j fat: the founding if.aColligl iKthis Colony*

¦ IL]II3I&&I§Br •

Gift of
George L. Fox

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Bible Study in the Work of Life

Books by the Same Jfuthor

World Wide Bible Study
The Bible and Modern Life
Why Go To College.
College Men and the Bible
The Man of Egypt

Bible Study in the
Work of Life

By
Clayton Sedgwick Cooper, A.M.

Book 1.

Qbe "Bmfctterbocfeer iPress
New York City
1914

Copyright by
CLAYTON SEDGWICK COOPER
1914

Ube IftnicfeerbocSer iprees, Hew UJorfe

The first and almost the only book deserving of universal atten
tion is the Bible. The Bible is the book of all others to be read at
all ages and in all conditions of human Ufe ; not to be read once or
twice through and then laid aside, but to be read in small portions of
one or two chapters every day. and never to be intermitted except
by some overruling necessity. I speak as a man of the world to men
of the world, and I say to you, " Search the Scriptures." I have for
many years made it a practice to read through the Bible once a
year. . . It is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of know
ledge and virtue. John Quincy Adams.

PREFATORY NOTE
" I would study the Bible if I only knew how to
begin ! " This remark is commonly heard among people
regardless of class, race, nationality, or shade of intel
lectual or religious belief.
This book is the first of a series of four books in which
the author, with the assistance of invaluable councilors,
aims to provide a suggestive plan of Bible study for each
week of the year and for every day in the week, covering
thereby the main truths of the Christian Scriptures, as
these truths are related to the work of life.
These studies are arranged for both personal and class
use, the question material and references at the end of
each study being designed for discussion in groups, and
also for starting the individual's thought toward a plan
of Bible study of bis own.
The author is indebted to a wide circle of scholars,
public men, and religious leaders, representing many
sections and several different nations, for criticism of
subject matter and for hints regarding the point of view
and needs of present-day men and women. We present
this first book in the series, cherishing the hope that
those who find these studies helpful will cooperate with
us in extending the knowledge of the Bible, for in the
words of Archbishop Temple,
" We can hardly do anything, I doubt if we can do
anything for people to be compared with helping them
to understand the Bible."
New York City,
March I, IQ14.

CONTENTS PAGE
Introduction  iii
CHAPTER
I. Why Study the Bible ?

II. What Is Christianity ?

III. Choosing and Conducting a Life- Work 35

IV. The Place and Use of Money .
V. Education in Religion
VI. Is Prayer Essential for Success ?
VII. God's Laws for Happiness .
VIII. The Art of Being Quiet .
IX. God's Laws for Health
X. What Makes a Friend ?
XI. The Man Who Works
XII. Do We Really Believe God ? .

3
19

47
61 75
87
101"5129 143157

INTRODUCTION
The object of these studies is to assist the modern man
to discover the Bible and to apply its teachings to his
every-day life.
Modern scholarship has accomplished much in the way
of breaking the Bible out of the polarized, theological,
and dogmatic form in which controversial and sectarian
strife confined it. Yet for the average man these books
of erudite, historical scholars, with their endless, scientific
facts and comparison of sources and dates, are almost as
impregnable as the more ancient treatises of theology.
There still remains the need for a kind of study of
the Bible that will approach this literature that Goethe
called the "Great Book of the Nations," with simple
directness relative to the ordinary problems of every-day
life, the problems that must be solved practically by the
twentieth-century man whether he is running a system
of shops or tenement houses, a cotton mill or a farm, a
hospital or a bank.
An incident which came to my notice while in China
illustrates the point of view of these studies. A culti
vated Chinese gentleman, a Confucianist, was given a
New Testament by an old American missionary, who
asked the man to read it and consider the question of
becoming a Christian. The Chinese, who was both in
telligent and sincere, read the Gospels for the first time,
and after a month or two of thought upon the subject,
returned to the missionary, whom he had known inti
mately for many years, and said:

flntroouction

" I have read this Book with great interest — it is a
great Book, and I am inclined to try these teachings;
but," he added, " according to this Book you are not a
Christian!" The old missionary was somewhat startled at this
sweeping assertion and replied, " What do you mean?"
The Confucianist explained his statement as follows :
"These writings appear to me to state clearly the
characteristics of a Christian.
"First, I read that a Christian is a man who is not
handicapped by anxiety and worry, and is usually a
happy man. He is one who knows that his God, who
cares for the falling of the smallest bird, will surely care
for him. This Book commands him to cast his care
upon God, and it assures him that he will receive the
gift of Peace. I read that Jesus said to His disciples
that He gave them His joy, and He furthermore said,
' Let not your heart be troubled.' I find that a
Christian is an unworried man.
"But," said the Chinese to his missionary friend,
" you are the most worried man I know. You impress
me as having a thousand cares. Indeed you are anxious
about details concerning which, as these Gospels teach,
you should trust God. You are not an unworried man.
You are not a Christian.
"Furthermore," the man of China insisted, "I read
in the New Testament that God is Love ; that, according
to Jesus, there are simply two great commandments that
sum up Christianity, namely : Love to God, and love to
one's neighbor. I read that a Christian man is a great
man of love, one whose heart is too full of kindness and
generous feeling to allow of any hatred, one who even
loves his enemies.
"But — you do not impress me as being such a man.
Only the other day you were telling me of a certain

flntroouctton

person who had injured you and to whom you would
not speak, when you met him upon the street. You
do not love your enemies. You are not a Christian.
"There is still another thing," continued the Confu
cianist, " that impressed me in this Book. We go to
our Temples to ask our gods for help in relation to our
daily needs, such as the health of our children, prosper
ity in our business, and success in our special under
takings. We want a God who can assist us in making
money to provide for our families, one who can bring
happiness, health, and good cheer to those beneath our
rooftrees. I was glad to find in this Book that your
God promises to take care of the material needs of his
followers. I read that if a man seeks first the Kingdom
of God he has a right to expect other things, like pros
perity in his business, to follow; that God helps him to
get on and be successful.
" But you never told me about this. I never heard
any one say that Christianity helps a man in his busi
ness. You have only told me about certain spiritual
gifts and future rewards. We Chinese want not simply
spiritual blessings, but we want the help of the gods in
our everyday life. The great problem of our country
is that of getting rice to fill the hungry mouths of our
children. Sunrise sees the carpenter and the smith, the
shoemaker, and the beater of cotton at their labor, and the
midnight cry of the watchman often finds them patiently
earning the food for the morrow's meal. You must
bring to these people the kind of Christianity I read
about in this Book, the Christianity that meets the
pressing needs of everyday life. If I understand the
meaning of your Book, you are not a Christian."
The missionary who related to me this incident, con
fessed that the practical interpretation of the message
of the New Testament to daily life, by a man who had

xiv ITntroJmctton

read the Gospels for the first time, not only gave him a
decided surprise, but it also afforded him a new point
of view.
But it is from such practical point of view that, the
Bible must be tested and related to the needs of the
modern man. It has a message for the man who is
choosing a life work, for the man who is unhappy, for
the man who is troubled about money, for the hurried,
tired business man, who thinks he has no time to rest
nor to relax ; it comes with most definite advice to the
man who is friendless, or who would know how to make
or hold true friends; to the man who is sick, or hard
pressed by misfortune ; it teaches the laws of prayer and
faith and education and labor, not in the abstract, but
in the concrete, making these great forces mean some
thing rich and wonderful for each individual, regardless
of that individual's work or station. The Bible tells of
a religion that really can be made to work every day
in the week and every hour in the day. It tells of the
more abundant life in relation to every department of
existence, which really means more health, more happi
ness, more prosperity for the individual.
It has been the aim of these studies to deal with the
message of the Bible in its relation to these ordinary
problems of present-day living, without the use of theo
logical terms and also without involving the student in
those controversial matters which inevitably distract the
thought of the busy man from the essential question,
which is, " What -particular message has the Bible for
me?" The studies give especial emphasis and prominence to
the teaching of Christ as found in the New Testament.
since those persons who have really caught the spirit of
this teaching have found a solution of modern pro
blems, both public and personal, which no merely legis-

Introduction

XV

lative action or ethical rules have been able to
supply. Shortly before the death of the late Senator J. P.
Dolliver, I asked him what he considered to be the
greatest present need of American life. He replied, "The
greatest need of our people is a new dynamic which will
touch the inner springs of religious activity; it is not
merely ethical or political reformation which we need,
but a revival of religion, and this revival will find its
springs in the Gospel of Jesus."
The chief reason that this Gospel, this spirit and
method of Jesus, takes hold of the human heart and
life with power, is because it gets down below mere
formal rules of state or creed to the ideals and the
desires of men, where all sweeping and vital change
must begin. The reason that the ten commandments
and every similar code of ethics are not enough is because
these are merely negative prohibitions that do not create
in the human mind and heart a new disposition, a new
temper, a new desire. It is one thing to build prisons
that will make it impossible for a man to steal. It is
another thing to instill in his deepest character the
desire not to steal, and until we can get such a new dis
position, all the legislative high fences in Christendom
will be papier-mache to stop dishonesty.
The average man does the thing he wants to do, all
professions and beliefs to the contrary. Unless he really
wants to exhibit the true spirit of Christianity as taught
in the Gospels, he will not exhibit it — this is a fundamen
tal truth. To change the intention and the longing of
the heart of the modern man is the only permanent
salvation — the only way to bring to this world the
Kingdom of God. One direct road to this condition is
by the way of Bible study — by applying God's laws to
every-day life.

xvi flntroouctfon
A FEW SUGGESTIONS REGARDING THE USE OF THESE
STUDIES
First. — Approach the study of the Bible with utter
honesty and with a desire to get its particular message
for you. Leave your criticism and your prejudices at
the door, if you wish to enter with profit into the House
of the Spirit. The great problems of the soul can never
be settled by disputations and acrid discussions. God's
messages appeal only to an open heart, sincerely seeking
its own light.
Second. — Study the Bible systematically. Give it
the kind of attention and regularity that you would give
to any other subject from which you expect to receive
advantage. Fifteen minutes, preferably in the morning,
before the day's business begins, spent in the environment
of Bible study in relation to a single problem of life work
will solve the majority of the needs of the day by giving
the person a new grip on his will and a quiet mind secured
by a right perspective. A habit well grounded of daily
Bible study in the right spirit is the most important asset
which can possibly be achieved by a human being.
Third. — Come to these Bible studies thoughtfully and
with practical common sense. I once heard Canon
Wilberforce say, speaking in St. John's Chapel, West
minster, "The only way to discover God is b}' thought."
No thought is of great value which is not balanced by
good sense and by the best reason and judgment that the
human mind can afford. The Bible is filled with many
plain statements which are too frequently wrenched from
their settings to be converted into mystic and vague
symbolism. We are also inclined to bring to the Bible
preconceived notions which make it difficult to think
clearly regarding the matters of vital moment to us.
Try to read the New Testament as though you were

Untrobuctfon xvii

reading it for the first time. Ask, "What do the words
actually say?" not "What have I always supposed they
said?" It is not necessary for one to expect that he can
understand the Bible in its totality, certainly not at the
start, since one must grow slowly in spiritual comprehen
sion as well as in intelligent acquaintance with the Book.
Let us not say, therefore, that we understand a passage,
if we do not. Let us not change a simple rule for daily
conduct into an intolerable and mysterious dogma. Let
us try to accept the words of Jesus as simply as he spoke
them. Fourth. — Remember that the Bible belongs to you!
Take the Bible for the impelling force that drives you
out to some useful service. Take it for your cares, your
worries, your sorrows. Believe it and apply it. It has
been the panacea for a world's grief. You will find in it
what the Psalmist found, " a refuge in the time of storm. "
Believe unflinchingly that God is a God of love, that
He means good, not evil for you, that He has a particular
will for your own individual happiness.
" In His will is our Peace. "
Remember that God makes no distinction in His all-
embracing care. As the mountains are round about
Jerusalem so the love of the Father is round about His
own. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect Peace,
Whose mind is stayed on Thee. "

I
Why Study the Bible ?

Bible Study in the Work of
Life

WHY STUDY THE BIBLE?
This book of the Law shall not depart out of thy
mouth,, but thou shalt meditate thereon, day and night,
that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is
written therein; for then thou shalt make thy way
prosperous and then thou shalt have good success.
Joshua i : 8.
Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in
them ye have eternal life ; and these are they which bear
witness of me. John 5 : 39.
Great peace have they that love thy law.
Psalms 119: 165.
He that hath my commandments and keepeth them
he it is that lovetn me. John 14: 21.
But Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err,
not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
Matthew 22 : 29.
3

Bible Stubs

Thy word have I laid up in my heart
That I might not sin against thee. Psalms 119: ii.
Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
which is in righteousness; that the man of God may be
complete, furnished completely unto every good work.
II Timothy 3:16-17.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet
And light unto my path. Psalms 119: 105.
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were
written for our learning, that through patience and
through comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Romans 15 : 4.
The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul ;
The testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the
simple. Psalms 19: 7.
But these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing ye may
have life in his name. John 20: 31.
The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit and
are life. John 6:63.
Give diligence to present thyself approved unto God,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, handling
aright the word of Truth. II Timothy 2: 15.
Already ye are clean because of the word which I have
spoken unto you. . . If ye abide in me, and my words
abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done
unto you. John 15: 3, 7.

lTn tbe TKHorfe of tUtfe

Everyone therefore that heareth these words of mine
and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, who
built his house upon the rock ; and the rain descended, and
the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that
house ; and it fell not ; for it was founded upon the rock.
Matthew 7 : 24.

WITNESS OF MEN
The existence of the Bible as a book for the people is
the greatest benefit which the human race has ever ex
perienced. Every attempt to belittle it ... is a crime
against humanity. And if there are to be miracles this
book is itself the greatest miracle. For here we have a
system of religious doctrine and beliefs that has been
built up without the help of the Greek philosophy, by
unlearned persons, and that has, more than any other
exercised an influence for good upon the hearts and lives
of men. Immanuel Kant.
He succeeds in his undertakings just so far as he is
able to incorporate the spirit of the Bible in his work.
Wm. T. Stead.
As well imagine a man with a sense for culture not
cultivating it by the help of Greek art, and a man with a
sense for poetry not cultivating it by the help of Homer
and Shakespeare, as a man with a sense of conduct not
cultivating it by the help of the Bible.
Matthew Arnold.
The immediate work of our day is the study ofthe
Bible. Other studies will act upon the progress of
mankind by acting through and upon this. Dr. Temple.

Bible Stuby

"The Bible is driving back the horizon of war, " is the
striking phrasing of a truth expressed by the Hon.
Charles W. Fairbanks.
Slowly the Bible of the race is writ,
And not on paper leaves nor leaves of stone;
Each age, each kindred, adds to it,
Texts of despair or hope, of joy or moan.
While swings the sea, while mists the mountains shroud,
While thund'rous surges burst on cliffs of cloud,
Still at the Prophet's feet the nations sit. Lowell.
"A. Lincoln, his own Book, " were words found in the
cover of Lincoln's well-worn Bible.
I believe that the Bible should not only be taught in
every public school, but that it should have the first place,
and that every other study should be made subordinate.
Professor Wm. Lyon Phelps.
The Honorable James Bryce in writing to the World's
Sixth Sunday-School Convention said: " Had I been
able to be with you, I should have said some words
regarding the special and urgent need which seems to
exist in our time for maintaining in the general scheme of
education the place of religious instruction, and especially
the proper knowledge of the Bible. "
The best of allies you can procure for us is the Bible.
That will bring us the reality — Freedom. Garibaldi.
I believe the Bible is inspired because it inspires me.
Coleridge.
The sole use of the collective inspired library, volumi
nous though it may be, is to teach men two very brief

1Tn tbe movk of xtfe

rules of action, or rather principles of living — love to
God and love to man. These are the concentrated
golden products of a wonderful profusion of law, history,
psalmody, prophecy, and philosophy, which make up the
Old and the New Testament. The human mind is so
constituted that it does not readily assimilate concen
trated, abstract truth; otherwise, the great collection of
sacred writings might at once be reduced to a simple
statement of the two all-inclusive motives before noted.
That this fine gold of principle may be received and
transmuted into living spiritual fiber, it must be pre
sented in all possible combinations and conditions, seen
at all angles and in different lights, and tested in its
application to varying ages, nations, and civilizations.
Its essence must flow into the lives of the rich and poor,
high and low; its qualities must be exhibited in all stages
of development from germ planting through successive
states of growth to blossoming and full fruition; its
energy must be brought into contact with prosperity,
knowledge, and ignorance, nations and individuals.
It has one message, but many interpretations ; one melody
but endless variations. Henry Wood.
Truth is one;
And, in all lands beneath the sun
Whoso hath eyes to see may see
The tokens of its unity. . . .
In Vedic verse, in dull Koran,
Are messages of good to Man;
The angels to our Aryan sires
Talked by the earliest household fires;
The Prophets of the elder day,
The slant-eyed sages of Cathay,
Read not the riddle all amiss
Of higher life evolved from this.

Bible Stubs

Nor doth it lessen what He taught,
Or make the Gospel Jesus brought
Less precious, that His lips retold
Some portion of that truth of old;
Denying not the proven seers,
The tested wisdom of the years ;
Confirming with His own impress
The common law of righteousness.
We search the world for truth; we cull
The good, the true, the beautiful,
From graven stone and written scroll,
From all old flower fields of the soul ;
And weary seekers of the best,
We come back laden from our quest,
To find that all the Sages said
Is in the Book our mothers read,
And all our treasure of old thought
In His harmonious fullness wrought,
Who gathers in one sheaf complete
The scattered blades of God's sown wheat, —
The common growth that maketh good
His all embracing Fatherhood. Whittier.

WHY STUDY THE BIBLE ?
Bible study has three distinct and indispensable uses
for the modern man or woman.
First: Bible Study Gives the Facts Concerning
Christianity. — Paul commended the Bereans, who, in his
judgment, "were more noble than those in Thessalonica,
in that they received the word with all readiness of mind,
and searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things
were so. " The Bible contains the best accounts extant of
God, His nature, His character, and His dealings withmen.

Un tbe Morft of Xife

A man's life usually reflects his idea of the character of
God. He may think of Deity as primarily a God of Jus
tice, and the great word for him will be " Duty " ; he may
find God's chief message in the last chapter of the Gospel
of Matthew, which commands to go into all the world and
preach the Gospel to every creature, and his God will be
one of missionary injunction; he may think of God as a
great potentate or ruler to be appeased by offerings,
sacrifices, and many prayers in accordance with certain
Oriental customs of the present day, and his God will be
one largely of fear or penalty; a man may also find his
God in an all-embracing Pantheism, in the spaces of
woods and sea and air he may worship, and the name of
his God is Nature; or he may personalize his Deity,
finding him, in the words of Tennyson,
"Closer than breathing, nearer than hands and feet,"
and his God will be more nearly of the character in which
Jesus seemed to think of Him in his oft-repeated term
"Father." Since everyone must worship his own God, or his own
idea of "the power not ourselves that makes for righteous
ness, " it is well for the individual to ask and to answer
clearly the question, "What kind of God am I serving?"
The Bible gives a distinct message in regard to the
character of the Supreme Being, and this message, inter
preted from the point of view of various nations and
peoples, fitted to their education and their diverse char
acteristics, has made the Bible more universally the book
of religion than any other literature extant.
The Bible has lasted two thousand years and to-day is
the best selling book in the world. Its issues average more
than fifteen million copies yearly; more Bibles in different
languages are sold each year than any other hundred
books together; this Book has been translated into four

io Bible Stubs

hundred. and eighty different languages and dialects;
it is being studied annually by more than a half-million
young men and young women in connection with or
ganized Bible classes in the churches; during the college
year 1912-13, 48,398 students of the colleges and univer
sities of the United States and Canada were reported as
engaged for a part of the year at least in voluntary Bible
study; the Sunday-schools of many lands report from
twenty-five to twenty-eight millions of pupils studying
the Bible each season; twenty-seven Bible societies are
printing this Book, one in the United States, three in
Great Britain, and twenty-three on the continent of
Europe, aggregating a total output of Bibles year by year
of not less than twelve million copies; the Oxford Press
alone is reported as publishing on the average twenty
thousand Bibles every week in the year; the total annual
issue of the Scriptures in the year 1910 in all languages
and in all nations reached the impressive figure of
nineteen million volumes.
In view of such practical and universal interest in this
literature, can any person, quite regardless of his belief
or his race or his station, afford to disregard or neglect
Bible study, and still claim to be educated or to be
capable of a clear knowledge of the religious facts which
have so largely shaped and are increasingly shaping the
acts and the thoughts of the world's population? A man
entered my office some years ago and said, " What do you
personally know about God?" This question in sub
stance must be answered without equivocation and with
some definite expression by the men and women who
make any claim for leadership or influence in the life of
to-day. To answer such questions one must know the
facts about religion, because in religion as in science facts
precede opinion. It matters little comparatively what
I may think or what I may say concerning such deep

In tbe Mori? of Xif e 1 1
matters as the meaning of life, the character of God,
my relationship with my fellows, unless my ideas are
firmly grounded in the fundamental facts of history and
the best experience of the world's great men. Justice
Charles E. Hughes once said to a man who was giving
evidence on the witness stand, "Your opinions are
interesting, but unfortunately they do not seem to be
based upon any factual evidence." The Bible gives this
factual evidence concerning God, man, and the human
soul. It is therefore incontestably worth while to study
the Bible.
This revelation of God and the Bible is given largely
through the Ufe, the teaching, and the example of Jesus
Christ, and it is the Gospel of Christ which makes the
Bible and Christianity unique, differentiating it from
Islam, Buddhism, and other faiths. The aim of Jesus
as he stated it was to reveal to men the character of God
by means of spirit, word, and deed, in order that no man
could mistake the nature of the Deity. His emphasis
was upon the spirit of Christianity rather than upon its
letter, and as Matthew Arnold has said, the chief means
of discovering God and Christianity is by clearly con
ceiving and expressing the spirit and method of Jesus.
Thus the Bible becomes the scientific and historical, as
well as the ever-essential fact-book of religion.
Second : Bible Study Points the Way to Successful
Character Making. — There are two ways by which
Bible study affects character. In the first place it reveals
to men their real selves in contrast to the conceptions and
opinions of friends and acquaintances who never thor
oughly understand us in the depths of our hearts. There
is something distinctly personal about a sincere study of
the Word of God. It is not merely interesting and enter
taining, it is also revolutionary, transforming, and recon
structing. No one can read the words of Jesus with

12 Bible Stubs

regularity and reflection without being consciously or
unconsciously changed thereby ; they are like the air of
the mountains or like the song of birds, or the fresh pure
winds sweeping across a clear lake ; they change both the
environment and the direction of one's thoughts. I am
writing these words in the valley of Interlaken facing the
snows of the Eiger and the Jungfrau, having come here
directly from the hot streets of Oriental Cairo. The
change is more than physical, it is also mental, it is
spiritual. It is as different as the pure-hearted and
simple peasant of Switzerland, working on his green
mountainsides, is different from the material and often
commercially dishonest Turco-Egyptian, sitting in his
hot cafe, talking money and politics. The Bible gives us
the air in which the individual soul can breathe and grow.
For a moment at least it sweeps the vision of men to
the hills from whence cometh their help, it gives quiet
and composure in the air where right thoughts and
right decisions can be made, it brings us to God, by
bringing us to ourselves.
A second advantage in character building secured
from Bible study is that of actively and decisively facing
our temptations and our obstacles. Bible study brings us
to the soul's battle-ground. The chief hope of personal
religion lies, in the beginning, in the honest willingness to
face one's self and one's own conscience in the loneliness
of individual personality. The Bible is a militant book,
it is a book of warfare, and not simply a sermon on the
mount. "I came not to bring peace," said Jesus, "but
a sword, " and he died on the Cross. Every individual
has his own fight for character; it is his own peculiar
fight with his own peculiar enemies and weaknesses; it is
usually a lonely battle ; like the Master a man enters his
Gethsemane alone.
Bible study not only shows the battle-field, but serves

1fn tbe morh of Xife 13
as guide and helper concerning the rules of the combat,
and the way to victory. A strong athlete in one of the
colleges came to me one day and said, "For three months
I have been putting up the biggest fight of my life. It is
bigger than any battle I have attempted to fight upon
the football field. It is my fight for manhood and for
purity and, " he added with a determined and encourag
ing smile, "slowly and surely I am getting the victory."
I asked him the rules of his game. He said, "I have
spent one hour each morning for three months in Bible
study, and the thoughtful realization of the things I was
up against and the things which are most vitally worth
while for me." In this particular instance I knew that
it meant for the young man a fight and a sacrifice similar
to that represented by Jesus in the figure of plucking
out the right eye or cutting off the right hand, in order
that the man might enter into the life that was intended
for him. It was worth the struggle, however, for the
prize was that of self-control, the prize of character.
Fifteen minutes daily in the environment of this great
literature will calm, strengthen, and brace moral and
spiritual will power in a degree beyond any words to
express. I consider a daily habit of Bible study the
most important human agency in existence to secure
strong character, and character is the chief element in
all abiding success.
Third: Bible Study Creates Ambition. — The Bible
is the book of human biography — the biography of men
who failed and succeeded, who sinned and were forgiven,
who fell amid all the human frailties known to our own
flesh and who rose triumphantly above them through
the power of Almighty God. Here is the book that
tells us of men who, like Moses, deliberately turned
their backs upon the pleasures of sin for a season in
order that they might gain more valuable satisfactions ;

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in the case of Moses that he might immortalize his name
by leading his people forty years across desert sands to
their promised land. Moses himself did not enter the
promised land, but he saw it from Mount Nebo and he
died in song.
The Bible tells us of men like Paul, the first and the
greatest missionary hero, who died in chains, but whose
spirit rose above his imprisonment as the Matterhorn
rises above its perilous slopes, having achieved his am
bition as he cried, "I have fought a good fight — I have
kept the faith." The influence of the Bible creates
the kind of ambition that the young artist possessed who
in the midst of his failure did not fail, because, as he
looked upon the masterpiece of the great artist with
whom he was studying, he felt something stirring within
him which made him cry out exultingly, "I, too, am a
painter." A further stir to this indomitable ambition created
by Bible study, lies in the fact that we are shown in the
pages of Scripture that God's purpose never fails, that
God's men are never really defeated, and that the King
dom of Heaven is never overthrown. It keeps alive
the consciousness that the man who follows right laws
cannot fail because it reminds him that God is on the
side of the man who is right and who does right.
It revives old, dead ambitions. It makes a man believe
again in his old ideals, the ideals that have been hidden
and crushed down in his contact with the world and his
reverses. It shows him God's all-powerful hand and the
love unchanging which has always been about him,
could he but realize it; he dares again with the daring
of youth because he realizes that "if God be for him,
who can be against him ?"

•Bn tbe Timorfe of Xife 15
QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION
Have you ever read the Book of Job at a sitting, the
book that Victor Hugo called, "The greatest piece of
literature ever written with a pen"?
Did the Sunday-school we attended give us a real
knowledge of God through Bible study? Is it doing it
to-day? What can we do to bring about such desirable
results? "I don't remember anything he said, but I re
member him" was the remark made to me by a col
lege student concerning his Bible teacher. What do you
think should be the chief aim of a Bible class teacher?
What should be his best method of achieving that aim?
II Timothy 2 : 15.
Luther said that some days he was so busy and so
much worried that he thought it necessary to spend at
least two hours in prayer. In these busy days is it
feasible to try to get men and women to form habits
of daily Bible study? Is it lost time? State reasons
upon both sides. Consider the example of Jesus in this
regard. Are Bible study and prayer naturally con
nected? If so, why?
What kind of Bible study has been of greatest ad
vantage to you personally?
The following books have helped many persons to
discover the Bible : Bushnell's The Character of Jesus;
Harnack's What is Christianity ?; the lives of Drummond
by George Adam Smith and Lockhart ; Fairbairn's Life
of Christ; Peabody's Jesus Christ and the Social Question;
The Teaching of Jesus and his Apostles, by Bosworth.
What books have been most helpful to you? In either
the spirit of interpreting the Bible or in the method of
its study?

16 Bible Stubs in tbe Morfe of Xife
The point of view of approaching the Bible is
quite as important as any method of its study. What
should determine that point of view? What value do
you place upon the historical method of modern Biblical
study, in the light of the discoveries of scientific archae
ology, and upon books like that of Professor Rauschen-
buch's Christianity and the Social Crisis leading to the
application of the Bible to social questions?
In Mohammedan lands much of the time of certain
missionaries is given to controversy and argumentation
with Moslems regarding the Bible and the Koran.
What do you think of the value or the advantage or
disadvantage of argument over creeds or theological
problems in the Bible class?
It is sometimes said that it is impossible to read
the Bible using the intellect alone, as one would read
Aristotle or Kant; students in school often remark that
Bible study in the curriculum where the Scripture is
studied solely intellectually, differs from Bible study in
an informal and voluntary Bible group. What in your
opinion is the reason for this?
Job 5: 8-27; Deut. 30: 8-20; Col. 2: 2-3; II Peter
1:2-3; Romans io: 1-18; Proverbs 2 and 3; Psalm
119; John 15.

II
What Is Christianity ?

17

II
WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY?
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is
the first and great commandment, and a second like unto
it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On
these two commandments the whole law hangeth and the
Prophets. Matthew 22 : 37-40.
But when he came to himself he said, How many hired
servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare
and I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my
father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned
against Heaven and in thy sight; I am no more worthy
to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired ser
vants. And he arose and came to his father. But while
he was yet afar off his father saw him and was moved with
compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against
Heaven and in thy sight: I am no more worthy to be
called thy son. But the father said to his servants,
Bring forth quickly the best robe and put it on him; and
put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring
the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and make merry ;
for this my son was dead and is alive again ; he was lost
and is found. And they began to be merry. Luke 15: 17-24.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God.
I John 4: 7.
19

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God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in
God, and God abideth in him.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out
fear, because fear hath punishment; and he that feareth
is not made perfect in love.
If a man say I love God, and hateth his brother, he is
a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath
seen cannot love God whom he hath not seen.
I John 4: 16, 18, 20.
But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the
greatest of these is love. I Cor. 13 : 13.
Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father
is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction
and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
James i : 27.
All the paths of Jehovah are loving- kindness and truth
Unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Psalms 25: 10.
He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what
doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly and to love
kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6: 8.
To them that hath no might he increaseth strength.
Is. -40: 29.
WITNESS OF MEN
Christianity — the greatest and happiest stroke ever
yet made for human perfection.
M. Arnold.
To love God and make oneself loved by Him, to love

Un tbe Timorfe of Xife 21
one's neighbors and to make oneself loved by them, —
this is morality and religion; in both the one and the
other, love is everything — end, beginning, and middle.
Joubert.
For the love of God is broader than the measure of
man's mind
And the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.
F. W. Faber.
Religion is the love of God, not the fear of the devil.
Sir John Lubbock.
But to love is the great amulet which makes the world
a garden. Robert Louis Stevenson.
I could conceive the existence of an established Church
which should be a blessing to the community. A church
in which, week by week, services should be devoted, not
to the iteration of abstract propositions and theology, but
for the setting before men's minds of an ideal of true, just,
and pure living; a place in which those who are weary
of the burden of daily cares should find a moment's rest
in the contemplation of the higher fife which is possible
for all though attained by so few; a place in which the
man of strife and of business should have to think how
small after all are the awards he covets compared with
Peace and Charity. Depend upon it, if such a Church
existed, no one would seek to disestablish it.
Huxley.
Most religions are meant to be straight lines connecting
two points — God and man; but Christianity has three
points — God, man, and his brother, with two lines to
make a right angle.
Maltbie D. Babcock.

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To love is to understand everything.
Old French Proverb.
Above all things do not touch Christianity unless you
are willing to seek the Kingdom of Heaven first. I
promise you a miserable existence if you seek it second.
Henry Drummond.

WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY ?
A man's religion is his conception of God. Find out
what a nation worships and you will discover the nation's
faith. You will find in Asia people who worship their deities
with an idea of appeasing them or for the purpose of
warding off misfortune from their homes. Their religion
is one of fear. In Europe as in America you will find
people who worship in beautiful churches by the use of
beautiful forms, forms that appeal to the aesthetic and to
the emotional and to the sense of the customary. Their
religion is one of ritual.
Christ in the religion which he taught replaced fear by
love, he replaced the religion of the letter with the reli
gion of the Spirit. He laid his emphatic work upon the
positive rather than the negative side of religion. His
teachings were constant affirmations with very few nega
tions. The possibilities rather than the misfortunes of
human beings were made foremost, and the " Thou shalt
not" of the Old Testament was changed into the "Thou
shalt" of the New.
Christ stood for a religion of doing something, not of
merely refraining from evil. That men should act lov
ingly, kindly, and righteously is more important than
that they should not do wrong. To be sure he affirms

Un tbe Moth of Xife 23
the ten commandments and says, "Not one jot nor tittle
of the law shall pass," but we catch the trend of
his spiritual message, we see his real Messiahship and
Saviorhood, as well as our own joyous incentive and
redemption, when he says, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself," or "As my Father hath loved me, so have I
loved you, " or again as he stirs the human heart by the
clarion call, "Go work to-day," "My Father worketh
hitherto and I work. " That "Go and do thou likewise "
injunction at the end of the parable of the good Samari
tan is worth man}' books of advice concerning the theory
of creeds and laws. These are things that we can do, and
the hearts of men are filled with confidence in the pres
ence of achievement. We are never so sure of the things
we are commanded not to do.
Jesus always talks more about faith than he does about
fear, and faith is positive — it springs from love and it leads
to love. When manifested toward God it reveals the inher
ent desire to do right, to be right, in order to please a con
siderate and loving Father, not because we are afraid of
him. That inner desire, that "fixed design of righteous
ness, "is the seed corn of Christ's Gospel, the password into
his fellowship, the sign of membership in the Kingdom of
Heaven. Christianity is a renewed possibility every day
of making a clean record with the past blotted out through
the forgiveness of a Divine Father's love, a Father whose
heart is touched with the feeling for human infirmi
ties and who really cares deeply, far more deeply
than we know, for our success. This is a religion of
reciprocal loving-kindness. It makes men love others
because of the increasing consciousness that God loves
them. Robert Louis Stevenson said, "If you are sure
that God in the long run means kindness to you, you
should be happy ; andif happy, surely you should be kind."
The more one studies the trend and the spirit of Jesus'

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teaching the more one is convinced that to him love was
the irresistible proof and power of religion. According
to the New Testament it is the central characteristic of
God. "God is Love." The divine force in the Chris
tian religion resides in that love that never limits or
holds back gifts that are right for the children of men;
it does not judge harshly or wait for the crowd
before it is ready with its sympathy; it is the love that
never faileth, that suffers long and is kind, that envieth
not and vaunts not itself, the love that is not proud and
that does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not its own,
is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; a love that
rejoiceth not in unrighteousness but rejoiceth in the
truth; that beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth
all things, and endureth all things. "By this," says
Jesus, "shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if
ye have love one to another. "
Christianity meant to Christ the love of God the Father
for all His children. But this love was to be reflected
and expressed through the hearts and the acts of man.
We learn to believe and understand something of the
love of God by seeing its reflection in our earthly father's
attitude toward his children. If he is a true father he is
willing to overlook any fault, however heinous, in his
child, providing the child is sorry and comes back as the
prodigal came back to his father's home. God's love
is an earthly father's love carried to infinity. Conceive
of the love of God by trying to think on infinitely
beyond the capacity of earthly affection, and realizing
that this is what Jesus meant for himself and for us when
so often he said, "Father."
"Or what man is there of you, who, if his son shall ask
him for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he shall ask for
a fish, will give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil,
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 25
more shall your Father who is in Heaven give good things
unto them that ask him? "
The Master's attitude towards loveless acts and love
less men demonstrated clearly that he considered the
chief crime of life to be the crime against love. The
fiercest denunciations and the most wrathful woes that
were ever hurled from the lips of the Son of Man were
flung against those ceremonialists of the Sanhedrin, who
had killed love by their literalism, monopolized religion,
standardized it, stereotyped it, and juggled with it in
sleazy religious casuistry, and because of their acquaint
ance with the veneer of religion considered themselves
better than other men. Against all such Pharisaism
which, either in the first or in the twentieth century,
seems to fear that too many people will be saved, or
takes as its motto the calvinistic phrase, "I am saved,
I must watch the theology of my minister, everyone out
side is damned," — against all this professional religious
make-believe, Jesus offered the simple and conclusive
evidence of a loving, serviceable, sacrificing life for others,
saying to all usurpers of religion, "I am among you as
one who serves."
Our times are peculiarly susceptible to this type of
Christianity. It is a period demanding reality, even
though it is a time of uncertainty and unrest relative to
the expression of religion. Yet as one looks about him
upon the real Christian works of this present civilization,
as they are expressed in solicitude for the unfortunate,
in the healing of the sick, and in the caring for the in
competent, one would not exchange this new order for
the theological guiding stars of the time of Jonathan
Edwards. It is a time when real religion is being brought
out of the cloister into the market-place and tried. Its
expression and its profession are different than those
which our fathers knew, but is it not Christ-like, all this

26 Bible Stubs

noble philanthropy — this vigorous reaction against sham
methods and sham men in religion, in politics, in national
relations? Did Christ ever teach that religion was to be
expressed in any mere verbal form or in any particular
organization? Did he not say that God is a Spirit, and
that spiritual realities are superior to the changing ways
of men?
After all is it not the people who are guided by loving-
kindness and by great-heartedness who are the true
religionists of all time, regardless of the name and sign
under which they live and labor? Think of the men
whom the world delights to honor, think of the
people who are most tenderly remembered by yourself
and by your friends. Are they those who have made
it the greatest merit that they are Christians of "good
form," are they those who have scolded us and judged
us harshly and rebuked us, or are they the ones who, like
their Divine Master, have forgotten our weaknesses
and mistakes, covering all of our deficiencies with a man
tle of large-hearted forbearance and affection, saying as
Jesus said to the woman whom the professional reli
gionists would stone, " Neither do I condemn thee, " and
thereby heartening us to go through our defeats to cer
tain victory?
The Gospels would seem to stake the whole cause of
Christianity upon as simple a proposition as this, to love
men in charitable deeds and service is to truly live
religiously. Christ seemed ready to forgive anything
for the sake of love. As long as he discovered true sorrow
or repentance for sin he was ready to extend his hands of
help. He was the matchless lover of men; "seventy times
seven times" was his answer to Peter who asked how often
should we forgive those who sin against us. Jesus never
seemed to despair of any individual, no matter how low
he may have fallen. He lifted men by believing in

Un tbe HMorft of Xife 27
them; his attitude as defined by himself was that of
"friend"; he tried to establish between men and God
a filial relationship.
" Behold Him now when He comes!
Not the Christ of our subtle creeds,
But the Lord of our hearts, of our homes,
Of our hopes, our prayers, our needs;
The brother of want and blame,
The lover of women and men,
With a love that puts to shame
All passions of mortal ken."
But the practical question arises, how can I get such
assurances of God's love? How can I obtain the con
sciousness of his co-operation in my daily life? How can
I be a Christian?
First. — There is the process of turning away from the
thing that is "sin" to me, abandoning the wrong
attitude and following a new and better desire. This is
spoken of in the New Testament as "repentance" or as
being "born from above. " It is a new beginning in the
spirit of obedience to the wishes of God. It is the prodi
gal coming to himself in the far country and starting out
to go to his father's house. It is a state of mind and
heart in which a man will forsake his sin and begin to
want God and to listen to His "good tidings." It is
both a change of feeling and a change of will, a new state
of mind and a new action to match it. Its basis is a
recognition that we are wrong, that God is a loving Father
and wants to help us get right. It is both a desire and a
petition. It is also an action. In fact, the chief part
of it is action, and a drastic one. The requirement is
usually the giving up of the thing or things which Paul
speaks of as the "besetting sin," and this is always

28 Bible Stubs

difficult enough to require something of a revolution in
character. To the rich young man Jesus said that the
condition of entering the Kingdom of God was selling all
that he had and giving to the poor, and "come,
follow me." This was doubtless an exceptional re
quirement, but the principle is a correct one and it is
inherent in any change which a man makes toward God.
Whatever stands between you and your highest personal
attainment, precious to you, to use Christ's figure, as
your right hand, your right eye, or father, mother,
children, or wife; if this stands between you and your
God it must go. This does not suggest any lack of ten
derness or regard for you on God's part ; it is simply in
line with every law that is known, the law that says,
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Jesus
emphasized the fact "if any man is willing to do my
will, he shall know." Henry Drummond has well ex
pressed this first stage of knowing the love of God.
"A heart not quite subdued to God is an imperfect
element in which His will can never live ; and the intellect
which belongs to such a heart is an imperfect instrument
and cannot find God's will unerringly, for God's will is
found in regions which obedience only can explore."
And furthermore, the moment this willingness is
followed by the act, a new relationship to God is dis
covered, and one finds that, as Jesus said, '"My yoke is
easy and my burden is light. " When the lost son
turned his back upon his disobedience and the husks of
the far-away country, the father's home and welcome
became far more attractive to him than the things he
abandoned. When we repent our besetting sin loses its
charm, and we wonder at its former hold upon us.
Second. — The next step is also important, the apply
ing of this newly-found will of God to our individual
careers. Christianity is not a cloud-like affair floating

ITn tbe Mori? of Xife 29

away in some unattached emotion ; it is a vital principle
with direct relation to our personal careers. The prodi
gal had something more to do than to return home and be
received by his father. He needed to incorporate this
new desire step by step in his forthcoming new environ
ment. Now that I am willing to give up the thing that
was keeping me back, what is God's particular message
in my particular place in life? What is the private part
of God's will which has to do with my individual vocation
and is different from His will for any other individual?
It is the question, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? "
For example, I am a business man and I want to suc
ceed as a business man. I must succeed, success is right
for me, but how? Can I take God with me to-day in
everything I do and think? Is my attitude towards my
nearest friends in the home pleasing to Him? Then in
my office, am I in my inmost heart doing right? Would
Christ make the decisions concerning my employees or
concerning my fellow-workers that I am making to-day?
Can I take him into my pleasures, into my secret ambi
tions? Has religion actually changed me? Have I
placed in the room of my surrendered weakness some
larger and finer aim?
Not that we are always to expect easy victories, not
that we are to anticipate becoming angels of light in
our relationships to our home or our business. The
course of a human Ufe like that of a sailing ship, is a
zigzag, with many tacks, but in the main a progress
toward the home port, which is God. Repentance is not
an act to be experienced once and for all. It is to be
repeated again and again, as long and as often as there is
discovered evil to be renounced. The Kingdom of
God is always at hand to the soul who is always ready to
confess his sin and to abandon it.
Third. — If you are willing to assume this attitude

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of mind and act upon it, then it is your business to be
lieve in God and go ahead without a shadow of fear.
Then comes God's part, which in a sense is primary,
though it seems secondary. Human effort is not enough,
although it is indispensable. Remember that the saving
of men from sin and the helping of them in their work to
their largest success is the dearest desire of God's heart.
God the Father's fundamental characteristic is that of
love and the Saviourhood of his children, whom He
delights to help. Remember that it is His joy to do men
good, that He is watching for us to come home, as in the
wonderful parable of the Prodigal Son that reveals vividly
the heart and core of Christianity. "Let the wicked
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,
and let him return unto Jehovah, and he will have mercy
upon him ; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."
By actively accepting God's love you have placed the
little water-wheel of your life-work in the divine current
that flows by your door, and you have harnessed thereby
the forces of Heaven to help you in running your career.
You have wired your house to the great dynamo and you
are bound to get the Light. You have begun to five in
the eternal order and the eternal order never dies, nor
does it change nor is it frustrated. You simply cannot
fail, for God is working with you ; you are working with
His power as well as with your own, and you have
behind you limitless reserves. You may have breaks
and failures with your machinery at times; you will
require frequent readjustment of your plans with those
of God, but you are attached to Him with the in
evitable union of harmonious ideals and wishes. Your
cause is now God's cause. Everything zvill work to
gether for good, everything must so work. Obstacles
will be things, as Napoleon said, to be overcome, and you
will never say die, because the God of power, of love, and

Un tbe imorfe of Xife 31
of forgiveness is your God forever and ever. The very
adventure and uncertainty of the future will draw you
to Him in greater daily trust and dependence. You have
found what Christianity really is ; you have taken refuge
with your life and your work in the friendly circle of
the divine co-operation. You know what the Psalmist
meant when he said,
" For this God is our God forever and ever;
He will be our guide even unto death."
This is Christianity.

QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION
What is your religion? What concrete benefits do you
derive from it? What should a man's religion do for
him? Psalm 46:1-3; Psalm 27; Romans 8:28; II Cor.
1:4; Phil.4:i3; I Peter 5:7; Phil. 4:19; Matt.
11:2-6.
How can a man discover the love of God for himself?
I John 4:7-8. Read Luke 15.
Henry Drummond spoke of "that little word, sin, " as
a term which had wandered out of theology into every
day life and become the most real thing we know. How
would you define sin? In what way does your religion
assist you in relation to sin?
Contrast the almost universal and simple manner in
which Jesus spoke of God and to God, using the strong,
homely word "Father," with the strained, servile, and
ceremonial expressions that we frequently use in our
formal prayers in addressing God.
Contrast also with the Mohammedan's ninety-nine

32 Bible Stubs in tbe TOorfc of Xife
names which he has given to Allah, as if a far-away
potentate needed such specious adulation.
Matthew i i : 25 ; John i i : 41 ; Luke 23 : 34-46;
Matthew 26:39-42; Matthew 6:9.
A young man coming out of a large city church was
overheard to say to his companion, "What was it all
about?" Could you in a few words explain clearly to a man who
had never heard of it, just what Christianity is? Try to
formulate in your own mind a definition of Christianity,
what it has meant to you as an individual, what it means
to you to-day, what you would like to have it mean if
you were not a Christian.
If God is love, why does He allow worry and disaster?
James 1:2-4.
What are the most feasible and practical ways for the
making real of Jesus' conception of Christianity in
modern life?
Read I Cor. 13; I John 4; Isaiah 55.
Why does the Catholic Church maintain such a firm
hold upon the working people?
Throughout the churches and cathedrals of Europe
one looks in vain for evidence of class distinction. No
hired pews — no discriminating ushers — all, rich and poor
alike, have equal access to the altars and to the confes
sional, the prince and the pauper kneeling side by side.
Would you say that this democracy was one of the chief
sources of strength of the Catholic Church — because it is
according to God's laws?
James 2:2-5; Romans 10:12-14; Romans 2:11.

Ill
Choosing and Conducting a Life Work

33

Ill
CHOOSING AND CONDUCTING A LIFE-WORK
But seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:33.
Then came the word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah saying,
Behold I am Jehovah, the God of all flesh; is there
anything too hard for me? Jer. 32:26-27.
And he that sent me is with me; he hath not left me
alone; for I do always the things that are pleasing to him.
John 8 : 29.
For to one is given through the Spirit the word of
wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge, according
to the same Spirit; to another faith, in the same Spirit;
and to another gifts of healings, in the one Spirit; and to
another working of miracles; and to another prophecy;
and to another discernings of spirits; to another divers
kinds of tongues; and to another the interpretation of
tongues; but all these worketh the one and the same
Spirit, dividing to each one severally even as he will.
I Cor. 12:8-11.
And for their sakes I sanctify myself. John 17:19.
With God all things are possible.
Matt. 19:26.
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WITNESS OF MEN
I respect the man who knows distinctly what he wishes.
The greater part of all the mischief in the world arises
from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand
their own aims. They have undertaken to build a tower
and spend no more labor on the foundation than would
be necessary to erect a hut.
Goethe.
I will not dishonor my sacred shield ; I will not abandon
mv fellow-soldiers in the ranks. I will do battle for our
altars and our homes, whether aided or unaided; I will
leave our country not less but greater and nobler than
she is now entrusted to me.
The Old Athenian Oath.
The bigger the work, the greater the joy in doing it.
That whole-hearted striving and wrestling with difficul
ties, the laying hold with firm grip and level head in
calm resolution of the monster and tugging and toiling
and wrestling at it, to-day, to-morrow, and the next day,
until it is done — it is the soldier's creed of forward, ever
forward; it is the man's creed that for this task he has
been born. Stanley.
No undertaking has ever succeeded greatly that has
had a merely sensual or selfish aim.
Emerson.
Benjamin Disraeli was hissed down at his first speech
in the House of Commons. As he took his seat he was
heard to say, "You will not hear me now, but there will
come a time when you zvill hear me. "
The only conclusive evidence of a man's sincerity is

In tbe Mori? of Xife 37
that he gives himself for a principle. Words, money and
time may be given away, but when a man gives himself,
it is certain that the principle has taken possession of him.
James Russell Lowell.
Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt. Shakespeare.

CHOOSING AND CONDUCTING A LIFE-RULE
The high distinction of the earthly career of Jesus lay
in his unshakable conviction and certainty concerning
his life-work. This matchless sense of mission and mes
sage was never absent from his thought and impressed
all who knew him. He lost no time nor progress in
saying "I hope"— "I think"— "I wish I knew"— he
always said by word and by deed "I know." "I have
a baptism to be baptized with ; and how am I straitened
till it be accomplished ! "
The enormity of his task, which involved a revolution
in both the spirit and method of religion of his time, the
replacing of literalism with love, begot within him an
unprecedented audacity; it saved him from indolence
and pettiness ; it also eHminated all fear, doubt, timidity,
and half measures, the arch foes of success. His vision
was the proof of his power to attain it because he relied
upon superhuman co-operation. His task was big
enough and hard enougn to test his faith in Omnipotence.
No one could accomplish such things alone; it required
God. With such an aim Jesus threw himself with ut
ter abandonment upon the unbreakable promises of his
Father, who was with him.

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Every man has a choice between a mediocre and a
superior career, between an easy and a hard road in
his particular vocation. For a man who trusts merely
in himself, the mediocre and the easy way may be
safest. The man whose life is laid daringly along the
will of God has no business with any effort which is
not capable of supreme results. Such a man will not
secure his goal at once or without many seeming defeats,
but he will never lose his vision; he will realize that God
has time to accomplish through His men His work. He
will never become satisfied with the ordinary, he will be,
in his particular environment, a man to be watched be
cause of his irresistible ambition to make the most of his
life. There are three essential advantages in selecting and
conducting one's life-work in co-operation with the will of
God. First. — A large undertaking impresses the community
in which a man lives and works by its very audacity and
proportion. This is important because no influence can
be far reaching which is not sufficiently vital to startle
into attention the people who are or should be concerned.
From one end of Palestine to the other the population
was stirred with this new Gospel attended by the healing
of the sick, by natural friendships on the part of the
teacher with humble folk, so different from their idea of
Rabbinic religion, and by the new spiritual interpretation
placed upon many of the formal ritualistic ceremonies
of the Sanhedrim
A certain business man said that, he failed because his
business was not upon a large enough scale to succeed;
it involved only the expenditure of half a million
dollars. If he had obtained a vision ten times as great
he could have attracted the attention of the great fin
anciers of the country.

Un tbe TKHorfe of Xife 39
A bank president refused a loan to a young business man,
not because the young man did not have a good business,
but because he did not possess the outreaching audacity
to make the business what it should be, by asking for a
very much larger loan. It was the spirit, the courage,
and the faith of the man to which the bank president
looked, rather than to the security of the present business.
A few years ago some students from a prominent
university attended a large conference of college men
at which they learned of the remarkable campaigns for
Bible study in American institutions, and caught the
vision of hundreds of their own fellow-students studying
the Bible. Quietly but determinedly they came together
and decided to return to their institution to reach five
hundred students for Bible study during the succeeding
college year. It seemed an impossible ideal, since only
a handful of students had been studying heretofore and
that in a somewhat half-hearted way ; the movement had
not been popular. This large endeavor, together with
the plans made to reach the attention of every collegian,
not only drew closely together the little band of workers,
but attracted the notice of the whole University and a
large committee of students began vigorously canvassing
the student body. Men came around "to see the thing
fail, " as they said.
The little band of students at the heart of the campaign,
like the disciples of the Master, were lifted out of the
mediocre by their strenuous task. They were simply
obliged to work as well as to pray, for the undertaking
was far beyond their capabilities. In two years eleven
hundred men were enrolled in the student Bible classes,
and the man who was the leader of the work was led to
devote his life to Bible study leadership in another nation.
Success lay in a large-visioned attempt. It is easier to
do a big thing than a small thing.

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Second. — A large plan saves the individual from falling
by the very burden of responsibility which it places
upon him ; it saves him from littleness by its call upon his
largest resources. Paul expressed the fear that always
lurks about an impassioned, strong man, lest having
preached to others he might himself be rejected. The
man who thinks he standeth, as James said, must con
stantly take heed lest he fall, and one of the most certain
methods of security is the acceptance of high and taxing
obligations. One of the busiest physicians whom I know
said that his mind was so utterly occupied during every
waking moment at his work, that certain temptations
which formerly gave him much trouble, had no place in
his thought.
It was in the winter time when three men were seen to
drive up to a residence with a load of trunks. One of
the men upon the sleigh was exceedingly stout. Some
spectators were amused to see him try to walk across a
slippery sidewalk which led to the entrance of the house
to examine the number. After twice falling down he
finally reached the sleigh again, when to the consterna
tion of the onlookers, the largest trunk was placed upon
this stout man's back and he was sent quite alone to
ascend this icy sidewalk. It was decided beforehand, by
those who watched him, that he would slip and the trunk
would overpower him; but not so, he walked up the icy
incline, climbed the slippery steps, and passed into the
house without slipping once. Why? He had something
big enough on him to hold him down.
No man, whatever his calling, has a right to play with
a life-work that is not filled with elements big enough to
keep him steady upon his feet. The most obscure
vocation may be magnified and dignified into a mission.
The famous hammer maker of Scotland said, "My
calling is an obscure one, it is only making hammers,

ITn tbe Morft of Xife 41
but I am determined that everyone in Scotland shall
learn to come to me for hammers because mine are the
best which can be made. "
Third. — Furthermore, a life-work of large and im
portant scale tests God. Many a man has never known
what it means really to believe in God, simply because his
dilemma has never been sufficiently great to drive him to
Omnipotent sources. He has not been engaged in a task
which was mighty enough to require divine help.
Phillips Brooks once said, "Pray for power to fit your
tasks, not for tasks to fit your power." We cannot
expect the Almighty to lavish powers and abilities upon
us if we do not have in mind definite and profitable ways
to utilize them.
Do you think that God ever helps men to do things
that they have not first conceived in ambitious brains?
God is looking for men in the everyday walks of life
to carry out His purposes. When He finds such men, full
of ambitious daring and willingness to trust, because
they are conscious that their undertakings are in fine
with the divine will, all of the forces and laws of Heaven
are made to serve them.

QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION
When is a man defeated? Romans 8 : 35-39; I Cor. io: 13.
What were the underlying principles in Jesus' career?
Is it possible and sensible to adopt in modern business
life such principles as the Golden Rule, the Sermon on
the Mount, and Jesus' teaching regarding the non-resis
tance of evil?
Isaiah 61:1; Matthew 5:1-16; Matthew 5:38-48;
Matthew 18:21-22.

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Christ said to his disciples, "Greater works than these
shall ye do ; because I go unto the Father. ' ' Exactly what
does this mean in my own life-work? Does it give me the
right to believe in limitless possibilities in my vocation?
If so under what conditions?
Is a great life-work necessarily great in the public eye?
Luke 22:24-30; Luke 16:10-12.
What do the Scriptures teach regarding the influence
of obstacles as a factor in success?
Lockhart in his life of Scott shows how the author's
life was divided into two parts. The first part was one
of prosperity: a Scottish seigneur, a well-filled table,
prominent persons all about him, a place and position
in an ambitious, material world — this section of his life
was interesting, but, he confesses, commonplace. Then a
crash and disaster came; sorrow and loss turned the
current of his life. We behold for the first time an
enlarging, an indomitable soul in the making, settling
down with splendid courage to an almost intolerable
task, writing off his load of debt, bearing his bereavement
with an august courage, amidst poor health and every
kind of obstacle, taking his pen when he might under
normal conditions have laid it down, and fighting with it
an heroic battle for victory and for honor.
A. C. Benson referring to this tragic circumstance
speaks of it as something sent by God, "to give a great
man the opportunity to five in a way that could furnish
an eternal and imperishable example. "
Psalm 23; James 1:12; Matthew 5:10-11.
What are the determining principles upon which a man
should choose his life-work ? Advice of friends ? Natural
inclination? Environment? Opportunity for service?
Wealth? Ambition? Proverbs 4:14-18; Matthew 16:21-28.
Emerson said, " Do your thing and I shall know you."

Un tbe moth of Xife 43
Do you believe that every individual has a particular
mission and work quite distinct from every other human
being? What is the influence of such conviction upon
feelings of envy towards other successful men?
What is the secret of keeping up courage, no matter
what happens?
Deut. 31:6-8; Romans 8:31; Johns:I7;I Cor. 10:13.
Read ninety-first Psalm.

IV
The Place and Use of Money

45

IV
THE PLACE AND USE OF MONEY
What is a man profited if he gain the whole world
and lose or forfeit his own self? Luke 9: 25.
Give me neither poverty nor riches;
Feed me with the food that is needful for me:
Lest I be full and deny thee, and say, who is Jehovah?
Or lest I be poor and steal,
And use profanely the name of my God.
Proverbs 30:8-9.
But thou shalt remember Jehovah thy God, for it is
he that giveth thee power to get wealth. Deut. 8:18.
And Jesus looked round about and saith unto his dis
ciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into
the Kingdom of God. Mark 10:23.
As the partridge that sitteth on eggs which she hath
not laid, so is he that getteth riches, and not by right;
in the midst of his days they shall leave him, and at his
end he shall be a fool. Jer. 17: 11.
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches,
and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art
the wretched and miserable and poor and blind and
naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold refined by fire that
thou mayest become rich ; and white garments that thou
mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy naked-
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ness be not made manifest; and an eye salve to anoint
thine eyes that thou mayest see. Rev. 3: 17-18.
He becometh poor that worketh with a slack hand ;
But the hand of the diligent maketh rich. Prov. 10:4.
Be ye free from the love of money ; content with such
things as ye have: for himself hath said, I will in no wise
fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee. Heb. 13:5.
Weary not thyself to be rich;
For riches certainly make themselves wings,
Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven. Prov. 23:4-5.
No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate
the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the
one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and
mammon. Matt. 6:24.
And he said unto them, Take heed, and keep yourselves
from all covetousness : for a man's life consisteth not in
the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he
spake a parable unto them saying, The ground of a certain
rich man brought forth plentifully: and he reasoned
within himself saying, What shall I do because I have not
where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do:
I will pull down my barns and build greater; and there
will I bestow all my grain and my goods. And I will say to
my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many
years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But
God said unto him, Thou foolish one, this night is thy
soul required of thee; and the things which thou hast
prepared, whose shall they be? So is he that layeth up
treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
Luke 12:15-21.

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 49
Charge them that are rich in this present world that
they be not high-minded, nor have their hope set on
the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who giveth us
richly all things to enjoy ; that they do good, that they be
rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute,
ready to sympathize ; laying up in store for themselves a
good foundation against the time to come, that they irnay
lay hold on the life which is life indeed. I Tim. 6:17-19.
And he that was sown among the thorns, this is he that
heareth the word; and the care of the world and the
deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh
unfruitful. Matt. 13:22.
For we brought nothing into the world, neither can
we carry anything out; but having food and covering we
shall be therewith content.
But they that are minded to be rich fall into a tempta
tion and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such
as drown men in destruction and perdition.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil :
which some reaching after have been led astray from the
faith, and have pierced themselves through with many
sorrows. I Tim. 6:7-11.
Shall a man make unto himself gods, which yet are
no gods? Jer. 16:20.
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WITNESS OF MEN
It is probably much more happiness to live in a small
house and have Warwick Castle to look at, than to live
in Warwick Castle and have nothing to be astonished at.
Ruskin.
Among all the idolatries of the Israelites, the worship
of the golden calf was one of the most contemptible.
Lord Avebury.
I cannot call riches better than the baggage of virtue;
the Roman word is better, "impedimenta," for, as the
baggage is to an army so is riches to virtue ; it cannot be
spared nor left behind, but it hindereth the march ; yea,
and the care of it sometimes loseth or disturbeth the vic
tory; of great riches there is no real use, except it be in
the distribution; the rest is but conceit. Bacon.
Amphion remarked in the market of Athens, "How
many things there are in the world that I do not want!"
A man's true wealth is the good he does in this world.
When he dies men will ask, "What property has he left
behind him?" But angels will inquire, "What good
deeds hast thou sent before thee?" Arabic Proverb.
Money for my little piece of work — to the extent that
it will allow me to keep working: Yes, this — unless you
mean that I shall go my ways before the work is all taken
out of me ; but as to wages  Carlyle.
Thus quoth Alfred:
Without wisdom is weal full worthless;
For though a man had seventy acres,
And had sown them all with red gold,

Un tbe Timor ft of Xife 51
And the gold grew, as grass does on the earth,
Yet were his weal naught the further,
Except he of the stranger maketh a friend.
For what is gold but stone unless a wise man have it?
Tennyson.
I desire money because I think I know the use of it.
It commands labor, it gives leisure; and to give leisure
to those who will employ it in the forwarding of truth is
the holiest present an individual can make to the whole.
Shelley.
Sir, if any other comes that hath better iron than you,
he will be master of all this gold.
Solon's Answer to Crcesus.
Around this temple let the merchant's law be just, his
weights true, and his covenants faithful (the inscription
on the Church St. Giacomo de Rialto at Venice).
The spirit of Jesus certainly has nothing but con
demnation for that great wave of money love which has
swept over Christendom in our time, affecting all classes
of people. It has fostered self-indulgence, brightened
the charm of luxury, added to the zest of fashion, re
inforced the impulse to gambling, stimulated depraved
appetites, corrupted business and politics, brought in
new varieties of crime, oppressed the poor, deepened the
bondage of excessive labor, increased the alienation of
social classes, materialized the popular ideals, weakened
religious influences, and made heavenly things seem far
away. From this craze of the love of money the voice
of Jesus calls the people back to sane life in ethics and
religion in which he is leader. Clarke in The Ideal of Jesus.

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THE PLACE AND USE OF MONEY
It is a great mistake to consider Jesus' teaching as a
mild form of socialism or communism. He constantly
associated with the rich people of his time and he laid
particular stress upon the necessity of every individual's
utilizing his every talent in being diligent and industrious.
In the parable of the talents he justifies the increase of
wealth, rebukes laziness, and commends the wise, practi
cal use of time and money.
At the same time he was a friend to the poor and his
ministry is written largely in the atmosphere of humble
folk, quoting the words of the Prophet, "He hath an
ointed me to preach glad tidings unto the poor. " The Gos
pel of Luke is sometimes called the Gospel of the poor,
and it is full of cheer and comfort for their encourage
ment, often mingled with warnings to the rich. Never
theless the teachings of Jesus were not aimed at riches,
but at individuals. He did not commend or condemn
money as possessing a moral quality; he considered it
only in its effect upon individual success. When he said,
"It is hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of
Heaven, " he was counselling, not so much against wealth,
as against the temper and attitude of mind which wealth
encourages. By his teaching and his life he emphasized the fact
that there were greater things to live for than money, and
he divined the truth that the man who set his heart on
wealth had constructed for himself an almost insur
mountable barrier between himself and the Kingdom of
Heaven, whose chief satisfactions are not in terms of
things, but in terms of spirit. To the foolish rich man
who settles down in the satisfaction of having enough for
many years, and counts only upon enjoying it in self-indul
gence, he says, "Thou foolish one, this night is thy soul

Un tbe Morfc of Xife 53
required of thee" — now, where are his riches? They go
to another. They are valueless before that summons the
time of whose coming no man knoweth. The trouble is,
said Jesus, that such men have been laying up treasure
just for themselves and are not rich toward God. Wealth
has no clarion voice, no call to social responsibilities, no
real meaning. The Master thus turns upon selfish
wealth and indifference to humanity and the thoughtless
self-indulgent rich of all ages and times the light of his
clear perspective, saying, "Your whole attitude of mind
is wrong and your failure is as sure as death." He
throws upon the subject the lurid light of consequences.
That is his meaning in the parable of Dives and Lazarus;
the consequences that surely flow from selfish luxury and
self-centered striving are the things that are not meat, the
things that do not satisfy the soul.
Jesus never says that wealth is wrong, intrinsically
wrong, but he raises the danger signal, saying, in brief,
that the effort after money and great possessions in
evitably lays in a man's path a terrific opportunity to
grow careless of his brother's need; it furnishes an arch
temptation to put second things first in the general con
duct of a career. The fixing of the attention upon
money, he teaches, produces an ambition centered upon
things that are impermanent, and when these things have
captured a man's life they determine the trend of that
life and the spirit of all his endeavor. As he showed by
his conversation with the rich young ruler, to give up the
worship of mere possessions means something more than
turning over money to the poor, it means the giving up
or the changing of the central, regulating temper and
disposition of the individual. This surrender or this
change makes the man who is the servant of Mammon the
servant of God, and money then falls into natural rela
tionship with the larger outlook. Without equivocation

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the Master teaches in the gospels that it is impossible
to hold these two ideals of God and money in equal
balance. One or the other must rule the life. Inso
much as life is more than meat and the body more than
raiment he would say to the man of modern affairs,
"Seek ye first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you. "
The teachings of the Bible, therefore, are plainly to
ward the right use of wealth, the right attitude toward
money, rather than toward any sweeping abolition of it.
He praised highly the widow who cast into the treasury
to the point of self-sacrifice, and he also had no rebuke
for that generous, extravagant act of the woman at
Bethany who broke over his feet a costly box of ointment
in the impulsive exuberance of devoted love. As he
prophesied, this act, the only one we know concerning
her, has immortalized her. "A beautiful generosity
that counted nothing too fine to be used for the heart's
satisfaction." Better too much generosity than too
much careful calculation of loving giving — better give
too much than niggardly to withhold when the heart
speaks. He would teach that the giving of self and
money opens the heart, that hoarding or selfish use of
wealth shut up the heart, and, out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth speaketh.
At bottom the Scriptural question is, "What is money
for?" Does it keep you from the great purpose of help
ing to build up on earth the brotherly Kingdom of God?
If so, it is a millstone to drag you down from your possible
high ideals. Happiness, success, character, earthly and
eternal blessedness hinge upon a right will, a will
right toward God, right toward self, and right toward
humanity. The enemy of that "right will," that
"fixed design toward righteousness," whether it is
money, pleasure, ambition, laziness, or lust — that

Un tbe imorh of Xife 55
enemy is man's deadliest foe ; man's only chance is in its
annihilation. " And if thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck
it out and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee
that one of thy members should perish, and not thy
whole body be cast into hell" (Matt. 5:29).
And the hell referred to is not to come in another
world — it is right here — the hell of being enslaved by an
ideal that is lower than the highest — the loss in life and
career of the really great satisfactions.
The Bible enjoins "lay not up for yourselves treasures
upon earth. " But, says one, how practical is all this?
I live in a period of high cost of living, a period of material
necessities that men did not know in Jesus' time, when
Eastern customs of dress and housing and eating made
economic conditions simple. I must think of money, and
think of it hard and constantly. I have a family to
support, children to educate, a respectable position in
the community to maintain — then I need books and
opportunity to travel, and friends and a place to recreate
in the summer — my inevitable desires grow with my
income — my responsibilities give me no choice but to
work for money.
Against the legitimacy of all this reasonable effort to
fulfill one's duty towards oneself and those dependent
upon him, Christ uttered no forbidding word, and none
but the individual can decide just when the sufficiency of
toil for bread should make way for time and opportunity
to feed the spiritual life, for such arrangement of life's
daily duties as to give opportunity to see life steadily and
to see it whole, to get one's work in the right perspective.
But the task for which earth and heaven hold every
man in sublime responsibility, is to make sure that,
through all of his getting and spending, there runs the
increasing purpose of God. In the last and in all true

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analysis, the life is more than the meat and the body
than the raiment. Let a man spend a half hour each
day thinking, "Am I converting wealth into a friend of
my higher resources?" Let him take the Bible passages
of this study and lay them alongside of his personal life
plans. Let him not trick himself into ease of conscience
by the specious excuse of immediate necessity, or by the
popular proverb, "A man must live."
"A man must live. We justify
Low shift and trick to treason high,
A little vote for a little gold,
To a little senate bought and sold,
By this self-evident reply.
A man must live. Pray tell me why
Life at such cost you have to buy?
In what religion were you told
A man must live?
There is a time when a man must die —
Imagine for a battle-cry
For soldiers with the flag unrolled,
For soldiers with a sword to hold,
This coward's whine, this liar's lie,
A man must live!"

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 57
QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION
Solomon is said to be the richest man that lived.
What was his estimate of money?
Proverbs 30: 8-9; 23:4; 22: 16; 23: 5; 11:28; Eccl.
5: 10-20; Proverbs 22:1.
Do you think that Jesus could have succeeded better
if he had been rich ?
What did he teach was the real danger in regard to
money? Mark 10:23-26; Matt. 13:22; 19: 21-25; I Tim.
6:9-10; James 2: 1-7; 5: 1-7.
Are philanthropy and charity plainly taught in the
Bible? I Tim. 6:17-19; Matt. 19:21; I John 3:17; II
Cor. 9:7; Prov. 14:21, 31.
Is the parable of the Good Samaritan appropriate in
view of modern philanthropy? Luke 10: 33.
What was the teaching of the Old Testament concern
ing the oppression of the poor by the rich?
II Samuel 12:1-6; Prov. 22:16-17; Ezekiel 22:
29-31 ; Prov. 22: 22-23; Psalm 62: 10.
Do you think that organized charities in our large
cities are in line with the teaching of the Bible?
Is promiscuous charity commendable?
Is there any truth in the feeling sometimes experienced
that organized charity takes away the real value derived
from personal giving to a personal object?
What did Paul teach concerning private ownership of
wealth? I Tim. 6: 18.
Do you think that a man can atone for "tainted
money" by giving it to charity?

58 Bible Stubs in tbe Morfc of Xife
Is tithe-giving taught in the Bible as necessary?
Is it incumbent on Christians to-day?
Deut. 14: 22-29; Matt. 23 : 23 {cf. I Cor. 16: 2).
Can you find in the spirit or the letter of Jesus' teach
ing any commands that would lead one to believe it was
not right to own property?
Can you find teachings that would suggest the duty
as well as the privilege of owning property?
What was the New Testament idea of stewardship?
Luke 16: 1-14; Luke 12: 42-48; I Tim. 6: 17-19.
Dr. Theodore Vetter, rector of the University of
Zurich, told me that the very wealthy men of Switzer
land were not as a rule influential. In fact that becoming
a millionaire was not a common ideal among the Swiss;
that the man who was simply rich and did not take a
patriotic or an unselfish interest in the welfare of society
was little respected.
Do you think that the tendency in America of judging
men by the money they possess is increasing or decreas
ing? Read Luke 16; Proverbs 8: 13-22; Ecclesiastes 5;
Psalm 112; Matthew 6: 19-33.

V
Education in Religion

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V
EDUCATION IN RELIGION
The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. Job 28:28.
For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things
that may be desired are not to be compared unto it.
Proverbs 8: ii.
And he said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind. Matt. 22 : 37.
He giveth wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to
them that have understanding. Daniel 2:21.
In that night did God appear unto Solomon, and said
unto him, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon
said unto God, Thou hast showed great loving-kindness
unto David my father and hast made me king in his
stead. Now, 0 Jehovah God, let thy promise unto
David my father be established; for thou hast made me
king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude.
Give me now wisdom and knowledge that I may go out
and come in before this people; for who can judge this
thy people that is so great? And God said to Solomon,
Because this was in thy heart and thou hast not asked
riches, wealth or honor, nor the life of them that hate
thee, neither yet hast asked long life; but hast asked
wisdom and knowledge for thyself that thou mayest
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judge my people over whom I have made thee king:
Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee; and I will
give thee riches, and wealth and honor, such as none of
the kings have had that have been before thee; neither
shall there any after thee have the like.
II Chronicles i : 7-12.
But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God,
who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it
shall be given him. James i : 5.
Through wisdom is a house builded;
And by understanding it is established;
And by knowledge are the chambers filled
With all precious and pleasant riches.
A wise man is strong,
Yea, a man of knowledge increaseth might.
Proverbs 24 : 3-5.
How much better is it to get wisdom than gold.
Yea, to get understanding is rather to be chosen than
silver. Proverbs 16: 16.
Thus saith Jehovah, Let not the wise man glory in his
wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might,
let not the rich man glory in his riches : but let him that
glorieth glory in this, that he hath understanding, and
knoweth me, that I am Jehovah who exerciseth loving-
kindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth: for in
these things I delight, saith Jehovah. Jeremiah 9 : 23-24.

Un tbe Worh of Xife 63
WITNESS OF MEN
What is true knowledge? Is it with keen eye
Of lucre's sons to thread the mazy way?
Is it of civil rights, and royal sway,
And wealth political, the depth to try?
Is it to delve the earth, to soar the sky?
To marshal nations, tribes in just array;
To mix and analyze, and mete, and weigh
Her elements, and all her powers descry?
These things, who will may know them, if to know
Breed not vain glory ; but, o'er all, to scan
God in his works and word shown forth below,
Creation's wonders and Redemption's plan;
Whence came we, what to do, and whither go;
This is true knowledge, and the whole of man.
Bishop Mant.
The real use of all knowledge is this, that it should
dedicate that reason which was given us by God for the
purpose and advantage of man. Bacon.
The world is founded on thoughts and ideas, not on
cotton and iron. Emerson.
If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can
take it away from him. An investment in knowledge
always pays the best. Franklin.
Let knowledge grow from more to more,
But more of reverence in us dwell;
That mind and soul according well,
May make one music as before, but vaster.
In Memoriam.
Is it not time that we stop asking indulgence for learning
and proclaim its sovereignty? Is it not time that we re
mind the college men of this country that they have no right

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to any distinctive place in any community unless they can
show it by intellectual achievement ? That if a university
is a place for distinction at all, it must be distinguished
by conquest of mind. Woodrow Wilson.
"Nothing after health and virtue," says Goethe, "can
give as much satisfaction as learning and knowing. "
The value of all true education is in giving a man the
ability to do the thing he ought to do when it ought
to be done, regardless of whether he feels like doing
it or not. Huxley.
It is our endeavor to create a high potential of mental
possibility rather than actual attainment.
Pres. John D. Hibben of Princeton.
Because you do profess to teach, and teach us nothing.
Feeding not the heart.
Tennyson's indictment of English Schoolmasters.
My purse is empty: it can be filled again; the Jew
Rothschild could fill it ; or I can five with it very, very
far from full. But, Gracious Heavens! What is to be
done with my empty head?
Carlyle, Letter to Henry Inglis.
Education ought to banish dullness, which is one of
the great dangers of life. Lord Avebury.
Up! 'Tis no dreaming-time. Awake! Awake!
For He who sits on the high Judge's seat,
Doth in His record mark each wasted hour,
Each idle word. Take heed thy shrinking soul
Find not their weight too heavy, when it stands
At that dread bar from whence is no appeal.
Lo, while ye trifle, the light sand steals on,
Leaving the hour-glass empty, and thy life
Glideth away; — stamp wisdom on its hours.
Mrs. Sigourney.

An tbe Mori; of Xife 65
EDUCATION IN RELIGION
Education, according to the Bible has three purposes:
First. For Knowledge.
The acquaintance with facts, information.
Second. For Wisdom.
The understanding of the relationships of knowledge.
Third. For Conduct.
The application of knowledge to life through experi
ence.
Education for Knowledge. — In the Old Testament
we read: For Jehovah is a God of knowledge
And by knowledge are the chambers filled,
and Jesus says:
"Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make
you free. "
Knowledge is the scientific basis upon which we build
our opinion and our conduct; it is the working material
of life in general. Knowledge is always associated with
power as ignorance is synonymous with weakness.
"Knowledge increaseth might, " saj's Solomon. Knowl
edge, to the ancient Greeks and Romans, was identified
with virtue, courage — "virtus" — and, not only in the
philosophy of the Greeks, but in Hindu religions, knowl
edge, perfect knowledge, is the final goal of perfection.
While it is true that a little knowledge is a dangerous
thing, and certain of the worst criminals and enemies of
society have been talented men, the general rule that
connects ignorance with crime and sin holds historically,
as in practical, modern fife.
Knowledge comes in various ways and is open to all.
Literature, travel, conversation, study, experience, hard
work, are all teachers of knowledge. "lama part of all
that I have seen," says Tennyson. We learn through
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the senses, through the intellect, through the heart, and
through the spirit and the imagination. Other things
being equal, the truly successful man is the man who
knows most about all subjects of knowledge; Taine
defined education as general knowledge. We sometimes
say our educated man is one who knows something about
everything, and everything about something. The
wonder and surprise created by Jesus were in no small way
due to his knowledge. He knew what was in man, we
are told in the Gospel, and needed not that any man
should tell him. "How knoweth this man letters having
never learned!" was the amazed and impressed exclama
tion of the Pharisees, while his enemies in despairful
confusion cried, "Never man so spake."
There is something solid, certain, and convincing about
real knowledge. It gives assurance and dignity, and its
possession is an earnest of all kinds of possibilities.
Failure in business is often epitomized as inadequate
knowledge, false judgment, the mistakes due to ill-
considered or thoughtless action, while the business man
who has gained thorough acquaintance of the field of his
endeavor, who has thought through his own relationship
to that field, is girded with a peculiar strength.
The pursuit and acquirement of knowledge is the
highest ambition of the scientist whose eternal question
is, "What are the facts?" The relationships of knowl
edge form the fundamental ambitions of the philosopher.
The great German metaphysician, Immanuel Kant,
spent the major portion of his life writing his three
"Critiques of Pure Reason," and these views of philo
sophic knowledge have been the chief basis of mod
ern European metaphysics. Three hundred and fifty
thousand youths in the higher institutions of learning in
America are spending four years each, and a total of not
less than half a billion dollars each year in seeking

Un tbe imorfe of Xife 67
knowledge, while in the lower grades four hundred
thousand preparatory and high school boys, and mul
titudes of children in the grammar schools are living
testimonials of the universal consensus of opinion con
cerning the indispensable values of knowledge to equip
for success. The United States spends yearly millions
of dollars upon her schools, and the fundamental question
of all American life, centers at present upon the query,
"What kind of education for our youth?"
Religious Knowledge. — The chief and most import
ant knowledge furthermore is religious knowledge, the
knowledge of God. In his essay on Goethe, Carlyle
refers to "That religious wisdom . . . which in these
hard, unbelieving, utilitarian days reveals to us glimpses
of the unseen but not unreal world that, so, the actual
and the ideal may again meet together, and clear knowl
edge be again wedded to religion in the life and business
of men."
The well-known Church Catechism begins with the
words, "What is the chief end of man?" and the answer
follows, "To know God and to enjoy him forever."
The fear of Jehovah, we are told in the Proverbs, is the
beginning of knowledge.
The immortal literature of the world is religious litera
ture. The Bible which is sold each year a hundred times
more extensively than any other book, the Koran which
is the one book of 223,000,000 of the earth's inhabi
tants, Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained,
the greatest imaginative picture of immortality extant,
Shakespeare's Hamlet, which turns on the eternal destiny
of man, Browning's Saul, Gibbon's Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Dante's
Inferno, Goethe's Faust, the greatest literary masterpiece
upon the conflict between good and evil, and practically
every immortal thing that Emerson or Carlyle or

Bible Stubs

Tennyson or Plato ever wrote — all hang upon the divine
and human relationships, all are the literature of religion.
Where do we look for the world's masterpieces in art
but in the galleries where hang the works of the old
masters, where Titian and Angelo and Rafael and
Rubens and da Vinci have expended their life genius
under the inspiration of religion, depicting the story of
Biblical Christianity? Can we think of any architecture
which surpasses in sublimity, in magnificence, or in
power of impressiveness the cathedrals of St. Peter,
Milan, Cologne, of Notre Dame, of St. Paul or Salisbury?
What wars have been fiercer or have left deeper marks
upon the world's history than religious wars? While he
who would read the biography of statesmanship or
reform will scarcely pass by Mohammed or Luther,
John Knox, Lincoln, Charlemagne, Gladstone, Savon
arola, Livingstone, Tolstoy, or Chinese Gordon, and in
lonely spiritual isolation, Jesus Christ of Nazareth; these
names are all written ineffaceably upon the religious
hearts of men. In a survey of the world's fields of
knowledge, this intangible spirit is all-pervasive and we
may say convincingly with the Psalmist :
"Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there ;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold thou art there.
If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there shall thy hand lead me,
And thy right hand shall hold me."

Un tbe Timorfe of Xife 69
QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION
Taine defined an educated man as one possessed of
general ideas. Does American education produce such
men? Does it equip youth with religious knowledge,
for example? Is it feasible to incorporate books of
religious knowledge in the public schools?
In Isaiah 47:10 we read, "Thy knowledge and thy
wisdom it hath perverted thee, and thou hast said in thy
heart, I am, and there is none else besides me." What
is the result of such knowledge, the knowledge that
"puffethup"? I Cor. 8 : 1-4 ; Isaiah 47 : 1 1 ; Rom. i : 28.
Archimedes said that if he had a lever long enough and
a fixed point to rest it on, he could move the world.
Does education succeed in finding this fixed point for
the business man, the professional man, the teacher?
Do sin and failure come from wrong education,
wrong thinking, as much as from environment ? What
kind of education is necessary to form rightly a man's
thinking? Cowper describes the difference between knowledge
and wisdom in the following verse :
"Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one,
Have ofttimes no connection: knowledge dwells
In heads replete with thoughts of other men;
Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.
Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass,
The mere materials with which wisdom builds,
Till smooth'd and squared, and fitted to its place,
Does but encumber whom it seems t' enrich.
Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much,
Wisdom is humble that he has learned no more."

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Does this agree with the Biblical definition of knowl
edge and wisdom?
Professor Phelps at Yale strongly advocates that every
student entering the University should be examined
in his knowledge of the Bible in order to secure the
equipment of the young man in English literature. Do
you consider the literary value of the Bible an indispens
able adjunct to education?
Mr. Ruskin said to the students at Oxford.
"Read your Bible, making it the first morning business
of your life to understand some portion of it clearly, and
your daily business to obey it in all that you do under
stand. To my early knowledge of the Bible I owe the
best part of my taste in literature, and the most precious
and, on the whole, the most essential part of my
education. II Tim. 3: 14-17.
Considerable discussion in educational circles has been
brought about by the Amherst alumni who have ad
vocated the dropping of the Bachelor of Science degree
at Amherst College and devoting the entire attention to
classical or literary training. Do you think that a college
has its use in America which during its four years' course
gives no attention to the training of a student for a prac
tical vocation? Is a young man justified in spending four
years in securing a general education? Would you say
that the chief value of education is to teach men to think?
I have asked many German educators the question,
"What is the object of education?" The usual answer
is, first, "To fit men for service to the State." This
ideal has not been prominent in American education.
Should it be?
A certain public man has a practice of reading news
papers standing — lest he spend too much time over them.
Whither is American journalism tending? Is the policy

Un tbe Morft of Xife 71
of the average newspaper to print only current "news"
justifiable? Has journalism a mission, or is it merely to
print what the people want?
Certain religious periodicals print no news of disas
ters, scandal, or sensational proceedings. Do you think
it possible for newspapers generally to succeed with
such a policy?
What does the Bible teach concerning the possession of
zeal and enthusiasm without knowledge? Rom. 10:2-3.
Is not true education dependent upon the personality
of the teacher? Tennyson said of Arthur Hallam:
And thou art worthy; full of power;
As gentle; liberal-minded, great,
Consistent; wearing all that weight
Of learning lightly like a flower.
How do you account for the wisdom and insight of
certain humble folk who have never had the advantage of
education in the schools?
Is not self-education dependent upon religious educa
tion?
Rom. 11:33; Matt. 11:25; I Cor. 12:8; John 7: 17;
I John 2 : 20; I Cor. 2 : 10-13.
Read Proverbs 3.

VI
Is Prayer Essential for Success?

73

VI
IS PRAYER ESSENTIAL FOR SUCCESS?

Belief. — Then came the disciples of Jesus apart and
said, Why could not we cast it out ? and he saith unto
them, Because of your little faith : for verily I say unto
you if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall
say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place;
and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible
unto you. Matt. 17:19-21.
But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God,
who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it
shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing
doubting: for he that doubteth is like the surge of the
sea driven by the wind and tossed. For let not that
man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord; a
double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. James 1:5-8.
Importunity. — And he said unto them, Which of you
shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight,
and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves; for a
friend of mine is come to me from a journey, and I have
nothing to set before him; and he from within shall
answer and say, Trouble me not; the door is now shut
and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise
and give thee? I say unto you, though he will not
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rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of
his importunity he will arise and give him as many as he
needeth ; and I say unto you, Ask and it shall be given
you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he
that seeketh findeth ; and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. Luke 11:5-10.
Work. — Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father who is in Heaven. Matt. 7:21.
Sincerity. — And he spake also this parable unto cer
tain who trusted in themselves that they were right
eous and set all others at naught : Two men went up into
the Temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other
a Publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus w*th
himself: God, I thank thee that I am not as the rest of
men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this
Publican. I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all
that I get.
But the Publican standing afar off would not lift up so
much as his eyes unto Heaven, but smote upon his breast
saying, God, be thou merciful to me a sinner. I say unto
you, this man went down to his house justified rather
than the other; for everyone that exalteth himself shall
be humbled; but he that humbleth himself shall be
exalted. Luke 18:9-14.
Simplicity. — And in praying use not vain repetitions
as the Gentiles do: for they think that they shall be heard
for their much speaking. Be not therefore like unto
them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need
of, before ye ask him. Matt. 6 : 7-8.

Un tbe Worft of Xife 77
Alone with God. — And when ye pray, ye shall not
be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in
the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they
may be seen of men. Verily, I say unto you, they have
received their reward. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door,
pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who
seeth in secret, shall recompense thee. Matthew 6:5-6.
Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the
throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find
grace to help us in time of need. Hebrews 4:16.

WITNESS OF MEN
When first thine eyes unveil, give thy soul leave
To do the like: our bodies but forerun
The spirit's duty. True hearts spread and heave
Unto their God as flowers do to the sun.
Give Him thy first thoughts then; so shalt thou keep
Him company all day and in Him sleep.
Joseph Nessima took as his motto for the great work
he accomplished in Japan, "Let us advance upon our
knees. "
Do not ask anything of God which you would not wish
man to know ; nor anything of man which you would not
wish God to know. Seneca.
"Bought by the power of prayer, " is the motto written
across the first building of the Young Men's Christian
Association in India.

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The veteran missionary, Bengal, was known for his
deeply devoted prayer life. One of his friends being
curious to hear the missionary pray when he was quite
alone, concealed himself in the room one night while
the devoted man was at work. After hours of patient
toil, the old man arose and throwing aside his garments
fell upon his knees and said in a perfectly natural voice,
"I thank thee, O God, that we meet on the same old
terms. " He then arose and went to his couch.
Enoch Arden returning from his long wanderings
arrived by night to look across his garden and see his
home and family, dear to him, in the hands of another.
He refused to break in upon that happiness, but crept
down to a little hut beside the sea to work and to die
alone. He was not however without compensation, for
as Tennyson described him,
He was not all unhappy. His resolve
Upbore him, and firm faith, and evermore
Prayer from a living source within the will,
And beating up through all the bitter world
Like fountains of sweet water in the sea
Kept him a living soul.
0, Prayer, thou mine of things unknown,
Who can be poor possessing thee?
Thou wert a fount of joy alone,
Better than worlds of gold could be.
Were I bereft of all beside,
That bears the form or name of bliss,
I yet were rich, what will betide,
If God in mercy leave me this. Edmeston.
Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice

Ifn tbe Work of Xife 79
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.
The Passing of Arthur.

IS PRAYER ESSENTIAL FOR SUCCESS?
Hoffman the great painter said that he caught the
figure of his masterpiece, the boy Jesus, from a certain
Dresden youth, but the face he gained by prayer.
Prayer is chiefly valuable in revealing to us the nature
and the character of God, a medium of knowing our
Father. Ruskin says that the greatest thing a human
being can do in this world is to see something, and then
go and tell what he has seen in a plain way. If this be
true, the man who learns the secret of finding God, of
seeing Him face to face in spiritual vision day by day,
and who can go out from that vision splendid to make all
things according to the vision seen in the mount, as
Moses did, that man is truly the world's great man.
There can be no really bad days for such a man.
The difference between men is not simply in the things
which they see, but also in the vividness with which
they see them. The person who has the inner conscious
ness of God through spoken or unspoken prayer possesses
a peculiar power of certainty and assurance, whatever
his life may be. He feels like Paul who said, when other
things were falling away from him, "Have I not seen
Jesus Christ?" He is guarded from disappointment and
defeat by the realization that God is on his side, that He is

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truly interested in him and that he can turn to Him as
naturally as the flower turns to the sun for inspiration
and for light and for growth. This certainty made the
martyrs of the early Church. It has been the main
spring of power in the great leadership of the world. It
has stirred to persistent and irresistible effort men like
Jesus, who have been isolated by the very greatness of
their vision, lifted out of banalities and the commonplace
by the ever-present, divine assurance that the Psalmist
felt, "Thou art near, 0 Lord."
But prayer not only brings to the individual the
consciousness of God, it also affords a true appreciation
of one's self. "Know thyself," said the old Greek
philosopher, and gathered in these two words one of the
chief means for character building. Prayer, especially
when it is earnest, secret prayer, reveals the true nature
of the individual as compared with the character of
Christ. We are told that Mark Antony pointed out
the various rents in the robe of the murdered Caesar
and identified each rent with the name of the cruel
smiter ; likewise in prayer one learns to place for a moment
at least one's thoughts upon the weaknesses and the
failures of the daily life and to identify these with their
causes. One learns to say,
"Search me, O God, and know my heart,
Try me and know my thoughts
And see if there be any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting."
There is no greater need and no need attended by
greater difficulty of habitual performance, than this need
to cultivate the habit of prayer, of silent communion with
God, the art of spiritual contemplation, the ability to be
alone, to think and to pray. The average person knows

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 81
a hundred things better than he knows himself. He
sees too much to see any one thing clearly. His friends
and acquaintances, his work and his play are subjects
of constant thought and conversation, but how many
have the habit of spending at least once a week an hour
alone, in the solitude of their own personality, far from the
strife of business and the externalities of social life? We
mistake emphasis and enthusiasm for wisdom and per
spective^ — driven by the time spirit. Jeremy Taylor used
to call this getting away for silent prayer "practicing
the presence of God."
"If chosen men could never be alone,
In deep mid-silence open-doored with God
No greatness ever had been dreamed or done."
Each year, freighted with its new discoveries of scien
tific laws, makes it easier for the thoughtful person to
believe in prayer. In the light of the marvelous inven
tions of the twentieth century, prayer is no longer a
miracle. The miraculous character of certain answers
to prayer, found not only in the Bible but also in life, is
made intelligible by modern discovery of laws which were
heretofore hidden, reminding us that there are still
other laws whose workings are, as yet, known only to the
divine mind. One thing is certain, proven by history
and personal experience, that these laws of God are
intended for good, to make His children happy; that He
who watches a sparrow's fall is in constant and intimate
relationships for protection and for peace with the men
and women whom He has placed upon this earth. Their
faith expressed in Him is the spontaneous and eternal
sign of His fatherhood and care.
The great Gospel message for prayer is to launch out
upon the goodness of God and His willingness and eager-
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ness to help His children. "Ask and ye shall receive,"
is a kind of refrain running through all of Christ's teach
ings. Prayer is the adventure of our belief in the Al
mighty. It is the utter casting of ourselves upon a God
who cares for us, who is more willing to give than we are
to ask, and who says over and over again, "Come unto
me, and I will give you rest."

QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION
What are the conditions, according to the Bible, for
successful prayer?
Matt. 18: 19-20; Mark 11:24-25; John 16:23-24.
Would you call the awakening of the Prodigal Son, the
rising up of his spirit in a longing for his father and his
home, a prayer? Luke 15: 17-18.
William James called mystery the "more-to-be-
known." Do you think that what is commonly called
a miracle is necessarily an infraction of natural law
because we cannot explain it? Is it limiting the
Almightiness of God to believe that He chooses to
work according to laws and knowledge of which we have
not yet gained?
What do you think Jesus achieved by prayer? What
have you ever achieved by prayer?
What kind of prayers did Jesus prefer?
Matt. 6:5-15; Matt. 21:22; Mark 12:40.
Do you really expect that your prayers will be an
swered? Would you be surprised to see them literally
fulfilled? Do you act in accordance with your prayers?
Dan. 9:20-23; John 14: 13-14; John 15: 16; John
16:23-24; James i:5~7-

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 83
A young man confessed that he was hindered from
entering the Christian life by a number of well-meaning
people who repeatedly assured him that they were pray
ing for him. Does it really help you to know that people
are praying for you? Under what conditions is it helpful
to know that people remember you in their prayers?
Does the kind of person who does the praying make a
difference? Job 42: 8; James 5: 16.
If prayer is universal and necessary for happiness and
success, why are not prayer meetings more popular?
Do you believe in prayer for the daily events of human
life? A good many people hold that it is worth while to
pray for definite needs in the case of important events
and decisions, or at times of sorrow, temptation, or
calamity. Tad Jones, the former football star at Yale,
astonished many of his fellow-students at a foot-ball
dinner at Cambridge subsequent to a Yale victory.
When asked what he thought was the reason for his
success in the game, he answered that he had spent
several hours praying that he might be able to do his
very best that day.
Jehovah is nigh unto all them that call upon him,
To all that call upon him in truth. Psalm 145 : 18.
Hebrews 10: 22; Psalms 62: 7-8; I John 5: 14-15.
Is it ever right to pray for things that seem unreason
able to us? For example is it sensible to pray to God to
heal diseases without the use of medicine or medical skill
when these are at hand?
Again we find Jesus praying before he raised Lazarus
from the dead saying, "Father I thank thee that thou
hast heard me, and I knew that thou hearest me always,"
showing that his prayer for Lazarus had been constant

84 Bible Stubs in tbe Morft of Xife
though silent, and that he had the assurance in his own
heart of the answer before the event. Have we a right
to indulge in such seemingly unreasonable prayers? If
so, why? If not, what reasons would you present?
When praying for help, especially in times of trouble, do
we really leave our burdens with God or still carry them?
Jesus said to Martha, " Said I not unto thee, that if thou
believedst, thou shouldst see the glory of God?"
There are times in the lives of most persons when one
has no inclination to pray; physical weariness or great
anguish of spirit, or at times the consciousness of sin or
depression seems to exclude prayer.
Should a person have a habit of prayer that takes him
to God regardless of his feelings? At such times a cer
tain sect maintain you should go to another for prayer.
Do you agree with this? What did Jesus teach regarding
prayer under such circumstances? Matt. 26: 36-46; Luke 18: 1.
The survivors of the Titanic disaster tell of the univer
sal promptings to prayer on the part of virtually all of
the hundreds of passengers, regardless of their beliefs,
which would seem to show that prayer expressed or
unexpressed is a universal characteristic of the human
heart. Do you believe this and how is it explained?
Promises of God: I John 5:14-15; Isaiah 58:9;
Matthew 18:19; Matthew 7:7; Psalms 50:
15; Psalms 91: 15; I John 3:22; Read Psalm 51;
John 17.

VII
God's Laws for Happiness

85

VII
GOD'S LAWS FOR HAPPINESS
These things have I spoken unto you that my joy may
be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
John 15: ii.
And whoso trusteth in Jehovah, happy is he.
Proverbs 16: 20.
The battle is not yours, but God's. II Chronicles 20: 15.
Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name : ask, and
ye shall receive, that your joy may be made full.
John 16: 24.
A glad heart maketh a cheerful countenance. Proverbs 15 : 13.
Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy
wine with a merry heart; for God hath already accepted
thy works. Ecclesiastes 9:7.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you ; not
as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart
be troubled, neither let it be fearful. John 14:27.
The Kingdom of Heaven is within you. Luke 17:21
87

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Thou wilt show me the path of lif e ;
In thy presence is fullness of joy ;
In thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Psalm i6.ii.
These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye
may have peace. In the world ye have tribulation;
but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
John 16:33.
Casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth
for you. I Peter 5 : 7.
In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be
made known unto God. Phil. 4: 6.
Have this, mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus.
Phil. 2:5
Make a joyful noise unto Jehovah, all ye lands.
Serve Jehovah with gladness; come before His presence
with singing.
Know ye that Jehovah He is God;
It is He that hath made us, and we are His;
We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise ;
Give thanks unto Him, and bless His name.
For Jehovah is good : His loving- kindness endureth for
ever,
And His faithfulness unto all generations. Psalm 100.
And the peace of God which passeth all understanding,
shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ
Jesus. Phil. 4:7.

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 89
WITNESS OF MEN
If a man is unhappy this must be his own fault. God
intended every man to be happy. Epictetus.
If all can not five on the piazza, every one may feel the
sun. Italian Proverb.
You have not fulfilled every duty unless you have
fulfilled that of being pleasant. Charles Buxton.
Theodore Parker, erudite and capable, exclaimed upon
his premature death-bed: "Oh that I had known the art
of life, or found some book or some man, to tell me how to
live, to study, to take exercise, to be really happy!"
Light foot, tight foot,
Green grass spread;
Early in the morning
Hope is on ahead.
R. L. Stevenson.
Whoever enjoys not life, I count him but an apparition,
though he wears about him the visible affections of
flesh. Sir T. Browne.
I find earth not gray, but rosy,
Heaven not grim, but fair of hue.
Do I stoop? I pick a posy;
Do I stand and stare? All's blue.
Robert Browning.
I have fallen into the hands of thieves. . . . They
have not taken away my merry countenance, my cheerful
spirit, and my good conscience. Jeremy Taylor.

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In the teaching of Christ, happiness was not only the
reward of duty, but a duty itself. Sir John Lubbock.
So take Joy home,
And make a place in thy great heart for her,
And give her time to grow, and cherish her,
Then will she come and oft will sing to thee,
When thou art working in the furrows, ay,
Or weeding in the sacred hours of dawn.
It is seemly fashion to be glad,
Joy is the grace we say to God.
Jean Ingelow.
Oh, Lord, how happy should we be
If we could cast our care on Thee,
If we from self could rest ;
And feel at heart that One above,
In perfect wisdom, perfect love,
Is working for the best ! Carlyle.

GOD'S LAWS FOR HAPPINESS
What is the secret of happiness? It is the universal
question; to discover it is the constant and common
ambition of men.
Varro, years ago, cited two hundred and eighty-eight
opinions of philosophers with reference to happiness.
One school of metaphysics maintains that happiness is
the chief end of life ; at times it has meant to philosophers
and to theologians, pleasure, at other times a utilitarianism
working "the greatest good to the greatest number, " and
again, Duty.

An tbe Mori? of Xife 91
It is quite generally conceded that men find happiness
not by seeking it directly but along the way to a worthy
goal. Like good health it is the attendant of useful
occupations. It is the music which is the gladness of the
world, the joy of seeing others happy. Plutarch said
that he first began to write biography for the sake of
others, but soon found that the lives of the men whose
personal history and achievements he was studying were
serving as rich examples for his own improvement and
happiness. Religion at its height is a transport, a new heaven and
a new earth; it is defined in the New Testament as
light and life and hope and peace. The Bible is full
of songs. Christ speaks of a sinner's conversion as
creating "joy in heaven." Happiness is the magic
which makes the reformed thief and drunkard a factor
in the salvation of others. John B. Gough's glad
triumph was the message of his life. Harold Begbie has
said that at the very heart of the mystery of conversion
there is a wild joy.
Happiness is not a matter of chance nor of mere good
luck, it depends upon certain unchanging laws.
happiness the result of right thinking
The Bible is rich in emphasis of the fact that as a man
thinketh in his heart, so is he. Paul teaches that lasting
peace and power come from bringing every thought into
subjection to God. "The mind is its own place," says
Milton, "and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a
Hell of Heaven." One is peculiarly impressed in the
study of the life of Jesus with the tranquillity and
poise of mind which he brought to every task and
exigency. The quality, the direction, and the attitude
of his mind seemed to lift him above the power of exter-

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nalities. It gave him the sense of authority which im
pressed all who heard him speak.
He gave to the world for consideration the unique and
tremendous truth that sin was a matter primarily of the
thoughts and imaginations, and that it was possible for
heinous sin to exist in the attitude of a man's mind. He
exhibited in his own Ufe the fact that no physical chain
can bind the personality of one whose mind is free and
pure. "Man, what are you saying," says Epictetus, when
they told him that they were going to put him in prison,
"you may put my body in prison, but my mind not even
Zeus himself can overpower."
This attitude of mind is of vital importance if one is to
be permanently happy. It is not only important to
subject the mind to tbe scrutiny of God, but it is indis
pensable to keep the thoughts turned constantly toward
success, toward positive things, toward affirmations
rather than the negations of life. Our careers are directly
colored and shaped by the things we think about. No
man who wishes to be happy should allow his mind to
rest on failure or loss or defeat ; he should never mention
them; these things should be passed by as incidents
merely, as lessons of experience toward the final achieve
ment upon which a man's thought must be riveted with
invincible determination. Recently a man said to me,
" My business career was a failure," and I realized at once
that this was true largely because the settled attitude
of the man's mind was toward failure rather than toward
successful accomplishment, toward the past rather than
toward the present with all its wealth of possibility to
every indefatigable worker.
That which we allow our minds to dwell upon deter
mines largely our direction of progress, as well as the
character and extent of that progress. If you would be

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 93
happy, turn away from your ill-feelings to happy thoughts.
Ponder your friendships rather than your enmities. It is
nature's way to make us forget our physical illnesses
almost as soon as they are passed; likewise we should
forget our failures and our weaknesses in the acceptance
of God's ever fresh invitation to be right with Him and
therefore happy.
Happiness is the result of right thinking, the result of
keeping the mind fixed upon high and joyous things
through a regular habit of meditating upon the friend
ship and the power of God, with whom we are working
in unison. happiness in self-mastery
Happiness is an inner possession, an inner victory —
it is always our own victory. Jesus furnished the world
a model for the attainment of the happy life by Hving
according to his guiding principle, which was, "not my
will but Thine be done." The will is the man and the
keenest satisfactions of the spiritual life come with its
mastery. It is through the moral elevation of our inner
self, as Henry Drummond once said, that our real success
is measured or is measurable.
The happiness of self-mastery lies in the control of
one's passion, temper, appetites, and in the ability to
make one's self do the things that he ought to do at the
time they should be done. A decided foe to happiness is
the loss of self-respect which is the price that a person
pays for the surrender of self-control. All losses can be
borne more easily than the loss of one's self. This dis
respect for our own individuality is also dependent upon
our attitude toward the happiness of others. There are
no permanent satisfactions at the expense of human loss
and degradation. Just as truly as there is no real per-

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sonal and abiding joy in the ways of license and domi
nance of the senses, so there is no permanent happiness
which is gained at the cost of the stained whiteness of
another's life.
The matchless prize of a happy life is the result of a
controlled will.
"Oh, well for him whose will is strong;
He suffers, but he can not suffer long;
He suffers, but he will not suffer wrong!
Nor moves for him the loud world's random mock,
Nor all calamities' hugest waves confound.
He seems a promontory of rock
That, compassed round with turbulent sound,
In middle ocean meets the surging shock,
Tempest-buffeted, but citadel-crowned."
happiness in work
Carlyle said that it was unnecessary for men to be
happy provided they had work to do. But if men have
work, their work to do, and do it in the right spirit, they
will be happy. Happiness is being in one's own place
with one's own tools in one's hand. Work that really
belongs to us lifts us out of the commonplace ; it takes our
minds off ourselves and our cares and grievances. It
makes us citizens of that most royal kingdom, the
kingdom of happy occupation. Activity is really the
royal road to happiness.
Carlyle wrote to his mother :
"You can not think what a comfort the feeling that I
am doing an honest work in God's creation, whether I
be ever paid for it or not, gives me; I have not been as
contented for many years. The great uproar of London
is a great beautiful moving picture for me; I say to it, with
the greatest good nature, 'Go thou thy way, I am going

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 95
mine.' There is no blessedness in the world equal to
that. "
When you are unhappy go and do something for others.
Richard Cobden lost his wife, and shortly afterwards his
daughter; he was utterly in despair and was ready to die.
His friend John Bright came to him one day and said:
"Cobden, there are sixty thousand children who are
to-day slowly dying in England by reason of overwork
and long hours in the mills and factories. Why not
harness your sorrow to a life-work for these children?
This suggestion was the expulsive power of a new affec
tion for Richard Cobden. It was to him the incentive
for his greatest life-work, the work for which he will be
remembered longest by Englishmen. Not every one
can be a Richard Cobden to harness his sorrow or defeat
to a vast undertaking, but every one can produce the
same joyous effect in his own life by answering the call at
his very door for some unselfish service.
What is the guiding principle upon which we can be
assured of right thoughts, right will, and right occupation,
and thereby be assured of our birthright, which is happi
ness? It lies in the certainty that we are fulfilling our
career under the eye of God. To be sure that we are
doing the will of God in our particular life-work means to
be sure that we are going to have God with us in every
extremity and in every daily need, and this is the absolute
certainty of being and remaining happy. There is a
universal will of God for all the world to follow. It
exists in doing right, in being honest, truthful, and pure
in mind. There is also an individual will of God for
every person, a will of God which is suited to our own
individual capabilities and task and position in life.
Unless we fulfill that will of God in our particular niche,
the vast circle of God's purpose on earth will be incom
plete. No one can do this particular will of God for me.

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For me alone is the task. For me alone is the crown of
victory, for me alone is the joy of fulfillment, for me
alone is the realization of the definite promise of Christ
that "my joy may be in you and that your joy may be
made full. "

QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION
How would you define happiness in the light of your
own experience ?
Is happiness a duty?
Psalm ioo; Eccl. 9:7; Phil. 4:8-9; Matt.
6: 16-17; Phil. 4:4-7.
Is the thing that gives you pleasure taking away from
the happiness or well-being of persons affected by your
acts? Is this a legitimate test of right pleasure?
I Cor. 8: 9-13; Matt. 25:40.
Christ dealt with individuals. Crowds came to him
to be healed, but he did not heal them in crowds, but
individually, fitting his injunctions to particular cases.
Would this signify that God has a type of happiness
particularly fitted to each individual?
Are people originally and by temperament happy?
If unhappy is it due to a development of wrong faculties?
How can this be remedied?
The medieval churches were filled with gloom and
crucifixes; Christ was always "the man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief." Was this the predominating
characteristic of the Jesus of the gospels?
John 8: 12; Matt, ii: 19; John 2: 1-11.

1Jn tbe Mori? of Xife 97
Why is a man who gives way to his appetites and
passions never permanently happy?
Gal. 5: 16-25; Rom. 6:23; Rom. 8:6.
Mark Antony sought happiness in love, Brutus in
fame, Caesar in power, Solomon in splendor; Antony
found disgrace, Brutus disgust, Caesar ingratitude and
death, Solomon (in his words) "all is vanity." What
was the reason of their failure?
In Cardinal Newman's hymn Lead, Kindly Light, he
says: Keep thou my feet, I do not ask to see
The distant scene ; one step enough for me.
Do we miss happiness by failing to find it at our very
doors in the day's work? Are you looking for happiness
in the future instead of to-day?
Do you believe that God intends happiness for every
human being? What are you doing towards the fulfill
ment of God's laws of happiness for individuals less
favored than yourself — for example, the poor in our
great cities, the country boy who is struggling against
heavy odds, the children in the factories, the men and
women in the sweat shops, the man who is the slave to
drink? Promises : Eccl. 2 : 26 ; Psalm 4 : 7-8 ; Psalm 128 : 1-2 ;
Psalm 36:7-8; Phil. 4:19; Psalm 37:23-25;
Isaiah 54:10-17; Isaiah 51:11; Psalm 46; Isaiah
61 ; John 14.

VIII
The Art of Being Quiet

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VIII
THE ART OF BEING QUIET
And the work of righteousness shall be peace : and the
effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.
Isaiah 32: 17.
Better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith
Than a house full of feasting with strife.
Proverbs 17: 1.
The Lord said to Elijah: " Go forth and stand upon the
mount before Jehovah." And, behold, Jehovah passed
by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains
and brake in pieces the rocks before Jehovah. But
Jehovah was not in the wind; and after the wind an
earthquake ; but Jehovah was not in the earthquake ; and
after the earthquake a fire ; but Jehovah was not in the
fire; and after the fire a still small voice (a sound of
gentle stillness). I Kings 19: 11-12.
He leadeth me beside still waters. Psalm 23:2.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you;
not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your
heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful. John 14:27.
Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I will say
Rejoice. Let your forbearance be known unto all men.

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The Lord is at hand. In nothing be anxious; but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiv
ing, let your requests be made known unto God. And
the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall
guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.
Phil. 4:4-7.
Study to be quiet. I Thess. 4: ii.
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night ; nor for
the arrow that flieth by day;
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness ; nor for
the destruction that wasteth at noonday. 6
For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep
thee in all thy ways. Psalm 91 : 5, 6, ii .
Let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the incorrup
tible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the
sight of God of great price. I Peter 3 : 3-4.
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is
stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee. Isaiah 26 : 3.
I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications,
prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all
men ; for kings and all that are in high place ; that we may
lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity.
I Tim. 2: 1-2.
Oh, that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments!
Then had thy peace been as a river; and thy righteous
ness as the waves of the sea. Isaiah 48: 18.
Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 103
learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye
shall find rest unto your souls. Matt, i i : 28-29.
For the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking,
but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Rom. 14: 17.
Great peace have they that love Thy law.
Psalm 119: 165.

WITNESS OF MEN
If one does not have rest in himself, it is useless to seek
it elsewhere. La Rochefoucauld.
I know that what we all want is inward rest, rest of
heart and brain, the calm, strong, self-contained, self-
denying character which needs no stimulus, for it has no
fits of depression ; which needs no narcotics, for it has no
fits of excitement; which needs no ascetic restraints, for
it is strong enough to use God's gift — without abusing
it. A character in a word which is truly temperate, not
in drink and food merely, but in all desires, thoughts,
and actions. Freed from the wild lusts and ambitions to
which that old Adam yielded, and seeking for light and
fife by means forbidden, found thereby disease and
death. Charles Kingsley.
An eminent physician has attributed physical break
down to "those absurd feelings of hurry and having no
time, to that breathlessness and tension, that anxiety of
the future and that solicitude of results, that lack of inner
harmony and ease. It is your relaxed and easy worker
who is in no hurry, and quite thoughtless the while of
consequences, who is the most efficient worker. Tension

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and anxiety, present and future, all mixed up together
in one mind at once, are the surest drags upon steady
progress and the true hindrances to our success. "
Not in the turmoil of the busy street,
Nor in the noise and confusion of the throng,
But in ourselves are triumphs and defeats.
Longfellow.
We might have peace, great peace,
If we would not load ourselves with others' words and
works
And with what concerns us not.
How can he be long at rest
Who meddles in another's cares,
And looks for matters out of his own path,
And only now and then gathers his thoughts within him!
Thomas A Kempis.
What a day !
To sim me and do nothing, nay I think
Merely to bask and ripen, is sometimes the
Student's wiser business.
To mix his blood with sunshine, and to take
The wind into his pulses.
Lowell.
The Lady Moon is my lover,
My friends are the oceans four,
The heavens have roofed me over,
And the dawn is my golden door.
I would liefer follow the condor
Or the sea-gull, soaring from ken,
Than bury my godhead yonder
In the dust of the whirl of men.
Chang Chih-Ho.

Un tbe Morft of Xife 105
The great man is he who in the midst of the crowd
keeps with perfect sweetness the serenity of solitude.
Emerson.
THE ART OF BEING QUIET
No trait of Jesus is more universally pictured in art or
literature than that of his composure — his serenity, his
calm and subdued strength, the outcome of deep reflec
tiveness and knowledge of men. Only once or twice
during his entire recorded ministry did he present any
suggestion of rashness or departure from his accustomed
tranquillity, and then, as in the cleansing of the temple,
he dominated the scene with great might, as one who
had the authority and knew well the compass of his
power. He was like a master violinist who stands before
his orchestra sure of his note and in perfect control,
sweeping his instrument with an assured stroke. Jesus
possessed the art of never being taken off his guard.
He had what we lack in our modern rush and stress —
peace of mood.
Even in the midst of occasions of joyousness or con
fusion we are bound to think of Christ as being the
master of himself, as being capable of thought and correct
perspective. One of the most impressive pictures which I have ever
seen is Titian's House of Levi, in the Academy at Venice.
The whole scene is full of life and motion; the table is
filled with happy guests ; busy servants are seen hurrying
on all sides ; the air of merriment and varied intercourse
is apparent. But the figure that gives meaning to it all
is that of the Master sitting in the midst ; in it with every
sympathetic and human sense, but yet somehow in
tangibly apart from it, no sign of far-away abstractedness,
no trace of disdain, but with all, a benignly calm and

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deeply joyous face, as one who knew how to use
joy without abusing it. It was the picture of the
fundamental happiness that accompanies quietude and
vast reserve, the figure of a man in whose central life
there flowed a great purpose, who was bound to ex
perience and enjoy every proper phase of life, but
who was no less under obligations to save both his
spiritual and his physical machine from unnecessary
wear and tear.
Consider the event in the garden of Gethsemane, when
the soldiers came to take him to the judgment hall, when
he knew his hour had come. Jesus stood in the midst of
his startled accusers, his fearful, nervous disciples in
fear and trembling leaving him alone, Peter, the man of
impulse, doing the very thing he ought not have done,
through rashness and ill-considered loyalty — in all this
tragic scene Jesus was the one forceful personality.
With what detachment and perfect deliberation he
addressed the Roman guard. "Are ye come out as
against a robber, with swords and staves to seize me? . . .
Or thinkest thou that I cannot beseech my Father and
He shall even now send me more than twelve legions
of angels? How then should the Scriptures be fulfilled
that thus it must be?" With what logic his answer: "I
told you that I am He. If therefore ye seek me, let
these go their way. . . . The cup which the Father
hath given me, shall I not drink it?"
There was no false motion, no loss of power in words, no
exhibition of fear, though, as John tells us in his account,
"the soldiers went backward and fell to the ground."
We discover no anxiety, no explosive anger at the utter
unreasonableness and wrong of the betrayal and capture,
which, an ordinary person most certainly would have
impulsively resented. Here is no useless expenditure
of passion over the inevitable, but we find rather that

ITn tbe TOUor I? of Xife 107
the accused is really on the throne of judgment, himself
a judge on his day of trial. Each individual, from the
soldier of the Roman guard to Pilate himself, instinctively
felt this. It was the world's marvel of self-control
and composed power; no like exhibition is on
historical record. Here was the master of the art of
quietness. How can a person achieve such power of quietude?
How can one gain such force without the exhibition of
weakness or inaction? At times we go into a business
man's office and feel something in his presence that
we can not quite express, fhe sense of man behind or
within his presence; the conscious reserve of a large
spiritual capacity. Manifestly this power is the accom
paniment of all real success, of all real and permanent
greatness. There are three Scriptural rules for the attainment of
quietness. First. — Take time to prepare. No one gets to feeling
deeply about any matter without spending time to dwell
upon it, keeping one's thoughts upon it with some
regularity and persistence. Jesus' attitude of assurance
and settled calm before his enemies was the result of his
previous night of spiritual struggle and preparation in
which he gained by prayer the ability to take with a
steady hand the cup of his destiny. Nor was this
custom unusual with him. The account tells us that
he took his disciples and went to the garden "as he was
wont. " To him as to us, the inner struggle in the loneli
ness of one's own personality is more important and
decisive than the outward fulfillment. To Jesus, Geth
semane was more important than the judgment hall,
more decisive than the cross.
It is a suggestive study to read the Gospels to find out
the times when he slipped away from the crowd to be

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alone. To him as to every great soul there was great
spiritual renewal in "the calm
That nature breathes among the hills and groves."
The lack of preparedness is the reason for most of
human failure and mistake. The regiment which fails
to prepare upon the parade ground to meet adequately
the enemy's guns will vainly strive to make up for its
deficiencies upon the field of battle. The boat that is
just capable of keeping upright in the quiet harbor will
have little chance in the open sea.
The young man who goes wrong in the city falls, not
because he wishes or intends to lose his manhood, but,
in the majority of cases, because he lacks the moral and
spiritual reserve to withstand the sudden and unexpected
approach of temptation. He goes down amidst a lot
of ceaseless, rushing, distracted activities, with no time
to get his bearings, with no time to charge his will with
self-control. Mark Twain said he was like his razors,
he must have time to renew his edges.
For many years in one of our great cities, it was my
work to meet young men in difficulty ; men who often had
been worsted by vicious habits. After hearing many a
tragic life story, I became accustomed to ask as almost the
first question, "What was your early training?" The
hope of retrieval and reformation of such men, I found by
practical experience, depended almost wholly upon their
reservoir of moral and religious reserve. It is not a mere
sentiment to say of a man that he had a good mother, or
that during the susceptible years of his life he was
thrown constantly amongst people who taught him the
fundamental principles of righteousness, or that he once
knew the subdued strength of being quiet. This period

Un tbe IBlort? of Xife 109
of preparation is without doubt the secret of the period of
later power.
A gentleman well acquainted with customs in China
showed me the immense advantages of certain missions
whose practice it was to take for training the young
Chinese boys and girls at an early age, in accordance
with the principles of the Catholic Church, "Give us a
child for seven years and we will be satisfied to let you
have him for the remainder of his life. "
This lack of early preparation, however, may be made
up in part by any person who is willing to pay the price
of forming a quiet and serious habit of study and personal
devotion — getting apart — "going home much, " as Emer
son called it. Consider, for example, the use of Sunday
as a day of preparation for the other days in the week.
Try taking an hour each Sunday morning for a month
to read one of the great books in the Bible, having in
mind its relation to the coming week's work.
The Swedish explorer who crossed the great Chinese
desert told his men to load their camels for a ten days'
journey. After they had proceeded three days through
the desert sands, one of his men came to him and said,
"Alas, master, we only loaded the camels for four days'
journey, and the water is nearly gone. " As the account
tells us, the servants were left behind one by one as the
days dragged on; one by one the great "ships of the des
ert" foundered and fell; the explorer himself with one of
his men just escaped death and reached the other edge of
the desert. If they had anticipated their need with the
kind of preparation necessary they could have defied the
desert. With the right use of Sunday, I venture to say
that practically all of the great temptations and struggles
of the modern week may be fronted with success. It is
not the question so much of remembering the Sabbath day
to keep it holy, as it is, in the phrase of Phillips Brooks,

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" Remember the Sabbath day and it will keep you holy. "
What is Sunday doing for you as a day of preparation
for the great powers of composure and self-control?
Are you taking time to relax, to think, to grow spiritually
capable? Second. — Be certain that your motive is right.
There is no enemy to quietness like the sense of doing
wrong. There is no equipment for control of action so
mighty as a conscience void of offense towards God and
man. Conscious sin destroys balance and unhinges
every human faculty. To be sure we are told that
certain criminals reveal on the witness-stand nerves of
iron, but their keepers tell us that these men are closely
watched when they return to their cells for an inevitable
weakening, due to a false power of mastery. There is a
distinct difference between an exterior that is born of
sheer will-power and one that is the natural result of a
settled and imperturbable spirit. Paul said to the
Thessalonians, "Our Gospel came not unto you in word
only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in
much assurance." God said to Jacob that He had
changed his name after his struggle and trial from Jacob
to Israel. "For thou hast striven with God and with
men, and hast prevailed."
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is
stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee, " said Isaiah.
Third. — Lay hold on God with perfect confidence.
When a man has taken time for preparation through
the certainty of an absolutely right motive according to
the light which is given him, he has a right to expect God
to supply his deficiencies and to support him in his
extremity of need. God possesses the things belonging
to our peace because He is capable of supplying every
need of ours through His infinite riches. The Psalmist
says, "All my springs are in Thee," and Paul said, "I

Un tbe Mori? of Xife m
know him whom I have believed and I am persuaded that
he is able to guard that which I have committed unto
him. " No loss of friends or money, no untoward circum
stances, no difficult or dark passages of life can discour
age those who are right with themselves and with God.
As Dante says, "In His will is our peace," and there is
no possibility of failure as long as this attitude and trust
are combined with steady action. "Seek God," says
Fenelon," within yourself and you will surely find Him»
and with Him peace and joy."
The art of being quiet is the art of believing God.
"Father, I know that all my life,
Is portioned out by Thee,
The changes that are sure to come
I do not fear to see;
But I ask Thee for a patient mind,
Intent on pleasing Thee."
QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION
Dwight L. Moody used to say, "Character is what a
man is in the dark." Is the sense of being right and
knowing in our inmost hearts that we are right, the
foundation of a quiet spirit? Matt. 5: 27-30.
Is fear of any kind consistent with the art of being
quiet? Does it not help to eliminate fear when we con
sider with what a bountiful hand God has provided both
nature and man? How He has supplied the oak with
more acorns than are necessary! how the fruit trees are
loaded down with a surplus of bloom ! how the birds are
fed with abundant resources! how, in fact, everything
in nature is given generously and not niggardly! "Are
not five sparrows sold for two pence? And not one of
them is forgotten in the sight of God. But the very

112 Bible Stubs in tbe Mori? of Xife
hairs of your head are all numbered ; fear not ; ye are of
more value than many sparrows."
Think of the reassuring effect of reading every morning
the sixth chapter of Matthew.
G. Lowes Dickinson said that the chief end of Ameri
cans seems to be "acceleration," and if you ask them
why such haste, they answer, "Why, we go faster." Is it
not possible to possess the ability of direct and rapid
accomplishment and still retain the mood of perfect
self-possession? What is the relation of the will to quietness of spirit?
Can you will to be quiet and free from care and always
succeed? John tells us that every one that committeth sin is the
bond servant of sin. Is the essence of peace and quiet
ness inherent in the sense of freedom from the slavery of
sin? Psalms 51 : 3; Heb. 10: 26-27.
Do you think that poise of mind is an inherited or a
cultivated faculty?
Winston Churchill in his novel Inside ihe Cup lays
great emphasis upon the fact of the personality of his
chief character. How would you define personality?
What do you consider its highest characteristics? Did
you ever know a really great person who had not
mastered the art of being quiet?
As a remedy for the foes of quietness and peace have
you tried the determination of keeping without exception
a half-hour each morning for the purpose of getting into
harmony with your highest ideals and with God?
Psalm 121 ; Matthew 6.
God's promises: Is. 32: 17-19; Is. 40: 31 ; II Cor. 13:
11; Psalms 37: 37; Phil. 4: 6-7; John 16: 33; Isaiah
44: 8; Psalms 27: 1-6.

IX
God's Laws for Health

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IX
GOD'S LAWS FOR HEALTH
Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy
Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God?
I Cor. 6: 19.
He sendeth his word and healeth them
And delivereth them from their destructions. Psalms 107 : 20.
Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any
cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is any among you sick?
Let him call for the elders of the Church ; and let them
pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the
Lord; and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick,
and the Lord shall raise him up ; and if he have committed
sins, it shall be forgiven him. James 5: 13-15.
I will restore health to thee, and I will heal thee of thy
wounds, saith the Lord. Jer. 30: 17.
And Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their
synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom,
and healing all manner of disease and all manner of
sickness among the people.
And the report of him went forth into all Syria : and
they brought unto him all that were sick, holden with
divers diseases and torments, possessed with demons and
epileptic, and palsied : and he healed them. Matt. 4:23-24.
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Bless Jehovah, 0 my soul;
And all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless Jehovah, 0 my soul,
And forget not all his benefits;
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities;
Who healeth all thy diseases. Psalms 103: 1-3.
O Jehovah, my God,
I cried unto thee and thou hast healed me.
Psalms 30:2.
A tranquil heart is the life of the flesh;
But envy is the rottenness of the bones.
Proverbs 14:30.
But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of
righteousness arise with healing in its wings. Mal. 4:2.
A cheerful heart is a good medicine ;
But a broken spirit drieth up the bones.
Prov. 17:22.
And Peter said unto him, ^Eneas, Jesus Christ healeth
thee : arise and make thy bed. And straightway he arose.
The Acts 9: 34.
And behold there came to him a leper and worshipped
him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me
clean. And he stretched forth his hand and touched
him saying, I will, be thou made clean. And straight
way his leprosy was cleansed. Matthew 8: 2-3.
And all the multitude sought to touch him, for power
came forth from him, and healed them all.
Luke 6: 19.

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 117
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me,
the works that I do he shall do also; and greater works
than these shall he do ; because I go unto the Father.
John 14: 12.
It is the spirit that giveth life ; the flesh profiteth noth
ing; the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit,
and are life. John 6: 63.

WITNESS OF MEN
Take thought for thy body with steadfast fidelity.
The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they
be dim, the whole world is clouded. Goethe.
Yet however good our health may be, however care
fully we may regulate our diet or our habits, the body is
so powerfully affected by the mind, that, as every skillful
physician knows, it is often the mind rather than the
body with which he has to deal.
Sir John Lubbock.
Lycurgus dedicated'a little statue of the god of laughter
in each of the Spartan dining-halls.
There is a growing belief that "God never made His
work for man to mend." We are just beginning to
discover that the same Principle which created us,
repairs, restores, renews, heals us; that the remedies for
all our ills are inside of us, in divine principle, which is
the truth of our being. We are learning that there is an
immortal principle of health in every individual, which,
if we could utilize, would heal all our wounds and furnish
a balm for all the hurts of mankind.
Orison Swett Marden.

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"The Bible assures us that 'perfect love casteth out
fear,' and fear is one of the most potent sources of dis
cord and disease."
Mr. Taylor in his work on golf tells us that "to main
tain anything approaching his best form a golfer must of
necessity live a clean, wholesome, and sober life. ... A
man must live plainly but well, and he must be careful of
himself. If he uses up his reserve force, or abuses him
self in any way, then he has cast his opportunities aside
and he drops immediately out of the game. There are
no half measures. You must do one of two things: be
careful of yourself in everything, or forsake the game
altogether. A man who lives a careless or vicious life
can never succeed in golf or hope to keep his nerves or
stamina." Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves.
Shakespeare.

GOD'S LAWS FOR HEALTH
It is a significant fact that a large part of the active
career of Jesus while on earth was occupied in restoring
people to health. He was called the " Great Physician, "
and during the three years of his public ministry, healing
might truly be said to have been his vocation. He re
peatedly associated the healing of the body with the cure
of the soul, and with the forgiveness of sin. It would
seem that his cures and miraculous healing of all sorts
of diseases were for the purpose of turning men's atten
tion to their spiritual condition, to the health of the
soul. When accused of usurping the power of God and
forgiving sin, he replied to his detractors :

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 119
"Which is easier, to say, to the sick of the palsy, Thy
sins are forgiven, or to say, Arise and take up thy bed and
walk? But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath
authority on earth to forgive sins (he saith to the sick
of the palsy) , I say unto thee, Arise, take up thy bed, and
go unto thy house. "
It is also significant in this connection to notice that as
far as the accounts tell us, Jesus himself was never sick;
he did not suffer from the bodily diseases current in his
time and still prevalent in Oriental countries. We have
instances of his being weary, as for example when he
sat and rested at the well in Samaria. He has been
pictured by medieval art as a somewhat frail, certainly
not a robust figure, but the justification for such portrayal
is doubtful. It is indeed questionable whether a person
could be other than decidedly robust and a possessor of
good health to prove himself capable of undergoing
such steady strain of travel by foot, teaching, preaching,
and healing almost constantly, suffering the drain upon
his sympathies of a multitude of sick and sorrow-stricken
folk, in the midst of perpetual danger from hostile en
emies, and all this with a limited, human support in the
way of friendships and material aid.
Furthermore, we have no account of Jesus dwelling
upon ills or bodily ailments. The historical records
give no hint of his speaking of his bodily condition, save
with possibly one or two exceptions to his disciples.
Was it because his body was in such harmonious
relation to his spirit that, as it is sometimes said of
healthy children, he was unaware that he had a body,
or was it because he had sufficient force of character
to place his own ailments is the background in the light
of his uplifting ministry of healing to those about him?
The attention which the Bible gives to sickness and its
opposite, health, suggests the need of a study of the laws

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which God has laid down for bodily welfare. In the
last analysis, good health is the deciding factor in real
success. We look in vain for detailed or explicit rules
in the New Testament, like those which Mohammed, for
example, laid down for his followers, relative to bathings,
the abstinence from alcoholic drinks, and certain meats,
and domestic relations. Yet we can gather from the
sweep of Jesus' matchless teachings a few plain truths
regarding health.
First: Good Health a Matter of Mental Atti
tude toward Life. — We must conclude that the Scrip
ture, as found in the Gospels, places primal stress upon
the kingdom that is within a man, his inner temper
and disposition as indicative of the character and
tendency of his life. The Gospel goes down below
the body to the healing of the mind, to the renewing
of the spirit as being the fundamental process. The
condition of mind and the presence of belief were the
constant objects of Jesus' first solicitude. We find
him turning away from certain sections, not being able
to do many mighty works there, "because of their un
belief." He looked with keen gaze into the very
heart of those who sought his healing powers, in
variably saying, "Believest thou that I can do this?"
" All things are possible to him that believeth, " as though
far below the bodily incompetency was the necessity, for
the sake of cure, of the right mental attitude. Get
a right mind, an harmonious outlook upon life in
general, and especially toward God, get right thoughts
within your own heart, where the real Kingdom of
Heaven starts, and the outer bodily healing will follow.
This seems to be the drift of Jesus' wonderful cures.
A skillful physician tells me that in a large percentage
of cases it is with the mind rather than with the
body he has to deal, and that very frequently the

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 121
bodily weakness can be traced to wrong currents of
thought or to the perversion of the uses of the members
of the body by reason of perverted and morbid ideas.
As Macbeth has said,
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?
Certain religious sects teach that if one can get a right
mental attitude toward God and the world of spirit, he
will find the material handicaps and evils non-existent.
The soul will win by freeing itself from bodily make-
believe, by getting a new vantage point, by becoming a
denizen of a new thought-world.
Whatever our views may be regarding the science of
this great principle of the power of mental and spiritual
forces over the body, it is fairly well agreed that good
health waits upon pure thoughts, the settled determina
tion to disregard as far as possible ideas of sickness,
weakness, and failure, and to think health, strength, and
success. The harboring of a grudge, for example, may mean
physical breakdown. It poisons the blood ; it warps the
mind ; it narrows the sympathies ; it injures the power of
concentration ; it stops us ; it wastes our bodily tissue, and
it takes time. Gladstone said, "I haven't time to hate
anybody." The Scriptural pages are full of the great
injunction to love rather than to hate.
Anger and temper are also mental states directly
inimical to health. Across the Chapel of Baylor Univer
sity, I once read the motto placed there by former Presi-

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dent Burleson: "Young gentlemen, have a resolute
life purpose. Don't get mad, and don't get scared! "
While Hving in Cairo, we had an Armenian servant
whose temper was uncontrollable. She flew into a rage
over the merest trifle, frequently entering into physical
combat with the Arab market-men who brought the
provisions to the house. After one of these fits of temper
she turned a peculiar shade of yellow which continued
for several days, and often her temper made her so ill
that she was obliged to go to bed. Her mental distemper
had poisoned her entire physical nature.
There are few foes of the body more fatal than the
unbridled passions of anger and hatred which carry in
their train so many other evils, called by the Apostle,
"the works of the flesh."
"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are
these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry,
sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions,
divisions, parties, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and
such like ; of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn
you, that they who practice such things shall not inherit
the Kingdom of God."
These represent the crimes, not simply against the
body, but against God's laws of love, and visit upon
the person the physical recompenses that always attend
the breaking of God's laws.
Second: Good Health Dependent upon a Right
Attitude toward God.— The man who gets firmly
rooted in his consciousness and experience that God
is love, that He is not a God who delights in the
chastisement or in the illness and unhappiness of His
children, secures a divine support towards becoming
and keeping well. The idea that God sends ill-health
and misfortune comes from a misconception of God's
nature and a wrong attitude toward God Himself.

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 123
Throughout the Scriptures we find the words, healing,
health, and holiness, in close relationship. It is my belief
that God means that His creatures shall be well. If we
are unwell and persist in aggravating our diseases, we
may well examine the causes, to see if they do not go
back to some of the above-named weaknesses of our own
nature. Furthermore, we should look to this same loving God
in perfect confidence, if we are in line with His will, to
give us these physical blessings of health and the ability
for happy work, just as we look to Him for spiritual
favors. These two departments of the physical and
spiritual have too often been separated in our prayers and
in our creeds. The man is one, and he can only be the
whole man as God intended him when his body is a
sound and fit temple for the dwelling of his immortal
spirit, and this we have a right to ask of the God who
loves us and who wants to make the most of us for Him
self, for ourselves, and for the world in which He has
placed us with a mission.

QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION
What would you say was God's first law for health?
If disease were a disgrace the same as sin, would there
be so much disease?
Are good health and wrong motives compatible?
We often hear of people who grow ill with no bodily
symptoms of disease, simply from brooding over a sin
or crime.
What is the relation of conscience to health?

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Do you think there are any real values in disease and
sufferings of the body?
If so, what are they?
Do you think that God sends sickness? Deut. 8: 18-19.
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote many of his books
under the shadow of a great disease. In his letters he
tells us that it took him sometimes two weeks to write a
page of manuscript.
What was the secret of his triumph over his body?
Does intemperance in drink or impurity differ in kind
of wrong from intemperance in eating, in speaking, in
thinking, or in overwork?
A successful man once told me that he owed his
splendid health to the observance of Sunday as a day of
absolute rest. He virtually did nothing on that day
that he did on other days of the week.
Do you believe in a real rest day? Do you observe
one? Is not the experience of France, for example, where
one rest day in seven has been prescribed by law and
not religion, significant in our thought concerning the
question? In Japan one rarely sees an unpleasant face. From
earliest childhood the Japanese are taught to smile and
to refrain from showing any indication of pain or distress.
It is a proverbially healthy race. What is the physio
logical connection between this habit and good health?
Dr. Richardson has said, "Anger, hatred, grief, and
fear are among the influences most destructive of
vitality." Do you think that ill-health is the result of individual
sin? How about inherited disease? J

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 125
Do you think that an unconscious attitude of mind, for
example, a growing habit of querulousness, criticism, or
envy, will bring on ill-health?
Do you find in the New Testament account of Jesus'
healing of disease a warrant for believing that sickness
can be cured to-day by faith in God without the use of
human agencies?
Do you consider the use of medical science and the
employment of physicians inconsistent with the belief
in God to cure disease?
Do you think that the power to heal was given to
Christ alone, to show that he was the Son of God?
Acts 3:1-16; Acts 5:12-16; Acts 20:9-12; Luke
9:2; Acts 28: 8-9; Acts 9: 32-42; Acts 14: 8-10.
Read the cures of Christ and find out what condi
tions he imposed.
Matt. 8:1-17; John 11:1-44; Luke 13:10-13;
Luke ii: 14-20; John 4:46-54; Matt. 15:29-31;
Matt. 15 : 22-28 ; Read Psalm 37.

X
What Makes a Friend ?

127

WHAT MAKES A FRIEND?
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay
down his Ufe for his friends. John 15 : 13.
A friend loveth at all times. Proverbs 17: 17.
A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to
Jericho; and he fell among robbers who both stripped
him and beat him, and departed leaving him half dead.
And by chance, a certain priest was going down that way:
and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.
And in like manner a Levite also when he came to the
place, and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a
certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was;
and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion,
and came to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on
them oil and wine; and he set him on his own beast, and
brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on
the morrow he took out two shillings, and gave them to
the host and said, Take care of him; and whatsoever
thou spendest more, I, when I come back again, will
repay thee. Which of these three, thinkest thou, proved
neighbor unto him that fell among the robbers? And he
said, He that showed mercy on him. And Jesus said
unto him, Go and do thou likewise. Luke 10:30-37.
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There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
Proverbs 18:24.
As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also
to them likewise. Luke 6: 31.
No longer do I call you servants; . . . but I have
called you friends. John 15: 15.

Then came Peter and said to him, Lord, how oft shall
my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? until seven
times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until
seven times, but until seventy times seven.
Matthew 18: 21-22.
If, therefore, thou art offering thy gift at the altar, and
there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against
thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy
way ; first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and
offer thy gift. Matthew 5 : 23-24.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one
another. I John 4:11.

Jehovah, who shall sojourn in thy tabernacle?
Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness,
And speaketh truth in his heart ;
He that slandereth not with his tongue,
Nor doeth evil to his friend,
Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor.
Psalm 15: 1-3.

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 131
WITNESS OF MEN
Mirabeau said that self-help and friendship are the two
indispensable traits for success.
Let me five in a house by the side of the road
Where the race of men go by,
Men that are bad and men that are good,
As bad and as good as I.
Let me not sit in the scorner's seat,
Nor hurl the cynic's ban,
But let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
Sam Walter Foss.
Charles Kingsley was asked the reason for his success
ful life; he answered simply, "I had a friend. "
A great educator has said, "The youth who has gone
through college and at its close has not found one friend
into whose face he can look and say honestly, ' I am thy
friend,' and then can hear the returning answer, 'Yes,
and I am truly thy friend, ' — this youth has lost one of
the richest boons of his college career."
" They seem to take away the sun from the world who
withdraw friendship from life; for we have received
nothing better from the immortal gods, nothing more
delightful." A man once described his friend thus: "He does not
really teach me anything, but by being brought into his
presence, one becomes something."
Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler, sister- Woman,

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Though they may gang a kennin' wrang,
To step aside is human.
Then at the balance let's be mute,
We never can adjust it ;
What's done we partly may compute,
But know not what's resisted.
Burns.
No one is useless so long as he has a friend. Stevenson.
" Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling
safe with a person — having neither to weigh thought, nor
measure words, but pouring them all right out just as
they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faith
ful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth
keeping, and with the breath of comfort blow the rest
away." A friend is worth all hazards we can run.
Poor is the friendless master of a world;
A world in purchase of a friend is gain.
Dr. Young.
" Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or tends with the remover to remove.
Oh, no. It is an ever fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken."

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 133
WHAT MAKES A FRIEND ?
We find the Master at the joyous gathering places
of friends, at dinners and weddings and at feast-
days; we find him stealing away to Bethany to exchange
the hot, busy air of the multitude for the rest of a friendly
home; we find him in quiet walks and talks with his
intimate disciples, and in the upper room of the Eastern
houses, opening his inmost heart as a man can do only to a
few friends of his confidence and love.
In Mark 3 and' the 14th verse we read, "and he
appointed twelve that they might be with him." And
these were with him, on the shore of the little lake, in the
fields of grain, on the dusty roadways, and on the Mount
of Transfiguration. He seemed especially desirous of
having near to him at the hour of his greatest fight for
supremacy in the garden of Gethsemane his closest
friends. It was on this occasion that he singled out his
three loved disciples, men in the inner circle of his
friendship, Peter, James, and John, and asked them to
watch with him for a single hour. It was not because
they perfectly understood him — they were still dull,
stupid learners, frequently marring by their crude
mistakes more than they could repair by their successes.
They were not yet capable of arriving at his great secret ;
indeed in this deepest struggle of Christ, there was some
thing too divine for any poor fisher folk to fathom; yet
he wanted them with him because they were his friends,
and just as every human reaches out for a sympathetic
presence in its life's tragedy, so Christ longed for love
and thoughtfulness to break the terrific solitude of his
lonely battle.
There is perhaps no more central and eternal quality of
the human heart than this dependence upon sympathetic
friendship. Men can live and be happy without money,

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without fame, and without learning — but few men can
live the happy, worth-while life without friendship.
The wife of a very wealthy man in New York said to
me, "I have everything that money can buy: summer
homes, yachts, automobiles, and expensive jewelry. But
I would give them all for one or two friends who really
cared for me just for my own sake." A young man
came into my office and said, " I wish to ask the greatest
favor I ever requested of any man in my life. " I began
to think he wanted an especially good position or perhaps
wished to borrow a larger sum of money than did the
usual visitor with such a preface to his request. He
hastened to show me my mistake by saying, "I have
been in this city for eight months, and during all that
time, I have not seemed to find a single person who cared
whether I lived or died. My heart is breaking for
friendship. I have come to ask you this question:
Will you be my friend?" As I took the young man into
the inner office and closed the door against the world, as
he told me of the deepest secrets, the joys and sorrows of
his life, while I simply listened in sympathetic silence, as
he went away with a new light in his face simply because
he had spoken out his real life, I was impressed to ask
whether, after all, Drummond was not right, when he
said, "Greater than the power of wealth and fame is the
ability of a man to keep his heart open for love's sake, to
become a kind of healing confessional into which men may
creep to tell out the great deep things of thespirit. " The
man who has known sorrow and has had a friend who, quiet
ly coming into his home, has placed mutely a tender hand
upon his own, knows something of the needsof Jesus and the
opportunity which his disciples lost in that fateful hour in
Gethsemane, for the thing that counts is the man of heart.
George Eliot's prayer will never be out of place as long
as there are human needs and great hearts to meet them.

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 135
Oh, may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence.
Feed pure love,
Beget the smiles that have no cruelty,
Be the sweet presence of a good diffused,
And in diffusion ever more intense.
So shall I join the choir invisible
Whose music is the gladness of the world.
PUTTING ONE'S SELF IN ANOTHER'S PLACE
A few years ago while attending a conference in
Kentucky, an incident was related to me concerning the
way in which a rather simple man found a horse which had
strayed away and which no other person in the town had
been able to trace. Upon being asked how he found the
horse, the man replied, "I first asked where the horse
was last seen; I went to the spot and shutting my eyes
began to say to myself, ' I'm a horse, I'm a horse,' thinking
all the time, 'Now I'm a horse and can go anywhere I
please; where would I naturally go?' Pretty soon I
thought of a fine piece of oats about a mile away. ' I will
go to those oats and eat as much as I can, and then I will
lie down and enjoy myself.' I went to the field of oats
and there was the horse. " It was the simplest thing that
he could do. He put himself in the place of the horse.
Professor Palmer calls this sympathetic, imaginative
ability when found in a teacher, the " aptitude for vica-
riousness. " It involves not only the discerning of what
constitutes another man's burden but also assistance in
helping him bear the same.
A person who truly puts himself in another's position
will not speak ill of his neighbor, for he will realize had
he been in the same place, surrounded by like environment
from his youth, subjected to similar temptations, he un-

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doubtedly would have been much the same kind of man.
"Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you,"
means that we must transport ourselves by thought to
the point of view of our friends. This act usually
precludes harsh judgments ; it often prescribes silence or
no judging on our part, for who can fully comprehend
another's battle, another's circumstances? Jesus rightly
confined judgment to God who knows men through and
through. He knows not only our sin but also our inner
recoil from that sin. He not only knows our wayward
ness but He also understands the dark hours of repentance
and the sense of guilt which follows. He looks not only
upon the outward appearance but also upon the heart.
We have a high-priest who can be touched by the feeling
of our infirmities, tempted in all points like as we are,
yet without sin.
FRIENDSHIP IS HELPING SOME ONE
Henry Drummond was asked by a young man how
he should get to really care for other men as Drummond
seemed to do. The answer received was, "Go and do
something for your friend!" We live in an age of con
ventions, conferences, organizations, and talks about ways
and means. Hours, days, and sometimes weeks are spent
in note- takings and conferrings upon relationships and the
laying down of rules and regulations. Christians fre
quently are tired out talking about the things they ought
to be doing, when few of us have begun to live up to the
things we already know. I attended a convention some
years ago in which days were consumed in argument over
principles of polity and organization. Just as the
meeting was closing a man in the gallery said, "Mr.
Chairman, I have heard about many things here but I
have heard no word about doing anything for one's

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 137
friend, and the love of God." To satisfy the man a
motion was made to add a clause to a long list of policies,
stating in a footnote the views of the assembly about
friendship and the love of God — the love of God and
friendship in a footnote! Let us have conferences, to be
sure, in moderation, but let them not crowd out our
practice. If Jesus had spent as much time in attending
meetings and conventions as many of us professional
Christians do to-day, it would have shortened at least
by one third his working days on earth. The advice of
an athletic leader of the Christian Association at Har
vard a few years ago was not inappropriate regarding the
cultivation and the actual accomplishment of Christian
friendship: "Do a lot of work and don't talk much
about it."
What do we really give to our friends?
FRIENDSHIP AN UNDEVIATING CONFIDENCE
Jesus believed in men and saved them by his tie of
confidence. "Nobody cares, " are the words of many a
man's doom. Never give a man up. Refuse to believe
evil of people, concentrate upon people's virtues rather
than their faults.
I used to walk along the streets of New York with
Robert R. McBurney, the pioneer secretary of the New
York Young Men's Christian Association, a man who did
more perhaps than any other to shape the policies and
the power of that work on the American continent, as did
Sir George Williams, the founder in England. I have
seen him look upon a young man with his face aglow,
exclaiming, "What a fine fellow that is !" and I thought of
Jesus looking upon the young man in a way that caused
his disciples to say, "And Jesus loved him." This
greatness, this largeness of heart came through a settled

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habit of McBurney's life not to distrust but to believe
in men. In spite of the many times he was deceived by
falseness, the most frequent words I can remember
were, "There must be something good in that man. I
shall give him another trial. "
This determined confidence is the secret of friendship.
If God did not follow that principle where would we be
to-day with all our pretensions? — for no man who is hon
est with himself can free himself from the realization ex
pressed by Luther, who was heard to cry, "My sins, my
sins!" Remember that God believes in us, that He has
not cast us off, that He said, "I will never leave nor for
sake thee ; fear not, I am with thee." These are the notes
of permanent encouragement in our relation to His di
vine friendship. It is this utter belief and loyalty which
brings us friends and keeps them for us. What if every
prisoner coming out of his prison had had a friend to take
him by the hand and say, "I will stand by you, I have not
lost confidence in you. You have it in your power to
succeed, I am your steadfast friend " ? The power that
one person has to hearten and to save another who is his
friend is beyond all compute. This is the good news of
Christianity. This is the basis of friendship, love be
tween man and man and between man and God. This
confidence and belief — it is love finding its goal and reason
for being, in helping, in hoping, and in believing all
things.

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 139
QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION
An eminent statesman has defined Christianity as a
great friendship. How does your friendship with God re
semble your friendship with your best earthly friend?
What are the differences?
Why do you love your friend? What kind of un
selfishness does real friendship include?
Matthew 5: 43-48; Luke 6: 36-38.
Tennyson once said about his friend that whether or
not he had letters from him, he knew that "he was
always there. " Are broken friendships real friendships?
Is a test of friendship in its lasting qualities?1
When did Jesus seek help from his friends and find
them inadequate? In what did their failure lie?
Mark 14: 4.
Peter was a fickle and impetuous friend to Jesus, yet
Jesus loved him and gave him a place in the inner circle
of his friendship. What does this teach in relation to
friendship? What about a man who claims to love God and yet
holds hatred in his heart for some person? I John 4 : 20.
Gladstone said, " I do not have time to hate anybody."
Do you think that unfriendliness is a greater cause of
worriment or disadvantage to others than it is to one's
self? We often hear persons say that they have no friends.
Does not the law of compensation to the end that you get
what you give, work in the realm of friendship?

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Do you think it right to criticize or judge absent
friends, and under what circumstances? How did the
love of Jesus for men differ from earthly friendship?
Romans 5 : 7-10.
Is it possible in modern life to follow the teaching of
Jesus in Luke 6: 27-43?
Read the Old Testament friendship classic concerning
the love of David and Jonathan. I Samuel 18:1-5.
Also David's lamentation over the death of Saul and
Jonathan. II Samuel i : 19-27.
Note the way in which the New Testament rebukes
speaking ill of others.
James 4:11-12; Matt. 7:1-2; Matt. 5:21-22;
John 8 : 3-1 1 ; Gal. 6:1-3.
One of the few cases in the New Testament where
Jesus showed deep emotion was over the death of his
friend Lazarus. Read John i i : 1-44.

XI
The Man Who Works

141

XI
THE MAN WHO WORKS
Work not for the food which perisheth, but for the food
which abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man
shall give unto you: for him, the Father, even God, hath
sealed. John 6: 27.
Blessed is every one that feareth Jehovah,
That walketh in His ways,
For thou shalt eat the labor of thy hands;
Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
Psalms 128: 1-2.
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deluding your own selves. For if any one is a hearer of
the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding
his natural face in a mirror : for he beholdeth himself and
goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of
man he was. But he that looketh into the perfect law,
the law of liberty, and continueth, being not a hearer
that forgetteth but a doer that worketh, this man shall
be blessed in his doing. James 1 : 22.
Go to the ant, thou sluggard,
Consider her ways and be wise.
Proverbs 6: 6.
Now them that are such we command and exhort in
the Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and
eat their own bread. I Thess. 3:12.
H3

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Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall
stand before kings. Proverbs 22 : 29.
Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send
forth the feet of the ox and the ass. Isaiah 32 : 20.
And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own
business, and to work with your hands, even as we charged
you; that ye may walk becomingly toward them that
are without, and may have need of nothing.
I Thess. 4: 11-12.
The laborer is worthy of his hire. Luke io: 7.
Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished; but he
that gathereth by labor shall have increase. Proverbs 13: n.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy
might. Eccles. 9: 10.
Commit thy works unto Jehovah,
And thy purposes shall be established. Proverbs 16:3.
If any will not work, neither let him eat.
II Thess. 3: 10.
For God will bring every work into judgment, with
every hidden thing, whether it be good or whether it be
evil. Eccl. 12: 14.

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 145
WITNESS OF MEN
Work in every hour, paid or unpaid; see only that thou
work, and thou canst not escape the reward; whether
thy work be fine or coarse, planting corn or writing epics,
so only it be honest work, done to thine own approbation,
it shall earn a reward to the senses as well as to the
thought; no matter how often defeated, you are born to
victory. Reward of a thing well done, is to have done it.
Emerson.
The Romans had two proverbs about work, namely:
"Labor conquers all difficulties," and "Labor is itself
a pleasure." He that by the plow would thrive,
Himself must either hold or drive. Franklin.
"Genius," said ex- President Timothy Dwight of
Yale, "is the power of making efforts. "
I can plod, I can persevere in any definite pursuit.
To this I owe everything. William Cary.
What we think, or what we know, or what we believe,
is in the end of little consequence. The only thing of
consequence is what we do. Ruskin.
Genius is sublime toil. Victor Hugo.
Patience and perseverance turn mulberry leaves into
satin. Chinese Proverb.
When Milton lost his sight he wrote :
" Yet I argue not
Against Heaven's hand or will, or bate a jot
Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer
Right onward."

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Produce. Produce. Were it but the pitifullest
infinitesimal fraction of a product, produce it, in God's
name. 'Tis the utmost thou hast in thee: out with it
then. Up. Up. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do,
do it with thy whole might. Work while it is called
To-day ; for the night cometh wherein no man can work.
Thomas Carlyle.
Good solid work is as necessary for the peace of mind
as it is for the health of the body; in fact the two are
inseparable. Sir John Lubbock.
"Stand up, stand up now, Tomlinson, and answer loud
and high
The good that ye did for the sake of men or ever ye
came to die —
The good that ye did for the sake of men in little earth
so lone."
And the naked soul of Tomlinson grew white as a rain-
washed bone.

"O this I have read in a book," he said "and that was
told to me,
And this I have thought that another man thought of a
Prince in Muscovy. "
The good souls flocked like homing doves and bade him
clear the path,
And Peter twirled the jangling keys in weariness and
wrath.
" Ye have read, ye have heard, ye have thought," he said,
" and the tale is yet to run:
By the worth of the body that once ye had, give answer —
What ha' ye done? " Kipling.

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 147
THE MAN WHO WORKS
Christ was indefatigable in toil. He had a big work to
do, something that meant incessant industry, that gave
him no time for foolish fears. He compressed into the
three years of his public service of which we have a
written account, a lifetime of service. He took particular
pains to insist upon the necessity of labor. The man in
the parable of the talents who failed to make use of his
gift was cast into outer darkness, the hell of unemployed
faculties. The man who said he would not go to the
vineyard, and afterwards repented and went, was com
mended rather than the man who promised but did not go.
The Master said, "Why do ye say, Lord, Lord, and
do not the things which I say?" Unproductiveness
received his severest censure; he could endure anything
better than idle excuses covering indolence or idleness.
The fig tree was blasted because it could show no figs;
the Pharisees received his intense censure because they
professed and did not make good by their works. Christ
maintained that such fruitless men and things, whenever
and wherever found, were to be destroyed, burnt up,
swept utterly away, in order to free the ground for fruit-
bearers, producers, creators. Such men, indeed, paved
the way for their demolition through their inertness and
the neglect of the exercise of their abilities, bringing
upon themselves atrophy. Jesus gave work to men for
the cure of their temptations and troubles. ' ' Watch and
pray," he said, "lest ye enter into temptation."
He also set to work, as the surest salvation, those whom
he cured in body and in spirit, knowing as he taught that
the devils rush into an empty house. He enjoined work
because of the brevity of life, and he gave God, the Father,
as an example in his creation and care for the world.
The entire Gospel of Christianity is toward activity
and positive exertion in "good works," as over against

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professions and negative laws and observances. The
New Testament tells of a Christ of the carpenter shop,
who sent his disciples forth to teach and to heal, saying
a servant is not greater than his Lord ; of a Christ who was
wounded for the transgressions of humanity and bruised
in his combat with the enemies of men, who always had
to fight his way, who counted his life not dear to him
self, who was straitened until his task could be accom
plished, who deliberately gave up his life and found it
more abundantly, as the grain of wheat which literally
dies in the earth that it may not abide alone — this is the
Christ who has brought hope and incentive, with the
example of toil unsevered from tranquillity, to the labor
ing children of men.
I have just witnessed a most dissatisfying representa
tion of the Passion of Christ in a play by peasants in the
Austrian Tyrol. It was a " Passion Play," but without
passion or any powerful impulse. The actors seemed to
have missed the very essence of the Master's character
istic, his forcefulness as a combatant against evil, a man
with a mission for service. The active principle of effort,
the contagious enthusiasm of a crusader or a pioneer, was
entirely absent. I saw only a weak, effeminate, pale, and
spiritless being representing the Man of Nazareth, a humi
liated buffer between those whose chief business was to
ridicule and smite him as he moved about abstractedly.
They showed us a passionless and missionless being
without purpose or personality, unsuccessful and defeated.
There was no fire of action about his presence, no iron in
his blood. There were no moments of real victorious
manhood, no sense of achievement such as we invariably
connect with the Son of Man. This pitiable victim of
circumstance, which we saw, was the medieval conception
of the " Man of Sorrows." It was no wonder that there was
little or no impulse to applause or to service, stirred in the

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 149
hearts of the great audience — only a few women's tears
for an unfortunate creature of environment were the
result of the picture presented to us by the imagination
of the Austrian peasants.
Such was not the Christ of the Gospels, whose dom
inating career filled the minds of the early Christians,
before whose conquering figure rulers shrank as before a
power they could not understand, and from whose path
of deeds his enemies and his obstacles were swept as
thistledown before the wind. This militant Christ
commanded his followers, "Go work to-day," and led
the march, through days and nights of unceasing and
unwearied preaching and teaching, traveling by foot,
healing the sick, opening the eyes of the blind, hurling
his thunderbolts of woe against all the doddering, stag
nant usurpers of a merely professional religion. He gave
us the portrait of one who toils in his prayers.
Here was no colorless, yielding, sad-eyed nature, making
little or no appeal to strong men ; such portraits of Christ
have always been a travesty upon real Christianity.
Those who have caught the spirit of the New Testament
have found it a driving power to action, they have kept
their nerves strong as did Paul with "labors more abun
dant." It was a regnant, purposeful being whom the
disciples followed out to service and to martyrdom; he
inspired, he brought hope, he made the dead alive, with
an energy that no passive or inactive being could possibly
reveal. He was ihe Christ of work.
This real Jesus of social and human sympathies, the
Christ of the brotherhood of man, is the master of present-
day religion; he is taking firmer hold than ever upon the
life of our times, in so far as men have proved themselves
capable of sweeping past antiquated middle-aged con
ceptions of him and of the Church theological, going
directly to the Gospels for their ideas of religion. Men

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are finding in the outspoken attitude towards sin of
every form, a brace for their drooping and half-hearted
liberalism; those who would wage holy war against
modern vice or impurity, or against public or private
wrong, find their texts in the parables and the words of
Jesus. The prophet who dared to face the leaders of the
Church of his day with the virile pronouncement of
"adulterers," because they looked upon a woman to lust
after her, even though they had not carried their desires
to fulfillment, is making men appear foolish enough
when they turn out of their churches or away from their
friendly aid the poor humans who sin publicly, while their
accusers, if honest in their hearts, go out self-condemned.
It is this triumphant, this hopeful, this active and
serviceable note of the captain of the world's religious
salvation which we need in our social and civic wars
against the drink that is spoiling the nation's youth,
against sham and pretence both within and without
the confines of the Church, against saintly pietism that
harks back to the sixteenth century for its models and
is too lazy to think out Christ's spirit and method for
the present age, against the traffic in white slaves, against
the stealing by men in high and low life ; the age cries out
for the religion of deeds and daring and determination.
The times call for construction, not insurgency in religion.
Men of to-day are ready to march forth in a war whose
watchword is action and only in such an one. There are
indications that, not only in America but in all parts of
the world, leaders are being raised up to sing this refrain,
this marseillaise of labor :
"The Son of God goes forth to war,
A kingly crown to gain.
His blood-red banner streams afar,
Who follows in his train?

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 151
Who best can drink his cup of woe,
Triumphant over pain,
Who patient bears his cross below,
He follows in his train."
I can conceive of no real Christian who does not work
more than he prays. Christ . taught us prayer, but his
life was spent in serving, not praying, unless we may say,
and justly, that his whole life was a prayer in its minister
ing rather than being ministered unto. By his example
of laborious days we are led on to our own personal vic
tories. The Christian religion has dignified forever work and
honest toil. Nothing great ever happens without it.
Work always wins, in the end over mere genius, mere talk;
it wins over intellect, beauty, nature, over fine theories,
political, religious, theological, yes, over inert goodness.
God is with the worker wherever he lives and wherever
he works, providing he toils sincerely at a genuine and
worthy task. You can never overcome a real worker;
he is solidly and confidently founded upon what he has
done and is doing, like a house that builds itself upon a
rock rather than upon shifting sand. The future as well
as the present belongs to him. " One day it shall delight
you also to remember labor done," says Boswell of
Johnson. The worker knows that he can leave his cause,
to use Gladstone's phrase, to the certain " arbitrament of
time," and he is serene. It is only the idle, hesitant,
wavering man whose soul is filled with qualms and fears.
Two friends of mine in my college class have interested
me greatly since their graduation. One was a brilliant
prize-winner, the other a dull plodder. Seven years
after graduation I found the prize-winner out in the Far
West in a small office as a second-rate barrister, while the
man who stood almost at the foot of his class, who was

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always ridiculed because he could not make a speech
in his fraternity debating exercises, and who was obliged
to miss many of the social events of his college career
because he was running a boarding-house to pay his
student expenses, was one of the busiest and most
successful physicians in a large Eastern city, with a
considerable income, and was sending two of his brothers
through college. One day I asked him, "Why?" " I just
work," he answered. That was the secret and the real
secret. I learned that he had hardly taken a week off in
five years, but regardless of his feelings or circumstances,
had devoted himself to his profession. In contrasting
these two men, the thing that is impressive is not that a
dull man should necessarily succeed more surely than a
bright man, but that the bright man with this unquench
able power for work belonging to his fellow-student,
might have gone far in advance of his handicapped friend.
Any man can overcome his sorrows, his defeats, his
defects of education, even his weakness of disposition
and temperament, if he is willing to work hard enough at
some worth-while task. After a firm faith in God there
is no secret of success but work, work, work. Kipling
has fitly painted Heaven in his "L'envoi," as a place where
men "shall work for an age at a sitting, and never be
tired at all." The late President William R. Harper
of Chicago University, when he died, said that his
greatest wish was that Heaven would give him some
larger work to do. The Rector of the University of
Zurich, from whom I asked the secret of the splendid
progress so evident in all kinds of institutions in Switzer
land, replied, "We like to work."
Give us men who like to work, men who can persevere
at working, men who toil upwards in the night while
their companions sleep, men who do not expect hard
things to be easy, who realize that victory is worth

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 153
nothing without struggle, men who are willing to pay for
the prizes of life by serving, and we shall have institu
tions and nations increasingly great and worthy, guided
and ruled over by the uncrowned kings of toil.
"Strike hands, my brother man,
'Tis yours with voice and act and pen,
'Tis yours to paint the morning red,
That ushers in the grander day.
So may each unjust cord be broke,
Each toiler find his just reward.
And life sound forth a truer chord. "

QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION
Which do you think more deeply influenced the dis
ciples of Jesus, his teaching or his work?
Which made the deeper impression upon the people of
his time?
It would seem that social Christianity is gaining over
theological Christianity to-day in America.
Is this to be regretted? Is there a danger here?
Which naturally comes first, a man's creed or a man's
work? Which would you prefer to have, genius or the ability
to work hard in the face of great discouragement?
Thomas Huxley, who became one of the most brilliant
and successful lecturers of his time, after his first Royal
Institution lecture received an anonymous letter recom
mending him never to try it again, for whatever else he
might be fitted for, it was not for giving lectures.
What are the greater works meant by Christ when he
said, "and greater works than these shall he do" ?
John 14: 12.

154 Bible Stubs in tbe Mori? of Xife
Theodore Roosevelt once said to his classmates at Har
vard, "There are two kinds of men in the world who
succeed, the man who succeeds because of his unique
power of intellect, and the man who succeeds because he
sees the thing that ought to be done, that every one
admits ought to be done, and while others are talking
about it, goes and does it."
Is it true that much good work is imperilled by over-
consideration? Is there any real recreation for a man who does not
work? Is amusement the same thing as recreation?
Do you think that change of work is sufficient recrea
tion for the average man?
Can a man be truly a Christian if he keeps his Chris
tianity and religion to himself? John 15: 2; Matt. 5: 13-16.
In many cases the laboring man feels that the Church
is not his friend. What means would you suggest for
bringing the working man and the Church into closer
co-operation? If our cares and worries are simply mental, the result
of turning the mind inward too constantly, is not work,
which places the thoughts upon things outside, the
remedy for our ills?
God's Promises: Isaiah 33: 15-17; Proverbs 16:3:13:
11; 8: 18-21; Psalms 128: 1-4; 24: 3-5; Hebrews
6:7-8; Psalms 127:1-2; Isaiah 55. Read Psalm
34-

XII
Do We Really Believe God ?

155

XII
DO WE REALLY BELIEVE GOD?
Abraham believed God and it was reckoned unto him
for righteousness. Gal. 3 : 6.
Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a con
viction of things not seen. Heb. ii : i.
Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace. Luke 7 : 50.
And that life which I now live in the flesh, I live in
faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave himself up for me. Gal. 2 : 20.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word
and believeth him that sent me hath eternal life and
cometh not into judgment, but has passed out of death
into life. John 5 : 24.
Jesus said unto her, Said I not unto thee, that if
thou believedst, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
John 11:40.
Then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said,
Why could not we cast it out? And he saith unto
them, Because of your little faith; for verily I say unto
you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall
say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place;
and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto
you. Matt. 17: 19-20.
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By faith we understand that the worlds have been
framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not
been made out of things which appear . . . and without
faith it is impossible to be well pleasing unto him; for
he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that
he is a rewarder of them that seek after him.
Hebrews 11:3, 6.
And he said unto him, Arise and go thy way; thy
faith hathmade thee whole. Luke 17: 19.
And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath
made thee whole ; go in peace. Luke 8 : 48.
And this is the victory that hath overcome the world,
even our faith. And who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
I John 5:4-5.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth hath
eternal life. John 6 : 47 .
For which cause I suffer also these things ; yet I am not
ashamed; for I know him whom I have believed, and I
am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have
committed unto him against that day. Hold the pattern
of sound words which thou hast heard from me, in faith
and love which is in Christ Jesus. II Tim. i : 12-13.
And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in
God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto
this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea;
and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that
what He saith cometh to pass, he shall have it.
Mark i i : 22-23.

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 159
And by faith in his name hath his name made this
man strong whom ye behold and know: yea, the faith
which is through him hath given him this perfect sound
ness in the presence of you all. Acts 3: 16.

WITNESS OF MEN
Attempt great things for God — Expect great things of
God. William Cary.
We die when our faith dies — our power is not a power
of genius but an almightiness of belief.
Joseph Parker.
A mushroom spawn can lift a paving stone because the
substantial life in it is a part of the one life pulsing through
all. "Have the faith of God," said Jesus. It is as
though he had said, Call into operation the life of God
within you, turn it towards God ; for believing is an atti
tude, a mirror placed at the proper angle.
Dean Wilberforce.
I know not what the future hath of marvel or surprise,
Assured alone that life and death his mercy underlies;
I know not where His islands lift their fronded palms
in air,
I only know I cannot drift beyond His love and care.
Whittier.
True faith is no mere intellectual exercise. The faith
which is enjoined on us is a living faith, and faith without
works is dead. Selden compares faith and works to

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light and heat: "Though in my intellect I may divide
them, just as in the candle I know there is both light and
heat; yet put out the candle and both are gone. "
Sir John Lubbock.
Thou askest why Christ, so lenient to the deed,
So sternly claims the faith which founds the creed;
Because, reposed in faith, the soul has calm;
The hope a haven, and the wound a balm;
Because the light, dim seen in Reason's dream,
On all alike, through faith alone, could stream.
God willed support to weakness, Joy to grief,
And so descended from His throne, Belief.
Sir E. B. Lytton.
Strong Son of God, immortal Love,
Whom we, that have not seen thy face,
By faith, and faith alone, embrace,
Believing where we cannot prove.
Tennyson.
But we are all too little inclined to faith ; we are all, in
our serious moments, too much inclined to forget that all
are sinners, and fall justly by their faults, and therefore
that we have no more to do with that than with the
thunder-cloud ; only to trust, and do our best, and wear as
smiling a face as may be for others and ourselves.
R. L. Stevenson.
Oh, thou of little faith, lift up thine eyes.
Are the ten thousand glorious stars of night
But a vain dream, because thy feeble sight
May not behold them in the noonday skies?
Mary Howitt.

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 161
DO WE REALLY BELIEVE GOD?
A certain man outside the Christian Church said to a
prominent missionary worker in China who was con- .
stantly worried and troubled about trifles, "You are not a
Christian. You ask me to believe in your God and you
really do not believe in Him yourself. If He is the God
who gives peace, and protects His people from care and
anxiety, why don't you trust Him?"
faith in god eliminates fear
Fitting questions for every person regardless of his
profession would be in all sincerity to ask: "Do I really
believe God?" "Is there anything in my life that
would prove to one who did not believe in God that a
fundamental principle in Christianity is faith?"
The primal cause of American breakdown has been
attributed byafamous physician to "those absurd feelings
of hurry and care, to that breathlessness and tension, that
anxiety of future and solicitude of results, revealing the
lack of inner harmony and ease," without which good
work cannot be accomplished. The man who gived us
the impression of the old Scriptural motto, " In quietness
and confidence shall be your strength," is none too
common in these days.
One returns from the Orient where so much of life lies
in the "to-morrow" and where the passive virtues of
patience and ability-to-wait are cultivated far more
generally than in the West, to feel, in the midst of our
straining waste of energy, frequently over things that
are non-essential, a sense of misfortune. It is useless to
say to a man, " Do not worry, " for if that is all you can
suggest to him, he will reply, "I must worry, I cannot
help but worry." You must sink his thought into

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deeper resources, he must discover a fundamental reason
for quietude and trust in a power greater than himself,
greater than his own splendid accomplishments, greater
than his friends, greater than his money, since there come
times in the life of every man when one and all of these
are inadequate.
It is not necessary that a man should wait for
failure and physical breakdown in order that he may
learn to believe in a God who is capable of banishing
care and the sense of strain from his work and from his
life. It is not necessary that a man stop work, for work
is helpful, it is the veritable salvation of most men; only
worry and fear are the sure forerunners of disease. One
meets in travel a goodly percentage of people who are
trying to travel out of the reach of their illnesses or their
fears, and who are often most in fear of the events and
calamities that never occur.
"Half of the ills we hoard within our hearts
Are ills because we hoard them. "
Have you ever stopped to think that a Christian has
the inalienable right to an inheritance of peace? It is his
birthright at the hand of Christ, who gave it as his last
bequest. "My peace I give unto you; not as the world
giveth give I unto you; let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. " It is the Christian's privilege to
cast all of his cares and anxieties upon God, who really
cares for him. The faithless man should read for a
month, every morning, the nth chapter of Hebrews or the
14th chapter of John. He should stop to consider that
virtually every miracle that Jesus wrought was seemingly
for the purpose of instilling in the minds of the people a
steady confidence, a faith in God the Father to heal,
not only from bodily but also from spiritual ills.

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 163
The great events in the history of the Church have
been the events of faith. Luther while climbing up
the stairs of the Wartburg discovered the sentence of
Paul which became the battle-cry of the Reformation,
"The just shall live by faith." That phrase with its
far-reaching implications was a sustaining source of
strength to the great German reformer throughout his
career. There is no other reason but faith to ascribe to
the courage which nerved the hand that nailed those
memorable theses to the door, when Luther cried, "So
help me God, I cannot do otherwise." The history of
great statesmanship as well as the story of martyrdom is
the history of the trials and the conquests of men who
have believed in God. The sailing of the Mayflower was
the adventure of Christians who had seen their own
vision of their own God and could not forget. If you
believe you can, providing you believe strongly enough
not only in your own powers but in the sustaining divine
sufficiency, you can. When you read God's promises do
you realize that He truly means them? That He means
you when He utters such words as, " I will never leave you
nor forsake you, " that the following is a direct challenge
to your faith: "Be strong and of good courage; be not
affrighted, neither be thou dismayed: for Jehovah thy
God is with thee whithersoever thou goest" ?
Do we really believe God? Are we actually accepting
the heritage, the divine possibilities of our lives, do we
claim enough for ourselves? The faith in God which
eliminates fearfulness and terror from life, replacing
them with unfaltering and unhesitant progress, is the
indispensable accompaniment to all success that is
worthy of the name. This implicit belief that somehow,
somewhere, clouds will break, that God and not Satan is
running the world, and that all things do actually work
together for good to those who believe in Him, this casting

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all your care upon one who is capable and willing and
waiting to assist us, this is faith, and there is no fear
while you have faith.
faith in god brings the spirit of adventure
But faith is more than the elimination of fear. It has
a positive side and an active test. Belief in God is not
complete in the minds of men who wall themselves as in a
citadel, calmly and supinely trusting Providence to save
them from their enemies; it is an element driving men
forth from their fortresses to combat with their obstacles
and their enemies, saving not simply their citadel but
the surrounding country as well.
Belief in God calls out our best, our greatest action.
"Show me your faith without your works and I will
show you my faith by my works." When in that
striking and picturesque event narrated in Isaiah, the
conqueror from Edom overcame Israel's foe, it was for
a purpose. It occurred that the shadow of her enemy
should no longer haunt the chosen nation, it occurred in
order that Judah might be free to go forth and work out
her destiny and become what she never could have
realized without the assurance of God's care and strength
behind her. Religious belief is for the purpose of making
a religious life formidable. Its final test is that it works.
It is for this daring to enter upon difficult things in the
world's work that the vision of God through' faith comes
to men. Such belief makes men "eccentric" as Henry
Drummond used to say. They begin working from a
new center with a new vision. People of his time called
Jesus beside himself, the boys pointed to their heads when
Columbus walked along the streets, Paul was called mad,
Newton and Morse, and even in later days our pioneer
aviators, have received uncomplimentary titles for their

Un tbe Mori? of Xife 165
rashness and their daring. What have men ever accom
plished when they have not been borne out to their goal
upon a great wave of personal vision and conviction
regarding their work and their power to accomplish it?
When Livingstone went down into Africa, the osten
sible object which his countrymen saw was a wild,
adventurous plan of exploration. They did not see the
hand invisible, and, perhaps, Livingstone himself rather .
felt than saw it, the hand which not only guided but
supported the messenger of civilization and progress.
It was said that although the black men could not un
derstand the language of this white Englishman, they
nevertheless did understand his life and their dark faces
changed when he moved in and out amongst them.
They felt his faith. It magnetized conditions.
What have we ever really dared that we could not do
alone? Have we attempted great things and have we
expected great results? Have we had faith enough in
the final outcome to plod along patiently at routine
tasks ? In order to have a great result in any department
of life, one must have a great task, and in order to accom
plish great tasks in the larger sense, one must possess
the assurance that there is a God, and that He has made
to individuals definite promises, promises that He will
surely fulfill.
You may lose your friends, your money, your health,
but if you keep your faith in Almighty God, your Helper
and Deliverer, if you never say die but plod persistently,
ever invincibly, on — on — on — then you are unconquer
able, the world will make way for you, you will reveal to
modern life another man who believes God.
"If God be for us, who can be against us?"

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QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION
According to the Bible how can a man obtain faith in
God? Psalms 34: 8;I John 5: 4-5; Rom. i: 17.
Is faith consistent with scientific or natural law?
What kind of things has a man the right to believe will be
given him in answer to prayers of faith?
What is the difference between Christian faith and
fatalism? Is God limited by numbers in working a great work?
I Sam. 14; Judges 7:7; Joshua 23: 10.
Some people say faith is "just trust. " Do you think
that God wishes His children to believe in violation of
their reason?
Is belief in Christ's miracles necessary for being a
Christian? Think what Paul meant in his teaching.
Eph. 2: 8-9; I Cor. 16: 13; Gal. 2: 20.
Do you think a man is saved by believing or by
working? Or by both? Which comes first?
Romans 4 : 3-5 ; Eph. 3 : 1 7 ; Gal. 5:6; James 2 : 22-26.
What is your conception of "being saved"?
Christian faith is necessary for salvation. Just what
is Christian faith? Acceptance of the Athanasian Creed
or saying we believe in the Apostolic succession?
What was Christ's teaching? John ii : 25-26.

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Jesus' words of assurance to his disciples were authori
tative. Has a Christian any right to become timid and
fearful? Mark 5: 36; MARK9: 23; John 6: 35;I J0HN5: 1-6;
Psalms 42 : 5.
Did not Christ say over and over again, "Fear not,"
"Care not," "Be not anxious," "0, thou of little
faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" "Have faith in
God," " Upon this rock will I build my Church and the
gates of Hades shall not prevail against it," "For it is
your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom"?
In all his healing of the sick Jesus made the question
uppermost, "Believest thou?" What do you think was
his underlying purpose in his healing of the sick?
God's Promises: Isaiah 41:10; Acts 10:43; Mark
16: 16-19; John 12: 36, 46; Hebrews n: 6; I Peter
1:3-9; I Tim. 4:10; Matt. 21:21-22; Mark
9:23; Dan. 6: 23; John 14 : 10-15; Rom. 15 : 13;
Jer. 17 : 7-9. Read Ephesians 6; Psalm 107.

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