. 
 She never neglected willingly a single outward duty, but 
 she did it with her hand rather than with her mind. Ab- 
 
ALL THINGS FOR GOOD. 207 
 
 sorbed in the contemplation of the grace of God, which 
 brings salvation, she did all her outward work with a some- 
 what mechanical fidelity, not putting into it all her heart. 
 
 During many years she lived in perfect mental solitude, 
 except that usually once a week she wrote a letter, which 
 was a resume of her inward state, her spiritual hopes and 
 disappointments, an analysis of her soul's history. This 
 was the only sufficient outlet she had during twenty or 
 thirty years j the only relief from her perpetual introspec- 
 tion No doubt it was bad for her, this continual analysis 
 of her own state of mind. It helped a malady of which 
 neither she nor others for a long time suspected the exist- 
 ence — which showed itself by an occasional access of ter- 
 rible depression and gloom. But her mind was in such just 
 equipoise, so sensible, so clear, at other times, that this 
 temporary darkening of her soul was attributed by her to 
 moral causes only. She thought it a trial sent by God, 
 which he would take away, and replace by a perfect peace. 
 But from time to time the darkness and suffering were so 
 intense that she was driven to thoughts of suicide. But as 
 this depression would pass entirely away, and not return 
 for long periods, she did not understand it to be occasioned 
 by cerebral disease. 
 
 But no one could know what heroism she showed during 
 all these years in her lonely struggle against these tenden- 
 cies to despair. She fought a long fight, and fought it 
 alone, praying to God for strength and receiving it. Do 
 not say that all these prayers and efforts were for nothing. 
 While the outward man perished, the inward man was re- 
 newed day by day, I cannot believe that such patient con- 
 tinuance in well-doing, through long and weary years, such 
 perpetual aspiration, this ceaseless prayer for life and 
 strength, were to be all in vain. No holy saint, no conse- 
 crated martyr, ever lived a more devoted life. She died, 
 
208 ALL THINGS FOR GOOD. 
 
 at last, overcome by this disease of the brain, which she 
 had so long struggled to bear. 
 
 If all things work together for good to them that love 
 God, then even her mistakes, and all this suffering of hers, 
 must work together for good, for there is no doubt that she 
 loved God. Goodness, supreme and perfect goodness, was 
 all that she did love. All her other loves were fed from this 
 fountain. She loved her own, and loved them to the end, 
 but always in the highest way, and for their best good. 
 
 This story is another warning against the dangers of 
 too introspective a life. It is true that the most of us 
 are not in ?.ny danger of this ; we live too much in the 
 world, not too little ; we look inwardly too little, not too 
 much. And yet there are a great many people who do 
 not put themselves heartily into their work ; who do their 
 daily duties mechanically ; who are inwardly thinking 
 about something else, and so leading a double life, which 
 is not healthy, and which tends at last to despondency and 
 disease. Let us remember that we are here each day to 
 do each day's duties with our whole mind, heart, soul and 
 strength. Let us live in the whole, not in the half. 
 Then, when we go inward to reflect, we put ourselves 
 wholly in that, and find God's love and truth within 
 the soul ; and when we go outward to work, or to social 
 intercourse, we put ourselves wholly in that, and find God's 
 presence and inspiration also there. So the inward world 
 and the outward world may be equally filled and animated 
 with the presence and the smile of our heavenly Father. 
 
XX. 
 
 MAKING ALL THINGS NEW. 
 "And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold! I make 
 
 ALL THINGS NEW." 
 
 THE love of new things is natural to man, but the love 
 of old things is equally natural. How to recon- 
 cile these two instincts without doing wrong to either is a 
 perpetual problem, both for the individual and for society. 
 In society it is usually solved, in a somewhat rude way, by 
 the antagonism of reformers and conservatives — reformers 
 pulling one way, conservatives pulling another way, and 
 society taking the diagonal between these two forces. When 
 radicals request us to give up the past, and conservatives 
 ask us not to move a single step towards the future, the 
 common sense of mankind takes a middle course, holding 
 on to what is good which they already have, but looking 
 to see if there may not be something better to come. 
 
 But to reconcile these two tendencies in the individual is 
 not so easy. Still I think it may be done. 
 
 The love of what is new takes three principal forms. 
 
 First there are tl^ose who are always looking for something 
 new. This is its lowest form. It is a perpetual demand 
 for novelty, for new things simply as new. Those who are 
 possessed by this passion feed on the stimulus of perpetual 
 variety. They tire of everything directly, and demand a 
 change. They wish for something different from what they 
 have. They cannot keep to any one thing long enough to 
 
 14 -$209/ 
 
 ■- 4M a. Jt 
 
2IO MAKING ALL THINGS NLW. 
 
 understand it, to appreciate it, or to enjoy it. They can 
 read nothing but newspapers, and what they read in the 
 morning's paper they forget before they get the journal of 
 the evening. In such a mind thought is disorganized, and 
 becomes a heap of sand. Interest in life fades away, for 
 the heart is anchored to nothing. The soul drifts before 
 every wind of accident. The power of attention is lost ; 
 many things are taken in, nothing retained. The type of 
 this character was the Athenian public in the first century; 
 so degenerate from the genius of their ancestors that they 
 could fix their minds permanently on nothing. They were 
 always asking for something new j and when the newest 
 thing in human history was sent to them, in the Apostle 
 Paul and his gospel, they had not force of mind to take it 
 in, but asked for something newer still. Originality of 
 thought had ended in dissipation of thought. This is the 
 danger of intellectual activity when not ballasted by moral 
 activity. Perpetual inquiry needs to be directed towards 
 an end ; study should be study in a definite direction, and 
 for a purpose, else you have the disease which consists in 
 " ever learning, and never coming to the knowledge of the 
 truth." The satire on this tendency is to be found in the 
 habitual expression of the newspapers, which, when they 
 have narrated any new thing very wonderful and extraordi- 
 nary, add, by way of comment, " What next ? " 
 
 Secondly, there are those who are always contending for 
 new things. These are the reformers, and ardent advocates 
 for all newness, who to the love of novelty add a practical 
 tendency, and a desire to see their new ideas carried out 
 and established. They advocate new theories with enthu- 
 siasm, and grow zealous in defence of them. The danger 
 here is in narrowness and bigotry, for a man may be as 
 bigoted to a new creed as to an old one, and as ready to 
 persecute the conservatives as they are to persecute him. 
 
MAKING ALL THINGS NEW. 211 
 
 Nevertheless, by the help of this class the world moves 
 forward. 
 
 Thirdly, there are those who make all things new. And 
 this is the highest and best style of reform, for it reforms 
 the world by putting new life into it. It does not aim at 
 novelty, but at renewal, and so it is both conservative and 
 radical, keeping all that is good in the past, but animating 
 it all with new life. 
 
 The type of this sort of newness which makes the old 
 things new by means of a new life, is shown to us every 
 year in the regeneration of all nature around us. Every 
 Spring God says, " Behold I make all things new." The 
 old types remain unchanged, the forms of the familiar land- 
 scape continue the same, the grass grows green in the val- 
 leys, the trees cover themselves with leaves, exactly as they 
 have done ten thousand times. It is not a new form, but 
 the inpouring of a new soul, which makes the perennial 
 charm of Spring-time and of June days. It is not novelty 
 but renewal. 
 
 And so the best things which can come to our lives are 
 not novelties, but new inspirations of the one eternal life. 
 The old truths which have moved human hearts during 
 twenty centuries move our hearts as deeply to-day. Our 
 soul is stirred by the tale of Marathon as when the swift 
 heralds, with flying feet, first bore the news to Athens. By 
 the side of the dying Socrates we sympathize with the grief, 
 and unite in the reverent homage of Plato and Xenophon. 
 The great events, the great characters of history, are new 
 with undying life. No moth and no rust can corrupt the 
 song of Homer or the Psalms of David. Thus heroism, 
 poetry, genius, make all things new. The glens and moun- 
 tains of Scotland take on new wonder and beauty in the 
 songs of Burns and Scott The prosaic streets of Salem 
 acquire a mysterious charm in the page of Hawthorn. The 
 
212 MAKING ALL THINGS NEW. 
 
 patriotism and courage which gave themselves to save 
 the nation will make the unromantic field of Gettysburg 
 full of a solemn inspiration forever. . Wherever the human 
 soul manifests itself in its more vital aspects of truth, love, 
 honor, generosity, fidelity, it makes all nature new around 
 it. By this high ministry everything becomes holy ground. 
 
 Life, in all its forms, makes all things new, and makes 
 the world new. Events which have happened a million 
 times before are nevertheless always new with each recur- 
 rence. What can be older than birth, childhood, love, mar- 
 riage, death ? But what can be more new, more full of 
 fresh influence, bringing a sudden influx of joy and 
 mystery, awakening the soul to a new life, than these ? 
 Children are common enough, but every child is a new 
 wonder just dropped from the skies. It seems to have come 
 fresh from God, overflowing with the life of the spheres. 
 What knock is that at our portal ? What step is that in 
 our chamber? What solemn figure with veiled face stands 
 by our bedside ? It is the holy angel of death. He is 
 always in the world. But still, wherever he comes, he 
 brings an overwhelming sense of strangeness and surprise. 
 Thus, to the attentive thoughtful mind, all things are new. 
 To this newness of spirit everything grows wonderful, and 
 a mysterious meaning looks at us out of the commonest 
 forms of nature and the commonest events of life. Such 
 a spirit is the very opposite to that of the Athenians — to 
 the discontented curiosity seeking always to hear some new 
 thing, and the complaining skepticism which murmurs be- 
 cause there is no new thing under the sun. 
 
 A new truth makes all things new. I have often talked 
 with men who were brought up* on some dead creed, who 
 were taught to go through certain forms of worship and 
 call it religion, taught to look on God as a sovereign 
 jealous of his rights, and only willing to save sinners on 
 
MAKING ALL THINGS NEW. 213 
 
 condition that some one should be punished in their place. 
 These doctrines had hardened their hearts, deadened their 
 spiritual nature, and driven them from God into doubt and 
 unbelief ; for, as love casts out fear, so does fear in turn 
 cast out love. Then they were led by some good Provi- 
 dence to see God in a new light — a being without caprice 
 or self-will, with steadfast laws, always working for the ul- 
 timate good of all his creatures, wisely giving, wisely with- 
 holding, loving the good, loving also the bad, not willing 
 that any should perish. This benign truth opened their 
 soul, made all nature new, all life new, made a new heaven 
 and a new earth, took away anxiety and fear, and filled their 
 days with bright hope and joy in all work. 
 
 So, too, a new love makes all things new. Not merely 
 the love between man and woman, which is the favorite 
 theme of novelists and poets, but new motherly love, the 
 new love between two friends, new-born affections toward 
 nature, art, work, country, the human race — these make of 
 life a different thing. Do you remember the beautiful story 
 of Silas Marner — how a man with no friendships, no affec- 
 tions, living alone in a solitary hut, devoting himself to sav- 
 ing a hoard of gold, was robbed of his money ? And then, 
 when he came back to his hut in despair, he found a little 
 abandoned child who had crept into his house and gone to 
 sleep on the hearth, and how this little child stirred the 
 hidden fountains of life in the miser's heart, so that he 
 devoted himself to the infant, and all the world became by 
 degrees to him another world, old fears expelled and new 
 hopes created by the power of this new affection ? 
 
 In this way Christ makes all things new, and " if 
 any man be in Christ he is a new creation." Christ 
 gives us a new heart and a new spirit, not by any miracu- 
 lous or supernatural power, but by the power of the new 
 truth which he shows to us, and the new love with which 
 he inspires us. 
 
214 MAKING ALL THINGS NEW. 
 
 After George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, had 
 come into his own solid faith, he says, " I had now come 
 up in spirit, past the flaming sword, into the Paradise of 
 God. All things were new, and the creation gave another 
 smell unto me than before, beyond what words can utter. 
 The • creation was opened unto me, and the virtues of 
 things revealed." This a frequent experience. After a 
 great revelation of truth and love to the soul, everything, 
 even in the outward world, appears differently. The sun 
 shines more brightly, the air is more soft, the grass more 
 green, the trees more graceful, the flowers more fragrant. 
 A new faith makes all outward things new, also. 
 
 We, who have been born into the heritage of Christian 
 ideas, cradled by Christian institutions, taught in the 
 sciences, arts, and literature which have the inherited and 
 consolidate conviction of the Universal Father behind them 
 and below them — we, who look forward amid the storms 
 and midnight blackness of the present with the assurance 
 that all things are working together for good, we have no 
 notion, cannot form a conception of the change which may 
 come to one born and bred in a world empty of that Divine 
 presence. Mr. John Stuart Mill, in his melancholy biog- 
 raphy, tells us how his father, with a sincerely narrow 
 atheism, shut out from his child's mind all definite reli- 
 gious knowledge. But in a Christian land, and in the 19th 
 century after Christ, you cannot wholly exclude this ethe- 
 real influence. You may form an atheistic library, expur- 
 gated of all positive faith ; but the divine trust, and love, 
 which have become part of your own life and that of your 
 neighbor, you cannot exclude. Men- talk of inherited de- 
 pravity, but is there not, also, inherited goodness ? Through 
 long generations of ancestors living conscientious lives, fed 
 by Christian truths, supported by Christian hopes, practis- 
 ing Christian obedience, the Son of God enters the very 
 
MAKING ALL THINGS NEW. 215 
 
 depths of your heart. You might as well try to shut out 
 the blessed all-healing atmosphere by carefully closing the 
 doors and shutting down the windows, as to exclude Chris- 
 tian faith by rejecting its positive creeds, or abstaining 
 from its public worship. 
 
 Not novelty, then, but renewal is what we need. A new 
 life of truth in our minds, a new life of love in our hearts 
 — these shall make the new heavens and the new earth. 
 We want no better world than this, no better opportunities 
 than we have here. But we need a new spirit of faith and 
 love, in order that God's kingdom shall come and his will 
 be done in this world, making this a heaven. This heaven 
 must begin in our own hearts, or it will be no heaven to us. 
 That is why it is said, "Unless a man be born again " (or, 
 rather, u be born from on high ") " he cannot see the king- 
 dom of God." Put him in an outward heaven, and he will 
 not see it. Surround him with hosts of angels, and he does 
 not see them. Fill his ears with songs of seraphs, and he 
 knows nothing of that divine melody. Until he allows the 
 spirit of truth and love to enter his own soul and make an 
 inward heaven, no outward heaven can do him any good. 
 
 Now this new h»aven and new earth, full of righteous- 
 ness, peace and love, belongs to us all : that is the gospel ; 
 that is the good news. The grace of God, which brings 
 salvation, has appeared to all men. Christ has died for all 
 men, and the manifestation of the spirit is given to every 
 man to profit withal. You need not wait till some miracle 
 has converted you, or till some vast change has taken place 
 in you. You have already the seeds of the new life in you 
 by the Christian truths you have been taught, and the 
 Christian influence under which you have lived. All you 
 have to do is to walk in, through the open door, into the 
 love of God and man. Believe you can do it, and you can 
 doit. 
 
2l6 MAKING ALL THINGS NEW. 
 
 I was told by a friend that, when at the Centennial Ex- 
 hibition this summer, he was accosted by a family who were 
 walking about the grounds, who asked him how much it 
 would cost them to go into all the buildings. " Why," said 
 he, " it will cost you nothing. You paid at the gate when 
 you entered the grounds, the whole price." So I see per- 
 sons, who go to church year after year, and yet stand out- 
 side of Christianity, not enjoying the love of God, or the pro- 
 tection and friendship of Jesus ; not having any confidence 
 of being forgiven their sins ; not having any assurance of a 
 blessed immortality ; not opening their souls to the Spirit to 
 receive its peace. They stand outside of all these divine com- 
 forts and hopes, and do not take hold of them, because they 
 think they have no right to do so. To them I say, "Go in 
 at once, and take all you need. When God led you through 
 the gate into Christianity the price was paid. You will 
 not probably, it is true, become great saints at once. It 
 will be, perhaps, some time before you get rid of all your 
 evils. But you can begin now to receive God's help, God's 
 power, God's inspiration, and the hope of the gospel. 
 Nothing is necessary, but to go in. Nothing more is to be 
 paid. No profession of faith j no subscription to a creed ; 
 no promise or pledge. Only one purpose and one desire : 
 the purpose of always choosing right, not wrong ; and the 
 desire to be helped by God always to do right and not 
 wrong. It is a great thing to feel one's self inside of Chris- 
 tianity, and not outside of it. The sense of safety, when 
 we know that we belong to God, and that he belongs to 
 us, is a source of strength. And do you remember what 
 Jesus said to his disciples : * Ye have not chosen me, but 
 I have chosen you." God has chosen us to be his chil- 
 dren ; we did not choose him to be our Father. He has 
 chosen us to be born in a Christian land, taught by Chris- 
 tian parents, instructed out of a Christian Bible. We did 
 
MAKING ALE THINGS NEW. 21 7 
 
 not select this for ourselves. What he has begun to do 
 for us he will continue to do, and complete — if we will 
 accept his blessings. We have merely to go in. Modern 
 Christianity has often inverted the methods of original 
 Christianity. The modern method is to call on men to 
 repent and believe and be converted and obey, in order to 
 be saved. But Paul called on men to repent and believe, 
 and be converted, and obey, because they had been saved. 
 The Corinthian and Roman Christians to whom he wrote 
 were no better than we are — probably worse — for they 
 had the blood of many generations of heathen ancestors 
 running in their veins, and we have the blood of many 
 generations of .Christian ancestors in ours. They did not 
 know as much of Christian truth as we do, for they had no 
 Bible, no Sunday school, and no religious books. But 
 Paul said to them : " If ye be risen with Christ, seek those 
 things which are above." " Forgive one another, even as 
 God in Christ has forgiven you." " Lie not one to another, 
 since ye have put off the old man and his deeds." " Walk 
 worthy of your calling." " Put off the old man." " Put on 
 the new man." " Be renewed in the spirit of your mind." 
 And all this not in order to be forgiven, but " because 
 God, in Christ, has forgiven you." 
 
 Thus God makes a new heaven and a new earth, wher- 
 ever the truth and love of Jesus go. The new heavens 
 first ; the new earth 'afterwards. First, the inward convic- 
 tions ; then the outward life. First the seed, then the 
 plant ; the fruit last of all. We are not to try to do our 
 duty that God may love us ; but because God loves us 
 therefore let us do our duty. We are not to try to be good 
 in order to go to heaven ; but be in heaven now, by faith, 
 submission, gratitude, patience, hope, love j and then we 
 shall easily grow up into all things. In order to grow, 
 plants need sunshine. In order to any mental, moral, 
 
2l8 MAKING ALL THINGS NEW. 
 
 spiritual growth, the human plant needs sunshine. People 
 trying to make themselves fit to become God's children 
 by painful effort, seem to me like the vines in a dark 
 cellar, stretching up their weak and sickly branches to- 
 wards the light which shines feebly through a few small 
 openings. But only believe that you are God's children, 
 and that he loves you and will help you to correct all your 
 faults, and grow up into a Christian life, and then you are 
 like the same vines planted out in the summer sunshine, 
 and June air, and fed by the dews and the softly falling 
 showers. 
 
 First, the new heavens j then the new earth : this is the 
 order by which life comes down. First, a new earth ; then 
 the new heavens : this is the order by which human effort 
 goes up. For our work begins with what is around us, 
 doing good to our next-door neighbor, and widening out 
 the circles of Christian activity. For our inspiration, go 
 at once to the Most High, as the Universal Father, and 
 live in communion with him. So the new heavens will 
 make a new earth, and earth, vivified by this influence, will 
 be developed into the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 During the present year, Christ can make everything 
 new in our souls, if we will let him do so. He can bring 
 God so near to us that, instead of seeing a great and awful 
 being, to be propitiated by prayers and humiliation, he 
 shall seem better to us than the best friend, dearer and 
 tenderer than the tenderest. We may come to feel habit- 
 ually the influence of God in our souls making all things 
 new. 
 
 So, too, in our churches, the same spirit can make all 
 things new. So in society, in the State, in the world, the 
 new heavens may this year make more and more of a new 
 earth. 
 
MAKING ALL THINGS NEW. 219 
 
 And thus too in the coming year, our nation purified by 
 trial, disciplined by difficulty, may begin to get clear of the 
 snares and nets of selfish politicians, and learn to do justly, 
 and to love mercy, and walk humbly with God. 
 
9 
 
 XXI. 
 
 NOT TO DESTROY, BUT FULFIL 
 
 " I AM NOT COME TO DESTROY, BUT TO FULFIL." 
 
 THESE words are the key to one of the deepest prin- 
 ciples of the Christian religion. Its main purpose is 
 not to destroy anything old, but to add something new. It 
 comes to conquer error by teaching truth, to cure sin by 
 giving an enthusiasm for goodness, to put an end to selfish- 
 ness by inspiring generosity, to- overcome evil with good. 
 This may be called emphatically the Christian method of 
 reform — the method of the kingdom of heaven. 
 lf rr ^j' r The other way, and the common one, is to attack evil 
 directly, and try to pluck it up or beat it down by force. 
 And if evil were always pure, unadulterated evil^his might 
 seem the best method. But as evil is almost always a per- 
 version of something good, an abuse of something useful, 
 or an excess of something right, the destructive method of 
 reform is often a failure. " I early saw," said the wise 
 German philosopher, Goethe, " that our virtues and vices 
 grow from the same roots." This idea is also intimated 
 in the parable of the wheat and tares. The servants, when 
 they find the wheat field full of tares, wish to go to work 
 at once and drag them up by the roots. But the experi- 
 enced master said, " Not so ! lest in pulling up the tares 
 ye root out the wheat also. Let both grow together until 
 
 (aao) 
 
NOT TO DESTROY, BUT FULFIL. 221 
 
 the harvest, and in the time of harvest I will say to my 
 reapers, * Gather the tares first and burn them, but gather 
 the wheat into my barn.' " The roots of the wheat and 
 tares become so intertwined and tangled together that you 
 cannot eradicate the one without destroying the other. 
 
 In the early ages of Christianity, when luxury and sen- 
 suality pervaded all parts of Roman society, the Christians 
 fled into the desert, there to fight against their appetites 
 and passions and destroy them, and so become holy like 
 their master. But this destructive method did not succeed. 
 They ought to have fulfilled their nature, and not sought 
 to destroy it. Jesus said in his prayer for his disciples, " I 
 pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, 
 but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." These 
 disciples wished to get out of the world ; to crush down 
 their rebellious nature ; to weaken their desires by lonely 
 abstinence. They did not succeed. Wild passions took 
 the form of fanatic fury in their souls. Visions of tempta- 
 tion assumed a bodily shape before their eyes. The only 
 way to escape the control of low desires and passions is to 
 rise above them in the love of better things. The only 
 way to overcome the world is not to run away from it, but 
 to be in it yet not of it. 
 
 Here is a little child, who is a great tease and trouble. 
 He is always asking to do this or that impossible or unper- 
 missible action. He bursts in abruptly upon the conver- 
 sation of his seniors. He destroys all peace in the house 
 by shouts and screams, imperious demands on the time 
 and attention of others, endless interruptions of every 
 one's affairs. He is an imp of mischief, breaking furni- 
 ture, overturning inkstands on the carpet, setting fire to 
 valuable papers, driving nails into the furniture. How 
 shall you abate this nuisance ? You may try to destroy 
 these bad habits by scolding him, by rebukes, by lectures, 
 
222 NOT TO DESTROY, BUT FULFIL. 
 
 by punishments. That is one way, but not the best. These 
 bad habits often spring from an instinct of activity, an 
 intense desire to do something, which the Creator has given 
 the child as a means of mental and moral growth. In try- 
 ing to pull up the tares, you are in great danger of rooting 
 out the wheat, also. If you succeed by force in changing 
 his disagreeable torment of perpetual activity into a dull 
 quiet, you have changed a bright boy into a dull one. A 
 better way than destroying this tendency is to fulfil it by 
 giving him plenty of occupation of an innocent kind. Give 
 him a heap of sand to dig, blocks of wood to build houses 
 with, a box of tools and boards to saw. Set him at some 
 work useful or interesting, or, at least, harmless. He will 
 like all this better than he likes mischief. All his irregular 
 activity was a cry for something to do. 
 
 The old method of treating criminals in England was 
 the destructive method — it was simply to hang them. 
 Men, women and children were hung for stealing a piece 
 of bread. But this did not stop stealing. Crime increased 
 with punishment. Now we try to cure criminals by turn- 
 ing their vicious propensities into good channels. We do 
 not always succeed in doing it, but we do sometimes, and, 
 on the whole, there is much less crime under the modern 
 system than under the old one. 
 / The old way of treating disease was to try to destroy it 
 by heroic methods. The patient was bled day after day, 
 and his body was searched with violent poisons, so, that 
 while he was being cured of the disease, he often died of 
 the medicine. This was the destructive method in medical 
 practice. But now the wise physician fears lest, while he 
 is thus trying to root out the tares of disease, he may also 
 pull up with them the wheat of life. So, instead, he 
 surrounds the vital power with healthy conditions, and thus 
 encourages nature to outgrow or grow put its morbid ten- 
 
NOT TO DESTROY, BUT FULFIL. 223 
 
 dencies. This is the positive, creative, productive method 
 in medicine. We are to fulfil bodily existence by filling 
 the body full of life. 
 
 We sometimes see bold, bad men, full of energy and 
 ability, who are doing infinite mischief in society — demor- 
 alizing politics and encouraging all rascalities. We wish 
 the Lord would take them away. " If they would only die ! " 
 we say. But the Lord knows better than that. He leaves 
 them here to rouse our energy to oppose them. He does 
 not mean our life should be too easy. We can conquer 
 them if we will, but only by rising to a higher plane our- 
 selves, being willing to made sacrifices for our country, to 
 give our time and thought and means to its salvation. The 
 people must learn that it is a solemn duty to take part in 
 public affairs, and so we shall not destroy evil, but over- 
 come it with good and swallow it up in something better. 
 
 Thus, in attempting to get rid of any bad ideas, bad insti- 
 tutions, or bad usages, there are these two different ways 
 of doing it. One way is to attack them directly with argu- 
 ment, rebuke, denunciation ; to get up a party against 
 them, to create a public sentiment hostile to them and so 
 destroy them. The other way is to substitute something 
 better in their place — to persuade men to leave them for the 
 sake of what is more attractive, overcoming error by truth, 
 overcoming evil by good, overcoming war by peace, over- 
 coming wickedness by goodness. One is the destructive 
 method ; the other, the method of fulfilment. 
 
 Both methods are necessary and useful, but the last is 
 the highest. If a thing is wholly bad, we must destroy it ; 
 if it is only half bad, if it is bad mixed with good, then we 
 must make the good better, and so destroy the evil. 
 
 Both methods are necessary. Some things are so bad 
 that nothing can be done with them but put them under 
 the ground as soon as possible. They must be destroyed, 
 
224 NOT TO DESTROY, BUT FULFIL. 
 
 burnt up with fire, overflooded with water, swallowed by the 
 earth. Conflagrations, pestilences, wars, earthquakes, 
 floods ; these are often divine agencies of destruction when 
 nations and things have grown so bad that they cannot 
 be mended. 
 
 Some men are sent to destroy. That is their mission. 
 They are swords in the hand of the Almighty ; his besom 
 of destruction. It is a sad, hard, terrible mission j but it 
 is given to some persons to be destroying angels. They 
 have a large organ of destructiveness put into the back of 
 their heads ; they have a mind intolerant of falsehood, a 
 merciless sense of justice, a faculty of criticism sharp as a 
 razor, and they do a necessary work in destroying false- 
 hoods, shams, wicked customs, bad usages. They spare 
 no one in their righteous wrath. They hew down Agag 
 without ruth or pity. Such a man was Elijah ; such an- 
 other man was John the Baptist. Such men we have had 
 in our times, prophets crying in the wilderness, men dwel- 
 ling among a people of unclean lips, hunters of heresy, 
 critics who rend with teeth and claws, radical reformers of 
 every kind. Usually they are men of a billious tempera- 
 ment, sallow, thin, with deep sunken eyes, consumed by an 
 inward fire. They live in perpetual strife ; they have few 
 friends, though many allies. People fear them, but do not 
 love them. So they go their solitary way to their graves. 
 
 But a destructive reform is not the best kind. It is 
 sweeping and indiscriminate, pulling up the tares and 
 wheat both. It is negative, not positive. At best, it only 
 holds back from evil ; it does not incite to good. It feeds 
 on denial, criticism, fault-finding. It is very much given 
 to scolding, which it thinks courageous. It loves to attack 
 whatever is venerable, and often fancies that whatever is old 
 ought to come to an end. It does not know how to build 
 or plant, only how to pull down. It considers its work the 
 
NOT TO DESTROY, BUT FULFIL. 225 
 
 greatest of all, since to fell a forest makes much more 
 noise than to plant one. But the work of destruction is 
 always superficial ; it soon passes by, and by itself is of 
 little value. (^ 
 
 A remarkable fact about the work of Jesus is that his 
 reform was radical, because conservative. Opposed to de- 
 struction always, he thought it better, instead of pulling 
 out the weeds, to grow them out. 
 
 The only thing which Jesus directly attacks is Hypoc- 
 risy. What is earnest, what is natural, however wrong 
 it may be, he pities. The only thing he hates is pretence, 
 cant, lies dressed up to look like truth. 
 
 The great work of Jesus was Fulfilment. He came to 
 fill everything full of new life, new truth, new love ; to ful- 
 fil the Old Testament with the New ; the law with the 
 gospel ; nature with grace ; morality with piety ; reason 
 with faith ; this mortal life with an immortal hope. 
 
 Jesus was the greatest of all reformers. To him the most 
 sacred things of his time had nothing sacred. The Temple, 
 with all its grand and tender associations, had no charm 
 to him compared with the' sincere worship of one true 
 heart. The Temple might be destroyed and made a heap 
 of ruins, and he could raise up a better temple in three 
 days in hearts full of the love of God and man. The Sab- 
 bath was not sacred, except as it served man and made 
 man better. The holy and pious men of his nation — the 
 priests and Levites and Pharisees — he called these blind 
 and hypocritical leaders of a blinded nation. To a conser- 
 vative Jew it must have seemed that Jesus was a most dan- 
 gerous and destructive radical, to whom nothing was ven- 
 erable or sacred. Not the Temple — he said it would be 
 destroyed ; not the Sabbath — it was only a means, not an 
 end ; not the Priesthood — he denounced its selfishness ; 
 not the law of Moses — he set himself above the law. 
 
 *5 
 
226 NOT TO DESTROY, BUT FULFIL. 
 
 Though he said, " I have not come to destroy the law or 
 the prophets," yet he distinctly rejects many things in the 
 law of Moses. He rejects the rule given by Moses about 
 divorce. " Moses for the hardness of your hearts suffered 
 you to put away your wives." He distinctly sets aside the 
 Levitical law about meats. " Hear and understand j not 
 that which enters into the man defileth a man." He dis- 
 tinguishes between the letter and spirit, the substance and 
 form. All in Judaism is true as to the spirit, not as to the 
 letter. It will all be fulfilled ; then the letter will pass 
 away. So spring is not destroyed, but fulfilled, by summer. 
 Summer is not destroyed, but fulfilled, by autumn. Child- 
 hood is not destroyed, but fulfilled, by manhood and age. 
 Nothing really good is destroyed ; it passes up into some- 
 thing higher. " The child is father to the man," not the 
 man to the child. 
 
 Thus Christianity does not destroy the law of Moses, 
 but fulfils it. 
 
 It fulfils the Sabbath, which was a command not to 
 work on the seventh day, by a rest of the mind and heart 
 all the time. There is no Sabbath in Christianity ; it has 
 been fulfilled by a perpetual Sabbath. There is no Sab- 
 bath-keeping left for Christians ; but there is something 
 better than Sabbath-keeping. It is to turn aside from the 
 routine of toil, and rest the mind and heart in love to God 
 and love to man. The essential rest of Christianity is a 
 sense of peace with God and man, growing out of faith 
 and love. This fulfils the Jewish Sabbath. According to 
 the Epistle of the Hebrews, this is the " rest which remains 
 to the people of God." The original word for " rest " is 
 " a Sabbath-keeping." There remains a Sabbath for God's 
 people ; it is to abstain from our own works, as God did 
 from his. Not outward works, for Jesus tells us, " My 
 Father worketh always, and I work;" but from inward 
 
NOT TO DESTROY, BUT FULFIL. 227 
 
 work, from anxiety, care, unrest of soul, dissatisfaction 
 with our lot. 
 
 Thus, too, Christianity fulfils the Old Testament by the 
 New. Christianity does not destroy it. Christianity ac- 
 cepts the doctrines of the Old Testament so far as they 
 go. There were great truths in the view of God as one 
 supreme being, holy, just and good. Christ fulfils it by 
 seeing God as Father. Not the Jewish geology, or age of 
 the world, or Jewish history ; not the story of Joshua and the 
 sun, of Jonah and the whale ; not the skepticism of Ecclesi- 
 astes, nor the Love Song of Solomon, are divine. But the 
 divine element in the Old Testament which has made it 
 outlast falling empires, and constituted it to-day a part of 
 the religion of civilized man, is its perpetual faith in one 
 living, supreme, ever-present God,the perpetual Providence, 
 ruler, judge of men. Out of this faith Christianity grew ; 
 this faith Christianity fulfils in love. 
 
 It fulfils the Sabbath in a loving rest in the bosom of 
 the Father. It fulfils the temple-worship in a sense of the 
 universal presence of God in all nature and all life. It 
 fulfils the Levitical priesthood by making all men priests 
 and kings to God ; it fulfils the ten commandments by the 
 one command, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," 
 in which, as Paul says, all the commandments are briefly 
 comprehended. 
 
 Love fulfils law. The divine laws working relentlessly 
 in Nature are fulfilled by the divine love which causes them 
 all to work together for the ultimate good of the world. 
 
 Human faults and follies are not so often destroyed 
 as fulfilled in something better. The faults and follies of 
 youth are often virtues which have lost their way. They 
 are one-sided and extravagant developments of tendencies 
 not in themselves bad. As years pass on, the frivolity of 
 one is tempered into some deeper purpose. It was not so 
 
228 NOT TO DESTROY, BUT FULFIL. 
 
 much folly as light-heartedness. This man's conceit has 
 been taken out of him by hard knocks ; that man's egotism 
 softened by the growth of some generous affections. A 
 true friendship has elevated your ideas and purposes. My 
 dear brother, the life of your friend has gone into your own 
 soul and purified it. I see before me a group of men and 
 women whom I knew as boys and girls. Then, they had 
 about them much that was false, shallow, disagreeable. 
 They were wilful, they were sharp and reckless in speech, 
 they were dangerously self-indulgent ; they seemed devoid 
 of reverence for good things. But here they are, to day, 
 scattered abroad, serious people, kind-hearted people, hon- 
 orable and upright, pillars of society in different places, as 
 their fathers and mothers were before them. What great 
 conversion has thus regenerated them ? They cannot tell 
 you when or where they were changed. But life has 
 changed them. It has balanced their excesses, softened 
 their hardness, restrained their wilfulness, rounded the 
 corners, and infused into their hearts a sweeter and better 
 temper. It has not destroyed their nature, but fulfilled it. 
 All that they can say of themselves is that which Paul said 
 of himself, " When I was a child, I spake as a child. But 
 now I am a man I have put away childish things." 
 
 The best way to cure our faults is not to fight against 
 them, but to cure them by taking interest in the opposite 
 good. The best way to cure intemperance is to give the 
 intemperate man some higher interests ; to interest him in 
 better things than meat and drink. To cure a man of the 
 love of money, interest him in giving money to good things; 
 make him take pleasure in giving as well as getting. To 
 cure a man or boy of cruelty to animals, make them in- 
 terested in the life of animals, by teaching them natural 
 history. And to cure men of all evil, make them love the 
 supreme goodness. This was the method of Jesus. So 
 
NOT TO DESTROY, BUT FULFIL. 229 
 
 he filled men with the fulness of God ; so he vitalized the 
 world with a higher faith and hope. You cannot cast out 
 demons by the help of demons, but only by*the finger of 
 God. 
 
 The best cure for bodily disease or ill-health is to quick- 
 en the life of the body, put more vitality into it ; fill it full 
 of bodily life. The cure for intellectual disease or error 
 is to vitalize the mind, quicken its interest in truth, fill the 
 mind with mental life. The cure for moral disease, or vicious 
 habits, is to vitalize the moral nature, awaken the con- 
 science, rouse the sense of responsibility, make goodness 
 attractive and lovable. The cure for spiritual disease, or 
 sin, is to vitalize the soul, and fill it full of spiritual life by 
 making God lovable. This is what Jesus came to do and 
 did. " I have come that they may have life, and that they 
 might have it more abundantly." He did not come to 
 teach a stricter law of duty, but to make law and desire 
 one in making us love what is good. To " love is the ful- 
 filling of the law." 
 
 So it is that Christianity, as the highest truth, is not 
 negative, but positive ; not destructive, but creative. It 
 fulfils all by love. Love is the fulfilling of the law. 
 
 It takes us from a low past, to a better future ; not by 
 dropping the past, but by carrying it forward into some- 
 thing nobler. We forget things behind, but we do not lose 
 them when we are in the right way. We seem to leave 
 them behind, but we take them with us in higher forms. 
 We seem to leave and lose our youth, but the best part of 
 youth, the youth of the heart, we need never lose. We 
 think we forget what we once knew, but deep down in the 
 mind it is there still. All the substantial knowledge is 
 there, " consolidate in mind and frame " — all the experi- 
 ence of the past goes forward into the future. Friend- 
 ship and love appear to pass away. But not so ; whatever 
 
23O NOT TO DESTROY, BUT FULFIL. 
 
 is true in them is permanent, and will remain an everlast- 
 ing possession. 
 
 Life passes ! Immortality comes ! Our friends go away, 
 they pass on through the low portal of death into an un- 
 seen world. But as Christ came nearer to his disciples after 
 death than he was when he lived, so they often come near 
 to us, and help us most when we no longer see them near. 
 Nothing good, nothing real, can ever wholly go. Nature 
 passes, youth passes, opinions pass, time passes, but the 
 solid part of each stays, and will stay always. 
 
XXII. 
 
 VOLUNTARY AND AUTOMATIC MORALITY; OR, 
 HOW PROGRESS IS POSSIBLE. 
 
 " For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall 
 have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be 
 
 TAKEN AWAY EVEN THAT WHICH HE HATH." 
 
 THIS seems rather hard — it seems hard that a man 
 who has only a little should have that little taken 
 from him, and it does not seem fair that because another 
 man has already a great deal, that more should be bestowed 
 on him. If this were something arbitrary, it would be 
 very unintelligible ; but I think we can understand the 
 meaning of it, and see why it is right and good, if we 
 consider it to be a law of human nature and human society. 
 The law is a very beneficial one, for 4 human progress 
 depends on it. The working of this law makes men better, 
 and the world better. In fact, there could be no such 
 thing as human civilization without it. 
 
 The law laid down in the parable is this : that when we 
 use our powers and faculties we gain more power and more 
 faculty ; that when we neglect to use them, they decrease, 
 and at last perish. We cannot possess anything except by 
 using it. If we do not use our. powers they are either 
 taken away entirely, or else cease to be of any advantage 
 to us. 
 
 Such is the case with bodily organs, but such is still 
 more the case with mental organs. Practice makes perfect, 
 it is said. But notice this, it is not undirected practice, or 
 
 (231) 
 
232 VOLUNTARY AND AUTOMATIC MORALITY. 
 
 the random use of any power, but it is the carefully arranged 
 practice which improves it. In other words, it is practice 
 directed towards an end. 
 
 If, for instance, one wished to improve his memory, he 
 would not do it by committing to memory at random a vast 
 variety of facts or words. He must arrange a list of what 
 he is most apt to forget, and not go to anything else till he 
 has mastered that list and fixed it firmly in his mind. Then 
 he can go on to something else. In order to improve our 
 powers, we must work for a definite purpose, and with a 
 carefully arranged method. 
 
 Robert Houdon, the celebrated French juggler, tells us 
 how he acquired one element of his power, an extreme 
 quickness and accuracy of observation. His father took 
 him through one of the boulevards of Paris, crowded with 
 people, and led him slowly past a shop window in which 
 were exhibited a great multitude of different articles, and 
 then made him tell how many he had been able to notice 
 and recollect. This practice so strengthened and quick- 
 ened the perceptive powers, that, at last, he became able 
 to recollect every article in a large shop window by only 
 walking past it a single time. The more he exercised the 
 faculty, the easier it became. The more he had of this 
 quickness of observation, the more was given to him. 
 
 A friend of mine, President Thomas Hill, told me that 
 when he was on the School Committee at Waltham, he 
 endeavored to learn how far the perceptive power of the 
 primary school children might be improved. For this end 
 he would take a handful of beans, and throw a few of them 
 on the table, and instantly cover them with his other hand, 
 and then make the children watch and say how many there 
 were under his hand. He told me that they improved 
 until they*could count them accurately up to ten or twelve, 
 during the moment that they lay uncovered on the table. 
 
VOLUNTARY AND AUTOMATIC MORALITY. 233 
 
 In the same way acrobats and gymnasts, by careful and 
 systematic training, develop herculean strength of limb and 
 power of equipoise. I have seen a man stand on one foot 
 on a slack wire, which was swinging to and fro, and bal- 
 ance four or five dinner plates on as many sticks held in 
 his left hand. As one improves any power by careful 
 training, he gets more. He has much, and more is given 
 him. 
 
 But if we neglect to exercise our powers, they degen- 
 erate, and at last disappear. The fishes in the Mam- 
 moth Cave have lost their eyes by not using them, in 
 that Egyptian darkness. So, if men do not employ any 
 power, they at last become incapable of using it. Cessation 
 of function, from whatever cause, is invariably followed by 
 wasting of the organ in which the function has its seat. 
 The gland which does not secrete, diminishes in bulk ; the 
 nerve that does not transmit impressions wastes away j the 
 muscle which does not contract withers. The arm of a 
 blacksmith and the legs of a mountaineer enlarge, but 
 the arms of the Hindoo devotee, which are held in the 
 same position for years, unable to move, decay in size and 
 force. 
 
 The intellectual and moral organs, like the physical, are 
 liable to atrophy, from disease. If a person does not 
 take pains to observe, and to remember what he observes, 
 the power of seeing and remembering gradually decays. 
 He who does not think seriously on anything will become 
 frivolous, and not be able to apply his mind at all. Those 
 unfortunate young people, who are not obliged to work for 
 a living, and who do not work from a sense of duty, are at 
 last unable to take hold of any serious enterprise. They 
 lose the power of work, and spend their days in idleness, 
 and have none of that divine joy which comes from the 
 sense of accomplishment. They can never say, " I have 
 
234 VOLUNTARY AND AUTOMATIC MORALITY. 
 
 finished that piece of work ! " The most unhappy people I 
 have known are those who have nothing to do. It is a 
 fortunate thing for most of us that we are obliged to work, 
 and so acquire the discipline, the education, and the content 
 which result from doing with our might what our hand finds 
 to do. 
 
 To him who hath knowledge, more shall be given, and 
 he shall have abundance. Knowledge in the mind is such 
 a vital and vitalizing power, that it makes the intellect 
 active to see, to learn, to remember. The first foreign 
 language we learn is difficult ; the second is easier ; the 
 third is acquired with still greater facility. If we study the 
 history of one nation, or one epoch, we find ourselves 
 attracted to another and another. The person who has 
 studied botany finds new plants when he travels. Whoever 
 travels with an empty, untaught mind, comes back- nearly 
 as ignorant as he went ; but the geologist, the artist, the 
 man who has read geography and history, or who knows 
 well any industry, or manufacture, or art, is able to see 
 something new wherever he goes. Just as the merchant 
 must send out some freight in his vessel in order to bring 
 back a cargo, the traveller must take some knowledge with 
 him abroad if he wishes to bring any with him home. 
 
 We have heard of persons who have stayed in their 
 house and avoided society until it became impossible for 
 them to leave their home or their room. We owe 
 something to society ; we all can be of use to others by 
 some kindly, cheerful companionship ; but these people 
 have buried their talent in the earth, until at last it is 
 taken from them. Solitary confinement, when inflicted as 
 a punishment, is considered a very severe one ; but these 
 persons inflict it on themselves — living for years alone, 
 and at last unable to go out, even if they wish to do so. 
 
 So people who do not give, lose at last the power of 
 
VOLUNTARY AND AUTOMATIC MORALITY. 235 
 
 giving. I have known, in former years, many rich men 
 who were absolutely unable to give, because they had not 
 kept up the habit of regular and continued generosity. 
 The only way to escape that malady — for it is a real 
 disease — is to give away, regularly and on principle, a 
 certain proportion of one's income. And this law applies 
 to all — to those in moderate circumstances, no less than 
 to the wealthy. It was the man who had only a single 
 tale?it who hid it in the earth, not the one who had five. 
 If you do not give now, when your means are small, what 
 reason have you to think that you would do better if you 
 were wealthy ? If every poor man in Boston gave accord- 
 ing to his means, all the charities of the city would be 
 amply supplied. Let us never forget the epitaph on a 
 tombstone, which teaches the true law on this subject, 
 " What I spent, I had ; what I kept, I lost ; what I gave, I 
 have still." 
 
 So, likewise, those who do not care to see the truth, lose 
 at last the power of seeing it. I have known lawyers, to 
 whom justice and truth were supreme ; honorable, high- 
 minded men, who never condescended to any low cunning, 
 but only used those arguments to convince others which were 
 convincing to themselves. The bar of this city has always 
 had such lawyers — men whose wish and effort it was " to 
 execute justice and to maintain truth." Such men, as they 
 grow older, grow wiser, stronger, greater. They love truth, 
 and truth is given to them, and they have abundance. 
 
 But we have known others, members of this same grand 
 profession, whose only object was to win their cause, and 
 that in any way. They said, not what they believed true, 
 but what they thought they might make seem true to others. 
 Their object was, not to convince; but to deceive, to confuse, 
 to bewilder, to mislead, to win their cause by appeals to 
 prejudice, to ignorance, to passion. And so, at last, they 
 
236 VOLUNTARY AND AUTOMATIC MORALITY. 
 
 confuse their own sense, and lose the power of distinguish- 
 ing between truth and falsehood, right and wrong. They 
 have buried their talent in the earth, and it is taken from 
 them. 
 
 Truth is such a sacred thing, so holy, so venerable, that 
 we must not trifle with it. In public speech and in private 
 conversation, some persons talk for effect, regardless of 
 accuracy. They say what will produce an impression, 
 assert extraordinary facts, aim at excitement, and at last//> 
 unconsciously and automatically. They are called liars ; 
 but it is a disease, not a wilful purpose. They do not 
 know, at the time, that they are saying what is not true. 
 Such is the evil which results from talking merely for effect, 
 merely to produce an impression. 
 
 Truth-telling becomes a habit, and at last the man 
 cannot help telling the truth. So untruth-telling becomes 
 a habit, and the man cannot help lying. Profanity becomes 
 a habit. The child of God, made by him for immortality, 
 and blessed every day by his goodness, living and moving 
 and having his being in God, goes about from morning to 
 night blaspheming the name of his protector and friend, 
 calling down damnation on himself, and profaning every- 
 thing sacred with oaths and curses. And perhaps all the 
 time he does not know that he is doing it. This, also, has 
 become automatic and unconscious. He has deadened in 
 his soul all sense of the reality of spiritual things, until they 
 have become empty names, with which he fills up the gaps 
 in his speech while he is trying to think of something to 
 say. 
 
 We may state the law thus, "Any habitual course of 
 conduct changes voluntary actions into automatic or invol- 
 untary actions." This can be illustrated by the physical 
 constitution of man. Some of our bodily acts are volun- 
 tary, some involuntary ; some, partly one and partly the 
 
VOLUNTARY AND AUTOMATIC MORALITY. 237 
 
 other. The heart beats seventy or eighty times a minute 
 all our life long, without any will of ours. Whether we 
 are asleep, or awake, the heart drives the blood, by its 
 steadily-moving piston, through all the arteries and veins, 
 more than 100,000 times every twenty-four hours. The 
 heart beats 36,000,000 times every year, without any will 
 of ours ; and if it suspends or relaxes its action for a few 
 moments, we faint away, and become unconscious. If it 
 stops its action for a minute, we die. The lungs, in the 
 same way, perpetually inhale and exhale breath, whether 
 we intend it or not ; and if the lungs should suspend their 
 action, we should die. But we can exercise a little volition 
 over the action of the lungs ; we can breathe voluntarily, 
 taking long breaths. Thus the action of the lungs is partly 
 automatic and partly voluntary, while the mechanical action 
 of the heart is wholly automatic, and the chemical action 
 of the digestive organs is the same. But some acts, volun- 
 tary at first, become, by habit, automatic. A child begin- 
 ning to walk takes every single step by a separate act of 
 will ; beginning to read, he looks at every single letter. 
 After a while, he walks and reads by a habit, which has 
 become involuntary. He does not exercise a separate act 
 of will in taking each step or looking at each letter. He 
 walks and reads, unconscious' of the separate steps in the 
 process. 
 
 So, also, it is with man's moral and spiritual nature. By 
 practice he forms habits, and habitual action is automatic 
 action, requiring no exercise of will except at the beginning 
 of the series of acts. The law of association does the rest. 
 
 So to him who hath shall be given. As voluntary acts 
 are transformed into automatic, the will is set free to devote 
 itself to higher efforts and larger attainments. After telling 
 the truth awhile by an effort we tell the truth naturally, 
 necessarily, automatically. After giving to good objects 
 
238 VOLUNTARY AND AUTOMATIC MORALITY. 
 
 for awhile from principle, we give as a matter of course. 
 Honesty becomes automatic — the man who has cultivated 
 honesty, at last could not cheat if he would. Self-control 
 becomes automatic — we rule over our spirit, repress ill- 
 temper, keep down bad feelings, first by an effort, after- 
 wards as a matter of course. Temperance becomes auto- 
 matic — it costs a good deal of effort and self-denial at 
 first, but at last it takes care of itself. 
 
 Possibly these virtues really become incarnate in the 
 bodily organization. Possibly goodness is made flesh, and 
 becomes consolidate in the fibres of the brain. Vices, 
 beginning in the soul, seem to become at last bodily dis- 
 eases ; why may not virtues follow the same law ? One 
 purpose of the body may be thus to receive and retain the 
 results of past effort, and spiritual acts may be anchored 
 and accumulated by physical organization. Thus the body 
 may be the best servant of the soul, packing away and 
 watching like a faithful steward all its master's treasures, 
 and in the future life the risen or spiritual body may retain 
 them all. 
 
 If it were not for some such law of accumulation as this, 
 the work of life would have to be begun forever anew. 
 Formation of character would be impossible. We should 
 be incapable of progress, our whole strength being always 
 employed in battling with our first enemies, learning ever- 
 more anew our earliest lessons. But, by our present con- 
 stitution, he who has taken one step can take another, and 
 life may become a perpetual advance from good to better. 
 
 This is the one and sufficient reward of all virtue, the 
 one sufficient punishment of all wrong-doing, that right 
 actions and wrong actions gradually harden into character. 
 The reward of the good man is, that having chosen truth 
 and pursued it, it becomes at last a part of his own nature, 
 a happy companion of all his life. The condemnation of 
 
VOLUNTARY AND AUTOMATIC MORALITY. 239 
 
 the bad man is, that when light has come into the world 
 he has chosen darkness, and so the light within him be- 
 comes darkness. Do not envy the bad man's triumphs and 
 worldly successes. Every one of them is a rivet fastening 
 him to evil, making it more difficult for him to return to 
 good, making it impossible but for the redeeming power of 
 God, which has become incarnate in Christ, in order to 
 seek and save the lost. 
 
 The highest graces of all — faith, hope and love — obey 
 the same law. By trusting in God when we hardly see 
 him at all, we come at last to realize, as by another sense, 
 his divine presence in all things. By praying to him when 
 we can only say, " O, God ! — if there be a God — save 
 my soul — if I have a soul," we at last learn to talk with 
 this heavenly Friend just as we would with an earthly 
 friend. And as, on a summer's day, when we sit among 
 the pines, though we do not see the wind, nor know whence 
 it cometh or whither it goeth, we yet hear its silvery voice 
 above our heads, and feel its cool breath kissing our cheek ; 
 so, though we do not know how God answers prayer, we 
 have the sense of strength, of content, of kindly purpose, 
 of love, joy and peace, making our whole life useful to 
 others and satisfactory to ourselves. Faith in God, at 
 first an effort, at last becomes automatic and instinctive. 
 
 Thus, too, faith in immortality solidifies into an instinct. 
 As we live from and for infinite, divine, eternal realities, 
 these become a part of our knowledge. Socrates did not 
 convince himself of his immortality much by his arguments. 
 But by spending a long life in intimate converse Math the 
 highest truths and noblest ends, he at last reached the 
 point where he could not help believing in immortality. 
 As the pure in heart see God, so the pure in heart also see 
 immortality. Death fades away and becomes nothing ; it 
 is an absurdity — an impossibility. " He who believes in 
 
24O VOLUNTARY AND AUTOMATIC MORALITY. 
 
 me," said Jesus, " cannot die." He who enters into my 
 thoughts, sympathizes with my purposes, partakes of my 
 spirit, knows that death is nothing. Thus it is that Christ 
 abolishes death. The true resurrection is rising with Christ 
 to a higher life ; as the apostle says, " If ye, then, be risen 
 with Christ, seek the things that are above." 
 
 The moral of all this is evident. Every man, every 
 woman, every child has some talent, some power, some 
 opportunity of getting good and doing good. Each day 
 offers us some occasion of using this talent. As we use it, 
 it gradually increases, improves, becomes native to the 
 character. As we neglect it, it dwindles, withers and dis" 
 appears. This is the stern but benign law, by which we 
 live. This makes character real and enduring ; this makes 
 progress possible : this turns men into angels and virtue 
 into goodness. 
 
 This, at last, makes 
 
 " Love an unerring light, 
 And joy its own security." 
 
XXIIL 
 
 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is 
 in Heaven is perfect." 
 
 PERFECT, in the New Testament, means entire, full 
 complete, all-sided. A perfect man, in the Christian 
 sense, is not one who has no fault, no weakness, no sin ; 
 but one, rather, who lives according to a perfect idea. He 
 is one who has a standard which is not narrow, but full 
 and broad — a well-rounded image of goodness. He is 
 one who does not love his friend and hate his enemy, but, 
 like the heavenly Father, loves his friend with the love of 
 affection, and his enemy with the love of pity. To be 
 perfect, in this sense, is possible and practicable ; but to 
 be perfect in the sense of sinlessness is not possible, so 
 long as men are necessarily ignorant, and subject to evil 
 circumstances more or less beyond their control. Now 
 Jesus never commands anything which cannot be done. 
 If he says, " Be ye perfect," it is certain that we can be 
 perfect. 
 
 This view of the meaning of the word is confirmed by 
 the different places in the New Testament where it occurs. 
 One is in the account of the young man (Matthew xix. 
 21) who asked, "What good thing shall I do that I may 
 have eternal life ? " Jesus told him to keep the command- 
 
 16 < 2 4'> 
 
242 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 ments. He replied he had always kept them — "What 
 lack I yet ? " Then Jesus said, " If thou wilt be perfect, 
 give all thou hast to the poor, and come and follow me." 
 The meaning evidently is, " If thou wilt be complete, not 
 lacking any element or quality of goodness, try what you 
 can do in poverty. You have been virtuous in prosperity ; 
 now see if you can bear adversity, hardship, trial. That 
 will give you the sort of experience which has been wanting 
 to you, and make your character round and full." 
 
 So, when Paul says, " We speak wisdom among them 
 that are perfect," he does not mean those who are sinless 
 and absolutely holy, but those who have the intellectual 
 and the spiritual graces indue proportion — symmetrical 
 Christians. The Corinthians were very intelligent, but 
 their religion ran to the head rather than to the heart ; so 
 it made them sectarians. They were one-sided Christians. 
 They could not bear theology ; so Paul fed them with 
 religion, and kept theology for Christians of a larger expe- 
 rience. 
 
 So, too, in the thirteenth chapter of the same epistle, 
 " perfect " is opposed to " partial." " We know in part 
 and teach in part \ but when that which is perfect is come, 
 that which is in part shall be done away." That is, when 
 the whole is seen, the part disappears in it. 
 
 Thus, also, in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul speaks of 
 their becoming perfect men in knowledge and faith, and 
 explains it to be " the measure of the stature of the fulness 
 of Christ." This does not mean being equal to Christ in 
 faith and knowledge, but to have the same kind of fulness 
 (pleroma), entireness, symmetry, that Christ had. 
 
 We are told, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that it became 
 Jesus, the captain of our salvation, " to be made perfect 
 through sufferings." If to be perfect meant to be sinless, 
 or if it meant to be infinitely good, as we mean when we 
 
SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 243 
 
 call God a perfect being, it is difficult to see how suffering 
 could produce either of these perfections. Suffering could 
 not create infinite goodness ; nor could suffering create 
 sinlessness. Trial and sorrow may develop, unfold and 
 strengthen character; but trial and sorrow cannot create 
 any divine elements not already in the soul. Human per- 
 fection may be unfolded by trial, but divine perfection not. 
 Suffering was necessary to make the character of Jesus 
 complete, or, as it is expressed in the Epistle to the Colos- 
 sians, " perfect and complete in all the will of God." 
 
 Did you ever notice the frequent exhortations of the 
 apostles to this integral, all-sided goodness ? How they 
 multiply and heap up their lists of virtues which they beg 
 their readers to cultivate ! Peter tells them to add to their 
 faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, 
 brotherly kindness and charity. James begs them to make 
 their lives symmetrical by adding doing to hearing, works 
 to fa'ith, and the wisdom which is pure, peaceable, gentle, 
 easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without 
 partiality, without hypocrisy. Paul tells them to have the 
 fruits of the spirit — love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentle- 
 ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Such in- 
 stances show the strong conviction in the minds of the 
 apostles that solitary virtues die, and that only a full, com- 
 plete development has in it the promise of safety. 
 
 This whole method of speaking is predicated on the idea 
 that human nature can have a symmetrical development, 
 every part of which is important to the integrity of the 
 whole. The soul, like the body, may have a partial or a 
 full discipline. A scholar develops his brain, but not his 
 muscles ; the laborer, his muscles, but not his brain. One 
 trade cultivates quickness of perception in the eye, another 
 delicacy of touch. A true physical education will develop 
 all parts of the body. So a true spiritual education will 
 
244 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 develop all parts of the soul. This, then, was the meaning 
 of Jesus in his command " Be ye perfect." He meant to say, 
 " Be fully unfolded in your soul" He commanded a sym- 
 metrical and full development of character. And the apos- 
 tles, as we have seen, insist on the same duty. James 
 wishes all Christians to be " perfect and entire, wanting 
 nothing." Paul tells the Colossians that Epaphras, a fellow- 
 citizen of theirs, is always praying for them that they " may 
 stand perfect and complete in all the will of God." 
 
 I propose to speak of this symmetrical development of 
 the soul, or integral Christian education ; to show how 
 much we have lost sight of it ; how one-sided and partial 
 our Christian life is ; what the evils of this are, and how 
 the natural cure for these evils will be found in a better 
 study and imitation of the human character of Christ as 
 the ideal standard of this perfection. 
 
 The Scripture says, " Whether ye eat or drink, or what- 
 soever you do, do all to the glory of God." That is, put 
 Christianity into everything you do. But into how small 
 a part of our life do we usually put our Christianity ! Some 
 persons put it all into Sunday. They think Christianity 
 belongs to the Sabbath, and if they go to church on Sunday, 
 that is all that is asked of them. Others have a few prayer- 
 meetings on other days ; they have family prayers ; they 
 abstain from certain amusements ; they use a certain 
 sanctified language ; and that is all of their religion. Their 
 Christianity does not make them more honest in business, 
 more generous, kind or humane. They grind the poor ; 
 they tell lies over their counter ; they do a few things to 
 the glory of God, but only a few. Christianity was meant 
 to educate the head, the heart and the hand — spirit, soul 
 and body. Some Christians confine it to the head. It is 
 a theory, a creed, a way of thinking. Others confine it to 
 the heart. It is emotion, feeling, sentiment. It is having 
 
SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 245 
 
 a good warm time at the conference meeting ; or else, 
 perhaps, listening to beautiful sentiments, beautiful dis- 
 courses. It is being converted or having a religious ex- 
 perience ; feeling a great deal of sorrow for sin, and a 
 great deal of love and trust in Jesus Christ. Others make 
 Christianity an outward practice only ; religious practices, 
 or going through ceremonies ; moral practices, such as 
 paying one's debts, giving a little to the poor. So one 
 class of Christians are moral Christians ; and another class 
 are orthodox Christians ; and another class are emotional 
 Christians, fervent and full of feeling ; and another are 
 churchmen, devoted to the church, its feasts and fasts and 
 ceremonies. So do men put asunder what God has joined 
 together. Some are pious, but not honest ; others honest, 
 but not pious ; some are zealous and narrow ; others 
 liberal, but cold; some love God, but not their brother 
 man ; others love man, but forget God. Those who belong 
 to the church are sectarian ; those who are unsectarian are 
 indifferent to all positive religion. They are so indifferent 
 that they would be willing to let all the churches be closed, 
 Sunday be abolished, the Bible forgotten, and have man 
 live without God or hope in the world. And this they 
 sometimes call being liberal. 
 
 Reverence is a noble virtue. Shakspeare calls it " the 
 angel of the world." It continually lifts the soul to that 
 which is above us; to the ineffable beauty, the perfect 
 goodness, the infinite majesty, which is so high, so far, yet 
 which we can see, love, and adore. We rise ourselves by 
 adoring that which is better than we are. It adds the 
 charm of modesty to our manliness ; it destroys the vile 
 habit of self-conceit, of egotism, of mean vanity. It is the 
 one virtue of the soul which is always tending upward by 
 its proper motion ; upward to something higher, purer, 
 better. 
 
246 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 And yet this very fervor of reverence, unless it be bal- 
 anced by the opposite fervor of freedom and self-reliance, 
 of free individual judgment, tends to make men the slaves 
 of the vilest superstitions. Reverence, alone, blinds, fet- 
 ters, and so degrades the soul. Unenlightened by personal 
 intelligence, it becomes abject submission to whatever 
 claims respect because it is old, or strong, or terrible ; so 
 that which was ordained for life becomes death. 
 
 There is another charming quality which makes us 
 ready to sympathize with every One around us. Some 
 persons seem all sweetness. They would not harm a fly 
 They are ready to feel with you, and are so tender, so 
 trusting, so like sunshine and summer air, that they bring 
 balm and fragrance into our life. These are the loving 
 souls, who are all affection and good-will. And yet, if 
 destitute of the strength which comes from conscience, the 
 firmness created by the sight of principles, these natures 
 may become the hardest and the coldest of all. Unable 
 to be thoroughly faithful, because of their weakness, they 
 turn sour, hard and cruel. Thus, love without truth ceases 
 to be love, and becomes cruelty. 
 
 On the other hand, truth without love ceases to be truth, 
 and becomes a lie. The cold intellect, divorced from the 
 heart, cannot see the truth. Instead of truth it sees opin- 
 ions, which are always one-sided, and therefore false. The 
 power of truth is not there. The life seems to have gone 
 out of it. If we pursue truth with our intellect alone, 
 without heart, we become dogmatic, bigoted, narrow ; and 
 at last believe because we choose to believe, not because 
 we really see the truth. So that we become liars at last 
 from a one-sided truthfulness. 
 
 The Catholic Church is essentially a church of senti- 
 ment. It aims at adapting itself to all the wants of men ; 
 of suiting itself to every human need. It has. organised 
 
SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 247 
 
 " good-will to man " into a system, and has carried it on 
 by machinery. It has excluded free thought and enslaved 
 the intellect, lest these should do harm. So at last from 
 love it' has committed the most atrocious cruelties ; burnt 
 alive thousands of martyrs, and laid all Europe waste. Its 
 love, divorced from truth, has become hatred. 
 
 Protestanism was born in the determinatian to be true 
 to conscience. It wished to see with its own eyes, to 
 exercise its own mind, to say only what it really saw. It 
 made private judgment its motto. But thus it became too 
 intellectual, and doctrinal ; it lost the sense of unity, of 
 brotherly love ; then fell into divisions and disputes, and 
 finally exaggerated its dogmas till they hardened into the 
 iron creed of Calvinism, and the truth of God was changed 
 into terrible falsehoods. Truth divorced from love be- 
 comes a lie. 
 
 Perhaps we may now see why Jesus and his apostles 
 insisted on that perfect development of the soul which is 
 complete and entire, wanting nothing. We may also see 
 why faith in Jesus himself, in his perfect human character, 
 as the fulness, the pleroma of humanity, is an essential 
 element in progress. We need a standard of complete 
 human excellence. Jesus has come, in the providence of 
 God, to be that standard. Of his fulness, says the apostle, 
 we have all received, and grace upon grace. The virtues 
 of each age are one-sided — every period, every party has 
 its fashion of goodness, its own temporary ideal. At one 
 period Christianity is made to consist in ascetic sacrifices 
 and monkish self-denial. In another it is placed in the 
 study of truth, the desire for intellectual development. In 
 another it is humanity, philanthropy, doing all the good we 
 can to our fellow-men. In another it is piety, mystical 
 raptures of the soul, lost in the sight of things eternal. 
 Sometimes the fashion is Ritualism, laying great stress 
 
24« SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 on ceremonies and forms. Sometimes it is the sight of 
 sin and pardon. Men are so narrow that they run from 
 one extreme to the opposite. Hence they need the con- 
 stant presence of one ideal form, an ideal yet a reality ; a 
 historic man who has actually lived, and yet an ideal man, 
 the manifestation of God's fulness. 
 
 The peculiarity of the life of Jesus is that he carried 
 each grace and virtue of human nature to its perfection by 
 uniting it with its opposite. His piety was perfect piety 
 because joined with as perfect a humanity. He was a 
 true conservative, saving all that was good in the past, 
 because he was a true reformer, opening all the windows 
 of the soul to the coming day of a better future. He was 
 most tender to the sinner, because most sensible of the 
 awful evil of sin. He who said, " Neither do I condemn 
 thee ; go, and sin no more," also said that it were better 
 to cut off a right hand than let it tempt another to wrong 
 doing. He saw the glories of the coming future, because 
 he saw so well the darkness of the present. Not deceived 
 about man's present weakness and sinfulness, he yet 
 believed in his ultimate triumph over all sin. He called 
 Peter a saltan, and yet told him, when converted, to 
 strengthen his brethren. He told him that he would deny 
 his Master three times that very night, and yet confided to 
 his care his sheep and his lambs. He was severe to the 
 sin, but tender to the sinner. Giving his life for mankind, 
 he also had his personal friends ; for his friendship was 
 not lost in his philanthropy. To one grand, unchanging 
 purpose he devoted his life, yet he carefully watched all 
 the circumstances ; and with this inflexible aim he joined 
 a patient choice of means. He lived in eternity, yet 
 understood the value of time, knowing that there are only 
 twelve hours in which one can work. He uttered the 
 loftiest abstract truths which ever fell from human lips, 
 
SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 249 
 
 yet condescended to tell simple stories to those who could 
 not understand his meaning without these homely illus- 
 trations. Perfectly free, unbound by traditions, he never- 
 theless reverenced the usages of his people — went to the 
 feasts and conformed to all innocent customs. The Sa- 
 viour of mankind, he was also a patriot, loving his own 
 nation, and shedding tears over the coming destruction of 
 Jerusalem. So we find in him represented all the sides 
 of human life, all the elements of human character; an 
 integral manhood, perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 
 But this is so harmoniously grown out of one centre of 
 life that the unity of person is complete in this variety of 
 manifestation. He puts himself wholly into everything 
 he says, into everything he does. He does not at one 
 time express love to God, and at another love to man \ but 
 his piety is always humanity, and his humanity is always 
 piety. 
 
 And, therefore, Jesus is not merely a model to be 
 imitated, but an inspiration to become a part of our life. 
 It is not merely by copying him that we obtain his fulness, 
 but by loving him and following him. His fulness of 
 character proceeded from the depth of his life. We become 
 perfect and entire, wanting nothing, when that life of 
 Christ becomes our life, by our faith in Christ and our 
 love to him, so that we may say, " The life I now live, I 
 live by faith in the Son of God." 
 
 There is nothing mystical in this, more than that all of 
 human life works mysteriously. . An eminent teacher al- 
 ways puts his own impression on his pupils, not because 
 they consciously copy him, but because through love they 
 imbibe unconsciously his spirit, and live by his life. This 
 is the essence of true discipleship. The true master is he 
 who does not claim authority, but exercises influences; 
 who makes us not his servants, but his friends; who 
 
25O SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 teaches by his total being, and inspires by all his life. 
 This is the way in which we are most helped by Jesus 
 Christ. It is not when we believe these or those opinions 
 about him, not when we deliberately adopt certain rules of 
 living deduced from his words, not when we consciously 
 obey his commands. These indeed are good and useful, 
 but the best of all is to come to love and trust in him as 
 the divine light in human history, and so by faith and 
 affection to be changed into his likeness. This is what 
 the apostle meant when he said, We all, as in a glass, with 
 open face, beholding the glory of the Master, are changed 
 into the same image, from one glory to another, as if by 
 the influence of the Master's spirit. 
 
 This kind of spiritual influence we often call magnetism, 
 unconsciously adopting an illustration of Plato in the 
 dialogue called " Ion." In this dialogue Socrates says that 
 poetry is not an art, but an inspiration. He says there is 
 a divinity moving you, like the stone which Euripides call- 
 ed a magnet, which not Only attracts iron rings, but gives 
 them the power of attracting other iron rings. Thus you 
 may sometimes see a number of rings suspended one from 
 another, so as to form a long chain, all of them deriving 
 their power from the original stone. The original stone is 
 the Muse, says Socrates, who inspires her poets, who again 
 inspire others, and make poets of them. "Fop the poet," 
 he continues, " is a light and winged and holy thing, and 
 there is no invention in him till he has been inspired ; 
 and then, like the bees, who go to Hymettus, he wings his 
 way to the honeyed gardens and fountains of the Muses." 
 
 When Christians return to Jesus, himself, and take his 
 life as the source of their inspiration, they will escape the 
 evils of a one-sided Christianity. It would be impossible 
 to make ceremonies and rituals essential if we looked to 
 Jesus, and saw his radical contempt for mere forms- — for 
 
SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 25 I 
 
 religious costumes, broad phylacteries, and the repetition 
 of prayers. But now, great zeal for worship, for religious 
 ceremonies, for church usages, passes for religion. Thus 
 we have had, this last week, an example of a man, who, 
 while he was committing forgery, and inflicting ruin on 
 hundreds of people, in order to accumulate plunder by 
 this wholesale robbery, was preaching and praying and im- 
 agining himself a Christian. This was because, among 
 his associates, Christianity was supposed to consist in pray- 
 ing and preaching and emotions of piety. 
 
 But there have always been religious hypocrites, who 
 have deceived men by an outward show of emotional piety. 
 In our times there has sprung up another class of hypo- 
 crites, who have cheated under the cloak of philanthropy. 
 We have had men in Boston who imposed on philanthro- 
 pists by pretending to be interested in humane enterprises, 
 and contrived to steal their money under this philanthrop- 
 ic sheep-skin. 
 
 And so, too, in public life, we have been suffering from 
 men who thought that, because they had been leaders in 
 the movements for human freedom and emancipation, 
 that they might steal public money and commit all sorts of 
 private villany. We have had men who, though perfectly 
 ignorant of finance and of political economy, have under- 
 taken to teach, from their inner consciousness, what the 
 national currency should be. Because they had zeal, they 
 thought they could dispense with knowledge ; because they 
 knew how to manage private business, they thought they 
 could carry on public affairs. 
 
 It is a law of human nature that all high qualities are 
 composed of antagonist elements. To make a perfect 
 man or a perfect woman, there is needed a various experi- 
 ence. The mind needs to be widened as well as sharp- 
 ened, and the soul of man, in its large capacity, is fed by 
 
252 SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 various food. It wants both work and play, sorrow and 
 joy, success and disappointment, inspiration and discipline, 
 art and nature, society and solitude, self-reliance and God- 
 reliance. So only do we grow up to the stature of the 
 perfect man. 
 
XXIV. 
 
 THE PERSONAL EQUATION IN RELIGION. 
 
 " The people, therefore, who stood by and heard, said that 
 it thundered j others said, an angel spake to him." 
 
 IN astronomy, the small corrections which must be 
 made to the results of the simple law to secure accu- 
 rate predictions are called equations. One of these cor- 
 rections depends on the difference in the observing power 
 of different individuals. One man will note with more ac- 
 curacy than another the precise moment when any phenom- 
 enon occurs. After all other corrections are made to the 
 fact seen, another must be added on account of this pecu- 
 liarity in the person seeing it. This is called the "personal 
 equation." 
 
 I propose to speak of what may be called the personal 
 equation in religion. 
 
 On the occasion to which our motto refers, some Greeks 
 had asked to see Jesus. This request produced a singular 
 effect on the mind of the Master. He seemed to see, in 
 their coming to him, the evidence of a tendency in other 
 races outside- of Judaism to accept the spiritual truths 
 which he had to teach. He saw, at the same moment, 
 that his was to be a universal religion, and that he must 
 die in order that it should come. Not around the person 
 of a living Jesus could Greeks and Romans unite, but 
 around his truth, after he had gone up. Not around a 
 
 (253) 
 
254 THE PERSONAL EQUATION IN RELIGION. 
 
 Jewish Messiah, but around an ascended prophet, men 
 may come together. " Ought I, then," said Jesus, " to re- 
 fuse to die, when, this very object for which I came can 
 only be accomplished by my death. Let God's truth be 
 glorified, whether I live or die." Then happened some- 
 thing — we know not what ; some sound in the air — some 
 sudden commotion in the elements — a rushing breeze — a 
 low roll of thunder. To Jesus it was the voice of God. It 
 was God's answer, " I will," to his prayer. Yes, just as 
 God is glorified, whether by the roar of thunder or the 
 tender sunshine, as His will is done by storm or calm, so 
 should the life or death of Jesus equally glorify the Father. 
 His. life had glorified God ; his death should also glorify 
 him. To the common people it was thunder, and nothing 
 more ; to the affectionate disciples, watching the changing 
 expression of their Master's face, it seemed that some 
 angel was speaking to him. To Jesus himself, who saw in 
 all the works of God and all the events of life a spiritual 
 meaning, it signified that all was well ; life or death, storm 
 or calm, seeming failure or apparent success, all should 
 glorify God. 
 
 So it is that different people, listening to the same thing, 
 hear different things. The personal equation must always 
 be considered. We must hear, not onjy with our ears, but 
 with our minds, in order to hear aright. That which is in 
 our mind determines what we hear with our ears. 
 
 Two men are listening to a piece of music. One hears 
 in the music the soul of the composer speaking in lan- 
 guage of divine melody. While he listens he is caught up 
 to the seventh heaven, and, like Paul, hears unutterable 
 things. The other has no ear for music, and so he ob- 
 serves nothing but a tumult of sound. One hears an angel 
 speaking to him ; the other only hears thunder. 
 
 Two persons are listening to a speaker. It is, perhaps, 
 
THE PERSONAL EQUATION IN RELIGION. 255 
 
 Fenelon who speaks ; or Channing. They utter, in lan- 
 guage of the deepest conviction, the loftiest aspirations of 
 the human soul. One of these hearers has his mind at- 
 tuned to this celestial strain. It animates him with new 
 life, it awakens new hopes, it creates new convictions, it 
 feeds his heart. The thoughts of the other listener are of 
 the earth, earthy. His soul has never been awakened to 
 the sight of great truths ; he has lived only to eat and 
 drink and sleep. One, therefore, hears an angel ; the 
 other only hears thunder. 
 
 In like manner, men, looking at the same things, see 
 different things. The personal equation makes the differ- 
 ence. 
 
 Several travellers, journeying together, reach the sum- 
 mit of a hill, and look clown into a valley stretching far 
 away before them. One is an artist, and he sees the pic- 
 turesque character of the scene. He sees foreground, 
 middle distance and background. He notices lights and 
 shadows ; lovely streaks of sunshine on the green meadow ; 
 black shadows on the hills. Another is a lumberer. He 
 notices the timber, and can tell you its quality and value. 
 A third is a geologist, and he sees the stratification of the 
 rocks, the terraces deposited by the retiring waters, or 
 marks of glacial action. A fourth is a general, and he 
 notices at a glance the strategic points, the commanding 
 summits, the opportunities for moving cavalry and in- 
 fantry. Still another is a historian, and to him the land- 
 scape is living with recollections of the pasf. This is the 
 place where heroes gave their lives for their country ; this 
 ground is hallowed by their courageous devotion and their 
 noble death. Meantime, the horses of these travellers no- 
 tice nothing but the grass. 
 
 People differ from each other in original, organization, 
 in education, in circumstances and habits of mind. All 
 
256 THE PERSONAL EQUATION IN RELIGION. 
 
 these differences make them see and hear differently. And 
 what is true in everything else is also true in religion. 
 The personal element is to be taken into account here, 
 also. 
 
 Some persons, in contemplating nature, see nothing in 
 it but matter and motion, force and law. Others see God. 
 They say : 
 
 " These, as they change, Almighty Father, these 
 Are but the varied God ; the rolling year 
 Is full of thee." 
 
 Those who see God in nature look with anger on the 
 others, as though they were wilfully ignorant, willingly 
 blind. Atheism seems to them not only a misfortune, but 
 a sin. But it may be an original defect — the deficiency of 
 the religious faculties in their organization. You do not 
 blame me because I have no ear for music — you pity me. 
 It is not my fault, but my misfortune. So, if a man cannot 
 see the divine and infinite element in finite things, that 
 may be his misfortune — a result of defective organization, 
 or the habit of looking only at outward sensible objects ; 
 and, if so, he is to be pitied, not blamed. 
 
 On the other hand, those who see only force and matter 
 in nature often treat with contempt those who see more. 
 A religious man is to them either a fool or a knave. He 
 is a hypocrite, pretending to believe what is incredible 
 and impossible. But this is as if I, who have no ear for 
 music, should look with contempt on all musical people, 
 ridicule them for going to operas and concerts, and con- 
 sider them to be hypocrites pretending to find pleasure in 
 a jingle of sounds. Such behavior on my part would be 
 absurd. Since, in all times and all lands, the majority of 
 people have professed to enjoy music and esteem it a high 
 art, I ought to say that the small minority to which I be- 
 
THE PERSONAL EQUATION IN RELIGION. v 257 
 
 long, who see nothing of all this, are probably deficient in 
 our organization. Just so the man who sees nothing di- 
 vine in nature, and finds no God there, should consider 
 that, in all times and lands, the great majority of men 
 have worshipped the invisible, have adored something 
 above nature — some divine power, behind all causes, as 
 first cause ; before all history, as its origin ; below all be- 
 ing, as its support ; within all life, as its efficient motive. 
 The probability, therefore, is that those who do not feel 
 this instinct are defective in their organization on that 
 side. 
 
 Perhaps the atheist may say, the belief in God is not a 
 question of instinct and desire, but of truth or falsehood. 
 No matter what our instincts are, we ought not to believe 
 in God, unless we see good evidence of his existence and 
 providence. 
 
 True, we ought not to believe in God, the soul and im- 
 mortality, without evidence. But there are different kinds 
 of evidence ; different objects are perceived by different 
 organs. Visible objects are perceived by the eye, audible 
 objects by the ear, flavors are perceived by the taste, 
 odors by the smell. So mathematical facts are perceived 
 by the mathematical faculty, musical facts by the musical 
 faculty ; past events are perceived by the memory, future 
 events by hope and imagination. When the apostle, there- 
 fore, says that spiritual things are spiritually discerned, he 
 speaks in harmony with all experience. Just 'as visible 
 things are optically discerned, and sounds are audibly dis- 
 cerned, so spiritual things are discerned by the spiritual 
 faculty. When that faculty is depressed or defective, spir- 
 itual ' realities do not appear vivid and substantial, but 
 vague and shadowy. 
 
 Every phenomenon, every fact, every law, has its owny 
 kind of evidence. You cannot prove the reality of the outer 
 
 17 
 
258 THE PERSONAL EQUATION IN RELIGION. 
 
 world by logic or reasoning — you perceive it by the senses. 
 You cannot prove the existence of the spiritual world by 
 reasoning — you perceive that by inward consciousness. 
 Sight is the evidence of things seen ; faith is the evidence 
 of things not seen. And by faith, in Scripture, is never 
 meant the belief of a proposition, but always active trust in 
 spiritual realities. 
 
 The more we exercise the spiritual faculty, the more cer- 
 tain do spiritual things become. He who habitually obeys 
 conscience sees, more and more clearly, the eternal dis- 
 tinction between right and wrong. He who habitually dis- 
 obeys his conscience, at last can hardly discern any law of 
 duty. To him who constantly looks forward, with trust, to 
 a future life, immortality becomes more and more certain. 
 The pure in heart, who habitually look up to a heavenly 
 ideal, of goodness, see God more and more. He who trusts 
 in providence, comes at last to stand so firmly on that rock, 
 that no doubt can disturb, no disappointment shake his 
 confidence that all things are working together for ultimate 
 good. 
 
 Man has faculties by which he perceives God, duty and 
 immortality. But these faculties must be exercised, or 
 they lose their power. If one should live in a dark room, 
 and cease to use his eyes for a long time, at last he would 
 lose the power of discriminating objects. To distinguish 
 objects by the sight is an art. To the infant, all things 
 seem painted on the retina, and the moon seems as near 
 as his mother's face. He learns to distinguish sizes and 
 distances by practice. If the eye was not used at all, it 
 might at last shrink up and disappear, like the eyes of the 
 sightless fish in the solid darkness of the Mammoth -Cave. 
 So, if a man does not use his spiritual powers at all, he 
 gradually loses the power of distinguishing between matter 
 and spirit, time and eternity, nature and God. 
 
THE PERSONAL EQUATION IN RELIGION 259 
 
 Law is a noble profession. If a lawyer makes himself 
 the servant of right, the advocate of justice, then he be- 
 comes a minister of God on earth. He can protect the 
 weak, restrain the powerful, and pluck the prey from the 
 jaws of the wicked. But if he makes of law only a trade, by 
 which to make money, sharpening his wit to put black for 
 white, making it his ambition to confuse witnesses and de- 
 ceive the jury, then, at last, he is punished by losing the 
 power of seeing the difference between right and wrong, 
 truth and falsehood. Reason, the divine light in the soul, 
 is dimmed by sophistry. He may be as keen, bright, smart 
 as you please ; but the higher light within him is darkness. 
 Take his opinion, if you will, on the best way of getting a 
 verdict in a bad case. But what is such a man's opinion 
 worth on a question of conscience, honor or religion ? Take 
 into account the personal equation, and you see that it is 
 good for nothing.' 
 
 Public life and political action is a sphere for grand 
 achievement. The happiness of millions depends on wise 
 laws, faithfully administered. A slight alteration in a tariff 
 may make the difference between the comfort and want of 
 thousands. A law allowing too great an expansion of cur- 
 rency may promote wild speculation, followed by panic and 
 ruin. A legislator who goes to his work with thorough 
 training and knowledge, may be a great benefactor to his 
 race. Bat suppose the majority of members of Congress 
 are mere trading politicians, creeping up to power by low 
 ways, where an honorable man disdains to climb. The ele- 
 vation of such men, however brilliant and popular they may 
 be, is a disaster to the country. Such men, giving' all their 
 time to personal ends and selfish ambition, at last lose the 
 power of seeing the true issues of the hour. They flatter 
 the passion of the moment, and are ignorant of the solemn 
 destinies depending on their voice and vote. 
 
^vr 260 t: 
 
 THE PERSONAL EQUATION IN RELIGION. 
 
 I think, considering the ignorant way in which laws are 
 passed by Congress, that the principles of the civil service 
 examination ought to be applied to it, and no man should 
 be admitted to Congress till he has passed an examination 
 in some standard works on political economy, constitutional 
 and international law, social science, and history. 
 
 Ignorance in some situations is a crime. An incapable 
 person, taking a place for which he is unfitted, commits a 
 grave offense. Jesus found fault with the Pharisees be- 
 cause they could discern the face of the sky, and tell what 
 sort of weather it was likely to be the next day, but could 
 not discern the signs of the times. It was their duty to 
 study the signs of the times as faithfully as they studied 
 material interests, and they did not care to do it. Their 
 ignorance was a sin. 
 
 Theology, the science of divine truth, is the queen of all 
 other sciences, when it is regarded aright. But sectarian 
 theology, which seeks only to build up a party — controver- 
 sial theology, which sets fellow Christians at war — these 
 make men's minds narrow, cold and hard. I know no 
 worse influence than that exercised by purely sectarian pul- 
 pits and a purely sectarian press. They substitute hatred, 
 jealousy, envy, spiritual pride, for love, peace, long-sufTering 
 and humility. I read an address, delivered the other 
 evening, at the great Roman Catholic meeting in this city, 
 in which the object of the speaker was, apparently, to stim- 
 ulate the party spirit of his denomination, and fortify their 
 self-esteem, and their contempt for their fellow-Christians. 
 He might have urged brotherly love, gentleness, and good- 
 will towards Protestants. But instead of that, he told them 
 to contend for their own rights and privileges, and to show 
 by their demeanour that they alone " were capable of ful- 
 filling the functions of a freeman." He told them to act 
 as those who belong to * the only church which is support- 
 
THE PERSONAL EQUATION IN RELIGION. 26l 
 
 ed by reason and logic," and " the only church which is 
 worthy the allegiance of a gentleman." 
 
 u He who loves his sect more than he loves Christian- 
 ity," says Coleridge, "will love Christianity more than 
 truth, and end by loving himself most of all." In sectarian 
 theologians, the personal equation is very large. Every 
 opinion they have is biased by it ; they look at everything 
 from the point of view of their church and its interests. 
 To build up their church becomes the great object of their 
 lives. What are such men's judgments worth on the sub- 
 ject of popular education, scientific discovery, the treat- 
 ment of criminals, or the like ? It is all looked at in the 
 interest of sect, creed, party. Such men opposed the anti- 
 slavery reform ; they now oppose the elevation of women, 
 and similar movements. They do not discover the signs 
 of the times any more than the Pharisees did. They can tell 
 if to-morrow is to be a fair or foul day for their own church, 
 but not whether it is to be fair or foul for mankind and the 
 world and for the church universal, for they care for none 
 of these things. Thank God, there are now, and always 
 have been, in every denomination, a different class — theolo- 
 gians who have risen above creed, sect, party ; and are ser- 
 vants of the truth, with minds open to all that God's spirit 
 may teach. These are the heralds of the universal church 
 of God and man. A^f^yLS 6u**«L*£^ ^.~^ 
 
 Things look differently to one at rest and to one in 
 motion. What astronomers call " the aberration of light," 
 and have to make allowance for, is owing to the fact that 
 the earth is in motion. We do not see the stars exactly 
 where we should see them if the earth were at rest. If I 
 am running during a shower, when the drops are really 
 falling perpendicularly, they seem to fall obliquely. If I 
 throw something from a car-window when the car is 
 moving, it falls obliquely, but seems to fall perpendicular- 
 
262 THE PERSONAL EQUATION IN RELIGION. 
 
 ly. There is, therefore, the equation of motion, which has 
 to be attended to, in physical science. ■ . 
 
 So in morals, there is an aberration of light caused by 
 our own motion. When we are full of business, going to 
 and fro, actively engaged in our work, there is very little 
 power to listen to the deeper voices of the soul. " Stand 
 still, and consider the works of God," says the Book of 
 Job. " Stand thou still awhile," says the Prophet Samuel, 
 " that I may show thee the word of God." " Now stand 
 still, that I may reason with you," is another practical sug- 
 gestion. When men are moving about, they can hardly 
 hear the voice of man — how much less the voice of God ! 
 A man who knows how to travel does not rush hastilyfrom 
 place to place, but takes time enough, so that everything 
 may make an. impression, and leave some permanent ex- 
 perience. 
 
 The Quakers have always believed that, to see divine 
 truth, quiet is necessary. We must be still in order to hear 
 the voice of God in our souls. If we are still, and shut out 
 external influences ; divine inspiration will flow in always, 
 to tell us what to believe and what to do. 
 
 For the same reason, we have, in all Christian lands, 
 set apart the first day of the week as a day of rest for body 
 and mind. On this day we can u stand still, and consider 
 the works of God." The rest of this day would be a bless- 
 ing, if it only gave a pause to the roaring flood of inces- 
 sant labor ; but it is more a blessing that in this sacred 
 human quiet man can better see God, truth, duty and im- 
 mortality, and go back to his toil refreshed by this great 
 vision. 
 
 Heat, no less than motion, is an element to be taken 
 into account in all measures of space or time. Heat 
 changes the size of bodies, and their rate of movement, and 
 has to be allowed for. So heat enters into the personal 
 
THE PERSONAL EQUATION IN RELIGION. 263 
 
 equation in the form of passion. We cannot judge can- 
 didly or fairly of any question, when our feelings are ex- 
 cited about it. 
 
 Wars between nations, with all their misery, loss of life, 
 loss of property, often result from the 'blinding influence of 
 passion. When a dispute arises between two nations, each 
 looks only at its own rights and its own supposed wrongs. 
 "A little rubbing," says Thomas Burnet, "produces light ; 
 a hard knock strikes fire." Then comes hasty and desola- 
 ting war, with all its cruel evils. Happy is the nation which 
 at such a time has wise men, true statesmen, at the head of 
 affairs, who will not yield to the popular passion, but guide 
 it and restrain it, and enlighten it. 
 
 A strong faith in immortality depends, in no small 
 degree, on the character of the individual. To some men 
 it were harder not to believe in a future life than to believe 
 in it. The majority of mankind, as history shows, are 
 made with a tendency to believe in a hereafter. It was 
 not any argument for immortality which convinced Greeks 
 and Romans, Egyptians, the Ancient Persians, Hindoos 
 and Chinese, the Indians of North America, the Negroes 
 of Africa, that they were to live hereafter. Some instinct 
 of the^soul, some necessity of their nature, and no mere 
 logic, was the rock on which this faith was built. 
 
 But sometimes you encounter men who find it difficult 
 to believe in a future life. They are, perhaps, like Thomas 
 Didymus, and cannot believe without the evidence of their 
 senses. Jesus did not excommunicate this doubter ; he 
 made an apostle of him. So many a man, who finds it 
 hard to believe in immortality hereafter, may believe so 
 strongly in goodness here, that he may be a true preacher 
 of the gospel in word and life. He believes so strongly 
 and courageously in the truth and the good which he sees, 
 that he shall by and by see more. Being faithful in few 
 things, he will be made ruler over many things. 
 
264 THE PERSONAL EQUATION IN RELIGION. 
 
 This subject ought to teach us both humility and charity. 
 Humility, because we know in part and teach in part, but 
 when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in 
 part will pass away. We are children now, only trying to 
 lisp the language of God. How poor is spiritual pride, 
 self-confidence, dogmatism, for us, all of whose opinions are 
 tinctured by the alloy of our own imperfect one-sided nature ! 
 Things look common and unclean, when the commonness 
 is in our own mind. If we are right, it is no merit of ours. 
 A happy organization, a fortunate education, favorable cir- 
 cumstances have helped us. " Who makest thee to differ ; 
 and what hast thou which thou didst not receive?" 
 
 This subject should also teach us charity. If your 
 brother is unable to see the divine truth which you see, he 
 is to be pitied, not blamed. Perhaps he has but one talent, 
 but does more with it than you with your ten. In the other 
 world this poor skeptic may shine, a prophet of God. He 
 found it hard to believe in God, immortality, heaven, Christ, 
 but what he did believe, he acted out faithfully. He gave 
 bread to the hungry, and clothing to the naked ; and in the 
 last day he may find that he was clothing, feeding and car- 
 ing for Jesus Christ, and the Lord may say to him : " Inas- 
 much as you did it to the least of these my brethren, ye did 
 
XXV. 
 
 LATENT GOODNESS AND LATENT EVIL. 
 
 The hidden man of the heart. 
 
 IF we translate this Bible phrase into modern language, 
 we might say, " The latent good and evil in man." 
 
 The heart stands for the source, back of all else, from 
 which our life flows. What we love most, that we are. 
 Wherever our deepest longing goes, there we are going. 
 But this profound tendency of the soul is often a hidden 
 tendency. Then it is " the hidden man of the heart." 
 
 There is a text, often quoted, which says that "the 
 heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." 
 But that statement is not logical, nor meant to be so ; it is 
 rhetorical. The heart is often deceitful, but the heart is 
 also often pure. Else why should Jesus say " Blessed are 
 the pure in heart " if there are no pure in heart ? Why 
 should he say of Nathaniel, " Behold an Israelite indeed, in 
 whom is no guile ? " If the heart is always desperately 
 wicked, why should he speak of those who receive the word 
 into the good ground of an honest heart ? According to 
 Jesus, and according to all experience, there is latent good 
 in man, as well as latent evil. 
 
 But the point which I wish you to notice chiefly is this, 
 that there is in every man a great deal more of good and 
 of evil than we see. That which comes to the surface is 
 
 (265) 
 
266 LATENT GOODNESS AND LATENT EVIL. 
 
 only a small part of the real man. There are depths 
 below depths in all of us — unfathomable depths of possi- 
 bility; possibilities of generosity, nobleness, love; possi- 
 bilities of awful crime, hard-hearted selfishness, utter ab- 
 sence of principle. The moral is, " Keep thy heart with 
 all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life ; " " watch 
 and pray, lest ye enter into temptation;'* "the spirit is 
 willing, but the flesh is weak." 
 
 It is apt to be thought that human goodness and human 
 sin are all comprised in outward conduct — in what we 
 see done and hear said ; in what is apparent to the senses. 
 But, besides this apparent and open morality or immorality, 
 there is also that which is unapparent, secret, hidden. 
 Beside the living waters which come up into the air and 
 light in fountains and springs, and which open under the 
 sky in brooksand rivers, there are the infinite ramifications 
 of unseen underground streams, from which these rivers 
 are forever fed. The tree which we see, rising high into the 
 air, comes from another inverted tree, which we do not see, 
 descending into the ground, and branching out into a great 
 web of roots below. 
 
 ".Lofty cedars as far upward shoot 
 As to the nether heavens they drive the root" 
 
 The outward human form, full of health, activity and 
 beauty, takes all its movements from the hidden machinery 
 within. Inside of the visible man, whose face and from 
 we see, there is an invisible man of veins and arteries, and 
 another invisible man of nerves, and a third invisible man 
 of bones ; and from the co-operation of these proceed the 
 actions of the visible man. What we see in nature is only 
 the visible outcome of what we do not see. 
 
 So, in the processes of the human soul, what we know 
 proceeds from hidden sources which we do not know. We 
 
LATENT GOODNESS AND LATENT EVIL. 26? 
 
 are conscious of our own thoughts and purposes ; we know 
 that we do many things intentionally. Intention, purpose, 
 voluntary choice, play so important a part in human affairs 
 that we seem to ourselves to determine all our acts by an 
 intelligent purpose. We distinguish animals from men by 
 saying that animals act from instinct, men from reason. I 
 believe animals often act from reason, and I am sure that 
 men often act from instinct. There is the instinct of play, 
 which all children have ; there is the instinct of imitation, 
 which causes people to do as others do ; there is the in- 
 stinct which enjoys praise, and loves the approbation of 
 others ; the instinct which makes men take pleasure in the 
 exercise of power, and a hundred others. These instincts 
 make humanity. We are human beings, and not angels or 
 devils, because we all share these same instinctive tenden- 
 cies. These pour up into the soul evermore from some 
 hidden fountain within. If a man does not have them, or 
 has them in a low degree, he is so far out of sympathy with 
 his race. This is the unseen latent life in the soul, from 
 which its conscious life flows forth. Without it, there 
 would be no such thing as human nature. 
 
 But these instincts," common to all men, are no doubt 
 modified, altered, controlled, directed by human will. So 
 we can direct the course of a river ; collect it ; dam it up ; 
 make a lake of it ; or compel it to divide into a thousand 
 little rivulets to irrigate meadows and plains. But we 
 could not do this but for the perpetual flow of the stream 
 from its hidden fountains, of which we have little knowl- 
 edge, over which we have no power. We only know the 
 fountain by the stream ; we only know the tree by its 
 fruits ; we only know the man by his actions. 
 
 Human instincts become very much modified and varied 
 by education. But what is education but the creation of 
 new instincts or the- modification of old ones? What is 
 
268 LATENT GOODNESS AND LATENT EVIL. 
 
 the acquisition of knowledge but the creation of a new 
 instinctive power within you, which acts spontaneously 
 when once created ? You have learned French we will say, 
 within a year. What have you done ? You have created 
 an instinctive power, by which, when you hear French 
 spoken, you know what' it means, not by choice, but by 
 necessity. You have created this stock of latent knowledge 
 in your mind. 
 
 By means of long training, whole nations arrive, after 
 many generations, at the possession of new instincts. The 
 savage race becomes civilized j before, it had instincts of 
 cruelty, indolence, plunder ; now it has instincts of civility, 
 industry, in all which all the nation partakes, more or less. 
 They have within them the latent sources of these habits of 
 feeling and action. This is the only way to explain the 
 existence of national character. There is, in all the mem- 
 bers of the nation, some hidden power, independent of 
 their choice, which makes them act, more or less, in the 
 same way. 
 
 What do I mean by the formation of a Christian charac- 
 ter ? I mean that a man may deliberately choose to be 
 pure, honest, truthful, generous, religious, and that he 
 can turn this choice at last into a habit, so that it shall be 
 natural to him to do right, rather than to do wrong. What 
 he did at firs*t by an effort, and with difficulty, he now does 
 without any conscious effort, and easily. 
 
 Now, all these instincts, whether original or acquired, 
 are wholly hidden from our knowledge. They are latent 
 until they are called out by some occasion ; then they show 
 themselves spontaneously. Some are near the surface, and 
 appear on all occasions ; others are deep down, and appear 
 only on special occasions. We know that we possess some 
 of these tendencies ; but we have others, and do not know 
 we have them because they have never been called into 
 
LATENT GOODNESS AND LATENT EVIL. 269 
 
 action. Sometimes they are so strong that they force us 
 to act against our deliberate intention, as when Dr. Frank- 
 lin, who went to hear Whitfield preach, having determined 
 not to contribute anything, ended by giving all he had in 
 his pocket. 
 
 There is a story told in the Bible about the prophet 
 Elisha. The king of Syria sent Hazael, one of his high 
 officers, to the prophet, to ask if he should recover from 
 his sickness. The prophet looked steadily at Hazael until 
 Hazael shrank before the gaze, and then the man of God 
 wept. And Hazael asked him why he wept ; and Elisha 
 replied, " Because I know the evil thou wilt do to the 
 people of Israel ; their young men thou wilt slay with the 
 sword, and dash their children to pieces, and cut their 
 women asunder." And Hazael replied, " Is thy servant a 
 dog, that he should do this thing ? " The only reply Elisha 
 made was, " The Lord hath shewed me that thou shalt be 
 king over Syria." That was enough. The ambition and 
 cruelty and love of conquest latent in his soul, which he 
 did not know of himself, would be all brought to light by 
 the fact of his becoming king. Irresponsible power brings 
 out vices which before lay hidden, and seemed impossible. 
 
 The moral cowardice latent in the apostle Peter, which 
 could make him deny his Master, was latent, and Peter 
 cOuld not believe it possible that he should act thus. 
 " Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee," 
 said he. He knew that he had physical courage, and he 
 showed it when he cut off the servant's ear. He could 
 fight the soldiers in defence of his Master ; but when the 
 maid servant jeered him for his Galilean accent and pro- 
 nunciation, he did not dare to tell the truth. The moral 
 cowardice, latent in his soul and unsuspected, was suddenly 
 brought out by new circumstances. 
 
 Circumstances develope latent goodness as well as evil. 
 
27O LATENT GOODNESS AND LATENT EVIL. 
 
 You are living among neighbors whom you do not know 
 very well. But they seem to you commonplace and un- 
 interesting, or perhaps worldly and frivolous. But some 
 calamity befalls you. Sickness or death enters your home ; 
 some accident happens to a member of your family, or a fire 
 lays waste your property. This event brings out the good- 
 ness which was lying latent in your neighbor's hearts ; 
 latent because nothing appealed to it. How kind they are 
 now ! how self-sacrificing ? what delicate and generous acts 
 of sympathy they show ! She whom you judged (in your 
 hasty and Pharisaic opinion) to be a mere fashionable and 
 heartless^ woman, comes, night after night, to watch by the 
 bedside of your dying child, holding his feverish hands in 
 her own, nursing him with the tenderness of a mother. Out 
 of the depths of a society seeming so worldly on its surface, 
 spring up the refreshing waters of Christian and humane 
 action. But the sickness of your child was not the cause 
 of this sympathy, but merely the occasion of its manifest- 
 ing itself and becoming developed. It did not make, it 
 only revealed, these kindly thoughts of many hearts. 
 
 Just so the great calamities and dangers of a nation 
 arouse as by an electric touch the heroism and self-sacrifice 
 that there may be in the people. Cincinnatus steps from 
 behind his plough j William Tell from his mountain home ; 
 Washington from his comforts ; to serve his country in 
 council or battle. But " the times which try men's souls " 
 do not make Washingtons and Tells — they only test them 
 and call out their latent virtue. For in other men these 
 same times develope only cowardice, selfishness and mean- 
 ness, and in some nations these calamities arouse no noble 
 spirit at all, for there is none there to arouse. 
 
 Woe to the nation, woe to the man who is not equal to 
 the test when it comes ! If the test does not cause them 
 to rise, it makes them fall. If they cannot become apostles 
 
LATENT GOODNESS AND LATENT EVIL. 27 1 
 
 and friends of the Saviour, they become his persecutors and 
 betrayers ; he who cannot find in his heart the courage to 
 be a Paul becomes an Iscariot. All the dark passions, all 
 the selfish purposes, which before lay latent in his soul, are 
 roused into full activity. Thus the coming of Christ quick- 
 ened the seeds of good and evil that were in men's souls, 
 and caused them to become saints and martyrs, champions 
 of the truth and heroes of righteousness, or else to become 
 its malignant revilers and opponents, like bitter Herod, 
 jesting Pilate, hard-hearted Caiaphas, and the bloodthirsty 
 mob which roared, in hoarse fury, " Crucify Him ! crucify 
 Him ! " 
 
 Patriotism Was latent in the mind of this nation when 
 our civil war came. No one knew, no one could have fore- 
 told such a love for the Union as then suddenly manifested 
 itself. We did injustice to ourselves. We did not believe 
 that we were ready to die for our country. But it was so. 
 " The times that tried men's souls " had come again, and 
 it was found that the soul of the nation was pure. It was 
 then seen that the great people of the North knew what 
 blessings they had inherited in institutions which united 
 union and freedom, law and liberty. From ten thousand 
 villages, from the Aroostook woods in Maine, to the wheat 
 fields of Minnesota in the West, came strong and brave 
 men, modestly offering their lives for their country. In 
 homes of luxury on Fifth Avenue and Beacon Street, in 
 homes of penury on worn-out farms in New Hampshire, or 
 log cabins in Kansas, the latent flame of patriotism blazed 
 into life, and the first-born, children of luxury or penury, 
 went gladly to die for their country. 
 
 . Thus latent goodness, patriotism, generosity, suddenly 
 manifests itself. But so, too, we have seen appalling reve- 
 lations of evil in our midst. Respectable men, confided in 
 by the whole community, trusted guardians of widows and 
 
 1 I 
 
 rtif« 
 
272 LATENT GOODNESS AND LATENT EVIL. 
 
 children, who were relied upon as the pillars of society — 
 these are found to be speculators, using the trusts confided 
 to them to enrich themselves. The very officers of the 
 Government, appointed to collect the revenue, are found 
 to have taken bribes from those who wished to rob it. 
 Those whose business it is to guard the treasury need to 
 be guarded themselves, watched by deteotives, and tracked 
 ingeniously in their contrivances of knavery. Men who 
 were willing to die for their land cannot resist the temp- 
 tation to plunder it. 
 
 , Fifteen years ago came the day of judgment for the 
 slaveholders and their allies. To-day comes the day of 
 judgment for the thieves and their companions. But, as 
 the slaveholders were conquered, so let us be sure the 
 thieves will also be conquered. The nation saved by blood, 
 purified by fire, is not to be ruined by pickpockets. We do 
 not enough appreciate the latent honesty in the hearts of 
 the common people throughout the land. The silent masses 
 of men are usually on the side of right. They do not pro- 
 fess, nor talk, but when the time comes they act. 
 
 Elijah, the great prophet of Israel, fell into this mistake. 
 He ran away from his work in despair, and hid in a cave 
 in Mount Sinai. Then the Lord came and said, " What doest 
 thou here, Elijah ? " And he replied, " I have been very 
 zealous for thy cause, O God • for my people have back- 
 slidden into all kinds of idolatry, and I am the only faith- 
 ful man left, and they seek my life, too." Then the Lord 
 sent a tempest, and an earthquake and a fire, and the Lord 
 was not in. any of them. But after the fire came a still, 
 small voice. And the voice told Elijah that there were 
 still ten thousand men in Israel who had not bowed the 
 knee to Baal. Ten thousand good men beside Elijah, and 
 he had supposed himself the only one left! All this latent 
 goodness among the Israelites which he knew nothing 
 
LATENT GOODNESS AND LATENT EVIL. 273 
 
 about ! Noisy goodness is not the only kind. Goodness 
 which shakes the earth, or goes over it in a tempest of re- 
 vivals, or consumes it like a fire, is all well ; but the 
 speechless, mute goodness, never put into newspapers, 
 written on no monuments, not spoken of in harangues, 
 eulogies, or obituary notices, this is the solid foundation 
 on which the safety of a nation reposes. 
 
 There is a curious passage in the epistle to the Thes- 
 salonians, which teaches us how important it is that the 
 latent evil in the world should come out, in order to be de- 
 stroyed. The Christians were expecting the immediate, 
 outward, visible coming of Christ — and that very soon. 
 Paul says to them, " You are mistaken. There has to be 
 a great development of latent evil before Christ can come. 
 There is an evil principle hidden in the Christian church — 
 a priestcraft fjfoich claims divine authority for itself, which 
 undertakes to govern the church by absolute power. This 
 evil principle is at work, and must come out and be shown 
 and be destroyed by the power of truth, before Christ can 
 come. Just now it is latent, because the external pressure 
 of Roman persecution prevents it from showing itself. But 
 it must be shown, seen and destroyed before Christ can 
 come." 
 
 Often, the best thing that can happen is for evil to 
 come out and be seen. Then it can be destroyed j not 
 otherwise. The whiskey-rings, and canal-rings, and 
 Tweed-rings, and Credit- Mobilier rings, must be seen, 
 manifested, made public, in order to be destroyed. When 
 such iniquities come out we feel very sad, but it would be 
 worse if they did not come out. When the man of sin is 
 hidden he does the most harm ; when he is revealed he is 
 conquered by the power of truth. 
 
 It is a comfort to know that there is latent goodness in 
 us as well as evil. The apostle Peter, as we have seen, 
 
 18 
 
274 LATENT GOODNESS AND LATENT EVIL. 
 
 had ever so much latent weakness and cowardice in him ; 
 but he had latent goodness, too, deeper than his evil, 
 stronger than his weakness. Below it all there was the 
 rock of honest conviction, sincere intention ; and therefore 
 Jesus said, " Thou art Peter ; and on this rock I will build 
 my church." This is what the church of Christ stands 
 upon ; this is its foundation — the rock of sincerity and 
 honesty in the minds of Christian men and women. 
 
 We have seen in this manner, latent seeds of evil as sud- 
 denly developed, under certain ^circumstances, as those of 
 goodness ? There is latent evil lurking in all our hearts, 
 of which we are not aware ourselves. We do not know 
 how many devils of selfishness, sense and falsehood are 
 hiding themselves in the mysterious depths of our souls. 
 If we do not learn this through that noble Christian humil- 
 ity which " still suspects and still reveres itself," we must 
 learn it through the bitter experience of failure and open 
 sin. 
 
 How many examples there are to prove the existence of 
 this latent evil ! We have seen a young man go from the 
 pure home of his childhood, from the holy influences of a 
 Christian community. As an infant his brow had been 
 touched with the water of baptism amid the prayers of the 
 church ; as a child his feet had been taught the way to the 
 house of God ; In his home his parents had prayed for him 
 that he might be an honest and useful man, whether he 
 was to be poor or rich, learned or ignorant. He leaves 
 his home and comes to the city to engage in business. He 
 trusts in his own heart, in his own upright purpose, in his 
 own virtuous habits. But there is latent evil in his heart, 
 there is a secret selfishness, a hidden and undeveloped 
 sensualism, which is ready to break out under the influ- 
 ences which will now surround him. He becomes a lover 
 of pleasure ; he attends balls and theatres ; he rides out 
 
LATENT GOODNESS AND LATENT EVIL. 2/5 
 
 with gay companions ; he acquires a taste for play, wine 
 and excitement. He determines to make money that he 
 may indulge these new tastes, and he devotes all his ener- 
 gies to this pursuit. In a year or two, how far has he gone 
 from the innocent hopes and tastes of his childhood ? His 
 serene brow is furrowed with worldly lines ; his pure eye 
 clouded with licentious indulgence. The latent evil that 
 was in him has come out under the test of these new cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 Meantime, another young man, apparently no better than 
 he, has, under the same circumstances, developed the seeds 
 of virtuous and holy purposes, and has become a man of 
 unshaken integrity and virtue. Why this difference ? You 
 cannot trace it to education, for their education was similar, 
 you cannot account for it by the influence of circumstances, 
 example and outward temptations ; for these were the same 
 in both cases. The difference was in the latent character 
 of the two boys. The apparent character of the two boys was 
 the same when they left their homes, but the latent charac- 
 ter was different. One in the depths of his soul was then 
 a sensualist; was then a worldly and selfish boy. Under 
 good external habits there was an inward turning toward 
 evil. The other, with no better outward habits, had in 
 reality an' inward principle of goodness. His heart was 
 turned to good in its deepest principles and aims. And 
 circumstances merely developed the latent good and evil 
 of the two. 
 
 Had I time, I might illustrate this principle by a hun- 
 dred similar instances. These facts show that goodness 
 does not consist, as we sometimes say, merely in good ac- 
 tions and virtuous habits. There is an inward hidden good- 
 ness, as well as an outward apparent goodness. There is a 
 goodness which has not yet been manifested and devel- 
 oped. Just so there is also a latent evil which has not yet 
 
276 LATENT GOODNESS AND LATENT EVIL. 
 
 been developed. A man may be a very bad man who has 
 not yet performed any very bad actions. He is ready to 
 perform them as soon as the temptation comes. 
 
 The fact of latent goodness is as true and important as 
 that of latent evil. If our inmost purposes are right ; if 
 our aims are pure ; if we have kept our heart with all dili- 
 gence ; if we have habitually trusted our souls to God, and 
 yielded up our hearts to him in earnest aspiration, then we 
 have a stock of latent goodness, ready and equal for any 
 occasion which may come to call for it. We need not fear, 
 then, that we shall not be able to meet any emergencies. 
 The hour may come which calls for great sacrifices and 
 self-denial ; the hour of trial may come which shall take 
 from us our best beloved, our nearest friend ; the hour of 
 death may be drawing near which shall take us away from 
 all ; but we shall be ready for it ; we shall be equal to it. 
 An unsuspected strength will then manifest itself, a courage 
 and faith for which we dared not hope will triumphantly 
 reveal itself. How often have we seen this ! How often 
 have we seen, in the dying hour, a serene and happy faith 
 show itself in one who in life was timid and full of religious 
 uncertainty !. This faith was the fruit of the latent goodness, 
 of the deep purpose of righteousness, earnestly cherished 
 during life. How, too, have we seen, amid the difficulties 
 and temptations of life, noble acts of integrity and heroic 
 goodness suddenly performed by those whom we did not 
 esteem capable of such things. Their hearts were right, 
 and so they were made capable of the right action when 
 the time came for it to be done. 
 
 What, then, is the practical conclusion for these facts ? 
 It is that we should both distrust ourselves and trust our- 
 selves ; that we should pray. " Lead us not into temptation,' 
 yet "count it all joy when we fall into temptation." The 
 petition of "Lead us not into temptation," is the prayer 
 
LATENT GOODNESS AND LATENT EVIL. 277 
 
 of Christian humility conscious of its own weakness. If 
 this prayer is truly offered, it may supersede the necessity 
 of temptation. If we are already conscious of our weak- 
 ness, we may not need the trial which is sent to show us 
 our weakness. 
 
 But if, nevertheless, God sends the trial, then it was 
 necessary that we should be tried, and let us count it all 
 joy that it has come. If it brings out an amount of latent 
 evil of which we were not aware, then it is well that we 
 should become thus acquainted with our own depths of 
 sinfulness. The disease must be brought out before it can 
 be cured. But if the temptation, on the other hand, re- 
 veals and quickens powers of inward virtue and resolution, 
 then let us bless God for this latent goodness which he 
 shows us. Let us bless him for this experience, by which 
 we learn the capacities of faith, love and holy resolution 
 with which he has endowed us. Let it increase our cour- 
 age and confidence ; a confidence not blind, but intelli- 
 gent ; a confidence that God is always near the soul that 
 seeks him and trusts in him ; a confidence that he will 
 never leave or forsake those who love him. 
 
 At the commencement of these remarks I said that the 
 moral of it was, " Keep thy heart with all diligence, for 
 out of it are the issues of life." But how can we keep our 
 heart ? We can keep our hands, by an effort, from wrong 
 actions, and force them to. do right ones. We can keep 
 our lips from saying unkind or hasty words, though that is 
 sometimes hard enough. But how keep our heart ? How 
 make ourselves a right spirit, a good temper ? That seems 
 simply impossible. How direct those tendencies which 
 are hidden even from ourselves ? 
 
 Here, it seems to me, is the place and need of religion. 
 If it be true that our soul lies open inwardly to God, and 
 that we rest on Him, then is it not possible, is it not prob- 
 
278 LATENT GOODNESS AND LATENT EVIL. 
 
 « 
 
 able, that if we put our heart into his hands he will guide 
 it ? And the experience of universal man, in all ages, all 
 countries, all religions, teaches this value of prayer. It is 
 taught by Socrates and Seneca, no less than by Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Here is the place of religion ; this is its need. We do 
 not need to pray to God for what we can do ourselves. 
 But what we cannot do for ourselves is to guide and keep 
 and direct this hidden man of the heart. We have a right 
 to come boldly to God for this j asking his spirit and ex- 
 pecting to receive it. This is a promise we can trust in, 
 that God will give his Holy Spirit to those who ask him. 
 
 I often see in the journals and elsewhere jeers at pray- 
 ing people, as if they were no better than others. This 
 may be very true of the prayer of form ; of those who, 
 pray to be seen of men ; of those who pray mere- 
 ly as a ceremony or a duty. But I do not believe that 
 a man can ever pray privately and in earnest to be guided 
 right, to be kept from evil, to be put into a- good temper 
 and a good spirit, without this good coming. Therefore, 
 "keep thy heart" by putting it daily into God's, hands 
 with the sincere longing that he shall keep it for thee. 
 
XXVI. 
 
 POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL. 
 
 A DUMB MAN POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL. 
 
 I DO not propose, at this time, to discuss the difficult 
 question of demoniacal possession. I will, however, 
 say a few words concerning it, before proceeding to my 
 main subject. 
 
 It seems that, in the time of Jesus, many diseases, such 
 as insanity, epilepsy, dumbness, were ascribed to the influ- 
 ence of evil spirits, who first got possession of the mind, 
 and afterwards of the body. This opinion has widely pre- 
 vailed, outside of Palestine, and has given rise to the be-' 
 lief in witchcraft and all its superstitions. 'It has revived 
 again among ourselves, among some classes of Spiritual- 
 ists, who have assured me that they have known persons 
 who, after acting as mediums, have at last fallen into the 
 power of the bad spirits, and become subject to disease, 
 insanity, and perhaps death. If we once accept the fact of 
 intercourse with spirits, the possibility of spiritual posses- 
 sion will easily be admitted. Spiritualists, therefore, have 
 no difficulty with the stories of demoniacal possession in 
 the New Testament, or elsewhere. 
 
 Another circumstance which ought to be mentioned is, 
 
 that while in our English Testament we continually read 
 
 of persons "possessed with the devil," or " with a devil," 
 
 (279) 
 
280 POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL. 
 
 no such phrases are to be found in the original. In the 
 Greek, it is always stated that they are possessed by de- 
 mons A distinction is always made between the demons, 
 or spirits, and the devil ; which distinction our translators 
 have seen fit to ignore. Possession by the devil or devils 
 is mentioned seventy-six times in our English" Bible, and 
 in every one of these cases the word in the original is not 
 Diabolos (or devil), but always Daimon, or evil spirit. 
 Where the phrase in English is "possessed by a devil," 
 which occurs thirteen times in our Gospels, it is always 
 "demonized" in the Greek. This is something which 
 ought to be attended to in the new translation of the Bible. 
 
 One other fact is that Jesus, in every instance where he 
 is reported as casting out devils, does it by mental and 
 moral methods. He never uses magic formulas or physical 
 tailsmans. It is a mind cure which he uses. He gives the 
 poor sufferer faith, enables him to exercise his own will, 
 puts forth upon his soul a moral influence. This same in- 
 fluence seems to have been exercised by others. The dis- 
 ciples of Jesus sometimes cast out demons, and they in- 
 formed him that they one day saw a man who followed not 
 with them doing the same thing in the name of Christ. 
 This person seems to have believed in Jesus, for he cast 
 out demons in his name. He wished to do good, and did 
 it, and did it in the name of Jesus ; but the disciples for- 
 bade him because fie followed not them. This is the first in- 
 stance of sectarianism in the Christian church, and was 
 strongly rebuked by Jesus. 
 
 And now, perhaps, you may ask, " What then, is the dif- 
 ference between a demon and a devil ? " I take the differ- 
 ence to be this : A devil is an influence which is always 
 bad ; but the influence of a demon may be bad or good. 
 It is bad when you are possessed by it, good when you 
 possess it. 
 
POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL. 28 1 
 
 This distinction I hold to be very important. A de- 
 monic spirit is simply a powerful spirit. When you are 
 able to use it, it will serve you, and may enable you to be 
 very useful. When it uses you — when you are possessed 
 by it, when you are passive in its hands — it draws you 
 down, makes a slave of you, and so demoralizes and de- 
 bases you. 
 
 It is not meet that man should be possessed by anything. 
 He is to possess all things, but not to be ever a posses- 
 sion. " Having nothing, and yet possessing all things," 
 says the apostle. Self-possession is the most manly qual- 
 ity in man — self-possession, self -direction. 
 
 When God gave to man his senses, he made them ave- 
 nues by which to pass out of himself into nature, and into 
 the great, all-surrounding universe of God. When we pos- 
 sess and control our senses, they are sources of pleasure, 
 knowledge, power and good. But you will observe that all 
 the senses have an active or passive employment. W 7 hen 
 we receive impressions passively through the eye, we say 
 that we see ; when we search actively with the eye, we say 
 that we look. In like manner,* with the passive use of the 
 ear, we hear ; with the active exercise, we listen. So, too, 
 through another sense, we either feel or touch. And al- 
 though there are no phrases by which to express the dif- 
 ference between the active and passive exercise of smell 
 and taste, there is yet the same distinction ; and, univer- 
 sally, the passive exercise of the senses is called sensa- 
 tion ; the active exercise is perception. 
 
 Now, the general rule is that we are possessed by the 
 senses in sensation ; we possess them in perception. 
 
 In this magnificent season, when all nature is glorious 
 with the colors of the dying year, two persons go out into 
 the woods. One possesses his senses ; the other is pos- 
 sessed by them. The one is looking, the other only seeing. 
 
282 POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL. 
 
 The man of mere sensation has a vision of color before 
 his eyes \ but it soon tires, and all he can say about it is 
 that " the country is looking very well, this October." The 
 other is, perhaps, an artist, searching into all the details of 
 beauty, hour after hour. He notices the deep violet of the 
 sky, the flaming crimsons and scarlets of the woods, every 
 detail of light and shadow in the forest, every picturesque 
 effect of the sunlight on the meadow, the airy perspective 
 of the sky and distant land, and carries back a treasure of 
 new experience for joy and use during the winter. 
 
 The senses, when we direct and possess them, are 
 sources of infinite delight; when we allow ourselves to be 
 possessed by them, they degrade us. Then the imagina- 
 tion is filled with low, unworthy pictures of self-indul- 
 gence ; then, at last, the man becomes the slave of sen- 
 sual pleasure, and becomes a brute. I beg pardon of the 
 brutes ; they never go so low as a sensual man. Brutes 
 use their senses, and do not abuse them. Forgive me, 
 honest horse, doing your best to obey a drunken, surly, 
 bad-tempered driver, who frightens you with curses, and 
 then beats you because you are frightened — forgive me! 
 You are less a brute than he. Faithful dog — affectionate, 
 trusting, docile — forgive me ! You are higher in the scale- 
 of creation than the passionate scoundrel who kicks you 
 in his senseless anger. Reptiles and creeping things, for- 
 give me ! You nevei stupefy your souls with low lusts ; 
 you never " apply hot and rebellious liquors to your blood." 
 Only man makes himself the slave of his senses ; brutes 
 use theirs, and do not abuse them. When they- have eaten 
 as much as they need, they stop. Only man is a glutton, 
 " whose god is his belly ; " only man allows himself to be- 
 come the slave of some appetite — the slave of tobacco, the 
 slave of whiskey. At Eaton Hall, near Chester, I saw a 
 horse belonging to the Marquis of Westminster^ who al- 
 
POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL. 283 
 
 lowed no one having a piece of tobacco about his person 
 to enter his stall. That horse was, I think, much more of 
 a gentleman than those men who defile the floors of the 
 cars and the sidewalks, with their filthy habits. Possess 
 this demon of sense, and it serves you nobly. Be possessed 
 by it, and you will sink to the deepest degradation. 
 
 The next demon I speak of is very good or very bad, 
 according as we possess him, or he us. It is the Word, or 
 Language. 
 
 When a man possesses the gift of language, and can ex- 
 press thought, feeling, purpose, exactly, it is a great power. 
 Such a man causes Truth, Love, Right, to become clear to 
 himself and others. He forms the creed of a nation, an 
 age, not only in theology, but in literature, art, science, 
 morals, politics. But often it happens that the very excel- 
 lence of expression becomes a trap and snare. " The letter 
 killeth" says Paul ; even the letter of the New Testament. 
 It kills insight ; it produces b'gotry and cant ; and we use 
 words with no sense behind them. When we possess 
 words, we are the apostles of Truth ; when they possess 
 us, we are the ministers of Cant. 
 
 It is a good thing to have a belief and distinct opinions 
 — and to be able to express them distinctly in words. It 
 is well to form a creed in politics, in morals, in philosophy, 
 in' religion. While we possess our opinions the mind is 
 strong, large, and calm — but when our opinions possess 
 us, we are narrowed down, cribbed and confined, and 
 become bigots. 
 
 Not religious people only are bigots — possessed by a 
 creed ; for I have known atheists and skeptics who were 
 the fools of words — always going round and round like a 
 horse in a mill, in the same circle of expressions. Relig- 
 ious people are often possessed by their creed, and put it 
 above goodness — above a holy life. If men say the same 
 
284 POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL. 
 
 things as themselves, use the same formulas, they are 
 satisfied. Whether they believe the same things or not is 
 of less consequence. 
 
 The man who possesses his ideas is a thinker ; the man 
 who is possessed by them is a fanatic. Fanatics are not 
 very common in the world, but we occasionally meet with 
 them. These are they before whose imagination some 
 notion, some opinion, has assumed such vast proportions, 
 that it eclipses all other truths and beliefs. . The man has 
 become the slave of his idea, whatever it may be. His 
 mind has lost all sense of perspective. His judgment is 
 unbalanced — he can only see one side of a subject. If 
 it be a religious idea which possesses him, all who do not 
 accept it are infidels and miscreants, who ought to be 
 extirpated by fire and sword. If he be in the majority, he 
 persecutes — if in the minority, he willingly offers himself 
 to be persecuted. The thing he hates the most is modera- 
 tion, which he calls indifference. But the same fanaticism 
 appears in science, in art, in literature, in politics — wher- 
 ever, in fact, men contend about opinions. Herbert 
 Spencer has recently said that there is an ^^//-theological 
 bias, which is as bigoted and angry as that of theology. 
 Some men can never speak on any subject without throw- 
 ing out some sneer against Christianity, the church, or 
 religion. These are the fanatics of infidelity. 
 
 Christians are often possessed by their creed, and be- 
 come its slaves. Men of science are sometimes possessed 
 in the same way, though I think not as often — because 
 they come into closer contact with the facts of nature, 
 which cannot be twisted much by sophistry or put down by 
 persecution. Men usually quarrel about opinions — not 
 about facts. We get angry in defending our opinions 
 when we are not quite sure that we are right. Certainty 
 takes away our excitement. If a man contends that two 
 
POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL. 285 
 
 and two are five, and not four, he does not make me 
 angry ; but if I am a Darwinian, and he opposes that 
 hypothesis — or vice versa — then I become excited. 
 Speculation is excitable — positive knowledge is calm. 
 
 There is an absence of fanaticism and bigotry in the 
 writings of the New Testament which seems to me to in- 
 dicate the self-possession of the writers. They controlled 
 this demon of thought — they were not controlled by it. 
 An English poet has described this equanimity of mind, 
 when he says of a certain person that he had — 
 
 " An equal nature, and an ample soul, 
 Rock bound and fortified against the assaults 
 Of momentary passion, but beneath 
 Built on a surging, subterranean fire, 
 Which stirred and lifted him to great attempts." 
 
 The Apostle Paul was a man whose whole nature rested 
 on this "surging, subterranean fire." What immense ardor 
 of conviction ! What strength of faith in his ideas ! But 
 he possessed them — he was not possessed by them. 
 " The spirit of the prophet/' said he, " is subject to the 
 prophet." Therefore, he was always clear and confident in 
 his own mind — he saw his way — he was able to balance 
 opposing truths. Though he was the theologian among 
 apostles, he laid no undue stress on theology — he ac- 
 cepted all his own opinions as not absolute, but relative — 
 as only provisional till something better came. " We know 
 in part, and teach in part," says he, " but when that which 
 is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done 
 away." Faith in Christ is the key to his system — its 
 corner-stone ; nevertheless he says, that Love is greater 
 than Faith. 
 
 Every young man who reads this book unless he be a 
 clergyman or a divinity student, is hoping to be rich 
 
286 POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL. 
 
 some time or other. That is right. Wealth is a good 
 thing. We sometimes hear the Bible quoted as though it 
 said that money is the root of all evil. This is a misquota- 
 tion — what it says is that the love of money is the root of 
 all evil. There is nothing wrong about the wish to be rich 
 — as long as it does not become an absorbing passion. In 
 fact, a very large part of our civilization comes from the 
 effort to make money. Without this motive we should 
 sink back into barbarism. Some persons contend that no 
 one ought to receive interest for the use of money — they 
 denounce taking of interest as wrong. But what would be 
 the result of forbidding interest to be taken? The result 
 would be that men would hoard their money — dig a hole 
 in the ground, and bury it, as they do in Asia. But now 
 they lend it, for six, ten, twelve per cent, to persons who 
 can put it into their business, and make twenty, forty, a 
 hundred per cent, out of it. Men would not pay interest 
 on money if they did not make more out of it than they 
 pay — and those who deal with them are also profited, or 
 they would not deal with them. I, therefore, do not object 
 to money-making. The effort to accumulate a fortune. is 
 in itself an education. It develops prudence, foresight 
 accuracy, knowledge of things. Money is a demon, a 
 great motive power, a mighty influence for good or evil. 
 If we possess it, it does us good — if we allow it to possess 
 us, it does us harm. 
 
 How many men there are in our community, who con- 
 sider themselves to possess property, who are, in fact, 
 possessed by it ! What terrible illustrations we have had, 
 in the last few years, of high-minded, honorable men, 
 brought low by this mistake ! They were in such a hurry 
 to get rich, they could not wait. What Credit-Mobilier 
 transactions — what Salary-Grabs in Congress — what brib- 
 ing of Legislatures — what Rings to plunder municipalities 
 
POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL. 287 
 
 — what defalcations of officers in banks, and of treasurers 
 of trust companies. Some of these men I have known — 
 men who seemed to have died weighed down by remorse 
 and shame. They were good men when I knew them — 
 they were not so bad men as many others even when they 
 fell into these crimes ; but they allowed themselves to be 
 possessed by their money, instead of possessing it — that 
 was all. 
 
 What is the difference between a scholar and a pedant, 
 but that the scholar possesses his knowledge, the pedant 
 is possessed by it ? The scholar knows what he knows, 
 and what he knows it for. He is able to use his knowl- 
 edge, he has it at command. The pedant has a head filled 
 with ilL-assorted, ill-arranged learning, useless to himself 
 and to others. 
 
 I once knew a man who spent his life in tracing our 
 English Bible to its sources in all previous translations. 
 He gathered a library of books, all bearing on this subject. 
 He professed to be writing a history of the English Bible, 
 and sent out subscription papers to publish it. He could 
 think of nothing else, talk of nothing else. It possessed 
 him entirely. If he met you, he would begin, without a 
 preamble, and talk about Beza, the Bishop's Bible, Cover- 
 dale's translation, Tyndall, and the like. When he died, 
 they searched for his MSS. to print it, and found that he 
 had never written a word of it. He was possessed by his 
 knowledge — he did not possess it. 
 
 Some teachers take possession of their disciples, and 
 run them into the mould of their own thought. The 
 scholar repeats, like a parrot, the opinions of his teacher. 
 He is possessed by his teacher. But the wise and truly 
 great teacher never' does this ; he rouses the independent 
 faculties of the pulpit — he awakens all his own powers — 
 he gives him to himself. This is education — the other is 
 only cramming. 
 
288 POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL. 
 
 Any kind of work which we possess and direct partakes 
 of the nature of art ; if it possesses us, it is only drudgery. 
 He who puts thought and love into his work, and desires 
 to do it as well as it can be done, is a real artist, if he 
 only sweeps a room. A little bootblack was once brushing 
 my shoe ; when it was nearly finished, I said, " That will 
 do ; " but he said, " No ! Let me shine it all round." 
 Now he was an artist ; he had the spirit of art in him a 
 great deal more than many a slovenly painter, who works 
 below his own level merely to sell as many pictures as 
 possible. 
 
 The difference between love and fascination is exactly 
 the same. When we truly and nobly love, we possess our 
 love, and are not its slaves. We are able then to say> 
 
 " I should not love thee, dear, so much 
 Loved I not honor more. " 
 
 But when we are possessed by our love, that is fascina- 
 tion, and we are degraded by it. 
 
 A young lady may possess her beauty or be possessed by 
 it. If she possesses it, it is a part of herself — the expres- 
 sion of her soul, and it does us good to look at her. But 
 if it takes possession of her, then it makes her artificial, 
 affected, false, and at last ceases to be beauty, because the 
 soul has gone out of it. 
 
 Thus we may apply this principle to all of our life and 
 actions. When fear possesses us, it makes us cowards ; 
 when we possess it, we are only prudently cautious. When 
 we are possessed by the love of approbation, the desire to 
 please, we become artificial and false — when we possess this 
 desire, it makes us kindly and pleasant. 
 
 We are not intended to be the slaves of anything. All 
 outward things are to serve us — we are not to serve them. 
 
POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL. 289 
 
 Shakespeare complains of having to devote himself to a work 
 which was to'o absorbing. 
 
 " Almost thence my nature is subdued 
 To what it works in, like the dyer's hand. " 
 
 We may even become the slaves of conscience, and be 
 possessed by it injuriously. True morality is always free 
 and manly — not the slave of scruples. A conscience may 
 become morbidly scrupulous ; it may be irritable and anx- 
 ious, and, instead of making one better, it will make him 
 worse. We may be sure that God never calls on us to do 
 any duty, without giving us knowledge enough to know 
 what it is, and power enough to perform it. There is a 
 great deal of negative conscientiousness in the world — 
 which is so afraid of doing wrong that it never does right. 
 But what we need is the spirit of right doing going into 
 everything — then the letter of right-doing will follow. If 
 we have in us the spirit of truth, of honesty, of kindness, 
 of good-will — the spirit of temperance, patience, self- 
 control — we need not torment ourselves with scruples 
 about difficult cases of conscience. God will lead us right 
 when the time comes, if we are trusting in him. 
 
 There are two kinds of religion — the religion we pos- 
 sess, and the religion which possesses us. One is true 
 religion — the other is superstition. Many of the religions 
 of the world are of the last sort. Men are possessed by 
 them. Christianity is different in this, that it leaves us in 
 possession of reason and freedom. 
 
 The low form of religion take possession of a man, 
 sweeps him away, throws him into a trance or ecstasy, and 
 he says he knows not what. So it was with the priests of 
 the old oracles, so with the Dervishes of Mohammed, so 
 with the Fakirs of India. 
 
 The same thing happens sometimes in Christianity. It 
 J 9 
 
29O POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL. 
 
 happened at first. The gift of tongues was something of 
 the sort. Paul says, Prophecy is better; that is useful. 
 Tongues are useless ; they have no sense, no meaning. " I 
 had rather speak five words with my understanding to teach 
 others, then ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.'' — 
 God is not author of confusion, but of peace. The spirit of 
 prophets is subject to the prophets. Christianity is free. 
 " Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," "Ye shall 
 know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Chris- 
 tianity cares not to silence the understanding by mysteries, 
 but to reveal truth, unveil it. Whenever religion makes a 
 man a coward or a slave, it is not true religion. When it 
 makes him say what he does not really believe, for fear of 
 offending God, as though God loved anything better than 
 honesty, then it is false religion. Job knew better than that. 
 His friends wanted him to say that: he had sinned when he 
 did not see it. He refused. He said, " Shall I respect 
 the person of God ? Shall I speak words of wind concern- 
 ing him ? " 
 
 " There is more faith in honest doubt than in half our 
 creeds," says Tennyson, and he says truly. 
 
 So also with religious ceremonies and ordinances. Some 
 possess them — others are possessed by them. The Puri- 
 tans were possessed by the Sabbath. They paid a slavish 
 obedience to its letter. A Scotch Presbyterian was blaming 
 some one for taking a walk on the Sabbath day. The man 
 reminded him that Jesus took a walk with his disciples on 
 the Sabbath. " I know he did," replied the Scotchman, 
 "and I never thought any better of him for it" 
 
 Some persons are possessed by the Bible. They read 
 it as though reading it were a magical charm, and were to 
 do them good by its letter. Others read it for its spirit — 
 its hopeful, brave, loving, tender spirit — and they possess 
 the Bible. It is their friend, not their master. 
 
POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL. 29I 
 
 I have known persons possessed by their prayer-book j 
 to them it was as full of plenary inspiration as the Bible. 
 They paid it a blind, idolatrous reverence, instead of an in- 
 telligent respect. 
 
 I know sensible people who have a feeling about baptism? 
 as though it were a little safer for a child to die after it is 
 baptized than to die before it is baptized. As though God 
 would love it more because of this ceremony ! 
 
 So people say, " We have got religion, " when they have 
 put themselves into an excitable state, and received a great 
 impulse of emotion, which has swept over their soul like a 
 wave. They say they have got religion. Perhaps they 
 have. But very often religion has got them. They were 
 free, broad, kindly, liberal, before ; henceforth they become 
 narrow partisans, bitter zealots ; they denounce all those 
 who differ from them. If they have got religion, they have 
 got a very poor religion. And if religion has got them, it 
 is not the Spirit of God ; for the fruits of that Holy Spirit 
 are love, joy and peace, — not bitterness, wrath and evil 
 speaking, with all uncharitableness. 
 
 The essence of true religion is a holy life — a life up- 
 right, true, generous and pure. Where this exists in the 
 soul and in the conduct all is right. The man then is able 
 to possess himself in peace and hope. 
 
 This self-possession is what we need. We are not to be 
 the slaves of the senses, the slaves of habit, the slaves of 
 money, the slaves of words, forms, ceremonies. God means 
 us to be free, and so to make others free. 
 
 If any one is conscious of this partial insanity — if he 
 is possessed by any demon — let him believe that it can be 
 cast out. When Jesus was in the world he cast out devils 
 by the power of his faith in God and man, and gave his 
 disciples power to do the same. This power still remains 
 in the world. What we need is confidence, in order to cast 
 out any demon. 
 
292 POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL. 
 
 When I was at the Washingtonian Home, in this city, 
 the head of that establishment told me that, no matter how 
 much a man might be the slave of liquor, he could always 
 be made to leave off drinking by being told by other re- 
 formed drunkards of their own experience. " I was as great 
 a drunkard as you are, and I have not tasted liquor for ten 
 years." That would give him faith in the possibility of his 
 own reform and enable him to make the effort. So this 
 demon of drink is cast out, for a while, at least, by the 
 power of faith. 
 
 The demon of insanity can be cast out in the same 
 way by the same power. I once went to see Channing at 
 Newport, and he told me that a minister of the Christian 
 Baptists had been to see him that day, and had told how 
 he had once been called in to exorcise a madman. The 
 man was in a paroxysm ; but his friends had an idea that 
 it could be relieved by prayer. The minister himself, a 
 man of simple faith, could not refuse the request, and went 
 into the room where the maniac was, took him by the hand, 
 and said, " Let us kneel down and pray." He said that 
 he never prayed so sincerely in all his life. When he began, 
 the man's muscles were like iron ; as he went on, they 
 gradually relaxed, and when he finished the maniac was 
 quiet and peaceful. Channing thought, and I think, that 
 the strong faith of the minister acted on the patient's body, 
 through his mind. 
 
 We have heard a great deal of the influence of the body 
 on the mind ; one of these days we shall know something 
 of the influence of the mind on the body. 
 
 The result of what we have said is this : we need to 
 possess all our powers, faculties, and instruments, and not 
 to be possessed by any of them. 
 
 And in order to cast out these demons, we need faith 
 in God, in his providence, in his love, in his perpetual in- 
 
POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL. 293 
 
 fluence to lift us up to commune with himself. And he 
 who has a real faith in Jesus must believe that he came to 
 put us into possession of ourselves, and to give us " the 
 glorious liberty of the sons of God. " We are not to be 
 possessed by a heap of money, or a habit of sensuality ; we 
 are not to be enslaved to a pack of cards or a bottle of 
 whiskey; we are not to be the servants of fashion, opinion, 
 creeds, ceremonies. But if a man is really a disciple of Jesus, 
 then he may say, All things are ours ; whether Paul, or 
 Apollos, or Peter, or the Roman Church, or Protestantism, 
 they belong to us. We do not belong to them. We are 
 not the servants of things present or of things to come. 
 All are ours, and we belong to God, and are his children. 
 
XXVII. 
 
 GET THEE BEHIND ME, SATAN ! 
 " Get thee behind me, satan." 
 
 JESUS here calls Peter Satan, though just before he had 
 promised him the keys of heaven. He called him 
 Satan because he tempted Jesus to draw back from his 
 duties ; because he begged him not to go to Jerusalem, 
 since that was going to his death. 
 
 It has been a general opinion in the church that there 
 is a Prince of Evil, whose office is to tempt mankind. Mar- 
 tin Luther, it is well known, had a firm and practical be- 
 lief in diabolic agency. His " Table-Talk " is full of it. 
 In one place, he says : "lama Doctor of Holy Scripture, 
 and for many years have preached Christ ; yet, to this day, 
 I am not able to put Satan off, or to drive him away from 
 me, as I would." He gives minute directions for resisting 
 Satan. He thinks Satan dislikes being laughed at, and 
 that it is a good plan to ridicule him. So he says that 
 when Satan tempts him to despair, telling him what a great 
 sinner he is, he replies : " Then pray for me, Saint Satan." 
 There is something quite ' gallant in the way in which 
 Luther fought Satan. 
 
 I have sometimes thought that the notion of a Satan or 
 a Devil came from the need of having something to fight. 
 The Devil, perhaps, is the child of the Organ of Combative- 
 (294) 
 
GET THEE BEHIND ME, SATAN ! 295 
 
 ness in man. We put the evil in us outside of us, so that- 
 we may fight it, and call it Devil. St. James says : " Every 
 man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts and 
 enticed." But it enables us to concentrate our energies 
 against evil, to personify it in the form of an enemy against 
 whom we can throw the inkstand (as Luther did, in more 
 senses than one), whom we can talk to, argue with, and 
 almost see before us in a visible form, with hoofs and horns. 
 So, without undertaking to decide whether there is any real 
 Devil, or not, I shall speak in this discourse as if there 
 were a Devil, and shall endeavor to show what some of 
 his methods are, and how we can resist them. 
 
 And, first, we must see what the chief object of Satan 
 is, and whom he tempts. He does not trouble himself 
 about those who are not trying to serve God. He leaves 
 them to themselves. They do not need a Satan. They 
 are travelling on together, in his direction, and that is 
 enough. If one cares nothing about God or duty, nothing 
 about improvement, or usefulness, Satan lets him go ; he 
 does not waste his force on him ; he will take care of him- 
 self. The motto of Satan, as of Jesus, is : " He who is not 
 against me, is with me." The principle of evil and of good 
 are both so positive, that they are sure to repel and attract 
 equally. If they do not attract, they repel ; if they do not 
 repel, they attract. Wherever either Jesus or Satan come, 
 they judge men. Jesus parts the sheep from the goats by 
 attracting the sheep. Satan parts them also, but by at- 
 tracting the goats. Therefore, it comes almost to the same 
 thing whether we resist evil or follow good. If we love 
 good, we need not think of evil ; if we hate evil and fight 
 against it, it is a sign that we have the love of good in us. 
 Almost ; not quite. For to follow an attraction rather than 
 a repulsion is always the best way. 
 
 The object of Satan is to tempt those who are going to 
 
296 GET THEE BEHIND ME, SATAN ! 
 
 God, and lead them astray. For this end he tries all arts 
 and contrivances. Sometimes he comes as a friend ; some- 
 times he appears as an angel of light ; sometimes he 
 quotes Scripture for his purpose ; but you can detect him 
 under all his disguise by his desire of drawing you away 
 from God. 
 
 One thing which Satan likes well to do, is to persuade 
 us to lower our standard of duty. If he finds a young man, 
 well brought up, of good habits, one who has been taught, 
 at home, industry, sobriety, virtue, — taught to keep clear 
 of wine, gaming, dissipation of all sorts, — the Devil comes 
 to him, usually in the form of some good fellow, some kind- 
 ly, pleasant companion, and says : " What's the use of 
 being so particular ? Why not do as others do ? Why 
 should you be so much better than every one else ? Come 
 along with us ; there's no harm in it. Try it, just for once. 
 I tell you what, it's first rate. You'll have a good time ; 
 and if you do not like it, you need not do it again." For 
 Satan makes great use of curiosity. He knows how to ex- 
 cite the imagination of a novice, about things unknown. 
 This temptation is very effective with young people, both 
 boys and girls, who are naturally curious. For this reason, 
 it is not a bad thing for parents and friends to blunt the 
 edge of curiosity by showing, themselves, to young people 
 whatever amusements are not evil. The theatre is very 
 attractive to those who have not been to it. But if chil- 
 dren are taken there occasionally by their parents, they are 
 not likely to be fascinated by it afterwards. So of dancing, 
 card-playing, and the like. Let children see all these things 
 when they are with their parents and their imagination 
 will not be excited by them afterwards. 
 
 One of the great objects of the Devil is to discourage 
 us. Courage, hope, and faith, make so large a part of 
 goodness, that the aim of Jesus is chiefly to encourage us, 
 
GET THEE BEHIND ME, SATAN ! 297 
 
 and that of the Devil chiefly to discourage us. If the Devil 
 can only persuade us that we are such great sinners that it 
 is of no use trying to be good, he has gained his point. 
 Christ hangs round our neck a cross, on which is written, 
 u Hope on, hope ever." The Devil gives us as his talis- 
 man, an easy chair, with the motto, " It's of no use." He 
 is always suggesting that our sins are so great we had bet- 
 ter not try to get rid of them. The Scripture he relies 
 upon the most, and which may be called the Devil's proof- 
 test, is that about the unpardonable sin. If he can only 
 persuade any one that he has committed the unpardonable 
 sin, he is sure of him, unless Christ comes to the rescue. 
 
 But Satan has another trick, of the opposite kind. If 
 he finds he cannot discourage us, then he tries to make us 
 self-satisfied. If he cannot do anything by telling us how 
 bad we are, then he often gets his end by telling us how 
 good we are. If he cannot make us infidels, then he tries 
 to make us Pharisees. A good many of the long and 
 solemn prayers, fasts, and penances, in the church, are 
 mere inventions of Satan, in order to puff Christians up 
 with an idea of extraordinary sanctity. The distinction 
 made in the churches between the pious and irreligious, 
 the saints and sinners, the penitent and impenitent, con- 
 verted and unconverted, is a great trick of the Devil. It 
 works both ways. It discourages those who are outside of 
 the Church, by telling them that all their efforts to be good 
 amount to nothing as long as they are not converted, and 
 they might just as well give them up. It inflates those in- 
 side the Church with the idea that they are the people of 
 God already, and do not need to try very much to do 
 better. Thus it keeps both from improving ; teaching the 
 one that he cannot do anything to improve himself, and the 
 other, that he need not. I call that the master-stroke of 
 Satan. 
 
298 GET THEE BEHIND ME, SATAN ! 
 
 There is an Eastern story of a Sultan who overslept 
 himself, so as not to awaken at the hour of prayer. So the 
 Devil came and waked him, and told him to get up and 
 pray. "Who are you," said the Sultan. "O, no matter," 
 replied the other. " My act is good, is it not ? No matter 
 who does the good action, so long as it is good." " Yes," 
 replied the Sultan, "but I think you are Satan. I know 
 your face ; you have some bad motive." " But," says the 
 other, "I am not so bad as I am painted. You see I have 
 left off my horns and tail. I am a pretty good fellow, after 
 all. I was an angel once, and I still keep some of my 
 original goodness." " That's all very well," replied the 
 sagacious and prudent caliph, " but you are the Tempter ; 
 that's your business ; and I wish to know why you want me 
 to get up and pray." "Well," said the Devil, with a flirt 
 of impatience, " if you must know, I will tell you. If you 
 had slept and forgotten your prayers, you would have been 
 sorry for it afterwards, and penitent ; but, if you go on as 
 now, and do not neglect a single prayer for ten years, you 
 will be so satisfied with yourself; that it will be worse for 
 you than if you had missed one sometimes and repented of 
 it. God loves your fault mixed with penitence, more than 
 your virtue seasoned with pride." 
 
 There is, however, another temptation lying in wait for 
 us on the side of penitence. It is of repenting and then 
 sinning again, and so thinking that we can keep cleansing 
 our souts over and over again, as we send our clothes every 
 week to be washed. The Magdalen, in the Church of 
 Rome, is the type of those who keep sinning and repent- 
 ing. The Magdalen appears in the paintings in the church 
 as a beautiful sinner, who is very sorry indeed for having 
 done wrong, but who, as you clearly see, is very sure to 
 begin again. None of the elements of self-denial are writ- 
 ten in her lovely face, but only soft sentiments, which love 
 
GET THEE BEHIND ME, SATAN ! 299 
 
 virtue, and are ready to weep over sin, but not ready to de- 
 termine effectually not to commit it. 
 
 With good resolutions they say, the Devil has construct- 
 ed his pavements below. He does not object at all to our 
 making a good resolution, provided we do not begin at 
 once to carry it out. Procrastination is one of his devices 
 to accomplish this. He is perfectly willing that we should 
 be saints to-morrow, provided we will keep on sinning to- 
 day. He gladly gives up the future to God, provided he 
 may have the present to himself. He likes nothing better 
 than the notion of a death-bed repentance. Every time 
 that the religious newspapers announce that some notorious 
 villain has died in the odor of sanctity, that some vile mur- 
 derer has said on the scaffold that he expected to go direct 
 to heaven because he trusted in the atoning sacrifice of 
 Christ, the Devil laughs heartily below. The only way to 
 make the Devil get behind us, is to step forward and begin 
 to do right now, and so leave him behind us. It is no use 
 to resolve to do right unless you begin ; and now is the 
 only day of salvation, now the only accepted time. " He 
 who chooses the end, chooses the means," says the proverb. 
 If we are not ready to use the means, we have not really 
 chosen the end. " Choose ye this day whom ye will serve," 
 is a good saying, true now as ever. 
 
 In the awful agony of Queen Elizabeth as depicted in the 
 play of Schiller, we see the tragedy of our own lives. She 
 wished an end, she wished to save the life of the man she 
 loved, but she could not conquer her pride sufficiently to 
 choose the means. She longed to pardon him, but she let 
 him die, because she could not persuade herself to forgive 
 him till he begged her forgiveness. But, when he was 
 dead, the pride which had supported her gave way, and 
 there only remained her anguish and remorse in knowing 
 that for ar punctilio she had killed the man she loved. It 
 
300 GET THEE BEHIND ME, SATAN ! 
 
 is one of the most pathetic scenes in dramatic story. We 
 also say, " Yes, we will serve God. Yes, we will help men. 
 Yes, we recognize our responsibility to lead generous lives, 
 to do generous acts. Yes, this time is not ours, it is God's. 
 These means, they belong to him." We know in our hearts 
 that we have no real peace, no real satisfaction, in anything 
 but in what is noble, generous, true. We know that only 
 when we forget ourselves, and live to be good, and do good, 
 we have any real comfort out of life. And yet, choosing 
 the end thus, we do not choose the means. We do not 
 say " I will be a Christian now." We are afraid of our 
 neighbors ; afraid of what they will say, if we begin at once 
 to do anything different from the rest of the world. And 
 so we murder in our hearts the one sentiment which alone 
 we really care for, because we will not take the necessary 
 steps towards making it wholly our own. 
 
 Another thing which pleases the Devil well is compro- 
 mise. When a good man goes away ever so little from his 
 convictions and principles, Satan has won the game. We 
 may commit ever so many faults through weakness, if we 
 confess them, and immediately renounce them ; but to 
 agree deliberately to do the smallest wrong is the same as 
 though we gave up everything. So, in the temptation of 
 Jesus : the Devil merely asked him to bow down and wor- 
 ship him for one moment, and then he would give him all 
 the kingdoms of the world. I suppose this a parable, and 
 that what happened was this : Jesus saw that if he went 
 the way he actually did go — the way of pure truth-telling 
 — the end would be in his crucifixion and defeat. But, if 
 he would only temporize a little, use a little policy, concili- 
 ate the Pharisees, be friends with Herod and Pilate, he 
 could easily, by means of his majestic intellect and fascina- 
 tion over the human heart, become King of the Jews, and 
 so establish his religion permanently as a great institution. 
 
GET THEE BEHIND ME, SATAN ! 301 
 
 So established, it would speedily overcome all the national 
 religions of Greece, Rome, Asia, Africa. All would accept 
 its ideas and laws, and so the Devil would give Jesus 
 the kingdoms of the world in payment for that little con- 
 cession. But he said, " Get thee behind me, Satan ! for it 
 is written, ' Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him 
 only shalt thou serve.'." And from that day he walked, by 
 the highway of simple truth and duty, directly towards his 
 defeat and death ; but, through his defeat and death, to an 
 ultimate triumph unpolluted by any alloy of compromise 
 with error and wrong. 
 
 Would that we had the courage, now — when he has led 
 the way, and shown to us that it is the way of all real 
 success, as well as of all true nobleness — would that we 
 now had the courage to follow in that path. 
 
 Another trick of Satan is to persuade us that we can 
 only serve Christ by ecclesiastical methods ; by doing 
 something in the church. If he can only make the church 
 take the place of religion, and make religion equivalent in 
 men's minds to church ceremonies, he has gained a point. 
 For many people would gladly become followers of Christ 
 if they knew that they could follow him immediately by 
 beginning to do as he did ; by beginning to clothe the naked 
 and feed the hungry j by beginning to teach the ignorant, 
 out of love to God and man ; by being honest for his sake, 
 true and just in order to advance his cause, faithful in the 
 least duties in order to help the coming of the kingdom 
 of God below. How many would gladly begin to do his 
 work if they knew that in going among their fellow-men in 
 their daily walks here in Boston, they may be Christian 
 missionaries ; that by helping their neighbors they are 
 doing not only a philanthropic but a Christian work, which 
 they can take with them in their hands when they come to 
 stand before God in judgment. What an amount of good 
 
302 GET THEE BEHIND ME, SATAN ! 
 
 would be done if we only knew that every time we did any- 
 thing for those who needed help, we did it for Christ. But 
 it is so. Whenever we gather little children out of the 
 streets, and put them into happy homes, we are saying our 
 prayers. Whenever we go to save any lost one, we are 
 going to church. Whenever we utter a manly word for 
 justice and right, we are professors of religion. Whenever 
 we share our food and raiment with those who need, we 
 are eating the Lord's Supper. This is the way to say to 
 Satan, " Get thee behind me ! " — to go forward with 
 Christ, doing his work. This is the way that, while we 
 live, we shall live in the fear of God ; and, when we die, 
 die in the joy of the Holy Spirit. When we go forward 
 with Christ, we leave Satan behind. 
 
 We all have our Satans — each one of us a different 
 Satan. Satan comes to one man in the form of idleness, 
 and makes him waste day after day, year after year, until 
 he has wasted his whole life doing nothing. Satan comes 
 to another - man as work, and makes him destroy himself 
 in the opposite way l»y wearing out prematurely his brain 
 and his body. He comes to another as Christian zeal, and 
 the man becomes a bigot, full of fire for the Lord ; but the 
 Lord whom he serves is a God of wrath, a God who cares 
 for trifles, a God who prefers sacrifice to mercy. He 
 comes to another as chanty, but it is a charity which toler- 
 ates evil, and lets it alone, which has no edge to it, no 
 courage j an indolent charity which is not love at all, but 
 only easy good-nature. So he disguises himself as an 
 angel of light, calling himself Patriotism when he wishes to 
 make nations hate each other ; calling himself Christianity 
 when he wishes to make men persecute each other ; calling 
 himself Honesty when he wishes to encourage a man in 
 his rude and overbearing ways ; and so on, changing him- 
 self into every virtue and every grace. 
 
GET THEE BEHIND ME, SATAN ! 303 
 
 How is it, then, that some people escape all these 
 temptations, and keep themselves so pure and true and 
 generous and good ? Not by directly fighting with 
 Satan, or by merely saying, " Get thee behind me ! " It 
 is by loving good things, true things, noble things. They 
 overcome evil with good. They put Satan under their 
 feet by rising above him into an atmosphere so pure that 
 he cannot enter it. They keep themselves in the presence 
 of God, and see his glory and goodness in all nature, all 
 providence, all life. It is well sometimes that we should 
 try to understand our special temptations and sins, and so 
 I have pointed out some of them to-day. But it is best 
 not to dwell upon them too much or too often. The true 
 rule is, " Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not be subject to 
 the deeds of the flesh." " Finally, brethren," says the 
 apostle, " whatsoever things are good, honest, pure, peace- 
 able, lovely, of good report — think of these things." 
 
 Put good thoughts into your mind ; so you will escape 
 bad ones. Live with good people ; seek out good compan- 
 ions ; read good books ; choose the society of the pure 
 the noble, the generous ; love to be with men better than 
 yourself in order to get good out of them, and with people 
 worse than yourself in order to do good to them. The 
 talisman which will protect us more than anything else is 
 faith ; faith in God's providence, and ceaseless inspiration ; 
 faith that if we have souls open to him, we shall be fed with 
 the bread of life, and eat angel's food. Believe there is 
 more good in the world than evil, for there is ; believe that 
 there is a soul of goodness in bad things, for there is ; 
 believe that God is in your heart, for he is — and then Satan 
 will be obliged to get behind you, and help instead of hin- 
 dering you. 
 
 Thus, my friends, let us say to Satan, " Get thee be- 
 hind me." Put him where you cannot see him. Look 
 
3O4 GET THEE BEHIND "ME, SATAN ! 
 
 away from him to God and Christ. When he is behind 
 you, then forget what is behind, and reach forward toward 
 what is before. It is necessary to fight Satan in this world, 
 but not to be always fighting him, or thinking about him. 
 The name of God, the thought of God, the sense of the 
 love of God : these, when they fill the soul, make us safe 
 from the assaults of all evil. 
 
XXVIII. 
 
 BIRTHRIGHT GOODNESS AND GOODNESS WHICH WE 
 PAY FOR. 
 
 "The Chief Captain answered, ' With a great stum obtained 
 i this freedom.' and paul said, * but i was free born.' " 
 
 THERE are two kinds of goodness : that which comes 
 of itself, and that which comes with effort and strug- 
 gle ; goodness born of nature, or made by will. 
 
 Some people seem to be good by nature. They are free 
 born. Children of a good blood, born in families educated 
 during many generations to be true, just, generous, respect- 
 ful ; the stamp of the race appears in their habits of thought 
 and action. Conscience has been supreme so long that at 
 last it has become part of the bone and blood. They could 
 not be very bad if they tried. They are Sunday children ; 
 angels or semi-angels from the cradle. 
 
 But others are less fortunate. They come from a bad 
 stock, and the poor blood of bad ancestors runs in their 
 veins. They are by nature peevish, egotistical, vain, wil- 
 ful, irritable, sensual. Some people inherit a tendency to 
 intemperance ; others a tendency to falsehood ; others, a 
 tendency to gluttony ; others, yet again, a tendency to re- 
 venge, covetousness and cruelty. They are base coin, 
 with alloy in their nature, the fine gold dim, an infusion of 
 copper mixed with it. They are aware of their proclivities ; 
 they struggle against them ; they resist them with heroic 
 courage. They succeed, with immense effort, in conquer- 
 
 20 (3 ° s) 
 
306 BIRTHRIGHT GOODNESS AND GOODNESS 
 
 ing this demon in their organization, and contrive to become 
 moderately good people. They succeed in conquering their 
 tendency to steal, to swear, to drink, to cheat, to lie, and 
 make themselves truthful, honest, decent, pure men and 
 women. With a great sum they purchase this freedom from 
 evil. They are emancipated by their own heroic efforts, 
 and are not the slaves of sin, but have become the freemen 
 of the truth. 
 
 It is evident that those who have thus emancipated them- 
 selves by their own efforts deserve more credit than those 
 who are born with the possession of all sweetnesses and 
 all purities. They may not succeed in becoming very 
 noble nor very good ; the old Adam may be very apparent 
 in them ; but they are like the woman in the gospel who 
 put into the treasury of God the two mites which was all 
 her living, and of whom it was said that she cast in more 
 than all the rest ; for the others of their abundance cast 
 into the treasury, but she of her penury put in all that she 
 had. 
 
 This is the encouragement for those who find a great 
 deal to contend against in their nature or their circum- 
 stances. When the spirit is willing, but the flesh weak ; 
 when the law in the member wars against the law of the 
 mind ; when, though you would do good, evil is present 
 with you ; when some irresistible current seems to be set- 
 ting you down, away from what is good and right ; then re- 
 member that you need not despair ; that you are not asked 
 to do more than you can, but only what you can ; that have- 
 ing little, you are to give diligence gladly to give of that 
 little, and that your reward will be greater if you use your 
 one talent aright, and improve it to the utmost, than those 
 will obtain who, having a great endowment of power and 
 faculty, make little use of it. 
 
 All this is true ; but it will not do to push this truth too 
 

 WHICH WE PAY FOR. 307 
 
 far. If one deserves great credit who obtains his moral 
 freedom with a great sum, expending time, effort, self-denial, 
 self-control therein, it is also a great blessing to be free- 
 born. I am often asked, "Which kind of goodness is the 
 best and highest, that of nature or that of effort ? " If you 
 say that the goodness of struggle and effort is the best, be- 
 cause it has most temptations to resist and to conquer, 
 then we must ask what temptations God has to resist ? 
 He " is not tempted with evil " at all. The goodness of 
 God, which is so. high that no other deserves to be com- 
 pared with it, is not the goodness grown up in struggle and 
 conflict ; not the goodness of effort, but that of his own 
 nature. It is the impossibility of going wrong or doing 
 wrong. Angelic goodness is of the same kind, if of lower 
 degree. The angels are good because they cannot help 
 being good. Moreover, if we say that that goodness is 
 greatest which has most temptation to resist and most evil 
 to conquer, then it would follow that as we grow better we 
 grow worse. For as we grow better, we rise above tempta- 
 tion, and conquer our tendencies to evil, and at last be- 
 come emancipated from bad habit, and find it easy to do 
 right. Well, have we become better by this change ? Cer- 
 tainly we have. Yet now we have less temptation to oppose, 
 less sin dwelling in us to restrain ; our goodness has grown 
 easy; our life is no longer a battle, but an easy growth. 
 Therefore, if the best goodness is that which has most evil 
 to resist, we have grown less good by growing more good. 
 By forming a true and pure character, we have lost ground, 
 By becoming " pure in heart," " merciful," " meek " " hum- 
 ble," "generous," "kind," we have ceased to be good be- 
 cause we have lost the virtue which consists in resisting 
 temptation. This is absurd. Therefore it follows that, 
 while there is more moral merit in resisting evil, there is 
 more moral beauty is not having any evil to resist. 
 
3Q8 birthright goodness and goodness 
 
 The life and character of Jesus is the best solution of 
 this paradox. If we ask, " Which is the best kind of good- 
 ness, that which consists in struggle and effort, or that 
 which comes naturally and easily without struggle ? " we 
 find that Jesus had both kinds of goodness in equal and 
 harmonious union. His whole life, on one side, was a 
 struggle and a battle. He was tempted on all points, like 
 as we are ; but without sin. He fought against wrong, and 
 lived and died a martyr to the truth. His way through life 
 was no path of flowers. He went down into the depths of 
 all kinds of evil. He suffered, being tempted, and so 
 could save others who are tempted. Though a son, he 
 learned obedience through the things which he suffered. 
 Yet he was the well-beloved Spn, dwelling in the bosom of 
 the Father, pure from all stain of evil. He combined these 
 two forms of goodness perfectly — that of nature and that 
 of effort. This made him complete and perfect. 
 
 For though Jesus had this struggle and battle, it did not 
 consist in any struggle with evil in himself. He was born 
 wonderfully pure and exceptionally free from stain. The 
 story of the miraculous conception is the gospel way of 
 stating this fact. He was born of the Holy Spirit. No 
 drop of black blood corrupted his heart. We have all of 
 us seen and known persons who were born somewhat so ; 
 who were half angels, even while on earth. .But Jesus was 
 all angel while on earth. One example was needed to show 
 us what man could be if perfectly free from selfishness and 
 falsehood. One illustration' of human nature was sent us 
 .to reveal how God made it and meant it ; one man to 
 whom we can all look and say, " Here is one who illus- 
 trates humanity ; not Jewish humanity, nor German human- 
 ity, nor Hindoo humanity, nor English, nor American, but 
 humanity in its central, normal type. Only by having one 
 such man in the world, can mankind become one. He is 
 
WHICH WE PAY FOR. 3O9 
 
 the principle of unity in the race. If we had to make 
 allowances for him, and criticize him, and say, " This part of 
 him was the Jew, and that part belonged to his age, and this 
 to his own limited idiosyncrasy," it is evident that he is 
 not the son of man ; not the man who was to come, but that 
 we must still look for another. 
 
 A great prophecy has lain hidden in human hearts from 
 the beginning, of such a being as this. Seeing everywhere 
 among men weakness, ignorance, sin, the human heart has 
 cried out for some one to come who, while being a man 
 like ourselves, should be an example of uncorrupt humanity. 
 God, who made us with this longing and this prophetic 
 hope, sent to us in Jesus Christ its answer and fulfilment. 
 He showed us this one pure soul, in whose life the most 
 searching criticism has never yet found a stain, and yet he 
 was one who had to struggle, as we struggle, suffer as we 
 suffer, resist temptation as we resist it, and whose whole 
 life was not only growth, but also battle ; in whom, there- 
 fore, we find the fulness of the Godhead by finding the ful- 
 ness of manhood, since man was made in the image of 
 God. 
 
 It shows how fully we have been indoctrinated in the 
 belief of human depravity that we find it so hard to believe 
 in the perfect goodness of Jesus Christ. Approximations 
 and approaches to that goodness we have all seen and 
 known. We have seen lives of devoted generosity, fidelity, 
 loyalty, purity, courage, conscience \ but we cannot quite 
 make up our minds to think that even one man should 
 ever be perfectly good. Modern criticism, filled with this 
 faith in human imperfection ; with this confident persuasion 
 that man is so radically bad that nothing perfectly good 
 can come out of him j has tried to find faults in the life of 
 Jesus. But the charges are infinitesimally little, they 
 merely show this persistent skepticism in the possibility of 
 
310 BIRTHRIGHT GOODNESS AND GOODNESS 
 
 any perfect goodness. But why should we doubt it — we 
 who do not believe in total depravky ? Those who think 
 man naturally and wholly depraved are obliged to assume a 
 miracle to explain the purity of Jesus ; and behind that they 
 place another miracle, the miraculous conception of Mary 
 his mother, in order to make his mother also pure. And I do 
 not see why the next Pope should not proclaim, as another 
 dogma, the immaculate conception of his grandmother, and 
 so on. If human nature cannot produce goodness, with- 
 out a miracle, then we ought to have a series of miracles 
 to keep the sources of the life of Jesus pure all the way 
 back to Adam. But to my mind it seems something nat- 
 ural, and to be expected, since mankind 'has a tendency 
 upward, not downward ; since progress is the law, and de- 
 velopment the habit of the race ; that we should find at 
 least one man in history coming into the world perfect under 
 happy circumstances and benignant conditions. In him 
 such a fortunate organization may be combined with such 
 favorable influences that he shall become the Son of Man 
 — the pure, unstained, unperverted type of human nature. 
 In him, the two tendencies of struggle and growth are har- 
 monized. He fought a battle, but not with himself. He 
 resisted temptation, but not temptation born of an evil na- 
 ture. The temptations he resisted were toward an exces- 
 sive devotion, an extravagant virtue : the struggle was to 
 maintain the perfect equipoises of life, which make in him 
 reason and faith one, which balance piety and morality, 
 love to God and love to man ; reverence for the past and 
 hope for the future ; true reform and true conservatism ; 
 patriotic desires for his nation, and the larger love of his 
 race. He solved thus the problem of our text ; showed 
 what it was to be well-born, and also to obtain freedom 
 with a great outlay ; how the sweetest growth need not be 
 unmanly, nor the most martyr devotion stern ; how the 
 
• WHICH WE PAY FOR. 311 
 
 prophet may be a saint, and the saint a man. ... So Jesus 
 stands as the central figure in history ; the reconciliation 
 of races, creeds, philosophies, and religions ; the Son of God 
 in holiness, the Son of Man in good will and humility. 
 
 There are, therefore, those two kinds of goodness : the 
 goodness which comes from struggle, and that which comes 
 from nature ; but the life of Jesus shows that they are at 
 heart one. This also appears from the fact that each tends 
 to produce the other. A natural growth into good pre- 
 pares us to struggle for it. Struggle and effort to do right 
 at last consolidate into right habits and tendency. Mr. Dar- 
 win says that a long-necked horse by straining upward to 
 get the leaves from the. trees may, after a few thousand 
 centuries, have been developed into a giraife. About this 
 we cannot be certain, but I do not doubt that a bad man 
 after a while may become a good man. 
 
 The goodness is incomplete which does not unite the 
 virtue which struggles and the sweetness which grows. 
 There are in all our lives a natural happy development, and 
 hours of crisis. With Jesus the development came first, 
 and prepared him for the final crisis. With others the strug- 
 gle comes first, and ripens into a calm and assured peace. 
 
 I have seen a family grow up happily together. Two 
 young people were drawn together by likeness and unlike- 
 ness, by circumstances and choice, by instinct and reason. 
 They made a home. All therein was content and joy. It 
 was all sunlight except a little moonlight and starlight, 
 which added their picturesque charm to the beauty of the 
 day. If a little gust of transient trouble came, it only made 
 them come nearer together. Children appeared in this 
 home, one after another, each bringing some special added 
 joy. Wealth brought ease, and the power of helping others 
 by dispensing abroad. All the poor in the town came to 
 know the hospitable door, from which they were never 
 
312 BIRTHRIGHT GOODNESS AND GOODNESS 
 
 turned away. All who needed advice knew where to go. 
 They knew there were in that house kind and sagacious 
 friends ready to counsel them. 
 
 So the home grew into a centre of usefulness. The 
 children grew up ; their characters were unfolded. It 
 seemed like a beautiful garden of various fruits and flowers. 
 It was complete all through, with the kind grandparents, 
 the strong parents and relatives coming and going. Happy 
 is the family in such a case. All was prosperity and 
 peace. 
 
 But change came here, as at last it comes to all. Trial 
 came, and trial on trial. One link after another of this 
 prosperity was snapt. One vacant place after another was 
 left at the table, by the fireside. Disease, accident, sud- 
 den losses, cruel death, arrived. The cloud, darker and 
 darker, covered the whole sky. 
 
 Then is seen how the warm sunlight and easy growth 
 has been a preparation for the hour of trial. They rise to 
 meet the storm, and find it an air from heaven, not a 
 blast from hell. Then we see how brave, how patient, how 
 tender, how cheerful, men can be when all their joy seems 
 blighted, and all their hopes blackened in solid darkness, 
 a darkness like that of Egypt, which may be felt. Then 
 growth becomes patient effort ; natural goodness prepares 
 the way for struggle. Then it appears that strength 
 can come out of sweetness. These children of love and 
 joy were found equal to trial and storm. Love prepares 
 for effort, just as a peaceful nation accumulates the wealth 
 and strength which can encounter war. Thus we see how 
 goodness in the form of joy and beauty, natural and spon- 
 taneous goodness, will, if it be genuine, create strength for 
 the goodness which is effort and will. 
 
 So have I seen a fair summer morning, when heavenly 
 clouds floated in the sky, spiritual as angels, around the 
 
WHICH WE PAY FOR. 313 
 
 approaching sun. A chorus of a thousand birds welcomes 
 his coming, as, rising above the horizon, he shoots parallel 
 to the earth his dewy and level ray. On the lake, the 
 water-lilies all open at once as by the same impulse. A 
 mystical influence touches every bud. The morning- 
 glories on each cottage trellis open wide their lovely cor- 
 ollas. Little children run out barefoot to play in the dew, 
 and kick diamonds from the grass as they run. The man 
 comes from his house, looks around, breathes in the whole- 
 some air. The long morning advances ; the blue sky be- 
 comes more full of sunshine ; men at work in the distant 
 meadows, and women singing about their household tasks, 
 complete the scene of peaceful life. But the sky becomes 
 shaded, mists gather, ugly rack hides the celestial face of 
 the sun, the tempest arises, the black cloud rolls up fringed 
 with torn white mists ; hail and rain, lightning and thunder 
 come ; the trees break, the fruit is blown down, the corn 
 levelled, the garden washed away. The frightened chil- 
 dren stand at the window staring into the storm. But the 
 sturdy farmer is already thinking how he shall repair his 
 losses, for his long prosperity has given him strength with 
 which to meet his trial. 
 
 God usually sends to children a few years of spontane- 
 ous joy with which to meet after sorrow. He sends to each 
 of us some spontaneous goodness of disposition as a stock 
 to draw upon when we need the goodness of effort. As, 
 in the seed, a stock of nourishment is put near the germ 
 for the young plant, so are these derived, inherited virtues 
 given us, a small stock in trade with which to begin our 
 business. 
 
 And so, on the other hand, I remember an old man 
 whose soul seemed the -abode of all that was most serene 
 and most gentle ; a man so generous that his entire life was 
 given to the interest of others ; so cheerful that he made 
 
314 BIRTHRIGHT GOODNESS AND GOODNESS' 
 
 sunlight around him by his presence. He was a man of 
 the most equable temper, whose solid purpose no tempta- 
 tion could shake, and of whom the single word which char- 
 acterized him seemed to be equanimity. And yet this man 
 had gone through hard struggles in his youth. He had by 
 nature an irritable temper, which it took him a long time 
 to subdue ; he was naturally impatient, fiery, impetuous. 
 But the discipline of years at last ripened his life into this 
 entire serenity, as the fruit on your tree, so hard and sour 
 at first, becomes at last mellow and full of delicious juice 
 as summer passes slowly into the declining year. 
 
 We are made to inherit or attain both kinds of good- 
 ness ; we are intended to grow up in all things into him 
 who is our head, even Jesus. If he was perfect, he has 
 said to us that we may also become perfect. " Be ye per- 
 fect even as your heavenly Father is perfect." If Jesus is 
 thus far the exception, and if imperfection is thus far the 
 rule, he came to reverse the law and to make that which is 
 now the rule to become the exception. All the New Tes- 
 tament is full of calls and invitations to become like 
 Jesus; to be grafted in him, arcd so to produce much 
 fruit ; to grow up as he grew up, and to struggle manfully 
 as he struggled, and so to inherit all his life and power ; 
 to be heirs with God and joint heirs with Christ, in this, 
 and in all the worlds which are to come. Those who are 
 born gifted with any kind of goodness — and all are born 
 with some kind — have it in order that others may see how 
 good it is, and so pursue it. Goodness which is only effort, 
 which has not yet flowered into beauty, which is only an 
 intention, a struggle, is not attractive. We respect it, but 
 we do not love it. So that each has some natural good- 
 ness which attracts its opposite. Some men are born 
 truthful. Others are born sympathetic. Some are born 
 with natural refinement of feeling, others with a natural 
 
WHICH WE PAY FOR. 315 
 
 strength of purpose. Those who have these qualities have 
 them in order that others may see their beauty and be at- 
 tracted. So Wisdom is justified of all her children. Mean- 
 time, the goodness which struggles and battles, and goes 
 down deep, and soars high, is the stuff of which heroism is 
 made, by which the world is salted and kept pure. It is 
 the seed which bears fruit in martyrs, and makes men 
 nobler than their nature — the demi-gods and the prophets 
 of a better time. 
 
XXIX. 
 
 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "COME" AND "GO" IN 
 RELIGION. 
 
 " I SAY TO THIS MAN, GO, AND HE GOETH ; AND TO ANOTHER, COME, 
 AND HE COMETH." 
 
 LIFE is made up of command and invitation. Like the 
 Roman Centurion, it says to us, " Go," and we are 
 obliged to go ; and again it says, " Come," and we gladly 
 come. 
 
 The difference between " Go " and " Come " is very 
 great, and may be illustrated by many examples. 
 
 Let us suppose, for instance, that there is a little child 
 in school, whose sum in arithmetic puzzles him. He has 
 tried to do it, and failed. He comes up to recite, and he 
 cannot do the sum. Now, the teacher may say, " You are 
 a stupid little boy," or, " You are a lazy child ; go, im- 
 mediately, and do not leave it until you have done the 
 sum." The child takes its slate, and begins to puzzle 
 over it again as hopelessly as before. 
 
 Or, the teacher might say, " Cannot you do the sum ? 
 Come here, then, and let us look over it together. Tell 
 me where your difficulty is." The child then takes cour- 
 age, and by this sympathy from its teacher its mind is ■ 
 animated with new hope. I think it makes a great deal 
 of difference in schools whether a teacher is in the habit 
 of saying " Go," or " Come." 
 (316) 
 
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "COME," ETC. 317 
 
 As with work, so with play. Much as a child loves 
 play, he always wants some one to play with. You say to 
 your child, " Go out, my dear, and play out of doors." He 
 says, " Mamma, I have nobody to play with." But if a 
 companion enters, and says, " Come, Johnny, and let us go 
 out and drive hoop," the child cordially accepts that 
 invitation. 
 
 As with work and play, so with doing right or doing 
 wrong. Tell a man to go and do his duty, go and resist 
 temptation, go by himself and conquer his evil habits of 
 temper and character, and it is hard for him to do so. To 
 stand alone for truth and right is not easy. But say to 
 him, " Come, and let us help each other do right, help each 
 other resist temptation ; let us make it a common work," 
 and that which was hard before grows easy. 
 
 But the word " Come " means more than society or 
 companionship j it means invitation. " Go " means com- 
 mand ; " Come " means attraction. One stands for au- 
 thority ; the other for friendship. " Go " drives, but 
 " Come '' leads. " Come " is the Good Shepherd who 
 goes before the flock, and they follow him. 
 
 Now, life is made up of go and come, of command and 
 invitation, of stern and difficult duty enforced by irresisti- 
 ble necessity, and delightful occupation made interesting 
 by hope and joy. But the true art of life consists in trans- 
 muting, as far as we can, Go into Come ; making a pleas- 
 ure of duty ; making a joy of work. We then cease to 
 be repelled by the fear of evil, and are attracted by the 
 desire for good. In this process we pass through that 
 change by which love takes the place of conscience, by 
 -which attraction is substituted for repulsion, and hard 
 duties change into glad satisfactions. 
 
 The word " Come " is a very Christian word. It has in 
 it the sense of the gospel. Outside of Christianity, you 
 
3 l8 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN " COME " 
 
 mostly hear "Go." The world says to us, harshly, "Go." 
 The law says to us, sternly, " Go ! " Morality says, " Go 
 and do ! " Dogmatism says, " Go and believe ! " Culture 
 says, " Go and become ! " Education says, " Go and 
 learn ! " Ceremonial religion says, " Go and perform ; 
 go to church ; go on pilgrimages ; go into a monastery ; 
 go through these ceremonies." But Christianity says, 
 " Come ! with kind voice, Come, and obey ! Come to 
 God, and be with him ! Come to Christ, and walk with 
 him ! Come to us, and be with us in a common work ! 
 Come, and receive with us a common life ! Come, and 
 let us talk together ; let us strengthen each other." The 
 Spirit and the Bride say " Come ! " Jesus himself says 
 " Come ! " " Come to me, all ye who labor and are heavy 
 laden." " Come and follow me." Christianity is society 
 and invitation all the way through. That which abides, 
 the essential part of it, is Faith, Hope and Love, and these 
 all say " Come ; " none of them say " Go." 
 
 We hear a great deal in the church about " coming to 
 Jesus " ; but what does this mean ? In revivals sinners are 
 called upon to come to Jesus ; but very often, I am con- 
 vinced, the meaning is left somewhat vague and uncertain. 
 How does one come to Jesus ? I think, if we take Christ's 
 own explanation, coming to Jesus is, first, to follow him by 
 doing as he did ; and, secondly, by trusting in him as a 
 sufficient saviour from all evil. When he says, " Come unto 
 me, all ye who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give 
 you rest," he immediately adds, " Take my yoke upon you, 
 and learn of me, and ye shall find rest unto your souls ; 
 for my yoke is easy, and my burden light." 
 
 Now, it seems, at first, a strange way of finding rest, to 
 take a yoke and begin to labor. And yet experience 
 shows that the truest rest is in work, provided the work 
 be done in the right spirit, and be of the right kind. 
 
AND " GO IN RELIGION. 319 
 
 Man, it is said, is a lazy animal naturally, and hates 
 work. So he does ; but though he hates work before he 
 begins to do it, he usually loves it while he is doing it, 
 and enjoys the thought and recollection of it after it is 
 done. He loves the idea of rest ; he loves the thought of 
 idleness beforehand ; he loves the thought of repose. But 
 though he loves to be lazy beforehand, he hates it and 
 suffers from it while he is idle. No such miserable people 
 in the world as those who have nothing to do. I do not 
 pity the laboring man who is hard at work, ploughing, 
 digging * the blacksmith hammering the red hot iron on 
 the anvil ; the engineer driving his locomotive ; the car- 
 penter shingling the roof of the house ; the sailor lying out 
 on the topsail yard taking in sail. I do not pity these, for 
 I know they enjoy their work. All men enjoy work when 
 they can do it well, and find in it some good to themselves 
 or use to others. But I pity the man whose work does 
 not attract him ; who hates it while he does it, who wishes 
 to be doing something else ; who puts no heart into it ; 
 who does it simply from a sense of duty, because he thinks 
 he ought ; in short, whose work says to him " go," instead 
 of saying " come." 
 
 I think that part of the joy in work is instinctive ; it is 
 the instinctive satisfaction of the active exercise of faculty. 
 But work which never seems to come to anything is not as 
 interesting as that in which we can see useful results. I 
 think there is also an instinctive pleasure in seeing things 
 done, and in helping to bring about useful results. " Go 
 to the ant, thou sluggard," says Solomon ; " consider her 
 ways and be wise." Observe the rage of labor, the joy of 
 work, in the communities of bees and ants. The Lord has 
 given to these little creatures large hearts for labor ; " in 
 small room large heart confined," says Milton. I have no 
 doubt that they take intense satisfaction in it. Observe 
 
320 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "COME" 
 
 the bird building its nest ; is it not evident that it takes 
 much pleasure in it as a work of art ? Now, work which 
 is drudgery is always tiresome, but work which is art is 
 always full of joy. 
 
 The domain of art is by no means limited to painting 
 pictures, or carving statues. All work becomes artistic 
 when it is done as well as it can be done. It is working 
 toward an ideal perfection which makes art. All work 
 done in a careless, slovenly way ceases to be art. 
 
 But nothing makes us do our work thoroughly so much 
 as being led by a master whose ideal standard is higher 
 than our own. All artists need masters. Raffaelle had 
 Perugino j Vandyke had Rubens ; Dante had Virgil. In 
 the art of living nobly, Jesus is the best master. To come 
 to Jesus and take his yoke, means to adopt his standard. 
 He worked from God for man. When we work from God 
 for man we come to him. We then stand by his side, and 
 are his disciples and followers, though we may never have 
 heard his name. 
 
 I do not indeed mean to say that we can ever get wholly 
 rid of all disagreeable duties. Some duties will no doubt 
 remain always hard to do ; some work which must be 
 done by force of will, by courageous and determined effort. 
 But I mean to say that there is something wrong about 
 our life, our work, our homes, our schools, churches, and 
 professions, if they are not attractive. There is something 
 still wanting as long as they repel and displease us. 
 
 Coleridge says well, " That the appropriate calling of 
 youth is not to distinguish in the fear of being deceived or 
 degraded ; not to analyze with scrupulous minuteness, but 
 to accumulate in genial confidence ; its instinct, its safety, 
 its benefit, its glory, is to feel, to love, to admire, and so 
 to labor." 
 
 Some parents are always saying to their children, " you 
 ought " and " you ought not." 
 
AND "GO IN RELIGION. 321 
 
 They find fault, and scold, and say, " That is very wrong j 
 are you not ashamed of yourself to do so ? " The whole 
 of the interior life in some households is an anticipation of 
 the day of judgment. Yet the parents are conscientious 
 about it ; they think they ought to approve and censure, 
 find fault, blame, punish. They do not always see that 
 this perpetual manifestation of the moral law is apt to 
 make the child's conscience not merely sensitive, which it 
 ought to be, but irritable, which is a bad thing. The 
 conscience ought to be sensitive, but ought not to be 
 irritable. Silence is often a sufficient reproof. People 
 commonly know well enough when they have done wrong ; 
 it is not necessary to be always telling them of it ; and 
 perpetual reproof at last hardens the conscience. A child 
 whose parents are always querulous, fault-finding, com- 
 plaining, at last shuts his ears against their reproaches, 
 and becomes wilful, hard, impenitent, stubborn. 
 
 No. In morality as in war, the best word to say is not 
 " Go and do it," but " Come and do it." The great cap- 
 tain, in the storm of battle, when the heady tide of fight is 
 surging against him, knows well that the only thing to do 
 is to put himself at the head of his command, and to lead 
 them himself against the enemy. Plutarch says of Julius 
 Caesar that he won all his battles by saying to his soldiers, 
 " Come," rather than 4< Go." So it is in morality. Who 
 are those who have done us good ? Who but those whose 
 goodness has inspired us with love for virtue ? Not de- 
 nunciation, but example, touches the heart. That is why 
 the martyr's blood is the seed of the church. We had been 
 denouncing slavery as sin, with small apparent effect, but 
 when John Brown went down into Virginia, and died on 
 the scaffold out of love for the slave, there came a sudden 
 inspiration to us all. 
 
 The goodness which is created by the love of beauty and 
 
 21 
 
322 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN " COME 
 
 truth is the only goodness of any lasting value. If we 
 only do right because we are afraid of doing wrong, we 
 have very little real goodness in us. Those only help us 
 to be better whose goodness is an inspiration and makes us 
 love it. Our best benefactors are those pure and sweet 
 souls whose lives have made virtue to seem lovable. The 
 stern and harsh virtues are often adulterated by spiritual 
 pride, and are not the best. The virtues which say " come " 
 are our inspiration. Blessed, evermore blessed, be the 
 memory of those benign souls, beautiful in their purity, 
 whose holiness has touched our hearts and roused us to 
 grateful emulation ! Blessed be the heroic spirits who 
 have walked before us, so brave and strong that they have 
 made a proud joy out of struggle and battle ! Blessed be 
 the generous natures, who have spent their lives in giving, 
 pouring out joyfully all they had and were to help those 
 who needed them ! Blessed be the noble hearts, warm 
 with friendship, instinct with sympathy, who seek and save 
 by their ever flowing interest in all forms of humanity ! 
 
 There is among us to-day — do not doubt it — a goodly 
 fellowship of such prophets and a noble army of such mar- 
 tyrs. Life is as rich now as ever. The exhaustless powers 
 of nature are always creating original souls, gifted with 
 new powers to do and bear. If we had eyes to see and 
 ears to hear, we should all be able to hear the heavenly 
 hosts singing their glory to God and good-will to men over 
 the birth of divine children. The creative powers of the 
 universe are not exhausted, but are advancing to higher 
 types of beauty and glory. For our God is the living God, 
 who did not create the world in six days and then leave it, 
 or create some protoplasm and then leave it ; but he is the 
 God who is the perpetual Creator, working hitherto and 
 working now, as at first. 
 
 When a generous soul departs, death does not say Go, 
 
AND "GO IN RELIGION. 323 
 
 but life says Come. The Christian instinct of our hearts 
 tells us that he has heard the voice of God saying, " Come 
 up hither." Death no longer terrifies, no longer repels ; 
 but the higher life beyond attracts. We see the many 
 mansions there waiting for God's children. The friends 
 who have gone before us are there to receive and welcome 
 us. New work is there, new inspiration, new love, new 
 hope. 
 
 Therefore we are also ourselves willing to go when God 
 says come ; so we can bid our friends go when God says 
 to them come, knowing that while they go from us, to all 
 those on the other side they really come. 
 
 The old religions put God above the world as maker 
 and ruler. He issued his commands from that supreme 
 throne to the universe ; established laws and gave orders. 
 He made the winds his angels and lightnings his messen- 
 gers. He said to his creatures, " Go and do this, go and 
 do that," and they must not reply, nor ask the why nor the 
 how 
 
 " He frowns, and darkness veils the moon, 
 The fainting sun grows sick at noon, 
 The pillars of heaven's starry roof 
 Tremble and start at his reproof." 
 
 This God who says Go — so we were told — put man 
 here in a state of probation, and laid his awful law upon 
 him. " Do this, and live ; disobey, and die ; " so ran the 
 eternal edict. This little span of life is the scene of trial ; 
 when it ends comes the judgment. Then the great tribu- 
 nal is erected, and God says to some, " Rise to glory," and 
 to the rest, " Sink to perdition." 
 
 But when the gospel comes to us it gives us another 
 view of the Almighty. He is not the mighty monarch 
 now ; not the Oriental Despot sitting in secluded and 
 awful grandeur. He is the Heavenly Father the ever- 
 
 
 4>T OF xi 
 
 •- .» mm an ' 
 
324 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN " COME 
 
 present Friend. He is the pervading life beauty, joy of 
 the universe. He lives undivided, he operates unspent. 
 He fills the flowers with their beauty in the depths of the 
 eternal forests ; he smiles in the. immeasurable laughter of 
 the far-rolling ocean ; he warms in the sun and refreshes 
 in the breeze ; he descends into the smallest insect to give 
 it its happy day of life, and he no doubt cared for the soul 
 of the trilobite in the oldest geological epoch as certainly 
 as he cares for your soul and mine to-day. He is the 
 safety of the universe. Nothing can fail, nothing can go 
 wrong, while he is above all, and beneath all, and around 
 all, and within all. Myriads of angels and archangels, of 
 powers more majestic than our thought can conceive, 
 serve and obey and love him. Intellects of such vast 
 comprehension that our highest imagination cannot perceive 
 their grandeur fall prostrate at his footstool. But he can 
 also descend in sympathy to the lowest forms of life. He 
 says to the Cherubim with eyes full of the flame cf divine 
 knowledge ; to Seraphim, all aglow with divine love ; 
 " Come to me and have rest in my perfect life," — and he 
 says to the infusorial animalcule of tropic seas, " Come to 
 me and be safe." 
 
 Our God, the God and Father of Jesus Christ, is the 
 God who says evermore, " Come ! " He leaves none of 
 his children orphaned. He sends none away. His ear is 
 open to all their cries. His mercy endures forever. His 
 love was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world 
 without end. 
 
 There is but one fatal heresy — it is that which limits 
 the power, the wisdom, or the love of God. Whatever 
 shuts God in so that he cannot love, help and save his 
 creatures unless they belong to this church, or accept this 
 creed, or adopt this method of salvation, belittles the 
 Almighty, and really worships a finite being instead of the 
 infinite. 
 
AND " GO IN RELIGION. 325 
 
 Let us lift up our hearts ! Let us open our souls to this 
 present inspiration ! Let us believe. in the heavenly Father, 
 not the local king, not the finite judge. This is the voice 
 which says evermore from out of the deep blue Heavens, 
 " Come to me ! " This voice is answered by the innumera- 
 ble multitudes of living souls which people the boundless 
 universe, " We come to thee ! " This voice commands an 
 unlimited trust, invites to an entire repose, in the majestic 
 order of which love is the beginning and love the end. 
 
XXX. 
 
 THE THREE SALVATIONS. 
 FROM THE PAST, IN THE PRESENT, FOR THE FUTURE. 
 
 What must i do to be saved? 
 
 BEFORE discussing a subject, it is very important to 
 define the terms of the question. Falling to do this, 
 disputes become eternal, difficulties insoluble. Consider, 
 for example, the Scriptural words, " Saviour," " salvation," 
 " to be saved." They have given rise to endless theologi- 
 cal discussions, some of which, I think, might easily be 
 terminated, if the disputants had commenced by defining 
 the terms they were using, and had made a few simple, but 
 important distinctions. 
 
 Men ask, for instance, " How does Christ save us ? " 
 and " How is he a Saviour ? " " He saves us by his death," 
 some reply. " No," say others, " He saves us by his life." 
 11 He saves us by being punished in our place." " Not at 
 all ; he saves us by his teaching and example." Then 
 both parties proceed to quote Scripture : " Does not the 
 Bible say that Christ died for us, the 'just for the unjust'? 
 that by his ' stripes we are healed ' ? that ' we are recon- 
 ciled to God by the death of his Son ' ? that we are ' made 
 nigh by the blood of Christ ' ? that • his blood was shed 
 for many ' ? that ' he gave his life a ransom for sinners '? " 
 all which prove that he saves us ';y his death. Then the 
 others reply — "Do not the Scriptures say distinctly that 
 
 (326) 
 
THE THREE SALVATIONS. 327 
 
 'If, being enemies, we were reconciled to God by the 
 death of his Son, much more we shall be saved by his 
 life ' ? Does not Jesus say that whoever hears his sayings 
 and doeth them is ' like the man who builds his house on 
 a rock ' ? Doe* he not say that the purpose for which he 
 was born and came into the world was to ' bear witness to 
 the truth ' ? Does he not say that his words are ' Spirit 
 and Life ' ? and does not this prove that Christ saves us 
 by his teaching and example ? " 
 
 Then they dispute once more as to what we must do in 
 order to be saved. Some say, " Believe, have faith, that is 
 all that is necessary," and they quote ample Scripture to 
 that effect. Others say, "Work, obey,. work out your sal- 
 vation with fear and trembling ; ' give diligence to make 
 your calling and election sure,' " and they, too, find as 
 many texts as they want in proof of their position. " Does 
 not Paul expressly declare that we are saved by faith ? " 
 cry one class of disputers. " Does not James distinctly 
 say that we are saved by works ? " respond the others. 
 And so the quarrel continues from age to age. 
 
 But why does it not occur to them that if Paul and 
 James seem to contradict each other, they may, perhaps, 
 be speaking about different things ? If Christ seems to 
 teach one doctrine at one time, and another doctrine at 
 another time, it is quite possible that he, also, may be 
 referring to quite separate questions. I think we should 
 judge so about anything except theology. 
 
 Here, for example, are some persons talking about their 
 friend, Mr. Convalescent " Convalescens is getting well, 
 I am told. He says he was saved by the excellent treat- 
 ment of his physician, Dr Careful." "Not at all. He 
 told me he was saved by good nursing." "Well, all I know 
 about it," says a third, "is this. He assured me that he 
 owed his recovery entirely to himself ; that if he had done 
 
328 THE THREE SALVATIONS. 
 
 what his friends said, he would have died." Here, you 
 see, is an excellent occasion for a controversy, which, 
 carried on from this point might last during the lives of all 
 parties. But, in this case, they would probably inquire 
 what Mr. Convalescens was speaking of on each occasion. 
 Then it might turn out that when he said that he owed his 
 recovery to himself, he meant that had he done as his 
 friends advised, he should not have sent for Dr. Careful ; 
 and that he owed his recovery to Dr. Careful's good judg- 
 ment in finding such an excellent nurse, by whose nursing 
 he was saved. So that there were three steps in the process 
 of his recovery — the first, when he selected a wise physi- 
 cian ; the second, when the physician chose an accom- 
 plished nurse, and the third, when the tender and watchful 
 nursing brought him back to assured health. He was 
 perfectly right, then, in saying that he saved himself, that 
 he was saved by his doctor, and that he was saved by good 
 nursing. He was speaking of three different periods and 
 of three different acts, all of which concurred and resulted 
 in his safety. 
 
 The Scriptures, too, may be also speaking of different 
 periods in the process of human salvation, and of different 
 acts, which may all be necessary to the final result of 
 man's moral deliverance from the power and evil of sin. 
 Salvation, essentially and generally, is this — the rescue 
 of the soul from spiritual and moral evil. 
 
 But this rescue, though one process, has three steps or 
 phases, all of which concur in the final result. 
 
 The first salvation — that in which salvation begins, is 
 from the past, from the consequences of past evil and sin, 
 whether our own, or that of others. 
 
 All evil which we experience leaves gloom behind it. 
 The worst consequence of doing wrong or having wrong 
 done to us is, that it disenchants the universe. The child 
 
THE THREE SALVATIONS. 329 
 
 begins life always as Adam and Eve did, in Paradise. 
 Youth is the true Garden of Eden, where are all flowers 
 pleasant to the eye and all fruits sweet to the taste. In 
 that paradise all is hope, expectation, boundless illusion. 
 
 A well-born, a well-brought up child, does not know 
 what evil is for a long time. At last he eats of the fruit 
 of the tree of knowledge. He does something wrong. He 
 is shocked and sorry, and resolves not to do so again. 
 But new temptations come, and he goes wrong .again. He 
 is now not only sorry, but ashamed. But he resolves 
 more strenuously, goes right for a little time, and then 
 stumbles and falls again. So he gets into a habit, at last, 
 of sinning and repenting. He finds, as the apostle says, a 
 law of sin in his members. 
 
 It is not an accident, nor a mistake, nor mere forgetful- 
 ness, but something deeper — a law of sin. Perhaps it is 
 something inherited in his blood from ancestors far back, 
 when they were savages running in the woods. Perhaps 
 it is the force of circumstances, unhappy influences coming 
 too soon. No matter what, it is a weight on his conscience 
 and heart. He says, " It is no use." He is discouraged. 
 " Why try ? I have tried so often, I might as well give up. 
 I have prayed, and che Lord has not answered my prayer. 
 I will forget all about it, and live from day to day, to 
 enjoy myself the best way I can." 
 
 This is the weight of past evil. It is discouragement. 
 How shall we be saved from this discouragement ? That 
 w'll be the first step of salvation. 
 
 Tt is evident that this is not what we can do for ourselves. 
 We have exhausted our own resources, and have given up. 
 We must be helped from without and from above. Christ 
 came to help us over this first difficulty, and to give us 
 courage. It is the grace of God, in Jesus Christ. It is a 
 gift of pure love which God sends to us by his beloved 
 
33° TH E THREE SALVATIONS. 
 
 Son. Jesus says to us, " Be of good cheer, thy sins are 
 forgiven; rise and walk." And he says it so that men 
 really believe it ; not in words, but by living for it and 
 dying for it. 
 
 When we have done wrong, and feel ashamed of our- 
 selves, if a man no better than we are says to us, " Never 
 mind ; it is no great matter j God is merciful — he will 
 forgive you," that, somehow, does not seem to do us much 
 good. But when one like Jesus — one who never did 
 wrong — whose unstained soul is the pure mirror to reflect 
 God's ; face — when he makes it his business not to seek 
 the good but to seek the lost, the depraved, the most aban- 
 doned — to tell them of the infinite grace of God which is 
 ready to save them j when he gives all his life to this work, 
 and dies gladly to convince them of its reality, then we 
 begin to get courage. We say, with Paul, " He who spared 
 not his own Son, but freely gave him up for us all — how 
 shall he not with him freely give us all things ? " 
 
 This, therefore, is the first salvation — from discourage- 
 ment. It is the beginning of religion in the soul. It is 
 a glad and grateful conviction that our heavenly Father 
 really loves us, unworthy as we are, and that he has deter- 
 mined to save us from all our evil ; that this plan of 
 redemption is as old as the plan of creation, and that 
 those who are furthest off from God's holiness are nearest 
 to his pity. When the woman lost her piece of silver, she 
 lighted a candle and searched the house diligently till she 
 found it. When the shepherd lost one little lamb out of 
 his flock, he left all the rest in the wilderness, and went to 
 look for it. We are the lost piece of silver, and Christ is 
 the lamp which the Lord lighted, amid the darkness of the 
 world's blackest night, with which to look for us. As soon 
 as we are able to believe this, then we are able to arise 
 and walk, and begin to be Christians. This is the first 
 
THE THREE SALVATIONS. 33 1 
 
 salvation, and it is all by faith, not by works at all. It is 
 a faith in God's love towards us, which the life and death 
 of Jesus has created in the world, and which the world 
 could not have got at, except in some such way. 
 
 It is perfectly true, then, to say that we are saved by 
 grace through faith, and that not of ourselves ; it is the 
 gift of God. Just as the sick man was right in saying that 
 he was saved by his good nurse, though he was also right 
 in saying that he saved himself by sending for the right 
 physician, so the revival preachers are right in saying, 
 " You can do nothing for yourself, God does it for you ; 
 just believe in his pardoning love, just accept it ; that is 
 all." Or, as our Methodist hymn says, 
 
 " Let not conscience make you linger 
 Nor of fitness vainly dream ; 
 All the fitness he requireth 
 Is to feel your need of him." 
 
 This is all true as regards the first salvation — salvation 
 from the gloom and depression, the remorse and discour- 
 agement, which come from the past. That burden we can 
 drop at once, as Bunyan's pilgrim dropped his burden — at 
 the foot of the cross. Just as the little boy that has done 
 wrong, and who sits, sullen and very uncomfortable, in his 
 corner, all at once pulls his finger out of his mouth, and 
 runs to his mother and puts his arm around her neck, and 
 says, " Mamma, I love you ! " and then the little storm in 
 his soul has blown itself out, and all is joy again ; so it is 
 with us grown children. When we once catch sight of the 
 tender, infinite love of the great father and mother of us 
 all, and cast all our past sins and sorrows and doubts and 
 fears at his feet, then the storm blows itself out, and all is 
 well again - all peace, all hope, all trust and joy. Then 
 "we love nr h because we have been forgiven much." 
 
332 THE THREE SALVATIONS. 
 
 Then we say, " Herein is love ; not that we loved GoJ, but 
 that he loved us, and sent his only son to die for our sins."' 
 It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. 
 
 This salvation from the past is that which is mostly 
 taught by the Orthodox. It is that which Unitarians do 
 not see as much as they ought ; it is that which Free Re- 
 ligionists do not see at all. But in the sight of it there is 
 immense power to waken the soul, and fill it with the love 
 of Qod. It is the beginning, very often, of the religious 
 life. 
 
 The second salvation is salvation from sin in the present, 
 This is not a sudden salvation, like the first, but gradual. 
 It, is progress. It is the cultivation of the conscience, 
 the doing good works, religious improvement in every di- 
 rection. It is forgetting the things behind, and pressing 
 forward to those that are before. It is breaking off bad 
 habits, and forming good ones. It is the discipline of daily 
 life. This work God does not do for us; except by renew- 
 ing our faith ; we must do it for ourselves. This is what 
 Paul means by telling us to work out our own salvation. 
 The sense of the divine love, which comes from the first 
 salvation, goes with us through the second salvation, and 
 encoufages us all the way. Faith helps us to work j prayer 
 helps us to work ; but the essential thing about this salva- 
 tion from actual sin into actual goodness is real hard work. 
 
 This salvation is that which Unitarians and Free Relig- 
 ionists have laid the greatest stress upon, and which the 
 Orthodox have hitherto omitted to say much about. It has 
 been as though, supposing the Christian life to be a jour- 
 ney, the Orthodox doctors should come to rouse us up, and 
 say, "Come ; it is time to begin. Get up ! Awake, thou 
 that sleepest ! " Then they think they have done their 
 work. If we begin to go, that is enough. A person may 
 be not doing anything for God or man, but if he can only 
 
THE THREE SALVATIONS. 333 
 
 remember that he began to be religious once, and was con- 
 verted at a particular time, that is enough. The Unitarians 
 and Free religionists, on the contrary, take it for granted 
 that all men are already on the journey, and so they only 
 teach improvement and progress. They say to men who 
 are sound asleep in their beds, " Go forward, friend ; you 
 are going right ; take pains, and make good progress." 
 The Orthodox have taught that if men have only begun to 
 go, that is enough ; it is not necessary to go on. The 
 Unitarians have taught that men can go on the journey 
 without beginning it. 
 
 But progress is as necessary as commencement ; and the 
 chief means of progress is knowledge. It is astonishing 
 how foolish sinners are. A large part of human sin seems 
 to be pure folly. 
 
 The other day I read of the death, of a man who had 
 made fifteen millions of dollars out of a patent in sewing 
 machines. Sewing machines which might be sold for fif- 
 teen dollars bring sixty dollars because of the patents. 
 Out of the toil of sewing women, out of their weary days 
 and nights, this man had accumulated a colossal fortune. 
 Well, having made it, how much he might have done with 
 it ! Here are such institutions as hospitals for women and 
 children, giving comfort and health to hundreds every year. 
 A hundred thousand dollars given to such an institution, 
 would have caused many hearts to leap for joy. Through 
 all time sick persons would have blessed his name. He 
 might have given it to such institutions as the Young Men's 
 Christian Union, saving young men from the perils of city 
 life, making useful citizens out Of those who might otherwise 
 go to ruin. He might have built a village of cheap, comfort- 
 able homes for working people near all the great cities of 
 the country. He might have founded libraries, endowed 
 colleges, set up industrial institutions, and had the blessed- 
 
334 THE THREE SALVATIONS. 
 
 ness of being a source of light, life, peace, comfort to thou- 
 sands. Instead of which he wasted this vast income on 
 his own pleasures. He was simply a fool — that was all. 
 Instead of being followed to the grave by the grateful tears 
 and blessings of thousands, he dropped stupidly, unla- 
 mented, into a fool's grave. 
 
 I have known boys with good, happy homes, wise, loving 
 . parents, with all the opportunities for the best culture and 
 improvement offered to them. They had nothing to do 
 but to avail themselves of these privileges. Thousands of 
 poor boys through the country would have thought them- 
 selves in heaven to have had their chance. They had only 
 to use their advantages, and they would have the satisfac- 
 tion, in a few years, of knowledge, position, influence. 
 They would be in the best society, esteemed and loved by 
 the best people, capable of pursuing successfully any pursuit 
 in life, having comfort, ease, useful work, opportunity of 
 doing good. Well, what do these boys do ? They throw 
 it all away. They idle away their time, refuse to study, 
 displease and distress their friends, prefer the acquaintance 
 of the coarse, and sensual to the society of the noble and 
 good ; go downwards, instead of upwards ; prefer ignor- 
 ance to knowledge, sense to soul, dirt to beauty, sin to 
 goodness. Now, what can we say of such boys as these, 
 but only this : that they are stupid beyond description. 
 They need a little glimmer of knowledge. They can only 
 be saved by getting a little sense into their heads. 
 
 Plenty to know, plenty to love, plenty to do. That is 
 salvation. That is heaven ; heaven here, and heaven here- 
 after. He who has the sense of an infinite divine love 
 around him ; of a perfect providence arranging all of life ; 
 of a sweet and pure spirit, ready to guide, and sweeten his 
 soul for all his work ; born heir to a vast universe of knowl- 
 edge ; a new-born child of God's creation, made in his 
 
THE THREE SALVATIONS. 335 
 
 image, and meant to be his son ; he has heaven around 
 him, and heaven within him. Whenever we see one such 
 man as that we see a little glimpse of heaven. 
 
 I have known, thank God, many men and women of this 
 sort. But I was reminded, last week, of one of them ; a 
 hero and a saint, yet only a man of good common sense. 
 He was no great genius, but he gave his life to all good 
 works. He was self-denying, laborious, simple ; but no 
 ascetic. His coming to the house was sunshine. He was 
 a reformer, brave as a lion to face a mob, but tender as a 
 child when the danger was over. He could pluck the prey 
 out of the jaws of a lion ; but he could nurse an infant in 
 his arms like a mother. He was a heretic of the heretics 
 — an abolitionist; a total abstinence man; a non-resis- 
 tant ; a radical Unitarian ; but the most Orthodox men 
 could not help loving him. Old Doctor Beecher, after 
 arguing violently with him, one day, ended by saying, 
 " Well, I do love you, brother May, after all." He lived, 
 this good Samuel Joseph May of ours, in the second salva- 
 tion ; lived a life of perpetual progress ; onward, and ever 
 onward ; upward and ever upward ; sending rays of sun- 
 shine into all who came near him. 
 
 " With firm set mouth, for oppression 
 Was cruel and proud and strong — 
 And with patient eyes, for God's patience 
 Alone wins the fight with wrong." 
 
 This is the second salvation ; a divinely human life here ; 
 born of truth and knowledge ; a life of progress, of useful- 
 ness, of integrity, of generosity. It is truth putting itself 
 into work. 
 
 And what, now, is the third salvation ? It is that which 
 God has for us in the world to come. 
 
 This salvation is reserved for the future. It is not 
 
336 THE THREE SALVATIONS. 
 
 knowledge, nor work, but hope. We do not see it. It 
 doth not yet appear what we shall be. But this hope is 
 not an illusion, nor a fancy, for it is based on solid facts ; 
 on the facts of God's fatherly relation to us, and of his 
 creative agency in this world. 
 
 If we believe in the first salvation ; if we believe that 
 the divine providence reaches down to the lowest and 
 weakest of his creatures with a tender care, not willing that 
 any should perish ; from this we easily infer that we do not 
 pass out of his hands when we leave the present bodily 
 organization. And since he has filled this world so full of 
 beauty, wonder, variety, for our present life j he has, no 
 doubt, provided other worlds for us, as rich, as various, as 
 curious, as wonderful. Since he has made our hearts 
 capable of a love that never dies here, he has provided a 
 sphere for that love hereafter. Progress, which does not 
 cease here, will find its opportunities there. This life is 
 the image of the next. Heaven is earth continued on a 
 higher scale, to a loftier measure, and more harmonious 
 tones. It is the answer to the aspirations of earth ; the 
 fulfilment of the prophecies which human desires have 
 uttered below. As around the opening and closing day 
 there hangs a greater glory of sunrise and beauty of sunset 
 than around the noonday hours of labor ; so the first sal- 
 vation, when God's love rises in the heart, and the last sal- 
 vation when we are about to go upward to him, have a 
 warmer glow and lustre than the second salvation of work 
 and knowledge. But all three are necessary to each other ; 
 these three are one. The joy of forgiven sin ; the serene 
 sense of progress ; the hope of a coming immortality ; all 
 combine in one life of daily duty. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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