^4 •« U'4'4 
 
 * 4 . , 
 
 

 r ^ 
 
 £ °X^.A 
 
 O N 
 
 (T\ 
 
 r*\- 
 
 ,‘v r'" ^r* 
 
 -:7c r 'r 
 
 t AO's 
 
 \( 
 
 ^ \\ 
 
 .•v 
 
 // N 
 
 
 
 ■^J 
 
 L I n> R A RY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 U N I VERS ITY 
 Of ILLINOIS 
 
 ZA*- 
 
 3>^AW« 
 
 "V^o 4 ° - 
 
fa * 
 
 ^ ))<* 
 
 
 \\ A;','' ill A I Jyy ' >r "".^' 
 
 \\ v ^? sy? v 
 
 V\ £ Js y/f/jw <#» A «& 
 
 ! y/A/f \ n M % 
 
 ° ,/C^^^:/ \ Ss -A \y>'[ fafa\ 
 
 \t> /■;--.>>-A Vft£^\ X^- f> 4 C.|) 
 
 S ** / M r M-K- y) (4 tf 
 
 ^ <fe\VjpH 
 
 tvxHwi 
 
 // <s? I*! 1 ) 
 
 // ,p-'X V'.i ^ 
 
 II %tips lip jTiljV n& 5 St-~, 
 
 /A . V?v !!i £ r nj fa K <fa.fayfa 
 
 a i 'X // /v 
 
 a «jri‘«o iar r-Vi'V —, ^fa/yr i<?/ ■&« 
 
 ■\ ^&r i<i y'rh A \Vv 5 vs A^fa-Cf-y \X / 
 
 An, 7>\ i:l K *Hy /<P> /—//' V. 
 
 v ik /"fNj • , /S y^u~jJ(j a fa 
 
 ik 
 
 T'\ \f H s 
 
 v \\>v ! i 1 4 v? 
 
 V |) l ,l r\ 
 
 V^v 4 x^ 
 
 ' /7 ^r&=Y fa 
 
 . 
 
 jp 
 
 \v, v 
 
 \ v, ,. 
 
 Yr 
 
 ; 
 
 i Wi 
 
 a 
 
 ! 
 
 / h 
 
 
 P ,Jp’ f oN. >f i • ' / , u 
 
 - _ r V »-» v (/ i Cx / V' J ?' 48 ih 
 
 \\ *•* Vi ,f 'V-v.KMf // /•/ 
 
 vyOCT A> n » V>v. 'iUj/ \of*L // // 
 
 4 / <p 0 a rt x?V xv S" P * / 
 
 l facy-Ay oV>s\A y / Q M 
 \ Jx A <r e sxv /f 
 
 Vv^ b v VV^/®^ /f* 
 
 Vv Jy ^ ^ —riv;K V, / L 
 
 crfo 
 
 °A ort 4 ^^° 
 
 iri^ S 
 
 .o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 c 
 
 

 
 
 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 https://archive.org/details/bestthoughtssele00drum_0 
 
Henry DRUA\/noND 
 
 Best 
 
 Thoughts 
 
 SELECTIONS EROAV THE 
 WRITINGS OH 
 HENRY DRUA\A\OND 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 .HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY 
 
Copyright, 1896, by Henry Altemus. 
 
 Best Thoughts. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 — 
 
 t- 
 
 The compiler believes that this is 
 not an ordinary book of the sort for¬ 
 merly known as u Elegant Extracts.” 
 And the reason lies not with the com¬ 
 piler, but with his subject. Professor 
 Drummond’s vivid, pregnant, and epi¬ 
 grammatic method makes it easy to 
 m 
 
 compile a cento that shall be out of 
 the ordinary. In this author’s works 
 almost every sentence stands by itself 
 and explains itself. The setting may 
 
4 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 add stability to the jewel: it does not 
 increase its lustre. 
 
 In these days of unfaith and uncer¬ 
 tainty Professor Drummond presents 
 an almost unique spectacle—the spec¬ 
 tacle of a man who has mastered all 
 the latest theories of evolution and 
 given in his adherence to the latest 
 discoveries of science without allow- 
 ing his faith to moult a feather. The 
 reasons for the faith that is in him he 
 has presented with great skill in his 
 Natural Law in the Spiritual World . 
 The compiler believes that the gist of 
 his argument is summed up in the 
 selections here made from that book. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 5 
 
 Professor Drummond has also pub¬ 
 lished a series of striking addresses 
 upon matters of daily life and con¬ 
 duct which have been freely drawn 
 upon for maxims and reflections, and 
 it is astonishing how little, if any, of 
 their vitality is lost in the process of 
 transplanting. 
 
 The title, which is a quotation 
 made by Professor Drummond him¬ 
 self from the Biblical text, repre¬ 
 sents the aim and purpose of the 
 book, which is to give a succinct 
 but sufficient resume of the author’s 
 views on religion and science and 
 their mutual relations to life. 
 
 l 
 
n / n r 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 
“MY POINT OF VIEW.” 
 
 Bbstinence. 
 
 The expression “total abstinence” 
 is a strictly biological formula. It im¬ 
 plies the sudden destruction of a defi¬ 
 nite portion of Environment by the 
 total withdrawal of all the connecting- 
 links. Obviously, of course, total ab¬ 
 stinence ought thus to be allowed a 
 much wider application than to cases 
 of “intemperance.” It is the only 
 decisive method of dealing with any 
 sin of the flesh. The very nature of 
 
 the relations makes it absolutely im- 
 
 7 
 
8 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 perative that every victim of unlaw¬ 
 ful appetite, in whatever direction, 
 shall totally abstain. Hence Christ’s 
 apparently extreme and peremptory 
 language defines the only possible, as 
 well as the only charitable, expedient: 
 “If thy right eye offend thee, pluck 
 it out, and cast it from thee. And if 
 thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, 
 and cast it from thee.” 
 
 Natural Law : “ Mortification .’’ 
 
 Hfc&ttion. 
 
 People often tell boys that if they 
 seek the kingdom of God, everything 
 else is going to be subtracted from 
 them. They tell them that they are 
 
9 
 
 MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 # 
 
 going to become gloomy, miserable, 
 and will lose everything that makes 
 a boy’s life worth living—that they 
 will have to stop baseball and story* 
 books, and become little old men, and 
 spend all their time in going to meet¬ 
 ings and in singing hymns. Now, 
 that is not true. Christ never said 
 anything like that. Christ says we 
 are to “seek first the kifigdom of 
 God,” and everything else worth hav¬ 
 ing is to be added unto us. 
 
 “Firstr 
 
 adjustment 
 
 Nature: is not more natural to my 
 body than God is to my soul. Every 
 animal and plant has its own Environ- 
 
IO 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ment. And the further one inquires 
 into the relations of the one to the 
 other, the more one sees the mar¬ 
 vellous intricacy and beauty of the 
 adjustments. These wonderful adap¬ 
 tations of each organism to its sur¬ 
 roundings—of the fish to the water, 
 of the eagle to the air, of the insect 
 to the forest-bed—and of each part of 
 every organism—the fish’s swim-blad¬ 
 der, the eagle’s eye, the insect's breath¬ 
 ing-tubes—which the old argument 
 from design brought home to us with 
 such enthusiasm, inspire us still with 
 a sense of the boundless resources and 
 skill of Nature in perfecting her ar¬ 
 rangements for each single life. Down 
 to the last detail the world is made for 
 
MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 II 
 
 what is in it; and by whatever process 
 things are as they are, all organisms 
 find in surrounding Nature the ample 
 complement of themselves. Man, too, 
 finds in his Environment provision for 
 all capacities, scope for the exercise 
 of every faculty, room for the indul¬ 
 gence of each appetite, a just supply 
 for every want. So the spiritual man 
 at the apex of the pyramid of life finds 
 in the vaster range of his Environment 
 a provision as much higher, it is true, 
 as he is higher, but as delicately ad¬ 
 justed to his varying needs. And all 
 this is supplied to him just as the 
 lower organisms are ministered to by 
 the lower environment, in the same 
 simple ways, in the same constant 
 
12 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 sequence, as appropriately and as 
 lavishly. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Environment.” 
 
 Htwolutfon* 
 
 Why should Evolution stop with 
 the Organic ? It is surely obvi¬ 
 ous that the complement of Evolu¬ 
 tion is Advolution, and the inquiry, 
 Whence has all this system of things 
 come? is, after all, of minor import¬ 
 ance compared with the question, 
 Whither does all tend? 
 
 t 
 
 Natural Law : “ Classification.” 
 
 agnosticism. 
 
 The Christian apologist never fur¬ 
 ther misses the mark than when he 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 *3 
 
 refuses the testimony of the Agnostic 
 to himself. When the Agnostic tells 
 me he is blind and deaf, dumb, torpid 
 and dead to the spiritual world, I must 
 believe him. Jesus tells me that. 
 Paul tells me that. Science tells me 
 that. He knows nothing of this outer¬ 
 most circle; and we are compelled to 
 trust his sincerity as readily when he 
 deplores it as if, being a man without 
 an ear, he professed to know nothing 
 of a musical world, or, being without 
 taste, of a world of art. The nescience 
 of the Agnostic philosophy is the 
 proof from experience that to be car¬ 
 nally minded is Death. 
 
 Natural Law: “Death.” 
 
H 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 
 almsgiving* 
 
 Charity is only a little bit of Love, 
 one of the innumerable avenues of 
 Love, and there may even be, and 
 there is, a great deal of charity with¬ 
 out Love. It is a very easy thing to 
 toss a copper to a beggar on the street; 
 it is generally an easier thing than not 
 to do it. Yet Love is just as often in 
 the withholding. We purchase relief 
 from the sympathetic feelings roused 
 by the spectacle of misery, at the cop¬ 
 per’s cost. It is too cheap—too cheap 
 for ns, and often too dear for the beg¬ 
 gar. If we really loved him we would 
 either do more for him, or less. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 15 
 
 alternatives. 
 
 It is the deliberate verdict of the 
 Lord Jesus that it is better not to live 
 than not to love. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 Brtlmal /IDan* 
 
 IT is perfectly astonishing, when 
 one thinks of it, what Nature can do 
 for the animal man—to see with what 
 small capital, after all, a human be¬ 
 ing can get through the world. I 
 once saw an African buried. Accord¬ 
 ing to the custom of his tribe, his 
 entire earthly possessions—and he was 
 an average commoner—were buried 
 with him. Into the grave, after the 
 body, was lowered the dead man’s 
 
i6 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 pipe, then a rough knife, then a mud 
 bowl, and last his bow and arrows— 
 the bowstring cut through the middle, 
 a touching symbol that its work was 
 done. This was all. Four items, as 
 an auctioneer would say, were the 
 whole belongings for half a century 
 of this human being. No man knows 
 what a man is till he has seen what a 
 man can be without, and be withal a 
 man. That is to say, no man knows 
 how great man is till he has seen how 
 small he has been once. 
 
 Tropical Africa . 
 
 Sreas. 
 
 Suppose we deliberately made up 
 our minds as to what things we were 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 
 henceforth to allow to become our 
 life? Suppose we selected a given 
 area of our Environment, and deter¬ 
 mined once for all that our corre¬ 
 spondences should go to that alone, 
 fencing in this area all round with a 
 morally impassable wall ? True, to 
 others we should seem to live a poorer 
 life ; they would see that our environ¬ 
 ment was circumscribed, and call us 
 narrow because it was narrow. But, 
 well-chosen, this limited life would be 
 reallv the fullest life ; it would be 
 rich in the highest and worthiest, and 
 poor in the smallest and basest, corre 
 spondences. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Mortification.* 
 
i8 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Bscetictsm. 
 
 It is well to remember that we are 
 to give our bodies a living sacrifice— 
 not a half-dead sacrifice, as some peo¬ 
 ple seem to imagine. There is no 
 virtue in emaciation. 
 
 How to Learn How. 
 
 Btbeists, 
 
 Men tell us sometimes there is no 
 such thing as an Atheist. There 
 must be. There are some men to 
 whom it is true that there is no God. 
 They cannot see God because they 
 have no eye. They have only an 
 abortive organ atrophied by neglect. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Degeneration.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 I 9 
 
 Bttitufce* 
 
 The problem of the Christian life 
 finally is simplified to this : man has 
 but to preserve the right attitude. To 
 abide in Christ, to be in position— 
 that is all. Much work is done on 
 board a ship crossing the Atlantic. 
 Yet none of it is spent on making the 
 ship go. The sailor but harnesses his 
 vessel to the wind. He puts his sail 
 and rudder in position, and lo ! the 
 miracle is wrought. So everywhere 
 God creates, man utilizes. All the 
 work of the world is merely a taking 
 advantage of energies already there. 
 God gives the wind and the water and 
 the heat; man but puts himself in the 
 
20 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 way of the wind, fixes his water¬ 
 wheel in the way of the river, puts 
 his piston in the way of the steam \ 
 and so, holding himself in position 
 before God’s Spirit, all the energies 
 of Omnipotence course within his 
 soul. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Growth.” 
 
 Bttraction* 
 
 The weight of a load depends upon 
 the attraction of the earth. But sup¬ 
 pose the attraction of the earth were 
 removed ? A ton on some other planet, 
 where the attraction of gravity is less, 
 does not weigh half a ton. Now 
 Christianitv removes the attraction of 
 
 j 
 
 the earth, and this is one way in which 
 it diminishes men's burden. It makes 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 21 
 
 them citizens of another world. What 
 was a ton yesterday is not half a ton 
 to-day. So without changing one’s 
 circumstances, merely by offering a 
 wider horizon and a different stand¬ 
 ard, it alters the whole aspect of the 
 world. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
 3BachsU0ets* 
 
 It is well known that the recovery 
 of the backslider is one of the hardest 
 problems in spiritual work. To rein¬ 
 vigorate an old organ seems more dif¬ 
 ficult and hopeless than to develop a 
 new one; and the backslider’s terrible 
 lot is to have to retrace with enfeebled 
 feet each step of the way along which 
 
22 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 he strayed ; to make up inch by inch 
 the leeway he has lost, carrying with 
 him a dead-weight of acquired reluct¬ 
 ance, and scarce knowing whether 
 to be stimulated or discouraged by the 
 oppressive memory of the previous 
 fall. 
 
 Natural Law: “Degeneration.” 
 
 3BacksUtono: Ifts penalty* 
 
 The penalty of backsliding is not 
 something unreal and vague, some 
 unknown quantity which may be 
 measured out to us disproportion¬ 
 ately, or which, perchance, since God 
 is good, we may altogether evade. 
 The consequences are already marked 
 within the structure of the soul. So 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 23 
 
 to speak, they are physiological. The 
 thing affected by our indifference or 
 by our indulgence is not the book of 
 final judgment, but the present fabric 
 of the soul. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Parasitism.” 
 
 Barriers. 
 
 In the dim but not inadequate vis¬ 
 ion of the Spiritual World presented 
 in the Word of God the first thing 
 that strikes the eye is a great gulf 
 fixed. The passage from the Natural 
 World to the Spiritual World is her¬ 
 metically sealed on the natural side. 
 The door from the inorganic to the 
 organic is shut; no mineral can open 
 it; so the door from the natural to 
 
24 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 the spiritual is shut, and no man can 
 open it. This world of natural men 
 is staked off from the Spiritual World 
 by barriers which have never yet been 
 crossed from within. No organic 
 change, no modification of environ¬ 
 ment, no mental energy, no moral 
 effort, no evolution of character, no 
 progress of civilization, can endow 
 any single human soul with the attri¬ 
 bute of Spiritual Life. The Spiritual 
 World is guarded from the world next 
 in order beneath it by a law of Bio¬ 
 genesis : Except a man be born again , 
 
 . . . except a man be born of zvater 
 and of the Spirit , he cannot enter the 
 Kingdom of God . 
 
 Natural Law : “ Biogenesis.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 25 
 
 :SSeaut£ of Character. 
 
 Under the light conditions it is as 
 natural for character to become beau¬ 
 tiful as for a flower ; and if on God’s 
 earth there is not some machinery for 
 effecting it, the supreme gift to the 
 world has been forgotten. This is 
 simply what man was made for. 
 With Browning: “I say that Man 
 was made to grow, not stop. ” Or in 
 the deeper words of an older Book : 
 “Whom He did foreknow, He also 
 did predestinate . . . to be conformed 
 to the Image of His Son.” 
 
 The Changed Life. 
 
26 
 
 MY POINT OK VIEW. 
 
 JBeaut# of tbe Tamverse* 
 
 As a mere spectacle, the universe 
 to-day discloses a beauty so transcend¬ 
 ent that he who disciplines himself by 
 scientific work finds it an overwhelm¬ 
 ing reward simply to behold it. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction.” 
 
 jBeautp, /IBoral attD Spiritual. 
 
 What is the essential difference be¬ 
 tween the Christian and the not-a- 
 Christian—between the spiritual beau¬ 
 ty and the moral beauty ? It is the 
 distinction between the Organic and 
 the Inorganic. Moral beauty is the 
 product of the natural man, spiritual 
 beauty of the spiritual man. And 
 these two, according to the law of 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 27 
 
 Biogenesis, are separated from one 
 another by the deepest line known to 
 Science. This Law is at once the 
 foundation of Biology and of Spiritual 
 Religion. And the whole fabric of 
 Christianity falls into confusion if we 
 attempt to ignore it. The Law of 
 Biogenesis, in fact, is to be regarded 
 as the equivalent in biology of the 
 First Law of motion in physics : Every 
 body continues in its state of rest , or of 
 uniform motion in a straight line , ex¬ 
 cept in so far as it is compelled, by force 
 to change that state . 
 
 Natural Law : “ Classification.” 
 
 Beginnings. 
 
 The creation of a new heart, the 
 renewing of a right spirit, is an om- 
 
28 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 nipotent work of God. Leave it to 
 the Creator. 44 He which hath begun 
 a good work in you will perfect it 
 unto that day.” 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
 JSeiitg. 
 
 What we are stretches past what 
 we do, beyond what we possess. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 belief In <5o&. 
 
 I say that man believes in a God 
 who feels himself in the presence of a 
 Power which is not himself, and is 
 immeasurably above himself—a Power 
 in the contemplation of which he is 
 absorbed, in the knowledge of which 
 he finds safety and happiness. 
 
 Natural Law: “ Death.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 29 
 
 Ube Best. 
 
 Christ tries to make the best world 
 by setting the best men loose upon 
 the world to influence it and reflect 
 Him upon it. 
 
 What is a Christian ? 
 
 Ube Mble. 
 
 The Bible is a product of religion, 
 not a cause of it. The war literature 
 of America, which culminated, I sup¬ 
 pose, in the publication of President 
 Grant’s life, came out of the war; the 
 war did not come out of the literature. 
 And so in the distant past there flowed 
 amonp* the nations of heathendom a 
 
 o 
 
 small, warm stream, like the Gulf 
 Stream in the cold Atlantic—a small 
 
3° 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 stream of religion; and now and 
 then, at intervals, men, carried along 
 by this stream, uttered themselves in 
 words. The historical books came 
 out of facts ; the devotional books 
 came out of experiences ; the letters 
 came out of circumstances ; and the 
 Gospels came out of all three. That 
 is where the Bible came from. It 
 came out of religion ; religion did not 
 come out of the Bible. 
 
 The Study of the Bible. 
 
 3Btooenesis, 
 
 At the beginning of the natural 
 life we find the Law that natural life 
 can only come from pre-existing nat¬ 
 ural life ; and at the beginning of the 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 31 
 
 spiritual life we find that the spiritual 
 life can only come from pre-existing 
 spiritual life. But there are not two 
 Laws ; there is one—Biogenesis. At 
 one end the Law is dealing with mat¬ 
 ter, at the other with spirit. The 
 qualitative terms natural and spiritual 
 make no difference. Biogenesis is 
 the Law for all life and for all kinds 
 of life, and the particular substance 
 with which it is associated is as indif¬ 
 ferent to Biogenesis as it is to Gravi¬ 
 tation. Gravitation will act whether 
 the substance be suns and stars, or 
 grains of sand, or rain-drops. Bio¬ 
 genesis, in like manner, will act wher¬ 
 ever there is life. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Biogenesis,” 
 
3^ 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 JSi rtb a /liMracle, 
 
 Peopling these worlds with the ap¬ 
 propriate living forms is virtually mir¬ 
 acle. Nor in one case is there less 
 of mystery in the act than in the 
 other. The second birth is scarcely 
 less perplexing to the theologian thax 
 the first to the embryologist. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Biogenesis.’^ 
 
 3Btrtb anb IFlew JStrtb. 
 
 Except a mineral be born u from 
 
 above ’ ’ —from the Kingdom just above 
 
 % 
 
 it—it cannot enter the Kingdom just 
 above it. And except a man be born 
 “from above, n by the same law he 
 cannot enter the Kingdom just above 
 him. There being no passage from 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 33 
 
 one Kingdom to another, whether 
 from inorganic to organic or from or¬ 
 ganic to spiritual, the intervention of 
 Life is a scientific necessity if a stone 
 or a plant or an animal or a man is to 
 pass from a lower to a higher sphere. 
 The plant stretches down to the dead 
 world beneath it, touches its minerals 
 and gases with its mystery of Life, 
 and brings them up ennobled and 
 transformed to the living sphere. The 
 breath of God, blowing where it list- 
 eth, touches with its mystery of Life 
 the dead souls of men, bears them 
 across the bridgeless gulf between the 
 natural and the spiritual, between the 
 spiritually inorganic and the spirit¬ 
 ually organic, endows them with its 
 
34 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 own high qualities, and develops with¬ 
 in them those new and sweet facul¬ 
 ties by which those who are born 
 again are said to see the Kingdom of 
 God. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Biogenesis.” 
 
 JBoofts: Ibow to Cboose Tlbem. 
 
 Do not be distressed if you do not like 
 time-honored books or classical works 
 or recommended books. Choose for 
 yourself; trust yourself; plant yourself 
 on your own instincts ; that which is 
 natural for us, that which nourishes us 
 and gives us appetite, is that which 
 is right for us. We have all different 
 minds, and we are all at different 
 stages of growth. Some other day we 
 may find food in the recommended 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 35 
 
 book, though we should possibly 
 starve on it to-day. The mind de¬ 
 velops and changes, and the favorites 
 of this year, also, may one day cease 
 to interest us. Nothing better, in¬ 
 deed, can happen to us than to lose 
 interest in a book we have often read ; 
 for it means that it has done its work 
 upon us, brought us up to its level, 
 and taught us all it had to teach. 
 
 On Books . 
 
 JSoofes: Ubefr jfdenbsblp. 
 
 To fall in love with a good book is 
 one of the greatest events that can be¬ 
 fall us. It is to have a new influence 
 pouring itself into our life,, a new 
 teacher to inspire and refine us, a new 
 friend to be by our side always, who, 
 
36 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 when life grows narrow and weary, 
 will take us into his wider and calmer 
 and higher world. Whether it be 
 biography, introducing us to some 
 humble life made great by duty done ; 
 or history, opening vistas into the 
 movements and destinies of nations 
 that have passed away ; or poetry, 
 making music of all the common 
 things around us, and filling the fields 
 and the skies and the works of the city 
 and the cottage with eternal meanings 
 —whether it be these, or story-books, 
 or religious books, or science, no one 
 can become the friend even of one 
 good book without being made wiser 
 and better. 
 
 On Books. 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 37 
 
 JSorberlanbs. 
 
 The physical Laws may explain 
 the inorganic world ; the biological 
 Laws may account for the develop¬ 
 ment of the organic. But of the 
 point where they meet, of that strange 
 borderland between the dead and the 
 living, Science is silent. It is as if 
 God had placed everything in earth 
 and heaven in the hands of Nature, 
 but reserved a point at the genesis of 
 Life for His direct appearing. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Biogenesis.” 
 
 IBu&fcbtsm. 
 
 There is no analogy between the 
 Christian religion and Buddhism or 
 the Mohammedan religion. There is 
 
38 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 no true sense in which a man can say, 
 “He that hath Buddha hath Life.” 
 Buddha has nothing' to do with Life. 
 He may have something to do with 
 morality. He may stimulate, impress, 
 teach, guide, but there is no distinct 
 new thing added to the souls of those 
 who profess Buddhism. These relig¬ 
 ions may be developments of the nat¬ 
 ural, mental, or moral man. But 
 Christianity professes to be more. It 
 is the mental or moral man plus some¬ 
 thing else or some One else. It is the 
 infusion into the Spiritual man of a 
 New Life, of a quality unlike any¬ 
 thing else in Nature. This consti¬ 
 tutes the separate Kingdom of Christ, 
 and gives to Christianity alone, of all 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 39 
 
 the religions of mankind, the strange 
 mark of Divinity. 
 
 Natural Law: “ Biogenesis.” 
 
 Calm. 
 
 Christ’s life outwardly was one of 
 the most troubled lives that was ever 
 lived: tempest and tumult, tumult 
 and tempest, the waves breaking over 
 it all the time till the worn body was 
 laid in the grave. But the inner life 
 was a sea of glass. The great calm 
 was always there. At any moment 
 you might have gone to Him and 
 found Rest. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
 Carelessness. 
 
 WE fail to appreciate the meaning 
 of spiritual degeneration or detect the 
 
40 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 terrible nature of the consequences 
 only because they evade the eye of 
 sense. But could we investigate 
 the spirit as a living organism, or 
 study the soul of the backslider on 
 principles of comparative anatomy, 
 we should have a revelation of the 
 organic effects of sin, even of the mere 
 sin of carelessness as to growth and 
 work, which must revolutionize our 
 ideas of practical religion. There is 
 no room for the doubt even that what 
 goes on in the body does not with 
 equal certainty take place in the spirit 
 under the corresponding conditions. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Parasitism.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 41 
 
 Cause ant> Effect 
 
 Things are so arranged in the orig¬ 
 inal planning of the world that cer¬ 
 tain effects must follow certain causes, 
 and certain causes must be abolished 
 before certain effects can be removed. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
 The Christian life is not casual, 
 but causal. All nature is a standing 
 protest against the absurdity of ex¬ 
 pecting to secure spiritual effects, or 
 any effects, without the employment 
 of appropriate causes. The Great 
 Teacher dealt what ought to have 
 been the final blow to this infinite 
 irrelevancy by a single question: u Do 
 
42 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of 
 thistles?” 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
 Centres. 
 
 The perfection of unity is attained 
 where there is infinite variety of phe¬ 
 nomena, infinite complexity of rela¬ 
 tion, but great simplicity of Law. 
 Science will be complete when all 
 known phenomena can be arranged 
 in one vast circle in which a few well- 
 known Laws shall form the radii, 
 these radii at once separating and 
 uniting—separating into particular 
 groups, yet uniting all to a common 
 centre. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 43 
 
 Cbattce. 
 
 Nothing that happens in the world 
 happens by chance. God is a God of 
 order. Everything is arranged upon 
 definite principles, and never at ran¬ 
 dom. 
 
 Pax Vobiscutn . 
 
 Try to give up the idea that relig¬ 
 ion comes to us by chance or by mys¬ 
 tery or by caprice. It comes to us by 
 natural law, or by supernatural law, 
 fo« all law is Divine. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 Change. 
 
 Not more certain is it that it is 
 something outside of the thermometer 
 
44 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 that produces a change in the ther¬ 
 mometer, than it is something out¬ 
 side the soul of man that produces a 
 moral change upon him. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
 Will-power does not change men. 
 Time does not change men. Christ 
 does. Therefore “Let that mind be 
 in you which is also in Christ Jesus. ” 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 Character. 
 
 It is not said that the character will 
 develop in all its fulness in this life. 
 That were a time too short for an 
 Evolution so magnificent. In this 
 world only the cornless ear is seen ; 
 sometimes only the small yet still pro¬ 
 phetic blade. Natural Law. 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 45 
 
 Of all unseen things, the most radi¬ 
 ant, the most beautiful, the most di¬ 
 vine, is character. 
 
 The Changed Life. 
 
 Cbtt&sSplrtt. 
 
 The New Testament is nowhere 
 more impressive than where it insists 
 on the fact of man’s dependence. In 
 its view the first step in religion is for 
 man to feel his helplessness. Christ’s 
 first beatitude is to the poor in spirit. 
 The condition of entrance into the 
 spiritual kingdom is to possess the 
 child-spirit—that state of mind com¬ 
 bining at once the profoundest help¬ 
 lessness with the most artless feeling 
 of dependence. Substantially the 
 same idea underlies the countless 
 
46 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 passages in which Christ affirms that 
 He has not come to call the righteous, 
 but sinners, to repentance. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Environment.” 
 
 % 
 
 Gbiist. 
 
 To become like Christ is the only 
 thing in the world worth caring for, 
 the thing before which every ambi¬ 
 tion of man is folly, and all lower 
 achievement vain. Those only who 
 make this quest the supreme desire 
 and passion of their lives can even 
 begin to hope to reach it. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
 Cbrist tbe Source of Sop. 
 
 Christ is the source of Joy to men 
 in the sense in which He is the source 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 47 
 
 of Rest. His people share His life, 
 and therefore share its consequences, 
 and one of these is Joy. His method 
 of living is one that in the nature of 
 things produces Joy. When He spoke 
 of His Joy remaining with us He 
 meant in part that the causes which 
 produced it should continue to act. 
 His followers, that is to say, by repeat¬ 
 ing His life would experience its ac¬ 
 companiments. His Joy, His kind of 
 Joy, would remain with them. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
 Cbrist: Wbo anb TKUbere ts 1be ? 
 
 Thank God the Christianity of to^ 
 day is coming nearer the world’s 
 need ! Live to help that on. Thank 
 
48 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 God men know better, by a hair’s- 
 breadth, what religion is, what God 
 is, who Christ is, where Christ is! 
 Who is Christ ? He who fed the hun¬ 
 gry, clothed the naked, visited the 
 sick. And where is Christ? Where? 
 Whoso shall receive a little child in 
 My name receiveth Me. And who are 
 Christ’s? Every one that loveth is 
 born of God. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 Cbrtet’s Influence* 
 
 There is only one great character 
 in the world that can really draw out 
 all that is best in men. He is so far 
 above all others in influencing men 
 for good that He stands alone. That 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 49 
 
 man was the founder of Christianity. 
 To be a Christian man is to have that 
 character for our ideal in life, to live 
 under its influence, to do what He 
 would wish us to do, to live the kind 
 of life He would have lived in our 
 house, and had He our day’s routine 
 to go through. 
 
 What is a Christian ? 
 
 Cbrist’s /IDanlmess* 
 
 You would be surprised when you 
 come to know who Christ is, if you 
 have not thought much about it, to 
 find how He will fit in with all hu¬ 
 man needs, and call out all that is 
 best in man. The highest and man¬ 
 liest character that ever lived was 
 Christ. What is a Christian ? 
 
50 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Christ’s Secret* 
 
 “Love is the fulfilling of the Law.” 
 It is the rule for fulfilling all rules, 
 the new commandment for keeping 
 all the old commandments, Christ’s 
 one secret of the Christian life. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 Christ’s Serenity* 
 
 Nothing ever for a moment broke 
 the serenity of Christ’s life on earth. 
 Misfortune could not reach Him ; He 
 had no fortune. Food, raiment, 
 money—fountain-heads of half the 
 world’s weariness — He simply did 
 not care for ; they played no part in 
 His life; He “ took no thought” for 
 them. It was impossible to affect 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 51 
 
 Him by lowering His reputation. He 
 had already made himself of no repu¬ 
 tation. He was dumb before insult. 
 When He was reviled He reviled not 
 again. In fact, there was nothing 
 that the world could do to Him that 
 could ruffle the surface of His spirit. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum . 
 
 Spurious Christians* 
 
 WE are, of course, not responsible 
 for everything that is said in the 
 name of Christianity ; but a man does 
 not give up medicine because there 
 are quack doctors, and no man has a 
 right to give up his Christianity be¬ 
 cause there are spurious or inconsist¬ 
 ent Christians. 
 
 How to Know How . 
 
52 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 THnlox>el£ Christians. 
 
 How many prodigals are kept out of 
 the Kingdom of God by the unlovely 
 character of those who profess to be 
 inside ! 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World . 
 
 Z be Crue Christian. 
 
 When a man becomes a Christian 
 the natural process is this : The Liv¬ 
 ing Christ enters into his soul. De¬ 
 velopment begins. The quickening 
 Life seizes upon the soul, assimilates 
 surrounding elements, and begins to 
 fashion it. According to the great 
 Law of Conformity to Type, this 
 fashioning takes a specific form. It 
 is that of the Artist who fashions. 
 
MY POINT 'OF VIEW. 
 
 53 
 
 And all through Life this wonderful, 
 mystical, glorious, yet perfectly def¬ 
 inite process goes on “ until Christ be 
 
 formed ’ ’ in it. 
 
 Natural Law: “ Conformity to Type.” 
 
 Christianity a Xeaven* 
 
 WE are told in the New Testament 
 that Christianity is leaven, and u leav¬ 
 en 7 ’ comes from the same root-word 
 as lever, meaning that which raises up, 
 which elevates ; and a Christian young 
 man is a man who raises up or ele¬ 
 vates the lives of those round about 
 him. 
 
 What is a Christian ? 
 
 Classification* 
 
 The difference between the Spirit¬ 
 ual man and the Natural man is not 
 
 / 
 
54 
 
 MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 a difference of development, but of 
 generation. It is a distinction of 
 quality, not of quantity. A man can¬ 
 not rise by any natural development 
 from “morality touched by emotion” 
 to 4 4 morality touched by Life. ’ ’ Were 
 we to construct a scientific classifica¬ 
 tion, Science would compel us to ar¬ 
 range all Natural men, moral or im¬ 
 moral, educated or vulgar, as one 
 family. One might be high in the 
 family group, another low ; yet, prac¬ 
 tically, they are marked by the same 
 set of characteristics—they eat, sleep, 
 work, think, live, die. But the Spirit¬ 
 ual man is removed from this family 
 so utterly by the possession of an ad¬ 
 ditional characteristic that a biologist, 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 55 
 
 fully informed of the whole circum¬ 
 stances, would not hesitate a moment 
 to classify him elsewhere. And if he 
 really entered into these circum¬ 
 stances, it would not be in another 
 family, but in another Kingdom. It 
 is an old-fashioned theology which 
 divides the world in this way—which 
 speaks of men as Living and Dead, 
 Lost and Saved—a stern theology all 
 but fallen into disuse. This differ¬ 
 ence between the Living and the Dead 
 in souls is so unproved by casual ob¬ 
 servation, so impalpable in itself, so 
 startling as a doctrine, that schools 
 of culture have ridiculed or denied 
 the grim distinction. Nevertheless 
 the grim distinction must be retained. 
 
56 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 It is a scientific distinction. “He 
 that hath not the Son hath not Life.” 
 
 Natural Law : “ Biogenesis.” 
 
 Content* 
 
 Do not quarrel, therefore, with your 
 lot in life. Do not complain of its 
 never-ceasing cares, its petty environ¬ 
 ment, the vexations you have to stand, 
 the small and sordid souls you have to 
 live and work with. Above all, do not 
 resent temptation; do not be perplexed 
 because it seems to thicken round you 
 more and more, and ceases neither 
 for effort nor for agony nor prayer. 
 That is your practice. That is the 
 practice which God appoints you. 
 And it is having its work in making 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 57 
 
 you patient, and humble, and gener¬ 
 ous, and unselfish, and kind, and 
 courteous. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 Ube Commonplace. 
 
 Nothing in this age is more needed 
 in every department of knowledge 
 than the rejuvenescence of the com¬ 
 monplace. In the spiritual world 
 especially, he will be wise who courts 
 acquaintance with the most ordinary 
 and transparent facts of nature. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Environment.’’ 
 
 “ConstOer tbe Xilp.” 
 
 Christ’s words are not a general 
 appeal to consider nature. Men are 
 not to consider the lilies simply to 
 
58 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 admire their beauty, to dream over 
 the delicate strength and grace of 
 stem and leaf. The point they were 
 to consider was how they grew —how 
 without anxiety or care the flower 
 woke into loveliness, how without 
 weaving these leaves were woven, 
 how without toiling these complex 
 tissues spun themselves, and how 
 without any effort or friction the 
 whole slowly came ready-made from 
 the loom of God in its more than 
 Solomon-like glory. “ So,” He says, 
 making the application beyond dis¬ 
 pute, “you careworn, anxious men 
 must grow. You, too, need take no 
 thought for your life, what ye shall 
 eat, or what ye shall drink, or what 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 59 
 
 ye shall put on. For if God so clothe 
 the grass of the field, which to-day is, 
 and to-morrow is cast into the oven, 
 shall He not much more clothe you, 
 O ye of little faith?” 
 
 Natural Law : “ Growth.’’ 
 
 Consumption anO Hts Spiritual 
 
 analogue. 
 
 The soul undergoing Degeneration, 
 surely by some arrangement with 
 Temptation planned in the uttermost 
 hell, possesses the power of absolute 
 secrecy. When all within is festering 
 decay and rottenness, a Judas, with¬ 
 out anomaly, may kiss his Lord. 
 This invisible consumption, like its 
 fell analogue in the natural world, 
 
6o 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 may even keep its victim beautiful 
 while slowly slaying it. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Degeneration.” 
 
 Continuity 
 
 Probably the most satisfactory way 
 to secure for one’s self a just appreci¬ 
 ation of the principle of Continuity 
 is to try to conceive the universe with¬ 
 out it. The opposite of a continuous 
 universe would be a discontinuous 
 universe, an incoherent and irrelevant 
 universe—as irrelevant in all its ways 
 of doing things as an irrelevant per¬ 
 son. In effect, to withdraw Contin¬ 
 uity from the universe would be the 
 same as to withdraw reason from an 
 individual. The universe would run 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 6l 
 
 deranged ; the world would be a mad 
 world. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Law of Continuity.’* 
 
 Continuous 2taw. 
 
 The Natural Laws are not the 
 shadows or images of the Spiritual 
 in the same sense as autumn is em¬ 
 blematical of Decay, or the falling 
 leaf of Death. The Natural Laws, 
 as the Law of Continuity might well 
 warn us, do not stop with the visible, 
 and then give place to a new set of 
 Laws bearing a strong similitude to 
 them. The Laws of the invisible 
 are the same Laws, projections of the 
 natural, not supernatural. Analogous 
 phenomena are not the fruit of parallel 
 
62 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Laws, but of the same Laws—Laws 
 which at one end, as it were, may be 
 dealing with Matter, at the other end 
 with Spirit. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Law of Continuity.” 
 
 Conversion is Sufc&en, 
 
 The change from Death to Life, 
 alike in the natural and spiritual 
 spheres, is the work of a moment. 
 Whatever the conscious hour of the 
 second birth may be—in the case of 
 an adult it is probably defined by the 
 first real victory over sin—it is certain 
 that on biological principles the real 
 turning-point is literally a moment. 
 But on moral and humane grounds 
 this misunderstood, perverted, and 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 6 3 
 
 therefore despised doctrine is equally 
 capable of defence. Were any re¬ 
 former, with an adequate knowledge 
 of human life, to sit down and plan 
 a scheme for the salvation of sinful 
 men, he would probably come to the 
 conclusion that the best way, after 
 all—perhaps, indeed, the only way— 
 to turn a sinner from the error of his 
 ways would be to do it suddenly. 
 
 Natziral Law : “ Death.’* 
 
 Communion wltb <3o0. 
 
 Communion with God—can it be 
 demonstrated in terms of Science that 
 
 t 
 
 this is a correspondence which will 
 never break? We do not appeal to 
 Science for such a testimony. We 
 
6 4 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 have asked for its conception of an 
 Eternal Life, and we have received 
 for answer that Eternal Life would 
 consist in a correspondence which 
 should never cease, with an Environ¬ 
 ment which should never pass away. 
 And yet what would Science demand 
 of a perfect correspondence that is 
 not met by this, the knowing of God f 
 There is no other correspondence 
 which could satisfy one at least of the 
 conditions. Not one could be named 
 which would not bear on the face of 
 it the mark and pledge of its mortal¬ 
 ity. But this, to know God, stands 
 alone. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Eternal Life.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 65 
 
 Completeness* 
 
 The Christian life is the only life 
 that will ever be completed. Apart 
 from Christ the life of man is a broken 
 pillar, the race of men an unfinished 
 pyramid. One by one, in sight of 
 Eternity, all human ideals fall short; 
 one by one, before the open grave, all 
 human hopes dissolve. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Conformity to Type.” 
 
 Conflict* 
 
 Keep in the midst of Eife. Do not 
 isolate yourself. Be among men, and 
 among things, and among troubles and 
 difficulties and obstacles. You re¬ 
 member Goethe’s words: u Talent de- 
 
 C 
 
66 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 velops itself in solitude, character in 
 the stream of life.” 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 Correspondence wttb ©od* 
 
 Man’s spiritual life consists in the 
 number and fulness of his correspond¬ 
 ences with God. In order to develop 
 these he may be constrained to insu¬ 
 late them, to enclose them from the 
 other correspondences, to shut himself 
 in with them. In many ways the 
 limitation of the natural life is the 
 necessary condition of the full enjoy= 
 ment of the spiritual life. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Mortification.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 67 
 
 Courtesy. 
 
 Politeness has been defined as 
 love in trifles. Courtesy is said to 
 be love in little things. And the 
 one secret of politeness is to love. 
 Love cannot behave itself unseemly. 
 You can put the most untutored per¬ 
 sons into the highest society, and if 
 they have a reservoir of Love in their 
 heart they will not behave themselves 
 unseemly. They simply cannot do 
 it. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 Criticism. 
 
 It is easier to criticise the best 
 thing superbly than to do the smallest 
 thing indifferently. 
 
 What is a Christian ? 
 
68 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Cross. 
 
 The whole cross is more easily 
 carried than the half. 
 
 Natural Law: “ Mortification.” 
 
 5>eatb In IRature* 
 
 We are wont to imagine that Na¬ 
 ture is full of Life. In reality it is 
 full of Death. One cannot say it is 
 natural for a plant to live. Examine 
 its nature fully, and you have to ad¬ 
 mit that its natural tendency is to die. 
 It is kept from dying by a mere tem¬ 
 porary endowment which gives it an 
 ephemeral dominion over the elements 
 —gives it power to utilize for a brief 
 span the rain, the sunshine, and the 
 air. Withdraw this temporary en- 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 69 
 
 dowment for a moment and its true 
 nature is revealed. Instead of over¬ 
 coming Nature it is overcome. The 
 very things which appeared to minis¬ 
 ter to its growth and beauty now turn 
 against it and make it decay and die. 
 The sun which warmed it, withers it; 
 the air and rain which nourished it, 
 # rot it. It is the very forces which we 
 associate with life which, when their 
 true nature appears, are discovered to 
 be really the ministers of death. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Degeneration.” 
 
 Death a Step in Evolution. 
 
 The part of the organism which 
 begins to get out of correspondence 
 with the Organic Environment is the 
 
70 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 only part which is in vital correspond¬ 
 ence with it Though a fatal disad¬ 
 vantage to the natural man to be 
 thrown out of correspondence with 
 this Environment, it is of inestimable 
 importance to the spiritual man. For 
 so long as it is maintained the way is 
 barred for a further Evolution. And 
 hence the condition necessary for the 
 further Evolution is that the spiritual 
 be released from the natural. That is 
 to say, the condition of the further 
 Evolution is Death. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Eternal Life.” 
 
 Beformits* 
 
 How pardonable, surely, the im¬ 
 patience of deformity with itself, of a 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 71 
 
 consciously despicable character stand¬ 
 ing before Christ, wondering, yearn¬ 
 ing, hungering, to be like that ! 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
 Regeneration. 
 
 The punishment of degeneration is 
 simply degeneration—the loss of func¬ 
 tions, the decay of organs, the atrophy 
 of the spiritual nature. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Parasitism.” 
 
 Development 
 
 The development of any organism 
 in any direction is dependent on its 
 environment. A living cell cut off 
 from air will die. A seed-germ apart 
 from moisture and an appropriate tem¬ 
 perature will make the ground its 
 
72 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 grave for centuries. Human nature, 
 likewise, is subject to similar condi¬ 
 tions. It can only develop in pres¬ 
 ence of its Environment. No matter 
 what its possibilities may be, no mat¬ 
 ter what seeds of thought or virtue, 
 what germs of genius or of art, lie 
 latent in its breast, until the appro¬ 
 priate Environment present itself the 
 correspondence is denied, the develop¬ 
 ment discouraged, the most splendid 
 possibilities of life remain unrealized, 
 and thought and virtue, genius and 
 art, are dead. 
 
 Natural Law : “Death.” 
 
 Difficulties, 
 
 Talking about difficulties, as a 
 rule, only aggravates them. Entire 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 73 
 
 satisfaction to the intellect is unattain¬ 
 able about any of the greater prob¬ 
 lems, and if you try to get to the 
 bottom of them by argument, there 
 is no bottom there ; and therefore 
 you make the matter worse. 
 
 How to Learn How . 
 
 Disease anfc Deatb* 
 
 In the natural world it only requires 
 a single vital correspondence of the 
 body to be out of order to ensure 
 death. It is not necessary to have 
 consumption, diabetes, and an aneur¬ 
 ism to bring the body to the grave 
 if it have heart disease. He who is 
 fatally diseased in one organ neces¬ 
 sarily pays the penalty with his life, 
 
74 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 though all the others be in perfect 
 health. And such, likewise, are the 
 mysterious unity and correlation of 
 functions in the spiritual organism 
 that the disease of one member may 
 involve the ruin of the whole. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Mortification.” 
 
 Sanctity is in character, and not 
 in moods; Divinity in onr own plain, 
 calm humanity, and in no mystic 
 rapture of the soul. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
 Doubt to be flMttefc. 
 
 Do you sometimes feel yourself 
 thinking unkind things about your 
 fellow-students who have intellectual 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 75 
 
 difficulty? I know how hard it is 
 always to feel sympathy and toler¬ 
 ation for them, but we must address 
 ourselves to that most carefully and 
 most religiously. If my brother is 
 short-sighted, I must not abuse him 
 or speak against him; I must pity 
 him, and if possible try to improve 
 his sight or to make things that he is 
 to look at so bright that he cannot 
 help seeing. But never let us think 
 evil of men who do not see as we do. 
 From the bottom of our hearts let us 
 pity them, and let us take them by 
 the hand and spend time and thought 
 over them, and try to lead them to 
 the true light. 
 
 How to Learn How. 
 
76 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 H>oubt anb TUnbeUef, 
 
 Christ never failed to distinguish 
 between doubt and unbelief. Doubt 
 is can' t believe; unbelief is won' t be¬ 
 lieve. Doubt is honesty; unbelief is 
 obstinacy. Doubt is looking for 
 light; unbelief is content with dark¬ 
 ness. 
 
 How to Learn How . 
 
 SHvarfeb Souls, 
 
 We have already admitted that he 
 who knows not God mav not be a 
 
 j 
 
 monster; we cannot say he will not 
 be a dwarf. This precisely, and on 
 perfectly natural principles, is what 
 he must be. You can dwarf a soul 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 77 
 
 just as you can dwarf a plant, by de¬ 
 priving it of a full Environment. 
 
 Natural Law: “ Death.” 
 
 Wr\Q. 
 
 Dying is that break-down in an 
 organism which throws it out of cor¬ 
 respondence with some necessary part 
 of the environment. Death is the re¬ 
 sult produced — the want of corre¬ 
 spondence. We do not say that this 
 is all that is involved. But this is the 
 root-idea of Death—failure to adjust 
 internal relations to external relations, 
 failure to repair the broken inward 
 connection sufficiently to enable it to 
 correspond again with the old sur¬ 
 roundings. 
 
 Natural Law: “Death.” 
 
 I 
 
78 
 
 MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 Ube JEartbb? flMnb* 
 
 This earthly mind may be of noble 
 calibre, enriched by culture, high- 
 toned, virtuous, and pure. But if it 
 know not God? What though its 
 correspondences reach to the stars of 
 heaven or grasp the magnitudes of 
 Time and Space ? The stars of heav¬ 
 en are not heaven. Space is not God. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Death.” 
 
 Easp. 
 
 The well-defined spiritual life is 
 not only the highest life, but it is 
 also the most easily lived. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Mortification.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 79 
 
 ' 1 - .— ■ - 
 
 JEffcrt 
 
 A religion of effortless adoration 
 may be a religion for an angel, but 
 never for a man. Not in the contem¬ 
 plative, but in the active, lies true 
 hope ; not in rapture, but in reality, 
 lies true life ; not in the realm of 
 ideals, but among tangible things, is 
 man’s sanctification wrought. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
 Eloquence without 3Loue. 
 
 What a noble gift it is, the power 
 of playing upon the souls and wills 
 of men, and rousing them to lofty 
 purposes and holy deeds ! Paul says, 
 “If I speak with the tongues of men 
 
8o 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 and of angels, and have not love, I 
 am become as sounding brass, or a 
 tinkling cymbal.” And we all know 
 why. We have all felt the brazen¬ 
 ness of words without emotion, the 
 hollowness, the unaccountable unper¬ 
 suasiveness, of eloquence behind 
 which lies no Love. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 Environment* 
 
 All knowledge lies in Environ¬ 
 ment. When I want to know about 
 minerals I go to minerals. When I 
 want to know about flowers I go to 
 flowers. And they tell me. In their 
 own way they speak to me, each in 
 its own way, and each for itself—not 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 8 l 
 
 the mineral for the flower, which is 
 impossible, nor the flower for the 
 mineral, which is also impossible. So 
 if I want to know about Man, I go to 
 his part of the Environment. And 
 he tells me about himself; not as the 
 plant or the mineral, for he is neither, 
 but in his own way. And if I want 
 to know about God, I go to His part 
 of the Environment. And He tells 
 me about Himself, not as a Man, for 
 He is not Man, but in His own way. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Eternal Life.” 
 
 Environment: Its jfunction. 
 
 The great function of Environment 
 is not to modify, but to sustain. In 
 sustaining life, it is true, it modifies. 
 
82 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 But the latter influence is incidental, 
 the former essential. Our Environ¬ 
 ment is that in which we live and 
 move and have our being. Without 
 it we should neither live nor move nor 
 have any being. In the organism lies 
 the principle of life ; in the Environ¬ 
 ment are the conditions of life. With¬ 
 out the fulfilment of these conditions, 
 which are wholly supplied by Environ¬ 
 ment, there can be no life. An organ¬ 
 ism in itself is but a part; Nature is 
 its complement. Alone, cut off from 
 its surroundings, it is not. Alone, cut 
 off from my surroundings, I am not— 
 physically I am not. I am only as I am 
 sustained. I continue only as I receive. 
 My Environment may modify me, but 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 83 
 
 it has first to keep me. And all the time 
 its secret transforming power is indirect¬ 
 ly moulding body and mind it is directly 
 moving in the more open task of min¬ 
 istering to my myriad wants, and from 
 hour to hour sustaining life itself. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Environment.” 
 
 Whenever you attempt a good 
 work you will find other men doing 
 the same kind of work, and probably 
 doing it better. Envy them not. 
 Envy is a feeling of ill-will to those 
 who are in the same line as ourselves, 
 a spirit of covetousness and detraction. 
 How little Christian work even is a 
 protection against un-Christian feel¬ 
 ing ! That most despicable of all the 
 
S 4 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 unworthy moods which cloud a Chris¬ 
 tian’s soul assuredly waits for us on 
 the threshold of every work, unless 
 we are fortified with this grace of 
 magnanimity. Only one thing truly 
 need the Christian envy—the large, 
 rich, generous soul which “envieth 
 not . 5 ’ 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World, 
 
 JEternal %itc: fits Solution* 
 
 To Christianity, u he that hath the 
 Son of God hath Life, and he that 
 hath not the Son hath not Life.” 
 This, as we take it, defines the corre¬ 
 spondence which is to bridge the grave. 
 This is the clue to the nature of the 
 Life that lies at the back of the spirit¬ 
 ual organism. And this is the true 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 85 
 
 solution of the mystery of Eternal 
 Eife. 
 
 Natural Law: “ Eternal Life.” 
 
 Eternity 
 
 In the vocabulary of Science, Eter¬ 
 nity is only the fraction of a word. It 
 means mere everlastingness. To Re¬ 
 ligion, on the other hand, Eternity 
 has little to do with time. To corre¬ 
 spond with the God of Science, the 
 Eternal Unknowable, would be ever¬ 
 lasting existence ; to correspond with 
 “the true God and Jesus Christ ’ 5 is 
 Eternal Life. The quality of the 
 Eternal Life alone makes the heaven ; 
 mere everlastingness might be no 
 boon. 
 
 * Natural Law : “ Eternal Life.” 
 
86 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 E\>er£=t>as Xtfe. 
 
 The want of connection between 
 the great words of religion and every¬ 
 day life has bewildered and discouraged 
 all of us. 
 
 Pax Vobis cum. 
 
 Evolution: TKUbat is 1ft ? 
 
 “What about evolution? How 
 am I to reconcile my religion, or any 
 religion, with the doctrine of evolu¬ 
 tion?” That upsets more men than 
 perhaps anything else at the present 
 hour. How would you deal with it? 
 I would say to a man that Christianity 
 is the further evolution. I don’t 
 know any better definition than that. 
 It is the further evolution—the higher 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 87 
 
 evolution. I don’t start with him to 
 attack evolution. I don’t start with 
 him to defend it. I destroy by fulfill¬ 
 ing it. I take him at his own terms. 
 He says evolution is that which pushes 
 the man on from the simple to the 
 complex, from the lower to the higher. 
 Very well ; that is what Christianity 
 does. It pushes the man farther on. 
 It takes him where nature has left 
 him, and carries him on to heights 
 which on the plane of nature he could 
 never reach. That is evolution. 
 
 How to Learn How. 
 
 Evolution, IRatural anO Spiritual. 
 
 As the biologist runs his eye over 
 the long Ascent of Life he sees the 
 
88 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 lowest forms of animals develop in an 
 hour; the next above these reach 
 maturity in a day ; those higher still 
 take weeks or months to perfect ; but 
 the few at the top demand the long ex¬ 
 periment of years. If a child and an 
 ape are born on the same day, the last 
 will be in full possession of its facul¬ 
 ties and doing the active work of life 
 before the child has left its cradle. 
 Life is the cradle of eternity. As the 
 man is to the animal in the slowness 
 of his evolution, so is the spiritual 
 man to the natural man. Founda¬ 
 tions which have to bear the weight 
 of an eternal life must be surely laid. 
 Character is to wear for ever ; who 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 89 
 
 will wonder or grudge that it cannot 
 be developed in a day ? 
 
 The Changed Life 
 
 j 
 
 ^Evolution: fits ^future* 
 
 IT is perhaps impossible, with such 
 faculties as we now possess, to imag¬ 
 ine Evolution with a future as great 
 as its past. So stupendous is the de¬ 
 velopment from the atom to the man 
 that no point can be fixed in the fu¬ 
 ture as distant from what man is now 
 as he is from the atom. But it has 
 been given to Christianity to disclose 
 the lines of a further Evolution. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Classification.” 
 
 Evolution ‘^Universal. 
 
 Evolution being found in so many 
 different sciences, the likelihood is 
 
90 
 
 MY POINT OF VIF/W. 
 
 that it is a universal principle. And 
 there is no presumption whatever 
 against this Law and many others be¬ 
 ing excluded from the domain of the 
 spiritual life. 
 
 Natural Law. 
 
 Eraageration, 
 
 It will never do to exaggerate one 
 truth at the expense of another ; and 
 a truth may be turned into a falsehood 
 very, very easily, by simply being 
 either too much enlarged or too much 
 diminished. 
 
 How to Learn How. 
 
 facts. 
 
 The great God of science at the 
 present time is a fact. It works with 
 facts. Its cry is “Give me facts!” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 9 1 
 
 Found anything you like upon facts 
 and we will believe it. The Spirit of 
 Christ was the scientific spirit. He 
 founded his religion upon facts, and 
 He asked all men to found their relig¬ 
 ion upon facts. 
 
 How to Learn How. 
 
 IFattb anb IReason. 
 
 Faith is never opposed to reason 
 in the New Testament; it is opposed 
 to sight. 
 
 How to Learn How . 
 
 jfex>er=3erms. 
 
 It is now known that the human 
 body acts toward certain fever-germs 
 as a sort of soil. The man whose 
 blood is pure has nothing to fear. So 
 he whose spirit is purified and sweet- 
 
92 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ened becomes proof against these 
 germs of sin. “Anger, wrath, mal¬ 
 ice, and railing” in such a soil can 
 find no root. 
 
 Natural Law: “ Mortification.” 
 
 3f oo&* 
 
 To sustain life, physical, mental, 
 moral, or spiritual, some sort of food 
 is essential. To secure an adequate 
 supply each organism also is provided 
 with special and appropriate faculties. 
 But the final gain to the organism 
 does not depend so much on the 
 actual amount of food procured as on 
 the exercise required to obtain it. In 
 one sense the exercise is only a means 
 to an end, namely, the finding food; 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 93 
 
 but in another and equally real sense 
 the exercise is the end, the food the 
 means to attain that. Neither is of 
 permanent use without the other, but 
 the correlation between them is so 
 intimate that it were idle to say that 
 one is more necessary than the other. 
 Without food exercise is impossible, 
 but without exercise food is useless. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Parasitism/’ 
 
 friendship. 
 
 Friendship is the nearest thing we 
 know to what religion is. God is 
 love. And to make religion akin to 
 friendship is simply to give it the 
 highest expression conceivable by 
 
 man. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
94 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 3Fun&amental principle* 
 
 We never know how little we have 
 learned of the fundamental principle 
 of Christianity till we discover how 
 much we are all bent on supplement¬ 
 ing God’s free grace. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Growth.” 
 
 Generation not Spontaneous* 
 
 A thousand modern pulpits every 
 seventh day are preaching the doc¬ 
 trine of vSpontaneous Generation. 
 The finest and best of recent poetry 
 is colored with this same error. Spon¬ 
 taneous Generation is the leading 
 theology of the modern religious or 
 irreligious novel; and much of the 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 95 
 
 most serious and cultured writing 
 of the day devotes itself to earnest 
 preaching of this impossible gospel. 
 The current conception of the Chris¬ 
 tian religion, in short—the conception 
 which is held not only popularly, but 
 by men of culture—is founded upon 
 a view of its origin which, if it were 
 true, would render the whole scheme 
 abortive. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Biogenesis.” 
 
 Ube (Bentleman. 
 
 Carlyle said of Robert Burns that 
 there was no truer gentleman in 
 Europe than the ploughman-poet. It 
 was because he loved everything—the 
 
96 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 mouse, and the daisy, and all the 
 things, great and small, that God 
 had made. So with this simple pass¬ 
 port he could mingle with any society, 
 and enter courts and palaces from his 
 little cottage on the banks of the Ayr. 
 You know the meaning of the word 
 4 4 gentleman. ’ ’ It means a gentle man 
 —a man who does things gently, with 
 love. And that is the whole art and 
 mystery of it. The gentle man can¬ 
 not in the nature of things do an un¬ 
 gentle, an ungentlemanly, thing. 
 The ungentle soul, the inconsiderate, 
 unsympathetic nature, cannot do any¬ 
 thing else. 4 4 Love doth not behave 
 itself unseemly.” 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World, 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 97 
 
 (Bob tfrte\ntaMe. 
 
 To every man who truly studies 
 Nature there is a God. Call him by 
 whatever name—a Creator, a Supreme 
 Being, a Great First Cause, a Power 
 that makes for Righteousness—Sci¬ 
 ence has a God; and he who believes 
 in this, in spite of all protest, possesses 
 a theology. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Death.” 
 
 (Bob’s Circle. 
 
 God is not confined to the outermost 
 circle of environment; He lives and 
 moves and has His being in the whole. 
 Those who only seek Him in the 
 
 further zone can only find a part. 
 
 D 
 
98 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 The Christian who knows not God in 
 Nature, who does not, that is to say, 
 correspond with the whole environ¬ 
 ment, most certainly is partially dead. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Death.” 
 
 0o& tbe Urue Environment 
 
 1]he true environment of the moral 
 life is God. Here conscience wakes. 
 Here kindles love. Duty here be¬ 
 comes heroic, and that righteousness 
 begins to live which alone is to live 
 for ever. But if this atmosphere is 
 not, the dwarfed soul must perish for 
 mere want of its native air. And its 
 death is a strictly natural death. It 
 is not an exceptional judgment upon 
 Atheism. In the same circumstances, 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 99 
 
 in the same averted relation to their 
 environment, the poet, the musician, 
 the artist, would alike perish to poetry, 
 to music, and to art. Every environ¬ 
 ment is a cause. Its effect upon me 
 is exactly proportionate to my corre¬ 
 spondence with it. If I correspond 
 with part of it, part of myself is in¬ 
 fluenced. If I correspond with more, 
 more of myself is influenced; if with 
 all, all is influenced. If I correspond 
 with the world, I become worldly; if 
 with God, I become Divine. 
 
 Natural Law: “ Death.” 
 
 <5ot> in mature. 
 
 B IBs i 1 
 
 We have not said, or implied, that 
 there is not a God of Nature. We 
 
 r 
 
IOO 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 have not affirmed that there is no 
 Natural Religion. We are assured 
 there is. We are even assured that 
 without a Religion of Nature, Religion 
 is only half complete ; that without a 
 God of Nature, the God of Revelation 
 is only half intelligible and only par¬ 
 tially known. God is not confined to 
 the outermost circle of environment. 
 He lives and moves and has His being 
 in the whole. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Death.” 
 
 (SoMessness, 
 
 It has never been as clear to us that 
 without God the soul will die as that 
 without food the body will perish. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Environment.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 IOI 
 
 <3rat>attons. 
 
 We all, reflecting as a mirror the 
 character of Christ, are transformed 
 into the same Image from character to 
 character—from a poor character to a 
 better one, from a better one to one a 
 little better still, from that to one still 
 more complete—until, by slow degrees, 
 the Perfect Image is attained. Here 
 the solution of the problem of sanctifi¬ 
 cation is compressed into a sentence : 
 Reflect the character of Christ and 
 you will become like Christ. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
102 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Oranfcmotbers, 
 
 Boys, if you are going to be Chris¬ 
 tians, be Christians as boys, and not 
 as your grandmothers. A grand¬ 
 mother has to be a Christian as a 
 grandmother, and that is the right 
 and the beautiful thing for her ; but 
 if you cannot read your Bible by the 
 hour as your grandmother can, or de¬ 
 light in meetings as she can, don’t 
 think you are necessarily a bad boy. 
 When you are your grandmother’s 
 age you will have your grandmother’s 
 kind of religion. 
 
 “First r 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. IO3 
 
 Gravitation* 
 
 When Nature yielded to Newton 
 her great secret, gravitation was felt 
 to be no greater as a fact in itself 
 than as a revelation that Law was 
 Fact. 
 
 Natural Law: “Preface.” 
 
 Great /IDen* 
 
 How do I know Shakespeare or 
 Dante? By communing with their 
 words and thoughts. Many men 
 know Dante better than their own 
 fathers. He influences them more. 
 As a spiritual presence he is more 
 near to them, as a spiritual force more 
 real. Is there any reason why a 
 
io 4 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 greater than Shakespeare or Dante, 
 who also walked this earth, who left 
 great words behind Him, who has 
 great works everywhere in the world 
 now, should not also instruct, inspire, 
 and mould the characters of men ? 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
 Great Urutbs* 
 
 The greatest truths are always the 
 most loosely held. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Biogenesis.” 
 
 (Browtb (Srabual. 
 
 v 
 
 The gradualness of growth is a 
 characteristic which strikes the sim¬ 
 plest observer. Long before the word 
 Evolution was coined Christ applied 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 105 
 
 it in this very connection—“ First the 
 blade, then the ear, then the full corn 
 in the ear.” It is well known also 
 to those who study the parables of 
 Nature that there is an ascending 
 scale of slowness as we rise in the 
 scale of Life. Growth is most grad¬ 
 ual in the highest forms. Man attains 
 his maturity after a score of years ; 
 the monad completes its humble cycle 
 in a day. What wonder if develop¬ 
 ment be tardy in the Creature of Eter- 
 nitv? A Christian’s sun has some- 
 
 j 
 
 times set, and a critical world has 
 seen as yet no corn in the ear. As 
 yet? “As yet,” in this long Life, 
 has not begun. Grant him the years 
 proportionate to his place in the scale 
 
io6 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 of Life. ‘ ‘ The time of harvest is 
 not yet. ’ ’ 
 
 Natural Law. 
 
 (Browtb: Hts Gonbitions* 
 
 The conditions of growth, then, 
 and the inward principle of growth 
 being both supplied by Nature, the 
 thing man has to do, the little junc¬ 
 tion left for him to complete, is to ap¬ 
 ply the one to the other. He manu¬ 
 factures nothing ; he earns nothing ; 
 he need be anxious for nothing; his 
 one duty is to be in these conditions, 
 to abide in them, to allow grace to 
 play over him, to be still therein, and 
 know that this is God. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Growth.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 107 
 
 6rowtb IRoiseless. 
 
 Do not think that nothing is hap¬ 
 pening because you do not see your¬ 
 self grow or hear the whirr of the ma¬ 
 chinery. All great things grow noise¬ 
 lessly. You can see a mushroom 
 grow, but never a child. 
 
 The Changed Life. 
 
 ©ullelessness. 
 
 Guilelessness is the grace for sus¬ 
 picious people. And the possession 
 of it is the great secret of personal 
 influence. You will find, if you 
 think for a moment, that the people 
 who influence you are people who 
 believe in you. In an atmosphere 
 
io8 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 of suspicion men shrivel up; but in 
 that atmosphere they expand, and 
 find encouragement and educative 
 fellowship. It is a wonderful thing 
 that here and there in this hard, 
 uncharitable world there should still 
 be left a few rare souls who think no 
 evil. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 toatrefc of Xtfe, 
 
 Why does Christ say, “ Hate life” ? 
 Does He mean that life is a sin ? No. 
 Life is not a sin. Still, He says we 
 must hate it. But we must live. Why 
 should we hate what we must do ? For 
 this reason: Life is not a sin, but the 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. IO9 
 
 love of life may be a sin. And the 
 best way not to love life is to hate it. 
 Is it a sin, then, to love life? Not 
 a sin exactly, but a mistake. It is 
 a sin to love some life, a mistake to 
 love the rest. Because that love is 
 lost. All that is lavished on it is 
 lost. Christ does not say it is wrong 
 to love life. He simply says it is loss. 
 Each man has only a certain amount 
 of life, of time, of attention — a 
 definite, measurable quantity. If he 
 gives any of it to this life solely, it is 
 wasted. Therefore Christ says, Hate 
 life, limit life, lest you steal your love 
 for it from something that deserves it 
 more. 
 
 Natural Law: “ Mortification.” 
 
no 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Ibappiness Xtes in Giving. 
 
 The most obvious lesson in Christ’s 
 teaching is that there is no happiness 
 in having and getting anything, but 
 only in giving. And half the world 
 is on the wrong scent in pursuit of 
 happiness. They think it consists in 
 having and getting, and in being 
 served by others. It consists in giv¬ 
 ing, and in serving others. He that 
 would be great among you, said Christ, 
 let him serve. He that would be 
 happy, let him remember that there 
 is but one way—it is more blessed, it 
 is more happy, to give than to re¬ 
 ceive. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Ibapptness not a Ofoystcvy. 
 
 There is no mystery about Happi¬ 
 ness whatever. Put in the right in¬ 
 gredients and it must come out. He 
 that abideth in Him will bring forth 
 much fruit; and bringing forth much 
 fruit is Happiness. The infallible 
 receipt for Happiness, then, is to do 
 good; and the infallible receipt for 
 doing good is to abide in Christ. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum . 
 
 Ibarmoits. 
 
 It is clear that a remarkable har¬ 
 mony exists here between the Organic 
 World as arranged by Science and the 
 
112 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Spiritual World as arranged by Scrip¬ 
 ture. We find one great Law guard¬ 
 ing tlie thresholds of both worlds, 
 securing that entrance from a lower 
 sphere shall only take place by a direct 
 regenerating act, and that emanating 
 from the world next in order above. 
 There are not two laws of Biogenesis, 
 one for the natural, the other for the 
 Spiritual; one law is for both. Wher¬ 
 ever there is Life, Life of any kind, 
 this same law holds. The analogy, 
 therefore, is only among the phe¬ 
 nomena; between laws there is no 
 analogy—there is Continuity. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Biogenesis.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 JI 3 
 
 Ibealtng. 
 
 IT is the beautiful work of Chris¬ 
 tianity everywhere to adjust the bur¬ 
 den of life to those who bear it, aud 
 them to it. It has a perfectly mirac¬ 
 ulous gift of healing. Without doing 
 
 l 
 
 any violence to human nature it sets 
 it right with life, harmonizing it with 
 all surrounding things, and restoring 
 those who are jaded with the fatigue 
 and dust of the world to a new grace 
 of living. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
 Deaven. 
 
 l 
 
 Whatever hopes of a “heaven” 
 a neglected soul may have can be 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 114 
 
 shown to be an ignorant and delusive 
 dream. How is the soul to escape to 
 
 Jk. 
 
 heaven if it has neglected for a life¬ 
 time the means of escape from the 
 world and self? And where is the 
 capacity for heaven to come from if it 
 be not developed on earth? Where, 
 indeed, is even the smallest spiritual 
 appreciation of God and heaven to 
 come from when so little of spirit¬ 
 uality has ever been known or man¬ 
 ifested here ? If every God-ward 
 aspiration of the soul has been allowed 
 to become extinct, and every inlet that 
 was open to heaven to be choked, and 
 every talent for religious love and trust 
 to have been persistently neglected 
 and ignored, where are the faculties 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 IJ 5 
 
 to come from that would ever find the 
 faintest relish in such things as God 
 and heaven give ? 
 
 Nattiral Law : “ Degeneration. v 
 
 1fxce&it£* 
 
 What Heredity has to do for us is 
 determined outside ourselves. No 
 man can select his own parents. But 
 every man to some extent can choose 
 his own Environment. His relation 
 to it, however largely determined by 
 Heredity in the first instance, is always 
 open to alteration. And so great is 
 his control over Environment, and so 
 radical its influence over him, that he 
 can so direct it as either to undo, 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Il6 
 
 modify, perpetuate, or intensify the 
 earlier hereditary influence within 
 certain limits. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Environment.” 
 
 / 
 
 tberesp. 
 
 Heresy is truth in the making, 
 and doubt is the prelude of know¬ 
 ledge. 
 
 How to Learn How . 
 
 limitation. 
 
 Imitation is mechanical, reflec¬ 
 tion organic. The one is occasional, 
 the other habitual. In the one case 
 man comes to God and imitates him ; 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 II7 
 
 in the other God comes to man and 
 imprints himself upon him. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
 ITmmortaUts* 
 
 No truth of Christianity has been 
 more ignorantly or wilfully travestied 
 than the doctrine of Immortality. 
 The popular idea, in spite of a hundred 
 protests, is that Eternal Life is to live 
 for ever. A single glance at the locus 
 classicus might have made this error 
 impossible. There we are told that 
 Life Eternal is not to live. This is 
 Eife Eternal —to know . And yet— 
 and it is a notorious instance of the 
 fact that men who are opposed to Re- 
 
Ii8 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ligion will take their conceptions of 
 its profoundest truths from mere vulgar 
 perversions—this view still represents 
 to many cultivated men the Scriptural 
 doctrine of Eternal Life. From time 
 to time the taunt is thrown at Re¬ 
 ligion, not unseldom from lips which 
 Science ought to have taught more 
 caution, that the Future Life of Chris¬ 
 tianity is simply a prolonged existence, 
 an eternal monotony, a blind and in¬ 
 definite continuance of being. The 
 Bible never could commit itself to any 
 such platitudes, nor could Christianity 
 ever offer to the world a hope so color¬ 
 less. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Eternal Life.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 XI 9 
 
 Ifmperfectkms of tbe (5obl£, 
 
 The sneer at the godly man for his 
 imperfections is ill-judged. A blade 
 is a small thing. At first it grows 
 very near the earth. It is often soiled 
 and crushed and downtrodden. But 
 it is a living thing. That great dead 
 stone beside it is more imposing; only 
 it will never be anything less than a 
 stone. But this small blade—it doth 
 not yet appear what it shall be. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Growth.” 
 
 IfmpresseD forces. 
 
 According to the first Law of 
 Motion : Every body continues in its 
 state of rest, or of uniform motion in 
 
120 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 a straight line, except in so far as it 
 may be compelled by impressed forces 
 to change that state. This is also a 
 first law of Christianity. Every man’s 
 character remains as it is, or continues 
 in the direction in which it is going, 
 until it is compelled by impressedforces 
 to change that state. 
 
 The Changed Life. 
 
 Ifmprcwemenk 
 
 No man can become a saint in his 
 sleep ; and to fulfil the condition re¬ 
 quired demands a certain amount of 
 prayer and meditation and time, just 
 as improvement in any direction, bod¬ 
 ily or mental, requires preparation 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 12 1 
 
 and care. Address yourselves to that 
 one thing; at any cost have this 
 transcendent character exchanged for 
 yours. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 Inability 
 
 The doctrine of Human Inability, 
 as the Church calls it, has always 
 been objectionable to men who do 
 not know themselves. 
 
 Natural Law: “ Conformity to Type.” 
 
 ifncitement. 
 
 God has planned the world to in¬ 
 cite to intellectual activity. 
 
 How to Learn How. 
 
122 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 — 
 
 llncompleteness* 
 
 Who has not come to the conclu¬ 
 sion that he is but a part, a fraction 
 of some larger whole ? Who does not 
 miss at every turn of his life an ab¬ 
 sent God ? That man is but a part 
 he knows, for there is room in him 
 for more. That God is the other part 
 he feels, because at times He satisfies 
 his need. Who does not tremble 
 often under that sicklier symptom of 
 his incompleteness, his want of spirit¬ 
 ual energy, his helplessness with sin ? 
 But now he understands both—the 
 void in his life, the powerlessness of 
 his will. He understands that, like 
 all other energy, spiritual power is 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 12•* 
 
 contained in Environment. He finds 
 here at last the true root of all human 
 frailty, emptiness, nothingness, sin. 
 This is why u without Me ye can do 
 nothing.” Powerless is the normal 
 state not only of this but of every 
 organism — of every organism apart 
 from its Environment. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Environment.” 
 
 ■(Inconsistency. 
 
 The result of copying Humility 
 and adding it on to an otherwise 
 worldly life is simply grotesque. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
 ■(Influence* 
 
 It is the Law of Influence that we 
 become like those whom we habitual - 
 
124 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ly adynire: these had become like 
 because they habitually admired. 
 Through all the range of literature, 
 history, and biography this law pre¬ 
 sides. Men are all mosaics of other 
 men. There was a savor of David 
 about Jonathan, and a savor of Jona¬ 
 than about David. Jean Valjean, in 
 the masterpiece of Victor Hugo, is 
 Bishop Bienvenu risen from the dead. 
 Metempsychosis is a fact. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
 IFttsanits* 
 
 Suppose the case of a man who is 
 thrown out of correspondence with a 
 part of his environment by some 
 physical infirmity. Let it be that 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 !2 5 
 
 by disease or accident he has been 
 deprived of the use of his ears. The 
 deaf man, in virtue of this imperfec¬ 
 tion, is thrown out of rapport with a 
 large and well-defined part of the en¬ 
 vironment, namely, its sounds. With 
 regard to that u external relation,” 
 therefore, he is no longer living. Part 
 of him may truly be held to be in¬ 
 sensible or 4 4 dead . 5 ’ A man who is 
 also blind is thrown out of corre¬ 
 spondence with another large part of 
 his environment. The beauty of sea 
 and sky, the forms of cloud and moun¬ 
 tain, the features and gestures of 
 friends, are to him as if they were 
 not. They are there, solid and real, 
 but not to him ; he is still further 
 
126 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 u dead. ” Next, let it be conceived, 
 the subtle finger of cerebral disease 
 lays hold of him. His whole brain 
 is affected, and the sensory nerves, the 
 medium of communication with the 
 environment, cease altogether to ac¬ 
 quaint him with what is doing in the 
 outside world. The outside world is 
 still there, but not to him ; he is still 
 further 4 ( dead . 5 ’ 
 
 Natural Law : “ Death.” 
 
 flnsptration. 
 
 With the inspiration of Nature to 
 illuminate what the inspiration of 
 Revelation has left obscure, heresy 
 in certain whole departments shall 
 become impossible. With the demon- 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 12 J 
 
 stration of the naturalness of the 
 supernatural, scepticism even may 
 come to be regarded as unscientific. 
 And those who have wrestled long 
 for a few bare truths to ennoble life 
 and rest their souls in thinking of the 
 future will not be left in doubt. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction.” 
 
 intellect. 
 
 Then comes a very important part, 
 the intellect, which is one of the most 
 useful servants of truth ; and I need 
 not tell you as students that the intel¬ 
 lect will have a great deal to do with 
 your reception of truth. I was told 
 that it was said at these conferences 
 last year that a man must crucify his 
 
128 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 intellect. I venture to contradict the 
 gentleman who made that statement. 
 I am quite sure no such statement 
 could ever have been made in your 
 hearing—that we were to crucify our 
 intellects. We can make no progress 
 without the full use of all the intel¬ 
 lectual powers that God has endowed 
 us with. 
 
 How to Learn How . 
 
 Unrenttons. 
 
 % 
 
 At every workshop you will see, in 
 the back yard, a heap of old iron, a 
 few levers, a few cranks, broken and 
 eaten with rust. Twenty years ago 
 that was the pride of the city. Men 
 flocked in from the country to see the 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 129 
 
 great invention; now it is superseded, 
 its dav is done. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World, 
 
 3cs: Dow Httamefc. 
 
 Where does Joy come from? I 
 knew a Sunday scholar whose con cep- 
 
 V 
 
 tion of Joy was that it was a thing 
 made in lumps and kept somewhere 
 in Heaven, and that when people 
 prayed for it pieces were somehow 
 let down and fitted into their souls. 
 I am not sure that views as gross and 
 material are not often held by people 
 who ought to be wiser. In reality, 
 Joy is as much a matter of Cause and 
 Effect as pain. No one can get Joy 
 
 by merely asking for it. It is one of 
 
 E 
 
130 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 the ripest fruits of the Christian life, 
 and, like all fruits, must be grown. 
 
 Pax Vobis cum. 
 
 Judgment H)a£* 
 
 IT is the Son of Man before whom 
 the nations of the world shall be gath¬ 
 ered. It is in the presence of Human¬ 
 ity that we shall be charged. And 
 the spectacle itself, the mere sight of 
 it, will silently judge each one. Those 
 will be there whom we have met and 
 helped ; or there the unpitying mul¬ 
 titude whom we neglected or despised. 
 No other witness need be summoned 
 No other charge than lovelessness 
 shall be preferred. Be not deceived. 
 The words which all of us shall one 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 131 
 
 day hear sound not of theology, but 
 of life ; not of churches and saints, 
 but of the hungry and the poor ; not 
 of creeds and doctrines, but of shelter 
 and clothing ; not of Bibles and pray¬ 
 er-books, but of cups of cold water in 
 the name of Christ 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 iRe^notes. 
 
 Every character has an inward 
 spring. Let Christ be it. Every 
 action has a keynote. Let Christ 
 set it. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
 fdntmess. 
 
 I wonder why it is we are not all 
 kinder than we are ? How mnch the 
 
132 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 world needs it ! How easily it is 
 done ! How instantaneously it acts ! 
 How infallibly it is remembered ! 
 How superabundantly it pays itself 
 back ! For there is no debtor in the 
 world so honorable, so superbly hon¬ 
 orable, as Love. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 IRm&ness of Christ, 
 
 Have you ever noticed how much 
 of Christ’s life was spent in doing 
 kind things—in merely doing kind 
 things ? Run over it with that in view, 
 and you will find that He spent a 
 great proportion of His time simply 
 in making people happy, in doing 
 good turns to people. There is only 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 133 
 
 one thing greater than happiness 
 in the world, and that is holiness ; 
 and it is not in our keeping; but 
 what God has put in our power is 
 the happiness of those about us, and 
 that is largely to be secured by our 
 being kind to them. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 IRmQ&oms* 
 
 As a merely verbal matter the 
 identification of the Spiritual World 
 with what are known to Science as 
 Kingdoms necessitates an explan¬ 
 ation. The suggested relation of, 
 the Kingdom of Christ to the Mineral 
 and Animal Kingdoms does not, of 
 course, depend upon the accident 
 
*34 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 that the Spiritual World is named 
 in the sacred writings by the same 
 word. This certainly lends an ap¬ 
 pearance of fancy to the generaliza¬ 
 tion, and one feels tempted at first 
 to dismiss it with a smile. But, in 
 truth, it is no mere play on the word 
 Kingdom . Science demands the 
 classification of every organism. 
 And here is an organism of a unique 
 kind, a living, energetic spirit, a new 
 creature which, by an act of gene^ 
 ration, has been begotten of God. 
 Starting from the point that the 
 spiritual life is to be studied biologi 
 cally, we must at once proceed, as the 
 first step in the scientific examination 
 of this organism, to enter it in its 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 *35 
 
 appropriate class. Now two King¬ 
 doms, at the present time, are known 
 to Science—the Inorganic and the 
 Organic. It does not belong to the 
 Inorganic Kingdom, because it lives. 
 It does not belong to the Organic 
 Kingdom, because it is endowed with 
 a kind of Life infinitely removed 
 from either the vegetable or animal. 
 Where, then, shall it be classed? 
 We are left without an alternative. 
 There being no Kingdom known to 
 Science which can contain it, we 
 must construct one. Or, rather, we 
 must include in the programme of 
 Science a Kingdom already con¬ 
 structed, but the place of which in 
 science has not yet been recognized. 
 
136 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 That Kingdom is the Kingdom of 
 God\ 
 
 Natural Law : “ Classification .” 
 
 Ifuna&om of <3o&. 
 
 The kingdom of God is not going 
 to religious meetings and hearing 
 strange religious experiences. The 
 kingdom of God is doing what is 
 right—living at peace with all men, 
 being filled with joy in the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 “First !” 
 
 Tknowle&ge, 
 
 The wisdom of the ancients—where 
 is it ? It is wholly gone. A school¬ 
 boy to-day knows more than Sir Isaac 
 
MY POINT OK VIEW. 
 
 137 
 
 Newton knew. His knowledge has 
 vanished away. You buy the old edi¬ 
 tions of the great encyclopaedias for 
 a few pence. Their knowledge has 
 faded away. And all the boasted sci¬ 
 ence and philosophy of this day will 
 soon be old. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 Xanguage. 
 
 The most popular book in the Eng¬ 
 lish tongue at the present time, ex¬ 
 cept the Bible, is one of Dickens’s 
 works, his Pickwick Papers. It is 
 largely written in the language of 
 London street-life, and experts assure 
 us that in fifty years it will be unin- 
 
138 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 telligible to the average English 
 reader. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 Xaw* 
 
 The world, even the religious world, 
 is governed by law. Character is 
 governed by law. Happiness is gov¬ 
 erned by law. The Christian experi¬ 
 ences are governed by law. Men, for¬ 
 getting this, expect Rest, Joy, Peace, 
 Faith, to drop into their souls from 
 the air, like snow or rain. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
 The fundamental conception of 
 Law is an ascertained working se¬ 
 quence or constant order among the 
 
MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 139 
 
 phenomena of Nature. This impres¬ 
 sion of Law as order it is important 
 to receive in its simplicity, for the 
 idea is often corrupted by having at¬ 
 tached to it erroneous views of cause 
 and effect. In its true sense Natural 
 Law predicates nothing of causes. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction.” 
 
 0 
 
 IReigrt of Xaw* 
 
 The Reign of Law has gradually 
 crept into every department of Nature, 
 transforming knowledge everywhere 
 into Science. The process goes on, 
 and Nature slowly appears to us as 
 one great unity, until the borders of 
 the Spiritual World are reached. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction.” 
 
140 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Xaw, Natural an& Spiritual* 
 
 The real problem I have set myself 
 may be stated in a sentence. Is there 
 not reason to believe that many of the 
 Laws of the Spiritual World, hitherto 
 regarded as occupying an entirely 
 separate province, are simply the Laws 
 of the Natural World? Can we iden¬ 
 tify the Natural Laws, or any one of 
 them, in the spiritual sphere? That 
 vague lines everywhere run through 
 the Spiritual World is already begin¬ 
 ning to be recognized. Is it possible 
 to link them with those great lines 
 running through the visible universe 
 which we call the Natural Laws, or 
 are they fundamentally distinct? In 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 141 
 
 a word, Is the Supernatural natural or 
 unnatural ? 
 
 Natural Law : “ Preface.” 
 
 Xaw of IRature* 
 
 There is a sense of solidity about 
 a Taw of Nature which belongs to 
 nothing else in the world. Here, at 
 last, amid all that is shifting, is one 
 thing sure ; one thing outside our¬ 
 selves, unbiassed, unprejudiced, unin¬ 
 fluenced by like or dislike, by doubt 
 or fear ; one thing that holds on its 
 way to me eternally, incorruptible, 
 and undefiled. This, more than any¬ 
 thing else, makes one eager to see the 
 Reign of Taw traced in the Spiritual 
 Sphere. 
 
 Natural Law: “ Preface.” 
 
142 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 %a\vs not Operators. 
 
 Laws do not act upoti anything. 
 Apparently it cannot be too abun¬ 
 dantly emphasized that Laws are only 
 modes of operation, not themselves 
 operators. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction.’’ 
 
 Xife a Correspondence. 
 
 To find a new Environment again 
 and cultivate relation with it is to find 
 a new Life. To live is to correspond, 
 and to correspond is to live. So much 
 is true in Science. But it is also true 
 in Religion. And it is of great im¬ 
 portance to observe that to Religion 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 143 
 
 also the conception of Life is a corre¬ 
 spondence. 
 
 Natural Law ; “ Eternal Life.” 
 
 %itc is ^Definite* 
 
 L/iEK is not one of the homeless 
 forces which promiscuously inhabit 
 space, or which can be gathered like 
 electricity from the clouds and dissi¬ 
 pated back again into space. Life is 
 definite and resident ; and Spiritual 
 Life is not a visit from a force, but a 
 resident tenant in the soul. 
 
 Natural Law: “Introduction.” 
 
 %ife a jftne art. 
 
 WE grow up at random, carrying 
 into mature life the merely animal 
 
144 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 methods and motives which we had 
 as little children. And it does not 
 occur to us that all this must be 
 changed ; that much of it must be 
 reversed ; that life is the finest of the 
 Fine Arts ; that it has to be learned 
 with life-long patience, and that the 
 years of our pilgrimage are all too 
 short to master it triumphantly. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
 Xtcjbt anfc %ove. 
 
 Light is a something more than the 
 sum of its ingredients—a glowing, 
 dazzling, tremulous ether. And love 
 is something more than all its ele¬ 
 ments—a palpitating, quivering, sen¬ 
 sitive, living thing. By synthesis of 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 H5 
 
 all the colors men can make white¬ 
 ness, they cannot make light. By 
 synthesis of all the virtues men can 
 make virtue, they cannot make love. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 TLbc Xocfcef* 
 
 There lived once a young girl 
 whose perfect grace of character was 
 the wonder of those who knew her. 
 She wore on her neck a gold locket 
 which no one was ever allowed to 
 open. One day, in a moment of un¬ 
 usual confidence, one of her com¬ 
 panions was allowed to touch its 
 spring and learn its secret. She saw 
 written these words : u Whom having 
 not seeiis I love . ’' That was the secret 
 
146 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 of her beautiful life. She had been 
 changed into the Same Image. 
 
 The Changed Life. 
 
 Xongtrtcb 
 
 All about us, Christians are wear¬ 
 ing themselves out in trying to be bet¬ 
 ter. The amount of spiritual longing 
 in the world—in the hearts of unnum¬ 
 bered thousands of men and women 
 in whom we should never suspect it; 
 among the wise and thoughtful; 
 among the young and gay, who 
 seldom assuage and never betray their 
 thirst,—this is one of the most won¬ 
 derful and touching facts of life. It 
 is not more heat that is needed, but 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 147 
 
 more light; not more force, but a 
 wiser direction to be given to very 
 real energies already there. 
 
 Pax Vo bis cum. 
 
 Zfoe %ost♦ 
 
 The Bible view is that man is con¬ 
 ceived in sin and shapen in iniquity. 
 And experience tells him that he will 
 shape himself into further sin and 
 ever-deepening iniquity without the 
 smallest effort, without in the least 
 intending it, and in the most natural 
 way in the world, if he simply let 
 his life run. It is on this principle 
 that, completing the conception, the 
 wicked are said further in the Bible 
 to be lost. They are not really lost 
 
148 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 as yet, but they are on the sure way 
 to it. The bias of their lives is in 
 full action. There is no drag on any¬ 
 where. The natural tendencies are 
 having it all their own way; and 
 although the victims may be quite 
 unconscious that all this is going on, 
 it is patent to every one who con¬ 
 siders even the natural bearings of 
 the case that “the end of these 
 things is Death.” 
 
 Natural Law: “ Degeneration.” 
 
 %ovc anfc %a\*\ 
 
 You remember the profound re¬ 
 mark which Paul makes, “Love is 
 the fulfilling of the law.” Did you 
 ever think what he meant by that? 
 
MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 149 
 
 In those days men were working 
 their passage to Heaven by keeping 
 the Ten Commandments, and the 
 hundred and ten other command¬ 
 ments which they had manufactured 
 out of them. Christ said, I will 
 show you a more simple way. If 
 you do one thing, you will do these 
 hundred and ten things, without 
 ever thinking about them. If you 
 love, you will unconsciously fulfil 
 the whole law. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 Xov>e Immortal. 
 
 We know but little now about the 
 conditions of the life that is to come. 
 But what is certain is that Love must 
 
150 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 last. God, the Eternal God, is Love. 
 Covet, therefore, that everlasting gift, 
 that one thing which it is certain is 
 going to stand, that one coinage 
 which will be current in the universe 
 when all the other coinages of all 
 the nations of the world shall be 
 useless and unhonored. You will 
 give yourselves to many things; give 
 yourself first to Love. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 %ovc is patience, 
 
 LOVE is Patience . This is the 
 normal attitude of Love; Love pas¬ 
 sive, Love waiting to begin; not in 
 a hurry; calm; ready to do its work 
 when the summons comes, but mean- 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 151 
 
 time wearing the ornament of a meek 
 and quiet spirit. 
 
 The Greatest Thinp in the World 
 
 O 
 
 XowUness. 
 
 Men sigh for the wings of a dove, 
 that they may fly away and be at rest. 
 But flying away will not help us. 
 ‘ c The Kingdom of God is within 
 you." We aspire to the top to look 
 
 for rest; it lies at the bottom. Water 
 rests only when it gets to the lowest 
 
 place. So do men. Hence be lowly. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
 /Magnets. 
 
 Put a piece of iron in the presence 
 of an electrified body and that piece 
 of iron for a time becomes electrified. 
 
J 52 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 It is changed into a temporary magnet 
 in the mere presence of a permanent 
 magnet, and as long as you leave the 
 two side by side they are both magnets 
 alike. Remain side by side with Him 
 who loved us and gave Himself for us, 
 and you too will become a permanent 
 magnet, a permanently attractive force; 
 and like Him you will draw all men 
 unto you, like Him you will be drawn 
 unto all men. That is the inevitable 
 effect of Love. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 /iDasters* 
 
 He who seeks to serve two masters 
 misses the benediction of both. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Mortification. ,, 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 *53 
 
 /Material s* 
 
 The lowest or mineral world mainly 
 supplies the material—and this is true 
 even for insectivorous species—for the 
 vegetable kingdom. The vegetable 
 supplies the material for the animal. 
 Next in turn, the animal furnishes 
 material for the mental ; and lastly, 
 the mental for the spiritual. Each 
 member of the series is complete only 
 when the steps below it are complete; 
 the highest demands all. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Conformity to Type.” 
 
 /ibetbob. 
 
 Realize it thoroughly: it is a 
 methodical, not an accidental world. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
*54 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 /Bimetal, jflesb, Spirit, 
 
 The first Law of biology is, That 
 which is Mineral is Mineral ; that 
 which is Flesh is Flesh ; that which 
 is Spirit is Spirit. The mineral re¬ 
 mains in the inorganic world until it 
 is seized upon by a something called 
 Life outside the inorganic world ; the 
 
 natural man remains the natural man 
 
 % 
 
 until a Spiritual Life from without 
 the natural life seizes upon him, re¬ 
 generates him, changes him into a 
 spiritual man. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Classification.” 
 
 Ube /KMrtistrp. 
 
 The advantage of the ministry is 
 that a man’s whole life can be thrown 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 155 
 
 into the carrying out of that pro¬ 
 gramme without any deduction. An¬ 
 other advantage of the ministry is that 
 it is so poorly paid that a man is not 
 tempted to cut a dash and shine in the 
 world, but can be meek and lowly in 
 heart, like his Master. It is enough 
 for a servant to be like his master, and 
 there is a great attraction in seeking 
 obscurity, even isolation, if one can 
 be following the highest ideals. 
 
 What is a Christian ? 
 
 /iDfracle* 
 
 That question is thrown at my 
 head every second day : “ What do you 
 say to a man when he says to you, 
 
 4 Why do you believe in miracles?’ ” 
 
156 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 I say, “ Because I have seen them.” 
 He says, “When?” I say, “Yester¬ 
 day.” He says, “Where?” “Down 
 such-and-such a street I saw a man 
 who was a drunkard redeemed by the 
 power of an unseen Christ and saved 
 from sin. That is a miracle.” The 
 best apologetic for Christianity is a 
 Christian. That is a fact which the 
 man cannot get over. There are fifty 
 other arguments for miracles, but 
 none so good as that you have seen 
 them. Perhaps you are one yourself. 
 But take vou a man and show him a 
 miracle with his own eyes. Then he 
 will believe. 
 
 How to Learn Homy, 
 
MY POINT OE VIEW. 
 
 157 
 
 /BMrrors* 
 
 One of the aptest descriptions of a 
 human being is that he is a mirror. 
 As we sat at table to-night the world 
 in which each of us lived and moved 
 throughout this day was focussed in 
 the room. What we saw as we look¬ 
 ed at one another was not one an¬ 
 other, but one another’s world. We 
 were an arrangement of mirrors. The 
 scenes we saw were all reproduced ; 
 the people we met walked to and fro ; 
 they spoke, they bowed, they passed 
 us by, did everything over again as 
 if it had been real. When we talked 
 we were but looking at our own mir¬ 
 ror and describing what flitted across 
 
I58 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 it. Our listening was not hearing, 
 but seeing—we but looked on our 
 neighbor’s mirror. All human inter¬ 
 course is a seeing of reflections. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
 Zbc Zv ue /HMsslonarp* 
 
 It is the man who is the mission¬ 
 ary, it is not his words. His charac¬ 
 ter is his message. In the heart of 
 Africa, among the Great Lakes, I 
 have come across men and women 
 who remembered the only white man 
 they ever saw before—David Living¬ 
 stone ; and as you cross his footsteps 
 in that dark continent, men’s faces 
 light up as they speak of the kind 
 Doctor who passed there years ago. 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 i> i; i 
 
 159 
 
 They could not understand him ; but 
 they felt the Love that beat in his 
 heart. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World . 
 
 flDissionan? Enterprise* 
 
 Science has a duty in pointing out 
 that no devotion or enthusiasm can 
 give any man a charmed life, and 
 that those who work for the highest 
 ends will best attain them in humble 
 obedience to the common laws. Tran- 
 scendentally, this may be denied ; the 
 warning finger may be despised as 
 the hand of the coward and the pro- 
 fane. But the fact remains—the fact 
 of an awful chain of English graves 
 stretching across Africa. This is not 
 
i6o 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 spoken, nevertheless, to discourage 
 missionary enterprise. It is only said 
 to regulate it. 
 
 Tropical Africa* 
 
 tfCdsun&erstanfclng, 
 
 The religion of Jesus has probably 
 always suffered more from those who 
 have misunderstood than from those 
 who have opposed it. Of the multi¬ 
 tudes who confess Christianity at this 
 hour how many have clear in their 
 minds the cardinal distinction estab¬ 
 lished by its Founder between u born 
 
 of the flesh ’ ’ and 44 born of the 
 \ 
 
 Spirit”? By how many teachers of 
 Christianity even is not this funda- 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 
 161 
 
 mental postulate persistently ig¬ 
 nored ! 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction.” 
 
 /iDoralitp. 
 
 What history testifies to is first the 
 partial, and then the total, eclipse of 
 virtue that always follows the aban¬ 
 donment of belief in a personal God. 
 It is not, as has been pointed out 
 a hundred times, that morality in 
 the abstract disappears, but the 
 motive and sanction are gone. There 
 is nothing to raise it from the dead. 
 Man’s attitude to it is left to himself. 
 Grant that morals have their own 
 base in human life; grant that Nature 
 
 has a Religion whose creed is Science; 
 
 F 
 
 « 
 
i 62 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 there is yet nothing apart from God 
 to save the world from moral Death. 
 Morality has the power to dictate, 
 but none to move. Nature directs, 
 but cannot control. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Death.” 
 
 flDortificatton. 
 
 The Mortification of a member, 
 again, is based on the Law of Degen¬ 
 eration. The useless member here is 
 not cut off, but simply relieved as 
 much as possible of all exercise. This 
 encourages the gradual decay of the 
 parts, and as it is more and more 
 neglected it ceases to be a channel 
 for life at all. So an organism 
 “mortifies” its members. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Mortification.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 165 
 
 /Easters. 
 
 What is mystery to many men, 
 what feeds their worship and at the 
 same time spoils it, is that area round 
 all great truth which is really capable 
 of illumination, and into which every 
 earnest mind is permitted and com¬ 
 manded to go with a light. We cry 
 ‘ ‘ Mystery ’ ’ long before the region 
 of mystery comes. True mystery 
 casts no shadows around. It is a 
 sudden and awful gulf yawning 
 across the field of knowledge; its 
 form is irregular, but its lips are 
 clean-cut and sharp, and the mind 
 can go to the very verge and look 
 
164 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 down the precipice into the dim 
 abyss 
 
 “ Where writhing clouds unroll, 
 
 Striving to utter themselves in shapes.” 
 
 Natural Law : “ Biogenesis.” 
 
 /listen? Everywhere* 
 
 A Science without mystery is un¬ 
 known; a Religion without mystery 
 is absurd. The elimination of mys¬ 
 tery from the universe is the elimina¬ 
 tion of Religion. However far the 
 scientific method may penetrate the 
 Spiritual World, there will always 
 remain a region to be explored by 
 a scientific faith. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 IRarrowness of Breabtb* 
 
 If, instead of looking on and crit¬ 
 icising those who know a thing or 
 two, those who think they are wiser, 
 and that they have the whole truth, 
 would throw themselves in among 
 others, and back them, and try to 
 work alongside of them, they would 
 get perhaps their breadth tempered by 
 earnestness and by zeal, because the 
 narrow man has much to contribute 
 to the Christian cause, perhaps more 
 than the broad man. 
 
 What Is a Christian ? 
 
 Natural Xaws. 
 
 The Laws of Nature are simply 
 statements of the orderly condition of 
 
166 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 things in Nature—what is found in 
 Nature by a sufficient number of com¬ 
 petent observers. What these Laws 
 are in themselves is not agreed. That 
 they have any absolute existence, 
 even, is far from certain. They are 
 relative to man in his many limita¬ 
 tions, and represent for him the con¬ 
 stant expression of what he may al¬ 
 ways expect to find in the world 
 around him. But that they have 
 any causal connection with the things 
 around him is not to be conceived. 
 The Natural Laws originate nothing, 
 sustain nothing; they are merely re¬ 
 sponsible for uniformity in sustaining 
 what has been originated and what is 
 being sustained. They are modes of 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 167 
 
 t ' ■ — — ' ' * ~ ~ " " 
 
 operation, therefore, not operators; 
 processes, not powers. , 
 
 Natural Law: “ Introduction.” 
 
 The Natural Laws, then, are great 
 lines running not only through the 
 world, but, as we now know, through 
 the universe, reducing it like parallels 
 of latitude to intelligent order. In 
 themselves, be it once more repeated, 
 they may have no more absolute 
 existence than parallels of latitude. 
 But they exist for us. They are 
 drawn for us to understand the part 
 by some Hand that drew the whole; 
 so drawn, perhaps, that, understand¬ 
 ing the part, we too, in time, may 
 learn to understand the whole. 
 
 Natural Law : “Introduction.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 168 
 
 Natural an& Spiritual* 
 
 The Spiritual World is simply the 
 outermost segment, circle, or circles 
 of the Natural World. For purposes 
 of convenience we separate the two, 
 just as we separate the animal world 
 from the plant. But the animal world 
 and the plant world are the same 
 world. They are different parts of 
 one environment. And the natural 
 and spiritual are likewise one. The 
 inner circles are called the natural, 
 the outer the spiritual. And we call 
 them spiritual simply because they 
 are beyond us or beyond a part of us. 
 What we have correspondence with, 
 that we call natural ; what we have 
 
MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 169 
 
 little or no correspondence with, that 
 we call spiritual. But when the ap¬ 
 propriate corresponding organism ap¬ 
 pears—the organism, that is, which 
 can freely communicate with these 
 outer circles—the distinction neces¬ 
 sarily disappears. The spiritual to it 
 becomes the outer circle of the 
 natural. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Death.” 
 
 Natural anfc Supernatural. 
 
 The mental and moral world is un¬ 
 known to the plant. But it is real. 
 It cannot be affirmed either that it is 
 unnatural to the plant; although it 
 might be said that from the point of 
 view of the Vegetable Kingdom it 
 
I JO 
 
 MY POINT OK VIEW, 
 
 was supernatural . Things are natural 
 or supernatural simply according to 
 where one stands. Man is super¬ 
 natural to the mineral ; God is super¬ 
 natural to the man. When a mineral 
 is seized upon by the living plant and 
 elevated to the organic kingdom, no 
 trespass against Nature is committed. 
 It merely enters a larger Environment, 
 which before was supernatural to it, 
 but which now is entirely natural. 
 When the heart of a man, again, is 
 seized upon by the quickening Spirit 
 of God, no further violence is done to 
 natural law. It is another case of the 
 inorganic, so to speak, passing into 
 the organic. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Eternal Life/’ 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 171 
 
 Mature a Ibarmonp. 
 
 IF Nature be a harmony, man in 
 all his relations—physical, mental, 
 moral, and spiritual—falls to be in¬ 
 cluded within its circle. It is alto¬ 
 gether unlikely that man spiritual 
 should be violently separated in all 
 the conditions of growth, develop¬ 
 ment, and life from man physical. 
 It is indeed difficult to conceive that 
 one set of principles should guide 
 the natural life, and these at a certain 
 period—the very point where they 
 are needed—suddenly give place to 
 another set of principles altogether 
 new and unrelated. Nature has never 
 taught us to expect such a catastro- 
 
1 7 2 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 phe. She has nowhere prepared us 
 for it. And man cannot in the 
 nature of things, in the nature of 
 thought, in the nature of language, 
 be separated into two such incoherent 
 halves. 
 
 Natural Law: “ Introduction!.” 
 
 IRature a Symbol. 
 
 With Nature as the symbol of all 
 of harmony and beauty that is known 
 to man, must we still talk of the super¬ 
 natural, not as a convenient word, but 
 as a different order of world, an unin¬ 
 telligible world, where the Reign of 
 Mystery supersedes the Reign of 
 Law ? 
 
 Natural Law: “ Introduction.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 173 
 
 ■Mature a Worfetng*=fl&ot>el of tbe 
 
 Spiritual. 
 
 So the Spiritual World becomes 
 slowly Natural; and, what is of all 
 but equal moment, the Natural World 
 becomes slowly Spiritual. Nature is 
 not a mere image or emblem of the 
 Spiritual. It is a working-model of 
 the Spiritual. In the Spiritual World 
 the same wheels revolve—but without 
 the iron. The same figures flit across 
 the stage, the same processes of growth 
 go on, the same functions are dis¬ 
 charged, the same biological laws 
 prevail—only with a different quality 
 of Btos. Plato’s prisoner, if not out 
 
i74 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 of the Cave, has at least his face to 
 the light. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction.” 
 
 IRature an& /iDan* 
 
 WE find that in maintaining this 
 natural life Nature has a share and 
 man has a share. By far the larger 
 part is done for us—the breathing, 
 the secreting, the circulating of the 
 blood, the building up of the organ¬ 
 ism. And although the part which 
 man plays is a minor part, yet, strange 
 to say, it is not less essential to the 
 well-being, and even to the being of 
 the whole. For instance, man has 
 to take food. He has nothing to do 
 with it after he has once taken it, for 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 J 75 
 
 the moment it passes his lips it is 
 taken in hand by reflex actions and 
 handed on from one organ to another, 
 his control over it, in the natural 
 course of things, being completely 
 lost But the initial act was his. 
 And without that nothing could have 
 been done. Now, whether there be 
 an exact analogy between the volun¬ 
 tary and involuntary functions in the 
 body and the corresponding processes 
 in the soul we do not at present in¬ 
 quire. But this will indicate, at 
 least, that man has his own part to 
 play. Let him choose Life; let him 
 daily nourish his soul; let him for 
 ever starve the old life; let him abide 
 continuously as a living branch in 
 
176 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 the Vine, and the True-Vine Life 
 will flow into his soul; assimilating, 
 renewing, conforming to Type, till 
 Christ, pledged by His own law, be 
 formed in him. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Conformity to Type.” 
 
 mature ant> /IDoraltts. 
 
 Nature and Morality provide all 
 for virtue—except the Life to live it. 
 
 Natural Law : “Death.” 
 
 IRcQativcs. 
 
 Religion does not consist in nega¬ 
 tives, in stopping this sin and stopping 
 that. The perfect character can never 
 be produced with a pruning-knife. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 177 
 
 IReglect 
 
 From the very nature of salvation 
 it is plain that the only thing neces¬ 
 sary to make it of no effect is neglect. 
 Hence the Bible could not fail to lay 
 strong emphasis on a word so vital. 
 It was not necessary for it to say, How 
 shall we escape if we trample upon 
 the great salvation, or doubt or despise 
 or reject it? A man who has been 
 poisoned only need neglect the anti¬ 
 dote and he will die. It makes no 
 difference whether he dashes it on the 
 ground, or pours it out of the window, 
 or sets it down by his bedside and 
 stares at it all the time he is dying. 
 He will die just the same, whether he 
 
178 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 destroys it in a passion or coolly refuses 
 to have anything to do with it. And, 
 as a matter of fact, probably most 
 deaths, spiritually, are gradual disso¬ 
 lutions of the last class rather than 
 rash suicides of the first. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Degeneration.” 
 
 If we neglect the ordinary means 
 of keeping a garden in order, how 
 shall it escape running to weeds and 
 waste? Or if we neglect the oppor¬ 
 tunities for cultivating the mind, how 
 shall it escape ignorance and feeble¬ 
 ness? So, if we neglect the soul, how 
 shall it escape the natural retrograde 
 movement, the inevitable relapse into 
 barrenness and death ? 
 
 Natural Law : “ Degeneration.” 
 
 1 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 179 
 
 Ube Bew Ibeart 
 
 Religion does not tell us to give 
 things up, but rather gives us some¬ 
 thing so much better that they give 
 themselves up. Instead of telling 
 people to give uj things, we are safer 
 to tell them to “ seek first the king¬ 
 dom of God, ’ ’ and then they will get 
 new things and better things, and the 
 old things will drop off of themselves. 
 This is what is meant by the new 
 heart. 
 
 “ First r 
 
 ©bebience. 
 
 What was Christ doing in the car¬ 
 penter’s shop ? Practising. Though 
 perfect, we read that he learned obe- 
 
i8o 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 dience, and grew in wisdom and in 
 favor with God. 
 
 Ihe Greatest Thing in the World . 
 
 ©beMence anb IknowlebQe* 
 
 Some of you remember a sermon 
 of Robertson of Brighton, entitled, 
 u Obedience the Organ of Spiritual 
 Knowledge.” A very startling title ! 
 —“ Obedience the Organ of Spiritual 
 Knowledge.” The Pharisees asked 
 about Christ: u How knoweth this 
 man letters, never having learned?” 
 How knoweth this man, never hav¬ 
 ing learned ? The organ of know¬ 
 ledge is not nearly so much mind, a 9 
 the organ that Christ used, namely, 
 obedience ; and that was the organ 
 
MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 181 
 
 which He Himself insisted upon 
 when He said, u He that willeth to 
 do His will shall know of the doc¬ 
 trine whether it be of God.” You 
 have all noticed, of course, that the 
 words in the original are, ‘ ‘ If any 
 man will to do His will, he shall 
 know of the doctrine.” It doesn’t 
 read, “If any do His will,” which no 
 man can do perfectly ; but if any man 
 be simply willing to do His will—if 
 he has an absolutely undivided mind 
 about it—that man will know what 
 truth is and what falsehood is; a 
 stranger will he not follow. And 
 that is by far the best source of spirit¬ 
 ual knowledge on every account— 
 obedience to God—absolute sincerity 
 
182 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 and loyalty in following Christ. “If 
 any man do His will, he shall know” 
 —a very remarkable association of 
 knowledge, a thing which is usual¬ 
 ly considered quite intellectual, with 
 obedience, which is moral and spirit¬ 
 ual. 
 
 How to Learn How. 
 
 ©rber, Spiritual anb IRaturaU 
 
 The spiritual man is not taxed be¬ 
 yond the natural. He is not purpose¬ 
 ly handicapped by singular limitations 
 or unusual incapacities. God has not 
 designedly made the religious life as 
 hard as possible. The arrangements 
 for the spiritual life are the same as 
 for the natural life. When in their 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 183 
 
 hours of unbelief men challenge their 
 Creator for placing the obstacle of 
 human frailty in the way of their 
 highest development, their protest is 
 against the order of nature. They 
 object to the sun for being the source 
 of energy, and not the engine ; to the 
 carbonic acid being in the air, and 
 not in the plant. They would equip 
 each organism with a personal atmo¬ 
 sphere, each brain with a private store 
 of energy ; they would grow corn in 
 the interior of the body, and make 
 bread by a special apparatus in the 
 digestive organs. They must, in 
 short, have the creature transformed 
 into a Creator. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Environment/’ 
 
184 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ©rtbobojp. 
 
 It is more necessary for us to be 
 
 % 
 
 active than to be orthodox. To be 
 orthodox is what we wish to be, but 
 we can only truly reach it by being 
 honest, by being original, by seeing 
 
 with our own eyes, by believing with 
 our own heart. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Parasitism.” 
 
 * t 
 
 ©tber^MorlMtness^ 
 
 The exclusiveness of Christianity, 
 separation from the world, uncom¬ 
 promising allegiance to the Kingdom 
 of God, entire surrender of body, soul, 
 and spirit to Christ,—these are truths 
 which rise into prominence from time 
 
 / 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 i8 5 
 
 to time, become the watchword of 
 insignificant parties, rouse the Church 
 to attention and the world to opposi¬ 
 tion, and die down ultimately for 
 want of lives to live them. The few 
 enthusiasts who distinguish in these 
 requirements the essential conditions 
 of entrance into the Kingdom of 
 Christ are overpowered by the weight 
 of numbers, who see nothing more in 
 Christianity than a mild religious¬ 
 ness, and who demand nothing more 
 in themselves or in their fellow-Chris- 
 tians than the participation in a con¬ 
 ventional worship, the acceptance of 
 traditional beliefs, and the living of 
 an honest life. Yet nothing is more 
 certain than that the enthusiasts are 
 
i86 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 right. Any impartial survey—such 
 as the unique analysis in Ecce Homo 
 —of the claims of Christ and of the 
 nature of His society will convince 
 any one who cares to make the in¬ 
 quiry of the outstanding difference 
 between the system of Christianity in 
 the original contemplation and its 
 representations in modern life. 
 
 Natural Law : “Classification.” 
 
 Christianity marks the advent of 
 what is simply a New Kingdom. Its 
 distinctions from the Kingdom below 
 it are fundamental. It demands from 
 its members activities and responses 
 of an altogether novel order. It is, 
 in the conception of its Founder, a 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 187 
 
 Kingdom for which all its adherents 
 must henceforth exclusively live and 
 work, and which opens its gates alone 
 upon those who, having counted the 
 cost, are prepared to follow it, if need 
 be to the death. The surrender 
 Christ demanded was absolute. Every 
 aspirant for membership must seek 
 first the Kingdom of God. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Classification.” 
 
 Out of place. 
 
 IT is not worth seeking the king¬ 
 dom of God unless we seek it first. 
 Suppose you take the helm out of a 
 ship and hang it over the bow, and 
 send that ship to sea—will it ever 
 
188 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 reach the other side ? Certainly not. 
 It will drift about anyhow. Keep 
 religion in its place, and it will take 
 you straight through life, and straight 
 to your Father in heaven when life is 
 over. But if you do not put it in its 
 place, you may just as well have noth¬ 
 ing to do with it. Religion out of its 
 place in a human life is the most mis¬ 
 erable thing in the world. 
 
 " -First r 
 
 parable* 
 
 The place of parable in teaching, 
 and especially after the sanction of 
 the greatest of Teachers, must always 
 be recognized. The very necessities of 
 language, indeed, demand this method 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 189 
 
 of presenting truth. The temporal is 
 the husk and framework of theeter 
 nal, and thoughts can be uttered only 
 through things. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction.” 
 
 parasitism* 
 
 So far from ministering to growth, 
 parasitism ministers to decay. So fat 
 from ministering to holiness—that is 
 to wholeness —parasitism ministers to 
 exactly the opposite. One by one the 
 spiritual faculties droop and die ; one 
 by one, from lack of exercise, the mus¬ 
 cles of the soul grow weak and flac¬ 
 cid ; one by one the moral activities 
 cease. So from him that hath not is 
 
190 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 taken away that which he hath, and 
 after a few years of parasitism there 
 is nothing left to save. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Parasitism.” 
 
 Ube past 
 
 Think of it ! the past is not only 
 focussed there, in a man’s soul : it is 
 there. All things that he has ever 
 seen, known, felt, believed, of the 
 surrounding world are now within 
 him, have become part of him, in 
 part are him ; he has been changed 
 into their image. He may deny it, 
 he may resent it, but they are there. 
 They do not adhere to him, they are 
 transfused through him. He cannot 
 alter or rub them out. They are not 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 I 9 I 
 
 C ———• ■■■ . . . . — - . ■ 
 
 in his memory: they are in him . 
 His soul is as they have filled it, 
 made it, left it. 
 
 The Changed Life. 
 
 perfect Xife. 
 
 PERFECT life is not merely the pos¬ 
 sessing of perfect functions, but of 
 perfect functions perfectly adjusted 
 to each other, and all conspiring to 
 a single result, the perfect working 
 of the whole organism. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Growth.” 
 
 perfection. 
 
 Patience, kindness, generosity, 
 humility, courtesy, unselfishness, 
 good-temper, guilessness, sincerity, 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 192 
 
 —these make up the supreme gift, 
 the stature of the perfect man. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 personality 
 
 If events change men, much more 
 persons. No man can meet another 
 on the street without making some 
 mark upon him. We say we ex¬ 
 change words when we meet; what 
 we exchange is souls. And when 
 intercourse is very close and very 
 frequent, so complete is this exchange 
 that recognizable bits of the one soul 
 begin to show in the other’s nature, 
 and the second is conscious of a 
 similar and growing debt to the 
 first 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
MV POINT OK VIEW. 
 
 *93 
 
 {personality of Christ 
 
 Oe course there is a sense, and 
 a very wonderful sense, in which a 
 Great Personality breathes upon all 
 who come within its influence an 
 abiding peace and trust. Men can 
 be to other men as the shadow of 
 a great rock in a thirsty land. Much 
 more Christ; much more Christ as 
 Perfect Man; much more still as 
 Saviour of the world. 
 
 Pax Vobiscttm . 
 
 {phenomena: Cbeir mnity* 
 
 That the Phenomena of the Spirit¬ 
 ual World are in analogy with the 
 Phenomena of the Natural World re¬ 
 quires no restatement. Since Plato 
 
 G 
 
194 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 enunciated his doctrine of the Cav a 
 or of the twice-divided line ; since 
 Christ spake in parables ; since Plo¬ 
 tinus wrote of the world as an imaged 
 image ; since the mysticism of Swe¬ 
 denborg ; since Bacon and Pascal ; 
 since 4 4 Sartor Resartus ’ ’ and k 4 In 
 Memoriam,”—it has been all but a 
 commonplace with thinkers that 4 4 the 
 invisible things of God from the crea¬ 
 tion of the world are clearly seen, be¬ 
 ing understood by the things that are 
 made.” Milton’s question— 
 
 “ What if earth 
 
 Be but the shadow of heaven, and things therein 
 Each to other like more than on earth is thought ?! 
 
 is now superfluous. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction.” 
 
MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 *95 
 
 {phrases, 
 
 I DO not think we ourselves are 
 aware how much our religious life is 
 made up of phrases; how much of 
 what we call Christian experience is 
 only a dialect of the Churches, a 
 mere religious phraseology, with 
 almost nothing behind it in what 
 we really feel and know. 
 
 Pax Vo bis cum. 
 
 There is a difference between try¬ 
 ing to please and giving pleasure. 
 Give pleasure. Lose no chance of 
 giving pleasure. For that is the 
 
196 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ceaseless and anonymous triumph of 
 a truly loving spirit. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World . 
 
 pieties. 
 
 Man as a rational and moral being 
 demands a pledge that if he depends 
 on Nature for any given result, on 
 the ground that Nature has previously 
 led him to expect such a result, his 
 intellect shall not be insulted nor his 
 confidence in her abused. If he is to 
 trust Nature, in short, it must be 
 guaranteed to him that in doing so 
 he will u never be put to confusion/' 
 
 Natural Law: “ Introduction.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 I97 
 
 
 Ipcetr^ 
 
 True poetry is only science in 
 another form. And long before it 
 was possible for religion to give scien¬ 
 tific expression to its greatest truths, 
 men of insight uttered themselves in 
 psalms which could not have been 
 truer to Nature had the most modern 
 light controlled the inspiration. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Environment.” 
 
 practical IKeUgion. 
 
 LET me remind you that theology 
 is the most abstruse thing in the 
 world, but that practical religion is 
 the simplest thing. If any of you 
 want to know how to begin to be 
 
198 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 a Christian, all I can say is that yon 
 should begin to do the next thing 
 you find to be done as Christ would 
 have done it. 
 
 What is a Christian ? 
 
 practice. 
 
 What makes a man a good crick¬ 
 eter? Practice. What makes a man 
 a good artist, a good sculptor, a good 
 musician ? Practice. What makes a 
 man a good linguist, a good stenog¬ 
 rapher? Practice. What makes a 
 man a good man? Practice. Noth¬ 
 ing else. There is nothing capricious 
 about religion. We do not get the 
 soul in different ways, under different 
 laws, from those in which we get the 
 
MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 I 99 
 
 body and the mind. If a man does 
 not exercise his arm, he develops no 
 biceps muscle; and if a man does not 
 exercise his soul, he acquires no muscle 
 in his soul, no strength of character, 
 no vigor of moral fire, nor beauty of 
 spiritual growth. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 framer* 
 
 Wile the evolutionist who admits 
 the regeneration of the frog under the 
 modifying influence of a continued 
 correspondence with a new environ¬ 
 ment care to question the possibility 
 of the soul acquiring such a faculty 
 as that of Prayer, the marvellous 
 breathing-function of the new creature, 
 
200 
 
 MY POINT OK VIEW. 
 
 when in contact with the atmosphere 
 of a besetting God ? Is the change 
 from the earthly to the heavenly more 
 mysterious than the change from the 
 aquatic to the terrestrial mode of 
 life ? 
 
 Natural Law : “ Eternal Life.” 
 
 prater a Symbol. 
 
 What a very strange thing, is it 
 not, for man to pray? It is the symbol 
 at once of his littleness and ol his 
 greatness. Here the sense of imper¬ 
 fection, controlled and silenced in the 
 narrower reaches of his being, be¬ 
 comes audible. Now he must utter 
 himself. The sense of need is so real, 
 and the sense of Environment, that he 
 
MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 201 
 
 calls out to it, addressing it articu¬ 
 lately and imploring it to satisfy his 
 need. Surely there is nothing more 
 touching in Nature than this ! Man 
 could never so expose himself, so break 
 through all constraint, except from a 
 dire necessity. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Environment.” 
 
 IPrias. 
 
 Some one defines a prig as “a 
 creature that is overfed for its size.” 
 One sometimes finds Christians of this 
 species—overfed on one side of their 
 nature, but dismally thin and starved 
 looking on the other. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
 i 
 
202 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 problems* 
 
 The problems of the heart and con¬ 
 science are infinitely more perplexing 
 than those of the intellect. Has love 
 no future ? Has right no triumph ? 
 Is the unfinished self to remain un¬ 
 finished ? Again, the alternatives are 
 two—Christianity or Pessimism. But 
 when we ascend the further height of 
 the religious nature the crisis comes. 
 There, without Environment, the 
 darkness is unutterable. So madden¬ 
 ing now becomes the mystery that 
 men are compelled to construct an 
 Environment for themselves. No 
 Environment here is unthinkable. 
 An altar of some sort men must have 
 
MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 203 
 
 —God, or Nature, or Law. But the 
 anguish of Atheism is only a negative 
 proof of man’s incompleteness. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Environment.” 
 
 t 
 
 problems are IRecessar#* 
 
 I would not rob a man of his 
 problems, nor would I have another 
 man rob me of my problems. They 
 are the delight of life, and the whole 
 intellectual world w T ould be stale and 
 unprofitable if we knew everything. 
 
 How to Learn How. 
 
 proportion. 
 
 A man may take a dollar or a half- 
 dollar and hold it to his eye so closely 
 that he will hide the sun from him. 
 
204 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW, 
 
 Or he may so focus his telescope that 
 a fly or a boulder may be as large as 
 a mountain. A man may hold a 
 certain doctrine very intensely—a 
 doctrine which has been looming 
 upon his horizon for the last six 
 months, let us say, and which has 
 thrown everything else out of pro¬ 
 portion, it has become so big itself. 
 Now, let us beware of distortion in 
 the arrangement of the religious 
 truths which we hold. 
 
 How to Learn How. 
 
 punishment. 
 
 The punishment of sin is insepar¬ 
 ably bound up with itself. 
 
 Natur al Law : “ Mortification/ 
 
MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 205 
 
 putting ©ft anfc putting ©ru 
 
 Escape means nothing more than 
 the gradual emergence of the higher 
 being from the lower, and nothing 
 less. It means the gradual putting 
 off of all that cannot enter the higher 
 state, or heaven, and simultaneously 
 the putting on of Christ. It involves 
 the slow completing of the soul and 
 the development of the capacity for 
 God. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Degeneration.” 
 
 fijuantitp an£> (SJuaUt^. 
 
 It is an open secret, to be read in 
 a hundred analogies from the world 
 around, that of the millions of possi- 
 
206 
 
 MY POIXT OF VIEW. 
 
 ble entrants for advancement in anv 
 department of Nature the number 
 ultimately selected tor preferment is 
 small. Here also “many are called 
 and :ew are chosen." The analogues 
 irom the waste of seed, of pollen, of 
 human lives, are too familiar to be 
 quoted. In certain details, possibly, 
 these comparisons are inappropriate. 
 But there are other analogies, wider 
 and more just, which strike deeper 
 into the svstem of Nature. A com- 
 prehensive view of the whole field of 
 Nature discloses the fact that the cir¬ 
 cle of the chosen slowlv contracts as 
 fre rise in the scale of being. Some 
 mineral, but not all, becomes vege¬ 
 table ; ( some vegetable, but not all, be- 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 207 
 
 comes animal; some animal, but not 
 all, becomes human; some human, 
 but not all, becomes Divine. Thus 
 ihe area narrows. At the base is the 
 mineral, most broad and simple; the 
 spiritual at the apex, smallest, but 
 most highly differentiated. So form 
 rises above form. Kingdom above 
 Kingdom. Quantity decreases as 
 
 quality i?icreases. 
 
 Natural Lara : “ Classification." 
 
 Quarrels. 
 
 If you want to get the kingdom of 
 God into your workshop or into your 
 home, let the quarrelling be stopped. 
 Live in peace and harmony and broth¬ 
 erliness with every one. For the 
 
208 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 kingdom of God is a kingdom of 
 brothers. It is a great society, founds 
 ed by Jesus Christ, of all the people 
 who try to be like Him, and live to 
 make the world better and sweeter 
 and happier. 
 
 “First!” 
 
 Questions, 
 
 The only legitimate questions one 
 dare put to Nature are those which 
 concern universal human good and 
 the Divine interpretation of things. 
 These I conceive may be there actu¬ 
 ally studied at first-hand, and before 
 their purity is soiled by human touch. 
 We have Truth in Nature as it came 
 from God. And it has to be read 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 209 
 
 with the same unbiassed mind, the 
 same open eye, the same faith, and 
 the same reverence as all other Reve¬ 
 lation. All that is found there, what¬ 
 ever its place in Theology, whatever 
 its orthodoxy or heterodoxy, whatever 
 its narrowness or its breadth, we are 
 bound to accept as Doctrine from 
 which on the lines of Science there 
 is no escape. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction/’ 
 
 (Slmchest IRoaCh 
 
 If a man could make himself hum¬ 
 ble to order, it might simplify mat¬ 
 ters ; but we do not find that this 
 happens. Hence we must all go 
 through the mill. Hence death, 
 
210 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 death to the lower self, is the nearest 
 gate and the quickest road to life. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
 Quietism. 
 
 If God is adding to our spiritual 
 stature, unfolding the new nature 
 within us, it is a mistake to keep 
 twitching at the petals with our 
 coarse fingers. We must seek to let 
 the Creative Hand alone. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Growth.” 
 
 IReascm ant> ©bebience. 
 
 There are two organs of know¬ 
 ledge—the one Reason, the other 
 Obedience. Begin to obey Christ, 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 211 
 
 and, doing His will, you shall know 
 of the doctrine whether it be of God 
 
 How to Learn How . 
 
 IReDemptfon. 
 
 Out of the infinite complexity there 
 rises an infinite simplicity, the fore¬ 
 shadowing of a final unity of that 
 
 “ One God, one law, one element, 
 
 And one far-off divine event, 
 
 To which the whole creation moves.” * 
 
 This is the final triumph of Con¬ 
 tinuity, the heart secret of Creation, 
 the unspoken prophecy of Chris- 
 tianity. To Science, defining it as 
 a working principle, this mighty pro¬ 
 cess of amelioration is simply Evolu ' 
 
 * “ In Memoriam.” 
 
212 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 tion . To Christianity, discerning the 
 end through the means, it is Redemp¬ 
 tion. These silent and patient pro¬ 
 cesses, elaborating, eliminating, de¬ 
 veloping all from the first of time, 
 conducting the evolution from millen¬ 
 nium to millennium with unaltering 
 purpose and unfaltering power, are 
 the early stages in the redemptive 
 work—the unseen approach of that 
 Kingdom whose strange mark is tha* 
 it u cometh without observation. 
 And these Kingdoms, rising tier 
 above tier in ever-increasing sublim- 
 itv and beautv, their foundations vis- 
 ibly fixed in the past, their progress, 
 and the direction of their progress, 
 being facts in Nature still, are the 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 213 
 
 .signs which, since the Magi saw His 
 star in the East, have never been 
 wanting from the firmament of truth, 
 and which in every age, with grow¬ 
 ing clearness to the wise and with 
 ever-gathering mystery to the unin¬ 
 itiated, proclaim that 4 ‘ the Kingdom 
 of God is at hand.” 
 
 Natural Law : “ Classification.” 
 
 IReflectton, 
 
 In looking at a mirror one does not 
 see the mirror or think of it, but only 
 of what it reflects. For a mirror 
 never calls attention to itself except 
 when there are flaws in it. 
 
 The Changed Life , 
 
214 
 
 MY POINT OK VIEW. 
 
 IRegencratton* 
 
 A FEW raw, unspiritual, uninspir¬ 
 ing men were admitted to the inner 
 circle of His friendship. The change 
 began at once. Day by day we can 
 almost see the first disciples grow. 
 First there steals over them the faint¬ 
 est possible adumbration of His cha¬ 
 racter, and occasionally, very occa¬ 
 sionally, they do a thing or say a 
 thing that they could not have done 
 or said had they not been living there. 
 Slowly the spell of His life deepens. 
 Reach after reach of their nature is 
 overtaken, thawed, subjugated, sanc¬ 
 tified. Their manners soften, their 
 words become more gentle, their con- 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 215 
 
 duct more unselfish. As swallows 
 who have found a summer, as frozen 
 buds the spring, their starved human¬ 
 ity bursts into a fuller life. They do 
 not know how it is, but they are dif¬ 
 ferent men. One day they find them¬ 
 selves like their Master, going about 
 and doing good. To themselves it is 
 unaccountable, but they cannot do 
 otherwise. They were not told to do 
 it, it came to them to do it. But the 
 people who watch them know well 
 how to account for it— u They have 
 been,” they whisper, “with Jesus.” 
 Already, even, the mark and seal of 
 His character is upon them—“ They 
 have been with Jesus.” Unparalleled 
 phenomenon, that these poor fishermen 
 
2l6 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 should remind other men of Christ! 
 Stupendous victory and mystery of 
 regeneration, that mortal men should 
 suggest to the world God! 
 
 The Changed Life~ 
 
 tRegeneration a Difficulty 
 
 Regeneration has not merely 
 been an outstanding difficulty, but 
 an overwhelming obscurity. Even 
 to earnest minds the difficulty of 
 grasping the truth at all has always 
 proved extreme. Philosophically one 
 scarcely sees either the necessity or 
 the possibility of being born again. 
 Why a virtuous man should not sim¬ 
 ply grow better and better until in 
 his own right he enter the Kingdom 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 217 
 
 of God is what thousands honestly 
 and seriously fail to understand. Now 
 philosophy cannot help us here. Her 
 arguments are, if anything, against us. 
 But Science answers to the appeal at 
 once. If it be simply pointed out 
 that this is the same absurdity as to 
 ask why a stone should not grow more 
 and more living till it enters the Or¬ 
 ganic World, the point is clear in an 
 instant. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Biogenesis.” 
 
 IReligton ©pen to HU. 
 
 Religion must ripen its fruits for 
 every temperament, and the way even 
 into its highest heights must be by 
 
2i8 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 a gateway through which the peoples 
 of the world may pass. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum . 
 
 IReliQion, 
 
 Religion is not a strange or aaded 
 thing, but the inspiration of the sec¬ 
 ular life, the breathing of an eternal 
 spirit through this temporal world. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World, 
 
 IRenundaticm* 
 
 IT is not hard to give up our rights. 
 They are often external. The dif¬ 
 ficult thing is to give up ourselves. 
 The more difficult thing still is not 
 to seek things for ourselves. After 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 219 
 
 we have sought them, bought them, 
 won them, deserved them, we have 
 taken the cream off them for our¬ 
 selves already. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the Worla 
 
 IRest: f)ow (Balnefc* 
 
 When Christ said He would give 
 men Rest He meant simply that He 
 would put them in the way of it. 
 By no act of conveyance would or 
 could He make over His own Rest 
 to them. He could give them His 
 receipt for it. That was all. But 
 He would not make it for them; for 
 one thing, it was not in His plan to 
 make it for them; for another thing, 
 men were not so planned that it could 
 
220 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 be made for them; and for yet another 
 thing, it was a thousand times better 
 that they should make it for them¬ 
 selves. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
 IRest through TKHorfh 
 
 4 ‘ Learn of Me, ’ ’ He says, ‘ ‘ and 
 ye shall find rest to your souls. n 
 Now, consider the extraordinary orig¬ 
 inality of this utterance. How novel 
 the connection between these two 
 words ‘ ‘ Learn ’ ’ and ‘ ( Rest ’ ’! How 
 few of us have ever associated them— 
 ever thought that Rest was a thing 
 to be learned; ever laid ourselves out 
 for it as we would to learn a language; 
 ever practised it as we would practise 
 
MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 221 
 
 the violin! Does it not show how 
 entirely new Christ’s teaching still 
 is to the world, that so old and thread¬ 
 bare an aphorism should still be so 
 little applied ? The last thing most of 
 us would have thought of would have 
 been to associate Rest with Work . 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
 IResuits* 
 
 If a housekeeper turns out a good 
 cake, it is the result of a sound receipt 
 carefully applied. She cannot mix 
 the assigned ingredients and fire 
 them for the appropriate time with¬ 
 out producing the result. It is not 
 she who has made the cake ; it is 
 Nature. She brings related things 
 
222 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 together ; sets causes at work ; these 
 causes bring about the result. She 
 is not a creator, but an intermediary. 
 She does not expect random causes 
 to produce specific effects—random in¬ 
 gredients would only produce ran¬ 
 dom cakes. So it is in the making 
 of Christian experiences. Certain 
 lines are followed ; certain effects are 
 the result. These effects cannot but 
 be the resvilt. But the result can 
 never take place without the previous 
 cause. To expect results without 
 antecedents is to expect cakes with¬ 
 out ingredients. That impossibility 
 is precisely the almost universal ex¬ 
 pectation. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 223 
 
 Ube IReaurrectton. 
 
 On what does the Christian argu¬ 
 ment for Immortality really rest ? It 
 stands upon the pedestal on which the 
 theologian rests the whole of histori¬ 
 cal Christianity—the Resurrection of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Eternal Life.” 
 
 IRetrtbution* 
 
 If it makes no impression on a man 
 to know that God will visit his iniqui¬ 
 ties upon him, he cannot blind him¬ 
 self to the fact that Nature will. Do 
 we not all know what it is to be pun¬ 
 ished by Nature for disobeying her? 
 
224 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 We have looked round the wards of 
 a hospital, a prison, or a madhouse, 
 and seen there Nature at work squar- 
 ing her accounts with sin. And we 
 knew as we looked that if no Judge 
 sat on the throne of heaven at all, 
 there was a Judgment throne, where 
 an inexorable Nature was crying 
 aloud for justice, and carrying out 
 her heavy sentences for violated laws. 
 
 Natui'al Law : “ Degeneration.” 
 
 IRetrospect* 
 
 As memory scans the past, above 
 and beyond all the transitory pleas¬ 
 ures of life there leap forward those 
 supreme hours when you have been 
 enabled to do unnoticed kindnesses 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 225 
 
 to those round about you—things too 
 trifling to speak about, but which you 
 feel have entered into your eternal 
 life. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World, 
 
 IRevelatioru 
 
 Revelation never volunteers any¬ 
 thing that man could discover for 
 himself—on the principle, probably, 
 that it is only when he is capable of 
 discovering it that he is capable of 
 appreciating it. 
 
 Natural Law : " Introduction.” 
 
 1Re\>enge, 
 
 Yesterday you got a certain letter. 
 You sat down and wrote a reply which 
 
226 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 almost scorched the paper. You 
 picked the cruellest adjectives you 
 knew, and sent it forth, without a 
 pang, to do its ruthless work. You 
 did that because your life was set in 
 the wrong key. You began the day 
 with the mirror placed at the wrong 
 angle. To-morrow, at day-break, turn 
 it toward Him, and even to your ene- 
 my the fashion of your countenance 
 will be changed. Whatever you then 
 do, one thing you will find you could 
 not do—you could not write that let¬ 
 ter. Your first impulse may be the 
 same, your judgment may be un¬ 
 changed, but if you try it the ink 
 will dry on your pen, and you will 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 227 
 
 rise from your desk an unavenged, but 
 a greater and more Christian man. 
 
 How to Learn How. 
 
 IReversiort to XTppe* 
 
 The law of Reversion to Type runs 
 through all creation. If a man neglect 
 himself for a few years, he will change 
 into a worse man and a lower man. 
 If it is his body that he neglects, he 
 will deteriorate into a wild and bestial 
 savage, like the de-humanized men 
 who are discovered sometimes upon 
 desert islands. If it is his mind, it 
 will degenerate into imbecility and 
 madness—solitary confinement has the 
 power to unmake men’s minds and 
 leave them idiots. If he neglect his 
 
22 8 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 conscience, it will run off into law¬ 
 lessness and vice. Or, lastly, if it is 
 his soul, it must inevitably atrophy, 
 drop off in ruin and decay. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Degeneration,” 
 
 *Ktgbteou3ness* 
 
 Righteousness, of course, is just 
 doing what is right. Any boy who, 
 instead of being quarrelsome, lives 
 at peace with the other boys has the 
 Kingdom of God within him. Any 
 boy whose heart is filled with joy 
 because he does w T hat is right has 
 the Kingdom of God within him. 
 
 « First r 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 229 
 
 IRlQbts* 
 
 In Britain the Englishman is de¬ 
 voted, and rightly, to his rights. But 
 there come times when a man may 
 exercise even the higher right of 
 giving up his rights. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 Salvation* 
 
 There is a natural principle in man 
 lowering him, deadening him, pulling 
 him down by inches to the mere ani¬ 
 mal plane, blinding reason, searing 
 conscience, paralyzing will. This is 
 the active destroying principle, or Sin. 
 Now, to counteract this, God has dis¬ 
 covered to us another principle, which- 
 
230 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 will stop this drifting process in the 
 soul and make it drift the other way. 
 This is the active saving principle, 
 or Salvation. If a man finds the first 
 of these powers furiously at work 
 within him, dragging his whole life 
 downward to destruction, there is only 
 one way to escape his fate—to take 
 resolute hold of the upward power, 
 and be borne by it to the opposite 
 pole. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Degeneration.” 
 
 Mark well the splendor of this 
 idea of salvation. It is not merely 
 final ‘ ‘ safety , 15 to be forgiven sin, to 
 evade the curse. It is not, vaguely, 
 u to get to heaven.’’ It is to be con¬ 
 formed to the Image of the Son. 
 
MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 231 
 
 It is for these poor elements to attain 
 to the Supreme Beauty. The organ¬ 
 izing L,ife being Eternal, so must 
 this Beauty be immortal. Its prog¬ 
 ress toward the Immaculate is already 
 guaranteed. And more than all, there 
 is here fulfilled the sublimest of all 
 prophecies; not Beauty alone, but 
 Unity, is secured by the type—Unity 
 of man and man, God and man, God 
 and Christ and man, till u all shall 
 be one.” 
 
 Natural Law : “ Conformity to Type.” 
 
 Sanctification* 
 
 Here the solution of the problem 
 of sanctification is compressed into a 
 sentence: Reflect the character of 
 
232 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Christ, and you will become Itke 
 Christ. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
 Scepticism. 
 
 It is the want of the discerning 
 faculty, the clairvoyant power of see¬ 
 ing the eternal in the temporal, rather 
 than the failure of the reason, that 
 begets the sceptic. 
 
 Natural Law: “Introduction.’* 
 
 Science anfc Boubt. 
 
 It is recognized by all that the 
 younger and abler minds of this age 
 find the most serious difficulty in ac¬ 
 cepting or retaining the ordinary 
 forms or belief. Especially is this 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 23 3 
 
 true of those whose culture is scien¬ 
 tific. And the reason is palpable. 
 No man can study modern Science 
 without a change coming over his 
 view of truth. What impresses him 
 about Nature is its solidity. He is 
 there standing upon actual things, 
 among fixed laws. And the integrity 
 of the scientific method so seizes him 
 that all other forms of truth begin 
 to appear comparatively unstable. 
 He did not know before that any 
 form of truth could so hold him, and 
 the immediate effect is to lessen his 
 interest in all that stands on other 
 bases. This he feels in spite of him¬ 
 self ; he struggles against it in vain, 
 and he finds, perhaps to his alarm, 
 
234 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 that he is drifting fast into what looks 
 at first like pure Positivism. 
 
 A T atural Law : “ Preface. ,F 
 
 Science an& fa ttb* 
 
 It is quite erroneous to suppose 
 that Science ever overthrows Faith, 
 if by that is implied that any natural 
 truth can oppose successfully any sin¬ 
 gle spiritual truth. Science cannot 
 overthrow Faith; but it shakes it. 
 Its own doctrines, grounded in Na¬ 
 ture, are so certain that the truths of 
 Religion, resting to most men on 
 Authority, are felt to be strangely 
 insecure. The difficulty, therefore, 
 which men of Science feel about Re- 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ^35 
 
 ligion is real and inevitable, and in 
 so far as Doubt is a conscientious 
 tribute to the inviolability of Nature 
 it is entitled to respect. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Preface.” 
 
 Science an Uih to faith. 
 
 The belief in Science as an aid to 
 faith is not yet ripe enough to war¬ 
 rant men in searching there for 
 witnesses to the highest Christian 
 truths. The inspiration of Nature, it 
 is thought, extends to the humbler 
 doctrines alone. And yet the rever¬ 
 ent inquirer who guides his steps in 
 the right direction may find even now 
 in the still dim twilight of the scien- 
 
236 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 tific world much that will illuminate 
 and intensify his sublimest faith. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Eternal Life.’* 
 
 Science an& IReUgton, 
 
 No man who knows the splendor 
 of scientific achievement or cares for 
 it> no man who feels the solidity of 
 its method or works with it, can re¬ 
 main neutral with regard to Religion. 
 He must either extend his method 
 into it, or, if that is impossible, op¬ 
 pose it to the knife. On the other 
 hand, no one who knows the content 
 of Christianity or feels the universal 
 need of a Religion can stand idly by 
 while the intellect of his age is slowly 
 divorcing itself from it. What is 
 
MY POINT OK VIEW. 
 
 237 
 
 required, therefore, to draw Science 
 and Religion together again—for they 
 began the centuries hand in hand— 
 is the disclosure of the naturalness 
 of the supernatural. Then, and not 
 till then, will men see how true it is 
 that to be loyal to all of Nature they 
 must be loyal to the part defined as 
 Spiritual. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Preface.” 
 
 Science: fits Hnalogies, 
 
 Science speaks to us indeed of 
 much more than numbers of years. 
 It defines degrees of Tife. It explains 
 a widening Environment. It unfolds 
 the relation between a widening En¬ 
 vironment and increasing complexity 
 
238 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 in organisms. And if it has no abso¬ 
 lute contribution to the content of 
 Religion, its analogies are not limited 
 to a point. It yields to Immortality 
 —and this is the most that Science 
 can do in any case—the broad frame¬ 
 work for a doctrine. 
 
 Natural Law : “Eternal Life.” 
 
 Science anb tbe Supernatural* 
 
 No science contributes to another 
 without receiving a reciprocal benefit. 
 And even as the contribution of Sci¬ 
 ence to Religion is the vindication of 
 the naturalness of the Supernatural, 
 so the gift of Religion to Science is 
 the demonstration of the supernatural¬ 
 ness of the Natural. Thus, as the 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 239 
 
 Supernatural becomes slowly Natural, 
 will also the Natural become slowly 
 Supernatural, until in the impersonal 
 authority of Law men everywhere rec¬ 
 ognize the Authority of God. 
 
 Natural La 7 v ; “ Preface.” 
 
 Scientific jFact. 
 
 No single fact in Science has ever 
 discredited a fact in Religion. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction.” 
 
 Scientific TTbeologp* 
 
 Can we shut our eyes to the fact 
 that the religious opinions of man¬ 
 kind are in a state of flux ? And 
 when we regard the uncertainty of 
 current beliefs, the war of creeds, the 
 
240 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 havoc of inevitable as well as of idle 
 doubt, the reluctant abandonment of 
 early faith by those who would cherish 
 it longer if they could, is it not plain 
 that the one thing thinking men are 
 waiting for is the introduction of Law 
 among the Phenomena of the Spirit¬ 
 ual World? When that comes we 
 shall offer to such men a truly scien¬ 
 tific theology. And the Reign of 
 Law will transform the whole Spirit¬ 
 ual World as it has already trans¬ 
 formed the Natural World. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Preface.” 
 
 5elf=&emal. 
 
 No man is called to a life of self- 
 denial for its own sake. It is in order 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 241 
 
 to a compensation which, though 
 sometimes difficult to see, is always 
 real and always proportionate. No 
 truth, perhaps, in practical religion 
 is more lost sight of. We cherish 
 somehow a lingering rebellion against 
 the doctrine of self-denial—as if our 
 nature or our circumstances or our 
 conscience dealt with us severely in 
 loading us with the daily cross. But 
 is it not plain, after all, that the life 
 of self-denial is the more abundant 
 life—more abundant just in propor¬ 
 tion to the ampler crucifixion of the 
 narrower life ? Is it not a clear case 
 of exchange—an exchange, however, 
 where the advantage is entirely on 
 our side? We give up a correspond- 
 
242 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ence in which there is a little life to 
 enjoy a correspondence in which there 
 is an abundant life. What though we 
 sacrifice a hundred such correspond¬ 
 ences? We make but the more room 
 for the great one that is left. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Mortification.” 
 
 Selfishness, 
 
 Obviously, if the mind turns away 
 from one part of the environment, it 
 will only do so under some tempta¬ 
 tion to correspond with another. 
 This temptation, at bottom, can only 
 come from one source—the love of 
 self. The irreligious man’s corre¬ 
 spondences are concentrated upon 
 himself. He worships himself. Self- 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 243 
 
 gratification rather than self-denial; 
 independence rather than submission, 
 —these are the rules of life. And 
 this is at once the poorest and the 
 commonest fo~m of idolatry. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Death.” 
 
 Self-effacements 
 
 After you have been kind, after 
 Love has stolen forth into the world 
 and done its beautiful work, go back 
 into the shade again and say nothing 
 about it Love hides even from itself. 
 Love waives even self-satisfaction. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 Self=5ufTidena>. 
 
 In mid-Atlantic, the other day, the 
 “Etruria,” in which I was sailing, 
 
244 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 suddenly stopped. Something had 
 gone wrong with the engines. There 
 we re five hundred able-bodied men 
 on board the ship. Do you think 
 if we had gathered together and 
 pushed against the mast w 7 e could 
 have pushed it on? When one at¬ 
 tempts to sanctify himself by effort, 
 he is trying to make his boat go by 
 pushing against the mast. He is like 
 a drowning man trying to lift himself 
 out of the water by pulling at the 
 hair of his own head. Christ held 
 up this method almost to ridicule 
 when He said, u Which of you by 
 taking thought can add a cubit to 
 his stature?” The one redeeming 
 feature of the self-sufficient method 
 
MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 245 
 
 is this—that those who try it find 
 out almost at once that it will not 
 gain the goal. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
 Sert3e an& SouL 
 
 The Life of the senses, high and 
 low, may perfect itself in Nature. 
 Kven the Life of thought may find 
 a large complement in surrounding 
 things. But the higher thought and 
 the conscience and the religious Life 
 can only perfect themselves in God. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Environment.” 
 
 Sequences. 
 
 Causes and effects are eternal ar¬ 
 rangements, set in the constitution of 
 
246 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 the world, fixed beyond man’s order¬ 
 ing. What man can do is to place 
 himself in the midst of a chain of 
 sequences. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
 Siflbt. 
 
 There is, for example, a Sense of 
 Sight in the religious nature. Neg¬ 
 lect this, leave it undeveloped, and 
 you never miss it. You simply see 
 nothing. But develop it and you see 
 God. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Degeneration.” 
 
 Simplicity. 
 
 The distressing incompetence of 
 which most of us are conscious if 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 247 
 
 trying to work out our spiritual ex¬ 
 perience is due, perhaps, less to the 
 diseased will which we commonly 
 blame for it than to imperfect know¬ 
 ledge of the right conditions. It does 
 not occur to us how natural the spirit¬ 
 ual is. We still strive for some 
 strange transcendent thing ; we seek 
 to promote life by methods as unnat¬ 
 ural as they prove unsuccessful ; and 
 only the utter incomprehensibility of 
 the whole region prevents us seeing 
 fully—what we already half suspect— 
 how completely we are missing the 
 road. Living in the spiritual world, 
 nevertheless, is just as simple as liv¬ 
 ing in the natural world; and it is the 
 same kind of simplicity. It is the 
 
248 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 same kind of simplicity, for it is the 
 same kind of world—there are not 
 two kinds of worlds. The conditions 
 of life in the one are the conditions 
 of life in the other. And till these 
 conditions are sensibly grasped as the 
 conditions of all life it is impossible 
 that the personal effort after the high¬ 
 est life should be other than a blind 
 struggle carried on in fruitless sorrow 
 and humiliation. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Environment. n 
 
 S in an& 2>eatb, 
 
 If sin is estrangement from God, 
 this very estrangement is Death. It 
 is a want of correspondence. If Sin 
 is selfishness, it is conducted at the 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 249 
 
 expense of life. Its wages are Death 
 —“He that loveth his life,” said 
 Christ, “shall lose it.” 
 
 Natural Law : “ Death. 
 
 Sin anfc Ibell* 
 
 When we find it stated that “ the 
 wages of sin is death,” we are in the 
 heart of the profoundest questions of 
 theology. What before was merely 
 4 c enmity against society ’ ’ becomes 
 “ enmity against God;” and what was 
 ‘ ‘ vice ” is c ‘ sin. ’ ’ The conception of 
 a God gives an altogether new color 
 to worldliness and vice. Worldliness 
 it changes into heathenism, vice into 
 blasphemy. The carnal mind, the 
 mind which is turned away from God, 
 
250 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 which will not correspond with God, 
 —this is not moral only, but spiritual 
 death. And Sin, that which separates 
 from God, which disobeys God, which 
 can not in that state correspond with 
 God,—this is hell. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Death.” 
 
 Sin is apostasy. 
 
 To the estrangement of the soul 
 from God the best of theology traces 
 the ultimate cause of sin. Sin is 
 simply apostasy from God, unbelief 
 in God. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Death.” 
 
 Sin mitbin XUS. 
 
 The unforgiven sins are not away 
 in keeping somewhere, to be let loose 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 upon us when we die ; they are here, 
 within us, now. To-day brings the 
 resurrection of their past, to-morrov/ 
 of to-day. And the powers of sin, 
 to the exact strength that we have 
 developed them, nearing their dread¬ 
 ful culmination with every breath we 
 draw, are here, within us, now. The 
 souls of some men are already honey¬ 
 combed through and through with 
 the eternal consequences of neglect, 
 so that taking the natural and rational 
 
 View of their case just now , it is sim- 
 
 \ 
 
 ply inconceivable that there is any 
 escape just now . What a fearful 
 thing it is to fall into the hands of 
 the living God ! A fearful thing eve# 
 if, as the philosopher tells us, “the 
 
252 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 hands of the Living God are the Laws 
 of Nature.” 
 
 Natural Law : “ Degeneration.” 
 
 Sins Classified 
 
 There are two great classes of Sins 
 —sins of the Body and sins of the 
 Disposition. The Prodigal Son may 
 be taken as a type of the first, the 
 Elder Brother of the second. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World . 
 
 Sincerity 
 
 Sincerity of purpose endeavors to 
 see things as they are, and rejoices to 
 find them better than suspicion feared 
 or calumny denounced. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 253 
 
 SUgbts* 
 
 There are people who go about 
 the world looking out for slights, and 
 they are necessarily miserable, for 
 they find them at every turn — es¬ 
 pecially the imaginary ones. One 
 has the same pity for such men as 
 for the very poor. They are the mor¬ 
 ally illiterate. They have had no 
 real education, for they have never 
 learned how to live. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
 Slowness. 
 
 All thorough work is slow, all true 
 development by minute, slight, and 
 insensible metamorphoses. The high- 
 
254 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 er the structure, moreover, the slower 
 the progress. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
 Soi&iers* 
 
 It is for active service soldiers are 
 drilled and trained and fed and armed. 
 That is why yon and I are in the 
 world at all—not to prepare to go out 
 of it some day, but to serve God ac¬ 
 tively in it now . It is monstrous 
 and shameful and cowardly to talk 
 of seeking the kingdom last. It is 
 shirking duty, abandoning one’s right¬ 
 ful post, playing into the enemy’s 
 hand by doing nothing to turn his 
 flank. 
 
 “ First 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 255 
 
 Ubc Soul anfc tbe %U\>. 
 
 We are most unspiritual always in 
 dealing with the simplest spiritual 
 things. A lily grows mysteriously, 
 pushing up its solid weight of stem 
 and leaf in the teeth of gravity. 
 Shaped into beauty by secret and in¬ 
 visible fingers, the flower develops we 
 know not how. But we do not won- 
 
 I 
 
 der at it. Every day the thing is 
 done ; it is Nature, it is God. We 
 are spiritual enough at least to under¬ 
 stand that. But when the soul rises 
 slowly above the world, pushing up 
 its delicate virtues in the teeth of 
 sin, shaping itself mysteriously into 
 the image of Christ, we deny that the 
 
256 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 power is not of man. A strong will, 
 we say, a high ideal, the reward of 
 virtue, Christian influence, — these 
 will account for it. Spiritual charac¬ 
 ter is merely the product of anxious 
 work, self-command, and self-denial. 
 We allow, that is to say, a miracle to 
 the lily, but none to the man. The 
 lily may grow ; the man must fret 
 and toil and spin. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Growth.” 
 
 TIbe Soul* 
 
 Just as in an organism we have 
 these three things—formative matter, 
 formed matter, and the forming prin¬ 
 ciple or life, so in the soul we have 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 257 
 
 the old nature, the renewed nature, 
 and the transforming Life. 
 
 Natural Law: “Conformity to Type.” 
 
 TLhc Soul att& <5o0* 
 
 The soul, in its highest sense, is a 
 vast capacity for God. It is like a 
 curious chamber added on to being, 
 and somehow involving being — a 
 chamber with elastic and contractile 
 walls, which can be expanded, with 
 God as its guest, illimitably, but 
 which without God shrinks and shriv¬ 
 els until every vestige of the Divine 
 is gone, and God’s image is left with¬ 
 out God’s Spirit. One cannot call 
 what is left a soul; it is a shrunken, 
 useless organ, a capacity sentenced to 
 
 I 
 
258 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 death by disuse, which droops as a 
 withered hand by the side, and cum¬ 
 bers nature like a rotted branch. Na¬ 
 ture has her revenge upon neglect as 
 well as upon extravagance. Misuse, 
 with her, is as mortal a sin as abuse. 
 
 Natural Law : “Degeneration.” 
 
 SouLlfounger. 
 
 The protoplasm in man has a some¬ 
 thing in addition to its instincts or its 
 habits. It has a capacity for God. In 
 this capacity for God lies its recep¬ 
 tivity; it is the very protoplasm that 
 was necessary. The chamber is not 
 only ready to receive the new Life, 
 but the Guest is expected, and, till 
 He comes, is missed. Till then the 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 259 
 
 soul longs and yearns, wastes and 
 pines, waving its tentacles piteously 
 in the empty air, feeling after God if 
 so be that it mav find Him. This is 
 not peculiar to the protoplasm of the 
 Christian’s soul. In every land and 
 in every age there have been altars 
 to the Known or Unknown God. It 
 is now agreed as a mere question of 
 anthropology that the universal lan¬ 
 guage of the human soul has always 
 been “I perish with hunger.” This 
 is what fits it for Christ. There is a 
 grandeur in this cry from the depths 
 which makes its very unhappiness 
 sublime. 
 
 Natural Law: “ Conformity to Type/* 
 
26 o 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Source of %itc. 
 
 It will be disputed by none that 
 the Source of Life in the Spiritual 
 World is God. And as the same law 
 of Biogenesis prevails in both spheres, 
 we may reason from the higher to the 
 lower, and affirm it to be at least 
 likely that the origin of life there 
 has been the same. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Classification.” 
 
 Sources* 
 
 A single combat with a special 
 sin does not affect the root and spring 
 of the disease. 
 
 
 The Changed Life. 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 26 l 
 
 Spectacles. 
 
 Many a man thinks he is looking 
 at truth when he is only looking at 
 the spectacles he has put on to see 
 it with. He is looking at his own 
 spectacles. 
 
 How to Learn How . 
 
 Spirit. 
 
 Friendship is a spiritual thing. 
 It is independent of Matter or Space 
 or Time. That which I love in my 
 friend is not that which I see. What 
 influences me in my friend is not his 
 body, but his spirit. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
263 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Spiritual OLife tbe Easiest* 
 
 The well-defined spiritual life is 
 
 not only the highest life, but it is 
 
 also the most easily lived. The 
 
 whole cross is more easily carried 
 
 * 
 
 than the half. It is the man who 
 tries to make the best of both worlds 
 who makes nothing of either. And 
 he who seeks to serve two masters 
 misses the benediction of both. But 
 he who has taken his stand, who has 
 drawn a boundary-line sharp and deep 
 about his religious life, who has 
 marked off all beyond as for ever for¬ 
 bidden ground to him, finds the yoke 
 easy and the burden light. For this 
 forbidden environment comes to be 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 263 
 
 as if it were not. His faculties, fall¬ 
 ing out of correspondence, slowly lose 
 their sensibilities. And the balm of 
 Death numbing his lower nature 
 releases him for the scarce disturbed 
 communion of a higher life. So even 
 here to die is gain. 
 
 Natural Law: “ Mortification.’’ 
 
 Spiritual ZlDa n. 
 
 He who lives the Spiritual Life has 
 a distinct kind of Life added to all 
 the other phases of Life which he 
 manifests—a kind of Life infinitely 
 more distinct than is the active 'Life 
 of a plant from the inertia of a stone. 
 The Spiritual man is more distinct 
 in point of fact than is the plant from 
 
264 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 the stone. This is the one possible 
 comparison in Nature, for it is the 
 widest distinction in Nature; but 
 compared with the difference between 
 the Natural and the Spiritual the 
 gulf which divides the organic from 
 the inorganic is a hair s-breadth. The 
 natural man belongs essentially to 
 this present order of things. He is 
 endowed simply with a high quality 
 of the natural animal Life. But it 
 is Life of so poor a quality that it is 
 not Life at all. He that hath not the 
 Son hath not Life; but he that hath 
 the Son hath Life—a new and distinct 
 and supernatural endowment. He 
 is not of this world. He is of the 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 265 
 
 timeless state, of Eternity. It doth 
 not yet appear what he shall be. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Biogenesis.” 
 
 Spiritual Motto, 
 
 The Spiritual World is not a castle 
 in the air, of an architecture unknown 
 to earth or heaven, but a fair, ordered 
 realm furnished with many familiar 
 things and ruled by well-remembered 
 Laws. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction.” 
 
 Spirituality. 
 
 The test of spirituality is that 
 you cannot tell whence it cometh or 
 whither it goeth. If you can tell, 
 if you can account for it on philo- 
 
266 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 sophical principles, on the doctrine 
 of influence, on strength of will, on 
 3. favorable environment, it is not 
 growth. It may be so far a success; 
 it may be a perfectly honest, even 
 remarkable and praiseworthy imita¬ 
 tion, but it is not the real thing. The 
 fruits are wax, the flowers artificial 
 —you can tell whence it cometh and 
 whither it goeth. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Growth.” 
 
 Stagnation. 
 
 Two painters each painted a pict¬ 
 ure to illustrate his conception of 
 rest. The first chose for his scene a 
 still, lone lake among the far-off 
 mountains. The second threw on his 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 267 
 
 canvas a thundering waterfall, with a 
 fragile birch tree bending over the 
 foam ; at the fork of a branch, almost 
 wet with the cataract’s spray, a robin 
 sat on its nest. The first was only 
 Stagnation; the last was Rest . For 
 in Rest there are always two elements 
 —tranquillity and energy ; silence and 
 turbulence ; creation and destruction ; 
 fearlessness and fearfulness. This it 
 was in Christ. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
 Stature. 
 
 As the branch ascends, and the 
 bud bursts, and the fruit reddens 
 under the co-operation of influences 
 from the outside air, so man rises 
 
268 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 to the higher stature under invisible 
 pressures from without. 
 
 The Changed Life , 
 
 Submission* 
 
 O preposterous and vain man, 
 thou who couldest not make a finger¬ 
 nail of thy body, thinkest thou to 
 fashion this wonderful, mysterious, 
 subtle soul of thine after the ineffable 
 Image? Wilt thou ever permit thy¬ 
 self to be conformed to the Image of 
 the Son? Wilt thou, who canst not 
 add a cubit to thy stature, submit to 
 be raised by the Type-Life within 
 thee to the perfect stature of Christ ? 
 
 Natural Law : “ Conformity to Type.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 269 
 
 Sweetening* 
 
 Souls are made sweet not by taking 
 the acid fluids out, but by putting 
 something in—a great Love, a new 
 Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 teaching* 
 
 Children do not need Laws, ex¬ 
 cept Laws in the sense of command¬ 
 ments. They repose with simplicity 
 on authority, and ask no questions. 
 But there comes a time, as the world 
 reaches its manhood, when they will 
 ask questions, and stake, moreover, 
 everything on the answers. That 
 
270 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 time is now. Hence we must exhibit 
 our doctrines, not lying athwart the 
 lines of the world’s thinking, in a 
 place reserved, and therefore shunned, 
 for the Great Exception; but in their 
 kinship to all truth and in their Law- 
 relation to the whole of Nature. 
 This is, indeed, simply following out 
 the system of teaching begun by 
 Christ Himself. And what is the 
 search for Spiritual truth in the Laws 
 of Nature but an attempt to utter 
 the parables which have been hid so 
 long in the world around without a 
 preacher, and to tell men once more 
 that the Kingdom of Heaven is like 
 unto this and to that? 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 271 
 
 temper: Its 3£\nls* 
 
 No form of vice—not worldliness, 
 not greed of gold, not drunkenness 
 itself—does more to un-Christianize 
 society than evil temper. For embit¬ 
 tering life, for breaking up com¬ 
 munities, for destroying the most 
 sacred relationships, for devastating 
 homes, for withering up men and 
 women, for taking the bloom of 
 childhood—in short, for sheer gratu¬ 
 itous misery-producing power—this 
 influence stands alone. 
 
 The G7'eatest Thing in the World . 
 
 TIemper: Ifts 1Re*>eIatton. 
 
 Temper is significant. It is not 
 in what it is alone, but in what it 
 
272 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 reveals. It is a test for love, a symp¬ 
 tom, a revelation of an unloving 
 nature at bottom. It is the inter¬ 
 mittent fever which bespeaks uninter- 
 mittent disease within; the occasional 
 bubble escaping to the surface which 
 betrays some rottenness underneath; 
 a sample of the most hidden products 
 of the soul dropped involuntarily 
 when off one’s guard; in a word, the 
 lightning form of a hundred hideous 
 and un-Christian sins. For a want of 
 patience, a want of kindness, a want of 
 generosity, a want of courtesy, a want 
 of unselfishness, are all instantane¬ 
 ously symbolized in one flash of 
 Temper. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 273 
 
 ^Temperance* 
 
 A rabid Temperance advocate is 
 often the poorest of creatures, flour¬ 
 ishing on a single virtue, and quite 
 oblivious that his Temperance is 
 making a worse man of him, and 
 not a better. 
 
 The Changed Life. 
 
 temptation* 
 
 Spiritual life is the sum total of 
 the functions which resist sin. The 
 soul’s atmosphere is the daily trial, 
 circumstance, and temptation of the 
 world. And as it is life alone which 
 gives the plant power to utilize the 
 elements, and as, without it, they 
 
274 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 destroy it, so it is the spiritual life 
 alone which gives the soul power to 
 utilize temptation and trial; and 
 without it they destroy the soul. 
 How shall we escape if we refuse to 
 exercise these functions—in other 
 words, if we neglect? 
 
 Natural Law : “ Degeneration.” 
 
 Ube IRew Testament. 
 
 Take the New Testament. There 
 were four lives of Christ. One was 
 in Rome ; one was in Southern Italy; 
 one was in Palestine ; one in Asia 
 Minor. There were twenty-one let¬ 
 ters. Five were in Greece and Mace¬ 
 donia ; five in Asia ; one in Rome ; 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 275 
 
 the rest were in the pockets of private 
 individuals. Theophilus had Acts. 
 They were collected undesignedly. 
 For example, the letter to the Gala¬ 
 tians was written to the Church in Ga¬ 
 latia. Somebody would make a copy 
 or two, and put it into the hands of 
 the members of the different churches, 
 and they would find their way not 
 only to the churches in Galatia, but 
 after an interval to nearly all the 
 churches. In those days the Chris¬ 
 tians scattered up and down through 
 the world exchanged copies of those 
 letters, very much as geologists up 
 and down the world exchange speci¬ 
 mens of minerals at the present time, 
 or entomologists exchange specimens 
 
276 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 of butterflies. And after a long time 
 a number of the books began to be 
 pretty well known. In the third cen¬ 
 tury the New Testament consisted of 
 the following books : The four Gos¬ 
 pels, Acts, thirteen letters of Paul, 
 I. John, I. Peter, and, in addition, the 
 Epistles of Barnabas and Hennas. 
 This was not called the New Testa¬ 
 ment, but the Christian Library. 
 Then these last books were discarded. 
 They ceased to be regarded as upon 
 the same level as the others. In the 
 fourth century the canon was closed 
 —that is to say, a list was made up 
 of the books which were to be regard¬ 
 ed as canonical. And then, long after 
 that, they were stitched together and 
 
 4 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 2 77 
 
 made up into one book—hundreds of 
 years after that. 
 
 The Study of thp Bible. 
 
 Ubeism* 
 
 Theism is the easiest of all religions 
 to get, but the most difficult to keep. 
 Individuals have kept it, but nations 
 never. Socrates and Aristotle, Cicero 
 and Epictetus, had a theistic religion; 
 Greece and Rome had none. And 
 even after getting what seems like a 
 firm place in the minds of men its un¬ 
 stable equilibrium sooner or later be¬ 
 trays itself. On the one hand, The¬ 
 ism has always fallen into the wildest 
 Polytheism, or, on the other, into the 
 blankest Atheism. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Death.” 
 
278 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 V 
 
 Ubeoloolcai %a\vs. 
 
 The greatest among the Theologi¬ 
 cal Laws are the Laws of Nature in 
 disguise. It will be the splendid task 
 of the Theology of the future to take 
 off the mask and disclose to a wan¬ 
 ing scepticism the naturalness of the 
 supernatural. 
 
 Natural Law: “ Introduction,” 
 
 ITbeolooles* 
 
 Theologies —and I am not speak¬ 
 ing disrespectfully of theology; theol¬ 
 ogy is as scientific a thing as any 
 other science of facts—but theologies 
 are human versions of Divine truths, 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 279 
 
 and hence the varieties of the ver¬ 
 sions and the inconsistencies of them. 
 
 How to Learn How . 
 
 XTbeologp anfc Science* 
 
 One by one, slowly through the 
 centuries, the Sciences have crystal¬ 
 lized into geometrical form, each form 
 not only perfect in itself, but perfect, 
 in its relation to all other forms. 
 Many forms had to be perfected be¬ 
 fore the form of the Spiritual. The 
 Inorganic has to be worked out before 
 the Organic, the Natural before the 
 Spiritual. Theology at present has 
 merely an ancient and provisional 
 philosophic form. By and by it will 
 be seen whether it be not susceptible 
 
28 o 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 of another. For Theology must pass 
 through the necessary stages of prog¬ 
 ress, like any other science. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction.” 
 
 UhixiQB. 
 
 u SEEKEST thou great things for 
 thyself?” said the prophet. u Seek 
 them not" Why? Because there 
 is no greatness in things. Things 
 cannot be great. The only greatness 
 is unselfish love. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 ZTbougbt anb Bctton, 
 
 It is a good thing to think; it is 
 a better thing to work. It is a better 
 thing to do good. 
 
 How to Learn How. 
 
MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 2bl 
 
 ^deration* 
 
 If we can carry away the mere 
 lessons of toleration, and leave behind 
 us our censoriousness, and criticalness, 
 and harsh judgments upon one anoth¬ 
 er, and excommunicating of every¬ 
 body except those who think exactly 
 as we do, the time we shall spend 
 here will not be the least useful parts 
 of our lives. 
 
 How to Learn How. 
 
 Uoucbiness. 
 
 Men harness themselves to the 
 work and stress of the world in 
 clumsy and unnatural ways. The 
 harness they put on is antiquated. 
 
282 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 A rough, ill-fitted collar at the best, 
 they make its strain and friction 
 past enduring by placing it where 
 the neck is most sensitive; and by 
 mere continuous irritation this sensi¬ 
 tiveness increases until the whole 
 nature is quick and sore. This is 
 the origin, among other things, of 
 a disease called touchiness—a dis¬ 
 ease which, in spite of its inno¬ 
 cent name, is one of the gravest 
 sources of restlessness in the world. 
 Touchiness, when it becomes chronic, 
 is a morbid condition of the inward 
 disposition. It is self-love inflamed 
 to the acute point; conceit with a hair- 
 trigger. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 283 
 
 transfiguration* 
 
 I CONFESS that even when in the 
 first dim vision the organizing hand 
 of Law moved among the unordered 
 truths of my Spiritual World, poor 
 and scantily furnished as it was, there 
 seemed to come over it the beauty of 
 a transfiguration. The change was 
 as great as from the old chaotic world 
 of Pythagoras to the symmetrical and 
 harmonious universe of Newton. 
 
 Natural Law : “Preface.” 
 
 trials* 
 
 Great trials come at lengthened 
 intervals, and we rise to breast them; 
 but it is the petty friction of our 
 
*484 my point of view. 
 
 -every-day life with one another—the 
 jar of business or of work, the dis¬ 
 cord of the domestic circle, the col¬ 
 lapse of our ambition, the crossing 
 of our will, or the taking down of 
 our conceit—which makes inward 
 peace impossible. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 
 Xtrust 
 
 To be trusted is to be saved. And 
 if we try to influence or elevate others, 
 we shall soon see that success is in 
 proportion to their belief of our belief 
 in them. For the respect of another 
 is the first restoration of the self-re¬ 
 spect a man has lost ; our ideal of 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 285 
 
 what he is becomes to him the hope 
 and pattern of what he may become. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 Urutb* 
 
 He who loves will love Truth not 
 less than men. He will rejoice in the 
 Truth—rejoice not in what he has 
 been taught to believe; not in this 
 Church’s doctrine or in that ; not in 
 this ism or in that ism ; but u in the 
 Truth.” He will accept only what is 
 real; he will strive to get at facts; he 
 will search for Truth with a humble 
 and unbiassed mind, and cherish 
 whatever he finds at any sacrifice. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World, 
 
286 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Urutb: Ibow Jfounb. 
 
 The faculty of selecting truth at 
 first hand and appropriating it for 
 one’s self is a lawful possession to 
 every Christian. Rightly exercised 
 it conveys to him truth in its freshest 
 form ; it offers him the opportunity 
 of verifying doctrines for himself; it 
 makes religion personal ; it deepens 
 and intensifies the only convictions 
 that are worth deepening — those, 
 namely, which are honest ; and it 
 supplies the mind with a basis of cer¬ 
 tainty in religion. But if all one's 
 truth is derived by imbibition from 
 the Church, the faculties for receiving 
 truth are not only undeveloped, but 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 287 
 
 one’s whole view of truth becomes 
 distorted. He who abandons the per- 
 sonal search for truth, under what¬ 
 ever pretext, abandons truth. The 
 very word truth, by becoming the 
 limited possession of a guild, ceases 
 to have any meaning ; and faith, 
 which can only be founded on truth, 
 gives way to credulity, resting on 
 mere opinion. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Parasitism.” 
 
 Urutb not a Blrtbtujbt. 
 
 There is no more important lesson 
 that we have to carry with us than 
 that truth is not to be found in what 
 I have been taught. That is not 
 
288 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 truth. Truth is not what I have been 
 taught. If it were so, that would ap¬ 
 ply to the Mormon, it would apply to 
 the Brahman, it would apply to the 
 Buddhist. Truth would be to every¬ 
 body just what he had been taught. 
 Therefore let us dismiss from our 
 minds the predisposition to regard 
 that which we have been brought up 
 in as being necessarily the truth. I 
 must say it is very hard to shake one’s 
 self free altogether from that. I sup¬ 
 pose it is impossible. 
 
 How to Learn How. 
 
 TTrutb ZTesteb. 
 
 The test of value of the different 
 verities of truth depends upon one 
 
MY POINT OK VIEW. 289 
 
 thing: whether they have or have 
 not a sanctifying power. Christ said, 
 ‘ ‘ Sanctify them through Thy truth. 
 Thy Word is Truth. ’ ’ Now, the value 
 of any question—the value of any 
 theological question — depends upon 
 whether it has a sanctifying influence. 
 If it has not, don’t bother about it. 
 Don’t let it disturb your minds until 
 you have exhausted all truths that 
 have sanctification within them. If 
 a truth makes a man a better man, 
 then let him focus his instrument 
 upon it and get all the acquaintance 
 with it he can. If it is the profane 
 babbling of science, falsely so called, 
 or anything that has an injurious 
 effect upon the moral and spirit- 
 
 K 
 
290 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ual nature of a man, it is better let 
 alone. 
 
 How to Learn How. 
 
 Z\)c Mbole Urutb, 
 
 I ONCE heard of some blind men 
 who were taken to see a menagerie. 
 They had gone around the animals, 
 and four of them were allowed to 
 touch an elephant as they went past. 
 They were discussing afterward what 
 kind of a creature the elephant was. 
 One man, who had touched its tail, 
 said the elephant was like a rope. 
 Another of the blind men, who had 
 touched his hind limb, said, u No 
 such thing! the elephant is like the 
 tiunk of a tree. n Another, who had 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 29I 
 
 felt its sides, said, “That is all rub¬ 
 bish. An elephant is a thing like a 
 wall.” And the fourth, who had felt 
 its ear, said that an elephant was like 
 none of those things ; it was like a 
 leather bag. Now, men look at truth 
 at different bits of it, and they see dif¬ 
 ferent things, of course, and they are 
 very apt to imagine that the thing 
 which they have seen is the whole 
 affair—the whole thing. In reality, 
 we can only see a very little bit at a 
 time ; and we must, I think, learn to 
 believe that other men can see bits of 
 truth as well as ourselves. Your 
 views are just what you see with your 
 own eyes ; and my views are just what 
 I see ; and what I see depends on just 
 
292 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 where I stand, and what you see de¬ 
 pends on just where you stand ; and 
 truth is very much bigger than an 
 elephant, and we are very much 
 blinder than any of those blind men 
 as we come to look at it. 
 
 How to Learn How. 
 
 THmt£. 
 
 Character is a unity, and all the 
 virtues must advance together to 
 
 man. 
 
 The Changed Life. 
 
 XTbe Tflniversal Slanguage. 
 
 You can take nothing greater to 
 the heathen world than the impress 
 and reflection of the Love of God 
 
 make the perfect 
 
 k- 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 293 
 
 upon your character. That is the 
 universal language. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 XLhc mnftnowable* 
 
 The very confession of the Un¬ 
 knowable is itself the dull recogni¬ 
 tion of an Environment for which 
 they feel they lack the correspond¬ 
 ence. It is this want that makes 
 their God the Unknown God. And 
 it is this that makes them dead. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Death / 9 
 
 XPlnrecoGm3ableness. 
 
 Is it hopeless to point out that one 
 of the most recognizable character- 
 
294 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 istics of life is its unrecognizableness, 
 and that the very token of its spiritual 
 nature lies in its being beyond the 
 grossness of our eyes? 
 
 Natural Law : “ Conformity to Type.” 
 
 TUnrest* 
 
 What are the chief causes of 
 Unrest ? If you know yourself, you 
 will answer Pride, Selfishness, Am¬ 
 bition. As you look back upon the 
 past years of your life, is it not true 
 that its unhappiness has chiefly come 
 from the succession of personal morti¬ 
 fications and almost trivial disappoint¬ 
 ments which the intercourse of life 
 has brought you? 
 
 Pax Vo bis cum. 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 295 
 
 ) 
 
 Ubc TTlnseen* 
 
 The true greatness of Law lies in 
 its vision of the Unseen. Law in the 
 visible is the invisible in the visible. 
 
 Natural Law : “Introduction.” 
 
 Ube ‘dnseen 'Clntverse* 
 
 IT is not necessary to reproduce 
 here in detail the argument which 
 has been stated recently with so 
 much force in the Unseen Universe . 
 The conclusion of that work remains 
 still unassailed, that the visible uni¬ 
 verse has been developed from the 
 unseen. Apart from the general 
 proof from the Law of Continuity, 
 the more special grounds of such 
 
296 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 a conclusion are, first, the fact insisted 
 upon by Herschel and Clerk-Maxwell, 
 that the atoms of which the visible 
 
 universe is built up bear distinct 
 
 / 
 
 marks of being manufactured articles; 
 and, secondly, the origin in time of 
 the visible universe is implied from 
 known facts with regard to the dissi¬ 
 pation of energy. With the gradual 
 aggregation of mass the energy of 
 the universe has been slowly disap¬ 
 pearing, and this loss of energy must 
 go on until none remains. There is, 
 therefore, a point in time when the 
 energy of the universe must come to 
 an end; and that which has its end 
 in time cannot be infinite—it must 
 also have had a beginning in time. 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 297 
 
 Hence the unseen existed before the 
 seen. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction.’’ 
 
 TUtiselftebness, 
 
 I heard this definition the other 
 day of a Christian man by a cynic : 
 4 ‘ A Christian man is a man whose 
 great aim in life is a selfish desire to 
 save his own soul, who, in order to 
 do that, goes regularly to church, and 
 whose supreme hope is to get to 
 heaven when he dies.” This re¬ 
 minds one of Professor Huxley’s ex¬ 
 amination paper in which the ques¬ 
 tion was put— u What is a lobster?” 
 One student replied that a lobster 
 was a red fish which moves backward. 
 
298 MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 The examiner noted that this was a 
 very good answer but for three things: 
 In the first place, a lobster was not a 
 fish; second, it was not red; and third, 
 it did not move backward. If there is 
 anything that a Christian is not, it is 
 one who has a selfish desire to save 
 his own soul. The one thing which 
 Christianity tries to extirpate from 
 a man’s nature is selfishness, even 
 though it be the losing of his own 
 soul. 
 
 What is a Christian ? 
 
 Christianity, as we understand it 
 from Christ, appeals to the generous 
 side of a young man’s nature, and not 
 to the selfish side. In the new ver¬ 
 sion of the New Testament the word 
 
MY POINT OP VIEW. 
 
 299 
 
 * 4 soul” is always translated in this 
 connection by the word ‘ ‘ life. ’ ’ That 
 marks a revolution in popular theol¬ 
 ogy, and it will make a revolution in 
 every Young Man’s Christian Associ¬ 
 ation in the country where it comes 
 to be seen that a man’s Christianity 
 does not consist in merely saving his 
 own soul, but in sanctifying and puri¬ 
 fying the lives of his fellow-men. 
 
 What is a Christian ? 
 
 Ube Wne. 
 
 The Vine was the Eastern symbol 
 of Joy. It was its fruit that made 
 glad the heart of man. Yet, however 
 innocent that gladness—for the ex¬ 
 pressed juice of the grape was the 
 
3°° 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 common drink at every peasant’s 
 board—the gladness was only a gross 
 and passing thing. This was not 
 true happiness, and the vine of the 
 Palestine vineyards was not the true 
 vine. Christ was u the true Vine.” 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 IDttalits* 
 
 Vitality has much in common 
 with such forces as magnetism and 
 electricity, but there is one inviolable 
 distinction between them—that Life 
 is permanently fixed and rooted in the 
 organism. The doctrines of conser¬ 
 vation and transformation of energy, 
 that is to say, do not hold for Vitality. 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 301 
 
 r — 1 ---- 
 
 The electrician can demagnetize a bar 
 of iron—that is, he can transfer its 
 energy of magnetism into something 
 else—heat, or motion, or light—and 
 then re-form these back into magnet¬ 
 ism. For magnetism has no root, no 
 individuality, no fixed indwelling. 
 But the biologist cannot devitalize a 
 plant or an animal and revivify it 
 again. 
 
 Natziral Law : “ Conformity to Type.” 
 
 IPocabulartes* 
 
 Being dependent for our vocab¬ 
 ulary on images, if an altogether new 
 and foreign set of Laws existed in the 
 Spiritual World, they could never 
 take shaoe as definite ideas from mere 
 
302 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 want of words. The hypothetical 
 new Laws which may remain to be 
 discovered in the domain of Natural 
 or Mental Science may afford some 
 index of these hypothetical higher 
 Laws, but this would of course mean 
 that the latter were no longer foreign 
 but in analogy, or, likelier still, iden¬ 
 tical. If, on the other hand, the Nat¬ 
 ural Laws of the future have nothing 
 to say of these higher Laws, what can 
 be said of them ? Where is the lan¬ 
 guage to come from in which to frame 
 them? If their disclosures could be 
 of any practical use to us, we may be 
 sure the clue to them, the revelation 
 of them, in some way would have 
 been put into Nature. If, on the con- 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 303 
 
 trary, they are not to be of immediate 
 use to man, it is better they should 
 not embarrass him. After all, then, 
 our knowledge of higher Law must be 
 limited by our knowledge of the lower. 
 
 Natural Law : “Introduction.” 
 
 IPoices* 
 
 There is the voice of God and the 
 voice of Nature. I cannot be wrong 
 if I listen to them. Sometimes, when 
 uncertain of a voice from its very 
 loudness, we catch the missing syl¬ 
 lable in the echo. In God and Nature 
 we have Voice and Echo. When I 
 hear both, I am assured. My sense 
 of hearing does not betray me twice. 
 I recognize the Voice in the Echo : 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 304 
 
 the Echo makes me certain of the 
 Voice ; I listen and I know. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Eternal Life.” 
 
 Mb ole or ftmlt 
 
 The failure to regard the exclusive 
 claims of Christ as more than acci¬ 
 dental, rhetorical, or ideal; the fail¬ 
 ure to discern the essential difference 
 between his Kingdom and all other 
 systems based on the lines of natural 
 religion, and therefore merely Organic; 
 in a word, the general neglect of the 
 claims of Christ as the Founder of 
 a new and higher Kingdom,—these 
 have taken the very heart from the 
 religion of Christ, and left its evangel 
 without power to impress or bless the 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 3°5 
 
 world. Until even religious men see 
 the uniqueness of Christ’s society, 
 until they acknowledge to the full 
 extent its claim to be nothing less 
 than a new Kingdom, they will con¬ 
 tinue the hopeless attempt to live for 
 two Kingdoms at once. And hence 
 the value of a more explicit classifica¬ 
 tion. For probably the most of the 
 difficulties of trying to live the Chris¬ 
 tian life arise from attempting to 
 half-live it. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Classification.” 
 
 Mbs? 
 
 The authority of Authority is 
 waning. This is a plain fact. And 
 it was inevitable. Authority—man’s 
 
306 my point of view. 
 
 Authority, that is—is for children. 
 And there necessarily comes a time 
 when they add to the question What 
 shall I do ? or What shall I believe ? 
 the adult’s interrogation — Why? 
 Now, this question is sacred, and 
 must be answered. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction/* 
 
 WUHpo\vet\ 
 
 Each day, each hour, demands 
 a further motion and readjustment 
 for the soul. A telescope in an 
 observatory follows a star by clock¬ 
 work, but the clockwork of the soul 
 is called the Will . Hence, while the 
 soul in passivity reflects the Image 
 of the Lord, the Will in intense 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 3°7 
 
 activity holds the mirror in position, 
 lest the drifting motion of the world 
 bear it beyond the line of vision. 
 To u follow Christ” is largely to 
 keep the soul in such position as 
 will allow for the motion of the earth. 
 And this calculated counteracting of 
 the movements of a world, this hold¬ 
 ing of the mirror exactly opposite to 
 the Mirrored, this steadying of the 
 faculties unerringly, through cloud 
 and earthquake, fire and sword, is 
 the stupendous co-operating labor of 
 the Will. 
 
 The Changed Life . 
 
 Wi s&onu 
 
 In the Spiritual World he will be 
 wise who courts acquaintance with 
 
308 my point of view. 
 
 the most ordinary and transparent 
 facts in Nature. 
 
 A r atural Law : “ Environment.” 
 
 rnovb. 
 
 If God is spending work upon 
 a Christian, let him be still and know 
 that it is God. And if he wants 
 work, he will find it there—in the 
 being still. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Growth.” 
 
 All the work of the world is 
 merely a taking advantage of ener¬ 
 gies already there. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Growth.” 
 
 Morft ant> (Srowtb* 
 
 What is the relation between 
 growth and work in a boy ? Con- 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 3°9 
 
 sciously, there is no relation at all. 
 The boy never thinks of connecting 
 his work with his growth. Work, 
 in fact, is one thing, and growth 
 another; and it is so in the spiritual 
 life. If it be asked, therefore, Is the 
 Christian wrong in these ceaseless 
 and agonizing efforts after growth? 
 the answer is, Yes, he is quite wrong, 
 or at least he is quite mistaken. 
 When a boy takes a meal or denies 
 himself indigestible things, he does 
 not say, U A11 this will minister to 
 my growthor when he runs a race 
 he does not say, u This will help the 
 next cubit of my stature.” It may 
 or it may not be true that these 
 things will help his stature, but if he 
 
3 IG 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 thinks of this, his idea of growth is 
 morbid. And this is the point we 
 are dealing with. His anxiety here 
 is altogether irrelevant and superflu¬ 
 ous. Nature is far more bountiful 
 than we think. When she gives us 
 energy, she asks none of it back to 
 expend on our own grow T th. She 
 will attend to that. “Give your 
 work/’ she says, “and your anxiety 
 to others; trust me to add the cubits 
 to your stature.” 
 
 Natural Law : “ Growth.” 
 
 B “CdorlC* of Cbance. 
 
 There used to be a children’s book 
 which bore the fascinating title of 
 The Chance World. It described a 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 3 11 
 
 world in which everything happened 
 by chance. The sun might rise, or it 
 might not ; or it might appear at any 
 hour, or the moon might come up in¬ 
 stead. When children were born they 
 might have one head or a dozen heads, 
 and those heads might not be on their 
 shoulders—there might be no shoul¬ 
 ders—but arranged about the limbs. If 
 one jumped up in the air, it was impos¬ 
 sible to predict whether he would ever 
 come down again. That he came down 
 yesterday was no guarantee that he 
 would do it next time. For every day 
 antecedent and consequent varied, and 
 gravitation and everything else chang¬ 
 ed from hour to hour. To-day a 
 child’s body might be so light that it 
 
3 12 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 was impossible for it to descend from 
 its chair to the floor ; but to-morrow, 
 in attempting the experiment again, 
 the impetus might drive it through a 
 three-story house and dash it to pieces 
 somewhere near the centre of the 
 earth. In this chance world cause 
 and effect were abolished. Law was 
 annihilated. And the result to the 
 inhabitants of such a world could 
 only be that reason would be impossi¬ 
 ble. It would be a lunatic world with 
 a population of lunatics. 
 
 Now, this is no more than a real 
 picture of what the world would be 
 without Law, or the universe without 
 Continuity. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Preface.” 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 3 I 3 
 
 TLftC MorlO. 
 
 There is a great deal in the world 
 that is delightful and beautiful, there 
 is a great deal in it that is great and 
 engrossing ; but it will not last. All 
 that is in the world—the lust of the 
 eye, the lust of the flesh, and the 
 pride of life—are but for a little while. 
 Iyove not the world therefore. Noth¬ 
 ing that it contains is w T orth the life 
 and consecration of an immortal soul. 
 The immortal soul must give itself to 
 something that is immortal. 
 
 The Greatest Thing in the World. 
 
 IT is u life in this world ’’ that is to 
 be hated. For life in this world im¬ 
 plies conformity to this world. It may 
 
MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 3 I 4 
 
 not mean pursuing worldly pleasures 
 or mixing with worldly sets, but 
 a subtler thing than that—a silent 
 deference to worldly opinion ; an al¬ 
 most unconscious lowering of relig¬ 
 ious tone to the level of the worldly- 
 religious world around ; a subdued re¬ 
 sistance to the soul’s delicate prompt¬ 
 ings to greater consecration, out of 
 deference to ‘ 4 breadth ’ ’ or fear of 
 ridicule. These, and such things, 
 are what Christ tells us we must hate. 
 For these things are of the very es¬ 
 sence of worldliness. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Eternal Life.” 
 
 tlbe *CXaorlC> a Sbabow. 
 
 $ 
 
 The world is only a tiling that is; 
 it is not. It is a thing that teaches, 
 
I 1 I 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 3x5 
 
 yet not even a thing—a show that 
 shows, a teaching shadow. However 
 useless the demonstration otherwise, 
 philosophy does well in proving that 
 matter is a non-entity. We work 
 with it as the mathematician with an 
 x . The reality is alone the Spiritual. 
 “It is very well for physicists to 
 speak of ( matter,’ but for men gen¬ 
 erally to call this ‘ a material world ’ 
 is an absurdity. Should we call it an 
 ;r-world it would mean as much—viz., 
 that we do not know what it is. n 
 When shall we learn the true mysti¬ 
 cism of one who was yet far from be¬ 
 ing a mystic—“We look not at the 
 things which are seen, but at the 
 things which are not seen ; for the 
 
 
316 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 things which are seen are temporal, 
 but the things which are not seen are 
 eternal”? The visible is the ladder 
 up to the invisible ; the temporal is 
 but the scaffolding of the eternal. 
 And when the last immaterial souls 
 have climbed through this material 
 to God, the scaffolding shall be taken 
 down, and the earth dissolved with 
 fervent heat—not because it was base, 
 but because its work is done. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Introduction.” 
 
 MorlbUitess* 
 
 No matter what may be the moral 
 uprightness of man's life, the honor¬ 
 ableness of his career, or the ortho¬ 
 doxy of his creed, if he exercises the 
 
I 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 317 
 
 JL^ I » 1 ■■ ■—i^ w— - 1 ■ — — ■■■■ ■ ... ■' -<■-.■ ■ — ■ ’ ■ 
 
 function of loving the world, that 
 defines his world—he belongs to the 
 Organic Kingdom. He cannot in 
 that case belong to the higher King¬ 
 dom. “If any man love the world, 
 the love of the Father is not in him.” 
 After all, it is by the general bent of 
 a man’s life—by his heart-impulses 
 and secret desires, his spontaneous 
 actions and abiding motives—that his 
 generation is declared. 
 
 Natural Law : “ Classification.” 
 
 Ubc Morlb’s problem* 
 
 Christ saw that men took life 
 painfully. To some it was a weari¬ 
 ness, to others a failure, to many 
 a tragedy, to all a struggle and a 
 
ii i 
 
 318 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 pain. How to carry this burden of 
 life had been the whole world’s prob¬ 
 lem. It is still the whole world’s prob¬ 
 lem. And here is Christ’s solution: 
 ‘ ‘ Carry it as I do. Take life as I 
 take it. Look at it from My point of 
 view. Interpret it upon My princi¬ 
 ples. Take My yoke and learn of 
 Me, and you will find it easy. For 
 My yoke is easy, works easily, sits 
 right upon the shoulders, and there¬ 
 fore My burden is light.” 
 
 Pax Vobis cum. 
 
 13- /ID. C* B. 
 
 It needs all kinds of people to 
 make a world; it needs all kinds of 
 people to make a church, and every 
 
TIVI f'sln flf 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 319 
 
 P— — 1 ~ mm • — - -- ' — ■ ■' — 
 
 type of young men a Christian Asso¬ 
 ciation; and the greatest mistake of 
 all is to have every man stamped in 
 the same stamp, so that if you met 
 him in a railway train one hundred 
 miles off you would know him as 
 a Y. M. C. A. man. I would like to 
 find many who would not wear the 
 badge so pronouncedly that every one 
 should know them at a glance. 
 
 What Is a Christian ? 
 
 3l>ofte of Christ 
 
 Did you ever stop to ask what a 
 yoke is really for? Is it to be a bur¬ 
 den to the animal which wears it? 
 It is just the opposite. It is to make 
 its burden light. Attached to the 
 
320 
 
 MY POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 oxen in any other way than by a 
 yoke the plough would be intolerable. 
 Worked by means of a yoke it is 
 light. A yoke is not an instrument 
 of torture: it is an instrument of 
 mercy. It is not a malicious contriv¬ 
 ance for making work hard: it is 
 a gentle device to make hard labor 
 light. It is not meant to give pain, 
 but to save pain. And yet men speak 
 of the yoke of Christ as if it were 
 a slavery, and look upon those who 
 wear it as objects of compassion. 
 
 Pax Vobiscum. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ✓ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
> 
 

 W'- 
 
 VI", 'fl 
 
 Vv*' 
 
 
 
 
 (To O 
 
 ^g: 
 
 Lo 
 
 
 o 
 
 2 ' 
 
 ■S- 
 
 fit 
 
 'i * 
 
 -,->i 
 
 
 -X" 2 - 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 r"^C_; 
 
 ’i 
 
 *\f II 
 
 \ # 
 
 f/ 
 
 ; (jj\ 
 
 3 
 
 
 & 
 
 
 N\<to 
 
 1 , 
 
 
 ca 
 
 
 ,nr> 
 
 vr^ 
 
 /: 
 
 v 
 
 ,' 3 -~ 
 
 o.—->- 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 JC* 
 
 =£3 
 
 • < < 
 
 
 ^G' 
 
 0 
 
 't&'msSLs 
 
 § 8 ! 
 
 o 
 
 * 5 s, 
 
 A 
 
 * X*— 
 
 CT/ 0 £• 
 
 p -o. o .£<) 
 
 ✓% c*V* 
 
 °^tv * (V. c^V 
 
 /V •;> . o ,\ f 
 
 § P