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 A REVELATION OF THE LOVE OF GOD
 
 When the Wild Crab- Apple 
 Puts Forth Blossoms 
 
 Nature Sermons Preached in the 
 
 First Methodist Episcopal 
 
 Church, Aurora, 111. 
 
 'By 
 
 The Reverend 
 CHARLES KNAPP CARPENTER 
 
 Of the Rock River Conference 
 
 I 
 
 Cincinnati: &?m gorft: 
 
 JENNINGS AND GRAHAM EATON AND MAINS
 
 Copyright, 1911 
 By Jennings and Graham
 
 N iPl'tilS 
 
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 ^tbxvxiittVL 
 
 This Book is Dedicated to Lovers of 
 
 God Who are Seeking Closer 
 
 Acquaintance with Him 
 
 as They Go About in 
 
 His Beautiful 
 
 World. 
 
 (3 

 
 CONTENTS 
 
 "Cbetrtes 
 
 I. The Coming of Spring, 20 
 
 II. Nature-Interpretation of Job, - 50 
 
 III. Impossible Songs of Nature and 
 
 Redemption, - - - - -82 
 
 IV. The Immanent God, - - - 108 
 
 V. The Message of the Canadian 
 
 Wilderness, - - - - 138 
 
 VI. God the Eternal Force, - - 172 
 
 VII. Pathfinders, - - - - - 196 
 
 VIII. Delivering the Prisoner, - - 222 
 
 IX. Autumn Glories, - 244 
 
 X. Much Sowing and Little Reaping, - 272
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Cext9 
 
 I. When the Wild Crab Apple Puts 
 
 Forth Blossoms, - - - - 21 
 
 II. Where Wast Thou When I Laid the 
 
 Foundations of the Earth ? - 51 
 
 III. No Man Could Learn That Song, - 83 
 
 IV. The Creator of the Ends of the 
 
 Earth Fainteth Not, - - - 109 
 
 V. The Voice of One Crying in the 
 
 Wilderness, 139 
 
 VI. God Said, 173 
 
 VII. There is a Path Which no Fowl Know- 
 eth, and Which the Vulture's Eye 
 Hath Not Seen, - - - 197 
 
 VIII. He Shall Bruise the Head of the 
 
 Serpent, - - - - - 223 
 
 IX. The Whole Earth is Full of His 
 
 Glory, - - - 245 
 
 X. Some Seed Fell by the Wayside ; Some 
 
 Fell Upon Stony Places ; Some Fell 
 Among Thorns; Soxme Fell into 
 Good Ground and Brought Forth 
 Fruit, - - - - - - 273
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 XJ 
 
 Wild Crab-Apple Thicket - - Cover Page 
 
 A Revelation of the Love of God, - - 2 
 
 Catbird Feeding Young, - - - - 12 
 
 "Good Morning," Chickadee leaving nest, 16 
 
 " Wild Crab-Apple Blossoms," 23 
 
 "The Redbud Blooms by the Swollen 
 
 Waters," ------ 35 
 
 1 ' Wonders of Nature, ' ' The Upper Dalles 
 
 of the Wisconsin River, - - - 61 
 
 "The Booming Bitterns Reared Their 
 
 Young," 77 
 
 "The Singing of the Brook," 85 
 
 "The Music of the Pines," Ludington, Mich., 93 
 "A Shifting Hill of Sand," Ludington, 
 
 Mich., - - - - - - -in 
 
 " Every Bird Cares For Its Little Ones," 
 
 Yellow Warbler, - - - - - 135 
 
 "Rocks and Wooded Hills and Flowing 
 
 Waters," " Castle Rock," Oregon, 111., - 141 
 "A Tiny Bird on Great W t aters," Piping 
 
 Plover,, ------ j67 
 
 "Workshop of the Mighty Jehovah," Pine 
 
 Creek, 111., 175
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 "The Tree, With its Harvest of Young Birds," 187 
 
 "The Vulture's Eye," Young Marsh Hawks, - 199 
 "Whither Dost Thou Pursue Thy Solitary 
 
 Way?" Little Green Heron, - - 213 
 
 "The Serpent," Garter Snake, - - - 225 
 "Beneath the Wings of the Parent," 
 
 Traill's Flycatcher, - - - - 229 
 
 "When Leaves are Thickly Strewn," - 247 
 
 "A Walk Among the Trees," - - - 251 
 
 " Dying Leaves, " ------ 261 
 
 "A Field of the Great Sower," WilcL 
 
 Bergamot, ------ 275 
 
 "Nesting in Hidden Places," King Rail, - 287 
 
 "Good-bye," 294
 
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 GOD TEACHES THE PARENT BIRD TO CARE FOR 
 ITS YOUNG
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 U 
 
 THESE sermons have been preached at 
 varying intervals of several months. 
 They have come from the heart of one 
 who has intensely loved nature from a boy, who 
 believes and has always believed that this is 
 God's world, that He thinks enough of it to 
 make it His winter-residence and summer-resi- 
 dence alike, that He is always at home, and can 
 be found in it by one who seeks to know Him ; 
 and that as God teaches the parent bird to care 
 for its young, to protect them and feed them, 
 so will He teach and guide and protect His 
 children. 
 
 These sermons are sent out with the hope 
 that they may arouse pleasant memories in the 
 minds of lovers of God's world, that they may 
 stimulate a greater love for God and His world, 
 and that they may help some to find Him who 
 somehow may have come mistakenly to believe 
 
 13
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 that the God of the Bible, the Christian's God, 
 and the God of the Universe are different Be- 
 ings. There is but ONE GOD, whether we 
 worship Him in church or in field, while listen- 
 ing to singing choir or singing brook, to the 
 voice of the prophet or the voice of the stars. 
 
 14
 
 
 GOOD MORNING" 
 
 Chickadee at Home
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 
 HUGH MACMILLAN has shown the 
 depth and beauty there are in nature- 
 interpretations of the Holy Scriptures. 
 The God who made all things which bear the 
 stamp Good, "and God saw that it was good," 
 — that God will have pleasure in having His 
 Scriptures interpreted in terms of the wood and 
 the wild and the field. 
 
 Besides, this is no longer an inference since 
 the Christ preached in our town; for His 
 method was so flushed with the dawn and rest- 
 ful with the dusk and did so distil the meanings 
 of the growing things and the foxes and the 
 birds and the smell of the new-plowed fields, 
 He made a picture-book in words of such things 
 as call the open sky their house. 
 
 My friend Carpenter, who knows so much 
 about God's wild beasties and who knows the 
 Christ to love Him, has done well to speak with 
 2 17
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 picture and with word on the parables of God 
 which are forever present in the Scriptures of 
 Written Truth and in the scriptures of Nature. 
 I have been afield with him and have been at 
 prayer with him, and know he cares for the 
 whole of the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father. 
 Therefore, welcome this volume. May it 
 bring forth fruit both by winter and by summer, 
 being one of God's perennials which shall wear 
 blossoms and ripened fruit together all the year. 
 William A. Quayle. 
 
 18
 
 I 
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 "My beloved spake and said unto Me, Rise up, my love, 
 my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the 
 rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the 
 time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the 
 turtledove is heard in our land; the fig tree putteth forth her 
 green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good 
 smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. . . . 
 Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine 
 flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegran- 
 ates bud forth. . . . The mandrakes give a smell, and at 
 our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old." — 
 Song of Solomon. 
 
 "And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said 
 in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for 
 man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from 
 his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing 
 living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime 
 and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and 
 day and night shall not cease." — Genesis 8:21, 22. 
 
 "And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon 
 it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God 
 and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth." 
 — Genesis 9: 16.
 
 "When the fig-tree puts forth leaves." — Matthew 24:32. 
 Or, "When the wild crab-apple puts forth blossoms." — 
 Author's Revised Version. 
 
 IF we were dwellers in Palestine we would 
 stand where Jesus stood and watch the un- 
 folding of the draperies of the fig tree. 
 Being dwellers elsewhere, but with the same 
 spirit, we stand entranced by the beauties of 
 this land, and in the presence of the spirit of 
 the springtime our hearts are filled with praise 
 to God. There is an epidemic abroad in our 
 land; I know not how many victims, but they 
 are legion; and if our prayers are offered for 
 the ceasing of the epidemic of foul disease 
 which ravages and kills, I pray for the spread 
 of this epidemic until every one has become its 
 victim; and as a result of this fever there is 
 prayer and worship and praise to God, the 
 Builder of the world. 
 
 It is an epidemic of spring-fever, and a thor- 
 oughly inoculated victim stands before you. 
 21
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 Perhaps some of you will think you hear the 
 ravings of a disordered brain. My thought, 
 expressed with all gentleness, is that the ailment, 
 the disorder, is in the brain of the man who 
 can walk abroad at this season of the year and 
 not be bewitched by the ravishing enticements 
 of Nature. 
 
 There is no calendar able to tell when spring 
 will come any more than it can tell when the 
 measles will come. In both cases the fevers are 
 catching and are known by their fruits. A man 
 who is interested enough to know one season 
 from another, and to whom it makes any dif- 
 ference when spring does c.ome, will have no 
 difficulty in telling. The evidences are within 
 him. 
 
 Spring-fever is as definite a disease as mea- 
 sles and much more pleasant. I have had both, 
 and speak from experience. As with bodily ills, 
 this fever may not manifest itself at the same 
 time to all its victims. Some catch it rather 
 late in the season; but if so, they miss some of 
 the delightful preliminary stages. It is of these 
 early symptoms that I speak first. 
 
 As a boy, when the fever came on, I made 
 22
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 whistles from slender willows, vented my spirits 
 by blasts long and loud that would send the 
 blue jays scurrying from the crab-apple thicket 
 with wild cries of alarm, and I cunningly noted 
 
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 ■ I'M—-'" ■ * : ""* * « "■"' ' 
 
 
 WILD CRAB-APPLE BLOSSOMS 
 
 the tallest of the willow-shoots and carefully 
 spared it for another day. But already in imag- 
 ination, I saw it bending from the frantic en- 
 deavors of a minnow — or "shiner," in boy lan- 
 guage — to run away with my bobber. If I were 
 a woman it would manifest itself in numberless 
 23
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 plans for assaults upon the dust that had ac- 
 cumulated during the winter months. Being a 
 man, and therefore not compelled to "ask ma 
 whether I can go a-fishinY' or to ask my hus- 
 band whether I may clean house, with his as- 
 sistance on the carpets, with light heart and im- 
 patient mood I wait for the first robin, then 
 blithely snatch my cap and start for — Oh ! any- 
 where, away from houses and folks. 
 
 The robin is the harbinger of spring and the 
 forerunner of spring-fever, and therefore I seek 
 first for him. The robin is a gallant gentleman 
 (indeed, most birds are) and does not ask the 
 lady to come north until he has explored the 
 land. I admire the robin's manner. He has 
 a jaunty way which leads us to believe that he 
 knows spring is on the way. And he is so pert 
 when he drops down upon the elm branch and 
 carelessly sings, "Wake up; wake up! Spring 
 is coming, coming, coming," we can scarcely 
 believe that he has made a long journey to 
 bring us this glad news. He knows from ex- 
 perience that there will be blustery days and ice 
 and snow; but he refuses to be dismayed or 
 frightened, and sings his roundelay so merrily, 
 24
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 "Cheer up; cheer up! Spring is coming, com- 
 ing, coming," that he makes the words bubble 
 to my lips, "Cheer up; cheer up! What does 
 blustery weather amount to, anyhow?" 
 
 I thank God for the robin in the early spring; 
 and driven by the spring-fever, I go abroad to 
 look for the bluebird. It has been banished 
 from our yards and bird-boxes by the ill-man- 
 nered English sparrow, but it has a cheerful 
 way of doing the best it can under the circum- 
 stances. Not being wanted about our homes, 
 it has taken to the fields and fence-posts. Out 
 in the country I find it. This winged comrade 
 of mine carries the blue of the sky upon its 
 back; tinted, we may easily imagine as it has 
 made its way through the blue sky from the 
 distant South; and it has painted its breast from 
 the same terra-cotta jar the robin used. And 
 there are the meadow-larks, bearing the yellow 
 of the dandelions upon their throats, and the 
 wild ducks circling about the ponds, and the 
 song sparrow announcing its arrival from the 
 topmost twig of the pussy willow. 
 
 On a southern slope T bask in the sun and 
 watch the mud turtles crawling out of the cold 
 25
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 waters onto an old log, that they too may bask 
 in the sun. They remind me of the village 
 street-corner where men are basking on dry- 
 goods boxes or lazily leaning against the warm 
 side of buildings. Work does not suffer at their 
 hands, either men or turtles ; but probably noth- 
 ing else will. I pick up a turtle as it is crawl- 
 ing to another pond, and note the picture on 
 the under shell, and the brilliant lines of red 
 and yellow, and marvel at the generosity of 
 God in dealing out the beautiful colors to the 
 humblest creatures. How is the turtle able to 
 find its way from pond to pond without com- 
 pass and without getting lost? It may satisfy 
 some to say that God created the creature that 
 way, which is true; but others will ask how it 
 has been done, and in what way do these powers 
 manifest themselves; and they add to the 
 world's store of knowledge through this spirit 
 of investigation. 
 
 Driven by the frenzy of this early spring- 
 fever, I am searching for the first flowers: in 
 the marshy land the brown pod of the skunk 
 cabbage, encasing a thick head bearing numer- 
 ous tiny blossoms, crowds through the earth, 
 26
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 preceding the huge heart-shaped leaves; and 
 the marsh marigold with its cluster of kidney- 
 shaped leaves and loved by country folk for 
 "greens," opens many tufts of golden flowers. 
 On the rocky bluffs are the hepaticas, delicate 
 blossoms of varying tints of white and pink and 
 purple; in the thicket along the old rail-fence, 
 the bloodroot, as delicate as an invalid maid; 
 in the woods, the anemones and spring beauty; 
 on the gravel-bank, the windflower, anemone 
 too, but wearing its name gracefully as it sways 
 in the breeze. And while the search continues, 
 new ones are coming on : buttercups and violets 
 and trilliums and adder's tongues; and the pro- 
 cession seems endless and is endless. As we 
 watch them pass we give our word of praise 
 to the early blossoms that have pushed their 
 way through the cold ground and dead leaves, 
 and have defied the chilling winds and flurries 
 of snow. And we give a word of praise to 
 God, who has made the blossoms and who has 
 sent us abroad this day. 
 
 Spring is coming, always coming. The spirit 
 of adventure is in the air; and as one gets in 
 touch with the great world ?.bout him, the spirit 
 27
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 of adventure — to dare and to do — takes pos- 
 session of a man, and he is more of a man than 
 when he grabbed his hat and started afield at 
 the call of the robin and the spring-fever. The 
 fever ebbs and flows, but is so pronounced this 
 May day that we must go abroad again, for- 
 getting, if we can, these pews and walls and 
 vaulted arches, and seeing rather the aisles and 
 arches of the leafy temples of the forest. 
 
 When the wild crab-apple puts forth blos- 
 soms the trees are in various stages of robing 
 themselves for the summer's journey. Some 
 seem to have forgotten the call of May, the 
 branches are so bare and ungainly. Others have 
 lately aroused, and now a delicate pink blush 
 suffuses the more tardy oaks, while others are 
 putting on a dress of yellow-green; and almost 
 while we look we can see the yellow fading into 
 deeper green. When the wild crab-apple puts 
 forth blossoms it is helping to adorn the woods 
 as the streets of the city are decorated for some 
 festive occasion. The thorn-apple assists with 
 blossoms of snowy whiteness, and blossoms so 
 numerous that one would fain believe some lin- 
 gering gust of winter day had whirled a million 
 28
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 snowflakes about the tree; and the redbud or 
 Judas tree, unwilling to be outdone, not wait- 
 ing for the leaves to unfurl, arrays itself in tints 
 of reddish-purple. 
 
 But the wild crab is not satisfied with one 
 tone, however handsome it may be. It paints 
 the flower-leaves with white and pearl and pink 
 and red in such exquisite shadings, and sub- 
 merges them all in such a sea of perfume, 
 through which one wades, by which one is 
 drenched, as he comes near to the color-display, 
 that he is intoxicated by the very beauty, the 
 very fragrance. And the flowers, more modest 
 in stature than the trees but more persistently 
 numerous, are adding beauty and grace and life 
 to the scene; anemones and shooting-stars, puc- 
 coon and phlox and columbine, colored pink and 
 white and red and yellow are lending variety 
 and gayety to the landscape. When the wild 
 crab-apple puts forth blossoms, the birds are 
 trooping through its branches, trooping through 
 the forests. Describe them? Why, if one 
 were to gather great handfuls of dandelion 
 blossoms and bluebells and tulips and wake- 
 robins, and throw them hither and thither 
 29
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 among the branches, he would not add new or 
 more color than is already there because the 
 birds are there: grosbeak and tanager, towhee 
 and wood thrush, and warblers with yellow and 
 red and black, with blue and white, with orange 
 as bright as morning-dawn, with brown as deep 
 as chestnut-stain. 
 
 Perhaps now that the wild crab-apple has put 
 forth blossoms, the spring-fever is at its height, 
 and bewildered and delirious the victim throws 
 himself beneath its branches and scarcely 
 breathes as he listens to the avian May festival. 
 It is morning. During the night the carpet of 
 green has been washed by the falling rain, and 
 now it is vivid in brightness of green, set with 
 limpid drops of water shining like silvery jewels. 
 About him and overhead the trees are breaking 
 the sunlight into flecks and scattering them on 
 the ground. Behind him the brook is dancing 
 down the riffles, playing with pebbles, working 
 itself into foamed frenzy as it uselessly beats 
 against the rough-shouldered boulder, tossing 
 some stray leaf as the waves of the sea toss the 
 fisherman's boat, and the music of the water is 
 throbbing in the background. The oriole is the 
 30
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 master of ceremonies, and while his orange-and- 
 black cap and robe flash among the branches he 
 mounts a twig and gives the trumpet-call to 
 song. The soloists respond: the catbird from 
 yonder thicket of thorny gooseberries, the wood 
 thrush hiding behind the hazel-brush, the rose- 
 ate grosbeak from the willow, the brown 
 thrasher from the swaying elm; and there are 
 the choruses, the gurgling notes of blackbirds, 
 the batlike notes of goldfinches, the silvery- 
 belled notes of bobolinks, and the choruses of 
 warblers with dripping tones falling from the 
 leafy foliage as thickly as the great drops of 
 rain that fall like tinkling bells on the leaves 
 of the trees. And the music is not sweeter and 
 more resplendent than the robes they wear. 
 
 After a time he may stagger to his feet, may 
 make his way homeward; but I mistake if there 
 has not crowded in upon him the sense of over- 
 whelming, abounding life. The streams are 
 leaping with the accumulated energy of winter, 
 and the banks will hardly contain the whirling, 
 swerving waters. The trees seem full to over- 
 flowing with life, so superabundant it must find 
 a way out through twig and leaf. The birds 
 31
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 are full to overflowing with life; it must find a 
 way out through quiver of wing and flitting of 
 tail, and swelling throats that can not hold all 
 the music and rhapsody contained — it spills out 
 like bubbling waters from the spring. I mis- 
 take if one does not return in religious mood 
 with an overwhelming sense of the nearness of 
 God, the energy of God, the activity of God. 
 All that God is doing is so fertile, so produc- 
 tive, so growing, so bubbling over with life; 
 God is so near, so present, so crowding into all 
 things He has made and through all things He 
 has made, that instinctively I find myself rec- 
 ognizing Him in my life, feeling that He be- 
 longs in my life, acknowledging Him as my 
 Maker and Keeper and Master. 
 
 I can see how some might not be brought 
 to religious mood in the summer time when the 
 sun burns with fiery rays, and the heat is op- 
 pressive, and the dry dust stifles the nostrils, 
 though there is evidence enough here of God 
 for those who are not so easily disturbed by 
 these superficials. I can see how some might 
 not be made religious by the autumn when the 
 sky is drear with cloud and fog, and the shiver- 
 32
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 ing wind pierces to the very marrow, and the 
 fields are brown and the leaves are dead and 
 the flowers are withered, killed by the frost. 
 I can see how some might not be thrown into 
 religious mood by the biting, stinging wind of 
 winter that nips the cheek and nose, that drives 
 the frost against the window-panes until we 
 can not look out upon the abandoned world, 
 that drives the snow in great banks across the 
 streets and roads, and piles it about our doors 
 so that we can scarcely plow our ways through 
 and would fain sit by the fireside, though there 
 is ecstasy enough in each of these seasons for 
 
 . . . "him who in the love of Nature holds 
 Communion with her visible forms;" . . . 
 
 but it seems to me that a man is without mind 
 and heart who is not moved to God in the 
 spring time, when the wild crab-apple puts forth 
 its blossoms and the redbud blooms by the 
 swollen waters: mind given by God that a man 
 may measure himself alongside of the abound- 
 ing energy and life of God everywhere revealed 
 in the spring time; mind given of God so that 
 we are able to seek after Him and find Him 
 and know Him and be grateful for His com- 
 3 33
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 panionship; heart given of God that we may 
 measure up toward the glory of things; that we 
 may be stirred to laughter, to ecstasy, to poetry, 
 to music, to wonder, to worship; and that we 
 may cry out, "O Mighty One, I have love for 
 the world Thou hast made, and for Thee, the 
 Maker of the world, love surpassing the love 
 of man for woman." 
 
 Nature is a revealer of God; and to the 
 theologian who thinks his craft is the inter- 
 preter of God and who scoffs at Nature's teach- 
 ings or ignores them, I say that Nature is a 
 better, more certain, more authoritative teacher 
 of great principles of God than he is. I do 
 not trust theology. Oh! I trust my own; for 
 it is an honest attempt on my part to frame 
 words that will tell of the relations existing or 
 that might exist between my God and myself. 
 Other theologians, professional or laymen, I 
 assume, are equally honest; but they present 
 such different ideas, I am confused by their en- 
 deavors at times. How many pictures of the 
 Madonna or the Christ there are ! what differ- 
 ent interpretations there have been ! — and none 
 has told the whole story, has given the per- 
 34
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 feet likeness. I trust the love that is in the 
 heart of the man who draws the portrait of 
 God; yes, I will trust the love that is in the 
 heart of the pagan; but I do not fully trust 
 
 THE REDBUD BLOOMS BY THE SWOLLEN 
 WATERS 
 
 his judgment, his knowledge. I do not impute 
 the motive, I impute the results that spring 
 from imperfect knowledge. 
 
 What blunders and crimes have been com- 
 mitted in the name of theology ! Folks have 
 
 35
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 mutilated their bodies by rites of circumcision 
 until they could not defend their firesides. Chil- 
 dren have been offered in sacrifice to the leap- 
 ing flames or the greedy waters. Man by pre- 
 destination has been robbed of his chance to 
 make his peace with God; and babes snatched 
 from their mothers' arms in all the sweetness 
 and innocence and helplessness of babyhood, un- 
 baptized, have been committed to the world of 
 lost spirits. What crimes have been committed 
 in the name of the Church ! The Sanhedrin is- 
 sued its decrees against Jesus and sent Him to 
 the cross; Diana's followers cried out against 
 the Christians of their day and mobbed them; 
 the Pope of the Roman Church has anathema- 
 tized men, and that Church has passed sentence 
 of death upon many; the Puritans, ushering in 
 a new and better reign of morality, issued their 
 decrees against the Quakers and persecuted 
 them; the Episcopalians ridiculed and opposed 
 the work of the Methodists in their early day, 
 and the Methodists ridiculed and opposed the 
 work of the Salvation Army in its early day. 
 This is no argument against God: it is an 
 argument against the imputed perfect wisdom 
 36
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 of man. It is no argument against the Church 
 or theology : it is an argument against the wrong 
 use and arrogant claims of these. A razor is es- 
 sential for the happiness and pleasing appear- 
 ance of man : but suicides have been committed 
 with it. Gas is a blessing in the lighting of our 
 homes and preparing of our meals: but it has 
 destroyed the food and burned the house when 
 improperly used. The theologian and the 
 Church are necessary for the advancement of 
 the Kingdom of Christ in the hearts of men : 
 but they have missed their calling at times. 
 Galileo was a helpful man, fighting God's bat- 
 tles for truth in the human mind: but he was 
 woefully misunderstood and abused by the the- 
 ologians of his day. God has been misrepre- 
 sented and His cause has run with lame and 
 halting feet because of imperfect man, some- 
 times ignorant, sometimes overzealous, and 
 sometimes cruelly ambitious and selfish. 
 
 Theology is not the speaking of God to man, 
 though it is often so understood. The Bible is 
 God speaking to man, the Holy Spirit is God 
 speaking to man, conscience is God speaking to 
 man, nature is God speaking to man; theology 
 37
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 is man talking about God, speculating about 
 God; and because man is imperfect and igno- 
 rant it is mistaken and imperfect, and will 
 change and continue to change as the mingled 
 dawn and dark of the morning twilight change 
 into the perfect day. Let us be grateful for 
 every honest endeavor of man to learn about 
 God, and to tell us with all the wisdom of mind 
 and fervor of heart he possesses about God; but 
 let him not endeavor to supplant other sources 
 of knowledge concerning God with the the- 
 ology he has built, however helpful it may be. 
 When the wild crab-apple puts forth blossoms 
 the world is revealing God as mighty Creator. 
 It is saying what it has said every day since it 
 came into being, "In the beginning, God." In 
 the midst of the changing, building, growing 
 world a man is transported to those first days 
 sketched and outlined on the first pages of the 
 Bible. He sees the building of the heavens, the 
 building of the sun, the building of the earth, 
 the finishing of the earth as the carpenter fin- 
 ishes the dwelling-house, until there are land 
 and sea, mountains and valleys, forests and 
 plains, waving grass and waving fronds of ferns 
 38
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 and waving branches of palm trees, and animals 
 that creep and fly and run; and he, amazed 
 and dumb and awe-stricken in the presence of 
 it, sees God, the mighty God, the Master- 
 Builder. He reads, "God made every tree to 
 grow," and as he sees the springing trees put- 
 ting forth leafage and blossoms and fruit he 
 bows to God, the mighty God. If he listens 
 too much to the word of some man he may 
 shut his eyes and say that after God worked 
 for a few days He rested ; He finished the world, 
 He started it going, and then went away and 
 has never come back to look after it. But if 
 he is a wise man, when the wild crab-apple puts 
 forth blossoms he will make it a visit, will look 
 at the growing trees, swelling waters, flitting 
 birds, blossoming flowers, humming bees; and 
 as he sees these things coming into being, and 
 growing into larger being, again will he be 
 amazed and dumb and awe-stricken, and in the 
 presence of it he will see God, the mighty God, 
 the PRESENT Master-Builder. 
 
 Nature shows that God is at work NOW. 
 He works nights as well as days, Sundays as 
 well as week-days. There is as much rain and 
 39
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 sunshine and singing of birds and building of 
 their nests while we worship as while we toil in 
 the shop or field. And have you not heard 
 the corn growing during the night? and have 
 you not seen the leaves unfurled with the com- 
 ing of the dawn as banners are unfurled by the 
 breeze? Here is no excuse for man. Here is 
 no argument against the Sabbath day or the 
 eight-hour law. Man is not built on a twenty- 
 four-hour schedule or a seven-day-a-week plan. 
 He needs a portion of the day for other work 
 than his regular job : for the home, society, self- 
 improvement. He needs the Sabbath for rest 
 and worship, the reading and study of the Bible, 
 more uninterrupted communion with God, at- 
 tendance upon church-services, doing of acts of 
 mercy. If man finds his highest joy in jaunts 
 to parks and out-of-door pleasures, then he is 
 merely an animal, a beast of the field. 
 
 But nature is not an end in itself, is not the 
 highest aim of man: it is the revealer of God; 
 and it shows Him always interested, always 
 present with and always caring for the things 
 He has made. It denies that He is dead or 
 sleeping or gone upon a journey. If my heart 
 40
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 aches because of the burdens and disappoint- 
 ments of life, as I look upon Him busied with 
 His creatures, He comes into my heart 
 
 "With a mild and healing sympathy, that steals away 
 Its sharpness, ere I am aware." 
 
 Yes, the Lord rested then, and He rests now; 
 His strength is so boundless, His burden is so 
 light, there is such joy in His labor, such cer- 
 tainty of the perfect work that shall one day 
 have proceeded forth from His hands. As I 
 see Him in His world I cry out in wonder: 
 "O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In 
 wisdom hast Thou made them all; the earth is 
 full of Thy riches." 
 
 Nature suggests and proves God. I know 
 some of the technical playing with words by 
 which philosophers may confuse us and assert 
 that it is impossible to prove God. Maybe so; 
 but I know the satisfaction of my own mind 
 and heart that can not be taken away with 
 technical subterfuges. I speak to the common, 
 hard-thinking man, and say that Nature will 
 strongly argue for God and prove God. Here 
 is revealed matchless comprehension that runs 
 41
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 into perfect wisdom. I am sure this is God's 
 world; there is so much of it. 
 
 There was a time when I might have named 
 several hundred plants growing about here, giv- 
 ing common and scientific names; but most of 
 the names have gone and many of the faces 
 have become strangers to me, so that I do not 
 recognize those that once were friends, when 
 I meet them in the woodland or meadow or 
 marsh. My mind is so small and feeble that 
 other things coming in have demanded and have 
 taken the room. Now assume what has never 
 existed: a human brain big enough to carry all 
 the names of all the plants that grow in every 
 corner of the world, and to know something of 
 their habits and their processes of growth; it 
 would be in dense ignorance of other depart- 
 ments of thought and knowledge. But a human 
 brain does not exist big enough so that we would 
 think of imputing comprehension to it even of 
 the plant-world. It may be suggestive of such 
 a brain, but nothing more; it may bear resem- 
 blance to a brain mighty enough to comprehend 
 all things, as the brain of a babe that has grown 
 enough so that it recognizes its mother's face 
 42
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 bears resemblance to the brain of a Blaine or a 
 La Follette who recognizes the faces of count- 
 less people. But as I look upon this world I 
 say that who is Creator of it must have a mind 
 big enough to number and name all the stars 
 and flowers and beetles and birds and all things 
 that are made, and not only to name them but 
 to know about them, whence they came, how 
 they live and grow and multiply, and whither 
 they are going. I am in the presence of Match- 
 less Comprehension, I am in the presence of 
 God. 
 
 I am sure this is God's world because of the 
 Skill displayed in it. Now, I am not ignorant 
 of man's devices; I glory in his progress, and 
 I believe that he will go on to the heights as 
 he learns more of God and His world; but 
 how bungling in comparison with the skill dis- 
 played by God in the world He has made. 
 Only this week I marveled at man's inventive- 
 ness displayed by the welcome given to the com- 
 mander of our battleships by the fleet which 
 awaited him, having been warned of his com- 
 ing by the weird power of wireless telegraphy. 
 And yet, how complicated it is ! The operator 
 43
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 must be on duty; must have his equipment 
 properly, skillfully adjusted (how easily it gets 
 out of order!) ; must catch the waves of ether 
 and translate them into language and transmit 
 them to proper authorities. These, in turn, 
 must issue orders, must have certain sign-flags 
 hung out ; they must be seen by the lookouts on 
 other ships, and translated and reported to the 
 officers, who in turn must issue orders. Finally, 
 and it is wonderful, the fleet is deployed to wel- 
 come the vessel of the commander who tele- 
 graphed his coming. But how bungling in 
 comparison with the flocks of birds God has 
 made, who somehow can instantaneously com- 
 municate their thoughts from leader to every 
 bird in the great flock, so that every order is 
 executed in faultless fashion. The phonograph, 
 marking one of man's great achievements, is a 
 wonderful instrument, catching, making im- 
 pressions of, giving forth again the sounds as 
 they have come to it from human throat; but 
 who would think of comparing it to the catbird 
 that God has made with mechanism so delicate, 
 and what is much more, with spirit so exuberant 
 and overflowing that it mounts the bush and fills 
 44
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 the air with its perfect sweetness. The printing- 
 press, taking the raw, blank paper and giving 
 it forth printed and folded and bound, is a won- 
 derful mechanism; but how crude as compared 
 to the living organism with lungs and heart, 
 with brain and sensory organs. I do not de- 
 grade man: he has done marvelous things; but 
 I exalt God, the Maker of man and Inspirer of 
 man and all that is. 
 
 I am sure of God because of life and growth. 
 In the presence of these we are in utter igno- 
 rance. Oh! we can tell something of the ap- 
 pearance, the conduct, the manners of life and 
 growth; but in their finalities they are utterly 
 nonunderstandable. Now, if we knew all of the 
 processes of life and in what fashion it came 
 to be, we should not eliminate God as Creator : 
 we would simply understand a little better how 
 He did things; they betray a superhuman 
 Power. As I stand in the presence of these 
 things and see the ebbing and swelling of life 
 and other forms of Nature's display, and see 
 in them the eternal, immutable God, and recog- 
 nize my relationship to Him, eternity and im- 
 mortality become more certain and more real. 
 45
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 The eternal God is the beginning and the end 
 of all things; the world is growing up to the 
 goal which He has planned for it; the eternal 
 God is the goal of man; toward Him we aspire, 
 toward Him we run or climb. This world with 
 all that it contains, and man with all his powers 
 endowed to have dominion over the world, is an 
 evidence of God's purpose and love. 
 
 So, this May day, as I look at the beauty of 
 the crab-apple blossoms that adorn these tables 
 in the sanctuary, and as I revel in the fragrance 
 that comes from these dainty blossoms and per- 
 meates this temple like the incense of old, I 
 praise God for the world He has made and 
 beautified and adorned with flower and 'bird, 
 and I thank Him for the love He bears the 
 children of men as shown in providing them 
 with this wonderful home, and I thank Him for 
 the Christ, the Son of God, who came with 
 abounding life, perfect life, and matchless love, 
 that He might find us and show us the way to 
 knowledge of God and faith and trust and 
 companionship. When I stand in the midst of 
 the wild crab-apple blossoms I do not stand 
 alone. Nearer than the color and fragrance of 
 46
 
 THE COMING OF SPRING 
 
 the flowers, "nearer than breathing, nearer than 
 hands and feet," is my blessed Master, my 
 Christ who walks abroad with me and helps 
 me to know the world and love the world; for 
 it is His and I am His, and He is mine. 
 
 47
 
 II 
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF 
 JOB
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. 
 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness 
 was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved 
 upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be 
 light: and there was light. And God saw the light that it 
 was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 
 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the 
 waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And 
 God made the firmament, and divided the waters which 
 were under the firmament from the waters which were 
 above the firmament: and it was so. And God said, Let the 
 waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, 
 and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God said, 
 Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and 
 the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in 
 itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And God said, Let us 
 make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them 
 have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the 
 air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every 
 creeping thing that crcepeth upon the earth. So God created 
 man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; 
 male and female created He them. And God blessed them, 
 and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and re- 
 plenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the 
 fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every 
 living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Be- 
 hold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is 
 upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which 
 is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for 
 meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of 
 the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, 
 wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for 
 meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that He had 
 made, and, behold, it was very good." — Genesis i.
 
 II 
 
 "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the 
 earth?" — Job 38:4. 
 
 GOD is spokesman, Job is listener, and 
 the text is from a dialogue in the Book 
 of Job, with God and man as speakers. 
 This is one of the great books of the Bible. 
 If the novelist tells us that the essentials of a 
 good story are a distinguished hero, plenty of 
 excitement, difficulty and uncertainty, and a suc- 
 cessful termination of the hero's career, the con- 
 ditions are here fulfilled. As literature, this 
 drama with its choice language and stirring ac- 
 tion is worthy of a place among the world's 
 notable writings, for it deals with the deepest 
 issues of life. And the man who is concerned 
 about the relationship that exists or ought to 
 exist between God and man finds here much 
 food for thought. As a story, as literature, as 
 philosophy, as a religious work, it is a great 
 book, worthy of the place it occupies in the 
 "Book of books." 
 
 51
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 But it has not held and does not hold its 
 place without contention and debate. With the 
 possible exception of the Book of Jonah, there 
 is perhaps no other in the Bible that has been 
 the center of such bitter discussion, the subject 
 of so many harsh accusations. It reminds me 
 of some mighty rock along the North Atlantic 
 Coast. Standing on the shore-line with crags 
 and woods behind it, thrusting defiantly into the 
 ocean, rearing its majestic form above land and 
 sea, it might be such a scene of beauty, it might 
 inspire such repose and peace. But this is al- 
 ways denied by the surrounding elements. 
 Often the clouds gather about its brow, and 
 break in snow or rain, and the fog seems always 
 there. If there are moments when the fog is 
 lifting and the sun is about to enkindle the place 
 with its brightness, the fog gathers again, more 
 densely than before, and comes rolling in to 
 obscure the view. Often the fierce winds drive 
 across the seas, and the huge waves, sullen, gray 
 and somber, smite against the rock with blows 
 of Titan's fists. And always the rough waters 
 are growling and gnawing at the rock's foun- 
 dation. And one hears the poet's word: 
 52
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 "Break, break, break 
 
 At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! 
 But the tender grace of a day that is dead 
 Will never come back to me." 
 
 The day is dead because of cloud and fog and 
 wind and wave. So for many generations this 
 book has been the center of acrimonious debate, 
 the subject of bitter attacks, of heated contro- 
 versy, and has been wrapped in fogs of obscure 
 and involved meaning. Its right to a place in 
 the Bible has been denied. The argument is 
 something like this : Job was not a Jew. He 
 lived in the land of Uz, lying somewhere to 
 the southeast of Palestine, and was perhaps a 
 Sabean or Chaldean. Now, the Bible, or the 
 Old Testament particularly, is a history of God's 
 dealings with the Jews. -They are His chosen 
 people, and it is the baldest effrontery for any- 
 body not a Jew to have a place claimed for him 
 in that Book. 
 
 It is the same argument to which we have 
 been listening during these recent days. Word 
 has gone out that President Taft expects to ap- 
 point a certain Boston lawyer as one of the 
 Federal attorneys. Immediately there is a pro- 
 test, but not against the man's ability. He is 
 53
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 amply proficient in his profession; he will be, 
 able to safeguard the Government's interests as 
 entrusted to him, with credit. His reputation 
 is unsullied. He is an honorable man. Why 
 then the protest? "Why, he is a black man, 
 and black men have no right to know law and 
 have brains and be honorable. These distinc- 
 tions God has given to the white race, and the 
 black man is a usurper and an intruder." Now, 
 if the argument is sound, of course the same 
 reasoning will eliminate the Book of Job from 
 the Old Testament; but if ability is to be the 
 measure of a man's rank, and if every man is 
 to have a chance to show his worth and ability, 
 and if the Bible is true in declaring that "God 
 is no respecter of persons," and Jesus true when 
 He insisted that the children of Abraham are 
 measured not by ties of flesh and blood, but 
 rather by obedience and service, — then this book 
 with its lofty religious note and with its hero, 
 a God-fearing man, is worthy of the place it 
 occupies. 
 
 Again, there has been and is bitter disputing 
 as to whether Job is a real character. Some 
 insist that he was an actual man, while others 
 54
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 with equal vehemence insist that the book is a 
 story and that Job is a fictitious character. 
 Around this question, what a storm has pre- 
 vailed! On the one hand the Churchman has 
 assured us that unless we can substantiate the 
 position that Job is a real man, the Church is 
 doomed. Let me state the position strongly 
 and baldly, that w T e may see it clearly. "If 
 Job was not a real man the Bible can not be 
 trusted, for it so represented him; and if the 
 Bible can not be trusted at one point it can 
 not be at any point; and if the Bible is un- 
 authentic we have no record of God, and we 
 are living in densest ignorance, with the Church 
 and Kingdom built upon the sand and doomed 
 to fall." On the other hand we are told that 
 "nobody with intelligence believes that Job was 
 a real man. It is an oriental story, with all 
 the embellishments of the eastern writers, and 
 just a little thought and study and investigation 
 would satisfy any one that this is so. Why, 
 for anybody to believe that Job actually lived, 
 in this day of modern knowledge, shows a lack 
 of brains." And this is very distressing to some 
 of us who believe that Job actually lived, or at 
 55
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 least may have lived, in outline as the book sug- 
 gests. Our conceit is disturbed when we are 
 accused of ignorance because we hold a differ- 
 ent theory from some other man. Here again 
 the battle is mainly between straw-men, and the 
 worthy point of consideration is being over- 
 looked. 
 
 After all, it does not matter whether such 
 a man lived ages ago. Make that man unique 
 or shut him away from our day, and we have 
 no interest in him. Our interest is in the men 
 of our day. And the preacher can tell you that 
 in his parish Job is not a fictitious character; 
 he can tell you of men and women whose mis- 
 fortunes may not have been of the same name 
 but of the same kind, misfortunes so keen and 
 overwhelming as to try the very foundations 
 of the soul. And the question with which we 
 are concerned is this : When a man is so shaken, 
 is God near enough and accessible enough so 
 that it is possible for the man in his bitterness 
 to find Him, so that he will not suffer ship- 
 wreck? The storms about this book are man- 
 made and of little account. The mighty truths 
 of God are upon its pages. 
 56
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 This book has been studied by eminent schol- 
 ars, it has been variously interpreted from many 
 viewpoints, each school of theology has been 
 able to find vindication on its pages. While the 
 discussion is going on, and while our friends are 
 arriving at some unanimous verdict, let me give 
 you an interpretation this morning that is plain, 
 simple, practical and, I trust, helpful. If it is 
 not the common interpretation, I appeal to you 
 as to a jury whether it is not a reasonable one 
 and whether a re-reading of the book will not 
 convince you of its credence. 
 
 Broadly speaking, the book divides itself into 
 three parts. The first represents the afflictions 
 of the man : lightning scatters the flock, the 
 enemy destroys the property, death removes the 
 children, and the heart of Job is filled with sor- 
 row and questioning and despair and bitterness. 
 The second part represents the visitation of 
 three friends, perhaps a Church committee, 
 who have heard of the grief of Job and have 
 come to console him. Whether a formal 
 Church committee or not, they come with the 
 beliefs of the Church of their day. They are 
 the theologians of their time. But their visit 
 
 57
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 is fruitless and injurious. Each one states his 
 conviction, but these convictions do not agree, 
 and Job is only puzzled and confused by their 
 endeavors. Moreover, it is one man's opinion 
 against another's; and when one of them slaps 
 Job in the face by accusing him of being a 
 sinner, a very wicked man, Job strikes back, 
 and the result of the interview is to make Job 
 more bitter and angry and resentful. Then an- 
 other man appears, and I think of him as one 
 of the shepherds of Job perhaps, who had 
 watched his flocks in the surrounding fields and 
 there had learned the ways of God. At the 
 first he offers his own ideas to Job, as the others 
 had done, and it has the same effect upon Job 
 apparently. Then he directs the attention of 
 Job to God's world of Nature about him, and 
 retires from the scene. 
 
 The third part represents God and Job face 
 to face in the world. Job is contemplating Na- 
 ture. He sees now the things at hand, and 
 thinks about them: the cloud and rain and 
 snow ; the frost and ice ; the stars and constella- 
 tions in the sky above. He sees now with new 
 meaning the greater world in which he lives. 
 58
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 In yonder places he sees the ostrich which buries 
 its eggs in the sand and allows the heat of the 
 sun-warmed sand to hatch them while it runs 
 footraces with the Arab of the desert, and thus 
 entices the horseman from its nest, because God 
 has taught it so much. He sees with new mean- 
 ing the behemoth or hippopotamus, strong and 
 fearless, with bones like iron because God has 
 made it so. He sees now the leviathan or croco- 
 dile with its fiery eyes and scaled sides, proof 
 against man's weapons, and with marvelous 
 speed as it travels the waters. And as Job con- 
 templates these wonders of Nature he learns 
 as he had never learned from human lips the 
 plan and purpose and ability of God; he sees 
 obedience everywhere, everywhere. Then, too, 
 God has a purpose and plan for him, and God 
 is able to accomplish that purpose; then he will 
 be obedient and submissive to God in every- 
 thing. And as in obedient spirit he bows be- 
 fore God, resignation and peace and prosperity 
 await him. Job is saved from his temptation 
 and despair by his contemplation of Nature. 
 Job is not unique. His experience may be the 
 experience of the man of our day. 
 59
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 This world is full of marvelous things. The 
 wonders of Nature are everywhere about us, 
 fortunately available to every man. People 
 travel far and wide to see Nature's displays: 
 the Niagara Falls, Yellowstone National Park, 
 Garden of the Gods, the Alps in Switzerland, 
 the Rhine in Germany, the Italian skies, Scot- 
 land's lochs, and Norway's firths. For those 
 who are able, it is commendable, but is chiefly 
 necessary because these travelers usually take 
 off their "seeing" glasses when they return to 
 their homes. One does not need to go abroad 
 to be overwhelmed by the majesty of Nature. 
 The man tracking the plow in the field or driv- 
 ing the cows to pasture is in the very midst of 
 Nature's supreme efforts. The man who walks 
 the hard pavement of the city has the universe 
 within his reach; and if he can only find a spot 
 of sward upon which to plant his foot, will find 
 beneath it such a collection of Nature's works 
 as to afford him material for study and con- 
 templation for all his days without exhausting 
 its contents. Even the invalid confined to the 
 room, through the open window by day can 
 watch the ever-shifting clouds now piling them- 
 60
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 selves along the horizon like some great city 
 of modern times or like the ruins of some an- 
 cient one, and now a fleecy lightness and white- 
 ness drifting lazily across the sky, and again 
 
 WONDERS OF NATURE 1 
 
 like some great, dark battleships moving to war 
 as they are driven madly by the wind. Or one 
 may see the gorgeous sunset, when the western 
 sky is belted with broad bands of rose and blue 
 and purple and sapphire. And at night, 
 through the same window, one can look into 
 61
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 the heights of the sky and watch the great globe 
 so thickly studded with stars and set with con- 
 stellations slowly moving, ever moving with the 
 earth in the center of it; or one may climb the 
 heights and, as imagination runs riot, wonder 
 as he gazes at the tiniest, farthest star whether 
 if he should speed all his days as fast as man 
 can go, whether some day he might reach that 
 star and bring it to earth and put it in his box 
 of playthings — and forget that it is already 
 there. 
 
 People came long distances to our city to 
 see the wonderful flying-machine, and then were 
 denied because the breeze blew. But the other 
 day, while the wind in mad gusts swept the 
 heavens, I looked far up and saw there a won- 
 derful flying-machine — the red-shouldered hawk 
 — sailing in majestic circles, holding steadily 
 against the wind or easing away before it, with 
 moving wing or with stationary wing, it did 
 not matter. Here was perfect grace and per- 
 fect rhythm and perfect freedom, for it was 
 master of the sky and wind, and can be seen 
 from your doorstep. And in the suburbs of the 
 city I have watched great numbers of flying- 
 62
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 machines — some species of plover, perchance — 
 spring into the air, fly in quick circles, wheel 
 short, swoop, speed away, alight only a few 
 inches apart, and never a collision and never an 
 accident; and this can be seen from the window 
 of the street-car. Men will make long jour- 
 neys to see the launching of a great ship, and 
 watch with curiosity and breathless interest to 
 see whether man's efforts will be successful. 
 But the launching of a baby bird in your yard, 
 when the time to leave the nest has come, is 
 more fascinating, more wonderful, more cer- 
 tain. Travelers go to the Nile to see the lotus- 
 bloom and to catch its fragrance; but the 
 marshes of our fields grow the white water-lily, 
 as entrancing in beauty, as delicious in odor. 
 The wonders of Nature are everywhere; they 
 are here at hand, for the instruction of man 
 concerning God. 
 
 And they are in our presence all the time. 
 When the day is on, there is the bewitching 
 tracery of foliage, there are flowers of innumer- 
 able kinds and inexhaustible beauty, and the 
 birds are about with the throats swelling with 
 song. And when the night comes, the soft 
 63
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 moonlight may chasten and subdue the earth, 
 the stars look down in gentleness like the gentle 
 eyes of kine. And if all alone, away from city's 
 blare of trumpets, away from u the madding 
 crowd," one may hear the music of the night — 
 not the shriller note of cricket, not the louder, 
 accidental note of some wandering bird, but the 
 more quiet, subdued, insistent music of the 
 night. When all is so still that the blood flow- 
 ing about the ear seems to leap and dash like 
 distant waterfall, then this music seems to ooze 
 out of the very stars above and air about and 
 soil beneath our feet. 
 
 When the sun shines, the shadows are chas- 
 ing one another in childish glee across the fields 
 of billowing grain; or in the forest, the sun- 
 light falls in scattered flakes upon the ground. 
 When the day is dark one stands perhaps be- 
 neath some woodland tree and listens to the 
 music as the drops of rain come pattering down 
 upon the leaves or drip from leafy stems, or 
 hears the liquid globules of music as the great 
 drops fall upon the face of the lingering pond 
 of the creek, and sees the flower that has closed 
 so that the rain shall not beat it in the face, 
 64
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 and sees some feathered forest-dweller hanging 
 to the side of the tree beneath a limb and away 
 from the storm, dry and cozy, fitting comrade 
 for such a day. 
 
 When winter comes and the leaves are fallen, 
 the trees are at their best and display their true 
 beauty, the oak so straight and sturdy and 
 rugged and soldier-like, the elm so graceful and 
 delicate and almost coy; and then the snow- 
 storm, when the great flakes fall like autumn 
 leaves, or when the fierce wind piles into fan- 
 tastic shapes, and the buds containing leaf and 
 flower and fruit for another year are tucked to 
 bed to sleep throughout the winter, more dain- 
 tily than any mother's hands ever tucked human 
 babe away. And when the spring comes the 
 wonders do not cease. The winter fumes and 
 frets and ever keeps its face toward the south- 
 land, and ever retreats with snarling lips to 
 the northland. 
 
 And the spring comes on, and the grass is 
 growing and the flowers are blooming and the 
 birds are singing; ah me! the wonders of spring 
 time! And the spring has gone and the sum- 
 mer has come, and we scarcely knew it ; but the 
 5 65
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 wonders have not ceased. And now the fields 
 are waving with grain, and the orchard-boughs 
 are bending with growing fruit, and the road- 
 sides are resplendent with bloom; the summer 
 is here, but the wonders have not ended. And 
 the summer, almost before we know it, has 
 faded into autumn, and the fields are mown, 
 and the corn is rustling in the slightest breeze, 
 and the cheeks of apples are painted with gaudy 
 hues; for the wonders have not ceased. 
 
 And it seems NOW, for autumn is here, as 
 though there could not be a time of year when 
 there were such wonders and so many wonders 
 as now. The farmer makes his slow way along 
 the rows of standing corn, and the thud of 
 golden ears comes across the field, sweet music 
 singing of God's bountifulness to the children 
 of men. And the piles of ruddy apples 'neath 
 barren trees is proof enough that God knew His 
 business when He wrapped the buds in winter 
 time and flung the leaves to the breezes in spring 
 time and grew the fruit in summer time and 
 brought it to its fulness in autumn time. And 
 the gorgeous colors hang upon the trees as 
 though, before God had stripped the branches 
 66
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 for future plans to be executed, He would leave 
 with us a pleasant memory against the coming 
 of the leaves again. 
 
 How dare I speak of autumn glories ? In the 
 city of Chicago there is now a splendid art- 
 exhibit. Masters of many nationalities are rep- 
 resented, and there are some of their finest 
 works, a galaxy of art showing the cunning of 
 man's hands, the genius of man's brain, the 
 warmth of man's heart. Any one having the 
 opportunity would gladly see the splendid dis- 
 play of paintings. But it was my privilege re- 
 cently to see an exhibit of far-surpassing beauty. 
 It was during the session of our Annual Con- 
 ference. I enjoy the company of preachers and 
 enjoy listening to their lectures and addresses 
 and debates; but there was no time for that: 
 there was too much work handling the benevo- 
 lence money. But there was time enough to 
 slip down to the bridge spanning Rock River 
 for a few minutes, two or three times each day, 
 and lose myself for that length of time in Na- 
 ture's art gallery. As I stood, with arms on 
 the railing of the bridge, forgetful of my sur- 
 roundings, some passer-by may have thought 
 67
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 that I contemplated suicide. The only trouble 
 with his thinking was that it was too slow. I 
 had already ceased to realize my existence; I 
 was swallowed up, was lost in the great world 
 about me. 
 
 But this was what I saw. There were many 
 islands in the river carpeted with rich green 
 grass, appearing like so many emeralds in a 
 broad ribbon of silver. Man had thrown an 
 obstruction across the river. But the waters, 
 disdaining and scorning the hindrance, leaped 
 across the barrier, throwing themselves trium- 
 phantly into silver spray; or seizing upon the 
 wandering rays of light, tore them into frag- 
 ments and adorned the spray with the colors of 
 the rainbow. On one bank near at hand was 
 a mass of tangled bittersweet. Already the 
 leaves, turned yellow, were sifting to the ground, 
 detached by the slightest effort; but every fall- 
 ing leaf but made more plain and more resplend- 
 ent the berries that lingered. The frost had put 
 its icy fingers upon the outer orange caskets, 
 and these had opened and spread apart, show- 
 ing the ruby-red berry within, bright as coral 
 beads. On the other bank was a patch of 
 68
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 sumach flaunting its flaming plumes of crimson 
 leaves and garnet berries. Farther away sullen 
 bluffs outcropped, and the banks and larger 
 islands were covered with trees. Already the 
 reds and browns and russets were creeping 
 across the face of the foliage, but it was a few 
 days too early to see these colors at their best. 
 This was particularly an exhibit of yellows, and 
 they were here of every shade and tint. The 
 distance was such that one did not try to dis- 
 tinguish the particular tree or bush or shape of 
 leaf. It was sufficient to see the rich display of 
 tints, and these were ever-changing. Every 
 added visit revealed new beauties. The colors 
 were becoming deeper and richer. There was 
 no startling change, but as by the hand of man 
 one stereopticon picture dissolves into another, 
 so here by the matchless skill of God one pic- 
 ture grew out of another; the green was dis- 
 solving into yellow, the yellow into gold. It 
 was evident that while I was away the Master- 
 Painter was not away, but was busy with paints, 
 changing, enriching, and adding new beauty to 
 the scene. And the flood of light from noon- 
 day sun, the slanting rays of twilight sun, the 
 69
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 dullness of hazy day, the calmness of quiet air, 
 the stirring of breeze upon leaf and river made 
 even more changing an ever-changing pano- 
 rama. 
 
 "Well, what has all this to do with the 
 Church? What difference does it make to 
 Christianity and noble character and to knowl- 
 edge of God that leaves are green or red, and 
 there are clouds in the sky, and flowers under 
 foot? Of what use is Nature to the religious 
 welfare of man?" My contention is that the 
 contemplation of Nature was good for Job and 
 gave him essential knowledge of God; and the 
 contemplation of Nature is good for me and, I 
 am sure, for any man with open eyes and sym- 
 pathetic mind. 
 
 Here is convincing proof of God's ability. 
 If God is able to number the stars, to marshal 
 them into constellations, to lead them in troops 
 across the sky, to sow them thick as snowflakes 
 in the "milky way," and to keep them in their 
 courses, then I do not doubt but that God is 
 able to be Master of this human world, and to 
 work His will, and to rule in the affairs of na- 
 tions and cause them to do His bidding. And 
 70
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 if sometimes the nation seems indisposed or un- 
 concerned or "mindful of the things of low de- 
 gree," I will not be cast down, for God is able. 
 And if God can do so much with so little to 
 do with, if God can with a tiny, insignificant 
 acorn make the great oak with sturdy branches 
 and abundant leafage and bounteous fruitage, 
 causing that acorn to burst asunder its prison- 
 house and to conquer every hindrance, then I 
 do not doubt but that God is able to save the 
 very lowest man, do not doubt that there is 
 enough good even there, with God's help and 
 support, to grow into a noble, useful life; and 
 that, no matter what the prison-house may be, 
 or what chains may bind or barriers intervene, 
 there is hope for that man, and salvation is pos- 
 sible: for God is able. 
 
 Here, too, is convincing proof of God's pur- 
 pose. Nature is not a world of chance or care- 
 lessness or uselessness. Everything has its mis- 
 sion. The very shape and color and fragrance 
 of the flower are not accidental and do not re- 
 veal mere passing whims of a Creator. Every- 
 thing in Nature is significant and purposeful. 
 And as one sees this and realizes this beyond 
 71
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 shadow of doubt, the conclusion is plain: there 
 is some reason for my being, my existence. 
 I am a part of God's world and of God's plan. 
 And in proportion as my rank is high among 
 God's creatures, so am I sure that that purpose 
 is a worthy and fitting one. 
 
 Here is example enough and proof enough 
 as to the necessity of obedience to God. It is 
 obedience everywhere. The mightiest sun, the 
 tide of ocean, the blade of grass, the drop of 
 dew, the mote that dances in streaming sunlight, 
 reveal absolute obedience to the will of God. 
 Here is law, majestic and unbroken. Here is 
 respect for law, implicit and unquestioned. And 
 here is argument and inspiration that man, mas- 
 ter of his destiny, is doing the wise and neces- 
 sary thing when he yields himself to the law and 
 will of God. 
 
 Above your desks on the office-wall or on the 
 walls of your homes perhaps there are Roths- 
 child's maxims, or other maxims, urging fru- 
 gality, diligence, perseverance, cheerfulness, or 
 other attributes that make for success and honor 
 and happiness in life. God's maxims and mot- 
 toes and sermons are printed upon every leaf 
 72
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 and every flower and every cloud and every star. 
 They are everywhere, and only the blind man 
 or the perverted man can fail to read. Here 
 is unquestionable proof for Bible texts. If 
 Jesus commanded the disciples to gather up the 
 crumbs after He had made loaves beyond com- 
 pute, and so urged frugality, Nature is preach- 
 ing the value of the fragments constantly, using 
 the dead leaf to protect the living plant from 
 the cold, using the dew to refresh the vegeta- 
 tion. If the Bible insists that "whatsoever a 
 man soweth, that shall he also reap," and man 
 is always disputing it, Nature proves it beyond 
 dispute. We can not gather "grapes from 
 thorns or figs from thistles." The great prin- 
 ciples of the religious life find in Nature proof 
 or verification. It is God's world; and God, 
 who laid the foundation of it in the beginning, 
 is still laying the foundations and building the 
 walls and adorning the rooms. Man is in it, 
 but man need not be of it; and the question, 
 sharp as any spear-point which God asked of 
 Job, is asked of you this day, Where art thou 
 when God is laying the foundations of the 
 earth? 
 
 73
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 While men might be learning about God from 
 Nature, some of them are deliberately or igno- 
 rantly destroying its wonders. At the close of 
 the Annual Conference it was my privilege to 
 visit my boyhood home and to drive over the 
 road where as a boy I had walked out of the 
 village to the country school, or to the woods 
 where I spent many happy boyhood hours. 
 There was a sadness to the day because of the 
 changes that had been wrought. There had 
 been a broad stone-fence made of shale-rock, 
 and it had been one of our boyish tricks, bare- 
 footed, to run along the top and balance our- 
 selves as we ran ; and so we developed the cun- 
 ning of the squirrel; here the woodchuck had 
 its burrow, and as we ran and played it stood 
 erect like a soldier and whistled, and then, like 
 a coward, pitched headlong into its burrow. 
 And here sometimes we saw the weasel, and in 
 winter the dainty footprints of the deerfooted 
 mouse. But the stone-fence had disappeared, 
 and in its place was a barb-wire fence; for the 
 stone wall took too much room. Another fur- 
 row of ground must be turned, that a little more 
 corn might be raised for the fattening of a few 
 74
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 more hogs. And there had been a rail-fence, 
 sprawling roomily along the road, clambered 
 over with bittersweet and carrion-flower and 
 leathery clematis; in the corners of it grew the 
 hazel-brush and the wild roses, and there the 
 bloodroot and yellow violet and adder's tongue 
 bloomed; and the chipmunk with banded sides 
 saucily ran along the rails, and the downy wood- 
 pecker hunted for food as nonchalantly as 
 though we were not in existence or — sly rascal — 
 pretended to be hunting for food in the crannies 
 of the rails; and once a little chickadee hol- 
 lowed out a home in the heart of a rail, and 
 there laid its delicately-spotted eggs and reared 
 its young. The rail-fence taught us many of 
 Nature's secrets, but it is gone now, and in its 
 place a woven-wire fence. It took too much 
 room. Two or three additional furrows of 
 ground must be turned, that a little more corn 
 might be raised for the fattening of a few more 
 hogs. And there had been a hedge-fence of 
 osage-orange trees. In the autumn we had 
 gathered the yellow-green oranges as ornaments 
 for the clock-shelf. Here, always, the brown 
 thrasher nested, and the butcher bird and the 
 75
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 robin and the catbird and the goldfinch. And 
 in the winter the rabbit made its bunk in the 
 long grass that grew unmolested among the 
 trees. And I have sometimes caught the rabbit 
 asleep, and with boyish shout leaped upon it, 
 and watched it spring away with long leaps, 
 frightened and ashamed that it had been thus 
 surprised. The hedge-fence is gone now, and 
 in its place there is nothing; for there must be 
 more room for the growing of corn for the fat- 
 tening of hogs. And there had been a wild 
 crab-apple thicket, where the bluejays nested 
 and scolded us and cried, "G'way, g'way!" In 
 the spring the branches were festooned with 
 pink and white, and the air was redolent with 
 precious perfume, and in the autumn the ground 
 was strewn with tantalizing fruit. During the 
 summer, as we saw the growing apples, we 
 planned to store them for the winter. But some- 
 how we never did — after we tasted one. And 
 there was a slough where the redwing black- 
 birds nested, and where the booming bitterns 
 reared their young, and where in the winter the 
 rabbits bunked and the prairie-hens roosted. I 
 haa flushed them by hundreds, or watched them 
 76
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 walking on the snow and feeding on the scat- 
 tered ears of corn that had been overlooked in 
 husking-time. But all of this is changed now. 
 The wild crabs are gone, and the slough is 
 
 % h ; 
 
 I 
 
 ^^B r-' v./< 
 
 
 Y i% 
 
 
 m ' 
 
 THE BOOMING BITTERNS REARED THEIR YOUNG 
 
 drained, that a little more corn may be raised. 
 We must be well-fed and grow fat ; but as prog- 
 ress, agriculturally speaking, has slowly made 
 its way across the land it has destroyed many 
 things that fed the mind and heart. And I sub- 
 mit that there is danger of our being so much 
 77
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 concerned about growing fat in body that we 
 forget the needs of the mind and soul. 
 
 If some men are destroyers, others are blind, 
 walking in the midst of Nature's wonders, 
 standing in the midst of Nature's truths, and not 
 seeing. And this, I think, had been the fault 
 of Job. Good man that he was, careful to 
 make his sacrifices and concerned about the wel- 
 fare of his children, still he had been unim- 
 pressed by the great lessons taught by God's 
 world. The servants had reported that there 
 were seven thousand sheep; and Job said, "It 
 has been a good year; there were but six thou- 
 sand a year ago." They had said, "There are 
 three thousand camels;" and he had said, "It is 
 a good year; there were but two thousand a year 
 ago." As though the goodness of a year and 
 the worth of a year could be measured by the 
 increase of the flocks or the possessions. Yet, 
 how many are measuring life by such standards, 
 counting life to consist of the "abundance of 
 things it possesseth," remembering God perhaps 
 for a few minutes on the Sabbath day, making 
 sacrifices before the altar regularly perhaps, but 
 78
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 devoting the greater time to the things of the 
 body; reading God's word on written page, and 
 listening to the sermon as a message from God 
 from the pulpit, and making confession of 
 Christ, and then going out into God's world, 
 where God's truth is written, and where God's 
 sermons are preached, and where God is always 
 present making it a holy world, and forgetting 
 that it is God's world and that God is in it, 
 and making it only a market-place, a feeding- 
 place for swine, a place where the body is cared 
 for, but where mind and heart are ignored? 
 
 I do not plead for less observance of the 
 Sabbath, and less regard for the Church and 
 the Christ, and less time devoted to prayer and 
 reading of Bible; but I do plead for such a 
 recognition of this world as God's world and 
 for such removal of blindness and for such de- 
 sire for the enrichment of mind and the culti- 
 vation of heart that every day shall be a holy 
 day, that every hill shall be a temple, that every 
 thing that is shall be a preacher of God's 
 majesty and glory. Then will we be ever mind- 
 ful of God's presence. Then shall come to pass 
 79
 
 NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 
 
 the saying that is written, "The mountains and 
 the hills shall break forth before you into sing- 
 ing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their 
 hands: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, 
 for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut 
 off." 
 
 80
 
 Ill 
 
 IMPOSSIBLE SONGS OF NATURE AND 
 REDEMPTION
 
 IMPOSSIBLE SONGS OF NATURE AND 
 REDEMPTION 
 
 "Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the 
 heaven: praise Him in the heights. Praise ye Him, all His 
 angels: praise ye Him, all His hosts. Praise ye Him, sun and 
 moon: praise Him, all ye stars of light. Praise Him, ye 
 heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. 
 Let them praise the name of the Lord: for He commanded, 
 and they were created. He hath also established them for 
 ever and ever: He hath made a decree which shall not pass. 
 Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: 
 fire, and hail; snow, and vapors; stormy wind fulfilling His 
 word: mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: 
 beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl: kings 
 of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the 
 earth: both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: 
 let them praise the name of the Lord: for His name alone is 
 excellent ; His glory is above the earth and heaven. He also 
 exalteth the horn of His people, the praise of all His saints; 
 even of the children of Israel, a people near unto Him. 
 Praise ye the Lord." — Psalm 148. 
 
 "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither 
 do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father 
 feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which 
 of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 
 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies 
 of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they 
 spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his 
 glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, 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 ?" — Matthew 6 : 26-30. 
 
 "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of 
 them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But 
 the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not 
 therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.' — Mat- 
 thew 10:29-31.
 
 Ill 
 
 "No man could learn that song." — Revelation 14:3. 
 
 JOHN declares that there are songs beyond 
 the power of man to sing, and songs which 
 are possible only for the regenerate man. 
 For the 'text, continued, reads, "No man could 
 learn that song but the redeemed." It is not 
 a distortion of the text, I am sure, to say that 
 there are songs which only God can teach, and 
 which therefore lead us directly and simply to 
 see Him and worship Him. And I wish, this 
 morning, that we might notice and might listen 
 to the songs of Nature, the singing of the brook, 
 the singing of the birds, the song of the night, 
 and listen to the songs of the human heart, 
 whose music has sweetened and cheered the 
 world because God has caused it to be. 
 
 John is no doubter of man's ability, is not 
 
 seeking to discredit or belittle the possibilities 
 
 or deeds of man. In this book he has written 
 
 he speaks of the achievements of kings and na- 
 
 83
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 tions, and declares that these are not ignored 
 by God, but will be one of the possessions and 
 appreciations of heaven. 
 
 John is not challenging man's powers. There 
 are pessimists enough in this world to do that, 
 to declare that man has reached his limit, that 
 there is no new thing under the sun, that man 
 is like a ship with a broken rudder, drifting at 
 the mercy of wind and tide. How often these 
 gloomy orators are discomfited! These doubt- 
 ers said that the ocean could not be crossed, 
 that it would swallow its victims or hurl them 
 over its straight-standing edge to destruction; 
 and Columbus with puny ships and poor equip- 
 ment and timid seamen, but boundless faith, 
 put out to sea and proved that it could be done, 
 and became the first naturalized American. 
 These doubters said that ships could not be pro- 
 pelled through the water, driven against wind 
 and tide by steam; and Fulton proceeded to 
 demonstrate that it could be done. Doubting 
 ones from the time of Darius Green have ridi- 
 culed the idea that the air could be navigated 
 by men, and lo! while they sneer and scoff and 
 speak of those who have died in the attempt, 
 84
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 Bleriot wings his way across the channel and 
 drops down on English soil ; and Curtis and the 
 Wright brothers come home from France with 
 breasts covered with medals and pockets bulg- 
 
 THE SINGING OF THE BROOK 
 
 ing with money — visible proof of man's ability 
 to do. While scoffers were saying that the 
 north pole never could be reached, men of 
 courage said that it could be done. And if one 
 of our countrymen came back with the marks 
 of fraud upon him, another returned — Peary, 
 85
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 the American, lugging the north pole under 
 his arm. The testimony of libraries and art- 
 galleries, the biographies of men and nations, 
 the echoes that are wafted from every age and 
 come floating across the centuries unite in say- 
 ing, "It can be done; it can be done." Man is 
 so great, his achievements are so notable that 
 it is hardly safe to say what he can not do. 
 And sometimes in our pride or ignorance we 
 feel that he can do everything, that he can sing 
 every song. 
 
 God must be proud of His children at times. 
 Oh! there are times enough when He has no 
 occasion to be proud; when man is refusing to 
 be great or to do the great things; when man 
 is drunken, and manhood has been swallowed 
 up in beastliness; when man is cruel and op- 
 pressive, and brotherhood has been swallowed 
 up in selfishness; when man is lustful and pro- 
 fane, bitter and cynical, ignorant and indolent, 
 squandering time and talent and opportunity. 
 Oh ! then God is humiliated and disgraced. 
 But when man is at his best, keen-eyed to see 
 the task, strong-hearted to attempt the task, 
 brawny-armed or brawny-brained to do the 
 86
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 task, then God must be pleased with His chil- 
 dren. For God wrote the problems and told 
 men to solve them. God wrote the problem 
 of the mighty sea, the frozen north, the shift- 
 ing tide, the fickle air, wrote the problem con- 
 taining an "X," an unknown quantity, and 
 fired man's heart and brain with ambition to 
 solve it. And man's part is to supply the miss- 
 ing term, steam or electricity or gravitation, by 
 discovery or invention. And when man shows 
 shrewdness and brain-force and patience and 
 perseverance and grit and energy and sacrifice 
 to work the problem, God is surely pleased with 
 him. 
 
 And man ought to be grateful to God for 
 problems to work and for talents to work with, 
 for the development that comes with work; for 
 without it muscles remain puny and flaccid, and 
 brain remains in ignorance and impotence. He 
 ought to be grateful for the teaching-ways of 
 God, pointing, directing, suggesting, in the mo- 
 ments of man's bewilderment so that he can 
 prevail, can overcome. For man can not do 
 these things without God's help, either to pro- 
 vide the opportunity or to endow him with the 
 87
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 talents, however undeveloped, with which it 
 may be improved. And for very gratitude for 
 these blessings man ought to be a Christian, 
 ought to realize his dependence upon God, ac- 
 knowledge his dependence, and be obedient to 
 God in every way. And most of all, we ought 
 to live the godly. life, growing a character like 
 the blessed Master, Son of God. For God's 
 supremest purpose is not the building of oceans 
 to sail, or mountains to , climb, or forests to 
 penetrate, but the building of a race of men 
 worthy to be called His sons, to abide with 
 Him forever. And man's crowning achieve- 
 ment is not the exploring of a desolate land, the 
 discovery of the north pole, the building of a 
 flying-machine, however meritorious these may 
 be; but his supremest achievement is the en- 
 thronement of Jesus Christ in the heart and the 
 conquering of the passions and the directing of 
 them until Christ is Master of the life. Man 
 is so great in possibility and achievement that 
 we do not wonder at the psalmist crying : "What 
 is man, that Thou art mindful of him? For 
 Thou hast made him a little lower than the 
 angels, and hast crowned him with glory and 
 88
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 honor. Thou madest him to have dominion 
 over the works of Thy hands." 
 
 John is making no attempt to discredit man, 
 but he does recognize his limitations, which are 
 apparent enough. The earth is huge, colossal; 
 but it has boundaries. The ocean extending 
 from pole to pole, stretches away before us 
 day after day as we sail, challenging our powers 
 of imagination, seeming limitless ; but the ocean 
 is held in leash by the great continents; it may 
 thunder against the rocky coasts of Maine and 
 Newfoundland, it may heap itself into great 
 tides or work itself into a frenzy of waves, and 
 may thrust the shore-line back a brief span ; but 
 there are limits beyond which it can not go, 
 there are regions it can not traverse, heights it 
 can not climb. And so it is with man. How- 
 ever great the range of his powers, whatever 
 impression he may make upon the boundaries 
 of ignorance and sin that seek to crowd in upon 
 him and narrow his attainments : there are fixed 
 boundaries beyond which he can not go, heights 
 to which he can not climb; there are songs he 
 can not sing, and other songs he can sing only 
 with the help of Christ. 
 89
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 There are the impossible songs of Nature. 
 There are innumerable songs beyond the powers 
 of man to emulate, but not beyond his powers 
 to enjoy and appreciate. 
 
 In the bird-world there is melody as preva- 
 lent as the fragrance of flowers. I speak to- 
 day of the song of the roseate grosbeak, one 
 of the remarkable soloists of our country, be- 
 cause I heard his singing yesterday. I was 
 upon an errand to a neighbor's house; but as 
 I turned from the street to the door, such music 
 was wafted from a tree in the yard I forgot my 
 errand and that here was a yard where I was 
 a trespasser; and with hat in hand, out of def- 
 erence to the ability of the songster, I drew 
 near to listen. You recall that this was autumn- 
 singing. In the spring, when the birds return, 
 there is such satiety of music, for it is the time 
 of love and wooing; and lady grosbeaks, how- 
 ever plain and simple they appear to us in their 
 drab garments, fill the breasts of their mates 
 so full of music it can not be contained. It 
 seems to spill out like the bubbling over of a 
 spring, and the very atmosphere of spring lends 
 itself to the making of melody. But this is 
 
 90
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 autumn. Behind us are weeks of intensely hot 
 weather. We have been stifled with heat and 
 strangled with dust. And the birds are weaned 
 from the exertions of the summer: building 
 nests, brooding eggs, searching persistently for 
 food for those ever-gaping mouths, patiently 
 caring for their young, so wearied they have 
 forgotten to sing. And they have had their un- 
 derstanding that song and love would be put 
 aside until another spring had come. 
 
 And here was a bird in full song, not sing- 
 ing for a mate or to the spring, but singing a 
 farewell song to linger during the winter as a 
 fragrant memory. It was like a farewell kiss 
 from one you love about to go on a long jour- 
 ney. It was a good-bye and a pledge that it 
 would come again to gladden our hearts with 
 its music. It was a rare moment. The colors 
 of the bird were strikingly distinct, beating upon 
 the eyeball as the big drops of rain beat upon 
 the face. The delicate pink of the wild rose 
 was upon its breast ; the more delicate pink that 
 blushes the apple-blossom, beneath its wings; 
 below, as white as the virgin snow; above, a 
 coat of black, flecked with great white snow- 
 91
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 flakes. Here was brilliancy combined with ex- 
 quisite harmony of color. The bird was con- 
 stantly in motion from very exuberance of spirit. 
 It seemed as though there was some energy 
 within that compelled it in its movements as 
 the steam causes the lid of the tea-kettle to 
 bubble. It was all excitement, all a-quiver. On 
 the twig it was rocking and swaying and swing- 
 ing and tilting from excessive vivacity. And 
 this did not suffice. Every few moments it 
 would launch into the air and describe circles 
 about the tree, whirling, pirouetting, plunging, 
 climbing, a mass of beautiful color in motion, 
 and singing its very life away. 
 
 And such music ! The gurgling of the chorus 
 of blackbirds is sweet enough, or the weird tone 
 of the mourning-dove that swells and fades like 
 the distant swell of the sea. But here was a 
 song whose notes were as clear as those of a 
 silver bell, and certain and accurate as he leaped 
 from one note to another and ran the scale; so 
 musical as to be rivaled only by another gros- 
 beak. And I stood with hat off, with memory 
 bringing to mind other grosbeak friends who 
 had sung for me in the library in the midst of 
 92
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 winter, abiding proof of the coming of the 
 spring-melodies, friends much loved, now lost 
 awhile; and my heart was swelling with grati- 
 tude to God. John was right. No man could 
 
 THE MUSIC OF THE PINES 
 
 learn that song, no man could duplicate its 
 sweetness with trumpet or whistle or stringed 
 instrument. God filled that bird full of song 
 to overflowing, and God's music from God's 
 instrument was spilling out upon God's world 
 to make God's children happy. There was no 
 93
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 man in sight, no thought of man in mind; God 
 was everywhere, and His praise was being sung 
 in rapturous melody by one of His creatures. 
 
 The pines are one of Nature's sublimest 
 choruses. Wood-songs are as distinct as the 
 voices of men and women. The aspen and balm 
 of Gilead and rough-voiced oak are as different 
 as flute and harp and horn. I listened to this 
 mighty orchestra repeatedly during the month 
 of August. The players were legion, filling the 
 valley and flanking the adjoining hills: with 
 jackets of green; with trunks clad with garments 
 of purplish-gray, standing so tall and stalwart, 
 knee-deep in feathery hemlock (or American 
 yew) ; with fingers, if you will think of it thus, 
 so many as to be uncountable, playing upon the 
 reeds of the wind; or holding countless strings 
 of green, if you will imagine it thus, toned with 
 rosin like the bow of the violin. And the breeze 
 was moving with delicate touch across them, as 
 a nurse with delicate step moves across the floor, 
 making music as that of chastened waves upon 
 some far-away shore, sustained, strengthening, 
 subduing, almost sobbing at times. As the sob- 
 bing sweetness fills the listener who tarries alone 
 94
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 in the presence of the orchestra, his soul seems 
 to have lost its aloofness, its distinctness. It 
 has reached out and enveloped the orchestra, 
 and the music is sobbing, swelling through its 
 corridors as the sea-wind sighs in the heart of 
 the sea-shell. John was right. No man could 
 learn that song. God filled that orchestra with 
 song to overflowing, and God fills my soul to 
 overflowing as I listen to His spirit moving the 
 pine trees to music. 
 
 The song of the night is one of Nature's 
 mixed programs. We are away from the hide- 
 ous noises of the city, the clattering of horses' 
 hoofs upon rough pavements, the shrieking of 
 venders of various wares, the screeching and 
 grinding of the switch-engine, the thundering 
 of the freight-train, the ribald songs and pro- 
 fane jesting and loud bawling of men turned 
 out of saloons, half-drunken, reeling along our 
 streets at one o'clock in the morning, unre- 
 strained disturbers of orderly people, and with 
 all sense of propriety gone. Each season has 
 its own night-song. There is the song of the 
 night when the fragrance of the clover comes 
 up from the meadow, and the dew lies thick 
 95
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 upon the greensward, and the stars great and 
 small people the sky, and the moon is wither- 
 ing, and you are alone so far as human com- 
 rades are concerned, intently listening, and 
 you hear the hum of the swift-rushing blood 
 across the ear-drum, the drum-beats of the 
 heart marking time for this wonderful on- 
 ward-marching life, and the hum of myriad in- 
 sects from grass and bush, and the subdued 
 hush of the breeze that will not profane Na- 
 ture's stillness, and the quiet music of the stars, 
 and the voiceless music of the dark. It is 
 almost as still as death, and yet vocable with 
 many sounds that blend into music inconceivably 
 sweet. And one is not sure but that he has 
 passed earth's divide and stands on heaven's 
 shore. And there is the music of the winter, 
 when the snow muffles the noises of man and 
 covers the scars he has made upon the face of 
 mother earth, and the frost is wrapping the 
 wire fences and the twigs of trees with fan- 
 tastic figures, and congealing the breath. Then 
 is heard the boisterous music of the wind as in 
 stormy gusts it sweeps across the shuddering 
 earth or trumpets among the branches of the 
 96
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 trees. And when the boisterous wind has fin- 
 ished, there is the delicate music of frosty crys- 
 tals or vibrant snow. And the very lights and 
 shadows cast upon the earth by the pale moon 
 seem to breathe forth faintest music. God has 
 filled even the shadows of the night, the dark 
 places of earth, with unutterable music; and as 
 I stand and listen and catch the symphony, my 
 own soul responds to the melodies of God and 
 whispers His praises. 
 
 Yes, John was right. There are songs which 
 no man can learn ; but man can listen, and with 
 mind intent and heart in tune with the Infinite 
 can hear and enjoy and give praise. 
 
 There are other songs which the untaught 
 man can not sing; they lie outside of man's un- 
 aided powers, beyond the limitations fixed by 
 his boorishness and ignorance and sin; but these 
 are removable limits, and these are songs that 
 may be learned, even the "Songs of Redemp- 
 tion." 
 
 Christ is the Teacher of these songs. I have 
 spoken of man's greatness and remarkable 
 achievements. He can not do anything with- 
 out God's help. He can not cross the ocean 
 7 97
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 without calling upon God's forests and mines 
 to furnish him with a ship, God's fields to fur- 
 nish him with a sail, God's gardens to furnish 
 him with food for the voyage. It is only by 
 constant subjection to the laws and decrees of 
 God that he can do anything, that he can live, 
 that he has being. But he may achieve some- 
 thing of greatness without acknowledging God's 
 help. The son who has been fed and clothed 
 and housed and has inherited strength of body 
 from his father, may use that very strength to 
 strike his father in the face. And a man re- 
 ceiving everything that is good because of the 
 kindness of God, may use these talents and op- 
 portunities without any recognition of God; 
 yea, he may curse God to His face. But there 
 are tasks he can not perform, there are heights 
 to which he can not climb, there are songs he 
 can not sing except as there is grateful recogni- 
 tion of and willing surrender to the Son of God. 
 Jesus is Teacher sent of God to man. Obe- 
 dience to Christ wonderfully enlarges the pros- 
 pects and possibilities of life. As the child 
 needs the teacher who is wiser to help it to 
 plan, and wisely accepts the plans as the teacher 
 98
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 urges the child to stop its carelessness and in- 
 dolence and evil habits, and to improve the 
 time, that it may live a useful, honored life; 
 so is Christ to man the Teacher to direct in 
 planning, to warn against the destroying forces 
 of life, to counsel and urge the better things. 
 Appreciation and love toward Christ which 
 leads to willing discipleship, and a regenerated 
 heart: a heart out of which the discord and 
 discontent have gone because of His abiding 
 presence, out of which the demons have fled 
 from before Him as the demon-infested swine 
 fled from before Him in the land of the Gad- 
 arenes, out of which sin has disappeared as the 
 darkness disappears before the sun, — become 
 the basis of a new man who can sing the songs 
 of redemption. 
 
 Christ teaches us to sing the "Song of Good 
 Cheer :" not only when the sun is shining, but 
 when the rain is falling; not only when victory 
 is assured, but also when defeat threatens; not 
 only when all things unite to make life easy and 
 joyous, but also when the very powers of dark- 
 ness seem allied against us. He teaches us the 
 "Song of Good Cheer" containing the note of 
 99
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 COURAGE for the fighting of battles against un- 
 tried enemies, the making of journeys across un- 
 known territories, the daring to venture upon 
 any task lying in the path along which He leads 
 us; containing the note of optimism which 
 refuses to be hushed in the hour of seeming de- 
 feat, which refuses to believe that Satan is mas- 
 ter of this world, which does believe that, how- 
 ever long the fight or bitter the struggle, God 
 will win, the fogs will lift, the darkness will be 
 dispelled, and righteousness will come to fill 
 every heart as the sunshine fills the gardens 
 about us; with its note of contentment that 
 makes one at peace in the modest home, living 
 quietly apart from mad seekers after wealth 
 and great houses and luxuries, and does not 
 pine and is not jealous because of their appear- 
 ance of success and happiness; that makes one 
 at peace in obscurity, living contentedly apart 
 from "the madding crowds" who are ever seek- 
 ing after position, popularity, notoriety; that 
 cultivates modesty, contrasted with boisterous, 
 riotous brawlers. 
 
 "Toiling — rejoicing — sorrowing, 
 Onward through life he goes; 
 100
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 Each morning sees some task begun, 
 
 Each evening sees its close ; 
 Something attempted, something done, 
 
 Has earned a night's repose." 
 
 The follower of Christ is experiencing the truth 
 of the blessed promise of Paul, "The peace of 
 God, which passeth all understanding, shall 
 keep your hearts and minds through Christ 
 Jesus." 
 
 Christ teaches us to sing the "Song of Serv- 
 ice." The song of labor is always sweet if one 
 be not too near; the doing of things, the build- 
 ing of houses, the writing of books, the solving 
 of problems, the labor that makes man hap- 
 pier and freer and larger and brings him on 
 his way up the hill toward God, — all of that 
 is sweet if one is not too near. But as one 
 approaches the toilers, whether at desk or shop 
 or factory, too often he hears the notes of dis- 
 cord, quarreling and disputing and jangling, 
 fighting about the way the task is to be done, 
 and about the returns of the labor, instead of 
 praising God that together, with each man in 
 his place, we may do the work for the saving 
 and uplifting of the world. Unselfish service 
 is the beautiful song with no discordant note 
 101
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 to mar its melody. What music is gendered by 
 the life of service! 
 
 In describing "A Doctor of the Old School," 
 "Ian Maclaren" says, "He did his best for the 
 need of every man, woman, and child in this 
 wild-straggling district, year in, year out, in the 
 snow and in the heat, in the dark and in the 
 light, without rest and without holiday, for 
 forty years." This was the favorite character 
 for Governor Johnson of Minnesota, who has 
 just fallen by the way in the midst of life's 
 duties. Let me read from an editorial in one 
 of our papers: "Like his favorite character, 
 Governor Johnson has gone about among his 
 people for forty years, doing his best for the 
 need of every man, woman, and child, 'in the 
 snow and in the heat, in the dark and in the 
 light.' " So lived this remarkable man, singing 
 the "Song of Service." Let me read again: 
 "A few days ago in the city of Chicago, Mrs. 
 Sarah C. Clark celebrated a very unusual an- 
 niversary. For thirty-two years she had been 
 a regular worker in the Pacific Garden Mission, 
 which her husband, Colonel George R. Clark, 
 founded. Since his death, ten years ago, she 
 102
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 has had entire charge of the work and has con- 
 ducted meetings there for five thousand consec- 
 utive nights. Any one who knows anything of 
 the Pacific Garden Mission knows what a power 
 for good it has been and is. Into that hopper 
 has been poured the scourings of humanity, the 
 murderer, the crook, the harlot, the starving, 
 the dregs of the underworld; and out of the 
 mill has come the regenerated, the square man, 
 the honest one, the decent woman, fed and 
 clothed. Five thousand consecutive nights la- 
 boring for the good of the world! Not {ive 
 thousand nights of shifting pasteboards in a 
 senseless effort to win a prize that can be bought 
 for fifty cents ; not five thousand nights of feast- 
 ing and drinking to injure the natural organs of 
 the body; not five thousand nights in the reck- 
 less pursuit of a will-o'-the-wisp that leads to 
 a slough of despond: but five thousand nights 
 of devotion to a sacred duty; five thousand 
 nights of laboring with the sin-sick and the 
 weary; five thousand nights of demonstrating 
 how great are the possibilities of human exer- 
 tion and how glorious are the results that are 
 bound to come. Five thousand nights of selfish- 
 103
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 ness or five thousand nights of sacrifice? The 
 lamented Governor of Minnesota, the brave 
 little woman of Pacific Garden Mission, give 
 the answer and point the way." But these are 
 not all. The slum-workers at home, the mis- 
 sion-workers abroad, the man at home in busi- 
 ness, among friends or among strangers, whose 
 heart is filled with the spirit and love of Jesus 
 Christ, who is living the Christ-life, doing good 
 to all men, doing good to them which despite- 
 fully use him, counting his life of great account 
 only as it can be used to bring blessing and peace 
 and joy to other lives, that man is singing the 
 "Song of Service." 
 
 Jesus teaches the "Song of Heaven," sung by 
 those whose robes of white are the purity of 
 heart He has brought to those who serve Him; 
 whose palm-branches are symbols of victory, 
 sorrows having ceased, and pains having been 
 conquered and cast aside; whose voices are the 
 voices of praise and thanksgiving and grati- 
 tude to the Lamb of God which taketh away 
 the sin of the world. We shall sing there, some 
 day, a part of that chorus whose music no ear 
 hath heard in its fullness or mind conceived in 
 104
 
 NATURE AND REDEMPTION 
 
 its richness. But now, as we journey on toward 
 heaven, more and more of that music of the 
 heavenly song is in our hearts. 
 
 There are songs that no man can learn but 
 the redeemed of the Lord. But there is the 
 Christ over against every man, the Teacher 
 from God who seeks to come into every heart 
 and teach every man to sing the "Song of 
 Purity," the "Song of Good Cheer," the "Song 
 of Service," the "Song of Eternity." He is so 
 eager to teach every one, to teach you, that He 
 died to bring it to pass; so eager that He dwells 
 with us for evermore; so eager that He knocks 
 at the door of your heart. "To-day, if ye will 
 hear His voice, harden not your hearts." 
 
 105

 
 IV 
 THE IMMANENT GOD
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous 
 man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He 
 will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will 
 abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, 
 neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the 
 heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher, 
 than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For 
 as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and 
 returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it 
 bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, 
 and bread to the eater: so shall My word be that goeth forth 
 out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it 
 shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in 
 the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, 
 and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills 
 shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees 
 of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall 
 come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come 
 up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, 
 for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." — Isaiah 
 55:7-i3- 
 
 "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation 
 of the earth ; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands ; 
 they shall perish; but Thou remainest; and they shall wax 
 old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold 
 them up, and they shall be changed : but Thou art the same, 
 and Thy years shall not fail." — Hebrews i : 10-12. 
 
 "Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth there- 
 with? Or shall the saw magnify itself against him that 
 shaketh it? As if the rod should shake itself against them 
 that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it 
 were no wood." — Isaiah 10:15.
 
 IV 
 
 "The Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not." — 
 Isaiah 49 : 28. 
 
 UPON these consecutive Sabbath-days 
 we are seeking for evidences of God 
 in the world, in history, in literature, 
 in man's body, in man's mind; to-day we seek 
 for Him in the natural, material world. 
 
 The word "evidence" is used deliberately. 
 The erudite philosopher or psychologist may 
 object to the word and declare that God does 
 not evidence Himself, and it may be true that 
 there is a sense in which the charge is correct. 
 Perhaps, according to the philosophical stand- 
 ards, God can not be proven. But to me in 
 my plain, simple thinking these are evidences, 
 are proofs; and I think that the average man 
 is little concerned with philosophical subtleties, 
 and finds or will find upon investigation what 
 I find : that here are evidences that satisfy him 
 as to the existence of God — such a God as the 
 109
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 Christians believe in and worship; and through 
 such investigation he may come to worship 
 Him. To me God proves Himself, and I pre- 
 sent to-day one of the evidences. 
 
 The text is a comprehensive sentence. Isaiah 
 asserts that God is the Creator of the earth. 
 It is not an orphan ; did not, like Topsy, simply 
 grow; did not spring into being of its own vo- 
 lition or accidentally happen to be. God is the 
 Creator of everything contained in the uni- 
 verse; not simply primal conditions, not simply 
 matter and force and space : every star and con- 
 stellation is builded by Him, and every moun- 
 tain and valley, and every shifting hill of sand, 
 and every forest and plain, every flower and 
 bird. God is the Maker of everything that is, 
 even to the ends of the earth. And He fainteth 
 not; He is not far away, is not taking a vaca- 
 tion or resting: He is busy at work here and 
 now. 
 
 The text includes all of the findings of science. 
 Science has to do with observations, the study 
 of things as they are and have come to be, and 
 how they conduct themselves. Science is the 
 keen-eyed man seeing things; and all that has 
 110
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 been seen or will be, is here told as the work 
 which the Creator is doing in His universe. 
 The text includes all of philosophy in a nut- 
 shell. Philosophy takes the facts which the 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 '"tlti&iito*. 
 
 
 
 
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 pm 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 '-^r^*m*K}i£t 
 
 A SHIFTING HILL OF SAND 
 
 scientist has gathered and draws conclusions 
 from them, and here is the final conclusion that 
 this is God's earth and He is in it, doing things. 
 The thought is so simple that "wayfaring men, 
 though fools, shall not err therein." They may 
 not know the details of botany as the botanist 
 111
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 does who has given his life to this study and 
 has written volumes containing the information 
 he has gathered, but in the last analysis they 
 stand with the botanist, able only to say that 
 God is the Builder of the flower. They may 
 not have any technical knowledge of astronomy, 
 may not be able to call the stars by name, or 
 point out the constellations as they slowly and 
 nightly move across the dome of heaven ; they 
 may be ignorant of the nebular hypothesis and 
 the Copernican theory and the transmission of 
 light, but fundamentally they stand where the 
 most learned astronomer stands, with the con- 
 fession upon their lips that God is the Builder 
 of the universe. 
 
 Not all men see these simple, great truths; 
 that is true. Some get so puzzled with mate- 
 rial things, and enamored by them, that they 
 do not see through and beyond to the mighty 
 God, the Source of material things. Some get 
 so fascinated and blinded by the processes of 
 making things, studying how they are made so 
 intently as not to look beyond to the Maker 
 of them. It is easily possible for a man to 
 get lost in and bewildered by details, A man 
 112
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 on the mountain-side may be scanning so in- 
 tently the little hills and valleys in the midst 
 of which he walks as to fail to see the great 
 mountain which carries these upon its shoul- 
 ders and which towers above them. So a man 
 may walk in the midst of suns and stars, of 
 land and sea, of beast and bird, and fail to see 
 the mighty God who holds them in the hollow 
 of His hand and who towers above them. A 
 man may look eagerly into the face of Nature 
 and fail to recognize in the multitudinous 
 changes and diversities that the unchanging God 
 is the great Essential. I am asking you to go 
 with me in thought to-day along some of the 
 highways and byways of Nature with the intent 
 that we may come face to face with God. 
 
 Need I apologize for preaching a Nature- 
 sermon? Is there danger of making it a theme 
 too pronounced? Why, I might as well apolo- 
 gize for repeated readings of the Bible. These 
 are teachers sent from God, and until we know 
 Him as He is we will need to read and re-read 
 these volumes. Until God has grown weary 
 of writing Nature-sermons, let me not grow 
 weary of preaching them. Though I behold 
 8 113
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 the wings of the morning as they fan the east- 
 ern sky with their pinions of orange and red, 
 He is there. And when the sun gilds the west- 
 ern sky or paints the dappled clouds with purple 
 and lilac, He is there. And where He is we 
 shall make no mistake if we go and seek to 
 learn what He busies Himself about. 
 
 There are certain men who say that God is 
 not in Nature, they do not find Him there. 
 (Perhaps they do not seek Him there.) Most 
 conspicuous in this group is the churchman; 
 more conspicuous than the scientist or even the 
 atheist, perhaps because we expect better things 
 of him ; but perhaps, also, because his followers 
 are more numerous, and also because he often 
 is more positive in his convictions and more 
 thunderous in his declarations. This particular 
 man in the Church denies that God is in Na- 
 ture because it is easier to deny than to explain 
 existing conditions in the world if God has any- 
 thing to do with it. There is so much of suf- 
 fering and cruelty and death. The fox kills 
 the rabbit ; the pickerel pursues and mangles and 
 swallows alive the smaller fish; the dragon-fly 
 is more savage and bloodthirsty than mytho- 
 114
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 logical dragons, as it lies in wait or follows and 
 seizes and kills some fly or other insect. 
 
 Indeed, is it not always life at the expense 
 of other life? The beetle kills the plant that 
 it may live; the frog swallows the beetle, the 
 snake the frog; the bird preys upon the snake, 
 and the bird, when asleep, is surprised and 
 killed by the pine marten. Life builds up by 
 destroying other life. And this is not all. The 
 storm rages, and hundreds of thousands of birds 
 lie dead in its wake. The cyclone sweeps across 
 the country, and ruin and death are its results. 
 The earthquake throws the ground into convul- 
 sions, buildings topple over, fires are enkindled, 
 and human lives by hundreds are destroyed; 
 the flood rages in the river-valley of the Yang- 
 ste-Kiang or other river, and thousands are 
 drowned. In India the monsoon does not come, 
 the famine spreads, and the groans of the dying 
 fill the air; or pestilence creeps through the 
 country with stealthy movements, leaving its vic- 
 tims everywhere. And there are the maimed 
 and halt and blind, the deformed. A dark, 
 somber picture is portrayed. This is not the 
 time to show that this can be explained in har- 
 115
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 mony with the plan of the beneficent God for 
 the uplift and progress of the world, to show 
 that the law of sacrifice is everywhere at work, 
 compulsory or voluntary. But many, seeing the 
 somberness of the picture, simply give the world 
 over to the devil. 
 
 This attitude of the churchman is also partly 
 explainable as the outcome of the Augustinian 
 philosophy. There are places at the crest of 
 the watershed where the water may very easily 
 be turned in either direction, so as to flow to 
 opposite points of the compass. But later on, 
 when the stream has become a mighty river 
 with great banks, it would be well-nigh impos- 
 sible to change the direction of the current. So 
 is the history of schools of thinkers. When a 
 system of thought originated with some man, 
 it would not have been difficult to have cor- 
 rected, contradicted, denied, or changed the di- 
 rection of the current of thought; but the sys- 
 tem grows, its followers multiply, it becomes 
 entrenched, other schools of thought are fash- 
 ioned by it, it becomes "set," rigid, and inelastic. 
 Many even look upon a system of thought as 
 divine because it has long been accepted, and 
 116
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 one is counted a heretic who dares to question 
 or oppose, though his right should be as un- 
 questioned as that of the originator, and his in- 
 formation may be superior. 
 
 Long ago Augustine fathered the idea that 
 God did His work with the world in six literal 
 days, and then went off and left it, being, as 
 Carlyle would say, a kind of absentee-God, sit- 
 ting on the rim of the universe or winding up 
 the world like an alarm-clock, and then going 
 away and leaving it to run down or smash. 
 Augustine was a mighty man for good, but his 
 theories in a field where he was ignorant have 
 done the Church much harm. Now, perhaps 
 growing out of the above conditions, many have 
 come to believe that God's only relation to Na- 
 ture is to upset its workings or to interfere with 
 them now and then. And a miracle is conceived 
 as God contradicting Nature. God is in Nature 
 only when He speaks to the storm, and the sea 
 becomes quiet; speaks to the water, and it be- 
 comes wine ; speaks to the fig tree, and the leaves 
 wither; instead of recognizing that God is in 
 the storm as well as the sleeping sea, in the 
 water as well as the wine, in the fig tree when 
 117
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 the leaves do not wither as well as when they 
 do. They think of God as fighting against 
 Nature and seeking to conquer and control it 
 just as we do, instead of being its Maker and 
 Ruler. 
 
 With the ordinary procession of Nature, God 
 has nothing to do. Only the unexplainable 
 things are of His doing, such as the making 
 of force, matter, life, species. The result is that 
 the world under normal conditions, when some- 
 thing unusual is not occurring, has been sepa- 
 rated from God and either abandoned or con- 
 signed to the devil. As some spiritualistic me- 
 dium borrows a table and uses it only for table- 
 tippings, rappings, and other grotesque phe- 
 nomena, so God is conceived as borrowing the 
 world or taking possession of it now and then 
 for some table-tipping seance, but it is left to 
 care for itself in its sober, serious moments. 
 God is juggling and performing tricks with the 
 world. He is seen in the burning bush, but not 
 in the bushes everywhere growing and blossom- 
 ing and bearing fruit; in the whale when it 
 swallowed Jonah, but not when it sports with 
 the waves of the sea and spouts geyser-like 
 118
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 streams of water and spray into the air; in the 
 mountain when Moses received and wrote the 
 Ten Commandments, but not when the storms 
 play about its brow and the snows gather upon 
 its sides; in the sea when Jesus spoke to the 
 storm, but not when it tossed the frightened 
 mariners ; in the fig tree when it was cursed, but 
 not when it was a blessing to humanity by bear- 
 ing its harvest of fruit. 
 
 I have heard a minister say that when the 
 transmutation of species could be explained he 
 would give up his Christianity, and have heard 
 others make similar statements. Do we under- 
 stand the import of this foolhardy statement? 
 Foolhardy because, if meant, it means that 
 Christianity will need to be abandoned; fool- 
 hardy again, because it is putting a premium on 
 ignorance. I will believe in God as long as I 
 can not know much about Him and His way 
 of doing things; but when the world knows 
 how He is creating life or forms of life, I will 
 give up my faith in Him. By this position the 
 Church has lost much, when it ought to be 
 learning all that it can about God and ought 
 to be praising Him for every addition to truth 
 119
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 and for every discovery as to His workings in 
 His world. To the man taking this position 
 let me say again that he is throwing himself be- 
 fore the engine, foolishly. The human mind 
 craves the truth because God has endowed it 
 with that passion, and it will run to and fro 
 through the whole earth, seeking to know all 
 that it can about the world; and instead of ob- 
 jecting and denouncing, we will do the Church 
 service if we appropriate and rejoice that we 
 know more about the way in which God is do- 
 ing things. 
 
 Then there is the scientist (some of them) 
 who is studying, investigating, learning, gather- 
 ing facts, drawing conclusions, without taking 
 God into account; and sometimes he seems able 
 to get along without God. And the position 
 of this man has been dictated largely by the 
 attitude of the Church. It has said that God 
 is only in the abnormal, the unnatural, the un- 
 explainable, the unlawful. It is the well-known 
 division of natural and supernatural. What is 
 understood as working according to natural 
 laws is not divine; what is beyond this, not un- 
 derstood, not explainable according to natural 
 120
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 law, is divine, God's realm. And the scientist 
 has accepted the Church's definition. 
 
 Now, at first it seemed a safe position. How- 
 ever erroneous it might be, the unknown realm 
 was so great ; there was so much room for God. 
 As if five hundred years ago the Church had 
 said that the civilized part of the world be- 
 longed to man, the rest to God. At that time 
 it would have left God plenty of room. But 
 Amerigo Vespucci came, Columbus came, Cor- 
 tez and Magellan and Hudson and Franklin 
 and Lewis and Clark, until the unknown world 
 has been added to the known, practically every 
 bit of territory explored, and by such a division 
 God has been driven from His possessions. 
 Now that very thing has happened in the think- 
 ing world by such a superficial defining of nat- 
 ural and supernatural. At first so little was 
 known and explainable that God seemed to be 
 secure; but now, by patient investigation, igno- 
 rance has changed to knowledge, the unexplored 
 has been explored, the "unexplainable" is ex- 
 plained by the children in the grammar-school. 
 Students have explored the realm of light and 
 heat and gravitation and ether and electricity 
 121
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 and color and species and life, not learning all 
 about them, but learning enough to bring them 
 within the realm of law, of what we call natural 
 law, until Comte, accepting the dictum of the 
 Church and seeing the increasing knowledge of 
 natural law, says that "science will finally con- 
 duct God to the frontier, and bow Him out 
 with thanks for His personal services." 
 
 Others of this group of scientists have delib- 
 erately or otherwise confused cause and method, 
 and here has come the harm. For example, 
 evolution as a method of creation is noble, and 
 adds dignity and glory to God the Creator. 
 Evolution is the process of creation God has 
 employed. But evolution assumed as casual is 
 absurd. Life is seen producing life, and is as- 
 sumed as casual instead of a method of per- 
 petuating life. This man makes heat and light 
 and moisture and soil causes for the growth of 
 wheat, and in his extravagant, delirious mo- 
 ments declares that "food produces brains, and 
 brains produce thought;" that Hamlet and the 
 Messiah and the Sistine Madonna are caused 
 by wheat and beef. Or the "laws of Nature" 
 supplant God, and it is assumed that they ex- 
 122
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 plain everything or will account for everything, 
 and thus the laws are made potential and self- 
 operative. They are a kind of perpetual-motion 
 machine, doing their work without requiring an 
 Initiator or a Controller. Such reasoning is 
 illogical. A law is but an expression of a will 
 or personality. And the one who supplants 
 God by natural law merely deifies those laws or 
 reads into them the attributes of God. 
 
 But if the above statements are taken as state- 
 ments of method, all difficulty and inconsistency 
 and ground for quarreling vanish. God has en- 
 dowed life with the power of propagating life, 
 or God works through life to produce life ; God 
 employs heat and light and moisture and fer- 
 tility of soil to react upon the kernel of wheat, 
 and thus causes it to grow and multiply. God 
 has fashioned us in such form that food may 
 be built into brain, and He has associated the 
 mind and body in intimate relationship, not yet 
 well understood by us, and the condition of the 
 body has its influence upon the mind and 
 thought. With the scientist taking this view- 
 point, as many do, we have a common meeting- 
 place. The churchman, particularly interested 
 123
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 in God's dealing with humanity, still rejoices 
 for all the knowledge that may be gained as to 
 the way God has been building the world and 
 is carrying it on. And the scientist seeking 
 knowledge of God in the material world fellow- 
 ships with the churchman in praise of God, and 
 with him worships in spirit and in truth, appre- 
 ciating what the churchman is doing to learn 
 of God's activities in the spiritual realm and for 
 applied Christianity. 
 
 The bombastic egotist who struts back and 
 forth before the public eye and loudly asserts 
 that he has not seen God, and HE has been look- 
 ing for Him in the laboratory with scalpel and 
 reagent and test-tube ; that he has been looking 
 in the minute world with the microscope, in the 
 skies with the telescope, deserves only to be ig- 
 nored, left alone, that he may strut and exalt 
 his ego to his heart's content. But the scientist 
 and the churchman both honestly and meekly 
 and reverently seeking after the truth are broth- 
 ers exploring mysteries, facing the problems 
 created by One God. And though the paths 
 may lead along different levels and into differ- 
 ent territory, they should bid each other God- 
 124
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 speed and rejoice in each other's achievements, 
 remembering that whatever is done is helping 
 to solve the common problem, to lessen the com- 
 mon ignorance. 
 
 To these men, these brothers, Isaiah through 
 this text is suggesting that God is not past, but 
 present; is not accidental and grotesque in 
 His conduct, but orderly; and that the laws 
 governing the world are God-made and God- 
 sustained and God-enforced. This is God's 
 world, and He is in it, looking after it, and 
 caring for it, never wearied nor asleep. And 
 we will look for Him now. 
 
 In the fascinating story of "Robinson Cru- 
 soe," for boys (and men; I re-read it the other 
 day) , do you recall how Crusoe, walking by 
 the sea on the farther side of the island, found 
 footprints in the sand; how he looked far and 
 wide for the man who had made the footprints, 
 without avail; wherever he looked, out to sea, 
 along the beach, or into the valley or forest, 
 he did not see a man, but the footprints were 
 evidence enough to Crusoe that there were men 
 about and they would have to be reckoned with? 
 We can not see God with these eyes or feel Him 
 125
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 with these hands as we can see the stars and 
 hills or feel the pebble or seashell. He is not 
 a God of flesh and blood; but we can find, can 
 see His footprints on the earth. These foot- 
 prints satisfy us that He is about and is to be 
 reckoned with. And we will look at a few 
 of these footprints now. 
 
 First, God is the great Origin, the primal 
 Cause. At the end of a man's thinking, as he 
 goes back and back, this stands not only as the 
 opening sentence of the Bible, God's written 
 word, but also as the opening sentence of the 
 universe, God's material word, "In the begin- 
 ning God." Let us look, first, from the center 
 to the circumference. Comparing the universe 
 to a great wheel, God is not sitting upon the 
 rim of it, but God is sitting at the hub; nay, 
 rather, God is the hub. In the beginning there 
 is only God, only hub. But in the fullness of 
 time and according to His will His power mani- 
 fests itself in various ways: force, space, ether, 
 electricity, matter, light, heat, life, conscious- 
 ness. The wheel is building, and these words 
 may be likened to the spokes in the wheel; not 
 that all of them are co-ordinate or of equal 
 126
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 value, but they are mighty group-words in our 
 thinking, and thus may be used for illustration. 
 Under each of these and similar words we group 
 other words, things, ideas as subordinate to 
 them, and by so doing we are building the rim 
 of the wheel. The fault with this figure is that 
 it is mechanical, and the universe is not me- 
 chanical; it is an evolution, a growth, but the 
 figure will illustrate God's relation to His world. 
 The human mind, however, does not work 
 from the hub to the circumference; it really 
 works by process of synthesis from the rim to 
 the hub. It is in touch with details which come 
 to it through the senses, and from these it learns 
 of the fundamentals; it is tarrying first on the 
 rim of the wheel. A man sees running water, 
 stagnant water, water in rivers, water in lakes, 
 fresh water and salt water, water under various 
 conditions. He sees cloud and vapor, fog and 
 dew, rain and snow, ice and sleet. The mind 
 is synthesizing, it grasps the idea that water 
 manifests itself in various ways, but water is 
 the common term. A man learns of the Cau- 
 casian and Mongolian and Ethiopian, of the 
 Semitic and anti-Semitic races, of men who are 
 127
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 tall and who are short, fat and lean, old and 
 young, sluggish and agile. Here are multitudes 
 of details, but one day he sees that man is the 
 common term, and he has made notable advance 
 when he has grasped the group-word. Again 
 he sees man, horse, bird, fish, snake, mollusk, 
 and many other living things, a multitude of 
 details; but one day the man sees that life is 
 the common factor, the fundamental term in all 
 of these details. So he studies lightning, mag- 
 netism, the aurora borealis, and discovers elec- 
 tricity as the group-word. So he finds atom, 
 ether, gravitation. He is building spokes in the 
 wheel. The mind is on the backward track 
 searching for beginnings, causes, fundamentals. 
 It is asking now what is the common term, the 
 fundamental principle or cause from which these 
 spokes have sprung. It is standing now, facing 
 the center of the wheel, the beginning of things, 
 and it says, "God is the Beginning, the Center 
 of the wheel, of the universe. " 
 
 This is not removing all of the mystery and 
 
 ignorance involved in the idea of God. He is 
 
 forever beyond us and impossible to us. We 
 
 are not coming and can not come to the center 
 
 128
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 of the hub; our continued investigations and 
 added knowledge but extend the rim of the 
 wheel farther out. But whatever ignorance is 
 involved in this idea of God as the beginning, 
 there is ignorance and despair besides in every 
 other view. Browning strikingly expresses the 
 contrast thus : 
 
 "All we have gained by our unbelief 
 Is a life of doubt diversified by faith, 
 For one of faith diversified by doubt: 
 We called the chess-board white, — we call it black." 
 
 Knowing something of the writings of Spencer 
 and Huxley and Haeckel and their class, I say 
 that what is lacking in their positions and is 
 present here is a workable, conceivable theory 
 that does not leave a man lost in the woods, 
 as Huxley would have it, but holds ever before 
 him a definite aim and plan and hope. What- 
 ever others may say, my mind demands a First 
 Cause, where it may rest. Until then, whatever 
 it learns, it is not satisfied but wanders on, cry- 
 ing night and day, asking, "What is beyond? 
 What is beyond?" and only rests and is con- 
 tent when it is facing Him and resting there, 
 "In the beginning, God." 
 9 129
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 Again, my mind recognizes and demands God 
 as Creator. Man is a maker, but not a creator. 
 He can take existing things and reshape them 
 and fashion them anew; but in all of his won- 
 derful works he only changes what already is; 
 he does not call into existence. But a creator is 
 demanded; not merely one who can fashion 
 things, but one who can call things into exist- 
 ence, who can cause that to be which has not 
 been. Man fashions material substances: God 
 calls matter itself into existence. Man can 
 measurably control life: God creates life. Man 
 can measurably develop consciousness : God cre- 
 ates consciousness. If somebody asserts that 
 consciousness is a manifestation of life, I do 
 not deny, but only say that if it is in life, it 
 had to be put there. Nothing can be gotten 
 out of life that has not been put into life, out 
 of matter that has not been put into matter, 
 out of energy that has not been put into energy. 
 Clear thinking holds us to this position. If 
 this is not true we are lost. By what method 
 these creations came to be I do not attempt 
 to say; but some time, somewhere, somehow 
 these things came to be; and the one who 
 130
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 caused them to be, by that act is creator; we 
 call Him God. 
 
 The very orderliness and intricacy of crea- 
 tion make the deduction doubly convincing. 
 We refuse to believe, can not believe, that these 
 things could possibly come by chance. Napo- 
 leon silences the speculations of his officers con- 
 cerning God by pointing to the stars he has 
 been contemplating, so beautiful, so mighty, so 
 orderly, so harmonious, and asking them who 
 was maker of them. Lord Kelvin, the great 
 physicist, walking with Liebig, the renowned 
 scientist, asks whether he believes that flowers 
 can be accounted for in terms of chemistry and 
 physics, and receives a reply in the negative; 
 they require a Creator who has made them by 
 manipulating these forces. Beattie, the learned 
 Scotchman, schools his child and declares his 
 own belief in God as Creator by planting 
 flowers in rows to spell the child's name, when 
 growing. The child is positive upon finding 
 the growing name that it could not have been 
 accidental, by chance; somebody did it. And 
 Beattie taught the child that by the same de- 
 ductions an orderly world was not here by 
 131
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 chance, but by the planning and power of a 
 mighty God. With most of us, at least, this 
 truth is axiomatic. We find a watch and insist 
 that there must be a Builder. We look at the 
 mountains lifting their brawny shoulders above 
 the clouds, the mighty canyon deep in whose 
 throat the river gurgles, the sun unwearyingly 
 running his race day after day, and refuse to 
 believe that these things are accidental or pos- 
 sible without being created; they are God's foot- 
 prints, God's finger-marks. Back of them we 
 see a Creator. 
 
 Again, we find God as the Omnipotent. We 
 look at the skyscraper man has built, towering 
 twenty or thirty stories high, far above the sur- 
 rounding buildings, and we wonder at man's 
 audacity and ability until we stand by the giant 
 redwood or the snow-capped mountain peak. 
 We behold with admiration the irrigating-dam 
 holding countless barrels of water in leash, and 
 praise the engineering feat of man until we see 
 the great expanse of water, lake or ocean, held 
 in leash by hill and plain or by the continents 
 themselves. We marvel at the genius of man 
 as the great steamships come plowing across 
 132
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 the harbor to the dock until we look at the 
 starry fleets of heaven, deploying and moving 
 majestically, evenly, ever forward. We praise 
 man for what he has been able to do with his 
 limited powers ; we stand dumb before God who 
 has done the impossible things, who is the Om- 
 nipotent One. 
 
 We note, again, infinite skill. Man strug- 
 gles to make a perpetual-motion machine : God 
 endows the heart with strength for fifty or a 
 hundred years. Man is stumbling in his en- 
 deavors to navigate the air: God makes every 
 bird a dexterous and automatic flying-machine. 
 Man builds a submarine boat: but it is an un- 
 certain thing in contrast with the water-beetle. 
 The pipe-organ loses its tone and harmony: 
 Niagara thunders through the ages. The flute 
 makes discord as well as sweet tones : the hermit 
 thrush but adds melody to the evening air. 
 Such ingenuity, such cunning, such mechanism 
 are displayed that we say God has been about 
 here at work. This is not the work of man: 
 this is the work of God. 
 
 Again, we find PURPOSE, an attribute of per- 
 sonality, a personal God. We see the build- 
 133
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 ing of a cathedral: the excavating, the sinking 
 of the foundation to the bed-rock, the walls of 
 stone and marble, the arches and dome and 
 spires gradually taking their places; and we 
 can not be persuaded that there is not some un- 
 derlying purpose and symmetrical plan. Each 
 thing is done for the other parts and each grows 
 out of the others, and all are builded into one 
 for some sufficient reason. So we look at a 
 tree : the roots and trunk and branches and twigs 
 and leaves, and refuse to believe that this is 
 an accidental aggregating of parts; each has 
 its 'relation to the others, and all are brought 
 together for some sufficient reason. We find 
 a house completed, equipped with furniture and 
 food and cooking-utensils, adorned with pictures 
 and curtains and bric-a-brac, and we say, Some- 
 body purposes to live here; this is not done by 
 chance and never to be used. We look upon 
 the great world with its treasures, resources, 
 problems, opportunities, and we say it is a 
 home builded of God for His children. 
 
 To say that there is no purpose is utterly 
 confusing; to try to conceive of this natural 
 world without plan or motive or object is mad- 
 134
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 dening; to say that it is God's world, built for 
 us, His children, where we may serve Him, is 
 ennobling and answers not all but many of our 
 questions, and gives us a program for life that 
 is worthy of our best and highest efforts. 
 
 EVERY BIRD CARES FOR ITS LITTLE ONES 
 
 But why go on? We can not designate or 
 examine every footprint, for the earth is cov- 
 ered with them. We can not say, Lo! here is 
 God, or there; for behold! He is everywhere, 
 wherever hands are lifted in prayer or wounded 
 135
 
 THE IMMANENT GOD 
 
 heart cries out for healing or penitent soul seeks 
 for forgiveness and uplift; and also where 
 every blade of grass is growing, where every 
 leaf is quivering in gentle breeze, where every 
 flower spills out its fragrance upon the air, 
 where every bird sings its song and cares for 
 its little ones, where every cloud drifts and every 
 drop of rain falls, God is there. He is every- 
 where. 
 
 And everything is His; His mark, His 
 genius and skill and power and purpose are 
 stamped in burning letters upon the midnight 
 suns, resound in thunderous tones where the 
 mad cataract leaps, echo and re-echo in every 
 song of bird. This is God's world. He is in 
 it; everything is His. And He is caring for 
 His own, and does not faint. And to-day my 
 heart praises Him, and with Christ the Lover 
 of the lilies I stand beneath the spreading tree 
 or by the singing brook and worship Him, the 
 mighty God, the Creator of the ends of the 
 earth. 
 
 136
 
 THE MESSAGE OF THE CANADIAN 
 WILDERNESS
 
 THE MESSAGE OF THE CANADIAN 
 WILDERNESS 
 
 "As I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an 
 altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. 
 Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto 
 you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing 
 that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples 
 made with hands ; neither is worshiped with men's hands, as 
 though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and 
 breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all na- 
 tions of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and 
 hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds 
 of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply 
 they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not 
 far from every one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and 
 have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said. 
 For we are also His offspring." — Acts 17:23-28.
 
 "The voice of one crying in the wilderness." — John i : 23. 
 
 YOU recall that John the Baptist, seeking 
 to turn attention from himself as he 
 stands with his audience in the waste- 
 places, the uninhabited section of country, de- 
 scribes himself simply as a voice calling upon 
 humanity to give heed to God and heralding the 
 coming of Jesus Christ, Son of God and God's 
 Seeker after those who are lost in the wilder- 
 ness. As we look at John and as we hear him 
 calling there is danger of our forgetting that 
 there is a greater Voice in the wilderness than 
 the voice of John, even the voice of God, call- 
 ing to man through the very rocks and wooded 
 hills and flowing waters in the midst of which 
 he stands, telling man of His majesty and om- 
 nipotence, and seeking to interest him in the 
 fruitful quest after the perfect Revelation as 
 it is found in Christ, His Son. 
 139
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 During these weeks while you have wor- 
 shiped here in this temple and in your homes, 
 I have worshiped in the Canadian wilderness, 
 far from the sight of any cathedral or the 
 sound of any Angelus or the presence of any 
 host assembled to worship Him, but not away 
 from God or the sound of His voice or the ca- 
 thedrals He has made or the chimes that re- 
 sound with His praises. I have been in the 
 wilderness and have heard the voice of God 
 there, and bring you the wilderness-message to- 
 day. 
 
 It is a difficult task undertaken, to endeavor 
 with words to draw a picture of the wilderness. 
 Its almost unconquerableness is impressive. 
 Man does conquer it: give him time and pa- 
 tience enough; but it is a hard job. From 
 Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, a railroad has been 
 projected to the Hudson Bay territory. It was 
 surveyed or planned several years ago, but up 
 to date only sixty-two miles of steel have been 
 laid, laid under tremendous difficulties; for it 
 seems almost a succession of trestles across 
 streams and deep valleys, and of quarrying 
 through granite hills. But such a railroad! 
 140
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 Trains run two or three times a week, depend- 
 ing upon "circumstances." We talk of sixty 
 miles an hour ; there they hope to make the trip 
 of sixty-two miles during the light of a day, if 
 
 ROCKS AND WOODED HILLS AND FLOWING 
 WATERS 
 
 everything goes well. But they have little ex- 
 pectation of reaching the end of the journey 
 without delays or accidents. 
 
 On the edge of the wilderness where man 
 has penetrated there are attempts at roads. In 
 141
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 a civilized country they would hardly be recog- 
 nized as cow-paths, and only because those sa- 
 gacious wilderness-horses have the tracking in- 
 stinct of a hound and the nimbleness of a cat 
 are they enabled to make their way through the 
 forest and scramble across such log-bridges as 
 would make a city man faint and fall into the 
 stream below if he endeavored to cross on foot. 
 There are attempts at mining; for the frontiers- 
 men in that region firmly believe that it abounds 
 in mineral wealth. Here and there we came 
 across an excavation or a seam of rock marred 
 and scratched by the tools of a prospector, but 
 that was all. One day we came upon such a 
 scar, and by it there lay the hammer and pick 
 and chisels, rusted and abandoned. One could 
 plainly read the mute story, starved out, driven 
 back by the wilderness. 
 
 Upon the outskirts of the forest, endeavors 
 have been made to clear the land. I looked 
 upon territory where men had gone with axes 
 and cut down a heavy "stand" of pine and re- 
 moved the logs, yet the forest seemed to stand 
 with undiminished thickness; and crowding be- 
 tween the standing trees, I wondered how the 
 142
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 logs could have been dragged among their 
 trunks. I looked upon territory into which men 
 had gone a second time with their axes and 
 had cut down and removed the hemlock and 
 spruce, and still the forest seemed to stand as 
 thickly as before. There were three forests in 
 one; having been denuded twice, it had now 
 become a deciduous forest of birches and maples 
 and beeches, but seemingly as impenetrable as 
 before. The stumps are quickly covered with 
 new growth, the scars quickly heal, and one can 
 hardly believe that two "crops" of timber have 
 been removed. In the edges .of the wilderness 
 there were attempts at clearings, but they were 
 feeble attempts. One gained the impression 
 that a man would hardly dare leave his plowed 
 patch over night, for fear of finding, when 
 morning had come, that a forest had sprung up 
 while he slept. Certainly vegetation very 
 quickly takes possession of the land where ax 
 and fire and plow have gone. Shrubbery and 
 vine and tree conspire to wrest it from civiliza- 
 tion and transform it back again into wilder- 
 ness. 
 
 Some white folks are trying to live in that 
 143
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 country. Along the rude railroad there are a 
 few scattered hamlets, not even named; they 
 are known as "Camp 45," "Camp 58," "Camp 
 62," indicating that they are so many miles 
 in the wilderness, so many miles away from 
 civilization. That life is so rude, so primitive, 
 consisting of a room built of logs for a house, 
 brick and mortar or even mud and sticks and 
 stones for fireplace and chimney, scantiest fare 
 upon the table which is made of rough boards, 
 rudest clothing for wearing-apparel. I do not 
 speak lightly of this people; it is the advance- 
 guard of civilization, blazing the way to prog- 
 ress and comforts and luxuries; I speak only 
 pityingly of that barren, dreary, desolate life 
 seeking to conquer the wilderness. 
 
 There were lumber-jackies here and there in 
 lumber-camps, and wood-scouts, and we occa- 
 sionally came upon the camps of hunters and 
 trappers. They were leading a hard life. 
 When the winter's work is over and the logs 
 have been driven down the river, which is 
 swollen by the melting snows, to the sawmill, 
 and the jackies are released from their labors 
 and from the monotonous winter-life, little won- 
 144
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 der that they rush for the saloons and the gam- 
 bling-joints and the society of evil women, that 
 they fight and swear, that they drink and gam- 
 ble, and spend in a few days often the entire 
 earnings of winter. I do not justify any man 
 in his sins; but I can see that the wilderness, 
 without society or school or church or whole- 
 some amusement, will make those men almost 
 mad, so that, thrust suddenly into the human 
 world with its glamour, they lose all restraint 
 and rush impetuously into these great evils. 
 They are deserving of more thought and help 
 than they have received from us who enjoy the 
 fruits of their labors. 
 
 And there are the Indians, fitting companions 
 of the wilderness. During the summer they 
 usually return to the reservation and grow fat 
 and lazy at the expense of the Government. 
 But when the autumn approaches, the instinct 
 of the wild man blazes up, and they scatter 
 through the trackless forest, hunting and trap- 
 ping. Once we came upon a group of aban- 
 doned wigwams in the heart of the woods, but 
 usually each family goes by itself, selecting 
 some territory, building a lean-to, and spending 
 M 145
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 the winter there. Let me give you the history 
 of one of these families as I read it, mostly in 
 wilderness-language. 
 
 We were camping on a lake through which 
 the Chippewa River flowed. One day, looking 
 across the lake, I saw on the side of a cedar 
 tree a cross shining brightly from the reflected 
 sunlight. Jumping into a canoe, I paddled 
 across to investigate. The tree stood on the 
 edge of a bluff overlooking the lake. Two 
 paddles were tied together and tied to the tree, 
 perhaps accidentally; but I thought likely it 
 was a signal. Evidently some human being had 
 been around; so I landed, to examine more 
 closely. Nearby I found the home; but such 
 a home, a typical home of the wilderness ! It 
 was a most primitive lean-to; no windows or 
 doors, no walls or floor, no sides or front, just 
 some poles reaching from the ground to a cross- 
 pole, roughly thatched with branches, facing the 
 southeast, measurably protected by the woods 
 behind and with the ashes of fires before. Va- 
 rious evidences of camp-life were scattered 
 around. There were pieces of moose-hide, and 
 willow-stretchers for beaver-skins. These ani- 
 146
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 mals can not be killed, according to the laws 
 of Canada; but the Indian is not a creature of 
 the laws : he is a part of the wilderness. Hang- 
 ing to the branch of a tree was a nickel alarm- 
 clock; so here was one sign of civilization. 
 
 From a fire-ranger I later learned that the 
 squaw had been taken sick, and in this wild 
 place, away from doctors and medicines and 
 nurses and comforts, she had died, leaving the 
 Indian and children. The clock had stopped, 
 and because of their superstition had not been 
 removed. The man had placed the body of 
 his wife out of the reach of the wild beasts, 
 had taken the children on a long journey 
 through the deep snows and over the hills back 
 to the reservation, and with the coming of 
 spring had returned to bury his wife. I found 
 the burial-place on the edge of the lake, across 
 from where the camp had been. After the 
 body had been placed in a shallow grave, the 
 man had cut pickets with his tomahawk, and I 
 marveled at their accuracy: it seemed like the 
 work of a saw. With them he had built a 
 fence of pickets about the grave, to prevent its 
 being dug into or disturbed by the wild beasts. 
 147
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 Then he had cut down the forest trees about 
 the grave and extending to the edge of the lake 
 for perhaps a space ten or twelve rods square. 
 The trees lay upon the ground as they had 
 fallen. 
 
 I went one morning early and stood by the 
 rude tomb and watched the sun rise over the 
 great hills that were across the lake. The grave 
 was on the west shore of the lake, so that the 
 view was uninterrupted. And it was magnifi- 
 cent: the broad sweep of the placid waters; the 
 forests beyond hushed to funereal stillness; and 
 then the hills, climbing one above another, 
 higher and higher, mighty steps leading up to 
 the city of God; and the sun appearing above 
 them seemed the open door into His presence. 
 It was the work of a wild man, but it was noble 
 work, proof enough that God's hands had fash- 
 ioned him and had given him something of the 
 noblest feelings and longings. Here had been 
 pathetic sorrow and great love leading to these 
 tender offices for her he loved, the best he 
 could do. And here too was faith in God and 
 the hereafter. He had buried her where she 
 could look away to the rising sun and the bet- 
 148
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 ter day. May she rest in peace until that day 
 when the trumpet shall sound and Christ shall 
 call into His presence red man and white man 
 alike, to measure them according to their op- 
 portunities ! 
 
 If the wild man supplants the civilized man, 
 the wild beast supplants the beasts of the farm. 
 The streams are filled with trout full of primal 
 vigor and strength as they leap from the swirl- 
 ing eddy or the foot of the foaming rapids or 
 rush from the more sober depths to seize the 
 fly that flits over the water; and when they 
 strike it they dash away with unbelievable 
 strength. Rarely we came upon the shed ant- 
 lers of a caribou, more often of the moose, and 
 sometimes came upon his track; one night a 
 black bear prowled about our camp, snuffing and 
 pawing at the empty tin-cans, and the deer were 
 common. We frequently saw them grazing on 
 the grass and water-plants, wading out into the 
 water, or saw them swimming across an arm 
 of the lake; and in many places the banks of 
 the stream were so thickly dotted with their 
 hoofprints as to remind me of the pastures at 
 home, where the cattle tramped the bank of the 
 149
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 creek to drink. One day I paddled upon one 
 grazing, stealing upon him so noiselessly and 
 without motion, when he chanced to look up, 
 as to come within a few rods of him. At last, 
 when he saw me and I shouted, he was so 
 frightened that he could only leap up and down 
 several times before he got under headway. 
 But when he did — what an outburst of speed! 
 Here and there were the beaver-dams, thrown 
 across some mountain-stream, and the quaint 
 houses, and the creatures with seemingly human 
 powers in the building of the dam and house 
 with rooms, and in the storing of food, and the 
 cutting of trees which were felled more accu- 
 rately as to direction than any of us could do 
 with an ax. 
 
 The Indian and the wild animals seem at 
 home: they adapt themselves to this life, they 
 are a part of it; but it is a baffling proposition 
 even for the most experienced woodsmen. 
 (Since my visit, in the country to the northeast 
 of where I was, Leonidas Hubbard, going with 
 a party to see the migration of the caribou, 
 starved to death.) They are playing with death 
 much of the time. While we were there, the 
 150
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 superintendent of a considerable number of 
 lumber-camps sent three of his best men — fore- 
 men, who by skill and ability had won their 
 positions — to explore the upper reaches of the 
 Ghouli River and to plan for the winter's cut 
 of pine, and locate camps and dams that might 
 be necessary for the drive. I met the party in 
 a strange manner. We had gone from our 
 camp, several miles away, to a lumber-camp to 
 spend Sunday with the two or three men, bosses, 
 who remained there during the summer. Along 
 in the afternoon I saw three men come walking 
 down the track of the lumber-railroad. They 
 looked like tramps, and I wondered and asked 
 what those fellows would be doing in this 
 country. The foreman looked and recognized 
 them as men from another camp, and said, 
 "Why, that's Inglee and his men; but what 
 are they here for?" and hastened toward them. 
 From them we heard the story, while the men 
 in the camp got food and clothing for them. 
 They told of their expedition up the unexplored 
 river: The three men were in a canoe, making 
 their way up some rapids, when a sudden swirl 
 caught the canoe, whipped it against a rock, 
 151
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 and smashed it like an egg-shell. The men 
 got out in safety, and one of the fellows — a 
 reckless, dare-devil of a fellow — plunged back, 
 dove, and succeeded in getting an ax and a 
 plug of tobacco. All of their provisions were 
 gone; they were far away from camp or man; 
 it was a critical situation. Their best chance 
 was to strike across the hills and through the 
 forest to this camp, situated on another river. 
 They were without path or map to guide them, 
 having only a general idea that somewhere in 
 this direction the camp was situated; they were 
 playing the game, and they made it. They 
 came staggering in that Sunday afternoon, al- 
 most famished, bareheaded, and in rags. They 
 had won in their gamble with life, and eating 
 like wild beasts, they stopped now and then to 
 laugh and twit one another about eating "pine- 
 scones" and other unheard-of dishes. It was 
 a part of their life, to be likened to a holiday- 
 experience. To traverse those forests would be 
 utterly impossible for a tenderfoot. Why, 
 even with a guide to point the way and a stream 
 to follow, I would shrink sometimes at the very 
 thought of the bewildering country. A man 
 152
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 could stand within four rods and less, yes, 
 stand within two rods of the rude railroad or 
 a wood road and not see it at all; and that 
 means that he would be much more apt to wan- 
 der into the forest than to the path of safety. 
 Such density of vegetation is inconceivable to 
 one only familiar with our Illinois forests. 
 
 There are certain singular words that one as- 
 sociates with these solitudes. One is immen- 
 sity. This building in which we worship could 
 be dropped out of sight in almost any ravine, 
 our entire city could be lost in even the smaller 
 valleys between the hills; and areas the size of 
 Chicago, burned over by some forest-lire, 
 seemed only a fleck upon the landscape. One 
 becomes such a tiny creature, so helpless, so in- 
 significant here. One day we coasted on a rail- 
 road velocipede down the mountain-side for 
 several miles. Here were the rails, and here 
 and there a siding where logs had been loaded, 
 and here was a vehicle, a man's work, but it 
 seemed no more than the track of a worm across 
 the sand. Everywhere were hills, stretching one 
 above the other: some bald and white, some 
 black with burnt stumps and logs, and others 
 153
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 covered with the virgin forest; and between 
 them the valleys, each of them containing its 
 stream with swift current and tumbling waters 
 as they leaped over the obstructing ledge. 
 
 Another day, with our guide, we followed 
 an Indian trail for several miles, from the lake 
 where we camped to another that had no name. 
 We went in a canoe down the river, shooting 
 the rapids, and portaging where the waters 
 leaped over the ledge or where the great trees 
 fallen in one or two places had formed a tan- 
 gled network across the river. We finally aban- 
 doned our canoe and struck boldly into the for- 
 est where the guide insisted there was an Indian 
 trail, walking in the gloom and the shadow 
 and the darkness because of the dense treetops 
 that banded themselves together to keep out 
 the sunlight. Once we found a cache, but did 
 not examine the contents, considering sacred the 
 unwritten laws of the wilderness, and near it a 
 fragment of the skin of a black bear. Again, 
 we found a horn of a caribou, sadly mutilated 
 by mice and red squirrels, and came at length 
 to the edge of another lake, across which the 
 dusky Indians made their way in birch-bark 
 154
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 canoes. And standing on the shore and look- 
 ing across the blue waters beyond the bouldered 
 islands which lifted their leafy heads out of the 
 water, we saw still further on, the farther shore, 
 and on beyond the forest where scarcely foot 
 had trod and where the deer and moose were 
 grazing, and still farther on to other lakes and 
 other rivers and other forests, and on and on 
 where feet had not trodden, to the land where 
 the trees were stunted, not having breathing- 
 time enough during the brief summer, and 
 where trees refused to grow, and the snows lay 
 from winter to winter and would not go away 
 that the earth might warm and the flowers 
 might bloom. Before us were the silent places 
 of the north, without a twig to crackle beneath 
 a foot because there was no twig to break and 
 no foot to break it; and around us were the 
 silent places of the north, oppressively silent, 
 for there was no dog to bark, no cock to crow, 
 no lowing of cattle, no shrieking of engines. 
 Ten thousand men might have been scattered 
 about through this wilderness and all have dis- 
 appeared, making no impression upon this 
 northland. Ten thousand men might have 
 155
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 shouted with all their might, and received only 
 the mockery of the reply of the hills. The 
 mind refuses to calculate space and distance; 
 it is bewildered and subdued by the very im- 
 mensity of the northland. 
 
 The word power is stamped upon every- 
 thing. We are accustomed to the turning of 
 a few wheels because of the laboring of the 
 engine. In a day's tramp one sees more power 
 lost and dissipated and wasted where the waters 
 rush down the declivities and tumble over rocky 
 ledges and, foaming like a fretting horse, rush 
 through narrow grooves worn into the heart 
 of the granite-rock or built out of gigantic boul- 
 ders, than there is in all the engines in a large 
 city. One reads of the molding of great can- 
 non and the strength of their blows to destroy 
 the walls of fort or to pierce the sides of battle- 
 ship that may cross the path of their scream- 
 ing missies, and then one looks at the mighty 
 granite-hills with bared shoulders, and wonders 
 whether the shoulders would be even slightly 
 dented if man should train his guns upon them 
 for a thousand years. One watches the swing- 
 ing of the arms of the derrick as it lifts a weight 
 156
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 of a score of tons into place above the ground, 
 and then one thinks of the mighty arm of God 
 which has lifted the weight of these forest-trees 
 above the ground and holds them in place, such 
 weight that he can not even conceive. And by 
 the mighty power of God these hills have been 
 built and forests built and lakes built and woven 
 into the garment He wears. And then, by His 
 mighty power He has thrown the garment of 
 hill and forest and lake like a great mantle 
 over the earth, His abiding-place. 
 
 And one spells majesty there, letters made 
 by hills and streams; majesty rather than beauty. 
 It is too gigantic, too powerful, too overwhelm- 
 ing to be called beautiful; it is majestic. One 
 looks into the face of the lake with its waters 
 so delicately tinted with blue that the pathos in 
 his heart is aroused as he sees in them another 
 world. The great boulder rises from the edge 
 of the lake — a substantial, ponderous thing — 
 and in the lake appears its reflection; the trees 
 of great bulk and strength form a protecting 
 girdle about the lake, and another forest of 
 equal size stands inverted in the waters. We 
 do not notice the broad-winged eagle with 
 157
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 snowy head as it sails above us, but we see it 
 sailing in the water beneath us. Here is an- 
 other world. We can not hold it in our hands, 
 we can not feel it; but in the pathetic blue of 
 the water held in this hollow bowl God has 
 made, mingled with proper proportions of sun- 
 light God pours into it from heaven's beaker, 
 we can see it, another world of perfect form. 
 It is not material, but it is real, like the spirit- 
 world we see around this earthy world reflected 
 from the hearts held up to God into which He 
 has poured His light and love. 
 
 But I saw the word majesty most plainly 
 written from the top of Shepherd's Mountain. 
 It may not have been a mountain technically — 
 I had no measuring-devices to ascertain — but it 
 seemed like one to my puny mind; I named it 
 because it towered above Shepherd's Creek, and 
 one day I climbed to its summit. Without a 
 compass I would not have dared to venture into 
 the woods from the camp by the creek. Such 
 climbing! — hills and ravines, boulders and gul- 
 leys, thickly standing trees and fallen trees, and 
 worst of all, u shintangle," a creeping evergreen 
 that well deserves its name. There was plenty 
 158
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 of sweating and hard breathing, but reward at 
 last. Coming to the top, I crept out to the 
 edge, that the view might be unimpeded. 
 There was a sheer drop of several hundred feet 
 below me, and then a very steep incline, so that 
 the rock I pushed over the edge struck far be- 
 low with a hollow thud, and then with great 
 leaps and bounds and reverberations hastened 
 to the level below. The effort of the ascent 
 was well worth while. Far below me was the 
 main valley with the stream appearing here and 
 there, a succession of pools and rapids. The 
 water was as clear as crystal, but with a tint of 
 brown, as though it had caught the lingering re- 
 flections of the faces of tawny Indian maidens 
 who had looked long and wistfully, hoping that 
 it might carry the sound of the dip of the pad- 
 dles of loitering lovers. Across the valley the 
 hills were climbing, higher and higher — for 
 miles and miles a succession of hills and valleys. 
 Here and there were burnt areas, denoting the 
 destruction of countless thousands of feet of lum- 
 ber; but in the greater prospect they appeared 
 only as slight blemishes upon the landscape. 
 But the forests! Some of the hills were still 
 159
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 covered with pine: mighty, lordly trees tower- 
 ing above the other vegetation, appearing like 
 leaders and inspirers of the mighty host; and 
 an occasional one among them even taller and 
 grander was the sentinel. And then there were 
 the great masses of spruce and hemlock and 
 balsam, and the birches and maples and beeches, 
 and other deciduous trees. These distinctions 
 were plain enough near at hand; but as one 
 looked farther away, differences blended, until 
 he looked out upon only a sea of green across 
 whose face great waves and troughs of waves 
 seemed moving as the clouds swept across the 
 sky. 
 
 Here was shadow, but out yonder the sun 
 was shining, making the scene resplendent with 
 its glory. A long time I lay and feasted my 
 eyes upon the scene, the majesty of God. At 
 length the time to descend had come. Through 
 a huge fissure in the rock I made an almost 
 perpendicular descent, holding myself by the 
 rough granite on either side, coming at length 
 to broken fragments, some of which went tum- 
 bling down beneath my feet — some peril, per- 
 haps, but the panorama was worth all that it 
 cost, and more. 160
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 And here was apparent unity. There were 
 no evidences of rival ownership here; not even 
 a seed had been planted or valley sown with 
 grass that God had not done. There were no 
 evidences of discord or dispute. Every thing 
 that was seemed to belong to the whole, as the 
 various wheels and springs seem to belong to 
 the clock and to each other. It was a unit, a 
 whole, symmetrical and harmonious. 
 
 During those weeks the wilderness had a 
 message for me : a message about God and His 
 love, a message that was everywhere and all the 
 time being delivered, but sometimes more 
 plainly spoken than at other times because I 
 was more in the mood for hearing. 
 
 "To him who in the love of Nature holds 
 communion with her visible forms, She speaks 
 a various language — from all around, earth 
 and her waters, and the depths of air, — comes 
 a still voice." 
 
 Moses and Isaiah and Jesus heard it from 
 mountain and desert and growing tree; and I 
 heard it: a definite, positive, inspiring, exhil- 
 arating message. One day on the bank of an 
 unnamed lake we found the camp of a trapper. 
 » 161
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 The forest-fire had swept across this spot and 
 had burned the camp and either destroyed the 
 trapper or, more probably, had caused him to 
 flee for his life. About the place were traps 
 and weapons and other equipment, the partly 
 burned hide of a moose upon a stretcher or 
 frame, and near by at the edge of the lake, in 
 the water, a canoe. We appropriated it for 
 the day, and embarked upon a voyage of dis- 
 covery. When noon came we landed upon a 
 beautiful island for lunch and rest. This island, 
 like the others in that part of the world, seem- 
 ingly consisted of one huge boulder, nearly as 
 large as a city-block, that had been dropped by 
 the ice-floes of the glacial period, I suppose, 
 here in the middle of the lake. Vegetation had 
 gradually obtained a foothold, until now there 
 were large trees and shrubbery and grass grow- 
 ing over most of the surface, with patches of 
 the bare rock showing here and there. 
 
 After lunch the guide lay down to smoke his 
 pipe and doze, while I slipped away to the other 
 side of the island to be as far away as possible 
 from the only man I am sure who was within 
 many miles of this spot. On the edge of the 
 162
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 rock above the water I lay down upon a carpet of 
 pine-leaves which had fallen through the years 
 from the trees above me ; lay down not to sleep, 
 but to dream and drift, and drift and dream. 
 And as I dreamed, I floated out upon the wa- 
 ters of the lake which lay before me for several 
 miles and which sparkled like many jewels as 
 the breeze sported with its dimpled face, and 
 then I floated on above the forest that girdled 
 me round with its foliage. I was in the center of 
 a great bowl, and yonder on every side were the 
 forests clothing the hills that stretched away 
 toward the horizon and toward heaven. I 
 floated back across the ages to the time when 
 these hills had not been made, but when, by the 
 Written Word, the Spirit of God brooded over 
 the face of the earth, and I saw it all: the 
 mighty Builder, with ice-floes for derricks, 
 moving the great rocks across the face of the 
 earth, dropping them here and there where He 
 needed them and where He desired them. I 
 saw the gigantic, fiery furnaces into which the 
 crude materials were thrust, and out of which, 
 heated and tempered in the furnaces of God, 
 there had come this igneous rock, this granite 
 163
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 out of which these hills had been builded; I 
 saw Him plowing the face of the earth with 
 granite-hills and leaving the furrows into whose 
 hollows these beautiful lakes had gathered their 
 limpid waters; again I drifted back across the 
 centuries to the present, but the Spirit had not 
 departed, God was still brooding over the hills 
 and forests as He brooded over my mind and 
 led me to worship Him and sing His praise 
 with lips that were dumb in His presence. 
 
 It did not matter that no church or human 
 company was here : God was here, and these 
 waters and hills and trees were clapping their 
 hands in praise of Him, their Maker. 
 
 "There are flowerlets down in the valley low 
 
 And over the mountain-side, 
 That were never praised by a human voice 
 
 Nor by human eye descried ; 
 But sweet as the breath of the royal rose 
 
 Is the perfume they exhale; 
 And where they bloom and why they bloom 
 
 The good Lord knoweth well." 
 
 And in that hour I scarcely knew where I tar- 
 ried or whether, as Paul said, "I was in the 
 body or out of the body;" but this I knew, that 
 God was around me and underneath me, and 
 164
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 there, away from all mankind, I was in His 
 very presence. 
 
 There was only one voice I heard: the voice 
 of God. Nearly everywhere there are two 
 voices, or at least the voice of man; and so 
 often we listen to these grating, boastful, dis- 
 cordant sounds, and are deaf to the voice of 
 God. We hear him boasting of his works, and 
 forget that God is the Doer of things. We 
 see man lifting the sheaf of wheat, and forget 
 that God has lifted every sheaf of wheat into 
 being; we forget the mountains of God when 
 we are looking at the pyramids, and we admire 
 the temples erected by man's labor and shut 
 our eyes to these mighty temples whose Maker 
 and Builder is God. 
 
 Pardon me if I even compare man with God 
 in speaking of these things. If comparison is 
 called for, then man shall be compared rather 
 to ox and bird and tree and flower, God's crea- 
 tures; and not to Him who is the Maker of 
 us all. But here was no confusion of tongues. 
 Look where I would, listen as intently as I 
 might downward toward humanity, there was 
 no human testimony to break the stillness, no 
 165
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 human mark or deed to obtrude its puny pres- 
 ence upon the handiwork of God. Here was 
 proof, age-long, of God's work and interest 
 and care ; evidences enough of furnaces in which 
 quartz-rocks were melted, ice-floes upon which 
 they were transported; evidences of sculpturing 
 of valley and canon, of hill and mountain ; evi- 
 dences of selecting of proper material for the 
 hills, strong enough to support the burdens they 
 carried, pliable and fertile enough to melt be- 
 neath rain and sun and give root to the abun- 
 dant vegetation. God was not far away, and 
 here were paths that were leading to Him. 
 
 Everything was conspiring to teach the w T ay 
 to God. On the edge of the island, a foot or 
 two above the water, I found the nest of a 
 loon. Out in the lake the parent-bird, fright- 
 ened away by my presence, was swimming and 
 diving, now showing its black coat marked with 
 squares of white, and now disappearing. There 
 in the nest lay two baby-birds, the brown shells 
 near by; the little birds, covered with black 
 down, were just out of the shell and seemed 
 so tiny and helpless. But when I drew near 
 they tumbled down the bank into the water and 
 166
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 glided away, paddled away upon its bosom as 
 gracefully as a swan. They were able to do 
 it because they were fashioned of God to rest 
 upon its bosom, to live in its waters. As I 
 
 A TINY BIRD ON GREAT WATERS 
 
 watched the splendid adaptation of tiny bird 
 to great waters, I said, "How perfectly God 
 has adapted the bird to its home!" And then 
 I said, and say to you, that God has fashioned 
 man, however weak and helpless he may seem, 
 to find safety and refuge and shelter in Him. 
 167
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 Instinctively the baby-bird turned to the bosom 
 of the lake for safety, and instinctively I turn 
 to God, overcoming the hindrances, that I may 
 rest upon His bosom. 
 
 The wilderness taught me that somehow we 
 may find our way to the City of God. I had 
 been going down the Ghouli River, stopping 
 now and again to cast the flies across some 
 foamy pool or beyond some sheltering rock to 
 lure the speckled beauties from their hiding- 
 place; then pushing on through the bushes and 
 trees, clambering over tangled logs or log-jams. 
 Evening was coming on ; I was deep in the val- 
 ley and hardly knew how far I had gone, and 
 in the obscurity and bewilderment of the forest 
 doubted whether this stream, so quickly disap- 
 pearing, swallowed up, would ever find its way 
 out and guide me through. In order to get 
 my bearings I climbed a steep hill; coming to 
 the top, I looked into the valley out of which 
 I had clambered. Here and there was a 
 glimpse of the stream, but soon disappearing; 
 and I said it is lost, it has no destination, it is 
 swallowed up. And then I looked down the 
 valley, and here and there could catch the shin- 
 168
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 ing of the stream as the sunlight made its way 
 through the rifts in the hills and fell upon it; 
 and looked on beyond until far in the distance 
 I saw the blue waters of Lake Superior and the 
 river flowing into it. And I said, "It is not 
 lost: it has found its way to its resting-place; 
 for God made it not to be lost, but to arrive. ,, 
 And then I said, "I too will arrive." Some- 
 times the valley seems deep, the way seems be- 
 wildering, and life seems to be confusion and 
 uncertainty. But standing upon the hilltop and 
 looking down the valley into the sea, I thanked 
 God for the rifts in the hills, for the light of 
 His presence that shines into our hearts to illu- 
 mine the way, and for the city yonder in the 
 distance, the City of God, toward which and 
 into which He seeks to lead every child of His, 
 not willing that one shall be bewildered or lost. 
 Oh! I know that some would have stood by 
 my side and cursed the day that brought them 
 to these hardships, to the hills and logs and 
 rocks and scanty fare. 
 
 "A cowslip by the river's brim 
 
 A yellow cowslip was to him, 
 
 And it was nothing more." 
 
 169
 
 THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 
 
 But this too I am sure of, that God desires 
 to open the eyes of the blind and unstop the 
 ears of the deaf, and would be with us in the 
 midst of His groves and hills and streams and 
 lakes, that there, as everywhere, He might 
 teach us that He is our Maker and our God, 
 and that we might come to praise Him and go 
 with Him, even to the City. 
 
 170
 
 VI 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 "Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for 
 gold where they fine it. Iron is taken out of the earth, and 
 brass is molten out of the stone. God setteth an end to dark- 
 ness, and searcheth out all perfection. There is a path which 
 no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen : 
 the lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion 
 passed by it. He putteth forth His hand upon the rock; He 
 overturneth the mountains by the roots. He cutteth out rivers 
 among the rocks; and His eye seeth every precious thing. He 
 bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing bringeth 
 He forth to light. But where shall wisdom be found ? And 
 where is the place of understanding? Seeing it is hid from 
 the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the 
 air. Destruction and death saith, We have heard the fame 
 thereof with our ears. God understandeth the way thereof, 
 and He knoweth the place thereof. For He looketh to the 
 ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven; to 
 make the weight for the winds; and He weigheth the waters 
 by measure. When He made a decree for the rain, and a 
 way for the lightning of the thunder; then did He see it, 
 and declare it; He prepared it, yea, and searched it out. 
 And unto man, He said, Behold the fear of the Lord, that is 
 wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." — Job 28.
 
 VI 
 
 "God said." — Genesis 1:3. 
 
 GOD has grown amazingly through the 
 " centuries. From time to time some 
 man of great intellect and great heart 
 has discovered God in some new way, and then 
 blind eyes have been opened and other men 
 have recognized that God was greater and 
 more comprehensive and with more faculties 
 and powers than had been dreamed. Abraham 
 discovered that God was not a bloodthirsty 
 monster, feeding upon the blood of children; 
 Moses discovered that God was law-abiding 
 and orderly in the world and in dealing with 
 men ; Job discovered the presence of God in ad- 
 versity as well as prosperity; Jesus did not dis- 
 cover, He knew from the beginning, but He 
 disclosed to men the love and Fatherhood of 
 God. And so not suddenly and completely, but 
 gradually, our knowledge of God has been ob- 
 tained and will be obtained through the cen- 
 173
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 turies to come. But from the beginning of 
 humanity the one God that every man has rec- 
 ognized (or shall I say, the one quality in Him) 
 is the God of Power, the God of Force; and 
 the God which men in our time fear and sub- 
 scribe to is Jehovah; however uncertain about 
 qualities of tenderness and mercy and love, 
 however doubtful about personality and will, 
 every man of sanity recognizes Jehovah. It 
 is this God, the Eternal Force, of whom I speak 
 to-day. 
 
 God is present everywhere and all the time. 
 Running back through the ages, following the 
 paths which students have marked out in their 
 investigations in different fields, we everywhere 
 come across the mighty Jehovah in His work- 
 shop; we find Him busy everywhere, He stands 
 at the beginning of things. The fields are pro- 
 ducing their harvests of corn and wine and oil, 
 and there would be no harvests if there were 
 no fields where the sun graciously shines and 
 the showers moisten the earth. But the fields 
 refuse to accept responsibility. There would 
 be no fields if continents had not been thrown 
 up out of the water, and there would have been 
 174
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 no continent if there had been no earth, and 
 there had been no earth if there had been no 
 solar system, and there had been no sun and 
 brood of planets if there had been no star-dust 
 
 WORKSHOP OF THE MIGHTY JEHOVAH 
 
 or space filled with surging atoms, and there 
 had been no surging atoms if there had been 
 no energy, and there had been no energy if 
 there had been no God. We have reached the 
 end and the beginning. We are standing by 
 the side of God the Eternal Force and look- 
 175
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 ing toward the future, and we follow the mar- 
 vels of creation: star-dust and sun and planet 
 and land and sea and field with waving grain 
 and stalwart corn, because God was there and 
 God said that these things should be, and there 
 came to be what had not been. 
 
 I walk out again into the presence of the 
 present, the presence of things that are NOW 
 being done. Here are trees on whose branches 
 Some One, a Mighty Force, is building fruit; 
 here are gardens in which are being built vege- 
 tables of many kinds by Some One not to be 
 compared with or measured by any power of 
 man, the Omnipotent One; here are rivers in 
 whose depths fishes are being built by a Mighty 
 Force ; here are mountains on whose sides great 
 forests are being built, and here are seas on 
 whose bosoms waves so mighty as to play with 
 man's greatest ships as though they were child's 
 blocks are being fashioned. Everywhere is, the 
 evidence. This is not man's power or within 
 the range of man's power: this is superhuman; 
 this is Omnipotence; this is God saying things. 
 
 God is Force in action. He is busy every- 
 where and all of the time. Men have thought 
 176
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 they were busy, toiling in the fields or the mines 
 or the forests or the warehouses where they 
 have stored God's provisions, or the marts of 
 trade where they huckster in God's produce; 
 they have grown wan and pale and nervous and 
 morbid because of tasks undertaken; they have 
 come out of the mine grimy and blinded, and 
 have cried for less work; they have gone from 
 the desk or the counter or the office or the 
 schoolroom and have protested against being 
 overburdened. The insistent and righteous de- 
 mand is for shorter hours, more play, more va- 
 cations. Why righteous? Because they are 
 men, frail and weak and fragile. But God' the 
 Eternal Force is at work all the time. He never 
 leaves the field, always at work, day and night, 
 summer and winter, growing things or making 
 ready for another harvest; never leaves the 
 forest, always busy caring for the trees He has 
 builded and is building; never leaves the mine, 
 always busy holding the mountains in the hol- 
 low of His hands and fashioning their contents 
 into gold and silver or coal and iron. 
 
 God is saying how things shall be, and they 
 are as He says. Men speculate about the mak- 
 12 177
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 ing of continents: the cooling of the earth, the 
 submergence of a great area to form an ocean- 
 bed, the upheaval of a mountain-range to form 
 the skeleton of a continent, and in fascinating 
 language they tell incidentally how it was 
 done, and sometimes forget to tell primarily 
 that it was done because God the Eternal Force 
 said. Men speculate about the ten tribes of 
 Israel: where they went, how they could have 
 disappeared so completely, and whether they 
 have left descendants in some of the more re- 
 cent peoples of the earth, and why they wan- 
 dered away from the homeland; and may for- 
 get to tell us that it all happened because God 
 said. Men write of the Battle of Waterloo, 
 and compare the merits of different leaders and 
 different armies, and only Hugo remembers to 
 say that the battle was lost and won by the 
 decree of the Almighty. 
 
 Men and women are spending late hours in 
 the dance-hall or in carousings and suffer the 
 headache because God has made a system of 
 laws to govern our bodies and has written a 
 system of penalties for the infraction of those 
 laws. An epidemic sweeps through a commu- 
 178
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 nity, the dread disease entering home and tak- 
 ing away members of the families in death: for 
 the community has been careless about cleanli- 
 ness; and heaps of unremoved garbage, the un- 
 kempt alleys, the polluted waters have been the 
 forerunners of disease : for God has made a 
 system of laws of health, and penalties for their 
 violation. And only by rigorous infliction of 
 these stern measures are men being urged to 
 learn these hidden truths and to do the things 
 they ought to do, and so are being urged along 
 the path of progress. 
 
 To the one who perseveres, who is patient, 
 industrious, temperate, diligent, there comes re- 
 ward. A man is diligent at his books, toiling 
 long and late, and denying himself the pleas- 
 ures that would interfere with his tasks, and he 
 gains knowledge and enriches the world with 
 his learning; a man is frugal and industrious 
 and persevering, and with the passing of the 
 years the farm grows in fertility, the fences and 
 buildings improve, his wealth is accumulating; 
 a man applies himself to the task of cultivating 
 his heart, endeavoring to uproot every thistle 
 and thorn and to plant in their stead those 
 179
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 things which shall produce "the peaceable fruits 
 of righteousness," and with the passing of the 
 years the man grows in grace, his moral fiber 
 improves, his character strengthens in ways of 
 genuine manhood. And all of these things are 
 true, because God has said that they shall be. 
 
 Man speaks, and we are left in doubt and un- 
 certainty; for we must wait to see whether he 
 speaks the truth. He may propose to deceive; 
 he may be interested in a business transaction 
 and foolishly imagine that he can enrich his 
 life by dishonesty, by misrepresentation. God 
 speaks, and we may well know that there is no 
 uncertainty in the way of fulfillment: for is it 
 not written that "not one jot or one tittle of 
 the law shall pass away till all be fulfilled?" 
 And again, is it not written that, "though the 
 mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind ex- 
 ceeding small." Man may be mistaken. The 
 jurymen freed the prisoner accused of murder 
 because they believed him and he swore that 
 he was in another place at the time of the mur- 
 der, and had lying witnesses to corroborate his 
 alibi. 
 
 But God is not mistaken, and He speaks the 
 180
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 word to the conscience of that man, and the 
 hounds are unleashed and set upon the trail of 
 that man; and though he may fly to the ends 
 of the earth, he can not escape the haunting of 
 that murdered face. God stamps upon his brain 
 the words "murderer, assassin," and their echoes 
 resound through the corridors of his mind 
 by night while he sleeps and by day while he 
 works. Wherever he goes, God has been there 
 and is there before him, saying, "Thou shalt 
 not kill," and saying, again, "The soul that sin- 
 neth, it shall surely die." Man speaks intend- 
 ing to speak the truth, but may be in ignorance, 
 or is powerless to execute the decree. He says, 
 "I will do thus and so next year;" and the year 
 comes, with its blooming of flowers and singing 
 of birds, and there is a new mound in the cem- 
 etery, and the plans are unfulfilled. God 
 speaks, and day and night, time and eternity, 
 present and future leap to do His bidding. 
 There is no uncertainty in the voice of God. 
 
 God's word is manifesting itself everywhere 
 
 in motions. He speaks, and the tides heap 
 
 themselves in great bulk and hurl their bulk in 
 
 sportive glee against the mighty coast-rocks. 
 
 181
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 He speaks, and the winds are moving now so 
 gently as to scarcely make a ripple upon the 
 pond or a quiver to the aspen-leaf, and again 
 in sturdy gusts that rock the forest-tree or sweep 
 across the pond and drive the waves like fright- 
 ened sheep before the dog. He speaks, and 
 the clouds are in motion, now so light and mov- 
 ing so gently that one can scarcely see that they 
 change their position at all, and now scudding 
 before the wind like sailless ship before the 
 storm at sea. He speaks, and the water is rip- 
 pling among the pebbles or lazily loitering be- 
 tween grassy banks on its way to the sea, or 
 leaping with merry laugh adown the ledge, or 
 climbing into the sky, or beating the shrinking 
 earth with falling raindrops. Everywhere is 
 quiver, is stir, is motion, for everywhere the 
 world is busy doing the things God says shall be. 
 God says that there shall be impressions in 
 the mind through the senses. A man walks 
 through the field and hears the baying of a 
 hound on the trail of a rabbit, and the lowing 
 of cattle wending their way to pasture-gate, the 
 chirping of insects in the grass at his feet, the 
 whir of wings as a prairie-hen springs from her 
 182
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 nest, the call of a quail from the top of a post, 
 the echoing notes of the distant whip-poor-will, 
 the scream of the hawk high in air. He has 
 pictures enough in his mind for an art-gallery; 
 and such an art-gallery it is, of the forest yon- 
 der, rich with the spring-growth of foliage ; the 
 lone tree with the wild grape clambering over 
 it; the sturdy thorn-bush, the gravel-bank, and 
 the windflowers decorating its crest; the level 
 reach of grass with buttercups and dandelions; 
 the garter-snake with its black and yellow 
 stripes that crosses his path; the gopher that 
 sits erect and whistles, and then in wild alarm 
 pitches into its hole ; the hairy woodpecker that 
 hammers a noisy welcome and then scurries 
 away in wild flight; the crow jumping for a 
 grasshopper or sedately walking and peering 
 for some bit of food! The fragrance of the 
 sweet brier is wafted to him from the distance; 
 the wild grape makes him wild with joy as he 
 catches its sweetness; and the roses and the 
 clover and the mint add their bewitching odors. 
 And he has these sensations of sound and sight 
 and odor, and carries them home with him be- 
 cause God is about, making the brain receive 
 183
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 and appreciate, and making the things to be 
 seen and heard and smelled to the joy of man. 
 
 In the beginning God said that there should 
 be, and there were new creatures on the earth, 
 new trees and new fishes and new birds and ani- 
 mals. And God is still saying, creating things; 
 and as a result of God's presence and power 
 new species of insects and fishes and birds are 
 coming into existence. God may take a long 
 time for their making. A new form may drift 
 very slowly from the type, and may require 
 many generations to get far enough away and 
 become distinct enough to rank as a new species. 
 It does not matter whether God is pleased to 
 take few or many days; the noteworthy thing 
 is that God is still around, doing things, things 
 that have never been done before. 
 
 And God is looking after the things He has 
 done and made through the past ages, seeing 
 that there is food to eat and water to drink and 
 air to breathe. God is sustaining the body of 
 man so that for years it goes along doing its 
 work, bearing its burdens, enduring its trials. 
 Sometimes there is a man who works at his 
 task so hard and long it reminds us of the bat- 
 184
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 tleship of our navy just returned from its long 
 trip around the hemisphere, coming into harbor 
 with coal-bunkers empty, with machinery ex- 
 hausted and wrenched. But as the bunkers will 
 be filled and the machinery readjusted and put 
 into fit condition, so the man recuperates from 
 his labors, renews his strength, takes on new 
 life, and we speak admiringly of the vitality of 
 the man. Do we remember that man's vitality 
 is but another word for expressing what God 
 has done for man, what energy and endurance 
 and resistance He has packed into the machinery 
 of that body? 
 
 Everything that is made God has made. 
 Perhaps no one thing should make us admire 
 Him and fill us more with wonder than another 
 thing; but as we look over the ages that have 
 passed into history, written or unwritten, there 
 are certain great creations that stand forth as 
 of surpassing importance. 
 
 Now, we know that the tree with its fruitage 
 of acorns or young birds was not built by a 
 few definite certain acts, such as the making 
 of root, of trunk, of branch, of leaf and fruit 
 and fastening them together. We understand 
 185
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 that there has been a gradual growth from the 
 tiniest beginning until now. Yet as we look 
 at the tree these words stand out in prominence 
 as the chief parts of the tree. So we under- 
 stand that God has not made our world by a 
 few definite acts, each separate and independent 
 of the other, but that there has been a gradual 
 building, a gradual unfolding, like the unfold- 
 ing of a flower or tree. But it is also true that 
 certain words in the account of the creation of 
 the world stand out with startling distinctness. 
 And we seem to realize more clearly how the 
 doing of these things would call for the un- 
 rivaled power of God. 
 
 God spake, and matter came into existence. 
 I pass by any theories concerning the relations 
 or conditions of matter, any philosophical as- 
 sertions or theories. I am satisfied to think of 
 it now as the mind normally and simply does, 
 the material out of which things are made, 
 "world-stuff," "ground-substance," "star-dust." 
 It is the raw substance, the "earth without form 
 and void" of Genesis; not after it has been made 
 into burning sun and heartless moon and whirl- 
 ing planet, into sea and land, mountain and val- 
 186
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 ley, boisterous crag or delicate snowflake or 
 gleaming crystal of quartz. Indeed, any form 
 that the crude material assumes, absolutely, in- 
 flexibly requires the word of God; but the mind 
 
 THE TREE WITH ITS FRUITAGE OF YOUNG 
 BIRDS 
 
 rests more easily upon these root-terms. As a 
 man says, if he has the pile of lumber he can 
 make the chair or desk or table or stand or 
 house, but he can not make the tree from which 
 to obtain lumber. It is a fallacy of the mind, 
 187
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 but many have said that if only they have mat- 
 ter and the laws of nature to start with, they 
 can account for the making of sea and land, for- 
 getting that every law of nature is the written 
 word of God and that every sun that is fash- 
 ioned or every snowflake is God in action. 
 
 So to this man I say that we will stand in 
 the beginning by the side of God, when there is 
 nothing else: no sun or world, no matter or 
 space, no time, only God, the Eternal God, 
 Eternity. And looking from that distant point 
 toward the day in which we live, we see the 
 coming into being of the "star-dust" in what- 
 ever form it may have been, coming into ex- 
 istence because God spoke. 
 
 We look again, no matter how many ages 
 may have passed in the shaping of matter by 
 God into various forms; we look again, and 
 there is life, for God has done another mighty 
 thing in the forward journey of the world. We 
 do not speak of any particular form of life, 
 whether the crudest that lives in slimy waters 
 or the more complex of brilliant bird and beau- 
 tiful flower or of man himself; but life that 
 will work itself out into myriads of forms if 
 188
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 God will but speak the word, the "ground- 
 substance" out of which all of these forms will 
 come. Life has come into being because God 
 has spoken. 
 
 We look on still farther, and now there is 
 consciousness : whether the lowest knowledge 
 of rude life which knows only what is food and 
 what is warmth, or the knowledge of the bird 
 which knows when the night has passed and the 
 light is breaking through the eastern skies and 
 it warbles its matin in field or orchard, or the 
 fox which knows the track of the rabbit, com- 
 ing across it in the snow, and sets out in pur- 
 suit of it, or the broader knowledge of man 
 ending in libraries and inventions and discov- 
 eries; here is Consciousness, the underlying fac- 
 tor in all of this, and we are beholding another 
 great step in advance that has come by the word 
 of God. 
 
 Again we look, and conscience has come 
 into being: whether the crude conscience of the 
 Indian who comes across the cache of his rival 
 who has left there the pemmican or venison or 
 parched corn against the day of his return from 
 distant journeyings, and the conscience of the 
 189
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 red man speaks to him, and he says, "I will not 
 take the food of my rival, for his very life de- 
 pends upon it, and it would be unfair; I ought 
 not to take away the morsel of bread that will 
 prevent his starving to death;" or whether it 
 be the developed conscience of the Christian, 
 who not only says, "I ought not to take what 
 belongs to my neighbor," but who also says, 
 "I ought to feed my neighbor who is hungry, 
 and clothe him who is naked; and I ought to 
 do good to him who hates me," — does not 
 matter. Another factor has entered the world, 
 and another long step has been taken in the 
 upward climb of man, for out of conscience has 
 sprung justice and mercy, unselfishness and 
 brotherhood, as well as morality and the re- 
 ligions of humanity. And conscience has 
 come because God has spoken the word. 
 
 Another word remains to be spoken. From 
 that beginning when God only was, we have 
 come a long journey, but we have not come 
 to the end of the journey or reached the brow 
 of the hill. Looking around upon this world 
 with all that we have found in it springing from 
 matter and life and consciousness and conscience, 
 190
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 we are still in perplexity and despair, for here 
 is neither appreciable plan nor purpose nor jus- 
 tification, and we must content ourselves with a 
 "Riddle of the Universe." But God did not 
 leave us with an unsolved riddle on our hands. 
 He spoke again, and the Word was made flesh 
 and dwelt among us, and we beheld the glory 
 of God. He spoke, and the heavens opened 
 and the Son of God came to earth to give an 
 answer to the riddle, a meaning to all that God 
 had done hitherto. 
 
 Leave Christ out of the equation, and we 
 look upon what may be a building, but a build- 
 ing standing unfinished, without a purpose; 
 leave Christ out of the equation, and we look 
 upon the body of a man with limbs and trunk, 
 but without head and only a question-mark in 
 place of a head, or the face of some horrid mon- 
 ster. Some men have tried to remove Christ 
 from the story of creation, and as a result they 
 have taken us into the woods and lost us and 
 themselves there. What infidel has given us 
 an answer to our questions, has given a worthy 
 explanation to creation as we see it? But God 
 did not leave Christ out of the equation. He 
 191
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 who had builded a temple with its material sub- 
 structure, its foundation of life, its walls of 
 knowledge, its arches of conscience did not leave 
 it unroofed or unfinished, but gave Christ to 
 the world, the Completion of His plans, the 
 Answer to our questions, the Explanation of 
 creation. 
 
 God has been speaking and doing things from 
 the beginning that we might have a home — a 
 home with its burdens, for we need them to 
 make our muscles strong and to brace our spir- 
 its: but a home of cheer and victory, because 
 we can bear the burdens and endure the heat of 
 the day; and a home of love, because Christ 
 is with us as our Guest, to cheer and lighten 
 and make strong for the battle and make tender 
 toward the unfortunate. 
 
 From the beginning God was thinking of 
 man, saying, "Let us make man in our image." 
 When He was at work upon suns and worlds, 
 upon prairies and ocean-beds, He was thinking 
 of the time when He would have children in 
 the earth to sing His praises; when He was 
 covering the earth with growing things and 
 creeping and flying things He was looking 
 192
 
 GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 
 
 ahead to the time when these things would be 
 a delight to His children. 
 
 And the fullness of time is here, and His 
 Son has come to tell us of the Father's love and 
 care, and His hope that we will appreciate His 
 love for us and enjoy the world He has made 
 and love His other children and make our lives 
 free from defiling things and sin of every kind. 
 And in our extremity He has not forgotten or 
 forsaken us. He who spoke worlds into ex- 
 istence and made life on the earth is ready and 
 waiting to speak new life into our souls. Even 
 now the Christ who came to seek and save the 
 lost, who came with all power given to Him, is 
 ready to come and make us strong, to give us 
 so much life that we can throw off the sins that 
 seek to infest our hearts and the temptations 
 that everywhere beset us; and while it is well 
 for us to know much about the works of God 
 in the world, may we not forget that this is the 
 great work of God, that we might know Him 
 whom He hath sent. 
 
 x 3 193
 
 VII 
 PATHFINDERS
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 "And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah 
 opened the window of the ark which he had made; and he 
 sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the 
 waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth 
 a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off 
 the face of the ground ; but the dove found no rest for the 
 sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, 
 for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he 
 put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto 
 him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days, and 
 again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; and the dove 
 came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was 
 an olive leaf plucked off; so Noah knew that the waters 
 were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other 
 seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not 
 again unto him any more." — Genesis 8 : 6-12. 
 
 "The cormorant and the bittern shall possess the land; 
 the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it. The wild 
 beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of 
 the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow ; the screech- 
 owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. 
 There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, 
 and gather under her shadow; there shall the vultures also 
 be gathered, every one with her mate. Seek ye out the Book 
 of the Lord, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall 
 want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and His 
 spirit, it hath gathered them." — Isaiah 34:11, 14-16.
 
 VII 
 
 "There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the 
 vulture's eye hath not seen." — Job 28 : 7. 
 
 THERE is a path which no fowl knoweth 
 and which the vulture's eye hath not 
 seen, and there are eyes given to men 
 — some men — which see the path known to the 
 vulture, and which also see the path which 
 leadeth to the presence and heart of God. The 
 man who speaks the poetry of this text and who 
 feels the poetry of the divine life in his heart 
 is such a man. 
 
 Is it true that we must be born with the 
 faculty of seeing the wonders of Nature? 
 Many insist that poets come to their greatness 
 as a matter of birthright, and not of drudgery; 
 insist that one with the rare ability to command, 
 to organize, to be an executive, must be born 
 with that gift. Is it true that one who follows 
 the bird in "its boundless flight," that one who 
 looks with awe upon the mysteries of the uni- 
 197
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 verse, does so from the beginning? Or is it 
 true that here is a faculty universal, belonging 
 to every man, but lying dormant, uncultivated, 
 unknown perhaps, requiring only to be discov- 
 ered and uncovered and exercised to be given a 
 chance ? 
 
 All folks have eyes; but with many of them 
 the eyes are a sham, a mere pretense, as deceiv- 
 ing as the marble veneer over the rough bricks. 
 In Jesus' time it seemed as though blind men 
 sat by every wayside. In our time blind men 
 are thronging our streets, are crossing our 
 thresholds, are staring vacantly into the face of 
 the sky, into the face of the forest, into the face 
 of the orchard. Having eyes, they do not see ; 
 nay, they do not have eyes. Something is lack- 
 ing. The flesh is there, the cornea and iris and 
 pupil, the crystalline lens, the aqueous humor 
 and vitreous humor, the retina and optic nerve, 
 but the spirit is lacking. And without the spirit 
 of seeing the flesh of seeing is weak. 
 
 These blind men gazing upon the dandelions 
 
 adorning the field in early spring, displaying 
 
 beauty enough to make a seer weep for joy as 
 
 they catch the golden sunshine and reflect it 
 
 198
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 back from their own faces, each blossom a nug- 
 get of glistening gold set in a field of emerald- 
 green, and each blossom of the flower-cluster 
 a work of technique, a work of art; these men 
 
 THE VULTURE'S EYE 
 
 Young Marsh Hawks 
 
 say, "Humph, a lot of weeds." Gazing upon 
 the hulls of God's fleet of battleships as they 
 come into vision on the distant edge of the hori- 
 zon and plow their way so majestically from 
 horizon to zenith, maneuvering for position as 
 199
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 they sail in the great blue ocean above us, the 
 blind man says, "Humph, going to rain; ugly- 
 looking black clouds ; let *s get in the house and 
 close the door and draw the curtains." But the 
 curtains are already drawn. Gazing on the 
 place where waters lurk in quiet pasture-pools 
 and give birth to reed and rush and sedge, which 
 make music all the day, instruments of many 
 strings breathing music when blown upon by 
 the gentle breeze, where birds sing to the morn- 
 ing-sun and the frogs at twilight pipe to the 
 rising moon, and the muskrat thrusts his nose 
 across the quiet pond and breaks its surface into 
 many circles; he says, "Humph, nothing but a 
 swamp and mud and weeds and frogs ; let 's go 
 where we can get something to eat or where 
 we can see something." Such folks are to be 
 pitied who shut themselves away from and who 
 are blind to the beauty and grace and fragrance 
 and music with which God has satiated His 
 world. But though they are born blind, there 
 is hope that, as Jesus long ago touched the eyes 
 and they were opened to see, so now these eyes 
 may be touched and made to see by waiting upon 
 the works of Christ, by waiting upon the paths 
 200
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 of God, by keeping company with such men as 
 Job. 
 
 Here is a man whose book would be worthy 
 of its place in the Bible not only because He 
 kept his confidence with God, but because he 
 had so much to say about God's world. He 
 talked of the stars and the groupings of the 
 stars, Arcturus and Orion and the Pleiades; he 
 talked of the rain and snow, of the hail and 
 frost, of the balancings of the clouds, of hawk 
 and eagle and bittern and owl; of rabbits and 
 wild goats, of lions and lion's whelps, of be- 
 hemoth and leviathan. And it will be worth 
 our while to stand by the side of this man and 
 look out upon the paths that are seen by eyes 
 of birds and the paths that are seen by the soul 
 of man. It may be that the mystery and unex- 
 plainableness of the wisdom displayed in this 
 world by the creatures of this world may lead 
 us to look with eagerness for the highway which 
 God "hath cast up for His children to walk 
 in," to find it, and to walk therein. 
 
 Birds are remarkable pathfinders. Peter was 
 cautioned against calling anything common or 
 unclean that God had made, but we constantly 
 201 '
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 repeat Peter's blunder. We have called the 
 vulture vulgar and unclean, glutton and scaven- 
 ger, feeder upon filth and carrion, and our 
 empty words have framed our prejudices and 
 blinded us to the wonderful instinct of this bird. 
 But Job had seen what we might see in our own 
 land. He had been among the hills where the 
 sheep were pastured. Some lion had crept upon 
 the flock without being detected by the shepherd, 
 and had struck down the helpless sheep, had 
 satisfied its hunger, and had left the remnants 
 of the carcasses to decay, a disagreeable odor 
 to nostril, a menace to health. 
 
 And while Job had stood on the hilltop look- 
 ing upon the wreckage lying, yonder in the val- 
 ley, he had seen a black speck appear over the 
 top of the distant mountain, miles away, and 
 grow larger as it came nearer. Then from an- 
 other quarter another black speck appeared; 
 across the plain, behind him, others appeared. 
 Here and there, perhaps from every point of the 
 compass, these objects came in sight, so many 
 miles away that they seemed like flakes of soot 
 hanging in the air. But as he watched they grew 
 larger and came nearer, until he could see the 
 202
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 steady beating of wings like the marching of 
 the feet of soldiers, until he could see the head 
 steadily dividing the air; and then one by one 
 these birds dropped on the ground by the side 
 of the mangled corpses, made their meal from 
 the fragments, and did man a service, these 
 scavengers of God appointed to keep the earth 
 sweet and clean. 
 
 But this man was thinking not of that service, 
 but of the mysteries involved in the coming of 
 the birds. Without chart or compass each had 
 found its way to the desired spot. Each eye 
 had seen the path, each bird had kept the path. 
 We wonder at the wizardry of the wireless tel- 
 egraphy, the flashing of unseen messages along 
 paths which only God has made. But here is 
 more wonderful wizardry. What was the mes- 
 sage that went flying through the air, across 
 valley and plain, over hill and mountain, tell- 
 ing of the creatures slain, of the banquet pro- 
 vided? What was the message which gave di- 
 rections, routes, so that these birds were not 
 lost in the intervening forests, were not diverted 
 by the hills? In our ignorance which we are 
 slow to acknowledge we suggest that perhaps 
 203
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 here are eyes wonderfully adapted for far- 
 seeing, or we talk of the powers of smell ac- 
 centuated so that these birds can smell death 
 twenty miles away. If these theories be true 
 ( and they are only theories : we do not know 
 how these things are) we ought to be dumb in 
 the presence of Him who can put such marvel- 
 ous ability into such creatures. In our endeav- 
 ors to cloak our ignorance, to deny our igno- 
 rance, let us not foolishly lose the wonder of it 
 which Job felt that day; the vulture's eye sees 
 a path through the blue sky, stretching from 
 his aerie on the hillside to the distant place 
 where the food is provided. 
 
 The birds are marvelous pathfinders. At 
 present they have practically left us, an oc- 
 casional chickadee or woodpecker or crow or 
 blue jay or shore-lark lingering to tell us that 
 they will come back; but they have gone. 
 They are visiting in Southern States or Mexico 
 or South America. But in a few weeks they 
 will commence drifting back from the South, 
 heralded by the honk of the wild goose and 
 accompanied by countless twitterings from 
 countless throats. Now, we are so accustomed 
 204
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 to this, it is so common, that our eyes and 
 minds are closed to the amazing wonder of it. 
 Think a minute. In Central America is a 
 tiny bird, little larger than your thumb, one of 
 the dainty warblers. Last year it was hatched 
 in some Canadian forest. Last autumn it went 
 South along the eastern mountain-ranges. One 
 spring morning the migratory-instinct becomes 
 dominant. Perhaps it has been restless for 
 days; but this morning it sees a path leading 
 up the Mississippi Valley basin to the Canadian 
 forest. Though it has never been over the 
 road, it starts on its journey. Here are hun- 
 dreds of bewildering miles, great forests and 
 great plains. The bird is not a student of ge- 
 ography, can not read mile-posts, carries no 
 atlas, has no compass, is not familiar with the 
 territory. Nay, apparently it does not even see 
 the territory, for it travels mainly by night. If 
 you will stand out-of-doors some May evening 
 and look at the moon, you may see it for a 
 brief moment as it darts across the face of the 
 moon. Day after day as the migratory spirit 
 moves it, it drifts northward, feeding as it lei- 
 surely goes, or hurrying in flight as though fear- 
 205
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 ing it might be late. Not lost in the forests, 
 always knowing where the North lies; not be- 
 wildered by the network of rivers, on and on 
 it drifts, and one day it "arrives." 
 
 Or look, again, at the golden plover. It nests 
 in the far North, almost under the shadow of 
 the north pole. It winters in Patagonia, nearly 
 a half-world away. When it gets ready to go 
 it springs into the air, sweeps out over the 
 ocean, and far out of sight of land it makes 
 that flight the length of the Atlantic, and alights 
 only when it has reached the end of its journey. 
 Can we explain these great mysteries? I am 
 familiar with the theories about the young birds 
 being guided by the old birds, about the need 
 of headlands for guidance, about the food- 
 question, about the far-away influence of the 
 glacial period. If any of these theories are 
 proved, the wonder would not be lessened how 
 that God could put such wonderful powers, 
 either quickly or by slow development, it does 
 not matter, into these tiny creatures. But these 
 theories are not proved; they are but poorly- 
 woven cloaks for our ignorance. We do not 
 know how these things are, but we know that 
 206
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 they are; and it will be well for us with open 
 eyes and open hearts to look upon this wonder- 
 ful thing, that God can build paths for these 
 birds and can give these birds the power to find 
 and keep the path. 
 
 Man has this pathfinding instinct. In 
 Cooper's novels of the frontier life the "path- 
 finder" is the man who is able to see the path 
 that does not exist, so far as the ordinary 
 man is concerned. He moves swiftly through 
 brushy thickets, up hills, across streams. You 
 see nothing : he declares he sees a path the moose 
 has made. Outside of the tent you see the grass 
 standing undisturbed. This man sees the path 
 of the red deer, the black bear, the gray squirrel, 
 the white-footed mouse, the lumbering porcu- 
 pine. You look at the swift waters of some 
 Northern stream, with protruding boulders and 
 hidden reefs, with eddies and whirlpools, and 
 say there is no chance for a canoe to go through 
 without being crushed by the mad river. He 
 looks and sees through the maze of rocks and 
 eddies and foaming waters a path, and with 
 paddle in hand he follows that path like a 
 rocket, follows the path as it turns quickly, 
 207
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 swerves swiftly through eddies, around rocks to 
 the quiet waters below. He sees these paths 
 because his pathfinding instincts are not blunted ; 
 they have been exercised and developed until he 
 has become a normal animal-man. The bulk 
 of us without this power to see the paths 
 about us, are not normal. We are abnormal; 
 these faculties have degenerated through disuse. 
 Civilization may do many good things for us. 
 It weakens and destroys many of our keenest 
 faculties. The red man sees the points of the 
 compass on the trunks of the trees; moss and 
 flower as well as star and sun point him un- 
 erringly to the path he must take to the desired 
 hunting-ground. The path is there for the man 
 who has eyes to see. 
 
 In the natural, material world God has 
 laid the boundaries and marked the paths, 
 and has builded faculties in His creatures en- 
 abling them to follow the paths. God's hands 
 may be invisible, but God's handiwork is 
 everywhere manifest. The world is filled 
 with the works of God, the wonders of 
 God, the miracles of God. He gives power 
 to the eye to see, and He decrees, "Thus far 
 208
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 shalt thou see, and no farther." He gives 
 strength to the legs of a horse, and He limits 
 the power, saying, "Thus fast shalt thou run, 
 and no faster." He gives genius and skill to 
 man to invent the machine that will climb the 
 steeps of heaven, and He limits the heights to 
 which man can climb. Everywhere are the 
 paths, material paths, God hath made; and 
 everywhere is life with ability to follow the 
 paths. Some folks are dismayed at the thought 
 of miracles, impossible things. Why, every bird 
 that sees and keeps the path across the continent 
 is a miracle, an unexplainable, impossible thing. 
 Instinct is but a name for wisdom and cunning 
 which God through the ages has packed into 
 these creatures. God is the Maker of the path, 
 and God is the Giver of the pathfinding instinct. 
 So all life, bird or horse or man, has its limits, 
 its boundaries, its ways decreed. 
 
 This path for all life is sensuous, depending 
 upon eye and ear to find, upon muscle and fiber 
 to give strength to follow, upon some passion 
 to urge to follow. This path is material, be- 
 ginning with the mystery of birth, when in some 
 way which only God understands and can do, 
 x 4 209
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 life and dust strike hands and set out along the 
 path; ending with death when the journey is 
 finished and life flits away, God only knows 
 where or how, and the dust falls back upon the 
 bosom of mother Earth. This path of life re- 
 veals strength and energy, agility and cunning, 
 fear and savagery, and many another passion; 
 but nowhere along this path will you find the 
 word "behavior." Squirrels, finding the store- 
 house where some other squirrel has placed the 
 nuts for winter use, steal them, but do not call 
 it stealing; the spider mimics a withered leaf 
 or gay flower, that it may seize the unsusped> 
 ing insect, but does not call it deception. The 
 stag will steal his neighbor's wife without 
 thought of immorality, the hawk will kill the 
 dove, and there is no murder in its heart. There 
 are no Ten Commandments along the sensuous 
 path. 
 
 And we are sensuous creatures, creatures of 
 dust, creatures of time, of animal energy and 
 animal passion. We do things without taking 
 "behavior" into account. The cave-dwellers of 
 England drive out the wild beasts from the cave 
 with the same spirit displayed as when the larger 
 210
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 bear drives out the smaller from its own cave; 
 and the Indians overrun the mound-builders' 
 territories, the Huns invade Europe, or our 
 fathers, the Saxons, invade the land of the Celts 
 with the same spirit displayed in the migration 
 of the moose or the marmots. Much of our 
 activity is of the flesh, much of our journeying 
 is along the path of the flesh, and in this we 
 are following the path which God made when 
 He made us as other creatures out of the dust. 
 We know these paths as the birds know them, 
 for they are the decrees of the Almighty. Job 
 understood these things: that birds have their 
 lives decreed by the Almighty, and that man 
 has his earthy life, animal life, along the same 
 lines — paths which he follows because of the 
 way in which God has made him of the dust. 
 But he also knew that there were other paths, 
 higher paths, unknown to the vulture, the fowl 
 of the air; paths which man knows or might 
 know, along which he might be guided by the 
 will of God. What he endeavored to say is 
 what Bryant endeavored to say: 
 
 "Whither, midst falling dew, 
 
 While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, 
 Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue 
 Thy solitary way? 
 
 211
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 "Seek'st thou the plashy brink 
 
 Of weedy lake or marge of river wide, 
 Or where the rocking billows rise and sink 
 On the chafed ocean-side? 
 
 "There is a Power whose care 
 
 Teaches thy way along that pathless coast — 
 The desert and illimitable air — 
 Lone wandering, but not lost. 
 
 'Thou art gone, the abyss of heaven 
 
 Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart 
 Deeply has sunk the lesson thou hast given, 
 
 And shall not soon depart. 
 
 "He who, from zone to zone, 
 
 Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, 
 In the long way that I must tread alone, 
 Will lead my steps aright." 
 
 Job is looking beyond the vulture's flight 
 from mountain to valley, away to the souPs 
 flight from the celestial mountain "to the 
 island-valley of Avilion, where falls not hail, 
 or rain, or any snow;" looking beyond the flight 
 across the continent to the flight across the 
 heavens to the realm of perfect day ; looking be- 
 yond the flight of bird fleeing from storm and 
 cold to the flight of man fleeing from storm and 
 pain and sorrow and crying, away from the 
 flight of bird that lasts but a few days to the 
 flight of the soul out toward the eternities, away 
 212
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 from the paths along which flesh follows to the 
 paths along which the spirit of man journeys 
 or may journey. 
 
 We are looking now not at the paths along 
 
 WHITHER DOST THOU PURSUE THY SOLITARY 
 WAY? 
 
 which God's creatures walk, but at the path 
 along which God walks. God is a Spirit, and 
 they that worship Him must worship Him in 
 spirit and in truth ; God walks in a spiritual path, 
 and they that walk with Him must walk in the 
 213
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 spiritual way. There is a path that is not 
 builded of rock and clay, of atom and ether, 
 or measured by time and terminating in death. 
 There is a spiritual path along which God 
 walks, builded of righteousness and holiness, of 
 justice and mercy, of tenderness and pity, of 
 compassion and love. This highway begins in 
 eternity and ends in eternity. There are no 
 clocks along the Way, with doleful ticking to 
 alarm us with the thought that life is fleeing. 
 Along this way it is always morning, and we are 
 always facing the noon of the day ; there are no 
 almanacs to tell us that summer is past and the 
 chilling blasts of winter will soon be upon us : it 
 is always spring-time, and we are always facing, 
 running toward the days of June; along the 
 way there is no city of the dead: but before us 
 the city of the living; no rolling of the mourn- 
 ful waters of death : but the flowing of the wa- 
 ters of life. God's path has no limit. Here 
 there are limits everywhere: the wall of the 
 house, the setting of the sun, the dropping of 
 the sky into horizon, the close of the book ; the 
 limit of the spirit-world is forever. Here we 
 drop the hand of our loved one when it grows 
 214
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 tired and death comes; there, there is no death. 
 Here we grow tired of earth's business; there 
 they do not grow tired of the King's business. 
 It is the realm where God dwells, the path 
 along which God runs and does not grow weary. 
 And what came into the mind of Job that 
 day was, that there is a path which leadeth to 
 God's Kingdom and to God Himself, unknown 
 to the vulture's eye, that may be seen by the 
 eye of man, that may be walked in by the feet 
 of man. We are big enough to walk in two 
 paths. Man is bigger than the clay he molds, 
 the mountain he tunnels, the sea he crosses. 
 Man holds these things in his mind, his heart, 
 and is bigger than the things he holds, and must 
 be. Napoleon with mind big enough to con- 
 quer the Alps, to plan for the making of the 
 Alps but a footstool for the feet of his march- 
 ing soldiers, is bigger than the Alps; Columbus 
 holding the mighty storm-tossed Atlantic from 
 Spain to the West Indies in his mind, is bigger 
 than the ocean he humbles. Man given domin- 
 ion over the earth, and asserting that dominion, 
 is bigger than the earth he subdues, with its 
 atom and ether, its energy and force, its life 
 215
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 and death, including his own animal existence. 
 Man looking away to the stars, climbing to the 
 stars, reaching out toward God, is big enough 
 to walk in TWO paths. He walks the path of 
 the dust, for God made him of the dust; but 
 he also walks the path of the spirit, or may walk 
 it, for God breathed into him the breath of life 
 and made him a living soul. 
 
 We are more than vultures. I resent the 
 barren, dying claims of the materialist that man 
 is only a vulture-kind, with a life of the flesh 
 and no other life, with paths of earth before 
 him and no other paths. The birds in their 
 earthy lives display cunning and skill and ability 
 to do that tax our credulity, that baffle our 
 powers of understanding; they bear proof 
 enough of the intelligence and wisdom and 
 ability of God. But they are one-talented, and 
 we make mistake by humanizing them and 
 bringing them up to us or dehumanizing us 
 down to them. They are one-talented, we are 
 ten-talented. There is an intellectual path along 
 which the bird does not pass; it does not know 
 and can not know, or be a student of Greek or 
 Euclid, or understand the intricacies of the spec- 
 216
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 trum analysis. When Job marveled at and 
 studied about the wonderful instinct of the bird, 
 his mind was flying into heights inaccessible to 
 birds. And when Job was thinking of the great 
 God who was Creator of bird and man, he was 
 flying to still more inaccessible heights; and 
 when he bowed down and worshiped Him, or 
 when he sought comradeship with God and 
 sought to walk with Him along the spiritual 
 way, he was utterly beyond the flight of fowls 
 or the flight of the earthy man. 
 
 The reaching out of a man after God, the 
 flying of the soul toward Him, the walking with 
 God, is as real and comprehensible as the mi- 
 gration of the birds. We may not know how 
 it is, but the proof is found in this: that mul- 
 titudes bear witness that they can walk and do 
 walk with Him in the green pastures and beside 
 the still waters of the Kingdom. It is no odds 
 that some folks are not walking in this path 
 this day; some folks are not at church or at 
 their prayers, are not living clean lives; some 
 folks are not in health because of sin ; some are 
 stupid and some are friendless because of sin; 
 that 's no odds, these things are possibilities, re- 
 217
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 alities, though some may not be doing them, 
 sharing them. There is a path which no fowl 
 knoweth, which God hath builded for His chil- 
 dren to walk in. We may not know fully the 
 domain it traverses or understand the instinct 
 which urges us to reach out toward God, or 
 His power within us which makes it possible 
 for us to walk with Him, any more than the 
 bird understands all that is involved in the 
 flights it makes ; but we know enough by giving 
 heed to our true selves to seek after Him. 
 
 We know enough to know that behavior is 
 the big word along this pathway. Here is the 
 Decalogue: along this road are commandments 
 that per.tain to every phase of life. Over 
 against the temptation to be covetous, to be de- 
 ceitful, to be resentful, to be proud, to be im- 
 pure, is the urgent, insistent command, "Behave 
 yourselves!" u Who shall ascend into the hill 
 of the Lord or who shall stand in His holy 
 place? He that hath clean hands and a pure 
 heart." We know enough to know that it calls 
 for a life of consecration to the best and holiest, 
 the forsaking of many of the old scenes and 
 pleasures as with the migrating birds to a dis- 
 218
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 tant land; it calls for reliance upon God as the 
 Builder of the highway and the Builder of the 
 instinct within us which urges us on toward Him 
 and along the way where He is Comrade and 
 Guide. We know enough to know that it is a 
 way of love, the traveling of which makes us 
 forget old enmities and grudges, makes us to 
 refuse to quarrel, to answer the one who would 
 quarrel, with a smile, "No time for this; I 'm 
 bound for heaven." 
 
 Oh! I am aware that many know only the 
 paths which the fowls know, and are journey- 
 ing the paths which the fowls journey; but I 
 also am aware that God has made man for 
 some better, higher thing than this. We are 
 creatures of two worlds, and if we live in but 
 one, it is our fault, not God's, who has built 
 the way and built us with the image of God 
 and the instinct to follow after Him. 
 
 "There is a land mine eye hath seen 
 In visions of enraptured thought, 
 So bright that all which spreads between 
 Is with its radiant glories fraught." 
 
 "There, there on eagle-wings we soar, 
 And sin and sense molest no more; 
 And heaven comes down our soul to greet, 
 While glory crowns the mercy-seat." 
 
 219
 
 PATHFINDERS 
 
 Through the kindness of God, by His help and 
 encouragement and guidance, I am trying to 
 keep step with Him along the way which leads 
 to purity, to spirituality, to the eternal day. 
 And as I go I urge with all the urgency and 
 persuasiveness of a messenger of God that you 
 find the highway of God and with Christ for 
 Shepherd you become one of the sheep of His 
 pasture. 
 
 220
 
 VIII 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 "O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the 
 earth ! who hath set Thy glory above the heavens. Out of 
 the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength 
 because of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest still the enemy 
 and the avenger. When I consider Thy heavens, the work 
 of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast 
 ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and 
 the son of man that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made 
 him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him 
 with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion 
 over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things un- 
 der his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the 
 field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and what- 
 soever passeth through the paths of the seas. O Lord our 
 Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!" — Psalm 8.
 
 VIII 
 
 "He shall bruise the head of the serpent." — Genesis 3:15. 
 
 IT was a hot July afternoon. There were 
 no clouds in the sky to temper the heat; 
 there was no stirring of faintest breeze to 
 break its monotony and intensity. The sun, 
 nearly overhead, was pouring its ladle of molten 
 rays upon the earth, the leaves were drooping, 
 the corn was curling, and even the grass seemed 
 dry and parched. That afternoon I was in the 
 shadow of a little tent, with camera in position, 
 peering through an opening at a bird's nest not 
 far away. It was the nest of the traill's fly- 
 catcher, built in the fork of a shrub willow, 
 about six feet from the ground on the edge of 
 a willow-thicket. During the past days I had 
 seen the nest building, the nest with its four 
 beautiful eggs, cream-colored, marked with 
 small reddish-brown spots, the nest with its four 
 newly-hatched birds, naked and so helpless, re- 
 223
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 quiring constant attention. But to-day they 
 were well-feathered and alert, and would be 
 ready to leave the nest in a day or two more. 
 I was interested in watching the family-life, 
 the old birds frequently returning with the in- 
 sect-food they had gathered in the adjacent 
 thicket, adroitly learning which was the hungry 
 bird to be fed, carefully cleaning the nest, keep- 
 ing it sweet and tidy. But what interested me 
 particularly to-day was the method by which 
 one of the old birds kept the young birds suffi- 
 ciently cool. The rays of the sun beat down 
 upon the baby-birds, scarcely interrupted by the 
 few leaves remaining above the nest. Some- 
 times the bird would stand over them with 
 spread wings, permitting the air to circulate 
 and yet keeping the babes in the shadow. 
 Whether that did not cool them sufficiently or 
 whether the parent-bird was somewhat alarmed 
 by the tent, I know not; but it would stand on 
 the edge of the nest and beat its wings vigor- 
 ously for perhaps five seconds or more at a time, 
 thus fanning the nestlings, then fly away to the 
 cool of the thicket, but soon return to repeat 
 the operation after feeding one of the little 
 224
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 ones. I was in God's great university, gaining 
 knowledge at first hand. 
 
 I noted too that there were but three babes 
 left at home, and surmised the reason. It was 
 so hot in the nest, and it was so crowded with 
 
 THE SERPENT 
 
 the rapidly-growing children, that one more ad- 
 venturous than the others had left the nest, 
 probably hopping from twig to twig, a few 
 feet into the thicket, for it was not quite old 
 enough to fly. Now, birds ought not to leave 
 J 5 225
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 the nest until they are able to fly, ought to re- 
 main under the parents' care; but this one had 
 assumed responsibility for itself and had left 
 the parental home, lured by the shade and cool 
 of the thicket. The parents were not pleased, 
 but were helpless. I could hear the subdued, 
 anxious, scolding twittering as they fed the lit- 
 tle prodigal, so that I knew it was there. 
 
 Suddenly I heard the little bird's cries for 
 help: piercing, pathetic, hopeless; the same 
 pathos that is revealed all through the animal 
 world under like circumstances, when a rabbit 
 is caught by a dog; when an animal is caught 
 by a trap "which sees the trapper coming 
 through the wood;" when a wounded bird is 
 caught by a hunter; and I knew the bird was 
 in peril. The old birds were immediately at 
 the place of danger. I could hear their wings 
 beating and fluttering, and their screams — tiny 
 screams from tiny throats; but seemingly with- 
 out avail, for they did not cease. 
 
 I was peering eagerly, intently into the 
 
 thicket, suspecting the enemy, and succeeded in 
 
 seeing the form of a snake hanging down among 
 
 the branches. I went out of the tent hurriedly, 
 
 226
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 seizing a stick as I scrambled among the shrub- 
 bery, pushed my way into the thicket, and found 
 my suspicions confirmed. A snake had crawled 
 up among the willow-shrubs and had seized the 
 young helpless bird, intending to devour it. 
 What a revolting, pathetic picture ! To most 
 people the serpent is hideous enough under most 
 favorable circumstances, but it seemed doubly 
 a hideous monster here. Its eyes were so cold, 
 icy, steely, relentless, flashing defiance and 
 threatening; its squirming folds sinister and 
 stealthy in movement; its jaws rigidly set in the 
 wing of the bird. And the little bird, torn from 
 its perch, hanging helplessly in the jaws of the 
 snake, helpless in spite of its flutterings and 
 struggles, and its cries becoming more feeble, 
 and the old birds helpless to make any impres- 
 sion upon the vile monster in spite of their will- 
 ingness to put themselves in its very grasp, and 
 their beating it with their wings and threatening 
 it with their cries. It was a doomed bird unless 
 there was some one to help beyond itself and 
 kin. 
 
 I tried to frighten the snake, threatening to 
 strike it with the stick: its eyes only flashed de- 
 227
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 fiance at me, and it held its victim the more 
 firmly; I struck it with the stick: it only tight- 
 ened its hold; I knocked it to the ground: it 
 dragged the bird with it, and started to crawl 
 off into the thicket with its victim. And it was 
 only when I put my heel upon the serpent and 
 struck it over the head that it loosened its hold 
 and crawled sullenly away into the brush. The 
 little bird lay upon the ground, exhausted and 
 panting but uninjured, for it had been seized by 
 the big wing-feathers, which were wet from the 
 saliva of the snake, but the flesh was not broken. 
 The bird rested quietly in my hand, and when 
 I put it back in the nest, the nest that had 
 seemed too stuffy and monotonous for it before, 
 in comparison with the luring cool of the thicket, 
 it was now content to remain quietly until it was 
 able to fly. When I came to the rescue of the 
 helpless babe the parents had ceased their cries, 
 and soon after I restored the little one to the 
 nest it was cuddled down beneath the wings of 
 the parent. My imagination may have sug- 
 gested the thought, but it seemed to me that the 
 parent-birds were grateful to the one who with 
 his greater strength had come to the rescue. 
 228
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 My sensations during the incident were pe- 
 culiar. As I leaped out of the tent and hur- 
 riedly clambered among the sprawling branches, 
 there rang in my ears again and again the first 
 great promise of help which God gave to man 
 
 BENEATH THE WINGS OF THE PARENT 
 
 in his need, concerning the mission of Christ, 
 "He shall bruise the head of the serpent." And 
 as I stood by the struggling bird I heard Him 
 say, "I looked, and there was none to help ; and 
 I wondered that there was none to uphold ; there- 
 229
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 fore mine own arm brought salvation; and my 
 fury, it upheld me." And it seemed as though 
 bending over me and bending over the world 
 was the colossal figure of Christ coming into 
 the world to save the world from sin, and of 
 Him it was being said, "He shall bruise the 
 head of the serpent." 
 
 We are so helpless before the serpent, and 
 our helplessness drives us to despair. What 
 thought has been spent upon this problem of 
 evil ! Is there any man who has not tried to 
 fathom its mystery, to give some adequate mean- 
 ing for its existence, to answer the question as 
 to why man must be preyed upon by this "mon- 
 ster of so frightful mien." The theories are le- 
 gion. The believers in the evolution of the 
 world toward God believe that sin is a good 
 thing; a good thing for a man to stumble and 
 fali, for only in that way does he become sure- 
 footed and strong and agile; a good thing for 
 a man to be compelled to fight, for only thus 
 does he become keen-eyed and resourceful; a 
 good thing for a man to lose battles and suffer 
 and be punished because of lost battles, and thus 
 be driven to desperation, to renewed effort. 
 230
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 And so, if the untried innocence of childhood 
 passes away in shame, there comes a sturdy man- 
 hood which has tasted defeat, but has come to 
 taste victory as well. 
 
 There are those who believe that sin is the 
 remnant of the beast within us, which is to be 
 overcome in the struggle of life. The mob 
 seizes and burns its victim; it has reincarnated 
 the wolf-spirit. A man selfishly hordes and 
 builds larger granaries; he has reincarnated the 
 tiger, which eats its fill and then watches by 
 the prey to keep the hungry jackals away. And 
 the removing of sin from our natures is the get- 
 ting farther away from the beast-world. As 
 Tennyson says : 
 
 " I have climbed to the snows of Age, and I gaze at a field in 
 the past, 
 Where I sank with the body at times in the sloughs of a 
 low desire, 
 But I hear no yelp of the beast, and the man is quiet at last 
 As he stands on the heights of his life with a glimpse of a 
 height that is higher." 
 
 Or sin is the residuum between the ideal set 
 
 up by the leaders of humanity and the "common 
 
 herd," as the masses have been styled. So we 
 
 hold our conception of sin depending upon our 
 
 231
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 position in the scale. If we have high ideals 
 we look upon many things with loathing which 
 are not disgusting and may even be pleasing to 
 the multitudes. Then there are those who speak 
 of sin as a great curse. It is the influence, the 
 work of Satan; and one tells us that sin is in 
 the world because God is helpless before Satan, 
 which we find hard to understand ; and another 
 tells us that God is. temporarily helpless, for it 
 will take Him some time to conquer Satan, 
 which is equally bewildering ; and another tells us 
 that God permits sin temporarily for our good; 
 and still another tells us that God can not help 
 Himself, not that He is helpless before Satan, 
 but He is helpless before man. He has given 
 our destinies into our own keeping; He has 
 given us wills, which may be set over against 
 His own in defiance. We choose our own ca- 
 reer; we can be obedient or disobedient, as we 
 choose ; and therefore sin is of our own making, 
 our rebellion and disobedience to God. 
 
 But whatever theory we hold, the certain 
 
 thing is that sin is here. About this there is 
 
 no delusion. A man can shut his eyes to sense 
 
 and facts, and say that "whatever is, is right;" 
 
 232
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 but he opens his eyes to see that whatever is, 
 is not right, that the world is out of joint, that 
 hearts are out of tune, that family-life has many 
 a discordant note, and the community is not at 
 peace. The problem of hunger is man's great 
 problem in the physical realm. His great con- 
 cern, the thing which he must concern himself 
 about, is to see how the body can be kept from 
 starving, how bread can be provided to satisfy 
 its cravings. And man's great problem in the 
 spiritual realm is the problem of sin, to see 
 whether it be possible that the better life, the 
 ideal life, can be kept from starving and dying, 
 whether the hunger for righteousness can be 
 satisfied. 
 
 There are forest-fires that sweep across great 
 areas, destroying vegetation, villages, human 
 lives; terribly relentless forest-fires. And the 
 fires of sin rage in our lives, damaging and de- 
 stroying our ideals, our better motives, our de- 
 sires for more unselfish living. It is not hard 
 to conceive a beautiful world, a world in which 
 Fatherhood and Brotherhood are the big words ; 
 every man knows God and loves God and looks 
 to Him for guidance and follows His bidding, 
 233
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 and every man under the teaching of Christ 
 loves his brother as himself. If God's pur- 
 pose were in effect, then it were a beautiful 
 world. 
 
 The trouble with the business-world is SIN. 
 In the business-world there ought to be honesty 
 and truth and honor and co-operation. A man's 
 word ought to be good without his note; a man's 
 attitude ought to be that of a friend, and not a 
 foe. But in place of what ought to be we find 
 abscondings and defaultings and cheatings and 
 stealings and bitter competition, until we are 
 sometimes driven to feel that we can not trust 
 any one. The trouble with society is sin. In 
 our social relations there ought to be friendli- 
 ness and sympathy and cheering words and un- 
 selfish regard for one another's welfare, and a 
 helpful spirit, each counting himself the guard- 
 ian of every friend and every acquaintance. 
 But in place of what ought to be there are jeal- 
 ousies and backbitings and slanders and betray- 
 als. You do not need to be told how often 
 social functions make it possible for the serpent 
 to enter the Garden of Eden. The trouble with 
 the family-life is sin. In the family-life there 
 234
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 ought to be perfect confidence and fidelity and 
 sympathy and love. But in place of what ought 
 to be we find parents caring little for the chil- 
 dren, and children growing away from the par- 
 ents, and parents not caring for each other and 
 false to each other, with the last chapter (no, 
 not the last, but the next to the last) written in 
 the divorce-court. The trouble with the indi- 
 vidual is sin. The beaten paths of decency are 
 too dull, and the old-fashioned life of morality 
 is too monotonous, the willow-thicket is so lur- 
 ing, so inviting, so tempting. Either deliber- 
 ately and joyously or with reluctant consent we 
 leave the proper paths for the forbidden ways : 
 I know to do good, and do it not; I do the 
 things I ought not to do. 
 
 Great is our utter helplessness before sin. 
 Often the serpent stealthily crawls upon us un- 
 awares, and we are seized before we realize it, 
 fastened in the clutches of some temptation. 
 Often the serpent of temper, discontent, jeal- 
 ousy, covetousness, selfishness, holds us in its 
 grip. We make our protests, but they are so 
 feeble; we make our vows and resolutions, but 
 they are so easily broken; our struggles are so 
 235
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 impotent, the serpent is so strong, our fate seems 
 so certain. 
 
 The Son of God came into the world to rescue 
 us from the great enemy. God said of Him, 
 u He shall bruise the head of the serpent;" and 
 He said of Himself, "I am come to seek and 
 to save that which was lost;" and again, "to 
 preach the gospel to the poor; to heal the 
 broken-hearted; to preach deliverance to the 
 captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; 
 to set at liberty them that are bruised." 
 
 We welcome Him as the Redeemer, Savior 
 of the world. He has come to bruise the head 
 of the serpent, this monster with a million heads 
 and more. Wherever there are human beings, 
 in the home or on the street, in the social gath- 
 ing or in the commercial world, in our out- 
 ward living or in the secret places of the heart; 
 where folks are old or young, rich or poor, 
 known or unknown, in the East and the West, 
 where men are white and men are black and men 
 are brown : wherever men have gone in this wide 
 world, there the serpent has trailed them, seek- 
 ing to make them its victims; and there the 
 Christ has gone, endeavoring to seek and to 
 236
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 save the lost. And the day will come when so- 
 ciety will be purified, humanity redeemed, and 
 the earth filled with righteousness, because 
 Christ has come to bruise the head of the ser- 
 pent. 
 
 Let us be more specific. There is no hope 
 of a world-program, a general program, a social 
 program that does not take the individual into 
 account. Christ will save society and redeem 
 the world by saving the individual. Society will 
 be saved when each member of society has felt 
 the redeeming help of Jesus Christ. It is the 
 one sheep whose bleating He hears; it is the 
 one man whose cry He heeds. 
 
 He puts His heel upon the head of the ser- 
 pent, and I feel the loosening of the grip and 
 a way of escape from the temptation is pro- 
 vided. He adds His strength to mine, and to- 
 gether we are able to tear loose the serpent's 
 coils; He somehow increases my strength by 
 abiding with me, giving me "the strength of 
 ten," and I am able to beat back the serpent; 
 He quickens my knowledge and increases my 
 watchfulness so that I see the danger in the 
 thicket and avoid it, so that I see the leadings 
 237
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 of the pastime or amusement that assumes such 
 an air of innocence and I shrink from the path. 
 And somehow, after He has put His heel upon 
 the head of the tempter, "whereas I was blind, 
 now I see," and "I have become a new man in 
 Christ Jesus." u Nay, in all these things we 
 are more than conquerors through Him that 
 loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither 
 death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 
 nor powers, nor things present, nor things to 
 come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
 creature shall be able to separate us from the 
 love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our 
 Lord." 
 
 The deliverance is at hand. Though I was 
 so near that helpless, struggling bird I had not 
 known its sore distress and dire need had it 
 not cried out. But the moment it cried, my 
 heart was moved to pity, and I hurried to the 
 rescue. Christ is waiting to hear the cry for 
 help. I do not say that He is in Ignorance as 
 to our sore condition, but He is helpless against 
 our authority. How gladly He would come; 
 but He can not come until I seek His help. 
 "Would anybody refuse to cry out to Christ 
 238
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 for help, for deliverance from sin?" you ask. 
 Why, certainly; the multitudes do. Christ will 
 give a man strength to escape from the awful 
 clutches of the serpent drink, but the multitudes 
 do not wish to escape; and one man I knew 
 urged to a drink-cure was so anxious to get 
 again into the clutches of this awful appetite 
 that he deliberately rubbed himself with alco- 
 hol to cultivate a taste above the result of the 
 drugs used in his cure. Perhaps his plan was 
 not really a help to that end, but that man de- 
 liberately thrust himself back into the grasp of 
 the curse. In our jail is a thief who had barely 
 been freed from the serving of a sentence for 
 stealing, until he repeated the crime. There are 
 plenty of harlots who are such by choice; they 
 will not leave the path of sin, though the op- 
 portunity presents itself. 
 
 People sometimes say, "Why does n't the 
 Church do more?" It seems, with such a great 
 organization, with such machinery, with such 
 numbers of workers, it ought to double and 
 quadruple its results for good. "Why does n't 
 it do more?" And the answer comes swiftly, 
 "Because the world will not let it do more." 
 239
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 It is often ready to help, only to have its offer 
 spurned; it often seeks to come to the rescue, 
 only to meet with rebuke. Whatever may be 
 said about the shortcomings, the Church is 
 ready and anxious to do much more than it does. 
 It warms its room for the unsheltered, it pro- 
 vides entertainment for the destitute, it has 
 words of cheer and comfort for the discour- 
 aged, and it would gladly point the way to God. 
 But before the refusal of the man who loves 
 his sin, and who fondles the serpent that strikes 
 at his heart, the Church is as helpless as Christ. 
 The Church would be quick to hear the cry of 
 the one in distress and come to his aid, and I 
 am sure beyond any doubt or question that Jesus 
 Christ would be doubly quick to hear and would 
 be at his side before the words had ceased from 
 his lips. 
 
 He is so mighty to save. And therefore our 
 need as Christians is to keep close to His side. 
 Where He leads I can go in perfect peace and 
 safety. And where He does not lead I have 
 no right to go. "At Thy side there is fullness 
 of joy, at Thy right hand there are pleasures 
 for evermore." "Thou wilt keep him in per- 
 240
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 feet peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, be- 
 cause he trusteth in Thee." If Christ does not 
 lead through the thicket and the desert and the 
 wilderness, I have no right to be there; and if 
 He leads, He will lead me through in safety. 
 u Yea, though I walk through the valley of the 
 shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou 
 art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff, they com- 
 fort me." He is so ready to save; and there- 
 fore our need, those of us who have not yet 
 called upon Him, is to hear His voice, en- 
 treating, seeking, offering deliverance, offer- 
 ing to rescue us from the serpent and make us 
 free. 
 
 Because He has kept His word, has heard 
 my cry, has come to my deliverance, there is 
 gratitude in my heart. If He has led me from 
 the things of the world, and led me to the 
 Father's house, I do not complain ; but I praise 
 Him with heart that overflows because of His 
 marvelous kindness. And because He has set 
 me free, in whatever way He can use me I seek 
 to do His bidding, to serve Him, to tell of His 
 greatness, His power over the serpent, His will- 
 ingness to help, His swiftness to hear. 
 16 241
 
 DELIVERING THE PRISONER 
 
 Because He has bruised the head of the ser- 
 pent that has threatened my life and thwarted 
 my life, and has set me free, I cry, "Thanks 
 be unto God which giveth us the victory through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 242
 
 IX 
 AUTUMN GLORIES
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 "Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, 
 the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of 
 the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. 
 And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of 
 fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, 
 the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. 
 And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great 
 sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw 
 that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the 
 midst of the bush." — Exodus 3:1-4. 
 
 "Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. 
 Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as 
 a bird from the hand of the fowler. Go to the ant, thou 
 sluggard ; consider her ways, and be wise : which having no 
 guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, 
 and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou 
 sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?" 
 — Proverbs 6:4-9.
 
 IX 
 
 "The whole earth is full of His glory." — Isaiah 6:3. 
 
 THE autumn time has come, when leaves 
 are thickly strewn and waters lurk in 
 quiet pools and shadows image in their 
 breasts. God is abroad in His world, enriching 
 it and beautifying it and inviting His children 
 to come out and walk with Him. Because I 
 accepted the invitation I found Him at work 
 in His field and woods. And along the Rock 
 River and where the white pine grows I found 
 this sermon. I offer no apology for inviting 
 the Church-folk to leave this building and go 
 with me to those places, that we may there wor- 
 ship God and learn to know Him better. Rather 
 would I chide the Church because it has ig- 
 nored God's world so much, and so has missed 
 much that it might have learned about Him 
 and broadened acquaintance with Him. 
 
 I speak as a friend of the Church. In the 
 presence of her enemies I would be swift to re- 
 245
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 sent attacks upon her from such a source; swift 
 to assert the truth that the Church is God's am- 
 bassador and great representative on the earth 
 to preach His Word and exalt His Son and 
 build His Kingdom; swift to assert that the 
 Church has been the great agency in the dis- 
 semination of knowledge through its own serv- 
 ices and the institutions it has founded for the 
 propagation of the spirit of democracy through 
 its own teachings and leaders it has raised up, 
 the teaching of charity and brotherhood and the 
 doing of deeds of charity. Here is a record to 
 be proud of and only possible because the 
 Church has walked with God and under God's 
 tutorship. But the Church has its human side : 
 it is made of flesh and blood, and therefore is 
 prone to error and to shortsightedness. And it 
 behooves the believer in the Church and friend 
 of the Church to look with critical eyes at its 
 shortcomings, that these may be corrected and 
 the Church made still stronger for the building 
 of the Kingdom of God. 
 
 As a friend of the Church, I confess that it 
 has made a mistake in quarreling with the men 
 of science. This is one of the black pages 
 246
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 in its history. Galileo was one of God's great 
 men because of openness of heart and shrewd- 
 ness of mind which enabled him to discover 
 great truths concerning the planetary system to 
 which we belong. But when Galileo declared 
 
 ■ n 
 
 \ map*. *»** zsf 7±** «", 
 
 
 
 
 hist": 
 
 
 If; 
 
 WHEN LEAVES ARE THICKLY STREWN 
 
 that the earth moves, the Church persecuted 
 him and compelled him by threat of death to 
 recant ; i. e. t to lie, to declare what he knew was 
 not true. The Church discredited him in the 
 eyes of the world. Galileo is dead and immor- 
 247
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 talized, and the Church for this deed is dis- 
 graced; for everybody to-day knows that Ga- 
 lileo was right and the Church was wrong. He 
 was learning something of God's method of 
 doing things and thus helping the world to 
 greater knowledge of God, and the Church op- 
 posed the advance of truth. 
 
 Darwin was one of earth's noblemen, gentle 
 in spirit, brotherly in manner, seeking to know 
 more of God's ways in the world. Darwin 
 with his patient investigations and experiments, 
 as well as by his conclusions, made in his theory 
 of evolution one of the great contributions to 
 our knowledge. The Church opposed him, de- 
 clared him a heretic, denied his conclusions by 
 arrogant assertion and not by evidence, and 
 turned many a friend of the Church who was 
 also a seeker after truth away from itself. 
 Darwin is crowned as one of the great bene- 
 factors of mankind; his teachings have become 
 the viewpoint and basis of practically all schol- 
 ars, and the Church is discredited for her per- 
 secution of this man. 
 
 The man or Church that fights against truth 
 inevitably loses the battle. For the day there 
 248
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 may seem to be victory ; but in the end men will 
 believe what they see and hear, and prove by 
 examination. Truth crushed to earth will rise 
 again, though the Church be against it. We 
 ought to see that the men of science are truth- 
 seekers, patiently, persistently questioning how 
 God has done things and is doing things; and 
 we ought to thank God for these men and the 
 contributions they make to our knowledge. 
 "Have they not made mistakes? Are there not 
 blunders all along the way? Are not the old 
 text-books of science discredited?" Certainly 
 these things are true, but the journey has been 
 one of progress, the motive has been right, the 
 lasting accomplishment has been great ; they are 
 on the right track. "Have they not sometimes 
 attacked the Church and ridiculed and opposed 
 it?" Certainly, some men of science have done 
 this, whether justified by the attack of the 
 Church upon them or not. So now and then 
 there is an ugly honey-bee in the hive, and it 
 stings us when we come near. But that will 
 not cause us to throw away the accumulated 
 sweetness representing the toil of many workers, 
 even though it was not meant for us. And the 
 249
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 Church should appropriate to her own use the 
 truth which these toilers in the field of uncer- 
 tainty and perplexity and mystery gather and 
 bring to the light, and should not scold but 
 praise them, though it means that past opinions 
 may need to be changed and faulty interpreta- 
 tions revised. The truth of God is the legiti- 
 mate property of the Church. 
 
 Again as a friend I confess that the Church 
 has made a mistake in ignoring the world in 
 which we live. A man building a house would 
 take into account the grounds where the house 
 was situated. We have been building a re- 
 ligious house, a theological temple, with Christ 
 as honored Guest, and have practically ignored 
 the world in which it is built. We have largely 
 given the world over to the devil, finding him 
 in burdock and thistle and flood and lightning, 
 and seeing these things everywhere. Or we 
 have ignored the world, counting it merely a 
 place where we must eat and drink and sleep 
 and get our living, but having no reference to 
 the spiritual man. Now, the truth of the world 
 is as divine as the truth of the Bible ; the world 
 is as genuinely a revelation of God, a teacher 
 250
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 come from God, as the Bible; and when we 
 interpret the book of Nature and the book of 
 Scriptures rightly we shall find the same ser- 
 mons, the same laws, the same truths on both 
 pages. 
 
 A WALK AMONG THE TREES 
 
 So I urge upon the Church this day, and you 
 men and women of the Church, that you seek 
 after God out-of-doors as well as in, in leafy 
 grove as well as in temple of stone. Let us 
 seek God's truth everywhere and let us rejoice 
 251
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 in God's companionship everywhere, and let us 
 not blind our eyes to God's presence when we 
 depart from the cloister and turn from the 
 printed page. 
 
 The earth is full of the glory of God because 
 God is in the earth. Oh, He is everywhere: in 
 church, in home, in worship, in prayer, in 
 heart; but God is also in bush and tree, in flower 
 and bird, in creeping vine and soaring eagle. 
 God is everywhere : where daisies bloom, where 
 lilies nod, where sunflowers stare, where wil- 
 lows droop, where the great sea ebbs, where 
 river flows, where streamlet ripples, dances, 
 laughs, and sings. Some say that God is dead 
 or sleeping or gone upon a journey; that God 
 made the world and abandoned it in its travail 
 as a faithless husband his wife. But though 
 friend may desert friend, a merchant forsake 
 his counter, a shepherd his flock, a mother her 
 babe, God does not forsake His garden, His 
 groves with their leafy curtains, His children. 
 I love to be there because I am with the Father. 
 
 Somehow there is such comfort and rest and 
 peace away from humanity and near to Nature. 
 I do not justify the life of the ascetic, the her- 
 252
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 mit, the abandoning of the world to its sin and 
 shame : 
 
 "We are not here to dream, to drift. 
 We have hard work to do and loads to lift. 
 Shun not the struggle : face it ; 't is God's gift. 
 Be strong, be strong." 
 
 But, on the other hand, let not the heart grow 
 calloused. And when the heart is depressed by 
 the glamour, the guile, the wrong, the oppres- 
 siveness and hate and bitterness, secret sin and 
 flaunting vice, then it is our great privilege to 
 turn away from man to Nature, to walk among 
 the trees and by the brook and hear no words 
 of fault-finding or scolding, of flattery or revil- 
 ing, no oath or obscene jest, and see no drunken 
 rioting or bestial conviviality, marks of the 
 ravagings and fires of sin. 
 
 "If thou art worn and hard beset 
 With sorrows that thou wouldst forget, 
 If thou wouldst read a lesson that will keep 
 Thy heart from fainting, and thy soul from sleep, 
 Go to the woods and hills! No tears 
 Dim the sweet look that Nature wears. 
 And here amid the silent majesty of these woods 
 Its presence shall uplift thy thoughts from earth, 
 As to the sunshine and the pure, bright air 
 Their tops the green trees lift." 
 
 253
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 The pity is we are so often blind to God and 
 His truth in Nature. Here is inspiration and 
 uplift, here are sermons and parables; and the 
 multitudes are tramping them under foot and 
 do not know they are there, blind leaders of 
 the blind. I looked one day from the deck of 
 the ship across the laughing waters of Lake Su- 
 perior to the Pictured Rocks of the southern 
 coast. Above the blue waters hundreds of sea- 
 gulls were floating, tossing as the first great 
 snowflakes preceding the storm are tossed about 
 in gentleness. I saw the great grotto lifting 
 above the beach, seemingly a playhouse of the 
 gods, and on the huge bluffs of St. Peter's 
 sandstone the art-exhibit. The frames across 
 which the canvas was stretched were of whitest 
 enamel and of various sizes, but truly hung, for 
 the lines were perpendicular and horizontal. 
 Through the powerful glass the pictures ap- 
 peared as forest or plain, as mountain or valley, 
 as river or lake, as trees with flocks of sheep be- 
 neath them or as bodies of fighting-men. The 
 sight was fascinating; there was hardly time 
 to breathe. Why would not the vessel stop, 
 that we might gaze and feast until satisfied? 
 254
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 or, if breathless interest would break into words, 
 that we might praise God for His matchless 
 skill and for our privilege in having eyes to see 
 and such wonders to see ? And the folks beside 
 me were disgustingly talking about their being 
 such fools as to leave their dinner unfinished 
 to see a pile of rocks stained by the weather. 
 These folks are fit only to be city-folks, to look 
 out upon smoking chimneys and dirty factory- 
 walls, and hear only the screech of the switch- 
 engines and the bawling of the vegetable-men. 
 They are blind and deaf, deliberately so, and 
 are not entitled to the beautiful world God has 
 given us. The farmer has no business to be 
 irreligious, nor the traveler, nor the one who 
 has a chance to see the blue sky overhead, the 
 green grass under his feet, the twining vine or 
 leafy tree in his yard. 
 
 But we are sadly in need of miracles re- 
 peated of the opening of blind eyes. Men 
 look upon forests and streams and see only 
 wood-piles and sawmills and turning wheels 
 and driving-belts. Women look upon delicate 
 flowers and beautiful birds with envy, covet- 
 ing them out of wicked hearts for hat or 
 255
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 dress. The woodchuck climbs the fence-post 
 along the meadow or the tree in the woods. 
 The wise man sees and says, "I will turn aside 
 and see this great wonder, why it does this and 
 how;" the foolish man says, "It eats some 
 clover and digs a hole in my field and is worth 
 twenty-five cents at the court-house; I will kill 
 it and scalp it." The wise man sees the crow 
 nesting in the willow-row and says, "I will turn 
 aside and see this great thing, what it is, how 
 this sable bird builds its house and rears its 
 young and gathers its food; will learn some- 
 thing of the abilities with which God has en- 
 dowed it;" the foolish man says, "I saw it take 
 an egg, and somebody said it pulled the young 
 corn" (and did not look closely enough to see 
 that it was after the grubworms at the root of 
 the corn) ; "I will climb the tree and pull off 
 the heads of the baby-birds and shoot the old 
 bird; they are worth ten cents apiece at the 
 court-house." And this is done because we are 
 blind and distrust God and His workmanship, 
 and do not learn to know Him better. For if 
 we know Him we will love Him; and we will 
 know Him better and love Him more if we 
 256
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 come to His world with open eyes and loving 
 hearts. Then shall we see "the whole earth is 
 full of His glory." 
 
 If I were to write "The Confessions of My 
 Soul," it would be to tell of buoyancy, of ex- 
 hilaration, yea, even of intoxication when I can 
 stand on a clover-bank or plunge into a field 
 which reeks with the aroma of the wild-grape 
 or the sweet-brier. To be with Nature does 
 my heart good as for a lover to be with a 
 maiden. I love all seasons of the year: the 
 winter, when the snow flies fast and furiously, 
 sweeping into every unprotected place, sifting 
 into nook and cranny, piling over bush and 
 rock and bank in the most fantastic shapes ; and 
 the trees are stripped of leaves and no leaf dare 
 show itself for fear of being nipped by the 
 frost, but the sturdy branches will not yield, 
 they only shake their fists in the face of the 
 gale: the winter with the biting cold, when to 
 escape it the prairie-hens bury beneath the snow 
 and break through the crust with a whir when 
 you have nearly trodden upon them, and the 
 muskrat sleeps w.ithin the thick walls of the 
 house it has built of mud and reeds; and the 
 l 7 257
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 Carolina woodpecker, strange anomaly of mi- 
 gration in the bird-world, hangs upon the south 
 side of the tree-trunk away from the stinging 
 cold; and the rabbit creeps into some under- 
 ground alley, leaving only the footprints be- 
 hind to tantalize you; and the stream pulls the 
 coverlet of ice over its breast as the drowsy 
 sleeper pulls the coverlet over him. But it is 
 not drowsy and not pessimist; for as one with 
 tingling cheeks bends his ear to the brook he 
 hears it singing away beneath the frozen crust 
 in spite of ice and cold. And somehow the 
 spirit of the singing brook creeps into my heart, 
 and I dare to say that I too will sing in spite 
 of the storm and bitterness of life. 
 
 And when the spring comes, I love the 
 spring, the time of adventurous daring, when 
 hepatica and anemone, bloodroot and buttercup 
 and marigold flaunt their colors to the winds, 
 creeping to the very edge of the lingering snow- 
 banks, defying frost and sleet and snow; and 
 the robin with tawny breast from Southland sits 
 upon the branch of the elm and sings, "Cheer 
 up, cheer up," and will not cease, though the 
 branch be coated with sleet; and the bluebird 
 258
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 carols, "Spring is coming;" and the meadow- 
 lark, bringing color for the first dandelion upon 
 his throat, makes the air ring with his melody, 
 "I 'm here; don't you see me?" And as the 
 days pass, the flowers multiply and the birds 
 abound and the apple trees burst into bloom and 
 the spirit of adventure is in my heart and life 
 is surging, leaping, and I am saying that I too 
 dare to adventure, to do all that life demands, 
 to go where the journey leads, to bear the load 
 and sing the song God has for me. 
 
 And I love the summer with its thick heat 
 and surfeiting of flowers and birds. Summer is 
 a hard-working plodder, the Martha among the 
 seasons, busy about many things. There is not 
 much singing of birds: they are too busy rear- 
 ing the young, feeding and sheltering and car- 
 ing for them; but they are so faithful to their 
 appointed tasks. And the orchards have ceased 
 adorning themselves with beautiful sweet-smell- 
 ing flowers : they are too busy growing the fruit 
 that by and by shall make our barns groan with 
 their weight; and the meadows are busy grow- 
 ing the grass for the cattle, and the fields are 
 busy growing the grain for the storehouses; 
 259
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 busy, busy everywhere. And somehow the 
 spirit of patient fidelity to appointed tasks gets 
 into my heart and I take up the burden with 
 new zeal and increased patience. 
 
 And now, because it is autumn, I love the 
 autumn best of all, fading, drooping, dying 
 autumn. 
 
 "They's something kind o' harty-like about the atmusfere 
 When the heat of summer 's over and the coolin' fall is here — 
 Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees, 
 And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees ; 
 But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze 
 Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days 
 Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock — 
 When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder 's in the 
 shock." 
 
 A stoop-shouldered old woman with rusty 
 shawl about her shoulders and faded bonnet 
 upon her head comes shambling down the road 
 to the market-place, and upon her arm is the 
 market-basket loaded and groaning with its 
 weight of fruit and vegetables. And autumn is 
 that stoop-shouldered old woman, with rusty 
 garments of fading flowers and dying leaves. 
 Here are the marks of age and of death. But 
 the market-basket groans and bends nigh to 
 breaking with the millions of bushels of wheat 
 260
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 and corn and apples and pears, grain and fruit 
 in such profusion that we can not number, and 
 can only gasp our thanks to God, "who daily 
 loadeth us with benefits." And this autumn 
 day, standing in the midst of the beauty and 
 
 
 DYING LEAVES 
 
 wonder of it, we may learn certain great lessons 
 which will enrich our hearts and purify our lives 
 and strengthen them. 
 
 Autumn is a reminder of the close of life. 
 Here are the marks of death: the fields are 
 261
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 brown, the flowers are drooping, the leaves are 
 dead and falling, the birds are abandoning it. 
 How swiftly the days pass, and each day more 
 leaves have fallen and more birds have flown, 
 and the signs of death are more apparent! 
 Autumn is as faint and staggering as an old 
 man, faint and staggering toward the grave of 
 winter. And in its presence I feel that the days 
 of life are swiftly passing, that the winter of 
 decay will soon come, and that these days must 
 be crowded with labors that the harvest may be 
 gathered, the fruitage may be abundant. 
 
 Autumn is the time of preparation for larger 
 life. In the field the farmer and gardener are 
 selecting the best and strongest and most per- 
 fect as seed for the new year; in the woods God 
 the Great Gardener is wrapping the buds in 
 coverlets of down, and storing the sap of trees 
 in underground reservoirs, and covering the 
 acorn with fallen leaves and scattering the best 
 seeds with friendly winds or flowing streams, 
 assorting and selecting the best by means of 
 frost and other wonderful natural agencies, 
 wrapping roots with dying grass; for a new 
 year will come, and God is getting ready for 
 262
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 it even now. And looking upon these things, 
 I see the need of preparation for the new life 
 and the new year, casting aside the worthless 
 to decay, saving and protecting and giving op- 
 portunity to the best there is in life, that it 
 may be the seed from which under the gentle 
 keeping of God shall spring newness of life in 
 the new year that is without end. 
 
 And autumn is the time of judgment. Dur- 
 ing the summer the lazy man, the wicked man, 
 the squanderer of opportunity God-given, has 
 loitered on his couch, has slouched at his job, 
 has tarried long at the wine and in the evil 
 place, and has laughed at the man who was 
 early at the task, and who was toiling during 
 the heat of the day, and who denied time to 
 idleness and sin, saying that the day is far spent 
 and the task is great. And while he idled and 
 reveled in sin, the sun shone, the dews fell, the 
 gracious showers watered the earth; spring 
 came and went, summer came and went, and 
 now the autumn is here, and the fields are scant 
 with harvest, and the garden is luxuriant with 
 weeds, and the storehouses are not full. Dur- 
 ing the summer the wise man has been early at 
 263
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 the task, has brought to it his strength of body 
 and mind, has worked together with God as the 
 sun has shone and the rains have fallen; has 
 said "No" to the tempter of idleness or sin, has 
 looked pityingly to the neighbor who was let- 
 ting the days of golden opportunity pass, urging 
 him in vain to his task; and when the autumn 
 days are here the man looks upon a summer 
 well spent, for the harvests are bountiful, the 
 land has yielded abundant increase, the garden 
 and orchard have added their treasures to the 
 storehouses. 
 
 Autumn is the balancing of accounts. Tears 
 do not count, repentance does not count; labor 
 when the summer is here, counts. The profli- 
 gate man facing starvation and the industrious 
 man facing plenty are, each after his kind, en- 
 joying the fruits of their labors. There comes 
 the autumn of life which is the judgment time 
 of character. The one man has spent the sum- 
 mer in the cultivating of wild oats, in riotous 
 living, in idleness and carelessness, and the 
 autumn brings him tears and regrets and impo- 
 tence and trouble and shame and remorse. The 
 life is overgrown with weeds and thorns and 
 264
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 thistles, and tears of repentance will not bring 
 back the spring time. The other man has im- 
 proved the days, has learned the will and pur- 
 poses of God, and has worked with Him. 
 Sometimes the days have been weary days, the 
 burdens have been heavy, the work has seemed 
 void and without results, but the autumn comes, 
 and the weeds and thistles and thorns have been 
 kept out of the life, and the gentle fruits of 
 righteousness and peace and love have been cul- 
 tivated; and if he looks back upon the summer 
 with any tears, it is only because he has not 
 toiled even harder during the heat of the day. 
 He enjoys the fruitage of a good life because 
 he lived that life when the summer was here. 
 Autumn is a reminder that the time of fruit- 
 age comes and that God's treasures, intended 
 for us, are without limit. The sparrows with- 
 out higher aim than to twitter and loll in the 
 dust are fed, and the lilies spending the day in 
 showing their beauties are clothed. And God 
 with higher purposes for us, declaring that we 
 are of much more value than they, loads us 
 with gifts above number. It is the fruitage 
 time, and the ripened products of earth are 
 265
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 proof enough of God's kindness in material 
 ways, giving us a home with inexhaustible treas- 
 ures. Standing in the midst of these, I see the 
 higher, unseen world. 
 
 These earthy treasures are but suggestive of 
 the spiritual blessings that God has prepared 
 and will prepare for His children. Here is 
 encouragement that faith will ripen into reality, 
 that spring time shall become harvest. Here 
 is encouragement to the farmer, business-man, 
 student, that if he will sow and toil, sow and 
 toil, he will reap the harvest; encouragement 
 to the reformer, that if the struggle is con- 
 tinued against the evil of slavery or saloon or 
 political corruption or oppressed womanhood, 
 there will come deliverance; encouragement to 
 the Christian, that if he will continue at his 
 prayers, reading the Bible, companioning with 
 Christ, and serving Him among men, there will 
 come the fruitage of a noble character, victory 
 over sin, rejoicing in righteousness and confi- 
 dence in the perfect day that comes. 
 
 Permit another suggestion this autumn day. 
 God is a lover of beauty, and here is proof 
 enough. To-day is the heart-ache of autumn 
 266
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 because of departing glories: the birds are go- 
 ing, the leaves are dropping, the fruit is falling, 
 the ground is covered with a death-bed of 
 leaves, many sad good-byes are being spoken. 
 But autumn through her tears is brave, and be- 
 fore the parting will have these days of resplen- 
 dent glory and magnificence, and before we say 
 good-bye to autumn and autumn friends we will 
 look long and eagerly upon her gorgeous dis- 
 plays, and will have grateful hearts to God, 
 who is the Maker of it all and who loves His 
 children enough to do this and more for them. 
 It does not matter much where we stand, 
 where we look, the beauty is everywhere; but 
 because the other day I saw the native pine- 
 woods of our State I will ask you to go there 
 with me before we go to our homes. I have 
 seen the pines many times, having traversed 
 them as a boy, having camped in their midst 
 as a man, but never more charming than they 
 were Thursday. That sight was worth going 
 a thousand miles to see, was worth more than 
 the riches of Croesus. There were three pre- 
 vailing colors : red, yellow, and green. But 
 these were blended and mingled in countless 
 267
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 shades and tints. There was the great central 
 mass of most intense green ; but on the borders, 
 and creeping in here and there, were the other 
 colors. Excepting blue and violet, all of the 
 colors of the spectrum were represented. The 
 oaks were gorgeously arrayed with garments of 
 cardinal and maroon, of salmon and scarlet, of 
 crimson and red; the blackberry and ash and 
 elm were flaunting their banners of canary and 
 lemon, of yellow and orange. To these colors 
 add drab and gray, an occasional cherry and 
 pink, and all the shades of green, from the dark- 
 est olive to the lightest sea-green ; throw a great 
 arch of blue overhead, with an occasional float- 
 ing mass of white, and if you have the imagi- 
 nation of a God, you may see the picture our 
 eyes beheld. I have forgotten the sumach and 
 the poplar, most brilliant of all. Moses saw 
 the burning bush and turned aside to see. Here 
 was not one, but scores resplendent with crim- 
 son, brighter than the brighest flame, and God 
 was there. 
 
 And the poplars! As their tops appeared 
 above the surrounding trees, it seemed as 
 though some Titan had taken great masses of 
 268
 
 AUTUMN GLORIES 
 
 yellow fleece and thrown them out of the 
 heavens to float down until they should nestle 
 upon the brow of the forest. The ground was 
 covered with bushes; they must have been 
 bushes, but it seemed as though the fallen leaves 
 had stopped before reaching the earth and were 
 floating and swinging in air. Unconsciously 
 the hand drew upon the lines, the carriage 
 stopped, — a deep breath, and — was it a sob? 
 for we were standing upon holy ground, in the 
 very presence of God Himself, and the sera- 
 phim were crying, "Holy, holy, holy is the 
 Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His 
 glory!" And in the thought were the words 
 of a greater, "Woe is me! for I am undone; 
 because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell 
 in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for 
 mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of 
 hosts." 
 
 269
 
 MUCH SOWING AND LITTLE 
 REAPING
 
 MUCH SOWING AND LITTLE REAPING 
 
 "Behold, there went out a sower to sow: and it came to 
 pass, as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls 
 of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony 
 ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it 
 sprang up, because it had no depth of earth; but when the 
 sun was up, it was scorched ; and because it had no root, it 
 withered away. And some fell among (horns, and the thorns 
 grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other 
 fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and 
 increased ; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, 
 and some an hundred. And He said unto them, He that 
 hath ears to hear, let him hear." — Mark 4:3-9. 
 
 "And He said, So is the Kingdom of God, as if a man 
 should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise, 
 night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he 
 knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of her- 
 self; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in 
 the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he 
 putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. And He 
 said, Whereunto shall we liken the Kingdom of God? Or 
 with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a 
 grain of mustard seed, which when it is sown in the earth, 
 is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: but whea it 
 is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, 
 and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air 
 may lodge under the shadow of it. And with many such 
 parables spake He the Word unto them, as they were able 
 to hear it." — Mark 4:26-33.
 
 X 
 
 "Some seed fell by the wayside; some fell upon stony 
 places ; some fell among thorns ; some fell into good ground 
 and brought forth fruit." — Matthew 13:4-8. 
 
 WE are beholding a familiar spring 
 picture. The snows are melted, the 
 earth is warmed by the genial sun 
 and drenched by April showers, and the sower 
 is abroad marching to the trumpetings of the 
 April winds and the pipings of the birds, scat- 
 tering the seed everywhere : some of it by the 
 wayside, some of it on the stony ground, some 
 of it among the thorns, some of it on good 
 ground, scattering the seed everywhere. 
 
 And behind the sower, in the shadows illu- 
 minated by the imagination, one sees the fields 
 of the Great Sower and His gigantic figure strid- 
 ing over the mountains and down the valleys 
 and across the prairies and the waters of the 
 great sea, keeping step to the music of the world 
 and its creatures He has made. And He is 
 18 273
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 scattering seed everywhere: on rocky mountain 
 and fertile valley, marsh-land and desert, to the 
 south, where the burning sun would seemingly 
 destroy all life; to the north, where the sting- 
 ing cold destroys life; scattering seed every- 
 where, trusting that some time, some where, 
 there shall come a harvest. And the human 
 sower is confident that there will be the harvest, 
 that the sowing is not in vain, because he stands 
 in the shadow of the Mighty Sower, who sows 
 the skies with stars and sows the world with 
 many things, and has his confidence begotten by 
 Him. 
 
 What boundless thought is contained in this 
 parable, enough for a volume of sermons; yes, 
 for a series of books. Here is the big word 
 Sower, whether we mean the man who is 
 abroad in the fields scattering the wheat and oats 
 and clover, or the man in business who is seeking 
 trade by widely advertising through scattering 
 sample packages or by improving the stock of 
 goods, or the teacher who is scattering knowl- 
 edge by means of the newspaper and magazine 
 or in the schoolroom, or the preacher who is 
 scattering the Word of God in the Church and 
 274
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 out of the Church, wherever there is opportu- 
 nity. Here is the big word Soil, whether we 
 mean the loam upon which the sun falls and 
 which drinks in the dew of heaven, and which 
 has been fertilized by ice-floe and frost and 
 
 A FIELD OF THE GREAT SOWER 
 
 angle-worm, or whether we mean the commer- 
 cial field, a teeming world-population, always 
 hungry, always demanding that the body shall 
 be cared for; or the mind with its ignorance, its 
 gropings, its hungerings after knowledge; or 
 275
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 the heart with its barrenness of sin, with its 
 hungering for righteousness and love and God. 
 Here is the big word Seed, whether we mean 
 the wheat and corn, or the sample package of 
 the grocer, or the words of knowledge, or the 
 Word of God. And here is the word Fruit, 
 whether we mean the shocks of grain and the 
 stacks of hay and the branches In the orchard 
 bending with the weight of ripened treasure, or 
 whether we mean the increased trade and pros- 
 perity and wealth of the business-man, or the 
 developed mind with its store of knowledge and 
 ability to solve problems, or the cultivated heart, 
 enriched and stored with every "good word and 
 work." 
 
 From the many questions and problems that 
 suggest themselves for our consideration, we 
 choose one for our theme to-day, "Much Sow- 
 ing and Little Reaping." Some seed fell by the 
 wayside, and nothing came of it ; some fell upon 
 stony places, and nothing came of it; some fell 
 among thorns, and nothing came of it; but some 
 fell into good ground and brought forth fruit. 
 There were four sowings, and three of them 
 were in vain ; but there was one reaping. Much 
 276
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 seed was wasted, much work was done, from 
 which there were no returns. But there were 
 returns because there had been abundant sow- 
 ing. The lesson is apparent. If we sow pro- 
 miscuously enough we shall reap the harvest. 
 
 The ministry of Jesus illustrates the sermon- 
 thought. He healed ten lepers; nine of them 
 forgot Him, only one became His follower. 
 He fed at one time five thousand and more with 
 the loaves and fishes, and instructed them con- 
 cerning the Word of God. And at the close 
 of His earthly career, as He was about to 
 ascend to the Father, there were only five hun- 
 dred with interest enough to gather to bid Him 
 good-bye. He taught thousands; only a mere 
 handful, perhaps only four or five, heard Him 
 well enough to become teachers of the Word 
 after Him. 
 
 And here is the question, Why did Jesus 
 squander so much time and strength? Why 
 did He waste His thought and energy upon 
 those nine lepers? Did He not know that they 
 would be faithless? I think so; if He brought 
 enough divinity into the world to cure the 
 lepers, I think that He brought enough to know 
 277
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 their future conduct. Possibly not; He "emp- 
 tied Himself" when He took the form of a 
 man, and perhaps He gave up this power of 
 fore-knowledge. But whether or not, one thing 
 is sure, we could not have foretold; and Jesus, 
 in becoming a perfect example for us, must have 
 acted as it would have been wise and proper 
 for us to act under like circumstances. It would 
 seem to us that there would have been such 
 gratitude as to make the lepers lasting disciples. 
 Are we so dull as not to know folks better? 
 They desire healing and strength of body and 
 mind, they desire knowledge and genius, some 
 of them, not to serve the world but to compel 
 the world to serve them. Those lepers wanted 
 to be healed that they might enter politics, 
 aspire to office, gain position, and be able to 
 domineer over folks; or they wanted to hold 
 rank in society, and be applauded and flattered; 
 or they wanted to enter the commercial world 
 and accumulate riches, that they might gloat 
 over the shining and clinking of the gold coins. 
 But we can not tell how a man will improve 
 his opportunity, what he will do with his talent. 
 And so if we had been in Jesus' place we would 
 278
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 have needed to heal the ten. Our ignorance 
 makes much fruitless work necessary. We 
 must err on the side of mercy, for one of the 
 ten may be deserving. Because we can not 
 forecast the harvest we must scatter much seed 
 on barren fields. Again, Jesus had put the re- 
 sponsibility on the individual. He had been 
 robbed of excuses. In the day of judgment the 
 lepers could not say, "No man gave me a 
 chance;" the hungry could not say, "No man 
 fed and helped me;" the multitudes could not 
 say, "No man told me these things." The seed 
 had been sown, the opportunity given, the re- 
 sponsibility fixed. Every man must be given a 
 chance and so made responsible for his own des- 
 tiny. There must be schools for all the chil- 
 dren, though many of them do not make good 
 use of the knowledge offered to them. There 
 must be work for everybody, with the attending 
 rewards of food and other necessities and com- 
 forts, though some may spurn the task and live 
 a life of idleness. There must be culture of 
 mind and heart available to all, though many 
 may insist upon living boorishly and wantonly 
 and sinfully. I repeat, the seed has been sown, 
 279
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 the opportunity given, the responsibility fixed. 
 And here are lessons for the Church and indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 This lesson from the Bible of "much sowing 
 and little reaping" is a splendid tonic for the 
 banishing of discouragement. How often we 
 are tempted to say, "What's the use?" The 
 tiller of the soil has worked hard, plowing and 
 pulverizing the field, planting the seed, cultivat- 
 ing the corn. A hail-storm sweeps down out of 
 the sky, beating the corn to tatters, leaving only 
 a field of wreckage ; and the farmer, looking at 
 the wasted field, says, "What 's the use of my 
 trying to have any crops?" Audubon tramps 
 far and wide over the mountains, through the 
 everglades, swimming unbridged rivers, pene- 
 trating unpathed forests, studying the birds of 
 our country, and with great patience and dili- 
 gence transfers their graceful forms and pleas- 
 ing colors to plates, only to have an unbridled 
 fire leap upon them and burn them to ashes. 
 The work of the years has gone out in flames. 
 "What's the use?" And this is the title of 
 the song or dirge which some gloomy, dismal, 
 somber, blear-eyed souls are always wailing, 
 280
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 "What's the use?" The most discouraging 
 thing is not the fruitless seed, is not the fact 
 that there are not returns immediate and bounti- 
 ful for all our labors; but the most discourag- 
 ing thing is the pessimistic complaining of folks 
 saying, "What's the use?" The preacher de- 
 livers a sermon urging the forsaking of sin, and 
 some one says: "What's the use? Folks will 
 go on sinning anyhow." He urges the people 
 to come to the lecture-course for intellectual de- 
 velopment, and some one says: "What's the 
 use? They will not come anyhow." He de- 
 rides the foolish, destructive habit of nickel 
 theaters, and hears: "What's the use? Folks 
 will go anyhow." He denounces the lawless 
 saloonkeepers and officials who do not compel 
 them to obey the law, and hears: "What 's the 
 use of offending folks ? They will go on break- 
 ing the law anyhow." He tries to make folks 
 ashamed of their slow running and little prog- 
 ress, and urges upon them the need of higher 
 ideals and more faithful service, only to hear: 
 "What 's the use of trying to get folks to lead 
 better lives? They will go right on in the old 
 paths anyhow." 
 
 281
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 "What 's the use?" is the baneful narcotic the 
 devil uses in allopathic doses. How often you 
 say: "What 's the use of going to church? It 
 is n't necessary ; I am all right without it. 
 What 's the use of attending lectures ? I am 
 more comfortable by the fireside, dozing or 
 playing a game of dominoes. What 's the use 
 of inviting folks to give their hearts to Christ 
 or to become disciples of Christ? They just 
 laugh at me. What 's the use of teaching in 
 the Mission Sunday-school or calling on the un- 
 fortunate or giving money to feed the hungry 
 and to clothe the naked? They do not appre- 
 ciate it, and it does n't do them any good any- 
 how." And many a time, because of the dis- 
 couraging atmosphere emanating from our 
 neighbors or because of our own seeming failure 
 to accomplish our desired purposes, we go with 
 Elijah to the juniper tree, wailing "What's the 
 use?" 
 
 But from the juniper tree we can see the 
 sower Jesus saw, and the thought under the in- 
 spiration of the Holy Spirit comes, "Well, I 
 am not the only failure; my experience is the 
 very same that Jesus had when He walked 
 282
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 among men." How often He heard it said to 
 Him, and how often it has been said since by 
 readers of the Bible, "What was the use of 
 trying to preach to the Samaritans," forgetting 
 that there was a woman of Samaria upon whose 
 heart the word of Christ fell as upon fertile 
 ground; "what was the use of arguing with the 
 Pharisees and disputing with them," forgetting 
 that the word of Christ found lodgment in the 
 hearts of Joseph and of Nicodemus; "what was 
 the use of eating with publicans and sinners," 
 forgetting that a Mary Magdalene and a Zac- 
 chaeus, most improbable, unlikely soil, received 
 the word with gladness and were enriched and 
 became enrichers of others; "what was the use 
 of going to Jerusalem to die," forgetting that 
 ever since the multitudes with shoulders bend- 
 ing with their burdens, and hearts sore with 
 their sins, have found the cross of Christ as a 
 shelter in the time of storm, the lifter of bur- 
 dens, the comforter of hearts? 
 
 And if we count it failure because there are 
 
 not apparent returns for all of our labors, then 
 
 we must count God equally a failure. Our 
 
 complaining spirits say: "What's the use of 
 
 283
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 all the stars? Many of them have never been 
 seen, and many of them only by the few who 
 have looked through powerful telescopes; and 
 even of those within range of the eye, they are 
 no good, they do not feed anybody, they do 
 not make anybody any richer. And what is the 
 use of the flowers that bloom in the woods, and 
 the mountains where nobody ever goes? And 
 what is the use of all the plants which we call 
 weeds, and of all the insects with wings of gos- 
 samer or with richly-colored outer wings; and 
 what is the use of all the birds and all the fishes 
 and all the vermin?" But in spite of our petty 
 complaints God goes on sowing the sky with 
 suns and planets and constellations, goes on 
 sowing the desert and waste places of the earth 
 with beautiful flowers, goes on sowing the 
 land with beautiful birds and songs of birds, 
 goes on sowing the mountains with trees and 
 shrubs, the seas with fishes and delicate sea- 
 weed. 
 
 What does it mean? Perhaps nothing is 
 
 wasted. It may be for the time; but perhaps 
 
 eventually everything has its place in the world's 
 
 journey toward God. Perhaps what for the 
 
 284
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 moment seems to be wasted endeavor or battle 
 lost may prove to be the very winning of the 
 campaign. Perhaps the failure to accomplish 
 a certain purpose may accomplish a greater pur- 
 pose, help to execute a broader plan. There 
 are compensations to be taken into account. 
 The farmer has gained health and experience 
 if he has lost the corn. Do we know enough 
 to say that anything is a failure? But after 
 all the lesson is this, our much sowing without 
 a returning harvest is the same experience that 
 God has and that Christ the Son of God had. 
 And if we are in line with them, having the 
 same experience they have, we are in the right 
 path. And there is this other thought spring- 
 ing, "Who is judge?" What business have 
 we to judge as to results? "What 's the use?" 
 as spoken above, are blasphemous words. It 
 is not our business to measure the returns, and 
 to quit because they do not seem to us adequate 
 for the labor invested. It is the business of 
 Paul and Apollos to sow the seed, God will 
 attend to the increase. 
 
 Here is also the lesson of indiscriminate sow- 
 ing, sowing everywhere with the hope that in 
 285
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 places unexpected as well as expected there shall 
 spring a harvest. This is God's method in Na- 
 ture. On a single dandelion-stem He builds a 
 hundred seeds and equips them with wings and 
 sends the wind that snatches them from their 
 bed and carries them everywhere. He builds 
 a hundred thousand seeds upon the maple tree, 
 and to each He gives a sail, so that they are 
 scattered far and wide before the breeze. Some 
 seeds are carried by the streams, some by the 
 feet of birds, some are attached to the hair of 
 animals. God employs many methods, He is 
 insistent always; and as a result the seeds are 
 scattered everywhere, on fertile ground and on 
 sterile ground, where vegetation already grows 
 luxuriantly and where it has been swept away 
 by fire and where it has never grown on some 
 coral-island of the sea. Most of the seeds die, 
 some of them live. Some spring up at once, 
 and some wait many years. The pine forest 
 is cut down or burned, and straightway the de- 
 ciduous forest springs up in its place. The 
 seed had been sown, and was waiting its chance. 
 God keeps the plant-kingdom going by this in- 
 discriminate sowing, generous sowing. 
 286
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 God is following the same method in the 
 animal kingdom. A fish lays a million eggs. 
 What's the use? The vast majority will be 
 destroyed, devoured as eggs or as little fishes. 
 
 NESTING IN HIDDEN PLACES 
 
 And we perhaps say, "Wasted;" but God propa- 
 gates fish that way. The same plan is true of 
 the birds. They are scattered everywhere, 
 nesting everywhere, in hidden places and in 
 
 287
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 open places. The vast majority are destroyed 
 by storms or by vermin as eggs or young birds 
 not out of the nest, but God gives the music 
 and gay colors of the birds to us by that method. 
 
 Must it always be true that "the children 
 of this world are wiser than the children of 
 light?" for men in business follow the same 
 method. They advertise their wares in many 
 places and in many ways, in magazines and 
 newspapers and Church literature, on fences and 
 barns, by circulars and personal letters, by sam- 
 ples and agents, not expecting that all of these 
 methods will bring a harvest, but expecting that 
 by this indiscriminate sowing there will come a 
 sufficient harvest. The man on the farm learns 
 the same lesson, to sow many kinds of seeds, 
 to have various crops, to employ diversified 
 farming, so that, though some might fail, not 
 all would fail. 
 
 And this is the very method that has brought 
 success to the Kingdom of God. How often 
 Paul must have felt like saying, "What 's the 
 use?" Why, there was shipwreck and prison 
 and flogging and stoning and threatening and 
 peril. How useless, hopeless it seemed to be 
 288
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 talking before Felix and Agrippa and the cen- 
 turion and the mobs that assailed him and the 
 soldiers who guarded him. Nearly all of 
 Paul's words were wasted; but because he per- 
 sisted with noble patience to sow the seed, some 
 of it found its way into fertile soil, and the day 
 came when Tertullian was able to give his mes- 
 sage concerning the power of the gospel to the 
 Roman official, and the Roman Empire was 
 conquered, and Europe was converted, and the 
 world brought within reach of the gospel. 
 How often John Wesley must have felt like 
 running before the storm rather than submit- 
 ting himself to abuses and revilings and attacks 
 of mobs. But because he splendidly persisted, 
 preaching to high and low, rich and poor, 
 farmer and miner and city-dweller, there came 
 the great revival that saved England from a 
 "French Revolution. " 
 
 God builds His Kingdom that way. He 
 floods the world with His Spirit. Like the 
 wind, It moves everywhere; like the seed, it 
 lodges everywhere. Most of it seems to bear 
 no fruit; but now and then it strikes fertile 
 soil, and there grows up a Moses or Isaiah, a 
 289
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 Peter or Paul, a Luther or Wesley, a McCabe 
 or Moody. The seed is sown in the Pacific 
 Garden Mission, and a McAuley or Sunday is 
 converted; in a country revival-meeting, with 
 bad roads and a scanty attendance to discourage, 
 and a Bristol or Mclntyre is converted; in a 
 city-revival, and a Drummond or Grenfell is 
 won to God. A street-corner meeting, the sing- 
 ing or whistling of a gospel song, a word fitly 
 spoken, may be the fruitful seed. 
 
 The Church and the individual Christian 
 need to learn this lesson. This is no plea for 
 slipshod, unorganized methods, but the danger 
 in our day is of too much organization. We 
 are putting too much emphasis upon it, we are 
 too careful not to waste any of our efforts, we 
 are too insistent upon returns, we are afraid of 
 wasted efforts; too much of our strength is be- 
 ing dissipated, wasted in trying to prevent seed 
 from falling upon stony ground; too much 
 time is being wasted by the sower trying to pick 
 up the seed from the wayside. The need is for 
 more sowing, more indiscriminate sowing. Let 
 the pastor take his Christmas cards with a word 
 for Christ to every home he can reach. Many 
 290
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 families will care nothing for them, but some 
 will be cheered by the remembrance, and here 
 and there one may be brought to Christ. Let 
 him preach sermons to everybody. Some may 
 sleep under them, but now and then one may 
 be saved. The need is that laymen shall not 
 have a select few in whom they are interested, 
 but shall rather invite everybody to whom they 
 have access, to church; invite them repeatedly, 
 no matter how often the invitation has gone un- 
 heeded; shall tell everybody who will give any 
 opportunity the good news about Jesus Christ, 
 improving every opportunity, being all things 
 to all men, being instant in season and out of 
 season ; for this is God's method and the method 
 He would have His children follow. 
 
 The final lesson for our encouragement is 
 that the harvest is certain. We are sure of 
 this, that most of the seed will not grow. That 
 is the lesson of Nature: a hundred seeds sown 
 for one plant builded; seed destroyed ruthlessly 
 on every side, and yet some of it finding the 
 fertile soil and producing the certain harvest. 
 And this is the experience of the Church. Why, 
 there has been preaching enough and there have 
 291
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 been Bibles enough printed to have saved the 
 world long since. But much of the effort has 
 been vain. 
 
 And we are also sure that we can not fore- 
 cast the results through knowing where the soil 
 is fertile or what seed is fertile. We can not 
 tell what sermon may bring conviction to some 
 wandering soul, what boy in the Sunday-school 
 may become the great leader for God, what 
 visit for Christ to a neighbor may bring knowl- 
 edge of God to that home, what word may be 
 the word that shall arouse some good impulse. 
 
 But of this we may be confident, that if we 
 are faithful to our task of sowing we are sure 
 of the harvest. u What 's the use of preach- 
 ing?" we say; but the Church grows amazingly; 
 it runs, and does not grow weary ; it leaps from 
 shore to shore, and the voice of Christ is heard 
 in every land. "What is the use of trying to 
 do charitable work?" we say; but asylums and 
 hospitals and libraries spring up like mush- 
 rooms in the night, and the sufferers are being 
 relieved from famine, and playgrounds are be- 
 ing built for the poor, and wealth is being 
 poured into the lap of the Church so prodigally 
 292
 
 SOWING AND REAPING 
 
 that it is embarrassed by its very abundance. 
 "What is the use of fighting the saloon?" we 
 say; but last year fifteen thousand were put out 
 of commission, were padlocked, and the move- 
 ment toward their complete abolition sweeps on 
 amazingly. "What is the use of trying to lead 
 a good life, a useful life, a Christlike life?" 
 We make so many failures, we fall so often, we 
 commit so many sins; but somehow under re- 
 peated effort and renewed effort the character 
 does grow toward God, and righteousness does 
 get firmer lodgment in our lives, and the King- 
 dom of God grows night and day, we know not 
 how. And so the problem is a simple one. He 
 that sows promiscuously enough shall reap the 
 certain harvest. Therefore let us go forth 
 sowing the seed, even though with weeping; 
 sowing it abundantly, persistently; knowing that 
 we shall come again with rejoicing, bearing the 
 sheaves. 
 
 293
 
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