iw ‘) erlibrary: oF Dre Rese ro hOnyiais 1942 REO i ies JL Cow ae a i Te else eS ON THE GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY Of THE CHRISTIAN FAITH LETTERS ON THE: GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY OPS Urti yGHiRISTIAN FADE)’: A REVISED EDITION OF ‘‘ LETTERS TO SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHERS 72 BY HENRY CHURCHILL KING PRESIDENT OF OBERLIN COLLEGE THE PILGRIM PRESS BOSTON CHICAGO Copyright, 1906 By Ture ConGREGATIONAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND PUBLISHING SOCIETY Reprinted from The Pilgrim Teacher and Sunday School Outlook THE PILGRIM PRESS BOSTON PREFACE HIS revised edition of these “ Letters’ is issued under an- other title, “because. it has. been found that the former title, ‘* Let- ters to Sunday-School Teachers,” gave a wrong impression of the aim of the book, as a possible book of .Sunday-school methods. The _ let- ’ ters were originally written for The Pilgrim Teacher, to help Sunday- school teachers to see for them- selves, and to put to their pupils as clearly and simply as possible, the yw ereat @truths of «the Christian’ faith. Dutcechissaineiny its essences one that concerns all thoughtful Chris- tians, and it has accordingly seemed [v] 1194574 PREFACE best in this edition to eliminate en- tirely any direct Sunday-school refer- ence. This has involved very slight changes in the text, as the form of familiar letters has been intentionally retained. Henry CuHurcHILL Kine. OseriiIn CoLuEcE, April, 1909. [ vi | CONTENTS LETTER ONE Pace SOME, UNDERLYINGSERINCIPLES 2.00 eo ke ed LETTER TWO Tue Seeminc UNREALITY OF THE SPIRITUAL GA MSTSES 7 eat i SoG di FNL a DON an ae aa Wf LETTER THREE Tue SIGNIFICANCE OF JESUS CHRIST .. . 35 LETTER FOUR (CODMVIANIFPEST: IN] CHRIST (a 2 hee ce te 55 LETIERYPIVE MEN SINGIN EW LIGHTOOR, CHRIST. © bck Oe 67 LETTER SIX Tue CuristTiAn Lire as A FRIENDSHIP... 81> LETTER SEVEN Tue Basis IN THE Divine FRIENDSHIP .. 97 [ vii | CONTENTS LESTER iG r Pace THE ConpiITIONS OF DEEPENING ACQUAINT- ANCE “WITH (GOD. 8G... tl ae eee ee ee _ LETTER NINE Tue ConpitTions oF DEEPENING ACQUAINT- ANCE WITH Gop— Continued . . . . . 127 LETTER TEN THE ConpiTions OF DEEPENING ACQUAINTANCE Wira’ ‘Gop — Gontinued’ 22 2 i eae 4a PEA Re iy WN Tue FUNDAMENTAL TEMPTATIONS ..... 159 LETTER TWELVE THE SUPREME CLAIMS OF THE CHRISTIAN Lire UPON -LHOUGHTFUL MENU 40 [ viii ] a | eV EERe 1 _ SOME UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES vO t ie - og ; ? \ ya i? - Ly) = Sop . ce? ? ‘ ? 1 eu hy ‘ tom + a he Pa fy . >? an” ay . 4 Mi ¥. i355 w ico’ 3 it tee : % : Z = rs 4 ® sh ied "= + g a My ‘ £ 7 Letters on the Greatness and Simplicity of the Christian Faith Letter One SOME UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES WRITE especially to my younger readers; and J] want in these let- ters simply to try to say to you some of those things that I should like to say if I could sit down with you individually and we were to talk frankly and earnestly of your deeper difficulties, of those questions which, after all, actually concern us more than all else. I am not to aim at say- ing novel things; but we are to try to find our way together, as I have [3] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY repeatedly said to my own Sunday Bible s,7/Class;)7 into’ \clearseandpedece and abiding convictions concerning the» ereat. “iundamental™= eC hristion truths; to see that they are — and I do not choose my words here at random — real, rational, vital. Real —as real as business and housework and books and music and_ friends and home; rational—as knit up in- dissolubly with your best thinking ‘in every other sphere; vital —as springing out of your own life, lay- ing commands: on life, adding zest to life, and giving great, undying motives for life. You cannot finally be satisfied with less. If these great fundamental Chris- fian’>.truths scome ytommedan hatogayon what Christ intended they should mean, they will help you to do the two. only really great things one [4] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH man can do for another: to bring to your associates the contagion of a ‘high and noble. life, and to bear honest, effective testimony of your own best vision—that in which and by which you most live. This is av largerundertaking; and if it is at the end in any fair measure accom- plished, you must do even more in the matter than I. You must do some earnest thinking; and, even more than that, you must furnish that deepening expericncesstntrough.- the truth wrought out, that can alone lead you still more deeply into the truth. Simply to replace old phrases by new phrases is poor and futile business enough, and not worth the time of either you or me. And Pais leausmrime mate once. ito, the” first of those preliminary things, those underlying principles, of which I (Fy GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY wanted to speak briefly in.this first letter. 1. No one can simply hand over to you a ready-made creed, however clear and convincing his reasoning, how- ever just and comprehensive his view, because, in the first place, if your creed is to be worth anything, it must be in truth what we call it, a confession of faith —something in which you can honestly express your own belief; something that grows in some vital way out of your own ex- perience; in a word, a true putting of real convictions. Now convic- tions cannot be handed over from man to man. No man can ever be sure of absolutely transferring his full thought, even, to another mind; still less can convictions be so easily handed over. The most I can pos- sibly do for any of you is simply to [6] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH tell you honestly the truths that mean most to me, the surpassing significance that Christ seems to me tone nave, and) show #these” deepest things = ‘bestisi come’ home, tome. The rest is for you and God. If by time and thought and attention and personal commitment you give God opportunity with you through the truth and through his supreme reve- lation jan. Me hrist the certainty. of God “and .the»trith ot God» shall. -be wrought in you. So and only so eAliee comer tredine convictions: ..1t) 41s serious business, therefore, upon which we enter together in these apparentivurn simplove, settersann «Lhe great Christian convictions cannot be simply laid on you like so many garments, or even sO many geomet- rical proofs or scientific propositions. These spiritual convictions are deeply | Wil GEATNESS AND SIMPLICITY connected with your inner spirit and life, and they involve your personal relation to God. We greatly de- grade Christian doctrine when we regard it as simply a series of more -or less provable propositions. Your real) innérereediiciss-amay (ta leno cn out of your personal experience. 2. You cannot come in any way into any deep convictions of the truth all at once. “Vhismis not at valle to jseay atmos there may not be significant crises’ in your lives. I could even ‘hope thats Ysomesorwithese Sletterstamaam, bring: “such syadesionificantmrcrisis wean some of you. But even our deepest and most striking experiences have been long preparing, and their ‘full significance comes out only as we try to live by ‘them. Mighty con- victions are no growth of an hour or jax day;. they /root/deep hin lnanes [8] ) OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH inthe siniluence: “of” close’ personal associations, in honest putting of the truth into act. You will not there- TOLanmex pect. Sinai thiisg | mostiay ditions t sphere of moral and spiritual con- victions, that you can make some happy leap that shall land you at @leeum tne centem Geeallptruth.t We are coming to believe that no truth, of whatever kind, gets real hold of us so. Even mathematical truths we need to work out in multiplied problems; and for appreciation of scientific truth we require the work in the laboratory. How much more -must the appreciation of these vital truths come out only as they are put into act! The creed that is to be _ deeply yours, you must have lived out, not merely thought out. ‘The full: significance, therefore, of. some of the things I shall say may come to Lod GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY you only after the months and years have given you the vital experience that unlocks for you the inner secrets of the truth. It is one of the joys of living, that one may look forward to ever-deepening vision of the truth through simple, honest living. “If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching.” And you are seeking truth, not simply for yourselves, but for the sake of others, so that you need to see that — 3. No one can witness in the moral and spiritual realm with greatest ef- fectiveness to that which he does not himself believe with depth of conviction. You cannot kindle another by rote. That which does not greatly move you will scarcely greatly move an- other through you. ‘This _ simply means that our effective witness is necessarily confined to what is vitally [ 10 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH real to us — to our real inner creed. For just this reason “ complete and systematic ’’ presentation of religious subjects often contains much that is mere filling. Only those parts have any kindling power that have the fire of personal conviction in them. We must learn, as witnesses, not to be afraid.of even very fragmentary statements, if that is all we can make reals biivenmtragments ‘that sare -real are better than masses that are un- real; but we want the fullest reality possible Ponsthe very tsake;there- fore, of both the breadth and the ef- - fectiveness of one’s witness, one must seek to deepen and to extend his con- victions; for there is no cheap way to become a good witness to spiritual things. ihe ultimate saimy then,’ of _ this effort we are to make together is absolutely vital to any true success [11] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY in the high work of the disciple of: --Ghrists TD acamer"totr thy eeren your own cooperation, to help you to real convictions at some points where perhaps now you have none, and to enlarge and-to deepen the convictions that are already yours. If even in small degree this could be done, it would be worth all our united efforts. 4. But this does not mean that we are to seek for each a uniform outcome. That would be utterly impossible in any case; for even those who thought they. perfectly. ‘agreed © >with™ “such statements as I shall make of the great Christian truths would quite certainly not take them in precisely the way I meant them. But even if such absolute uniformity of con- viction and statement were possible, it would still be undesirable. For [12] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH we seek not the unity of monoto- nous uniformity, but the organic unity that arises from the truth of each supplementing the truths of all the rest. And, what is more im- portant, the infinite truth of God is too large for any single finite re- flection. of it. We approximate. it, even, only by bringing together the varied individual reflections. We are unique individuals with our own peculiar temperaments and _ special adaptations, to each of whom, we have the right to believe, it is given to present a kind of personalized and individual setting forth of the great truth of God in Christ, that has its own unique value, which cannot be wholly replaced by any other... I distinctly, therefore, do not. seek to reproduce in you my _ thoughts. Each one of you has his own unique (13) GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY personality through which God de- sires to speak in the peculiar voice of that personality; each of you is a member of the body of Christ, and each member has his office. What I hope for my putting to you of Christian ‘truths, therefore; iss not that my thought may simply over- ride or replace yours, but rather may quicken and bring out your own individual thinking. I could wish that my thought might be in your minds seeds and germs of truth that in their growth in your minds should reflect the * peculiar “nature Pole othe mind in which they are _ planted, and so attain an individual living power of. their own.: ‘To some extent ‘this? is) (quitewicentain stosmpe the case; and yet it is worth while to make it clear to ourselves that we seek nothing else, and that the [ 14} OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH mechanical uniformity is not even to be desired. In my next letter I want to speak ot;;some of the reasons. why the spiritual life often seems unreal. [15] aye aeead ria aie * LETTER II THE SEEMING UNREALITY OF WHE SPIRITUAL LIFE Letter Two THE SEEMING UNREALITY OF HE OPIRETUAL LIFE ] CAN hardly help asking you in this letter to face with me another preliminary question that is of the first importance, before I go on in later letters to take up singly the great Christian truths. | Why do “not the’ tacts of »the spiritual world seem as real to us’ as the facts of the material world? WV iy wissstiic Mactor such at Godiias Christ reveals, and of our relations to him, not as indubitable, for ex- ample, as the existence of other persons and our relations to them? In a word, why does the spiritual life often seem so unreal? Why is [19] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY the conviction of it a wavering one, with its constant ups and downs? ‘These@are questions that press upon us from the start in every thorough- going discussion of the reality of a spiritual view and of a spiritual life. Can something be done now to meet this constant difficulty of the seeming unreality of the spiritual lifé Py), Can: 1 wewisee athe renea sommes this seeming unreality? ] have space sto ‘speak oth onium three causes, and of these most briefly: -'lomust. ask youn to eter further thamoa? say Nese amas causes are: mistaken conceptions of the . ‘character, (of “the: “spinitualgaiae itself; . the inevitable fluctuations of: our “maturesggj;-and~ thé jintended obscurity required for our moral training. | I. As to mistaken conceptions. We [ 20 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH begin with the misconceptions which arise from mistaking the nature of thessspimitualfdite vitself) :as «aww lite vot strain, or a life of imitation or repe- tition “or t‘others® *experiences, -or a lite’. of: «magical “inheritance, or, fi- Daily Mea itesohe miles slaidson from without. labinet, elicits piminal*ljcl as not a life of strain, either in the sense of putting pressure upon the mind to hold certain beliefs, or in the Sense Gn sKeepingwina “certain 4 con= trmiroise stressmomeartcen tion: «It laa ereal) strugglesmau:continuine conflict, a life of steady facing of duty; but still it should not be, in any hyster-’ ical sense, a life of strain. juli wimieanseiny thes first place, that the man who wishes to have ethe “spiritualilite: a,’ reality). toj\shim will not bring any pressure upon his [21 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY mind to hold certain beliefs. He will rather see clearly that his sole responsibility is simply to put him- self face to face with the great realities, and to make an honest re- sponse to them. Nor, in the second place, does the spiritual life call for the keeping up of a certain stress of feeling or of attention. There is need of clear discrimination at this point. The spiritual life does look, _ of course, to a persistent, dominant ourpose of righteousness, a real sur- render of the will to God; but this does not and cannot mean the un- changed continuance of some _ par- ticular thought or object fixed in the attention, or the steady main- tenance of some ‘special state of feeling. 3 2. It is equally important for us to remember, if the spiritual life is [ 22 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH to be real to us, that the spiritual life is not a life of the imitation or repeti- tion of the experiences of others. ‘That we need others here, as elsewhere, isssclear, i) Lhatwe-.come: into), mast that is of value to us through intro- duction by some other, is also plain. Nevertheless, if the spiritual world isveto wave ther fullest reality} for us, the reality it ought to have for a mind awakened to mature self- consciousness, we must have some experience itin the? ‘spiritual’ that towasa fundamental Christian truth must be some understanding of Christ himiself.o Tl .amwto wack vous met mer. fore, to consider with me in this letter the very basis of our Christian faith. Who is Jesus Christ? What does he mean? How does he reveal God? What right have we to give him so supreme a place in the mas- tery of our thinking and _ living? And I can only answer these questions by telling you what Jesus Christ seems to me to mean, and so giving you a kind of personal confession of my own faith in him. In doing [ 38 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH this, I can hardly avoid repeating in substance what ! have elsewhere said on this most fundamental of all Christian themes: Each point de- serves much more elaboration than Iscan* give it‘in this brief, letter. Try to think each out fully for yourselves. 1. First, then, Christ seems to me to be the greatest in the greatest sphere, that of the moral and spiritual. It is hardly too much to say that this place is given him by the common consensus of all thoughtful men who really know his spirit and teaching. He sees the problem of living more broadly and more deeply than any other. No . other’ thas ‘so ‘grasped the full meaning of life. No other shows such delicate skill in applying moral and_= spiritual principles. If ‘we have anywhere one who may be said to speak with full authority in a7] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY the moral and spiritual world, that person, assuredly, is Jesus Christ. It is perhaps only to put the same thing in different form, when one says with Fairbairn that Christ -is transcendent among founders of religion, ‘‘and\ to be) transcendent “‘heremis) to be transcendent everywhere, for re- ligion is the supreme factor in the organizing and regulating of our personal (ands collective (lifes20 iam. to make clear to yourselves how tremendous and all-permeating the influence of a founder of a religion is: “He »makes: the *very-slhohteane atmosphere in which thousands, and perhaps millions, of his fellow beings see the whole of their life. And among these transcendent lead- érs . of >the “race, Jesus ‘himselfas transcendent. The last forty years have been characterized by such a [ 40 | OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH study of the religions of *the world as has never been seen before. And yet. it ‘seems tome hardly’ open. to. doubt that the result of this study is not to make the figure of Christ less, but more significant. At the most, we can hardly do more than bring any .other religious © teacher into comparison with Christ at certain '-points. No religious founder will bear comparison with him in the Mibwscope Oleecither wis life or @his teaching. So really is Christ greatest in this sphere of the moral and _ spiritual that he becomes tor men truly a kind of ‘“‘ personalized. conscience.” One may well be challenged to sug- gest a-higher moral test for a man than that which .is afforded by the spirit of Jesus, as concretely shown in his life and teaching. [41 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY 2. jJesus1s also-the sinless and non- penitent one. No other, certainly, ever intelligently claimed to be sin- less; for no other has the claim ever been intelligently .made. The great historian, von Ranke, carries the common judgment of men with him when he says: “ More guiltless and more powerful, more exalted and more holy, has naught ever been on. earth than his conduct, his life, and his death; the human race knows nothing that could be brought, even afar ‘off, in’ "comparison swith fity elt ~Christ’s unusual moral insight is granted at all, if he were not sinless, he could neither make the claim nor allow. the ‘claim :\to be; maderrd ie keener his moral consciousness, the less likely was he to make any claim that was not true. But in one of the surest of all the bits of autobi- [42 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH ography that we have from Christ, he tells the story of his own struggle with the most fundamental tempta- tions of his life without the slightest hint of moral failure. And the claim of the sinlessness of Christ, it should be noted, is not made so much because of any special statements, as because of the fact of what Dr. Bushnell has called his ““impenitent piety,” which seems to lie upon the very surface of the records. » There 4*as?no | indication anywhere that he includes himself with others in the confession of sin. He does not count himself thus with other men as needing redemption, but as himself clearly able to redeem them. And by this fact of non- penitence he is marked off definitely from all good men. In the face of it he cannot simply be called the [43 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY best! of: good: men, In; the scasepot all other good men, as they go for- ward in the life of righteousness with growing ideals, their own con- sciousness of failure becomes also more. clear.::;Let ‘one - contrast, for example,’ theurspifit, (ol) » Jesuseanere with that of perhaps the best of all his followers— whom ‘many seem willing to make a spiritual author- ity side by side with Christ — the apostle’ Paul. « Vhewsense» of ssinsang of debt to Christ for deliverance from sin are both most marked in him, and there seems to be in his latest letters even an increasing sense of his sin in his yearly. rejection; .ot, -Chnst. aaite fact that Christ is “ the only religious character that disowns repentance ”’ is justly to be regarded as an absolutely unique phenomenon among men of real moral consciousness. [ 44 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 3. With the highest of all ideals, Christ consciously rises to that ideal, and “‘ compels us to admit that he rises to it.’ Christ’s ideal involves. abso- lute trust in God, and the spirit of absolute love toward God and men. And it is to the full measure of this ideal that he consciously rises. It would be much that men should be compelled to admit that a man rose. to the full measure of any reasonable ideal. But that one who sees more clearly than any other in the moral ance /spimtualsereaim. hand’ ‘cherishes the highest ideal that it is possible for a man to cherish, should con- sciously rise to that ideal, and compel Us to admit that he so ‘rises to it, is @eracteunparalleled. injthe shistory. ot the world. This is far more than mere sinlessness. It bears witness to a positiveness of moral achieve- [45 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY ment that dwarfs all other human attainment. 4. Jesus has such a character that we can transfer it feature by feature to God, without any sense of blasphemy and without any sense of lack. I am not now raising with you any meta- physical theory of the person of Christ. I only ask you to notice that the most enlightened nations of the world to-day owe their ideal of God to Jesus Christ,—not merely to what he said, but to what he was. The significant thing is that there has» beén’ ‘one: samonge! 11st) mens othe circumstances of whose life we in large - measure know, concerning -whose character we can say, That is what I mean by the character of God. One may well ask himself what he could add to the character of God in imagination which has not [ 46 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH already been set forth, not merely in the words of Jesus, but in his actual concrete life. Fairbairn is fully justi- fied -in'isaying that, Jesus’ is’ ** the first being who had realized for man the idea of the Divine.” What language can compass such a fact as that? 5. Jesus is consciously able to re- deem all men. This,.tooy ‘seems’ to me to lie upon the very face of the record.-ult there asone,))thine that we can’ be-sure of ‘concerning the religion of Jesus, it is that it claimed tOcee Dew aay rolicion -. Grey redemption: And one is to remember that it is this man who knew as no other did the meaning of sin and of moral conduct, and the meaning of sharing the -life of God, who could believe not only that he himself was right in his relation to God, but was able to redeem all others to God. The ead GREATNESS AND SIMPIiCITY Gospel records certainly make it clear, in the words of another, that “Jesus knows no more sacred. task than to point men to his own per- son: « He )Iimself,.is (the swaveate God, the very life of God—con- sciously able to’ redeem all) men: 6." This seems to me to meanias Dr. Denison suggests, that Jesus has such God-consciousness and such sense of mission as would topple any other brain into insanity, but only keeps him sweet, normal, rational. It is very dificult for any of us to get a sense of being especially necessary to the kingdom of God _ without serious dariger of moral. lapse in over- weening conceit or hysterical strain. And there is no suffering that men know comparable with the suffering that, tor example, a father has in the sin and shame of his son. A very [48] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH little of such suffering is all that it seems possible for a man to bear. But here is one who can believe as to all other men that they best see God as they see him, and that it is iis to ebeareitne asin vot. alli andy ito redeem all. And = still, under this immeasurable God-consciousness and sense of mission, he can be so sane and normal and rational that we may contrast in these respects the atmosphere of the Gospels with that of even our best religious books. In the very act of the most stupen- -dous self-assertion, he can still de- clare himself to be, preeminently the ‘ meek and lowly one, and can carry our conviction. both of his meek- ness and of his power to give rest to all. For my own part, I cannot see that the world offers anywhere a comparable phenomenon. [49] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY 7. Jesus is the only person who can call out absolute trust. And yet, if we are to have the spirit of little children, as Herrmann says, “we must meet with a personal life which compels us to trust it without re- serve.” And he is surely justified in adding, “Only the person of Jesus can arouse such trust in a man who has awakened to moral self- consciousness.”” We know no other person in history into whose hands we should feel that we could safely put ourselves absolutely without re- serve. The New Testament bears vivid witness to the trust Christ called out, in its glorious transfor- mation of the hard. and forbidding ¢ > words “nmaster “andi ;slaver? 8. Jesus 1s the one person of history in whom God certainly finds us and we find God. Here, too, I raise no [50] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH question of any metaphysical theory. I only say that it seems to me that we have in Jesus a fact so great that we can turn to it with assurance, as able to bring the conviction of the existence and love of God. As one turns confidently to the greatest he has known in art and literature and music to find again the refreshment he has before found, so the Christian returns confidently to Christ to find the indubitable assurance of God. oalon d@hrists as another” has | said, reGo0,) turns, to» the Christian’ and igen accessiDiel eto hit: tlarnack’s words upon just this point have always: i seemed ito.’me. to have'.a note of. personal confession of faith: “When God and everything that is sacred threaten to disappear in dark- ness, or our doom is_ pronounced; when the mighty forces of inex- | [51] GREATNESS AND. SIMPLICITY orable nature seem to overwhelm us, and the bounds of good and evil to dissolve; when, weak and weary, we despair of finding God at all in this dismal world —it is then that the personality of Christ may save ist 4 9, And allthis. means thatyyesses 1s the 1tdeal realized: The statement mayi seem’ commonplaces fbute tie fact is not. Speaking philosophi- cally, we should have a right to ex- péct ‘ the. realized, 1déal, ‘only jin the absolute whole of things. And, as a matter of fact, we seem to find no realized ideals in the lower spheres. It ‘is all the more remarkable, there- fore,- that in this highest sphere of all, ther sphéereyoi #jthe “moral s.aned spiritual, we should seem to find our fully realized ideal. Ask yourselves, as I have often asked myself, what [ 52 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH you would add to Christ that is not in his life, or what you would take away from Christ that would make you more sure that God was in him, spoke and wrought through him, that “he -was, invery truth. the su- preme manifestation of the living God. If only a tithe of what I have said were true, surely here in Christ is the supreme fact in history, the one priceless® fact of “the ! world. *We may well name ourselves after him, and account him above all. All other values, of literature and music and art and ‘friendship, go back finally to the riches of some personal lifemblerca it). C irist; are a themmin- searchable ‘riches of - the’ “one © un- fathomables lite "lhe Onepey creat, all-inclusive, indispensable need of men, then, is to know him;, and [ 53 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY the one supreme wisdom is to give this greatest of all persons his full opportunity with us. We have no need to try to force our minds to any conviction concerning him. We have need only to put ourselves steadfastly, attentively, and obedi- ently in his presence, to’ let” him make his own legitimate impression, — bring his own conviction. [ 54] ERE PERL, GOD MANIFEST IN CHRIST Letter Four GOD MANIFEST IN CHRIST F Christ has at all the significance which my» last. letter indicated, then he is able to put us at once in the very midst of the spiritual world and: in’ touch’ with God. himself. He becomes the master-key to all our deepest moral and spiritual prob- lems, and God _ himself becomes “wanirest to sus vin. nim.’ We. find God) "in? Christ! “And “in'’our search for God we have a right to start di- rectly from Christ as undoubtedly the most significant of the facts of the world, because the surest dis- -cerner of moral and spiritual truth, consciously the completest revealer PATA GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY of God, and carrying most decisively the judgment of our own reason and conscience at their best. Even in the matter of an intel- lectual argument for God, we are thoroughly justified in starting im- mediately from the fact of Christ himself, —his_ lite, his teachings, and especially his consciousness, — as the greatest and most significant fact in the world, and so our best proof of the existence of God in the full Christian sense. The argument goes upon the simple assumption that if we are ever.to discern the real nature of the ultimate world- ground, our best light must come from the greatest and most signifi- cant facts hor amyseli, iarote eine reasons that I have indicated in the previous letter, I have no doubt that Christ is the most significant of all [ 58 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH facts known to us, and therefore the best basis for direct and decisive inference as to the nature of the world-ground. The argument does not at all go, it should be noticed, upon any assumption of the arbitrary authority of Jesus, but simply upon the significance of what he is. Any authority which we may — subse- quently give to him is based wholly upon what we have in fact found him to be. I know no good reason, therefore, why one should not count themacrrot Christas mhesereatestGod’s. | life. Even in a great human love of a noble man, the relation is inevitably hindered when we allow ourselves consciously to fall below the spirit of the nobler life. So, still more, in our relation with God, must the harbored evil build a wall of separa- [71] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY tion. In the purpose of God, there- fore, Christ sees men as really akin to the heavenly Father, having a per- sonality like the Father’s, and capa- ble, in their free choice, of living in loving personal relations with both God and men. Christ believes in men, in the greatness. conferred by God upon them, and in their divine possibilities. In the thought of Christ, thus, no limits can be set to man’s growth in knowledge, in power, in character, in the ongoing of his sharing in the life of God, and thus in his coming increasingly into just such ethical and spiritual relations to God as those in which Christ stood. And that men are children of God means, further, to Christ, that every man, though he may be in the wrong, is still a child of the heav- [ 72 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH enly Father, loved of God, grieved over, longed for, sought out. Once more, because God is Father, and his life of love is the one true life, that men should be children of God means, also, that they must be brothers one of another. If I am to love men, I need to believe that the life of every man is knit up indisso- lubly with my own, that he is like me, and that he is in very truth a child. of God. Then I cannot wish to kill or hate or despise or condemn him. That men are my brothers means, then, in the first place, that our lives are indissolubly knit up together. For, to mention no other consideration, for your own life, according to Christ’s fundamental principle, you need most of all to love. And to refuse to love, to refuse to pour [735] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY out your life into the life of others, is to doom yourself to the dreadful: loneliness and fruitlessness of the selfish.’ life!) 7“T'o)\real’ enlargement of life there is one sole way — through the giving of ourselves in loving self-sacrifice to others. He who refuses to take this way only “tightens his chains in struggling to be free.” Orville Dewey is but fol- lowing out Christ’s own _ teaching when he says: “Every relation to mankind, of hate or scorn or neglect, is full of vexation and _ torment. There is nothing to do with men but to love them; to contemplate their virtues with admiration, their faults with pity and forbearance, and their injuries with forgiveness. Task all the ingenuity of your mind to devise some other thing, but you can never find it. To hate your adver- [ 74 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH sary will not help you; to kill him will not help you; there is nothing within the compass of the universe can help you, but to love him.” And™ thats men*are’ our brothers means, also, that whether we will or not, they are really very like us. We may strive to put them in quite another class, and yet, if we will be honest, we are constrained to admit that? they.- are): nevertheless, in the great essentials, just like us, made with the same faculties, the same fundamental doubleness of nature, the same variableness, the same great possibilities, and the same great uni- versal interests; and these respects which are common to us all are, after all, greater than those which divide class from. class. This vision of men as children of God even in their disobedience, and Ao ttrss GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY as brothers one of another in their necessary recognition of their like- ness and of the indissoluble way in which their lives are knit to- gether, Christ never loses. Because he knows that the only true life is the life of the’ heavenly Father, which is the life of love, he must believe that the Father has made all men capable of this life, and desires that: intoy 1! they -all#‘shouldvabe \ brought#/ * Evencin (theirwisin' Sane need, therefore, Christ sees men still as children away from the Father’s house and from his life of love, and therefore in darkness, in loneliness, in emptiness and misery and want, and in sin against the Father’s love. For them there can be no way back into light and friendship and large- ness and richness of life, and right- eousness, but the way back to the [ 76 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH Father’s house, into the sharing of his own life of love. And Christ knows so fully the inexorableness of this demand _ for love as the one source of life, that he knows that the whole spiritual hfe is a unity, that no part of the life of men can go up or down alone, that itvis) all of a: piece; that good or evil cherished anywhere tends to _ per- meate. the whole. From Christ’s point of view, therefore, whatever the wrong another has done me, still suspicion and contempt and hate are fctie very working tot 7death’, inj me; And for my own life’s sake, I must throw them off. On the other hand, every bit of true love counts. It is, then, just because Christ sees so clearly that love is life and hate is death, that he must insist so strenu- ously upon the most radical carrying aes GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY through of the loving spirit. He knows, therefore, that the com- mands of the loving Father are laid on us in love, and that we come into life and blessing, not in the propor- tion in which we evade these com- mands of the Father, but rather in just the proportion in which we may radically carry them through to the completest fulfilment. It is, therefore, not because Christ desires to lay upon us a harder law, that he gives such deep, inner interpretation of the law of righteousness in the Sermon on the Mount, but only be- cause of his consuming passion to bring us into the fullest life. ‘The sinwsol acmen. ysthusestnon Christ’s point of view, can only be seen in its true depth and ugliness and deadliness when we set it over against the love of God. and» the [ 78 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH longing of the heavenly Father for every son of man. Both the great- ness and the sin of men, therefore, are to be seen only in. the light -of the supreme revelation of God in Christ himself. And when we thus see men as they are in Christ’s ideal, and pasmetneye ate, isthe vestrange- ment from God, we see, at the same time, the true and the false life. And so we have, as I understand ity \Christ’s -doctrine sor, man, ol ‘sin, and of righteousness. It all grows directly out of the thought of God as Father. The great essentials of Christ’s thought here you can make plain even to a child; but its signifi- cance deepens with every year of growth. eM ‘ jon Sayyid $9 i + yeh 0 erm day yy Rae eo y Sa het ae LETTER Vi THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AS A FRIENDSHIP Letter Six THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AS A FRIENDSHIP PERN Christ. makes. they stm of his gospel the revelation of God as Father, when he sums up all life in the one great command- ment of love to God and to men, when he makes the supreme test of the judgment to lié in a ministering ~ love, —in all these statements alike he seems to be declaring that the life of the disciple of Christ is simply’ waite or Cr iriendshiponeit seems to me sometimes that it is because of the ‘very simplicity’ of Christ’s message that it escapes us. We admit it all as though it were [ 83 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY a matter of course, and still fail to draw the first inferences from it. And yet, in very truth the Chris- tian life is a_ friendship — with God, with men. The problem of life 1s the problem of friendship. ‘This is to be deliberately, even philosoph- ically, osaideqs!Hor 4 persons Arey ate most certain of facts, the most im- portant of facts, and the most per- manent of yiacts. Personsmare ithe. “smostri \cértaimiuigor facts In: ally our-(liiewno tactwasiae certain as the existence -of persons. Many philosophies have questioned the reality of the external world of matter, but no philosophy has ever seriously questioned the existence of persons. Persons, too, sare: for us. the. most important facts, because in our rela- tions to them we find the greatest [ 84 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH sources both of happiness and of characters: Wer divey ini theses, per- sonal relations. It is our friends who reveal us to ourselves; our friends who, in Emerson’s phrase, “make us do what we can.” And persons are not less certainly the most abiding facts. Only a friendship can be eternal. “Love never, faileth.”2: “The. world | pass- eth) jawaysi. .w2, butvihen that “close @jtowthe” iver: center of the gospel. Christ calls his disciples to live the life of obedi- ent children of God, and of brothers one of another,—to have and to show increasingly the simply friendly spirit. And the New ‘Testament every- where conceives the _ relation in which the disciple stands to God as an individual, intimate, constant, and unobtrusive personal relation of the Spirit of God to the man’s spirit. Other figures of speech are used in setting forth this relation; but the dominant conception throughout the New)? *lestament’“isi@personala s) Wem have a clear right, therefore, to affirm that from the point of view of Christ’s own teaching, and of [ 86 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH the New ‘Testament generally, the Christian life is to be conceived as a personal relation of friendship with God=om, the one. hand, \ and with our fellow men on the other. When, then, you are trying to bring others into the Christian life, you are seeking to introduce them into a life even so simple as this: You are only trying to persuade them to be good friends, obedient children of the heavenly Father, true brothers one of another. ‘‘ Beloved, let us loveysone) another:eytor. lovey iss jet God; and: everyone that loveth 4s begotten of God, and_ knoweth God.” Let me ask you to think with me, then, for a moment of the signifi- cance of this simple conception of the Christian life, and to note the light which it throws on the knowl- [ 87 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY edge of God, on the unity of life, and on our relations to others. T).:And, first;- how! samlel to Sind (SOG! 0 i hisotis oc hfes etemaat, in jaa makes Jesus say, “‘that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus. Christ.” This. conception, that my relation to God is primarily that of a personal friendship, makes impossible a merely creedal, or tech- nically religious conception of that relation. We need, no doubt, to. know many things about God; but knowledge about God is not the same thing as that acquaintance with God which Jesus evidently has in mind. It is quite possible, in this sense, to be Christian in head and pagan in heart; ‘to: have learned! «much of theology, and yet to be sadly clear that one stands in no close relation [ 88 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN, | FAITH to God himself. It is not primarily by the searching of the intellect that we find our way to God. Nor is it primarily even by religious exercises that we draw near to God. [I should wish to be very far from underes- timating the value of either prayer or Bible study; on the contrary, I believe them of vital importance. But Christ gave few directions for either. And he made it very clear that no man was prepared to pray, who was not willing to have ‘the forgiving and the loving spirit. Not primarily, then, by the searching of the intellect, and not primarily by way of religious exercises, but Dy, qpcatchine yin sthe i}presetice’ of Christ, his own spirit of love, are we prepared to find in him the su- preme revelation of God. Only love can believe -in love other [89 | GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY than sentimentally. And it was those who had ministered in the loving spirit, who, Christ showed, had;\ done it. even’ unto” him) aNo argument or demonstration, no ec- static visions of Christ, no religious experiences, no prophesying in _ his name, can take the place ‘ot the lov= ing spirit. The cup of cold water given in the name of the disciple is itself a direct road, Christ assures us, to the vision of the manifestation of God in him. Just so we find him. But we are often not really willing to take this lowly, simple way to Ged. We want to make great dem- onstrations and learned arguments, and feel the’ thrill of - marvelous religious experiences with magical changes... And™~ yet@1te is ystlli ttre that “every one that loveth is be- gotten of God; and knoweth God.” [ 90 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH II. And this conception of the Christian life as friendship brings, also, wonderful unity into life. If the spirit that is required of us in rela- LOM DOUIMMOnMGOd wanduntOwaneny 1s essentially ather same, spirit) then.call our life is wonderfully simplified ancuuiniiedarmy lhe © tirsty andthe second great commandments are bound up _ together. God’s lessons are liclose meat. Uhand. abivery human relationship becomes, thus, a teacher Gls Gods) Carer mclpedainto -alitrue love of God in the proportion in which we are most faithfully fulfil- ling the common relations of our GAL Varmhit eae Ousber. ask ood 4SOnwiwa good brother, a good husband, a goadsedather wae -cood. trend, ——all this directly helps into right rela- tions to God. What it means to call. God; “Father,” and. to think: of [91] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY ourselves as his “ children,’? and to say that he ‘loves’ us, we must largely learn in the very midst of our. human relationships. Every genuine love is, thus, both an ez- dence of the divine love and a prep- aration for it. The old ascetic and monkish’ ideas) “theretoreyie that aie were peculiarly drawing near to God as we withdrew from human relationships, is found to be _ neces- sarily out of harmony with Christ’s fundamental conception. If the true life is. the life: of» love, we» must learn it not apart from men, but among them. We draw near to God as we draw near to men. III. This simple conception of the Christian -life as. a friendship has also its light to throw upon our relations to others. For it empha- sizes, on the one hand, the duty of [ 92 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN, FAITH enlarging the circle of our friends, and, on the other hand, the duty of deepening our friendships. Obvi- ously, if in Christ’s thought the world’s goal is the civilization of brotherly men, his disciples must more and more and_ everywhere prove themselves friends. Impor- Mant) as ith is that yone «should? be faithful to what we call our specific religious duties’ to other men, Christ’s own judgment test makes it clear that the, great 52 question: (ofthe judgment will be, not, With how many have you spoken concerning their souls? but, With how many have you earned the right to speak of the things that lie deepest and are’; most: s sacred ;;to » them? With how many have you shown your- self truly friendly? How many know that you love them? “ Inas- [93 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY much as ye did it unto one of these my. ebrethren,. seven these: least ae did it unto me.” And if the Christian life is funda- ‘mentally friendship, and implies not only the duty of steadily enlarging the circle of our friends, but also the duty of deepening our friend- ships, one may well confront him- self again and again with the questions, How deep and sacred a thing is friendship to you? How large and rich a seliare= you giving to. your friends? Have. you any friendship that could easily be con- ceived as a type of the perfect life in God? How far are you achiev- ing the highest in friendship? In some measure, surely, that ought to bestrue Voli,every “disciplessonsG@hast which Baron Bunsen said of his wife, as, dying, he looked up into [ 94 | OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH her face, “‘In thy face I have seen the face of the Eternal.” And our highest service to our friends in seek- ing to bring them into the eternal liteweliesesinuthisyeethats they should catch some glimpses of God through our lives. az ate ey tah LETTER VI THE BASIS IN THE DIVINE FRIENDSHIP Letter Seven THE BASIS IN THE DIVINE FRIENDSHIP N my last letter I asked you to see thats) entire harmony ‘with Christ’s own thought and the deepest trend of the New Testament writ- ings, we could best conceive of the Christian life as simply a friendship — with God, with men. If this is a true conception, then the very beginning of the life with God, of communion with him, is our en- trance upon this divine friendship. which necessarily involves, at the same time, a life of love toward mens (ihe ‘conditions. of a’ deep- ening spiritual life, the conditions [99 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY of all growth in the Christian life, are simply the conditions of a deepening friendship with God and man. And these conditions are essentially the same for our relation with God as for our relation with men. We may think of our relig- ious life as simply a deepening acquaintance with God, and may | ask at once what the conditions are upon which that friendship, with God may deepen. Let us ask, then, what the basis is). infany true. trendships vite God is a person, and we are persons and our relation to him is _ conse- quently first of all a personal rela- tion, then the basis of our personal relation with him must be that of any true friendship. And it is be- cause [hope .that you who’ read will find this conception helpful not [ 100 | OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH only in your own lives, but es- pecially helpful in presenting the Christian life to your friends, that I am asking you to note with me that the: facts: “which? must’ ‘lie’ atthe basis of every friendship worthy of theiname: “are. exactly: «those; ‘facts that have to be considered in lay- ing the foundation of any genuine Christian life. Now the foundation of all high friendship, whether with God _ or with men, so far as I can see, must be threefold: mutual self-revelation and answering trust, mutual self- surrender, and some deep commu- nity of interests. PeiATICaieirst. tatirthe oibasisiaot every friendship, human and divine, must lie mutual self-revelation and answering trust. All deepening of personal relations involves such in- [ 101 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY creasing’ revelation son. the (parteor each of the friends, and an answer- ing trust, as» wells on? the’ -parnteor each. The terms ‘“‘revelation’? and “trust,” therefore, that we some- times think of as peculiarly religious, are in truth not peculiar to religion at all, but necessarily involved in every true friendship. If a _ friend- ship is to grow, one cannot always bewis on #probation,7. as Perfechaier. casteth out fear.’ Self-revelation and answering trust assume, of course, association. In our relation to God, it assumes, above all, our staying in ithe presence of Christ in the Word. And the trust that must underlie our friendship with God, as our friendship with men, must be a trust: both in the character and in the’. love” .otyi the sother. eOnemradces [ 102 | OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH not need to make terms with a real iniendwabe can trust: his atriend out of his sight. Now God has meant to make the greatest possible proof Dotimweor shis-) character and “oi9 his Iovemsin this srevelation in) <@hrist. He asks for no trust without evi- dence. He-might rather ask, Have I not given you reason to trust my love? What more can or would you ask than I have already made plain in Christ? Growing revela- tion, too, calls out growing trust, as also growing trust calls out growing revelation. The friendship deepens at every point with the growth of this double basis. It is no mystery, then, that faith is sO prominent a word in Christian- ity, because we have in Christ the greatest of all self-revelations of the greatest person, calling out, [ 103 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY therefore, the supreme faith. More- over, there is a special reason why, in our relation to God, we.must walk: byiifaith: oliethere gis: edanger in any friendship that the stronger personality may override the lite of, thiswjiriend; y.the, “dangereas yas greater in our relation with God. His, ‘relation: tos us “must “not began obtrusive one. We need the invis- ible Gods Ih we vare! at all’ tesmake choices that are our own, *we must walk here by faith, not by sight. And it is not more true that God. asks ‘our: trust’ than, ‘that: he also: )'trusts «ius. How. * priceless are the interests that he has committed to us in his kingdom, and how cer- tainly does the freedom from mere rules in the religion of Christ show his willingness to rest all on our loyal love to him! [ 104 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH Ll. Bute in stheirbasis ot any, true friendship there must be, also, mu- tual self-surrender. Perhaps the best definition of love that we know is the giving of the self. It is not things: nor any.’ ‘certam’ )kind)):of treatment that we ask from our friends, but themselves. This giv- ing of the self presupposes, of course, trust. One cannot absolutely sub- mit without absolute trust. And the depth of the friendship depends upon the completeness with which the self is given; the significance of the friendship, upon the richness of the self given. One can almost range his friendships, upon careful thought, in an ascending scale, de- pending upon the extent to which he» gives himself “in them... And the duty of growth connects itself at’ “once. with the fact: ;that, in sour [ 105 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY friendships we can ultimately give nothing but ourselves. ‘If, there- fore, we are to have much here to give, we must take pains to fulfil the conditions of our own growth. One who has once wakened up to the significance of a high friend- ship certainly understands that such a friendship is not, as one has said, ‘““a weakening denial of self, but a strengthening affirmation of self,” that every such added friendship is an| enlargement -ofylites).5 When: then, we try to think of this self- giving as applied to our relation to God, we see at once that the de- mand for a surrender of ourselves is no demand peculiar to God, and no de- mand arbitrary in God. In demand- ing such giving of ourselves, God makes the same kind of demand that we make on one _ another. [ 106 OF IdE CHRISTIAN FAITH And it is just as certain that the de- mand is not an arbitrary one. God must ask that we shall give ourselves completely to him, if he is to give bimseliamecompletel ye .tof cus, jl thrais passing strange that the terms “ self- Surrender, + wen sel-giving. ): “ecom- plete consecration,” have so hard anicwecitercntm.a sound an) * religion than in other relations. We_ see the facts as they are only when we see that these terms stated in the relation to God, even as in relation -to man, are simply the inevitable, glad condition upon which alone the best in friendship may come to us. There seem to me, sometimes, to be two opposite instincts in man, — self-devotion and the insatiate thirst for love. And it is the great, unique contribution “;of .:religion, that.» it [ 107 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY introduces us to that one relation in which both these instincts can be absolutely unchecked and com- pletely’. satished: Uniwevery sy human relation, even the closest and dearest, there are many limitations. In much we must all tive! alone. »:There vis only one relation in which we can give ourselves unstintedly, only one which is wholly satisfying. III. The two fundamental ‘ele- ments in every friendship, and so in our friendship -with God, already noted — mutual self-revelation and answering trust, and mutual self- surrender — both point forward to the need of some deep community of interests in the highest friendship. It is not necessary that one’s closest friends should agree with him in his whims and fancies and hobbies or even in his occupations. But it is [ 108 | OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH necessary that there should be agree- ment as to the great abiding aims and ideals and purposes. No friend- ship can be all it ought to be in which there is not sympathy in the highest; moments: iH) one >'is*) con- scious that when he is really at his best he is obliged to leave his friends outside, as not able to understand or enter into this best, then he knows the pain of finding that his highest self awakens no response in_ his closests) triends,In) the.” greatest friendships one must be able to say to his friend, The interests which are supreme to you shall be supreme to me. Not less than this, cer- tainly, must we be able to say to God, if we are to lay the basis of an abiding friendship. It is the characteristic petition, therefore, of the disciple of Christ that he should [ 109 | GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY prays. {hy tkinedom scomenmainy: will be done.” Can we who wish to be witnesses for Christ not make it plain that coming into the Christian life is even so simple and yet so deep a matter as’ coming into ‘them best wiriendsargs anywhere? Weare children of the heavenly Father, who has so revealed himself to us as to call out our com- pletest trust, who gives himself to us as he asks that we should give our- selves to him, and who seeks from us that we should identify our interests and lives with his. In laying this plain basis of friendship with God, we are proceeding precisely as in all the other deepest relations of life, and the steps are not more obscure in the one case than in the other. [110 ] LEVEE RY Vit THE CONDITIONS OF DEEPENING ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD Letter Eight THE CONDITIONS OF DEEPENING ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD E, are trying together, let us not forget, to find our way into the deepest truths of the Chris- tian faith and life. We are trying “to see them so deeply and yet so simply that we may be able not only fully to grasp them for ourselves, but also to be able to make them Caner Kelectivemtoy MOtILETSab «sl have not known how to do this with you without using — lines of thought which I have followed elsewhere in my writing. But this -you will pardon. I have had very little to say about the technical nia GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY terms. (of *theolovy,. and yet, 19 yeu will review the ground now covered, you ‘will see’ that we have: -been dealing with some of the most fun- damental conceptions of the Chris- tian faith. I have not felt that it was possible for me to bring you into the very heart> of “these® greatest’ of all truths without constant reference to Christ and to his all-inclusive teaching of | the Father. We have really simply been asking for the inevitable impli- cations of his thought of God as Father and men as children, when we have conceived the Christian life as in its very essence a friendship, and thus have been asking what the foundation “to ™ bel -laid\) invesuchans friendship ‘imustbes 11. amy tomes you to''go.* with) me still” taigeliitte further along this same line, get- [ 114 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH ting all the light that it is possible for our best human friendships to throw upon this’ personal relation to ised 2 Thats; “how “are. «we to go forward to build upon the basis already noted — mutual self-revela- tion and answering trust, mutual self-surrender, and some deep com- munity of interests? This is to ask how it is that God is redeeming us to himself. 1. An Unconscious Growth. First, let .us make it clear to ‘ourselves that any high friendship 1s much more an unconscious growth than it 1s a work of conscious arrangement. It would not be wise for two friends to say tolteach “other, Go’ to; now,, lét us have a great friendship. Great friendships are not so brought about. Our main concern, therefore, in our relation to God should be a careful [115 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY fulfilment of the conditions upon which a friendship may naturally deepen; then we may count with certainty upon the result. Neither © in the human nor in the divine rela- tions is it usually possible for a great friendship to result from mere con- scious effort. The most important part, usually, in a friendship is the result of unconscious growth. And it *would’ mean much for ,the nor- mality and the joy of our Christian lives, if -we could keep this simple thought in mind. 2. No Continuous Emotion. In any friendship, also, we may well remember that while we do well to assure ourselves of the meaning of the friendship, we are not to expect continuous emotion. ‘There are, no doubt, great differences here with different dispositions. Those who [ 116 ] ‘OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH find themselves naturally emotional in other things may expect a larger degree of emotion in the religious life than belongs to others. But in no case is warm emotion to be ex- pected as a continuous experience. This is indicated, too, by the char- acter of the very natures involved in such unbroken high emotions. Neither our physical nor mental con- stitutions permit the constant strain. To attempt this in any personal rela- tion is simply to invite failure. The deliberate seeking of great experi- ences for their own sake is always unwise. The best cannot so come. No acquaintance, moreover, human or divine, will stand constant intro- spection, and we cannot, therefore, wisely subject our religious life to such persistent self-examination as is certain to follow if emotional expe- Lekileee is GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY rience is made the main aim and test. Under such examination we do not see Our own states of mind in their normal condition. They inevitably change “under; #inspection.#) Uherzone course of wisdom for us is simply to go steadily forward in faithful fulfil- ment of the natural conditions of a deepening friendship, and so to be sure, of- ‘the, resultss) We can) bemcer tain that God desires to receive us as his children, and in trust in his love we need only press faithfully on in fulfilling our part in the deepening of this filial relation. | 3. Association. The main factor in a deepening acquaintance 1s associa- tion. All directions for the deep- ening of our friendship with God may be almost summed, up in this single suggestion. An acquaintance is not the product of certain rules, [118 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH but the unconscious result of much association. One wakes up with a kind of surprise to find how much a friendship means to him. And in our relation to God this is still the main factor. It is only through constant association with God that we aprow. \intos his .life: >And so Christ assures us that the-Spirit has been given to» “be: with you | for ever J; that. wemareuto. abide: * in him and he in us; that we are to seek such unity with Christ as he himself has with the Father. The greatest of all the conditions, there- fore, of a deepening acquaintance with God, is much association with him; giving Christ opportunity with@ uss byeattention, .by (thought, by living much in the atmosphere of his -life;’ by. finding it ‘second nature -to* think “his thoughts, to [119] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY feel his feelings, and to will his purposes. 4. Time. ‘Time is necessary for growth into anything of really great value. We need not be surprised, therefore, to find that a main condi- tion of growing into a deepening friendship with God must be the giving of some time. No acquaint- ance can become deep without time given. Any love:-will grow cold. to which no time is given. ‘This is the practical way in which we do give ourselves to our friends. One has only to look over his own experience to see that he has allowed certain friendships quite to drift out of his life simply because a little time was not expended to keep them alive. It is just here that there lies the prime significance of the taking of daily time for Bible study and for [ 120 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH - prayer. ‘These are no magical con- ditions. In recognizing their neces- sity,uewe? are ‘simply am: suresthar notaim, has been worth so much to me in my own life as the times when I have been able to stay face to face with God in the Word for three or four hours at a stretch, taking oppor- tunity really to get down into the great truths and to get some glimpse of the great revelations of God. 5. The importance for a_ growing Christian life of the regular use of the [122 | OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH Bibie isso great that: it edeserves special emphasis. We are to remem- ber that decision ‘for the Christian life means the opening of the life to God, and that its continuance, consequently, depends on _ keeping the life so open to this new, great- est, transforming, personal relation. And keeping the life so open de- Dendsails -1tss *Luiieweabove: sall, on regular Bible study. He who keeps such study steadily going is practi- cally certain to maintain his Chris- tian life and to grow intelligently init. 11e who does -not’ 1s: ‘pretty certain finally to fail wlhe sreasons: “for, this, ‘central: 4m- portance of the Scripture can be seen from different points of view. Fourie we start, fons tie idea’ of environment, ‘we must remember that that part of our environment [123 | GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY makes us to which we attend. And probably the greatest way in which we can be “sure| to “put. ourselves within reach of a strong spiritual environment is through - regular Bible study. Moreover, the mind readily recurs to its habitual objects of thought. And it is these habitual objects which are certain to domi- nates the lite sal hwe area bit iam turning, .thus,* to): the ereat: {moral and spiritual resources of the Scrip- ture, we have the right to count on a deepening spiritual life. Or, if we look at the matter from the point of view of personal associ- ation, the universal law to be recog- - nized is that we become like those with whom we constantly are, to whom we voluntarily surrender our- selves, and who give themselves unreservedly to us. Now the Scrip- [124 | OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH ture offers us, in preeminent degree, just such association. It allows us to come into close personal contact with God-touched men, — those to whom and,'through whom God has most effectively spoken. We have here the opportunity of sharing their visions, and so of being introduced, through these greatest seers, into ‘some of the deeps of the spiritual world. Here, too, in the Scripture is the record of the preeminent meetings of God with men, into which it is possible for us to enter, Ande the «Scripture gives) .us;:.as does nothing else, the possibility of laying that foundation of a true per- sonal relation with God of which we have’ spoken. For it is.a record of his dealings with men, and so of such a revelation of him as makes possible our answering trust. It [125 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY calls out again and again our self- surrender »in particulars. “Andiat brings us in its atmosphere into some community of interest with God in Christ. As we thus give time to our Bible study, we are entering into the transforming asso- ciation with God, which must be the main factor in deepening our acquaintance. ;with him; >and ste come’ ‘really *to™ know. God" vis#shire eternal. In. mydnext letter.) want tomcall your attention to some other impor- tant conditions of deepening - still further this friendship with God. [ 126 ] Tig D ERS TEX THE CONDITIONS. OF | DEEPENING ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD (Continued) of i, ¥ Letter Nine THE CONDITIONS. OF DEEPENING ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD (Continued) N* this'-letter -Lwish'to: call your attention to a single great funda- mental means, if our acquaintance with God is to deepen as it ought. The principle —and to it I wish to devote thé entire), letter —- 1s. simply Dis intnat eit) our relation sto! Godiis to grow in significance, it needs expression. It is one of the central propositions of modern psychology, that in body and mind we are made for action, for the expression in some active way of every bodily and men- tal statesi>No idea ory feeling: ‘or [129 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY purpose can come to its full signifi- cance for any: of us without “ex- pression. ‘The general psychological law here is, that that which 1s not expressed dies. Let us apply just this law, now, with some real care to our religious ‘life. (For af the law “is “a true one, we cannot expect full reality in our religious life if we fail to give careful heed to this -princi- ple of expression. If, therefore, one wishes his religious life to mean all possible to him, he must express it in significant action. Otherwise, it is likely to become either the senti- mentality of mere passive emotion, or only the dogmatic holding of cer- tain opinions. ‘The need of expression is a perpetual one everywhere. So in any friendship, if you would have your love mean much, you must in various ways give it expression. [ 130 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 1. Expression by Word. Many of Us are naturally greserved, ands sare chary and half ashamed to express the best in us; and repression in any personal relation is likely to grow on one apace. Any friendship needs, at times at least, expression in word. Ite is) mot only +wellfor~ others «that they should know occasionally the pleasure we find in their companion- shipyaiu ise importantwion, ourselves. And our relation to Christ certainly will not be to us what it ought unless we take some pains to say, in dif- ferent, simple, and perhaps largely private ways, what Christ means to us. We are not to underestimate here the value of simple witness. C@hrist’s.) program ,for the conquest ° of the world was through a campaign of simple testimony from heart to heart of what Christ meant. Many [ebsites] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY of our closest personal relations suffer from lack of this simple expression in word. And we need not think it strange that the same principle should hold in the religious life. Does any one know how much Christ ‘really’ means to - you, ‘ not simply from some half formal ex- ‘pression in prayer-meeting, but from the speaking out of your heart in close and intimate fellowship with another? Are you taking pains that others shall know? Do you really mean to be able, here, to speak with authority from first-hand knowledge out of your own experience? You can only bear witness, but you are to bear witness of what Christ really, honestly is to you. - How else shall . others find him much to them? It is sO preeminently that the king- dom of God must grow. And it is L432: OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH so, also, that your own sense of per- sonal relation to God will grow. 2. Seeking to Please in Little Things. And friendship needs as well not only the witness of the WOrds Dut» that. expression® ‘that ° 1s found in seeking to please one’s friend in little things. Perhaps the best test of a true love is to be found just here. For few of us are likely to fail in the great demands that. our personal relations make upon _ us. But we are much more likely to fail in the thousand and one little ways in which the real spirit of our rela- tion to another is tested. The chief mark of obedience is not shown at the great crises, but is found rather in that sensitiveness of conscience that makes us careful to do what is well pleasing to God, even in the slighter things. The cup of cold { 133 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY water given in the name of a disciple, Christ assures us, is taken as given directly to him. And if one finds, in a personal relation, that he is al- ways having his own way, however smoothly and graciously that may seem to be occurring, he may well suspect that he is guilty of real self- ishness. And this same _ spirit is likely to pursue him in that most fundamental relation —the relation in which he stands to God in Jesus Ghrist.*Phis,.. expressions /ofsones love in little things requires time, attention, and thoughtfulness. If we are =vreally?7-to; ministering) @hriems name, and to minister unto others as unto Christ, we shall hardly suc- ceed without the sympathy that is free from preoccupation and able to put. itself sin the others jplacesmay reverent love for another shows itself [ 134 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH in trifles of manner. And our love to Christ will best show itself in similar care in the trifles of our daily life. We make no’ sacrifice so great as that which manifests itself in what we count the small things of daily living, “More careful not to serve Thee much, But please Thee perfectly.” 3.':By Gratitude. And true love needs especially that expression which finds its outlet in gratitude. Grati- tude. hass.rare- power to bring men together. It is hardly possible for any one to say honestly to another how much what the other has said or done or been, means to _ him, without a distinct strengthening of the ties between the two lives. The honest expression of gratitude brings men together as few things do. On pele GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY the other hand, thoughtless ingrati- tude chills greatly any friendship. Even where there is no desire to cherish resentment, the person to whom the gratitude is due cannot avoid a teelinge) of real churns Dhere are few things harder to bear, per- haps, in our daily life with others than: to: feel{that-theesacriticesmitae have cost us most have been all un- appreciated and taken practically as mere matters cf course: Do we always appreciate the loneliness of those who stand nearest us? And are we not too chary of the word of appreciation and of praise that might mean much more, than we think? It is not well in any personal relation that too much should be perpetually taken for granted. And so in our relation to God, we shall find few things so kindling our hearts and so [ 136 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH helping to make real the relation in which we stand to God, as to go carefully over the manifold occasions for thanksgiving, and to take pains to express our gratitude to the heav- enlya‘Hather (for. the, mercies, ofthe daily. vliten ailherey (care jo very tew. hearts that will not respond to a careful review of the occasions for thanksgiving. “‘In everything give thanks,” the Apostle writes to the Thessalonians, “for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus to you-ward.” And this single injunction strikes much closer to the very heart of our religious life than we often think. ee’ By Sharing Burdens. How close are the companionships which grow up in the mutual sharing vf trial and struggle and danger! ‘This, I suppose, is what makes so significant the companionship of sol- [ 137 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY diers who have been long together in successive campaigns. The _ bur- dens that we share inevitably tend to draw our souls together. And it is just at this point that people sometimes make serious mistakes — parents in trying to spare their chil- dren, the husband the wife, the friend his friend. For, to refuse to let your close friend into your inner struggle and burden means often simply keeping him out of the deep- est part "ot your lite, treating seni like a child. This is not to spare him so much as to defraud him. And it is one of the highest honors conferred upon us by Christ that he does not deal with us in this way. Rather, he calls us into the sharing of his own suffering; and he says to his immediate disciples, ‘‘ Ye are they that have continued with me in my [ 138 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH temptations.” From this point of view, too, therefore, we may well say with Peter, “Insomuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, Tejoices mas Uhateortwo.e souls «should commit themselves with all the power of completest. self-devotion in sacrifice to the same great cause, is to insure essential closeness of fellowship. And it is this fellow- ship that Christ offers us with him- self. And just as it is often only in the times of peculiar burden and trial that the best and greatest and deepest in our friends reveals itself, so, too, it must often be that only at such times shall we taste the full meaning of the heavenly Father’s love and care. And in that mutual- ness which belongs to every great friendship, Christ not only shares his great purposes and sacrifices with us, [ 139 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY but she” asks) 1s,” in ‘like smannenwo bring to him all our burdens, to find them lighténed for us in the thought of his sympathy and uplift. 5. By Sacrifice. And this leads us to see distinctly that no love can mean most to us for which we have not genuinely sacrificed. ) first, s there sare © few cautions, probably, that the man who would be a true friend needs more to take to heart than the cau- tion to be on his guard against slight [145 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY occasions of estrangement. In no personal relation that concerns us deeply can we safely harbor or dwell on the small points of controversy. Our only safety lies in clearing them. up: at“. once, »), Great estrangements grow from them. Both in our hu- man and our divine relations we are more in danger of getting away in the little than in the great things. The deeper the friendship one has with another the more sensitive one is to these little differences. One soon learns to interpret the slightest indica- tions of face or gesture or movement. And so in our ‘relation to God, our progress is measured in part by our sensitiveness as .to the little things4. We @ needs ataone Ole high- est’. safety as well+as ‘for our joy, unclouded communion with the Father. Sensitive obedience in the [ 146 j OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH littles is both the proof of ,our love andi od sway — or guidance, 4-and the y direcs. toad to. more “intimate acquaintance “with “God, On the other hand, disobedience in the little things constantly mars the relation. inv all our*iclose” friendships “it (is also worth emphasis that we are not to look to and constantly dwell on I1tile differences and faults in our friends. This faultfinding and complaining spirit is quite sufficient to spoil any love, even the deepest. This spirit kept up in relation to a child may easily end in “rooted antipathy ” en his part; the bonds of sympathy are ruptured, and a spirit of entire discouragement results. By fixing your attention on defects, you can Tim a tnendship that, on the other hand, is quite capable of becoming your chief joy. And a similar cau- [ 147 | GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY tion is needed not less in our relation to God. It is quite possible to pick out of the allotment that has provi- dentially come to us the encouraging or the discouraging things, and so thanktully, to \ rejoice) on. sthe one hand, or bitterly to ccmplain, on the other. The complaining spirit is often felt not to be a serious matter, but one has only to think how fatal are its results in other personal rela- tions to see how certainly it must disturb any deep sense of trust and love and gratitude in our relation to God. This complaining spirit cuts the very root of a possible deepen- ing friendship with God, and is to be. recognizedgytherelore,. dinccalleaies seriousness as one of the deadliest enemies of a true and joyful and peaceful ‘Christian. life., .It is. not) 4 small sin nor a small danger. [148 | OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 2. Sacred Respect for the Person- ality of Your Friend. Perhaps the subtlest of all the conditions for deepening any true and_ worthy friendship is to be found in sacred respect for the personality of your friend. Where that is; fundamen- tally lacking no great and worthy friendship can possibly result. And many a friendship has been greatly Gamacedts by shen toa: stack... bhere are limitations to all intimacies with others, and even in the closest friend- ships Wie hw ALO STTOL ae tOmSDTCSUING, Wie are not to pry, we are not to scold. We are not to take away the possi- bility of decision or choice, not even in the case of a child. We are not to insist on the explanation of every ~mood.. Every ‘soul must in much be alone, and ought to be. One only degrades his friendships, I have [ 149 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY felt compelled often to say, when he measures them by the number Of | privaties. that Wohe ‘rides rans roughshod. And in our relation to God we are. Not to. toreet,. upon. nis eapante how. marvelously he respects our freedom, and how, though he is Lord of all, he stands only without the door of our hearts to knock for admittance. God does not arbitra- rily obtrude or interfere. So truly does he respect our personality tha: he does not step in, even occasion- ally, to “set things right.” He has}: put uséin nos play. worlds in a world in which our choice and our personality are fully re spected. And, upon our own part, this spirit of reverence which is so neces- sary in our relation to our friends [ 150 ] On VE CURT TIAN, TATTEH cannot be less necessary in our rela- tion to God.» No friend cam be to us what he might be without rever- ence both on his part and on ours, Still less can “God give us his com- plete gift, if our reverence does not answer to his reverential treatment Of us. “Reverende: is, indeed, not a formal” matter’ off any kind ‘of ‘con+ ducte,om. obmrespect.. tor, places’ and thingess and --anedeepy mner « réever- ence may quite conceivably exist where the outward conduct might seem to the careless observer irrev- erent. 5: Butiif itjlis im’ any degree tie a) aceite ease abeen. strequently charged: vole lates’ that’ ithe present generation is growing in_ irrever- ence, let us make it quite clear to ourselves that we are, in just that degree, striking at the very root of all true personal relations to God or . [151] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY men. The attitude of presumption, of prying, of scolding, of dictation must be far removed from our rela- tion to God. There is a false bold- ‘ ness, as. Luther remarked, which talks to God as a man might talk to a “cobbler’s lad.” It is not for us to demand the time or the manner of «God’s!, ‘revelation’ “i Vier esecrer of the Lord is with them that fear him.” “And” iF even: our smiallese human spirit has its holy of holies that may not be inconsiderately violated, how .much more must deep reverence, characterize all’ our thought of God! We are to “ work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who work- | eth in us both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.” It was not by accident that the great prayer that was to characterize the disciples of [152 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH Christ any alivaces’«beoan -with (the word, ‘* Hallowed.”’ 33 Bow Real. Once more, no friendship (is safé into’ which, ‘the element of pretense is introduced. We are to be real only and always. There are to be no false assertions, and no forced feeling. We are not to start or continue on a false basis. While, as I have said, we are not to question our love or that of another on slight occasions, we are still to be sure that we are scrupulously hon- est; that we say what we mean, and only what we mean; that the wit- ness we bear to Christ, though it be modest witness, is just so far as it goes! a ‘genuinely’ honest “one:” In our prayers, too, we must learn how to tell the truth, not to take upon our lips expressions even of the Scriptures, which we cannot truth- [153 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY fully transfer to our own experience. Weare not ‘even to, repeat Foumuar our previous lives, expressions not now “real..) 4Wet-atesstouma Keune that is, throughout, that we do not introduce that element of pretense that always means finally a deadly sense of unreality. He who will not .be -réal saps thereby aallereaites in his relation with God as well as in his relation with men. 4. You May Deepen Your Ac- quaintance with God through Seeing What Others Have Received from Him. lf) one “thinks? (oie) a jerea te many-sided nature like that of Aris- totle,. or ,Leibnitz/. or, «Lutheran Shakespeare, he will realize at once that different jsides ,of the, mature will be revealed to different persons. And one comes into the completest understanding of such a nature only [ 154 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH through glimpses of table-talk and letters and home life, and from knowing, *mis; intimate “friends: In exactly the same way we can come to know God, even approximately, in ‘his’ fulness only as we take account not only of our own per- sonal experience, but supplement it with the largeness of the experience of others’ as “well’’-We- need’ in ‘all things constantly the correction of others. Our own view is necessa- rily partial, and has its own inevi- table narrow limitations. Much of the best that God has for us must come through others. And even in this deepest matter of our personal relation to God, we are not made independent one of another. God has some special, peculiar message to speak through each soul; and he may speak as really to us through [155 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY another’s life, as in his own direct communion with us. This recog- nition of the constant need we all have of Christian fellowship empha- sizes, from another point of view, thus, ‘the’ importance .ofi) the /Bible: in which it may be said we are able to put ourselves in touch with the most intimate friends of God. We can here see what God has meant to others, and so supplement and broaden and deepen our own view. In’ ‘this; constant and ’-wisew user fellowship with others, and in that objective expression of our religious life in service, of which I earlier spoke, you will be saved from the brooding subjectivity that might otherwise beset your Christian life. The thought of our Christian life as a personal relation with God does not shut us up to ourselves. ‘The [156 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH relation to God is so absolute and infinite that we need and can bring towitialli the’ help ot)'the supplemen- tary experience of others. In: yinsisting) thus at, length,),as-1 have in these last four letters, upon the fundamental significance of the conception of the Christian life as the beginning and deepening of a friendship with God, I have simply been trying to place before you, in terms of the personal life and ex- perience you already know, those great, fundamental Christian doc- trines) |;which «have |been. so ) long discussed under the names “ con- WeTSION, “ur regeneration. «|).,\) sanctifi- CAHONYE Wen DaDtism),* Of) the \vopinit,” Sade ratMana works: ol have intentionally tried to strip the dis- cussion of all these more or less technical terms, because I fear they [ 157] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY have often served to hide rather than to reveal the real truth as it is in’ Christ.’ And “I have: tried) rathent to get back to what seems to me to be the central conception of Christ and of “thes New Plestamentiseuiae the Christian life is simply that of a growing child of the heavenly Father, and to ask you to see, in some detail, just what that great central thought of Christ meant. I hope the attempt has not been without value for you, and I hope still more that through you it may bring something more of light and blessing into the lives of others. I am simply trying to hand on to you that one great fundamental thought that has, perhaps, meant more than any other to me. [ 158 ] LETTER XI THE FUNDAMENTAL TEMPTA- TIONS ‘ uw nthe Dy om ‘ wit 3 4 a Letter Eleven THE FUNDAMENTAL TEMPTA- TIONS \ HEN one turns. from the conception of the Christian life as a deepening personal relation of a child with the heavenly Father, to ask still more practically just what this conception of Christ means in _living, he will find himself confront- ing, just as Christ. did, certain great fundamental temptations that under- lie, I think, all the temptations of life. And I have thought I could not serve you better in this letter than by trying to make clear just these always-present temptations. In his tremendous sense of son- ship, of mission, and of power, Christ [161] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY took to his temptations a threefold consciousness. ‘The elements in this threefold consciousness, of power, of mission, and of sonship, were for Christ a divine call, to which he made answer: I must be worthy of the power granted; %must ibe. a consistent’ “founder vofs}.aiispiritual kingdom; I must prove a true son. And one cannot be a consistent founder of a spiritual kingdom, it is to be noted, except upon three conditions: constant spiritual sensi- tiveness, undying faith in men, and refusal to seek relief in change of circumstances rather than in change of self. : The temptations which are thus seen to underlie all the temptations of Christ, and the temptations of all men, are: the temptation to abuse of trust, the temptation to fall below [ 162 | OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH one’s highest spiritual sensitiveness, thevstemptation. “to! seek: relieb., in change of circumstances rather than in change of self, the temptation to disbelief in men, the temptation to distrust of God. Just these, I judge, are the temptations which confront every man in all that threatens his moral’ and’ ‘spiritual, life... For the elements of Christ’s consciousness are in only less degree the elements of the consciousness of us all. lL. fhe Temptation to Abuse of vaste) he temptation which Christ faced, to use the power, given him for the sake of the kingdom, for personal relief, was fundamen- tally a temptation to abuse of his trust. He was forced to meet the question, Why should he not use his power for his own _ relief — why should he not turn the stones into [ 163 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY bread? Why, again, should he not use his power in a marvelous exhi- bition of trust in God that would remove prejudice, get him a hearing, and win deep and respectful attention from the first? Why, once more, might)’ he!) not use \(his power, ste establish his rule—his own right- eous rule—even by force, forth- with? Christ’s answer to each form of the temptation is simply the insistence that his power is given him for the sake of the kingdom, not for his own relief, whether in greater personal comfort, in in- creased popularity, or in impatient use of force. My power, he seems with quiet energy to say, is no per- sonal perquisite of my own; it must be held sacredly for the great ends for which it was given. And everywhere to-day the same [ 164 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH temptation presses upon us all —the ever-present, fundamental tempta- tion to the abuse of our trusts. In the use of the positions in which we haves (been! placed! “of * the’ power involved, of the money we handle, of the opportunities presented — in all alike the power of this temptation is felt. It is hardly possible to take Up ia paper’ without.) seeing’ “some illustration of the abuse of trust. Our generation needs a great revival of the simple sense of fidelity to our trusts.” "No “one of: (us as! likely ‘to ‘cultivate “too sensitive: a conscience concerning any power that has come into iis). possession. Let. "hiny “ask himself how his power has come? for what end it was given? whether he is using it simply and solely for that end, or is making iti Wrather: a means for his own personal gain? [165 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY 2. The Temptation to Fall Below One’s Highest Spiritual Sensitiveness. And the very illustrations which the life of the present day affords make it unmistakably clear that a large part of the gigantic abuse of trust is due to the simple lack of a fine sense of -honor..)\Ityiscexaethy, thismackwen ian has made such abuse of trust possible. To see truly here and to take the perfectly honorable course, requires a delicate sensitiveness of conscience, undoubted singleness of vision. ‘This was the only way of deliverance for Christ «himself. «He, “needed oamtne clearést spiritual insight to see the meaning of his trust. The pathway both of the highest individual prog- ress and of the largest social service requires that we should be steadily sensitive to the very best vision that God has given, and to remain per- [ 166 | OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH sistently true> to'-it, “and.so' to “get the larger and the higher vision. All true life, it seems not too much tOpecayer Ise pinciuced’).in logical extent, means nothing short of atheism and the denial of all ideals. Even a few men with such thorough- [ 173 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY going distrust of spiritual forces are able to diffuse a deadly atmosphere. The man who means with Christ to be a consistent builder of a spirit- ual kingdom must be willing to use the highest. means’ jand trust, the results with God. We were not meant to be self-sufficient even as to men; still less as to God. We need men, we need God; we are all but fragments else. Life becomes pos- sible, joyful, and triumphant in pro- portion to the depth of our faith in God. And we all have a special right to urge with the young that they stand with Christ from the _ begin- ning of their lives against these con- stant and fundamental temptations that make a particularly strong ap- peal to the inexperienced. Christ seems to me to have shared with us [ 174 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH all this sacred story of his tempta- tions, just because he knew that we all “had «the *same’ fight to. make. We can do nothing better for men than to help them to the spirit that can rise above these fundamental tempranons.s sands. thaty is! mexactly: the @ spirit ot eau.true. son, of. \the Father. [175 ] VEE LER XbE THE: SUPREME CLAIMS: OF. THE CHRISTIAN LIFE” UPON THOUGHTFUL MEN { Letter Twelve THE SUPREME ‘CLAIMS OF ‘THE CHRISTIAN ® LIFIA) UPON THOUGHTFUL MEN Neithise lastyletter which’ |) am’-to write to you concerning the great fundamental Christian truths, let me ask you to see, both for your- selves and: ior, others, ‘ina ‘kind ‘of summary way, and in the light of all our previous discussion, the supreme claims of the Christian life upon thoughtful men. You will not be in doubt as to what I mean by Paementistian, Wie, Lt s> the ‘hicy of the man who intends to be first and foremost a disciple of Jesus Christ, [179] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY to live the loving life of a true child of the heavenly Father. And’ [I mean by the thoughtful man the man who is in earnest to see things in their true proportions, for whom the; great iis, really eores Ganon en whom the little takes its appropriate smaller place. You can hardly find the inspiration you most need for your work as Christian witnesses, un- less you are thoroughly convinced of the supremacy of the claims of the life you are urging upon others. And the lines of thought already covered ought to make clear to you how great the Christian life is in its pres- ent contribution, and how immeas- urable is its outlook upon the future. Let us try to make clear to ourselves, then, the supreme claims of the Christian life, looking at the matter from different points of view, and [ 180 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH putting it in different forms, not all mutually exclusive. I.) And) first, the. Christian. life as the supreme prudence, using the word not in any low sense of mere pru- dential selfishness, but in the larger sense of that practical wisdom that takes the long look ahead, that takes in the whole of life, age and death and jweternity.\) ti) Professor, James’ words, “In all ages the man whose determinations are swayed by refer- ence )to,/the most distant. ends has been held to possess the highest intel- ligence. The tramp who lives from hour to hour; the Bohemian whose engagements are from day to day; the bachelor who builds but for a single life; the father who acts for another generation; the patriot who thinks of a whole community and many generations; and, finally, the [ 181 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY philosopher and saint whose cares are for humanity and for eternity, — these range themselves in an _ un- broken hierarchy.”? The Christian life says with Browning’s Rabbi: *“Grow old along with me! The best is. yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made: Our times are in His hand Who saith, ‘A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!’”’ The life of a disciple of Christ con- fronts a man, thus, with the constant question: Are you building on such lines as promise perpetual growth into the best things, even on into the eternities; or, is your idea of life such that you must look back after a very few years with vain regret, saying, with the title of a poor play, ‘‘ When we were twenty”? For myself, ] [ 182 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH do not see how it is possible for a man who really means to think, not to wish to take this long look ahead; to be sure that he is building some- thing better than greater barns; that the plan of his life is so adjusted to the great on-working forces of the universe, so bent on doing the will ota God, i that. vit is: certainto “abide forever.”? And because the Christian life takes clearly into its vision the whole of life and destiny, it makes a supreme claim upon the thoughtful man. ) 2. In the second place, the Chris- tian life 1s the one complete life that can face all the facts of life without flinch- ing and with genuine hope. It should be particularly characteristic of the - thoughtful man that he wishes to see all the facts, to face them fully, and to face them just as they are. ‘There [ 183 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY is the fact of our double nature, with both its heavenly and its earthly ap- peal. There is the fateful gift of will, with its power of choice either for: God Vor “against \Gsod7" heregie the fact of responsibility, of the con- stant influence that we are exerting one over another whether we will or not.:. Phere: is’ the’) terrible’ tact? ot sin, an abiding fact, and if one’s face is not in the right direction, a grow- ing’ fact,» 'And:\ there “is; the’ tactwor death, the one certain event that awaits every man. I quite sympa- thize with the emphasis of the pres- ent generation upon right living as the best possible preparation for dying; and yet I cannot think it a wholly wise reaction that allows a man to leave out of account this great and certain fact. For myself, I want to be sure that all that God may have [ 184 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH for me in that experience of death I am prepared to take in. “I would hate that death bandaged my eyes and forbore And bade me creep past.” And there is the fact of account- ability to God, to which Daniel Webster once solemnly bore testi- mony that it was the most important thought that ever occupied his mind. “So then each one of us shall give account; of “himselfiicto} God 2): sAnd there is the fact of the future life, in whiche-at -leasty'this,..is «certain, that every one of us must live with him- self. Now, all these facts, alike dark and difficult, inspiring and transform- ing, the “Christian life seems to me to be able fully to face, as no other. It gives the disciple of Christ such a plan for his life as enables him to be sure that the hold of the godlike in [ 185 ] _ GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY his double nature shall strengthen with his years; that his will shall will in line with the eternal and righteous purposes of God; that he need not shrink from the thought of responsibility for others, nor even lose hope in the face of sin, nor be in bondage to the fear of death, nor doubt that it will be possible for him to face his final accountability to God in the same filtal spirit in which he faces daily the .Father’s: willinen question that the sharing of God’s life of self-sacrificing love here is inevitably of the very quality of the eternal life that is to be. How supreme a claim does that life make upon the thoughtful man, which is able with assurance and hope to face all these facts of life! Voc, hes Christian aihife a turtoer, makes a supreme claim upon _ the ) [ 186 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH thoughtful man because it involves the one great world-organization for ideal aims, for ends of character. The Church of Christ, as the author of Ecce Homo long ago pointed out, is in very truth “the Moral University of the world — not merely the great- est, but the only great School of Virtue existing.”” Have you thought what it really means for the ideal interests of the world that there should be such an organization as the Church of Christ, with its little groups of disciples, with whatever imperfections, still gathered every- where, not for selfish interests, but to bear witness in the community to the highest ideals, and to keep clear before men the vision of God and the spiritual world? There is no other organization or institution, outside the family, that can be com- [ 187 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY pared for a moment with the Church in profound moral significance, and in hope for the world. If the dy- namic problem of life is, as Profes- sor Everett used to say at Harvard, the problem of throwing one’s life in with the great world movements, then surely no man who wishes to make his life count for the most can wisely stand outside of some par- ticipation in the Church of Christ. We boast that our generation has come to see more clearly than any preceding, that we are members one of another. It would seem to be the first inference from this social con- sciousness that we should not fail to see its truth for the highest interests of life. We are members one of another, not only for economic and political ends, but even more for the highest spiritual ends. And I do not [ 188 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH see how any thoughtful man can feel justified in standing as a mere on- looker, when he is face to face with this one great world-organization for ideal aims, the Church of Christ. 4, Again, the Christian life stands for the mighttest of all convictions, and in this, too, makes a supreme claim upon the thoughtful man. A man’s real strength for all possible accom- plishment, other things being equal, we are never to forget, depends on his convictions. One of the great dangers of the educated man, just because he has learned to look at things from many points of view, is a kind of over-sophistication, that means that he has lost the sense of emphasis and selection among the facts of life, and therefore lost the great fundamental convictions that must underlie the highest living. H [ 189 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY this.;has ‘come/to be vtracvot va mans he is pretty certain to be worth positively less to the world after his university training than before. Now, the Christian life, in its very spirit, stands assuredly for the mighti- est of all convictions possible to men: for the love of God, and the life of love. In these great convictions root all others that are of prime importance to men, and these convictions carry with them the highest courage and the most unfaltering faith. No the- ory of life that has ever been pro- posed to men is able here to outbid the Christian life. 5. The Christian life involves, too the supreme and all-inclusive surrender, 7 and thereby again makes a supreme claim upon every man who is willing to think. Even our ordinary psy- chology and ethical philosophy are [ 190 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH saying to-day that life is a paradox, that victory comes through § self- surrender, that the measure of life is Now ats mMecome, but) its outeo, sand that it is as one gives himself in the varied relations of life that he truly finds himself. It belongs, therefore, to the very drift of our times that we should recognize that not exclu- sion but inclusion enlarges life, and that the largest life can come only to the man who gives himself with iereasine breadth )iand. depth, «in family, community, nation, the king- dom of God. Now, the Christian life brings to its inevitable climax this attitude of surrender, for it calls for that supreme and all-inclusive surren- der that carries with it all that is best in all the lower stages; for it is sur- render to the will of God. It says, therefore, with Christ, “I am come ee a GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY -~ down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” And beyond this the law of surrender cannot go, and in this one vital commitment of the life is included all and more than all that psychology and ethical philosophy contend for in the lower stages of the “surrendered life, .= The Christian life stands here, therefore, for the ¢ richness and largeness of the “ abun- dant: life,” over against the “sabiding alone’””“that: marks the life that@re- fuses to give itself. 6) dt iss torysay ythemsame: athe in different words, perhaps, when, catching» up ithe jcentralhthoughtason our preceding studies, I say that the Christian life makes also a supreme claim upon the thoughtful man be- cause it stands for the relation which gives reality and meaning and value to [ 192 ] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH all other personal relations. We have seen in detail how surely, if life is the fulfilment of relations, the rela- tion to God is not simply one relation among others, but that one great, all-commanding relation which, truly fulfilled, carries with it a true fulfil- Tichiemot = everye. (otter cl he. janxi- éty «which: the’! Christian. father, “or mother, has that his child may be- comeé a disciple of Christ, arises from his conviction that in very fact the relation to God is that one essential relation which, itself set right, in- evitably sets all others right. The thoughtful man, therefore, feels just at this point, too, the supreme claim upon him of the Christian life. 7. Or,, if -we look at .the matter from a slightly different point of view, we may say, in the light of the most careful investigation of man’s [ 193 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY nature, that life has, above all, its great sources in friendship and work, and that the supreme claim, there- fore, of the Christian life upon the thoughtful man, is to be seen pre- cisely in this, that in the acquaintance with God in the Spirit, it offers the one ideal association for both character and happiness, and, at the same time, calls to the highest work, the sharing of God’s own redeeming activity, in his giving of himself to men. Just because the Christian life meets here, in the completest degree in which it is possible for us to conceive, the ideal conditions of the richest life, it makes here a supreme claim upon any mind that is willing to think long enough to see what those ideal conditions are. When God calls us to acquaintance with himself and to share in his own great work, he [ 194 ] | OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH | makes it possible for us to give our lives to eternal interests and to the highest conceivable interests. Blessed is the man who has found his work and the great Companion! Heaven itself has nothing greater to offer. We can hardly doubt, therefore, as I have elsewhere said, that “ the two great centers of the life beyond must. be association and work; though we may not know the precise forms that these will take, nor how greatly both may deepen beyond our present con- ception. Steadily deepening personal relations, rooted in the one absolutely satisfying relation to God in Christ, there must be; and work, in which one may lose himself with joy, be- cause: it is God’s work, This, at least, the future will contain.” 8. All this means, further, that the Christian life makes a supreme pags] }) Tg I BpPp i GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY claim upon the thoughtful man _ be- cause it gives assurance of the highest hopes. It contains within itself the vision of the ideal, the best our hearts can ask or imagine, and exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. At least occasional experi- ences in the personal relations of life may give one a hint of the riches here in store. To know something of the deep undercurrent of even one true friendship, with its contribution of calm and peace and hope and joy, is to get a suggestion of what this deepening life in the acquaintance and work of God may mean. Christ makes