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 arV15163 
 
 The divine life 
 
 3 1924 031 696 713 
 olin.anx 
 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031696713 
 
THE DIVINE LIFE: 
 
 ITS DEVELOPMENT AND 
 
 ACTIVITIES 
 
 BY ALBERT L. GRIDLEY. 
 
 Author of Organic Evolution, Suborganic Evolution, Jesus 
 Only, The First Chapter of Genesis as the Rock Foundation for 
 Science and Religion, Demonstration of Kepler's Third Law and 
 the Effect of Ellipticity of Planetary Orbits upon the operation of 
 that Law, etc., etc. 
 
 "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious 
 promises that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature." 
 (II Peter 1 :4.) 
 
 "The question may arise if the Divine Life is as above, in what 
 does it differ from Christ's life? In this, there was no human pa- 
 ternity in Christ's life. The God life principle united directly 
 with the ovum in Mary's womb and developed the God man, God 
 in the flesh." 
 
 In the ovum of the female there is life, its own kind of life, 
 but with no power of development. When united with the male 
 life principle there may be power to develop along the lines of 
 human life. But this human life has no power to develop along 
 the lines of Godlike life. But when God unites his own life prin- 
 ciple to the human, as when He "breathed into Adam the breath 
 of life, and he became a living soul," then, and not until then, is 
 there power to develop Godward. The process of this union is 
 called regeneration, the resultant is the Divine Life, as the term 
 is generally used in the following pages. 
 
COPYRIGHT 1920 BY ALBERT L. GRIDLEY 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 fyV^3\6E 
 
 THE COURIER PRESS, 
 Bath, New York. 
 
IN MEMORIAM 
 
 My loving, faithful wife 
 
 CLARA E. BAILEY GRIDLEY 
 
 1853—1916 
 
THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 WHEN God breathed into Adam the breath of life" and 
 he became a living soul, he imparted to Adam of 
 his own life, eternal life. Adam then became pos- 
 sessed of the kind, the quality of the life of God. 
 Eternal, not simply as to duration, but the kind of 
 life that would produce Godlike activities. Adam possessed the 
 human, the immortal, life before; but after God imparted to him 
 of his own life, then he was a child of God in a new, a real and 
 true sense. 
 
 But God warned him concerning the forbidden fruit, "In the 
 day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," he was speaking of 
 that principle of eternal life that he had just imparted to him. 
 When Adam disobeyed, that life went out, became extinct, as God 
 said that it would. That was death in the supreme sense. The 
 separation of the immortal part of man from the material, physi- 
 cal, part is called death by way of accommodation, as there is no 
 better term to apply. But there is no extinction of the real life 
 principle. 
 
 Adam knew nothing of a physical death. But when he dis- 
 obeyed God, life in the absolute, the supreme sense, became ex- 
 tinct. Thus as far as that absolute, supreme life was concerned, 
 Adam died as God said that he would. That constituted Adam's 
 fall. But no created being can impart to its offspring a kind of 
 life that itself does not possess. So after Adam lost that life he 
 could not impart it to his descendants. So his fall constitutes 
 "The Fall of Man." 
 
 No human being, then, could possess that life without a direct 
 impartation from God. Christ came to make provision for such 
 an impartation of the Divine Life to every one who would ac- 
 cept it by believing on Jesus and accepting him as Lord. That 
 was Christ's supreme mission to the earth. When men accept 
 Christ in this way they become the "Children of God." So that 
 "As in Adam all died, so in Christ shall all be made alive," or 
 may be made "alive" in the same sense as that in which Adam 
 "became a living soul." 
 
The Argument 
 
 By receiving Christ we become partakers of the Godlife, the 
 Divine life that Adam lost by his transgression. 
 
 But that life is not imparted, at first, in all of its fullness. 
 It must be developed by the means, the agencies that God sup- 
 plies, as parents provide the means for the growth of their chil- 
 dren, so that they may become strong Godlike characters. 
 
 To promote this development, activity is necessary as in the 
 case of growing children. 
 
 But further, these activities must be the means of accom- 
 plishment. This achievement is reached in its highest measure, 
 when, as members of Christ's great, universal Church, we "are 
 members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones." 
 
 To reach this final conclusion a somewhat extended exam- 
 ination has been entered into concerning "The Second Coming'' 
 of Christ, his resurrection body and our own. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 / Some minor purposes Christ accomplished 
 
 by His coming 11 
 
 // The supreme purpose for which Christ 
 
 came into the world 18 
 
 III The mystery of how one life can be 
 
 united with another 23 
 
 IV An illustration of the fact 29 
 
 V The path of rectitude lies between extremes 33 
 
 VI Growth in Grace 43 
 
 VII The new motive in the Divine Life 54 
 
 VIII How this New Life is to be obtained 63 
 
 IX A means of developing that Life 72 
 
 X As an apparent exception of the rule that the 
 Decalogue is but the expression of princi- 
 ples, fundamental and eternal, one com- 
 mandment deserves special consideration 84 
 XI Some thoughts on the Second Coming of 
 
 Christ 94 
 
 XII The Second Coming — Continued 100 
 
 XIII The Resurrection 109 
 
 XIV The Church, the body of Christ 118 
 
THE DIVINE LIFE: 
 ITS DEVELOPMENT AND 
 ACTIVITIES 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 Some minor purposes Christ Accomplished by His 
 
 Coming. 
 
 Lo, I come to do thy will, God." (Heb. 10:9.) 
 
 THERE is one great, infinitely great, event in the 
 world's history, one towards which all preced- 
 ing history points forward and from which all 
 subsequent events are dated — the coming of 
 Jesus Christ into the world. For what purpose did he 
 come ? There must have been a necessity great enough to 
 warrant, to require, such an event. 
 
 In answering this question we may first consider 
 some subsidiary, collateral, purpose which he did accom- 
 plish. 
 
 It is said that he came to teach. He was a teacher, 
 a Master teacher. "Never man spake like this man," was 
 the amazing reply of those who were sent to entangle him 
 in his talk. But one amazing fact is that he never uttered 
 one new truth. Not one truth did he ever speak that was 
 not the common property of mankind as recorded in the 
 Bible, the Old Testament Scriptures as we have them 
 now, and that they then had. But the surprising thing 
 was his mastery of those truths, and his speaking them as 
 if they were his own original utterances. In fact they 
 were. They were truths that he had caused to be record- 
 ed centuries before in their scriptures. It is true that he 
 said, "A new commandment I give unto you." But it was 
 only the example of love that he was giving that was 
 new. Observe, he says, "As I have loved you." They 
 were f amiHar with the law of love. When a certain law- 
 yer stood up and tempted him, saying, "Master, what 
 shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus asked him what 
 
12 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 was written in the law. The lawyer answered by quoting 
 from the book of Deuteronomy, "Thou shalt love the 
 Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and 
 with all thy strength and with all thy mind; and thy 
 neighbor as thyself." Jesus said, "Thou hast answered 
 right, this do and thou shalt live." They were familiar 
 with the law but the new exemplification of it was new 
 to the world. 
 
 Again, his example is spoken of as the great pur- 
 pose that he came to serve. It is true that he set a per- 
 fect example. His life must have been sinless, or by his 
 death he could have atoned for no sins but his own. But 
 in many particulars his example should not or cannot be 
 followed by us. He was infinite in wisdom, in heart dis- 
 cerning, in power. He could condemn hypocrisy, Phar- 
 isaism and other sins in the concrete ; but we cannot, for 
 we do not know the hearts of men as he knew them. He 
 could forgive sins. We cannot, we have not the right. He 
 wrought miracles, even to raising the dead. We cannot, 
 we have not the power. The world had better examples 
 of righteous living then than they had ever followed. 
 
 There was Enoch, who walked with God "And was 
 not for God took him." There was Noah and his family. 
 There was Abraham, "The friend of God." There was 
 Isaac, who was a type of Christ in his willingness to be 
 offered up as a sacrifice in obedience to his father. There 
 was Daniel against whom no fault is recorded and whose 
 righteousness was manifested by the expressed conscious- 
 ness of his sinfulness as he says, "And while I was pray- 
 ing and confessing my sins and the sins of my people," 
 and so on. There were many more, even those whose 
 conduct has been criticised, who seem to have been more 
 highly esteemed of God than their critics. 
 
 But the content of Christ's example has never been 
 fully grasped, as, indeed, it can hardly be, by the finite 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 13 
 
 mind. One who had never seen a watch might look at the 
 outside of it and think it to be very simple, very easy to 
 pattern after but when the watch is opened and its com- 
 plicated structure, its content, is revealed, the difficulty 
 of copying it is seen. 
 
 So with the life of Christ. Within the apparently 
 simple exterior there is a complexity of detail that only 
 an inspired writer could outline and the most profound 
 intellect could explain. 
 
 But this may be touched upon at another time. 
 Again there are his wonderful works for the relief of 
 suffering. But he did not need to become incarnate to 
 heal the sick, cleanse the lepers or even to raise the dead. 
 He had as much power before his incarnation as when 
 he was in the flesh. He could have healed any disease or 
 relieved any human suffering without leaving his home 
 on high. He was moved with compassion at human 
 suffering and relieved it as any of us would have done or 
 would do if we had the power. But there was another 
 object in view, another object attained, that of proving 
 his character and establishing his claims as the Son of 
 God. "The works that I do in my Father's name they 
 bear witness of me." There was nothing that he did while 
 he was in the flesh that he could not have done without 
 taking on that robe of flesh. 
 
 But the great, what we may call the supreme, subsid- 
 iary purpose for which he came to earth in the form of 
 man, was to make an atonement for sin so that God 
 could be just and yet to justify, to treat as just or inno- 
 cent, those who would come to him through Chrrist, or 
 accept that sacrifice that Jesus Christ made on Cal- 
 vary. But the atonement of Christ is the offense of the 
 cross. There is no doctrine, and even in this age of the 
 world I am not ashamed of the term "doctrine," or I may 
 say, no truth recorded in the scriptures of truth that is 
 
14 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 more hard for human nature to receive than the declared 
 truth of the atonement of Christ. It is so humihating to 
 human pride, so opposed to human choice, to depend for 
 salvation upon the atonement of Christ that many will 
 not receive the truth. And yet its necessity is founded in 
 the very nature of things. The whole patriarchal dispen- 
 sation had reference to it, the whole Jewish dispensation 
 was founded upon the fact that satisfaction must be made 
 to Divine Justice before sins could be forgiven or men 
 could be at peace with God. The sacrifice of Abel was a 
 type of the one on Calvary. All of the sacrifices in the 
 whole Jewish dispensation were but the types of the great 
 Antitype, him who was made an "offering and a sacri- 
 fice for sin." 
 
 No truth was more the object of prophecy in the Old 
 Testament, no truth more emphasized in the New, than 
 that Christ was ofifered up as an offering and a sacrifice 
 for sin. The doctrine is not simply Paul's. It is more 
 emphatically the teaching of Him who said that he came 
 "Lutron anti pollon," a sacrifice, instead of, in the place 
 of, many. 
 
 If the doctrine of the vicarious sacrifice of Christ 
 as an atonement for sin is not a truth it is impossible for 
 God to express his thoughts to men, or for the Greek 
 language to convey a definite idea. 
 
 One difficulty in accepting this truth is the difficulty 
 of perceiving why it should be true. This difficulty arises 
 from an inadequate conception of the scope of God's gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 There are unnumbered millions of sentient beings 
 who have never been clothed with the vestments of the 
 flesh, beings who existed before the material universe 
 was brought into being. All must be and are under the 
 government of God. Have all submitted to that govern- 
 ment as loyal subjects? Evidently not. Christ says, "I 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities IS 
 
 beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." And he had 
 his myriads of followers. There are wicked spirits in the 
 vniiverse. How did they become such ? God never made 
 a wicked spirit any more than he made a wicked man. He 
 made beings, spirits and humans, innocent ; but their 
 character must be determined by their own voluntary 
 choice. God never made a wicked being as such. They 
 make their own characters. That is the case with men. 
 In the very nature of things this must be the case with un- 
 incarnate beings. They become wicked by following the 
 selfish impulses of their own natures. But God must be 
 just. He is supreme and every being must be subser- 
 vient to him. "Justice and judgment are the habitation of 
 thy throne." As a necessary consequence rebellion against 
 God's authority was punished, or, at least, for the good of 
 those yet innocent the prime mover of sedition with all his 
 followers was excluded from heaven and sent to "The 
 place prepared for the Devil and his angels." This view is 
 not simply Miltonic ; it is scriptural, reasonable, and in 
 some of its phases, in accordance with human experience. 
 On the occasion of that revolt in heaven, we may 
 imagine God as saying to himself, or to the constituents 
 of his being, "Let us make man in our likeness." For the 
 developing of a race of beings that should be immune 
 from temptation or above its power when they should 
 come to their final state, he constructed the entire physi- 
 cal universe. This unverse was designed as the home of a 
 race of beings "A little lower than the gods." Those be- 
 ings were clothed with material bodies, thus subjecting 
 them to a new discipline for developing stronger char- 
 acters in righteousness. 
 
 There are temptations of the flesh that are not inci- 
 dent to pure unincarnate spirits. All of this physical uni- 
 verse was constructed with reference to the training of 
 this new race of beings. But if one of these beings trans- 
 
16 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 gressed the law of God, the same consequences must fol- 
 low as followed the transgressions of unembodied spirits, 
 or God would be unjust. Sin must be followed by pen- 
 alty in the physical universe as it was in the unseen 
 world of spirits. If God punished the "Angels who kept 
 not their first estate," he must do the same for man. I 
 speak of Justice. That is not a merely arbitrary idea of 
 God. It is inherent in his nature as God, and its exercise 
 is absolutely essential for the highest interest of all of his 
 creatures. 
 
 Now, whether this view be correct or not, there are 
 legions, myriads, of spiritual beings, both good and bad, 
 who were and are to be witnesses of God's dealings with 
 the race of beings which he brought into being. So God's 
 righteousness must be vindicated before angels and men. 
 Justice must be administered, or the government of God 
 would be despised and anarchy would result in all the 
 universe of seen and unseen beings. 
 
 But "All have sinned and come short of the glory of 
 God." How then can any one escape the consequences? 
 The problem was too deep for the jurists of old. God 
 solved the problem, it was by the vicarious sacrifice of 
 Christ. 
 
 So Jesus died, 
 
 "Making His soul an offering for sin; 
 
 Just for unjust, and innocence for guilt ; 
 
 By doing, suffering, dying unconstrained. 
 
 Save by omnipotence of boundless grace. 
 
 Complete atonement made to God appeased ; 
 
 Made honorable His insulted law, 
 
 Turning the wrath aside from pardoned man ; 
 
 Thus truth with Mercy met, and righteousness, 
 
 Stooping from highest heaven, embraced fair Peace 
 
 That walked the earth in fellowship with Love." 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 17 
 
 Thus the greatest subsidiary purpose for which 
 Christ came was accomplished. 
 
 The supreme purpose for which he came must next 
 be considered. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Supreme Purpose For Which Christ Came Into 
 The World. 
 
 " I am come that they might have life and that they 
 might have it more abundantly." 
 
 These remarkable words of Christ have not gener- 
 ally been fully understood. What does He mean by say- 
 ing that He was come that they might have life? He was 
 not addressing dead corpses, nor was he speaking of those 
 who were physically dead, or in the sense in which we 
 usually speak of the dead. He evidently did not mean 
 that he would restore to physical life those who were in 
 their graves. They were not his sheep. Those of whom 
 he spoke were those who followed him, loved him, his 
 disciples. The question again recurs, What does he 
 mean ? For an answer we must go back to Gen. II. God 
 breathed into Adam the breath of life and he became a 
 living soul. That was the impartation to our first parent 
 of life from God, God's own life. But God said that if 
 he, Adam, ate of the forbidden fruit that he should die. 
 Satan said that he should not die. Which told the truth ? 
 According to the popular, the common conception, Satan 
 told the truth and God told the wrong story. Adam did 
 not die a physical death for nearly a thousand years af- 
 terward. Did God then tell a wrong story? No. "Let 
 God be true, though every man be a liar." The truth is 
 that God was speaking of the Eternal life principle that 
 God imparted when He breathed into Adam "The breath 
 of life and he became a living soul." 
 
 Adam was already a human being, he had animal, 
 even more, he had the human life principle already. But 
 added to this God imparted to him of His own life. That 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 19 
 
 was eternal life, eternal in the sense that it never had a 
 beginning and would never have an end. It was the im- 
 partation of God's own life principle. That was the life 
 of which God spoke when He told Adam that he should 
 die the day he disobeyed. When Adam received that life 
 from God he was a child of God. Our children are our 
 children because we have imparted to them of our own 
 life. When God imparted to Adam his life, Adam was a 
 child of God. He then was a partaker of the Divine na- 
 ture and not until then. Parents impart of their lives to 
 their children. God imparted of His life to our first 
 parents. 
 
 It is necessary here to observe that this life princi- 
 ple is not simply different as to duration, continuance, it is 
 different in kind. Its nature is different, it produces dif- 
 ferent results from the merely human life. 
 
 Anything that has life will produce results accord- 
 ing to the life principle it contains. There may be mil- 
 lions of protoplasmic cells so nearly alike that no micro- 
 scopic, no chemical test could detect the difference. Yet 
 one in its development would produce a toadstool, another 
 an oak. 
 
 No two of millions might develop in the same way or 
 produce like results. But each one produces results ac- 
 cording to its own peculiar life principle. Conversely, each 
 product partakes of the life principle of the parent. I 
 may repeat a thought here for emphasis. When God 
 breathed into Adam the breath of life and he became a 
 living soul, He imparted to him the principle of the God 
 life that would develop Godlike character and produce 
 the fruits of holiness. Godlike living. 
 
 It was this life of which God spoke and warned 
 Adam, "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely 
 die." Satan said, "Ye shall not surely die." Which told 
 the truth? Upon the surface of things Satan told the 
 
20 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 truth, for, as said before, Adam lived for many years 
 after that. But God was speaking of the God inbreathed 
 principle of eternal life, God's own life imparted to him. 
 That life went out. In the sense of the God imparted life 
 Adam was dead. And that was death in the supreme 
 sense, the separation of the soul from the body is called 
 ■death by way of accommodation ; there is no better term, 
 perhaps, to employ. But that God given life was life in the 
 supreme sense, its extinction was death in the supreme 
 sense. In that sense Adam was dead. God told the truth. 
 And now what followed? No created being can im- 
 part to its offspring a kind of life that itself does not pos- 
 sess. Adam could not impart to his offspring the princi- 
 ple of the God life, the eternal life, for after his trans- 
 gressions he did not have it. This is the philosophy of 
 the fact that Paul expresses, "In Adam all died." His 
 posterity would have life of a kind, but not that kind that 
 was of God, the principle of eternal life. If his offspring 
 ever had that kind of life it must be by direct impartation 
 from God. And so it came about that "In Christ must 
 all be made alive." 
 
 That men might be made alive in that sense was 
 the supreme purpose for which Christ came, suffered, 
 died and rose again. After Christ had accomplished 
 his work, God could be just and the justifier, or would 
 be able to treat as just or innocent all who would come 
 to him through Christ. Adam was innocent when God 
 imparted to him that life. By accepting the work of 
 Christ we may be treated as innocent. Accepting that 
 life we become the children of God in a new and unique 
 sense. We are then the children of God because He 
 has imparted his own life to us and we are his children 
 as those to whom we impart life are our children. "But 
 as many as received him to them he gave power to be- 
 ■come the sons of God, even to them that believe on his 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 21 
 
 name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of 
 the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." 
 
 Then we are in no semi-fictitious mythical or myste- 
 rious sense, but really, truly, actually, the children of God 
 and partakers of the Divine nature. 
 
 So Christ says, "I am come that they might have 
 life." 
 
 But there are so many in these days who insist 
 that independently of Christ we are by natural birth the 
 children of God that we need to insist upon what Christ 
 himself and the inspired writers say on this subject. 
 
 But Christ makes the declaration above in no equiv- 
 ocal terms. It was not necessary for him to impart a 
 life that they already had. He must have meant some- 
 thing entirely different from the natural life. He re- 
 fers to eternal life as he elsewhere says, "I give unto 
 my sheep eternal life." Paul says the gift of God is 
 eternal life, or changing the order for clearness. Eternal 
 life is the gift of God. It is the imparting of a new life 
 principle. Note again where he says, "She that liveth 
 to pleasure is dead while she liveth." So is every one. 
 Again, "To be carnally minded is death." It is spiritual 
 death, and what I wish to emphasize in this connection 
 is that the spiritual nature is the man. The material body 
 is but an appendage attached to the real man for a spe- 
 cific but temporary purpose. Again, "Thou hast a name 
 to live but art dead." There is nothing figurative, myth- 
 ical or mysterious about these words. They but ex- 
 press a literal truth for, so far as the divine life is con- 
 cerned, they were dead. They are dead as Adam was 
 dead after his transgressions. And again, writing to the 
 Ephesians, Paul says, "You hath he quickened who were 
 dead in trespasses and sins." The word "quickened" 
 means the bringing to life. Paul speaks of himself as 
 among those who had been dead. He says "Even when 
 
22 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 we were dead in sins hath he quickened," or given life to. 
 
 Other passages might be quoted of the same import, 
 but perhaps these are sufficient. But it cannot be too 
 strongly emphasized that those who accept Christ, those 
 who have been born again, born of water and of the 
 Spirit, are literally, truly and in no figurative sense, the 
 children of God. As such they will go on developing 
 according to the life principle that is in them and ani- 
 mates them. 
 
 To recapitulate in a few words, God imparted to 
 Adam of his own life, eternal life. Adam sinned and 
 that life went out. He died as God said that he would. 
 Losing that life he could not impart it to his offspring. 
 That death constituted the Fall of Man. Its effect upon 
 posterity was death in the supreme sense — Spiritual 
 death. "In Adam all died." If any of his posterity 
 ever were to receive that life it must be by direct impar- 
 tation as Adam received his life. It was that life, eternal 
 life, that Christ came to impart. "I am come that they 
 might have life and that they might have it more abund- 
 antly." That more abundant life may be the result of 
 years of development, and may be considered later. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Mystery of how One Life can be United With 
 Another. 
 
 "How can tJicsc things he?" (John 3 :3.) 
 
 The circumstances in which these words were spo- 
 ken are famihar to all. A Jewish rabbi came to Jesus by- 
 night to learn of his teachings. He was a learned man, 
 a member of the Sanhedrim, the most learned body of 
 men in Israel and the court of final resort among the 
 Jews for all questions civil as well as ecclesiastical. He 
 was, too, evidently sincere. He pays Jesus the compli- 
 ment, "We know that thou art a teacher come from God, 
 for no man can do the miracles that thou doest except 
 God be with him." Jesus answered and said unto him, 
 "Verily, verily, I say unto thee except a man be born 
 again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus is 
 puzzled and asks, "How can a man be born when he is 
 old?" Jesus does not answer his questions except to 
 repeat the mystifying assertion, "Except a man be born 
 of water and the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom 
 of God." After further conversation that learned rabbi 
 is still more mystified and asks, "How can these things 
 be?" 
 
 And so the question arises, "Is it possible that a 
 new life principle can be imparted to a life already ex- 
 isting?" Jesus did not try to explain the mystery, he 
 continued to assert the fact. In nature we cannot explain 
 the mystery, we cannot even explain the mystery of a 
 single life. 
 
 Philosophers, scientists, as well as others, have tried 
 in vain to tell what life is. But the fact remains. Life is. 
 As has been stated there may be millions of protoplasmic 
 
24 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 cells, each with its own distinctive life principle, and 
 each producing different results. Each develops accord- 
 ing to the life that animates it. And not only this, but 
 each form is animated by at least two distinct life prin- 
 ciples. Without this union it cannot develop, but re- 
 mains as if dead. The ovum in the ovary of the plant 
 has life, its own kind of life. But it must remain as if dead 
 until the male life principle is imparted to it. Then it has 
 potency, it can develop according to the combined life of 
 both. The same is true in the animal creation. The 
 ovum in the ovary of the female is inert, incapable of 
 growth until the male life is imparted to it. Then it can 
 develop and it will be in accordance with the combined 
 lives. The outcome will partake of the nature of both, 
 though one or the other is likely to predominate. 
 
 The union of three life principles in the Deity is 
 not more hard to understand than that of two in human 
 beings. The latter we know to be a fact though beyond 
 our comprehension. We need not quarrel with the doc- 
 trine of the Trinity of God with any more reason. The 
 fact is that the law of the impenetrability of matter does 
 not hold in the realm of spirit. 
 
 The life of God could and did unite with that of 
 Adam and then he was of the image of God. When he 
 lost that life he lost the feature that made him Godlike 
 as well as the power to perpetuate in his posterity God- 
 likeness. 
 
 There was left simply the mere human element, and 
 as Paul says, "That in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth 
 no good thing." That is the basis of the doctrine of orig- 
 inal sin. It is sin in posse, but nofin esse. It is not actual 
 sin that has been committed, but a certainty that when 
 one is of the ability to know good and evil he certainly 
 will commit sin. It is in his nature. A young lion may 
 never have injured any one, but he has a nature that 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 2S 
 
 will naturally lead him to kill when he has the opportuni- 
 ty or necessity. It is in his nature. It is simply that 
 self and self interest are naturally predominant. He is 
 influenced by those things that are most nearly connect- 
 ed with himself. So he is likely, yes, certain to "trans- 
 gress," or cross the boundaries of the great command- 
 ment, the Law of love. When the God life is united 
 with the human, there results the Divine life. There is 
 a new nature with a new incentive. Then we can truly 
 say with the apostle, "Now are we the sons of God and it 
 doth not appear what we shall be, but we know that 
 when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall 
 see him as he is." There is a great deal said these days 
 as if all the human race were the children of God. That 
 term may be applied in a kind of loose, conventional way, 
 but it is likely to be fatally misleading. What is the 
 status of a "child of God" who has not been "born of 
 God?" Taking the teachings of Christ for it, he is out- 
 side of the kingdom and can never enter it. 
 
 Christ was not speaking to an outcast vagabond 
 when he said, "Except a man be born of water and of 
 the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Nico- 
 demus himself was no exception, "Ye must be born 
 again.'' What is a new birth but the beginning of a new 
 life within? 
 
 In this connection it may be well to remark that 
 when a person is new born he is not full grown. What 
 a wise, benevolent arrangement it is that physically we 
 come into the world as infants. What a cold, hardhearted 
 world this would be without the influence of the little 
 ones. The helplessness of infancy, the beauty of child- 
 hood, what wonderful influence for good. So with the 
 new born in the kingdom of God. Those who are older 
 have a great opportunity, a great privilege in the way of 
 encouraging, assisting, those who are younger in the way 
 
.26 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 than themselves. How Christ treated his disciples ! How 
 beautiful, almost pathetically beautiful, was his relation- 
 ship with his disciples ! They were really, truly, his fol- 
 lowers, his children, his disciples, with the emphasis on 
 the word disciple, or learners. How often were their 
 weaknesses, or ignorance displayed and how often they 
 made mistakes ; and yet with what tender solicitude he 
 bore with them, led them, instructed them in his way, by 
 way of developing them in Godlikeness. It is his way 
 now. When one is "born of God" he may yet be but a 
 mere child in that life. But there are infinite reaches of 
 growth, development, before him. 
 
 Hostile criticism may be very wide of the mark. Ig- 
 norance, weakness, heredity, the influences of early en- 
 vironment and other circumstances may operate to make 
 a very poor showing of a divine life. But, after all, if 
 one has the life principle it will, eventually, produce its 
 effects. Such a life has "the eternal years" before it. 
 
 But the question has arisen as to infants who have 
 not, of course, consciously, intelligently, accepted Christ. 
 Are they the subjects of salvation? The question is not 
 hard to answer. While Adam was innocent God freely 
 volunteered to impart to him of his own life. He would 
 without doubt do the same for infants taken away in 
 their innocence, "For of such is the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 Again the question may arise as to those who lived 
 and died beforeChrist came to make an atonement for 
 sin. But here, again, the answer is apparent. In the 
 ■councils of God and to the knowledge of all sentient be- 
 ings who were concerned, the Lamb was slain from the 
 foundation of the world. The promise of the United 
 States government to pay $10 or any other sum of money 
 is as good as the gold. The promise of God to send a 
 Redeemer was as good as its fulfillment until the proper 
 time should come for that fulfillment. 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 27 
 
 If Abel had been asked as he knocked at the gate of 
 heaven by what right he claimed admission he could have 
 replied, "By the atonement of the Son of God to be offered 
 on Calvary four thousand years hence." He had accept- 
 ed that work of Qirist by offering- up sacrifices which 
 were the types of the great, the efficient, sacrifice. ?o of 
 every other mortal who by faith in the promise accepted 
 the sacrifice. 
 
 A question here may be pertinent. What must liave 
 been the suffering by which that Antitype redeemed that 
 promise, paid the price and justified the faith of all the 
 faithful of the preceding centuries? The humiliation of 
 limiting himself to human degree, laying aside the g'ory 
 that he had with the Father before the world was, the 
 rebuffs he met from those he came to save. Note the 
 limited conceptions of his nature, and real dignity of him 
 even by his closest followers, not his sorrow as he looked 
 upon the desolations that in the near future were to come 
 upon his loved city and people, note the bloody sweat, 
 the garden agony, the nails, the spear. What finite mind 
 can grasp the price paid by the Infinite Son of God for 
 man's redemption ! 
 
 "The Son of God in tears, 
 Bewondering angels see. 
 Be thou astonished, O my soul, 
 He shed those tears for thee." 
 
 Another question is pertinent here but one it is hard 
 to ask : What must be the fate of those who, knowing 
 the price paid for their redemption still reject it, still re- 
 fuse the salvation so freely offered and yet so costly? I 
 will not ask it, but will let the writer of the letter to the 
 Hebrews ask it: "For if the word spoken by angels was 
 steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience re- 
 ceived a just recompense of reward, how shall we es- 
 cape, if we neglect so great salvation?" And again, "He 
 
28 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two 
 or three witnesses, of how much sorer punishment, sup- 
 pose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden 
 under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of 
 the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy 
 thing, and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace?" 
 
 But it is not my purpose so much to call attention 
 to what those must suffer who refuse the gift of life as 
 to what they gain who accept it. Eternal Life. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 "God is able to graft them in again." (Romans 11 : 
 23.) 
 
 These words of the apostle, while directly referring- 
 to the possibiHty of a restored Israel, may serve to illus- 
 trate one phase of the impartation of the Divine Life. 
 
 There are, probably, millions of naval organge trees 
 in the United States. They produce an excellent fruit, 
 but they have no seeds. How, then, can they be propo- 
 gated? They have no power of self reproduction. How, 
 then, have these trees become ? ' The answer is easy. 
 There is in Brazil a single tree of that variety. We may 
 not question how it became, now it exists. From its 
 scions, bud timber, were taken years ago, and brought to 
 this country. They were inserted, grafted or budded into> 
 the natural, common stock. They produce the fruit of 
 the original tree because they partake of the life of that 
 parent tree. That life principle is imparted, transmitted 
 through all of the successive operations of grafting to 
 perpetuity. 
 
 It is a pleasing thought that in its original habitat the 
 best fruit is obtained by grafting into the worst quality 
 of orange stock. The God life has been imparted to the 
 most forbidding human beings and with wonderful re- 
 sults. It suggests, at least, that there is no man so de 
 graded, so low down in the scale of being but that he may 
 be renewed, restored to an honorable life ; more than that, 
 he can be restored to the image of God, and become a 
 child of God. 
 
 But we need not carry out this illustration further 
 than this, the parent tree imparts its life to all the trees, 
 that its scions are grafted into. 
 
30 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 And now an interesting question arises, can scions 
 from the grafted tree produce the fruits of the original 
 tree? In nature, yes, of course. That is the way by 
 which all of the trees of that kind now existing, or near- 
 ly all at least, became what they are. But does this hold 
 true in the case that this is designed to illustrate? In 
 other words, can Christian parents impart the God life 
 to their offspring? There are instances, in which it 
 would seem to have been the case. But even in such cases 
 there has been a conscious act of will essentially accept- 
 ing the work of Christ so far as the knowledge extended. 
 
 There is a great deal said about ministers' sons and 
 deacons' daughters, as if they generally turned out badly. 
 The reverse is the fact. In innumerable instances the 
 children have followed in the footsteps of the parents. 
 When there is an exception it is so remarkable that it 
 attracts attention. 
 
 There are, of course, exceptions to the general rule, 
 but only enough to teach that salvation is an individual 
 matter. Each one must stand upon his own feet before 
 God. No one can trust his own salvation to any one 
 else. His destiny is in his own individual keeping. And 
 so we have the worst of men, sometimes, the sons of the 
 best of parents, and the best of men the offspring of the 
 worst. The rule is, "Train up a child in the way he 
 should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." 
 
 Returning now to the main line of thought — God im- 
 parts of his own life to those whom he justifies through 
 the merits of Christ's atonement. So one who is thus 
 "regenerated" becomes a partaker of God's own life, of 
 the life of Christ, of the life of the Holy Spirit. All are 
 spoken of as dwelling within us. Then are we the sons 
 of God in a sense pecuhar, unique. It is in no ambiguous, 
 figurative or fictitious sense, but literally, truly, une- 
 quivocally. Then we can sing "I'm the child of a King." 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 31 
 
 All men, in a generic sense, are but human stocks 
 into which the God life can be grafted. This illustration 
 can be carried further to bring to our thought another 
 truth in this connection. The natural stock remains 
 after the scion has been inserted. Shoots may grow out 
 of that stock below where the scion was inserted. If 
 allowed to grow they will not only hinder the growth of 
 the scion, but will produce the fruits of the original stock. 
 So with men. After the new life has been imparted, 
 much of the old human nature still remains and strug- 
 gles to assert itself. 
 
 Now, dropping the figure we have been employing 
 to illustrate one or two features of this subject — after re- 
 generation there still remains the old human element, 
 human nature, to contend with. When born again one 
 does not spring at once, like the fabled Minerva, full 
 armed and panoplied from the brain of Jupiter ; he is but 
 a child of God and we may place the emphasis on the 
 word child. 
 
 The attitude of the will has, indeed, been changed, 
 but there remains to a great extent, the natural impulses, 
 desires, affections and passions to be brought into sub- 
 jection to the will. Note the words of Paul, "For to will 
 is present with me ; but to perform that which is good I 
 find not." 
 
 But, it may be asked, why were not all of those old 
 shoots of the original tree broken off when the new scion 
 was ingrafted ; why were not all of the old elements of 
 the human nature, its desires, -passions, prejudices, in- 
 stincts and impulses, exterminated when the new life 
 was imparted? 
 
 The answer is apparent, that would frustrate the 
 very purpose for which the entire physical universe was 
 brought into existence. 
 
32 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 A great evangelist was once asked, "If God is all- 
 good and all powerful, why doesn't he kill the Devil?" 
 The answer was not as direct and positive as it might, 
 and ought to have been, "Because he wants to make 
 virtue possible in the human race.". He wants a race of 
 beings with stronger moral characters then could grow 
 up in a breezeless sunshine of a sphere in which no trials 
 ever came He could have made men and conditions 
 such that men would no more go astray than the planets 
 do in their orbits around the sun. But in that case there 
 would have been no more virtue in men than in the plan- 
 ets. God wants a more virile race of beings, a race up- 
 right in spite of trials, in spite of temptations, and strong 
 because they have exercised their strength in resisting 
 evil. 
 
 So God thwarts the purposes of the Devil and makes 
 them subservient to his own designs. 
 
 But some may become impatient at my delay in com- 
 ing to the great point in this matter, the source of our 
 hope and strength. 
 
 While the world is a school for instruction and its 
 evil influences are a gymnasium for developing moral 
 strength, the source of our strength to overcome is Jesus 
 Christ. "Faith is the victory," or as Paul to the PhiHp- 
 pians, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which 
 has begun a good work in you will perform it until the 
 day of Jesus Christ." 
 
 But with all of our power we must cooperate with him 
 and, working together we may be able to change the 
 words, "O wretched man that I am," to the joyful ex- 
 clamation, "There is therefore now no condemnation to 
 them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the 
 flesh but after the Spirit." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 "Let your moderation he known to all men," (Phil. 
 4:5.) 
 
 Said a person once to his pastor, "I hate modera- 
 tion." Perhaps in the sense in which he contemplated 
 the term, he was right. He, doubtless, was thinking of 
 warmness in espousing a good cause. But in the sense 
 in which the apostle uses the word, the path of modera- 
 tion is the path of rectitude. All of our natural desires, 
 passions or instincts are not to be exterminated, but con- 
 trolled, or kept within the limits of moderation. The ex- 
 ercise of the will in thus controlling them is a means of 
 grace, an opportunity and a means for developing the 
 Divine life. Certain passions used to be classed as mal- 
 evolent passions. More properly they should be called 
 defensive passions, given to assist us in defending our- 
 selves or others against the wrong. They become "mal- 
 evolent" when they are allowed to go beyond their prop- 
 er limits, or when malice enters in, or they transgress 
 or go across the boundaries of the law of love. "What 
 is the great commandment of the law?" one of the Phar- 
 isees asked Christ. "Jesus said unto him Thou shalt love 
 the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
 might and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This 
 is the first and great commandment, And the second is 
 like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On 
 these two commandments hang all the Law and the 
 Prophets." He simply quoted from the book of Deuter- 
 onomy. The scribes and lawyers were familiar with that 
 law, as one of them once replied to him "Thou hast 
 answered right." And when Christ asked the same ques- 
 tion of one of them the answer was the same. In fact 
 that law was written in the hearts of men and was known 
 
34 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 to and by all until the writing was blotted out by sin. In 
 fact all of the ten commandments, with possibly one ex- 
 ception, were written into the very constitutions of men 
 and would never have been needed to be written any- 
 where else if men had retained the life that Adam first 
 possessed and which made him in the image of God. 
 
 So, when pride, or passion, or any other of our nat- 
 ural inclinations, causes us to cross the bounds of that 
 law, we commit sin, and become transgressors of the 
 law. But the exercise of self control, the keeping of 
 these passions or' natural instincts or desires within their 
 proper limits, is a great means for promoting strength, of 
 character. In fact, it seems as if strong characters could 
 be built up in no other way. Strong characters in right- 
 eousness is what God wants and for which He has made 
 such abundant provision. 
 
 Take anger, for instance. We are cautioned against 
 it, and the caution is needed for it is so likely to carry 
 one away across the limits of the law. This is so common, 
 so natural, that the inspired writers well may caution us 
 against it as a work of the flesh, characteristic of fools, 
 connected with pride and cruelty, and so on. Hence 
 we are to be slow to anger and in its perverted forms it 
 is forbidden. 
 
 But God is angry with the wicked every day. Christ 
 "looked about him with anger, being grieved for the 
 hardness of their hearts." But there was no malice in his 
 anger. Jacob was rightly angry at his father-in-law for 
 the treatment that he had received. His anger was kept 
 within due limits. ;So Moses, though he was the meekest 
 of men, yet after an interview with Pharoah, went out in 
 a great anger. But he was, more than any other, a type 
 of Christ. One may be "angry and sin not" when that 
 anger is kindled by acts of wrong. It may be but a 
 "righteous indignation," and there is such a thing. 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 35 
 
 I refer to these things because they are so closely 
 connected with the subject under consideration — growth 
 in righteousness. 
 
 The same observations may apply to hatred which 
 may be considered as a continued condition of anger. Is 
 it ever right to hate? That depends upon whether mal- 
 ice enters as an element, whether it is carried beyond' 
 due bonds, or the object toward which it is directed is 
 not such as to be hated. But in human nature it is so 
 often the outcome of malice, or is carried too far, so as 
 to transgress the great law of love, or is directed toward' 
 objects that ought to be loved, that, in general, it is for- 
 bidden. It has been styled a work of the flesh, as incon- 
 sistent with a knowledge and love of God and so on. 
 
 But such hatred is an abortion of a passion that in 
 itself is lawful and is even enjoined. Hatred is but the 
 antithesis of love. "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil." If 
 one really loves the Lord he will necessarily hate evil. 
 There has been much discussion as to whether we should 
 hate the authors and perpetrators of the most gigantic 
 assault upon humanity the world ever saw. There may 
 be, and with some there seems to be, a feeling that love 
 is a kind of flabby sentimentality that should be exercised' 
 promiscuously toward everything, good, bad and indif- 
 ferent, sin and righteousness, God and the Devil. Such 
 is not the case. The more one loves righteousness, the 
 more he will hate unrighteousness. The more intense and 
 intelligent the love of God, the more intense will be the 
 hatred of his arch enemy. But men are so likely to love, 
 and to love only, a god of their own conceiving. How 
 often we hear such expressions as, "I could not love a 
 God that would doom whole nations to destruction," or 
 that would send some of their friends to perdition, or 
 something else ; and all of the time be telling what they 
 know that a just and righteous God must do, and what the 
 
^6 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 God of Nature and the Bible is doing. If we do not love 
 such a God we do not love the God with whom we have 
 to do. To learn to love the God with whom we have to 
 do, is to develop moral character. We may as well learn 
 to love the God with whom we have to do as to make a 
 god of our own choice and finally find that we have 
 made a wrong choice. 
 
 God is wiser than we. His thoughts are not our 
 thoughts nor his ways our ways. The more intelligent 
 and submissive our love for him, the more intense will 
 be our hatred of his arch enemy and the enemy of all 
 mankind. 
 
 In Professor Wilkinson's Epic of Paul occurs a 
 somewhat remarkable thought. One of Paul's friends 
 is agonizing to find words to express his hatred of those 
 who are so persecuting him, when Paul interrupts, "Hast 
 thou been made so perfect in love that thou canst hate 
 like that?' The stronger the love, the more intense will 
 be the opposite. 
 
 But here it is necessary to make a distinction. Such 
 hatred may be the antithesis of complacent love, but not 
 be incompatible with benevolent love. So we are exhort- 
 ed to hate evil, false ways, backsliding and so on. 
 
 One has to really smile at the enthusiasm of the 
 Psalmist (Ps. 139:21,22), "Do not hate them that hate 
 thee? and am I not grieved with those that rise up 
 against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count 
 them mine enemies." And then, in perfect, childlike 
 innocence he goes on, "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 of ever- 
 lasting." The controlling of this passion, or turning it 
 into the right direction, is a means of developing God- 
 like character. Another of these passions may be pro- 
 fitably mentioned — jealousy. To be called jealous is 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 37 
 
 considered a reproach. But it is a reproach only when 
 the passion exists without due or sufficient cause. A 
 man may have occasion to be jealous of his wife or the 
 wife of her husband. It is one of the defensive passions, 
 not necessarily wrong. Some years ago a man was em- 
 ployed in one of our eastern states upon a piece of work. 
 He became enamored of the wife of one of the citizens. 
 She, wickedly, reciprocated. She made no attempt to con- 
 ceal her attachment. She packed her trunk, even in the 
 presence of her husband, with no attempt to disguise the 
 fact that she was about to desert him and her family for 
 her paramour. Her husband entreated, argued, pointed 
 out the disgrace she was bringing upon herself, on her 
 family of little children and on himself ; used every ar- 
 gument and inducement to dissuade her from her course, 
 but all in vain. She carried out her purpose and years 
 later a little clump of trees near the house bore the 
 legend "Tragedy Grove." 
 
 Jealousy? That husband had a right to be jealous. 
 Women often have a right and, too sadly, the occasion 
 to be jealous of their husbands. But the above incident 
 illustrates so strikingly the relationship between God and 
 his chosen people. How often he speaks of them as his 
 wife and how pathetic, how infinitely pathetic is his wail 
 over their faithlessness. What tragedies have followed. 
 
 The second commandment is instructive along this 
 line. "I, the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting 
 the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the 
 third and fourth generation of them that hate me" and 
 so on. 
 
 To a superficial observer it would seem as if God 
 were carrying his jealousy to an undue extent, "visiting 
 the iniquities of the fathers upon the children,'' and so 
 on. I might mention the law of heredity as coming in 
 here. It may be to some extent involved. But it is not 
 
38 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 necessary to call it in to help us out of the difficulty. It 
 is only to those that hate him that he visits the iniquities, 
 of the fathers upon. The way to escape the consequences 
 of the fathers' sins is to stop hating God. It is only just 
 of God to do as he says. If the children continue to hate 
 God after the warnings in their fathers' example, they 
 simply become "accessories after the fact," to all of the 
 sins of their ancestors. If one partakes of stolen proper- 
 ty, condones the theft, or harbors the thief himself, he 
 becomes accessory after the fact and is, himself, a thief. 
 So if one wishes to escape being accessory to the sins of 
 his ancestors he must stop hating God. 
 
 "Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unright- 
 eous man his thoughts : and let him return unto the Lord 
 and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God for 
 he will abundantly pardon." God deals with individuals 
 as they are. The law of the Kingdom is found in Eze- 
 kiel 18 :19-22 : "Yet say ye. Why? doth not the son bear 
 the iniquity of the father? when the son hath done that 
 which is lawful and right, and hath kept my statutes, and 
 hath done them, he shall surely live. The soul that sin- 
 neth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of 
 the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of 
 the son. The righeousness of the righteous shall be upon 
 him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." 
 God dwells upon this still further, in this connection to 
 correct a very common misapprehension of the second 
 commandment. The jealousy of God is not unjust, neith- 
 er should ours be. We should be jealous of Gods honor 
 ani strive to promote it. 
 
 Another of the natural inclinations of men that 
 needs to be restrained, kept under a strong hand, is Cov- 
 etousness. "Thou shalt not covet," said the law. "Take 
 heed and beware of covetousness," says Christ. And yet 
 Paul exhorts "covet earnestly the best gifts," Is there 
 then, a contradiction? No. 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 39 
 
 A very earnest desire is covetousness in its normal, 
 legitimate condition. But when that desire would lead 
 one to transgress the great law of love, when it would 
 lead one to take an object without rendering a just equiv- 
 alent, it is forbidden in the very nature of things. So when 
 it would lead one to disobey a commandment of God, as 
 Achan who coveted the wedge of gold and goodly Baby- 
 lonish garment, it is abnormal, wicked. With men in their 
 natural condition, this abnormality is so common, so uni- 
 versal, the command in the law and the injunction of 
 Christ come home with power. Paul's declaration is 
 very often misquoted because not wholly quoted. Men 
 say "Money is the root of all evil." No. "The love of 
 money is the root of all evil." No, again. It is only 
 when it "is coveted after" that "they have erred from the 
 faith and pierced themselves through with many sor- 
 rows." The love of money is a divinely imparted in- 
 stinct to prompt men to activity for the benefit of others 
 even after their own immediate necessities are met. But 
 "disinterested benevolence" is not so characteristic of hu- 
 man nature as to be, in itself a sufficient incentive. The 
 love of money comes in to help it out. It is perfectly le- 
 gitimate, necessary, useful, when kept within due bounds. 
 
 It is said that one tenth of our money belongs to God. 
 It all belongs to him. We are but custodians. We are 
 his stewards. But this does not by any means imply that 
 we are to give it all away, or to commit the responsibility 
 for its good use, to some one else. God wants railroads, 
 canals, factories, comfortable homes — in fact all of the 
 comforts of modern civilization for his stewards, his fam- 
 ily. All of these objects are perfectly legitimate. 
 
 But that is not all by any means. God wants us to 
 feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and in 
 very many ways part with our money and our efforts 
 for something not ourselves and not connected with self 
 
40 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 interest. And this for our own well being as much as 
 that of the direct objects of our interest. This is neces- 
 sary in order to keep that love of money in due subjec- 
 tion. God could supply all want, heal all diseases, cause 
 the gospel to be preached in all lands and leave us to 
 cherish our own selfishness, but that would strangle the 
 Divine Life. The proper use of our means and of our 
 efforts is intended to develop it. Paul wants gifts that 
 should abound to the account of the givers as well as to 
 his own. 
 
 In this connection we might speak of the natural in- 
 clination for revenge, to get even, and generally with a 
 desire to get a little more than even. There is some truth 
 in the words of Scptt : 
 
 And if we do but watch the hour, 
 There never yet was human power 
 That could evade, if unforgiven. 
 The patient watch and vigil long 
 Of him who treasures up a wrong. 
 
 But in that case the one "who treasures up a wrong" 
 is much worse off than the object of the revenge. 
 
 But this is one of the strongest human passions, one 
 that must be held in check, controlled, kept in "modera- 
 tion" by an act of the will, to develop virtue. No one 
 who has not had experience in this matter, can imagine 
 the restfulness, the peace, the joy, comfort that comes 
 from leaving vengeance in the hands of Him who has 
 said "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." 
 When one has suffered some little wrong, real or sup- 
 posed, and can say, "Lord, I am thine, this matter con- 
 cerns Thee more than it does me. Take it into thine own 
 hands but be gentle toward him." What a restful, happy 
 sensation to feel that we do not have to be to the trouble 
 to try even to right our own wrongs. 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 41 
 
 The opposite of revenge is forgiveness. This is rec- 
 ognied as of so much consequence that Christ empha- 
 sizes it and makes the forgiveness of our own sins de- 
 pend upon our forgiveness of others. "For if ye forgive 
 not men their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly 
 Father forgive you your trespasses. Superficially, this may 
 seem to be a kind of "tit for tat" arrangement, to be 
 merely arbitrary on the part of God. Could he not for- 
 give except upon the condition of our forgiving others? 
 Judicially, no. It would be a violation of a principle in- 
 herent in his very nature, the inherent attribute of jus- 
 tice. This attribute is not something attached to him, 
 but a principle inherent in him. 
 
 But here it may be well to recognize a distinction 
 that actually exists, but which is not always well under- 
 stood. It is that between subjective and objective for- 
 giveness, the difference between a forgiving spirit and 
 the objective or judicial forgiveness of the offender. The 
 former should always be present, the latter must depend 
 upon conditions. The judge may have no malice in his 
 heart against the prisoner at the bar, but justice may de- 
 mand that judicial forgiveness be withheld and that sen- 
 tence be pronounced. Jesus prayed, "Father forgive 
 them, for they know not what they do." That was the 
 expression of his subjective attitude toward his mur- 
 derers, but every wail from a persecuted Jew in any 
 part of the world is evidence that they were not judicially 
 forgiven, and yet Jesus is their judge. All judgment 
 was committed unto him. 
 
 But what have these last two to do with moderation ? 
 In its legitimate sphere the desire for revenge is but an 
 instinct designed to assist in the execution of justice. 
 In the Mosaic law the nearest of kin were sometimes re- 
 quired to act as executioners as this passion would assist 
 in the discharge of that duty. 
 
42 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 Forgiveness? The subjective attitude, or wishes 
 prompted by that attitude must be held in check at the 
 command of vindicative justice. 
 
 These are a few examples of many. Moderation 
 should be shown in work, in play, in exercise, in rest, 
 in eating and drinking, and so on. 
 
 There is one thing in which it would not seem to 
 be required, love to God. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy might, with all thy soul, with all thy 
 -Strength and with all thy mind." 
 
 In other things "Let your moderation be known to 
 .all men." 
 
 The path of moderation is the path of rectitude and 
 to walk in it requires the exercise of qualities that great- 
 ly promote growth in Christian character. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 "Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ." . (II Peter, 3 :18.) 
 
 "Follow after Charity, and desire spiritual gifts." 
 (I Cor. 14:1.) 
 
 As has been said, when one has been born again, 
 born of the Spirit and thus has become a child of God, 
 after all he is but a child and with unlimited room for 
 growth, development, before him. This development is, 
 of course, in accordance with the life principle he has 
 received. 
 
 When the life principle of that seedless organge tree 
 in Brazil has been imparted to a stock here or anywhere 
 else, it produces fruit according to that life principle. 
 When one partakes of the life of God, he will naturally 
 produce the fruits of the Spirit of God, as love, joy, 
 peace, meekness, temperance, and we may add activity 
 towards God, and so on. But it usually takes time for 
 such fruits to mature. 
 
 It is true that before one can be renewed by the en- 
 trance of that life everything in consciousness that is 
 opposed to that life must be given up. Every known sin 
 has to be abandoned, every evil passion, curbed. But 
 there may be, as there almost always are, things that 
 are not in our thoughts, or that are not thought to be 
 wrong, that, as they appeal to us in their true nature, 
 have to be abandoned, and that require an act of the will 
 to do. This may be a process requiring years to accom- 
 plish, but every exercise of the will in that direction 
 is an act that strengthens Christian character, adds a lit- 
 tle to our growth in grace. Temptations are liable to 
 assail one at any time. If one gets to feeling secure, 
 
44 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 as if he were beyond the reach of assaults from the evil 
 one, he is likely to fall an easy victim to such assaults. 
 
 It may be well to define temptation as some appeal 
 to us from without that finds a response from within us, 
 an appeal that requires an efifort of the will to resist. To 
 illustrate, if some one should come to one of us and tell 
 that there was an old man near by who had a thousand 
 dollars hidden away somewhere on his premises, and 
 propose that one of us should go with him, kill the man 
 and get his money, that would not be any temptation for 
 it would find no response from within us. The proposal 
 would be too horrible to be a temptation, it would be re- 
 jected with scorn, or anger that such an offer should be 
 made. But if in a trade we find that we have profited a 
 little more than we ought, or if more change has been 
 given than needed, there may be a disposition to not cor- 
 rect the trade or give back the change, and it might re- 
 quire an act of the will to do what one ought to do. 
 
 At any rate there will come solicitations to us from 
 without that find a response within and that require an 
 act of the will to resist. But every effort of the will to do 
 the right and resist the wrong tends to promote our 
 growth. And the measure in which such appeals lose 
 their force, the less they find a response from within us, 
 is the measure of our advance in the divine life. 
 
 It should be noted, too, that the more such victories 
 are obtained, the greater the advance in that life, the 
 more refined will be our sensitiveness, and things that 
 once seemed trivial, too small to notice, or not regarded 
 as wrong at all, may come to us as assaults from the evil 
 one that need to be resisted with all of our power. For 
 instance one who would be horrified at a proposition to 
 steal, in speaking of one whom he did not like, might use 
 very uncharitable language and not be at all conscious 
 that he was doing wrong. But as one grows in grace that 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 45 
 
 consciousness becomes more and more refined and he sees 
 wrong in words or actions that at one time did not seem 
 wrong. It would be well to occasionally look over the 
 lists of things that Paul mentions as to be avoided. But 
 we may touch upon this point later on. 
 
 It is often, perhaps commonly, supposed that Christ 
 had no temptations except the three mentioned in con- 
 nection with his forty days' fast. But it is apparent that 
 that was not the case. Even then we read that after the 
 Devil had met with such signal repulses as he did from 
 those passages our Saviour quoted from Deuteronomy, 
 even then we read that "When the devil had ended all 
 his temptation, he departed from him for a season." But 
 that he renewed his attacks and continued them all 
 through our Saviour's life is apparent from his prayers, 
 his continuing all night in prayer at times, and the dec- 
 laration that "he was tempted in all points like as we are, 
 yet without sin." 
 
 In the first passage at the head of this chapter we 
 read, "Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ," in the second, "Follow after 
 charity and desire spiritual gifts." 
 
 Following after charity is growing in grace and no 
 one can grow in grace without following after charity. 
 I combine the two for a purpose. Charity is a technical 
 term descriptive of that kind or quaHty of love that is 
 Christian Love. Not that which animals have for their 
 young, not even that which all naturally have for home, 
 friends, relatives, country, or any other natural object 
 of affection. Love for any such object may be destitute 
 of the peculiar nature of Christian Love. 
 
 When the King James version was made the trans- 
 lators wished for a term that would contain not the 
 slightest suggestion of anything illicit, sinister, impure, 
 so they used the word charity to designate that kind or 
 
46 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 quality of love that is begotten in us by the love where- 
 with Christ loved us. That is the kind or quality of the 
 love that is inherent in and inseparable from the life 
 that God or Christ imparts when we believe in, accept, 
 Christ. 
 
 When we receive that life, we receive it in its es- 
 sential nature, and that is love, for God is love. Love 
 that is not only infinite in its duration and extent but in 
 its purity and power. Note the value of that love as in- 
 dicated by the apostle in the twelfth chapter of first Cor- 
 inthians. He gives a long list of gifts such as wisdom, 
 knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, 
 prophecy, discerning of spirits, divers kinds of tongues, 
 and so on, through the list of things that we should think 
 of the greatest value ; but to him these were all of small 
 account as compared with something that is within our 
 reach. Note, "Covet earnestly the best gifts : yet shew 
 I unto you a more excellent way." What way was that ? 
 The Charity we are speaking of. (I Cor. 13.) "Though 
 I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have 
 not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tink- 
 ling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, 
 and understand all mysteries and all knowledge ; and 
 though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains 
 and have not charity, I am nothing." We should natur- 
 ally think that with all these, he would amount to a great 
 deal. But this is not all, "And though I bestow all my 
 goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be 
 burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." 
 
 Of what infinite value it must be, and yet even that 
 is within our reach though any of the lesser things may 
 not be. Why is it of such value? It is the essence of the 
 Divine life. Then he goes on to tell what it is, and what 
 it does. "Charity suffereth long and is kind." What an 
 impossible thing is that for the natural man. But this 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 47 
 
 is only the beginning, "Charity envieth not." What, no 
 envy? No, it envies no one. Further, "Charity vaunt- 
 eth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself 
 unseemly, seeketh not her own." Why, that is strange, 
 that it should not seek her own ; every one does that. But 
 the difficulty is that in seeking our own we are too apt 
 to seek a little beyond our own. But further, "is not eas- 
 ily prokoved, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, 
 but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth all things, believeth all 
 things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." These 
 must surely be enough, but no, he goes on. "Charity 
 never faileth : but whether there be prophecies, they shall 
 fail ; whether there be tongues they shall cease ; whether 
 there be knowledge it shall vanish away." 
 
 At the end of this chapter the apostle speaks of the 
 three graces, faith, hope and charity. He says that the 
 greatest of these is charity. So if we follow after char- 
 ity we are growing in grace. Faith saves, hope is the 
 anchor of the soul to hold one steadfast, but charity is 
 the life itseW. 
 
 Some years ago I was leading the weekly church 
 prayer meeting, and for a month or two we had been 
 dwelling upon this wonderful chapter, trying to get some 
 of its deeper meaning when an excellent Christian lady 
 remarked to the effect that no one ever lived up to the re- 
 quirements of that chapter. I replied "No man ever did 
 but the man Christ Jesus." 
 
 So in this chapter we have something of the content 
 of Christ's example referred to in the first chapter of this 
 volume. In order to be saved there are some things 
 that we must believe about Christ, to grow in the life we 
 must know something of him; and we get a glimpse of 
 what he was and is from this wonderful chapter on char- 
 ity. Following after charity we are growing in grace 
 and in knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
48 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 That chapter marks some of the landmarks on the way 
 as we follow the example of our Lord. 
 
 That chapter shows us the goal that is set be,f ore us. 
 As we gain a conception of the content of this chapter 
 we obtain a knowledge of our Lord. Following after 
 charity we are growing in grace. 
 
 But how to do this is a very important question. 
 Paul says (Rom. 7, 18, 19), "To will is present with me, 
 but how to perform that which is good I find not. For 
 the good that I would, I do not ; but the evil which I would 
 not, that I do." And he says, "I find then a law that, 
 when I would do good, evil is present with me." And 
 the conflict is so great that he has to exclaim, "O wretched 
 man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of 
 this death?" But he finds a Deliver, for he exclaims at 
 once, "I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So 
 then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but 
 with the flesh the law of sin." 
 
 But with too many of us "to will" is not present 
 with us for we have not the fervent passion to do the will 
 of God that Paul had. He could truly say to too many 
 of us, "Ye have not resisted unto blood, striving against 
 sin." We care so little about it. With the apostle it 
 was not so. Every thought, word and act must be brought 
 into subjection to Christ. In God's own wisdom Paul 
 was forced to exert every ounce of his force, mental, 
 physical and spiritual in the conflict in order to fit him 
 for the work that God had for him to do. Frances R. 
 Havergal, or Fanny Crosby, evidently, never had such 
 soul conflicts for they were not necessary to qualify 
 them for their particular work. Paul was of sterner stuff 
 and had a sterner, harder work to do. He must be, and 
 "he was, qualified for it by the exercise of the strength 
 necessary in the conflict between the purely human nature 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 49 
 
 that remained in him and the God Hf e that had been im- 
 parted to him. 
 
 It is written even of Christ that he was made perfect 
 through suffering. That, perhaps, is one reason that he 
 often spent whole nights in prayer. 
 
 But how did the apostle finally win out? By throw- 
 ing himself wholly upon God. After his exclamation, "O 
 wretched man that I am," he finds a remedy and again 
 exclaims, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
 It was through Him that he gained the victory, and 
 he could say, "There is therefore now no condemnation 
 to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the 
 flesh but after the spirit." "Looking unto Jesus, the 
 Author and Finisher of our faith." He is not only the 
 author, but the finisher of our faith. 
 
 But we must use the means that are furnished for 
 that end. No child ever came to maturity without food. 
 No child of God ever came to anything like maturity in 
 the divine life without feeding upon the Word of God 
 which is the soul's food. I submit a chapter upon that 
 Word and one, also, upon one of the most important 
 portions of that Word. 
 
 But there is nothing in any of these that can avail 
 to promote this growth, without prayer, communion with 
 the Father of our spirits, and faith. In fact, no prayers 
 would avail without faith. "Without faith it is impossi- 
 ble to please him : for he that cometh to God must believe 
 that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that dili- 
 gently seek him." Note the heroes of faith and what 
 faith has accomplished as recorded in the eleventh chap- 
 ter of Hebrews. Our own faith is just as much warrant- 
 ed, and just as available as was that of any or all of the 
 Old Testament heroes. "Faith is the victory, O glorious 
 victory, That overcomes the world." 
 
50 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 Much of the discipHne I have been speaking of not 
 only contributes to our strength, but reveals our weak- 
 ness and our need of help from a Higher Power. When 
 Peter, attempting to walk on the sea and seeing the waves 
 and the tempest, saw his own littleness, he crid "Lord 
 save me." He would not have realized his dependence 
 upon God, or Christ, if he had not begun to sink, and so 
 we do not realize our dependence upon a Higher Power 
 until we find out our own weakness. And Jesus was 
 never more willing to help Peter than he is to help us. 
 "Are you having victory today." is a question that reg- 
 ularly recurs in one of the best religious journals. If 
 you are not, it is because you are not casting all upon 
 Jesus. If you are, it is in answer to prayers that may not 
 be more than Peter's "Lord save me." 
 
 For myself, I have never made much progress in the 
 divine life, but what I have has been of infinite value and 
 has been by vital connection of my life with that of Christ 
 and realized by prayer. How many, many times have I 
 asked Jesus for something, just as if he were standing 
 by me in his bodily presence. I have felt, perhaps, a 
 hardness of feeling toward some one, and, recognizing the 
 fact, have just said, simply in thought, "O Lord, take 
 that away from me," forget it and when it again came 
 to consciousness, the feeling would be entirely gone. But 
 that, or some other evil, may assail us again, and the 
 same remedy must be resorted to again. It is some like 
 eating, one eats his breakfast and is satisfied for the time 
 being. At dinner time, however, he wants and needs, his 
 dinner. So our spiritual wants may be supplied for once, 
 but that once is not designed to last always. 
 
 He has, indeed, provided salvation "once for all," 
 and it never needs to be repeated. But supplies of divine 
 grace are not given in such measure that we never have to 
 go for more. In dispensing grace, God is more like a 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 51* 
 
 father we have heard of. His son was away from home,, 
 but was supplied with money by the father. At first that 
 father sent large sums, but often he did not hear from- 
 the son again until the money was gone. But the father 
 wanted to hear from him oftener, so he sent only small 
 sums at a time. He heard oftener. 
 
 So God wants to hear from his children oftener, 
 but it is too sadly true that He does not hear until they 
 are in need of help. Various evils assail us and we have 
 to "watch and fight and pray." 
 
 After all, Christ is the vine and we are the branches. 
 It is by prayer that the sap from the parent stem nour- 
 ishes the branches and makes them first grow, and then 
 bear fruit. 
 
 But the sphere is large. All things in nature are 
 designed by a wise Creator to promote our growth in 
 grace, to develop the Divine life. "All things work to- 
 gether for good for those who love God." Those who 
 do not love him have placed themselves out of harmony 
 with the universe and its outworkings. 
 
 But as I write my eyes have fallen upon some won- 
 derful words of Faber about the influence, the power of 
 derful words of aber about the influence, the power of 
 beauty, the beauty of Jesus. But all beauty is designed 
 by the Creator to refine and purify. All of the beauties 
 of nature and art, where art is what it ought to be. The 
 beauties of forests and streams, of fields and flowers, of 
 mountains and valleys, of clouds and sunshine and shad- 
 ow, of birds and insects — all are designed to serve their 
 purpose in the refinement of our natures. All things 
 could have been made so as to serve what we consider a 
 utilitarian purpose without beauty. All could have min- 
 istered to the body without ministering to the spirit. But 
 God has other designs, higher purposes than the supply, 
 merely of physical needs. But there are higher needs to 
 
^2 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 .supply. So the beauty of boyhood, of little children trot- 
 ting along the streets appeals to one with wonderfully re- 
 fining power. So of music, from the singing of birds, 
 to the music of the spheres, from the simplest instru- 
 ment to the great organ in some cathredral — all is de- 
 signed to serve a higher purpose than to furnish food and 
 x:lothing. 
 
 And now I touch upon a delicate subject, but for 
 nearly all my life, it has been a condition of mine that the 
 Jiuman form divine, attired as God would have it, is as 
 legitimate an object for admiration, with its accompany- 
 ing inspiration, as any other object in nature or art. I 
 may speak dogmatically, but it is with the most earnest 
 •conviction, that one sex was endowed with beauty, with- 
 out any reference to the perpetuation of the race ; but, by 
 its influence, to ennoble, to purify, to elevate the thoughts, 
 -the passions, the aspirations, the ideals, of the sex that 
 was made more strong and stern, and should I say more 
 coarse, in order to meet the rebuffs of the world and stand 
 as protector and provider. How terrible if that beauty 
 should mislead or that others should betray. 
 
 But this and all other beauty has another, perhaps 
 a higher function. That is to point toward, to lead one 
 to admire Him who is "The chief est among ten thousand" 
 .and "the one altogether lovely." and note : 
 
 "What is lovely never dies, 
 
 But passes into other loveliness 
 
 Star-dust or sea foam, flowers or winged air ; 
 
 If this befalls our unworthy dust. 
 
 Think, thee, what awaits the soul : 
 
 What glorious vesture it shall wear at last." 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities S3 
 
 And now for those soul stirring words of Faber : 
 
 "And O, if the exiles of earth could but win 
 
 One sight of the beauty of Jesus above, 
 
 From that hour they would cease to be able to sin, 
 
 And earth would be heaven, for heaven is love. 
 
 "But words may not tell of the vision of peace, 
 
 With its worshipful seeming, its marvelous fires ; 
 Where the soul is at ease, where its sorrows all cease. 
 And the gift has outbidden its boldest desires." 
 
 "We know not what we shall be, but we know that 
 when He shall appear, we shall be like him for we shall 
 see him as he is," the King in his beauty. 
 
 But there are other influences and helps that we can- 
 not enumerate. The services of the church, the sacra- 
 ments, all of the means of grace that we enjoy, are among 
 the "All things," that are designed to help us on our way. 
 
 To be like Him is the final goal, the object to be at- 
 tained. 
 
 So we close with the words at the beginning of the 
 chapter with a few added : Follow after charity, and grow 
 in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, "Until we all come in the unity of the faith 
 and the knowledge of the 'Son of God unto the perfect 
 man, unto the measure of the statute of the fullness of 
 Christ." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The new motive in the Divine Life, love for Christ. 
 
 "He died for all that they which lived should not 
 henceforth live unto themselves^ but unto Him which died 
 for them and rose again." (IlCor. 5 :15.) 
 
 When that new Hfe enters one it brings with it new 
 motives. In the unrenewed man self is the center of his 
 thoughts. Self interest is the object of his pursuit. In 
 fact some moral philosophers affirm that all violations of 
 the divine law are but the outworkings of the spirit of the 
 inborn selfishness of human nature. To a certain extent 
 this is true. But there would seem to be exceptions to 
 that rule. The profane swearer, for instance, is not seek- 
 ing his own good, but he is angry with God and wishes to 
 insult him. It is true that he is gratifying a wicked pas- 
 sion, but it would seem that there could not be any expec- 
 tation of good to himself. But in general, there can hard- 
 ly be a violation of any of the commandments, except the 
 third, that cannot be traced directly to self love, a desire 
 to promote self interest. When a stronger motive is pres- 
 ent, so that self interest does not control, it is easy to 
 keep the commandments. Such a motive is presented by 
 the apostle in the words above. One of the best evi- 
 dences that a new nature has been imparted is the pres- 
 ence of a new motive power, actuating the activities. But, 
 really, the best way, the wisest way, in which to seek 
 happiness, even one's own well being, i§ to live for, to 
 love, to labor and, if need be, to sacrifice, for some person 
 or object not ourselves and not connected with self inter- 
 est. Even our own best interests are to be obtained, like 
 pleasure, by indirection and not as an object of direct 
 pursuit. 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 55 
 
 But if one is to develop the divine life by the exer- 
 cise of a new njotive, that motive must be pure and its 
 object must be of such a nature as to make one purer, 
 nobler, more Godlike. Such an object is declared in the 
 apostle's words above quoted. We should live for him 
 who died for us and rose again. Christ, the God man, in 
 whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He 
 who left the mansions of glory, humiliated himself, suf- 
 fered, died and rose again. He is to be the object toward 
 which the new motive would impel us. Christ says "I 
 give my sheep eternal life." He imparts to us of his own 
 life and with that life must come the animating principle 
 of that life. But is it not selfish in him to claim such 
 service, such devotion? It has been said that God does 
 not seek his own glory. If men do that he condemns 
 them, and that he would not do what he condemns in men. 
 But the answer is, that God only claims that which right- 
 ly belongs to Him. If men seek their own glory they are 
 trying to get what does not belong to them, it all belongs 
 to God. So in the working for self merely, and ignoring 
 the claims of God or of Christ, who is God manifest in the 
 flesh, we are robbing God of that which is his due, but in 
 robbing him we impoverish ourselves. 
 
 "Ye have robbed me," says God to Israel. But they 
 were ignorant of the fact and ask in surprise, "Wherein 
 have we robbed thee?" God replies, and enumerates 
 some of the things of which they have robbed him. "In 
 tithes and offerings," and so on. "Bring ye all the tithes 
 into the storehouse, that they may be meat in mine house, 
 and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I 
 will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you 
 out a blessing, that there shall not be room to receive it." 
 
 When they rendered him his due he poured out his 
 blessing in this world, both temporal and physical. But 
 
56 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 this is only an illustration in the material world of a 
 principle inherent in the universe of the unseen. 
 
 One cannot cheat his neighbor without cheating him- 
 self a great deal more in the belittling of himself, 
 robbing himself of some of his own nobility. We 
 cannot rob God, nor Christ, without wronging ourselves- 
 in our own spiritual natures indefinitely more. And I 
 cannot emphasize too strongly, or too often, the fact that 
 the spiritual nature is the man ; all else is but the append- 
 age of the man. A wise self seeking would be self abne- 
 gation. If we would secure all of the riches that there 
 are for us in the infinite store house of God, we should 
 not henceforth live unto ourselves, but unto him who 
 died for us and rose again. 
 
 But enough of this as a reason for the declarations 
 of the apostle, or, as we might say, the philosophy at the 
 bottom of the declaration. 
 
 Salvation is not simply a saving from the statutory- 
 penalty for sin. It is that and infinitely more. It is a 
 state of heart, a new life, imparted by God himself to* 
 those who will come to him. But how shall they come?" 
 They must be drawn by the power of an infinite love 
 manifested by an uphfted Christ, bearing our sins in his 
 own body on the tree. As iron filings in a heap of sand or 
 sawdust respond to the drawing power of the magnet, so 
 there are human natures among the masses of men that 
 respond to the drawings of this infinite love. And as mag- 
 netism begets magnetism, so love begets love, and this is 
 the new life, for God is love. One born of God has his 
 nature. What love ? The love that is responsive to, and' 
 begotten by, the love of God manifests in the flesh to make 
 an atonement for sin. 
 
 The great final purpose of Christ's death was to plant 
 this new motive — this impelling power of the new life — 
 in mankind. Here is displayed in the fulness of its pow- 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities ST 
 
 er the moral influence of Christ's death. Here is shown, 
 in the fulness of its scope, "The expulsive power of a new- 
 affection." Those who have been born again, and have- 
 thus been made partakers of the divine nature, are no 
 longer selfish, no longer live unto themselves, but unto- 
 "Him who died for them and rose again." 
 
 Paul affirms this to be the force that impelled him on- 
 to the toils, the labors the sufferings he endured in the 
 prosecution of his work. "For the love of Christ con- 
 straineth us," he exclaims; "For Christ's sake," is the- 
 motive clearly defined and vigorously enforced by him. 
 "For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether 
 we die, we die unto the Lord, whether we live, therefore, 
 or die we are the Lord's." 
 
 Christ himself, directly or by implication, speaks of 
 this as the supreme motive that should control his follow- 
 ers in the future. He speaks of himself, his love for the- 
 race, and the reciprocal love for himself as the power that 
 in the future should influence the life and conduct of his 
 followers. Take such passages as these, "Blessed are ye 
 when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall' 
 say all manner of evil against you for my sake." "Ye 
 shall be hated of all nations for my names sake." "He 
 that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." These are 
 a few of the words in which he prophesies of the controll- 
 ing motive in the lives of his followers. They should' 
 work, suffer, endure for his sake. 
 
 Love is the great motive power in the world. Love 
 of wife, husband, children, home friends, country are 
 the nobly inspiring motives of every true man, woman, 
 friend or patriot. Even when one seems to be moved hy 
 hatred, it may be, after all, but a manifestation of a su- 
 preme self love, a love of self of which the hatred of 
 
■38 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 ■others is but the reciprocal. Love to Him who redeemed 
 us should be the all controlling motive in those who know 
 Tiim. It was such with Paul. 
 
 He speaks of this as the controlling power in his life. 
 He supplicates the prayers of the church at Rome, for 
 Christ's sake. He says, "We are fools for Christ's sake." 
 "This I do for the gospel's sake." "We which live are 
 a servant for Jesus' sake. With him the words "for 
 pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in per- 
 secutions, in distresses for Christ's sake." He became 
 a servant for Jesus' sake. With him the words "for 
 Christ's sake," "in Christ's name" were not a mere form- 
 ula, a talisman or formula to conjure by for the purpose 
 of getting something for himself. They were but the 
 •expressions of the motive that ruled his life. 
 
 This is the motive that controls God in his conduct 
 toward the penitent. It is "for Christ's sake" that he 
 forgives sin. Men should forgive one another, "even as 
 God for Christs's sake has forgiven you." 
 
 This truth is strongly set forth by the apostle. It is 
 the necessary accompaniment of the new life. 
 
 Consider the greatness of this motive in its obliga- 
 tions and inspiration. The apostle speaks of it as the 
 greatest that can possibly influence men. Christ died for 
 all. Elsewhere he reasons, "For we thus judge, that if he 
 died for all then were all dead." The reason is more 
 plain when we consider that the word "for" is used in 
 the sense of "instead of, in the place of" and not simply 
 for their benefit. The original is not ambiguous. It 
 means that all were under the sentence of death, that in 
 one sense all were dead. But instead of all suffering the 
 death penalty, Christ died in their stead. He saved our 
 lives, hence our lives are his ; they belong to him. 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 59 
 
 If a man is drowning and another one saves him, he 
 is really under some obligation to his rescuer. This is 
 particularly true if the rescue has been at great peril or 
 suffering to the rescuer. The obligation increases if it 
 were a sovereign who has saved a subject. What sub- 
 ject could be so heartless, so ungrateful, so lost to all of 
 the dictates of humanity, as to not render obedience to 
 such a sovereign, however rebellious he may have been 
 before? That ruler would have a new claim upon that 
 subject's loyalty. 
 
 The claim increases in strength as we consider the 
 ruler as the just, the wise, the powerful ruler whose only 
 object is to increase the happiness, secure the highest 
 welfare of his subjects, while his wisdom and power en- 
 able him to accomplish these objects perfectly. The fact 
 of his saving their lives would be a powerful argument 
 in favor of their loyalty to him. 
 
 Carry this illustration to the extreme of infinite wis- 
 dom, good will and power, and add the fact that he not 
 only ran great risks and suffered much, but that he act- 
 ually died, made a sacrifice of himself, to accomplish this 
 object, and we have an illustration of the case we are 
 considering. 
 
 He died in our stead that we should not henceforth 
 live unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us and 
 rose again. He died in our stead ; ought we not to love 
 him? He is our lawful, rightful ruler; ought we not to 
 serve him? He is our Creator, Benefactor, Mediator, Re- 
 deemer; do we not owe him our allegiance? He seeks 
 our greatest, highest good; he is wise enough to, know in 
 Vi^hat that good consists ; he has power enough to ac- 
 complish his purposes. Has he not the highest claims to 
 the service of our lives ? 
 
60 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 He died for all. All are provided for ; all who will 
 come, may come. Could there be a greater inducement 
 to any desponding soul, struggling for victory? 
 
 Again, look at this motive in its nature of perfect 
 purity. Christ died to pay the penalty of sin objectively. 
 He died, "the just for the unjust," that God might be just 
 and yet treat as just, or innocent, all who would come to 
 him through Christ. But he came to save men not only 
 from the outward consequences, the outward penalty of 
 sin but from sin itself, by furnishing a higher, purer mo- 
 tive for our lives than purely selfish ones. 
 
 The essence of nearly all sin is selfishness. The con- 
 tinual temptation is to yield to the solicitations of a sel- 
 fish nature. Men must be saved from this sin if they are 
 saved from any. By his sacrifice to save us from outward 
 punishment, he furnishes a motive outside of, beyond, 
 above, ourselves that can provide an inward, or subjec- 
 tive salvation. And this condition is necessary if we 
 would enjoy the conditions of an outward salvation. 
 
 While living to ourselves we are living in sin; while 
 living to God, we are living in righteousness. It is thus 
 that Christ died, to plant this motive in our lives. There 
 are thus the outward and the inward aspects of Christ's 
 salvation. The outward is a provision to set aside the 
 penalty oof broken law, the inward is the preparation of 
 an inward fitness for salvation. 
 
 The Apostle Paul presents a great motive for thus 
 living, living for Christ, by the inspiration of love in- 
 duced in us by his own infinite love. It is that Jesus has 
 bought us with his own blood and set us at libery, as 
 he often uses the figure. "Ye are not your own, for ye are 
 bought with a price ; therefore glorify God in your body 
 and in your spirit which are God's." And Peter, exhort- 
 ing his readers, says, "As he who has called you is holy 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 61 
 
 SO be ye holy in all manner of conversation ; because it is 
 written be ye holy for I am holy." But why should they 
 be holy? He explains, "Forasmuch as ye know that ye 
 were not redeemed with corruptible things from your 
 vain conversation, but by the blood of Christ, as with a 
 lamb without spot or blemish." And the beasts and elders 
 in the Apocalyptic vision sang praises to Jesus, saying, 
 "For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy 
 blood out of every tongue, and kindred and people and 
 nation, and hast made us unto our God, kings and 
 priests." They were redeemed by the blood of Christ, and 
 this was their song in glory. The object of that redemp- 
 tion was set forth by Paul to Titus. Speaking of the 
 great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, he says, "Who gave 
 himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniqui- 
 ty and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of 
 good works." 
 
 puch righteous living can be achieved only by the 
 inspiration of that love that is induced in us by the mani- 
 fested love of Jesus. That is the source of all true, 
 righteous, noble living. Nothing else in earth or heaven 
 can supply a motive strong enough to overcome the im- 
 pulses of our natural selfishness. And what a wonderful 
 power there is in this motive as thus set forth. 
 
 He died to redeem us. A poor slave woman was once 
 purchased by a benevolent gentleman and set at liberty. 
 Through all of her after life she never tired of sounding 
 his praises. She spoke of his greatness, his mercy, his 
 goodness, his benevolence. Every quality that she con- 
 sidered noble, praiseworthy, she ascribed to him. He 
 was her theme on all occasions, in all places and at all 
 times. 
 
 When remonstrated with as a fanatic, a monomaniac 
 upon the subject, her simple and only reply was, "He 
 redeemed me." That was enough for that poor, grate- 
 
'62 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 ful, soul to make him the subject of her talk by day and 
 of her dreams by night. Christ has redeemed us not 
 -only from slavery, but from death, and not simply from 
 •temporal death, but from death eternal. Should we do 
 less than that poor woman ? 
 
 This standard of life in Christ becomes a test for our 
 •own lives. There seems to be a great deal of nominal, 
 professed Christian living, that does not stand the appli- 
 •cation of this test. If we are living to make money, we 
 are not living for Christ. 
 
 We do not live for Christ, when we are living for 
 pleasure, for office, for honor, or for any other object 
 that terminates so immediately upon self. We may not 
 be living for Christ even when we seem to be most ac- 
 tively engaged in his work. We may be, even then, more 
 thoughtful of ourselves, for the credit we may get, or we 
 may be working for our own domination more than for 
 'Christ and his cause. 
 
 But now for a few words as to the efficiency of this 
 motive, when it has fairly found a lodgment in the 
 hearts of men. It has been the moving power with mul- 
 titudes of men and women, and they have performed 
 wonders for the betterment of this old world. Look at 
 the world today, and contrast it with what it was when 
 Christ came to it. All of the characteristics of our mod- 
 ern civilization, that distinguish it from that in the time 
 •of the Caesars,, is the product of that motive working 
 out in human activity. 
 
 The inspiring motive in all of the self-sacrificing 
 labors, trials, discouragements, and suflferings, of the 
 missionaries of the past century has been that love, 
 and the love for their fellow human beings for whom 
 there could be no help but Christ. It yet remains to be 
 seen what that motive can accomplish when it obtains 
 its full control in the hearts of men. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt 
 be saved." 
 
 We have been considering at some length the God 
 inbreathed life, the principle of Eternal Life. We may 
 well consider now how it is to be obtained. Adam lost 
 it by unbelief, and its resulting disobedience. It must 
 be regained by reversing the process, believe and obey. 
 
 The prescription given by Paul and Silas to the 
 Phillipian jailor was followed and produced its immedi- 
 ate result. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
 shalt be saved." The effect was wonderful. That jailor 
 was a hard-hearted, cruel man. Men for that position 
 were selected from the class that were most inhuman, so 
 that pity would not interfere with execution of the most 
 cruel sentence from which a humane nature would 
 shrink with horror. 
 
 He had incarcerated Paul and Silas in the inner pris- 
 on, and made their feet painfully fast in the stocks. But, 
 animated by the life that was in them, they could pray 
 and sing praises to, God. But what could they praise 
 God for? One would naturally think that they had lit- 
 tle occasion for praise in their circumstances, in such phy- 
 sical pain and the disgrace of being prisoners. They 
 praised God for the life that was in them, and that God 
 had imparted to them. But their prayers and praises 
 were interrupted. 
 
 "/Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the 
 foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately 
 all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were 
 loosed." Every one knows the story. The jailor was 
 the only one who was frightened. He had reason to be. 
 
64 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 He was responsible with his life, for the safe keeping of 
 those committed to his custody. He supposed that, of 
 course, the prisoners, now that there was nothing to hin- 
 der them, had escaped. He would take the execution of 
 the sentence that he knew would be imposed upon him, 
 into his own hands. He drew out his sword and would 
 have killed himself as being more honorable than to die 
 at the hands of a Roman executioner. But Paul cried 
 with a loud voice, "Do thyself no harm; for we are all 
 here." The narrative goes on, "Then he called for a light, 
 and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before 
 Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, "Sirs, 
 what must I do to be saved?" 
 
 But what did he know about salvation or of the fact 
 that he needed it? The example of his prisoners showed 
 him that they had something that he did not have, and 
 that he needed. The answer is recorded above. It was 
 simple, straightforward, perfect plain. The jailor be- 
 lieved and the result was not only wonderful, it was mi- 
 raculous, as coming directly as an act of God. The 
 change was instantaneous. He was an entirely different 
 man. Not simply in a sense that is often understood 
 when some change in the outward conduct is observed, 
 but in his spiritual nature and, after all, that is what con- 
 stitutes the man. He was in very fact a different man, 
 for a new nature had been imparted to him ; he was a 
 new creature. And that new nature showed itself at 
 once. The Divine life had been imparted to him and its 
 activities began at once. Instead of being the hard-heart- 
 ed, cruel man that he had been, delighting in torture, he 
 was tender, compassionate, kind. He took them that 
 same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and 
 gave them food and to the limit of his power showed 
 kindness to them. 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 65 
 
 This incident, so simple and beautifully recorded, 
 illustrates two things :the simplicity of the way of salva- 
 tion, and the activity of the new, the Divine life, that 
 had been imparted to him. He simply reversed the oper- 
 ation by which Adam lost it ; he believed and obeyed. 
 The result to our first parents of losing that life was fear 
 and trembling when God appeared; the results of its 
 restoration in the jailor was a change from fear and 
 trembling into fervent rejoicing, and acts of kindness to 
 two of God's servants. It was the natural, the inevita- 
 ble outworking of that new life. 
 
 On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached so as to 
 convince men of their need of salvation, and to persuade 
 them to accept it upon the simple terms of belief in him 
 whom they had crucified, and there was -added to the 
 church in one day three thousand souls. The same re- 
 sults followed the preaching of others of the Apostles. 
 It seems as if there could not possibly be a mistake about 
 the way in which this salvation is to be obtained. 
 
 But, for one thing, where men are not guilty of any 
 outbreaking sins, they are not conscious of their need. 
 And, too, they may not realize the real demerit of what 
 they have done. A curious incident illustrates this. A 
 friend of the present writer was once staying in a foreign 
 city. His attention was attracted to a man who every 
 morning came into the lobby of the hotel and silently 
 read very carefully the papers from America. One day 
 this friend was summoned to visit this stranger who was 
 reported to be dying. He asked him what his prospects 
 were for the next world, and he said that he expected to 
 go to heaven. Being asked as to the grounds for his hope, 
 he replied his own goodness. He never had done any- 
 thing very bad, but had, of course, been guilty of some 
 peccadilloes, some trifling offenses as everybody was like- 
 ly to be. Nothing could shake his confidence in his own 
 
66 Tke Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 merit. He died in that confidence, leaving some mes- 
 sages to friends in America. Inquiry revealed the fact 
 that he had committed offenses against the law, which, 
 though not extraditable, would have sent him to prison 
 in this country and so he remained abroad. This may, 
 and does, seem to be an extraordinary case. Really, 
 however, there are multitudes who have no better grounds 
 for hope than that man. Yet they think that they are 
 good enough, without the humiliation of accepting some- 
 thing that they do not need. It is only as men are con- 
 vinced by the Holy Spirit that they realize their true con- 
 dition. One of the functions of that Spirit is to con- 
 vince of sin because they do not believe on Christ. That 
 tmbelief is the great sin, the mother sin of all sins. Note 
 the words of Christ in that wonderful third chapter of 
 John, verse 18, "He that believeth on him is not con- 
 demned ; but he that believeth not is condemned already, 
 because he hath not believed in the name of the only be- 
 gotten Son of God." 
 
 The doctrine of salvation by faith is not simply 
 Paul's. It is the doctrine that Christ himself constantly 
 taught. The "Dark ages" were because of the eclipse of 
 the doctrine of salvation by faith. 
 
 When Luther, while crawling on his hands and knees 
 up the steps in the Vatican, caught a glimpse of the 
 truth that salvation is by faith alone, he sprang to his 
 feet and a new era dawned upon the world, the era of 
 the great reformation. Then set in an age of advance- 
 ment, improvement in everything that pertains to physi- 
 cal, intellectual and moral improvement that has made 
 the eighth golden age of the world, the climax of all 
 ages since men have inhabited the world. 
 
 But in the last few years there has been, and is now, 
 a great current of thought against belief as a source of 
 life. This current of thought first showed itself in "the 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 67' 
 
 cry against creeds." There is some truth in that cry 
 where creeds are drawn out to minute and non-essential 
 particulars so as to be divisive among bodies of Chris- 
 tians. The great movement now is toward bringing to- 
 gether the various bodies of the followers of Christ. But 
 we must never, in our zeal for union, ignore the terms 
 which Christ himself, either directly, or through the in- 
 spired writers, has laid down. 
 
 The terms laid down by the apostles to the Phillipian 
 jailor are very simple. In accepting them the jailor ac- 
 cepted them with their entire content, and which was, 
 doubtless explained to him so far as was necessary. 
 
 But unbelief in some of the very most essential things 
 is getting to be so common that it is necessary to draw 
 out, to some extent, the teachings of the Author of our 
 salvation. 
 
 There is no passage, perhaps, more often quoted 
 than John 3 :16. "For God so loved the world that he 
 gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in 
 him should not perish but have everlasting life." But it 
 is so often forgotten that the word believeth is in the 
 passage. But it is there and the only condition of receiv- 
 ing the benefit of God's gift is believing on him. What 
 of those who do not believe on him? 
 
 Just before this classic passage occurs one as remark- 
 able, and one in which the vital word is often overlooked. 
 "For as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, 
 even so must the Son of man be lifted up ; that whosoever 
 believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life." 
 The condition is again believe. Before this, John 1 :12, 
 "As many as receive him, to them gave he power to be- 
 come the sons of God even to them that believe on his- 
 name." Belief is the vital factor. "He that believeth 
 on him is not condemned ; but he that believeth not is con- 
 
■68 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 ■demned already, because he hath not beheved in the name 
 •of the only begotten Son of God." Again, "He that be- 
 lieveth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that be- 
 lieveth not shall no :t see life ; but the wrath of God abid- 
 eth on him." 
 
 Jesus staid away from Bethany until Lazarus was 
 dead so that he might perform a miracle, "To the in- 
 tent that ye may believe." He says to Martha, "He that 
 helieveth in me, though he were dead yet shall he live; 
 and whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, shall never 
 die." 
 
 When asked, "What shall we do that we might 
 work the works of God," the reply of Christ was, "This 
 is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath 
 sent." It is believe, believe, believe, all through the gos- 
 pels, and the Epistles echo the same word. Toward the 
 close of John's gospel he says, "And many other signs 
 did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not 
 written in this book : but these are written, that ye may 
 believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that 
 believing ye might have life through his name." The 
 whole of John's gospel was written to convey the truth 
 that salvation is by faith. But faith is merely belief, and 
 if we must believe, there must be something to be believed. 
 
 Not long ago an influential newspaper man remark- 
 ed in effect : "When will people know that true religion 
 •does not depend upon any scientific, or historical fact?" 
 But a religion that does not depend upon the historical 
 facts of Christ's redeeming work is not the Christian re- 
 ligion, nor any religion of saving power. 
 
 But according to Christ there are some facts recorded 
 that, it would seem, must be believed. Jesus says to the 
 Pharisees and those gathered with them, "If ye believe 
 not that I am he," that is the Messiah, "Ye shall die in 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 69 
 
 your sins." Of the Messiah it was written that he should 
 be born of a Virgin, that his name should be called Won- 
 derful, Councellor, The Mighty God, the Everlasting 
 Father, the Prince of Peace. If they did not beUeve in 
 him as such they did not believe in him as the Messiah. 
 Instead of believing in him as such, they accused him of 
 blasphemy, "for making himself equal with God." This 
 he most unequivocally claimed to be, while they believed 
 him to be a mere man. Read the history of the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem and of the dispersion of the Jews for 
 evidence whether they were saved for this world or not. 
 None of those who accepted his claims perished in that 
 terrible destruction, for, believing in him they believed 
 his words, took warning from the signs that he had fore- 
 told, and fled to a place of safety. Not one Christian 
 perished in that catastrophe. That was the greatest that 
 had ever occurred. Were those opposers saved for the 
 future world ? Evidently not ; for in that same connec- 
 tion he told them, "Whither I go ye cannot come." 
 
 Note his denunciation of those classes. Yet, they 
 all believed that there was such a man as Jesus, they be- 
 lieved in him as a mere man like themselves, of simply 
 human paternity. Many could not but believe that he was 
 a good man; and the only fault they could find in him 
 was expressed, "yea, but he deceiveth the people," in 
 claiming to be more than a common man, and trying 
 to convince them that he was the Messiah. 
 
 They not only believed in him as a man, but they ad- 
 mitted that he performed miracles, too. After the rais- 
 ing of Lazarus we read, "Then gathered the chief priests 
 and the Pharisees a council and said. What do we? for 
 this man doeth many miracles. If we let him alone all 
 men will believe on him." (John 11 :47-48.) 
 
 Instead of being convinced by the raising of Laz- 
 arus from the dead, that Jesus was what he claimed to 
 
70 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 be, "they consulted that they might put Lazarus also to 
 death ; because that by reason of him, many of the Jews 
 went away and believed on Jesus." How remarkably they 
 proved the truth of what Jesus said in the parable of 
 Dives and Lazarus, "They have Moses and the prophets ; 
 if they believe not them, neither would they believe even 
 if one should rise from the dead." And how much more 
 wonderfully was that truth confirmed when he himself 
 rose from the dead. 
 
 None of them, so far as we know, ever denied the 
 fact of his miracles, not even that of his resurrection; 
 but that did not convince them. Instead of being con- 
 vinced, "They gave large money to the soldiers, saying, 
 'say ye his disciples came by night and stole him away 
 while we slept." But that would have been a terrible 
 admission for a Roman soldier to make. The death 
 sentence could have been immediately imposed. There 
 must have been some great inducement to persuade 
 those soldiers to run so awful a risk. But they were re- 
 assured, "And if this come to the governor's ears, we will 
 persuade him and secure you." (Mat. 28:13, 14.) Yes, 
 they most decidedly believed in miracles. 
 
 They were also compelled to admit that others 
 wrought them in the name of Christ. When the man, 
 lame from birth, was healed by Peter and John ; and the 
 knowledge of the fact was rapidly spreading, and win- 
 ning adherents to their cause, these same scribes and 
 Pharisees, — the religious teachers — conferred among 
 themselves, saying, "What shall we do to these men? for 
 that a notable miracle has been done by them is manifest 
 and we cannot deny it. But that it spread no farther 
 among the people let us straightly threaten them that 
 they speak henceforth to no man in this name." 
 
 They believed many things concerning Christ, but, 
 evidently their belief was not of a saving character. 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Aetivities 71 
 
 Not only did men, wicked men, believe many things 
 concerning him, but demons, also. We read, "There 
 met him two possessed with devils coming out of the 
 tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass that 
 way. And they cried out saying, 'What have we to do 
 with thee, Jesus thou Son of God ?" The faith of demons 
 went farther than that of some men, but they did not ren- 
 der him due obedience as their Lord. And James says, 
 "Thou believest there is one God, thou doest well; the 
 devils also believe and tremble." Many now believe that 
 there is one God, but that Jesus is not God. 
 
 What, then, is necessary? When Jesus asked his 
 disciples who he was, Peter answered and said, "Thou 
 art the Christ, the son of the living God." Thomas ex- 
 claimed, "My Lord and my God," The true nature of 
 Christ was revealed to them. "Blessed art thou, Simon 
 Barjona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto 
 thee, but my Father which is in heaven," was the Sav- 
 iour's declaration. That is the faith that complies with 
 the condition "As many as believed on him, t© them gave 
 he power to become the sons of God, even to those that 
 believe on his name." 
 
 "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be 
 saved." 
 
CHAPTED IX. 
 
 "Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not 
 sin against thee.''. (Ps. 119:11.) 
 
 The "Word" to which the Psalmist refers is, with- 
 out doubt, the Old Testament scriptures that had been 
 written up to that time. The Psalm from which the 
 above words are taken is a wonderful eulogium upon 
 that word. We do not know how much of the Old Tes- 
 tament that we now have, was in existence at that time ; 
 but any additions that have been made since then have 
 only added to their value. Of the Old Testament that 
 we now have Paul writes to Timothy, "From a child thou 
 hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make 
 thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ 
 Jesus." 
 
 But it would seem almost absurd to write a single 
 chapter upon a book concerning which volumes, libraries 
 have been written. That "Word" now contains not only 
 the "Scriptures," to which the apostle refers, but the New 
 Testament of which the apostle himself wrote so large 
 a portion. If it was able to make, "wise unto salvation" 
 then how much more so now. 
 
 But the benefit one is to receive from it depends upon 
 the attitude in which it is approached. And that is my 
 apology for this chapter. Upon that attitude depends 
 whether the sacred volume is to be a savor of life unto 
 life, or of death unto death. So a consideration of that 
 attitude is important. For many years it has been grow- 
 ing upon me, more and more, that the Bible was written 
 for free, moral agents. What one gets from it depends, 
 upon the attitude he assumes toward it. One may be 
 many years with the Bible and yet land in the camp 
 of Thomas Paine. He may feed upon it as the bread of 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 73^ 
 
 life, and become as near being a saint as one can well be 
 in this life. If one would enter the kingdom of science, 
 he must enter it upon his knees, that is, he must bow ta 
 the authority of his books and teachers. With reference 
 to science the writer of these words has always been a 
 little independent for he found so many mistakes and 
 demonstrable errors that he has to use his own judgment 
 to a great extent. 
 
 But entering the kingdom of God one must bow ab- 
 solutely before the text book, the Bible, and to the teach- 
 er, the Holy Spirit. But it must be remembered that 
 the Bible is so written that one may find fault with it, 
 quarrel with it, criticise it if he chooses. One will find 
 difficulties in it that will test his moral attitude toward 
 it. If it did not contain such it would not be adapted to 
 develop moral character, for it would require no exercise 
 of faith in it, or exercise of the will toward it. A teach- 
 er of theology once remarked to his class that he had lit- 
 tle patience with a student who did not find difficulties 
 in the book, as it would indicate a lack of observation. 
 
 But, as may appear later, the difficulties may lie in a 
 superficial reading when a more careful, critical reading" 
 would remove them. Still, it is true that there are real 
 difficulties ; if there were not, as has been before observed, 
 it would not be adapted to the purpose it is designed to 
 serve — the development of moral character. One cannot 
 read "The Age of Reason," without experiencing a kind 
 of subtle power, a kind of Satanic influence emanating 
 from its pages, that calls for the strongest exercise of 
 will power, and the help of the Spirit of Truth to resist, 
 and keep his essential faith unshaken. The same may be 
 said of many, many books now coming from our nomin- 
 ally, religious teachers. Sometimes one's safety may de- 
 pend upon the fact that he is not able to understand the- 
 teachings, or their drift, to be really influenced by them.. 
 
74 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 As one eminently pious and useful Christian remark- 
 ed that he did not know enough to see their drift or be 
 influenced by them. But it is too sadly true that many 
 are influenced by them. 
 
 But to encourage general confidence in the book 
 there are outward, or objective, evidences of its truth- 
 fulness. A merchant does not have to prove the correct- 
 ness of every item in his books to establish his claim in 
 some particular instance. He can prove his books by 
 proving that some of the entries are correct. 
 
 So to prove the correctness of the Bible one does 
 not have to prove the truth of every individual state- 
 ment. We may believe statements in the Bible that we 
 could not be asked to believe if they were only in some 
 other book. President Harper was once asked whether 
 we should believe the contents because they were in the 
 Bible or believe the Bible because of its contents. He 
 replied, both. They mutually sustain each other. 
 
 Among these objective evidences are its science, its 
 history, its ethics, its prophesy, its unity and harmony 
 and its self revealing character. These are some of the 
 things that not only assure its general truthfulness but 
 to an unbiassed reader, its divine origin. 
 
 A few words with regard to some of these may not 
 be out of place to assist in the correct attitude toward 
 it. Its science of cosmogony is correct, though few ad- 
 mit it. It is of such a nature, too, that at the time that 
 it was written, unaided knowledge could not have per- 
 ceived its truth. The way in which the world was made 
 must have been revealed by its Maker. But in other di- 
 rections, when men have been in the search for truth or 
 knowledge for use in some invention, perhaps, when they 
 could get some definite expression from the Book, they 
 knew that they were on the right track. Its Biogenesis 
 
The Divine Life : Its Dei>elopment and Activities 75 
 
 is absolutely in harmony with the records in the rocks. 
 It is only when one puts impossible interruptions upon the 
 records in the rocks that they find trouble with Genesis. 
 
 Its history is being constantly confirmed by the spade 
 of the archaeologist. 
 
 Its ethics are the base of everything noble or truly 
 useful in our modern civilization. If there is anything 
 wrong in the affairs of men, it is because its ethics are not 
 observed. Closely allied to this is the way in which some 
 simple seemingly casual, expression is seen to be the ex- 
 pression of some principle in the nature of things that is 
 immutable and eternal. For example, "Judge not that 
 ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge ye 
 shall be judged." Is that a simple tit for tat arrange- 
 ment that could be changed by authority? No. Our 
 judgment of others is but a revelation of what we, our- 
 selves are, and we are judged by what we are. If peo- 
 ple but realized that truth, how much less censoriouness 
 there would be. Many other such instances might be 
 mentioned that would show that the mind of the writer 
 must have been illuminated by some higher than human 
 wisdom. 
 
 Its self revealing, too would seem to indicate a 
 more than human origin. A missionary was once trans- 
 lating the Bible into a heathen language. He had a na- 
 tive helper assisting him but who seemed but little inter- 
 ested until he came to a passage that so reflected his own 
 inner life that he exclaimed "The one who wrote that 
 made me." 
 
 Incidently we may note that there are passages that 
 at first sight seem "hard to receive," and yet when un- 
 derstood are very illuminating and helpful. "Ye shall 
 not eat of anything that dieth of itself ; thou shalt give 
 it to the stranger that is within thy gates that he may eat 
 it; or thou mayest sell it to an alien." That passage was 
 
76 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 once quoted in a discussion as against the ethics of the 
 Bible. At first I was nonplused and would have pre- 
 ferred that such a passage had not been put in the book. 
 But when it was understood it was very helpful for it 
 showed that Gentiles were not under the Jewish law, 
 and were at liberty to eat anything they chose so far as 
 that was concerned. Before that I had had some doubt 
 as to the right to eat pork, rabbits or anything else that 
 was prohibited by the Mosaic law. But that passage set 
 all such doubts aside. That law was for the Jewish peo- 
 ple and for the Jewish dispensation. 
 
 Then there are seeming contradictions that arise 
 from a careless reading. One of these is with reference 
 to the 400 or 430 years of the wandering or sojourning 
 of the chosen people. Even an eminent Christian scholar 
 and commentator declared that any attempt to reconcile 
 the discrepancy was beneath notice. But a careful, criti- 
 cal reading shows that there is no difficulty, no discrep- 
 ancy. God tells Abraham that his seed should be a 
 stranger in a land that was not theirs for four hundred 
 years. Note that was Abraham's seed that should do this, 
 But "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." So the 400 
 years refers to the time after Isaac was born. In another 
 place we read the "sojourneying of them that sojourned" 
 was 430 years. But Abraham himself was a sojourner 
 with all his family for thirty years before Isaac was born 
 so that there is no discrepancy. 
 
 I should naturally be inclined to speak of many such 
 instances of seeming contradictions but will not. For 
 myself there are enough such instances to show the pos- 
 sibilities in others that have not yet been explained. 
 There may be many that never can be removed, but just 
 keep them in abeyance, until light dawns, or if it never 
 does — well, there is enough truth anyway to save those 
 who believe. 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities > 77 
 
 The fulfillment of prophesy is one of the unimpeach- 
 able evidences of Divine inspiration. Many, very many 
 have been strictly, literally fulfilled. But in general they 
 were not designed to gratify a curiosity as to what was to 
 be in the future. Much of it may be in the same spirit 
 in which Jesus speaks to his disciples, "And now I have 
 told you before it come to pass that when it is come to 
 pass, ye might believe.'' 
 
 Prophetic foresight did not come by human in- 
 sight. "Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, 
 but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the 
 Holy Ghost." 
 
 Again, the unity and harmony of the Bible are such 
 that it must have had a single author. Sixty six books 
 written by many different penmen during fifteen centu- 
 ries and yet but one book, with vital connection between 
 all of its parts. But here 1 cannot do better than to quote 
 a few sentences from a lecture by the venerable H. L. 
 Hastings nearly forty years ago, and circulated by the 
 million copies. 
 
 "God's word declares the end from the beginning. It 
 is not only the chart that guides each weary wanderer to 
 his own eternal rest, but it is the record of the great plan 
 and purpose of the Almighty concerning the world which 
 he has made, and the church which he has redeemed. It 
 unfolds God's everlasting purpose, as manifested in Je- 
 sus Christ ; and if one reads three chapters at the begin- 
 ning of the Bible and three at the end, he will be struck 
 at the correspondence which there exists." 
 
 At the beginning of the Bible we find a new world. 
 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the 
 earth." At the end of the Bible we find a new world. "I 
 saw a new heaven and a new earth ; for the first heaven 
 and the first earth were passed away." At the beginning 
 
78 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 we find Satan entering to deceive and destroy ; at the end 
 we find Satan cast out, "that he should deceive the nations 
 no more." At the beginning, sin and pain and sorrow and 
 sighing and death find entrance to the world ; at the end, 
 there shall be no more pain nor sorrow nor sighing, and 
 no more death. At the beginning, the earth for man's 
 transgressions, is cursed with thorns and thistles; at the 
 end," there shall be no more curse," but the "throne of 
 God and the Lamb shall be in it." At the beginning we 
 find the tree of life in paradise, from which the sinner is 
 shut away by a flaming sword, lest he eat and live for- 
 ever; at the end, we find the tree of life again "in the 
 midst of the paradise of God," and the blessed and blood 
 washed ones have a right to the tree of life, and "enter 
 in through the gates into the city." At the beginning man 
 -was brought beneath the dominion of death and the 
 ■grave ; at the end, "the dead, small and great, stand before 
 'God," the sea gives up its dead, and death and hell are 
 ■destroyed in the lake of fire. At the beginning, the first 
 Adam lost his dominion over earth, and was driven out of 
 the Garden of Eden in shame and sorrow ; at the end we 
 find the second Adam, victorious over sin and death and 
 hell, enthroned as King and Lord of all, and reigning in 
 triumph and glory forever." 
 
 Much more along the same line might be said or 
 quoted from that address, but where that much can be 
 said it must be a book of more than human origin. 
 
 But, as before remarked, what we get from it de- 
 pends, greatly, upon the attitude with which we approach 
 it. 
 
 Approaching it with a complaicent reliance upon 
 their own wisdom and in the light of a pseudo sci- 
 ence, men have been lured into actual infidelity. 
 
 This was observed some years ago by a religious 
 journal, that at first, at least, was friendly to the move- 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 79 
 
 ment. As it says, "When we found that the world was- 
 more than six thousand years old, that there was no uni- 
 versal flood four thousand years ago, that Adam was not 
 made directly from the dust, and Eve from his rib, and' 
 that the tower of Babel was not the occasion of the di- 
 versification of languages, we had gone too far to stop. 
 The process of criticism had to go on from Genesis to- 
 Revelation with no fear of the curse at the end of the last 
 chapter. It could not stop with Moses and Isaiah ; it had 
 to include Mathew and John and Paul. Every one of 
 them had to be sifted. They had already ceased to be 
 taken as unquestioned, final authorities for plenary in- 
 spiration had followed verbal inspiration just as soon' 
 as the first chapter of Genesis had ceased to be taken as 
 true history. The miracles of Christ had to be tested as- 
 well as those of Elijah. The date and purpose of the 
 gospel of John had to be investigated historically as well 
 as the prophecy of Isaiah ; and the conclusions of histor- 
 ical criticism had to be accepted with no regard to the 
 old theologies. We have just reached this condition, and 
 there is repeated evidence that it makes an epoch, a revo- 
 lution in theologic thought. To this present teaching,, 
 which has invaded all of our denominations, Jesus is the 
 world's prime teacher, but it can assert nothing more. 
 There is, it declares, no reasonable proof of his birth f rorre 
 a virgin, no certainty of a physical resurrection ; the gos- 
 pels must be anaylzed, for they contain mythical elements, 
 non-historical miracles unverified assertions. 
 
 But this doubt, even this questioning or deniaf, 
 changes the old, evangelistic theology. It questions or 
 denies the Trinity, the resurrection, the sacrifice of the 
 cross, even all miracles and it undermines all authority of 
 inspiration or even revelation, and sends us back to human- 
 reason, with such divine guidance as may be allowed ; the- 
 
80 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 authority of the church and the authority of the Bible 
 both to be validated only by human reason." 
 
 These are the words of one who knew whereof he 
 affirmed, and who was, at least, in the beginning of the 
 movement, in sympathy with it. 
 
 Surely they are trying to take us back to "The Age 
 of Reason." 
 
 Let Paul make a comment, "Where is the Wise, 
 where is the Scribe? Where is the disputer of this 
 world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this 
 world?" 
 
 But to revert to prophecy as one of the evidences of 
 the fact that the Bible is the word of God and to carry 
 us a step further. Peter says "We have also a more sure 
 word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that you take 
 heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the 
 day dawn and the day star ariseinyour hearts." (II Peter, 
 1:19.) 
 
 Here is a very plain declaration that all of the out- 
 ward, o^ objective evidences of the truthfulness of the 
 Word are mainly designed to bring us to it so that we 
 experience within ourselves, the Divine reality of the life 
 giving message. They are what we may call the subjec- 
 tive evidences of the truthfulness of the Book. 
 
 These evidences are those that exist within the soul 
 itself as opposed to those that merely appeal to it from 
 without. They are the result of its own experiences. 
 They appeal to the consciousness rather than to the in- 
 tellect of men. In conclusiveness they as much transcend 
 the merely objective evidences as the facts of conscious- 
 ness surpass those of acquired knowledge. They become 
 an integral portion of the soul itself, so to speak, a living, 
 moving, potent energy rather than an inert, external 
 appendage. They have their basis in the perfect corres- 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 81 
 
 pondence between the motions of the soul that is in abso- 
 lute submission to God and the evident experiences of 
 the scripture writers. They are the verification in the in- 
 dividual experience of the promise of Christ. "If any 
 man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine." I 
 may say, and I think truly, that all skepticism, all infi- 
 delity in the world would be done away if men would 
 but do the will of God. In this respect, doing is essen- 
 tial to knowing, action begets knowledge. 
 
 But to state the grounds of these evidences. The 
 soul of man now may be in such an attitude toward God 
 that it may know that it has communion with its Maker. 
 It may know that its emotions are directed, its move- 
 ments controlled by the spirit of the Most High. When 
 the soul is in absolute submission to God, the will lost in 
 his will, when the hopes, the expectations, the desires, all, 
 everything, is lost to self and given up to God, he redeems 
 his promise "I will be with thee ; I will comfort thee ; I 
 will strengthen thee.'' 
 
 Though struggling it may be with doubts and des- 
 pondency the promise comes "My grace is sufficient for 
 thee." When hungering and thirsting for the bread and 
 water of life, feeling its own poverty, the invitation 
 comes, "Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
 waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and 
 eat. Yea come and buy wine and milk without money 
 and without price." The soul knows that it is the voice 
 of its own Creator. 
 
 When nearing the river of death and entering the 
 dark vallely, the Lord hardly needs to tell that it is 
 Himself who says, "I have redeemed thee. I have 
 called thee by thy name ; thou art mine. When thou pass- 
 eth through the waters I will be with thee, and through 
 the rivers they shall not overflow thee." Thou wast 
 
82 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 precious in my sight ; I have loved thee. Fear not for I 
 am with thee." 
 
 The soul may know the voice of the Holy One speak- 
 ing to it, as Christ has said "My sheep know my voice." 
 And how superfluous are the intellectual works upon the 
 inspiration of the Bible, the ponderous tones of Christian 
 evidences, or learned volumes of apologetics, or Syrian 
 discoveries, or tablets exhumed from the ruins of Baby- 
 lon or Thebes or of any of the other "buried cities" to the 
 one who hears and knows the voice of the risen Sav- 
 iour. But all of such things are of value as guides to a 
 personal experience. 
 
 When one with a resolution equal to any emergency 
 determines to follow the truth at any hazard, his path 
 becomes the "pathway of the just that shineth more and 
 more unto the perfect day." When he plants his feet upon 
 the truth, determined not to be shaken, that truth becomes 
 "The Rock of Ages." He hardly has to be told that 
 there is a pathway of the just or a Rock of Ages. He 
 feels the facts, he knows them. They are already in his 
 consciousness. But when the outward fact meets him in 
 the scriptures, he knows it is the truth, for he has had the 
 foreshadowing of it in his own soul ; or rather I should 
 say, he has had the reality of it in his soul while the 
 Book contains its record. 
 
 A very great deal might be written along this line, 
 in fact a whole chapter or a volume. 
 
 It is these evidences in one's own self that forms 
 the secret of the Bible's hold upon men. It is not so 
 much what we find in the Bible as what it finds in us 
 that makes us believe that it is the word of God. The 
 correspondence between the motions of the soul and those 
 same motions as recorded in the Bible show that the 
 same Spirit that stirs the soul now breathed into the 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 85 
 
 writers of the Book. Philosophers may philosophise, 
 critics may criticise and skeptics may doubt but the soul 
 may know that the Bible is the word of God. Perhaps no 
 single soul can in its experience embrace more than a 
 small part of the Bible truth but it can grasp enough to 
 know that the whole is true. 
 
 But I would repeat that I do not undervalue the 
 outward evidences of its truth but they are as "a light 
 that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the 
 day-star arise in your hearts." 
 
 We cannot reverence this book more than our Sav- 
 iour did. We cannot place a higher estimate upon it than 
 some of the New Testament writers who declare "This 
 was done that it might be fulfilled that was spoken of 
 by the prophets." 
 
 "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unta 
 my path," to the Heavenly city, to the New Jerusalem. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Sabbath Was Made For Man :— Jesus. 
 
 "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," (Ex- 
 odus 20 :8. ) 
 
 The declaration above, while in the first instance de- 
 signed to affirm that man himself was of more consequence 
 than any of the institutions created for his use, neverthe- 
 less contains a greater truth than appears upon the sur- 
 face. It is almost, if not quite universally considered to 
 apply to the physical man, and to him only. Almost all 
 that is ever said or written upon the subject has refer- 
 ence to the need of the physical man for rest. The 
 thought seems, too much, to be that of the boy going to 
 a Sunday base ball game. When told that Sunday was a 
 day of rest, replied, "I do not need any rest," so of 
 course as he did not need physical rest there was no use 
 of his observing the day. Perhaps that if he had obeyed 
 the part that says "Six days shalt thou labor" there 
 would have been more need for his resting on the sev- 
 enth. 
 
 But the thought that I have intended to convey 
 all along, is that the man is more than the physical body. 
 The material body is but an appendage, attached to the 
 real man for a specific, but temporary purpose. When 
 that purpose has been attained, the body is sloughed off 
 as the hairy skin, the legs and even the head of the cat- 
 erpillar is cast off when the chrysalis is formed to emerge 
 in a more perfect form as a butterfly. So the human body 
 is of only temporary use and when that has been accom- 
 plished, it is laid aside, but the man himself, in the en- 
 tirety of his being, remains after the body has returned 
 to "The earth as it was." 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 85 
 
 It was for man in that sense that the Sabbath was 
 made and there is the most conckisive evidence that it 
 was made when man was made. Its importance as dis- 
 tinguished from the other commandments, justifies a 
 more extended consideration. 
 
 In this connection the first inquiry naturally is, was 
 there such an institution before the time of Moses ? My 
 own conclusion most certainly is that there was. Note 
 the presumptive evidence in the law itself. Every com- 
 mandment in the decalogue is but the expression in words 
 of an eternal principle, inherent in the very nature of 
 things. It is not wrong to commit murder simply and 
 only bacause the law says "thou shalt not kill." The law 
 says that because it was and always had been wrong to 
 commit murder, as the 'Savior interprets the law. Cain 
 knew that it was wrong when he killed his brother. It 
 was wrong to dishonor parents before the law was given 
 on Sinai. The sons of Noah knew that. It was wrong to 
 have or worship other gods than God. The inhabitants 
 of Sodom knew that as well as that other one about adul- 
 tery. Those commandments were written in the very 
 constitution of man, the very constitution of nature. So 
 of all of the commandments of the Decalogue, except 
 the fourth if that be an exception. Probably it is not, 
 though the principles involved are more recondite than 
 those in the other nine. All of them have the same penal- 
 ty, the terrible death penalty attached, either by direct 
 statutory enactment or by example. So the principle in 
 nature requiring the law of the Sabbath may be more re- 
 condite than those underlying the other nine, but it is 
 there. Not simply because his physical nature requires 
 rest but because the man himself, his spiritual nature re- 
 quires it even more. But with reference to his physical 
 nature alone the value of a conscience bound day of rest 
 has never been fully appreciated. 
 
86 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 But we pass from presumptive to Biblical evidence. 
 The word shabua (weeks) is used to designate a period 
 of either seven weeks of days or of seven years. The 
 weeks of Jacob, (Gen. 29:27-28) may mean either. He 
 had fulfilled Leah's week of years and they had begun the 
 wedding feast of, probably seven days, and it would 
 seem that Rachel was given him at that time. But how- 
 ever that may be, the word is confined to its mean- 
 ing of seven days in every instance until we come to the 
 book of Daniel, and it seems to be used, too, as if the 
 Israelites were familiar with that division of time. That 
 Daniel, in his prophecy of the seventy weeks, uses it to 
 denote a period of seven years is very apparent for when 
 he wishes to express days, he modifies "shabua" by the 
 word "ganim," as (Daniel 10:2) "I was mourning three 
 full weeks," he says "shabua ginim." So in other places 
 vhere he wishes to express a week of days. 
 
 But to come directly to the Sabbath in Exodus. The 
 manna was given at least two weeks before Moses went 
 up Mount Sinai. In fact it was two weeks before the 
 congregation reached that camp for the manna began on 
 the fifteenth day of the second month (Exodus 16:1) 
 and they reached Sinia in the third month, probably on 
 the first day (Exodus 19:1.) After that Moses was in 
 the mount "forty days and forty nights" (Exodus 24: 
 18.) It may have been some days more before he finally 
 gave out the law as he had received it. The point is that 
 the manna was given at least two months before the deca- 
 logue was promulgated and yet from the very first the 
 people were forbidden to gather it on the seventh day. 
 Then when the law came it said "Remember," evidently 
 an institution with which they were familiar. 
 
 And miraculous events occurred to confirm the sa- 
 credness of the day. They were to gather the manna six 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 87 
 
 days but not on the seventh. They were to gather an 
 omer per person. It was to be measured and if any had 
 gathered much there was nothing over, and he that had 
 gathered Httle, had no lack. If any one, fearing that the 
 supply would fail, gathered for the morrow, the surplus 
 bread worms and stank. But on the sixth day they were 
 to gather for two days and it kept sweet, for the seventh 
 day. Whether at this time or not, God showed his es- 
 timate of the sacredness of the day by ordering a man to 
 be put to death for wantonly desecrating it by gathering 
 sticks on that day. It may or may not have been later. 
 
 But further than this we have extra Biblical accounts. 
 There are evidences that it existed in all of the great na- 
 tions of the earth long before the time of Moses. It was 
 observed in Egypt and Assyria long before the giving of 
 the law. Within the last few years, comparatively, (in 
 1869) tablets have been found in Assyria among which 
 is an Assyrian religious calendar in which the month 
 was divided into four weeks and the seventh days were 
 marked out as days on which no work was to be done. 
 
 A Chaldean account of creation has been discovered 
 which confirms the statement that the Sabbath was coeval 
 with creation. Other tablets have been found that have 
 an account of the Sabbath and which were written in a 
 language that became extinct two hundred years before 
 the time of Moses. 
 
 From these inscriptions we find that, according to a 
 recent writer, the most ancient nations had views of the 
 Sabbath so closely resembling those of the Assyrians, 
 that, nothing can account for the resemblance but com- 
 mon origin or a common inspiration, either of which 
 would prove it divine. 
 
 Further than this, in the imperial almanac of China, 
 there is a particular character found recurring through- 
 
88 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 out the year on every seventh day. That day, strangely 
 enough, corresponds to our Sunday. This character 
 which is no longer in common use, is explained in their 
 dictionaries to mean "secret" or "closed." It has been 
 there from time immemorial, but no one knows how it 
 got there, still it is an unmistakable evidence of a Sab- 
 bath observed until they lost it by profaning it. 
 
 Evidences that have been buried for centuries are 
 being found that the Sabbath was made for man and 
 when man was made, and that it will exist as long as there 
 are beings who need it. 
 
 But enough of this for the present. 
 
 There are probably few who do not acknowledge the 
 perpetual obligation of the Sabbath. One question now 
 is what day we are to observe as such. 
 
 Incidentally we may say that in no two degrees of 
 longitude can we keep precisely the same day. When 
 Christian missionaries are keeping the first day of the 
 week in Persia or Eden, a part of that day is the sev- 
 enth day here. On one side of the 180th meridian they 
 might be keeping the seventh day while a few miles fur- 
 ther west the same day would be the first day of the 
 next week. 
 
 Christianity is a world wide religion and must be 
 adapted to all lattitudes and longitudes. Still, though 
 we cannot have precisely the same day in all longitudes, 
 yet in each locality, we should have one day in seven to 
 observe as holy. 
 
 It is very evidently a mistake to suppose that the same 
 successive seventh day has been observed from creation 
 down to the Christian era. In the time of Abraham every 
 lunar month was begun with a Sabbath. Even the inter- 
 callary months could not wholly correct the irregularity 
 so but that some weeks would be longer than others. So 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 89' 
 
 the regular succession of seven day periods would be 
 broken up. 
 
 Again, it is evident that the seventh day after the 
 Exodus was not the same as that of Abraham, for that 
 day, passing down the line of Ishmael's descendants to 
 the Saracens is now kept by the Mohammedans as a Sab- 
 bath, and that day is Friday. The enthusiast who would 
 try to get the Jews to return to the religion of Abraham 
 would have to Sabbathize him — get him to change his 
 Sabbath from Saturday to Friday as a Sabbath. 
 
 All Jewswhoare converted to Mohammedanism have 
 to change their Sabbath from Saturday to Friday, just 
 as Christians who revert to Judaism change from Sunday 
 to Saturday. 
 
 This change was evidently made at the time of the 
 Exodus to commemorate the fact that God had delivered 
 his people from the land of Egypt. 
 
 At the creation God established the institution of 
 the Sabbath to supply a need of man's spiritual nature and 
 to commemorate the fact that God had made the world. 
 At the Exodus a change of the day was made to com- 
 memorate the additional fact that He delivered them from 
 their bondage in Egypt. At the resurrection of Christ 
 another change was made to commemorate the still addi- 
 tional fact that the infinitely greater work of man's re- 
 demption had been accomplished. 
 
 But the question now arises, by what authority was 
 this last change made? The answer is, it was made by 
 the same authority that repealed the law of tithes, of 
 sacrifices, of purifications and many other things that 
 even Sabbattarians do not now consider binding. 
 
 But it is sometimes urged that the decalogue has a 
 unique force as it was written by God himself. But so far 
 as there is force in that fact it only enforces the eternal 
 principle there expressed. 
 
'90 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 The day was changed by competent authority. The 
 Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath day. This dec- 
 laration was made by our Saviour in defense of his action 
 in breaking down a superstitious observance of the day. 
 He had the power to change the day or to invest others 
 ■with that authority. 
 
 This he did when he gave his disciples a general 
 power of attorney to establish the Christian church with 
 all of its necessary institutions. (See Mat. 16:19.) 
 "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in 
 heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall 
 Tie loosed in heaven." 
 
 The disciples were granted wisdom from on high, 
 were endued with the Holy Spirit so that whatsoever 
 they did would be right because they would desire to do 
 nothing but what God wished to have done. So their 
 acts in releasing men from some of the burdens of the 
 Jewish ritual, or enjoining other things to be done would 
 -meet with God's approval. 
 
 They, by their precept or example, loosed the grip 
 of the ceremonial law and did away with the rite of cir- 
 cumcision, sacrifices, burnt offerings, the temple ritual, 
 the priesthood, the observance of new moons, the annual 
 feasts that had been established by God himself, the cere- 
 monial purifications, to hear the matter of lawful and unlaw- 
 ful meats, and all of "the carnal law of ordinances," as the 
 apostle calls them. Paul says that Christ did this but it 
 was mainly by the authority that he gave the Apostles. 
 See what Peter and the other disciples did when the con- 
 troversy arose in Antioch. There were Judaizers in An- 
 tioch who insisted that all Gentile converts should keep 
 the seventh day, be circumcised, observe the feasts and 
 sacrifices and so of all the Jewish ritual. Paul contended 
 that they were "loosed" from such observances. So he, 
 with delegates from that church went to Jerusalem and in 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 91 
 
 the council there held, Peter sided with him and James, 
 the presiding officer, announced the decision in accord- 
 ance with the views of Peter and Paul. The decision 
 was that the old law in such matters was not binding. 
 
 But Paul always found Judaizers to contend with. 
 The church in Colossae was exercising its Christian lib- 
 erty when Judaizers began disturbing its peace and 
 Paul wrote "let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in 
 respect of an holy day or of the new moons or of the 
 Sabbath days ; which are a shadow of things to come." 
 The Jewish Sabbath was but a type or shadow of the 
 Christian Sabbath. 
 
 The law of the Jewish Sabbath was evidently loosed 
 when Paul wrote to the Romans (14:1-6) Him that is 
 weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful dispu- 
 tations. One man esteemeth one day above another ; 
 another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be 
 fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the 
 day, to the Lord he regardeth it; and he that regardeth 
 it not, to the Lord he doth not regard it. 
 
 To the Galations he wrote (4 :9-ll.) "But now after 
 you have known God or rather are known of God, how 
 turn ye to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto 
 ye desire again to be in bondage. Ye observe days and 
 months and times and years." He refers to the Jewish 
 customs to which they were returning after they had 
 been emancipated from them. 
 
 But now for some of the evidences that the day was 
 changed from the last to the first day of the week. 
 
 Christ arose on that day. He visited the disciples 
 on that day or the following Sunday. Pentecost was on 
 Sunday. Later Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "Now con- 
 cerning the collection for the saints, as I have given or- 
 ders to the churches in Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the 
 first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in 
 
92 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 store, as God hath prospered him that there be no gath- 
 erings when I come." This shows that their gatherings 
 were on the first day of the week. 
 
 Paul was in Troas seven days and yet it was only 
 on the first day that "When they were come together to 
 break bread, Paul preached to them ready to depart on 
 the morrow." The first day was the day on which they 
 came together for worship and to celebrate the sacrament 
 of the Lord's Supper. The apostle John was "In the 
 Spirit on the Lord's day" and the revelation was given 
 him on that day. 
 
 But we cannot stop for all of the evidence that there 
 is at hand. Passages in Ezekiel and the Psalms are inter- 
 preted as presaging the change from the seventh to the 
 first day of the week. 
 
 The change was made in the time of the apostles. 
 Ignatius, who was a pupil of John, says that those who 
 have come to the newness of hope, no longer keep the 
 Jewish Sabbath but observe the day on which the Lord 
 arose. Barnabas, a companion and friend of Paul, 
 teaches the same truth. 
 
 A writer of the Jewish talmud speaks of the Lord's 
 day as the Christian's day and defines the name Nazarine 
 or Christian as being a follower of the man who com- 
 manded that the first day of the week should be a holy 
 day. 
 
 This is the day that the people of the Lord observe 
 as holy according to the writer of the epistle to the He- 
 brews. It is not only Sabbath but "Sabbatismos," a Sab- 
 bath keeping. It seems not so much enjoined by law as 
 a voluntary heartkeeping of the day "the Lord arose." 
 
 With regard to the manner in which it is to be ob- 
 served, there does not seem to be any inflexible rule laid 
 down under penalty, as in the case of Jewish Sabbath. 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities' 93 
 
 But one thing is certain, if one really loves the Christ 
 and desires to grow in Christ likeness, he will observe 
 the day as sacredly as possible. 
 
 Farther than this, while our complex modern civil- 
 ization renders much more work of necessity or mercy 
 necessary than in simpler conditions, it is probably true 
 that a needless desecration of the day that weekly com- 
 memorates the resurrection of our Lord, deeply grieves 
 the One who died to save us and is as offensive to God as 
 the one that was punished with death at Sinai. 
 
 "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" for the 
 Sabbath was made for man in the highest sense of the 
 term in his spiritual as well as his physical nature. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 Some Thoughts on The Second Coming of Christ. 
 
 "// / go away, I will come again and receive you unto 
 myself." (John 14:3.) 
 
 A consideration of this much discussed subject may 
 be in place in connection with the final activities of the 
 Divine life. 
 
 Some ideas upon this subject are evidently mista- 
 ken. One of these is as to his present mode of existence. 
 We have heard it stated that now, somewhere in this 
 physical universe, he exists in the physical, material body 
 that he wore while on the earth before. It is affirmed 
 that he never left it off, that he ascended to heaven in it 
 and now inhabits it, and that he will visit the earth again 
 in it. This is, evidently a mistaken idea. The proto 
 martyr Stephen saw him "Sitting on the right hand of 
 God." He was probably not in his material body. But 
 however that may be, Saul saw him while on his way to 
 Damascus and it was not in the material body. He was 
 the shekinah cloud and heard him speak. "Saul, Saul, why 
 persecutest thou me?" In answer to his question, "Who 
 art thou Lord," the reply was "I am Jesus whom thou 
 persecutest." The apostle John also saw him when he 
 was on "the isle called Patmos," but it was not in the ma- 
 terial body. The narrative states that, "His head and his 
 hairs were as white as wool, as white as snow; and his 
 eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine 
 brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as 
 the sound of many waters. And he had in his right 
 hand seven stars ; and out of his mouth went a sharp 
 two-edged sword; and his countenance was as the sun 
 shineth in his strength." 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 95 
 
 And to assure the apostle still further as to his per- 
 sonality he assures him "I am he that liveth and was 
 dead ; and behold I am alive f orevermore, Amen ; and 
 have the keys of hell and of death." He certainly did not 
 wear the robe of flesh he wore while on earth. It was 
 more like that he wore before his incarnation when 
 Isaiah saw him "as the Lord sitting upon a throne, high 
 and lifted up, and his train filled the temple',' and so on 
 giving such a magnificent description of his glory and 
 majesty. 
 
 But we may dwell more upon this in another place. 
 
 Another misconception seems to be regarding the 
 dignity of the flesh. Was it ah honor for him to leave his 
 heavenly abode, suffer the humiliation of being made 
 like unto a man with the limitation accompanying such 
 a body? Christ himself evidently considered that he was 
 humiliated while here in the body for he prays the Fath- 
 er, "Glorify me with the glory I had before the world 
 was." Since he entered into that glory it could hardly 
 be expected that he would want to return here and as- 
 sume the robe he wore while on earth before. 
 
 Again, there seems to be a mistaken conception with 
 regard to the ability of external authority to produce 
 righteousness in men. Righteousness and unrighteous- 
 ness proceed from the acts of the individual will in each 
 case and cannot be forced upon one by external authority. 
 Governments may encourage goodness and discourage 
 wickedness but that is the extent to which they can go. 
 Then if one is wicked in spite of the effort of the gov- 
 erning power to help him to right conduct, he is more 
 wicked than he otherwise would be. 
 
 One may imagine a ruler who as a man and ruler 
 may be perfect, a sort of Kaiser, with absolute power, 
 even to that of life and death over all his subjects, he 
 may be perfect in his character, may have the mind of 
 
96 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 Christ himself, but he could not produce righteousness 
 in his people. If such a sovereign had miraculous power 
 so as to compel the wills of men, he might compel inno- 
 cence but that without moral character. There would be 
 no virtue. 
 
 There are very narrow limits to the power of ex- 
 ternal authority to produce moral uprightness, virtue. 
 
 These thoughts may be preliminary to an examina- 
 tion of the evidences adduced for a second incarnation 
 of Christ or of his physical appearance as ruler of the 
 world. I may be mistaken in my understanding of an 
 almost universal expectation. It seems to be that Christ 
 will again appear as a human being, at least as a man 
 ■with the material body that he wore during the thirty- 
 .three and a half years that he was on the earth before. 
 
 Very much has been written and is being written that 
 seems to convey that idea, that is, that Christ is to ap- 
 pear a second time and assume the role in which he re- 
 fused to act when he was here before. But he refused 
 to act as a temporal king saying "my kingdom is not of 
 this world." And how terribly disappointed his fol- 
 lowers all were because he did not. One can hardly 
 imagine a more plaintive wail than that "Wilt thou not 
 now restore the kingdom of Israel." How little did they 
 Tealizee that he had established a kingdom of infinitely 
 more importance than the one they were vainly trying to 
 have him establish. 
 
 There is a book "Jesus is Coming" written by one 
 *'Whom not having seen we love" for his Christian char- 
 acter, his earnestness and long continued study of the 
 scriptures. His character as a man and Christian, a min- 
 ister of the gospel for many years entitle him to respect, 
 more, to our veneration and affection. Yet every one 
 has his intellectual limitations. I do not profess to be 
 learned nor to be a scholar but I have seen so many mis- 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 97 
 
 conceptions even in some of the greatest scientists and 
 scholars, demonstrable mistakes, that I take the liberty to, 
 at least, examine closely anything that is presented to me 
 for acceptance. It may be that "W. E. B." has his limi- 
 tations also. At least there are appearances that would 
 warrant an investigation of his arguments or an exam- 
 ination of the passages of scripture he brings as proof 
 of his positions. 
 
 Is it certain that all of the passages of scripture that 
 he brings forward to establish his conclusions, refer to 
 some one single, particular, spectacular event which is 
 yet future? May not a study of history, sacred and pro- 
 fane, show that some of them referred to and were ful- 
 filled in events long past ? I think that I am not presum- 
 ing when I say that in some instances he is demonstrably 
 wrong in some of his positions. Take one case. He con- 
 fuses the "new covenant," established by Christ, with the 
 "covenant with death and agreement with hell" of Isaiah 
 28:15. The former is spoken of in Daniel 9:27, as con- 
 firmed by Christ in "the week," that is the last shabua 
 of the seventy. The whole of that seventy shabua of 
 Daniel's ninth chapter, all of its prophecies have been 
 as literally and accurately fulfilled as the prophecy that 
 Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem or any other proph- 
 ecy concerning him. 
 
 The 70 weeks or shabua are divided into three pe- 
 riods, 7 weeks, 62 weeks and one week or shabua. That 
 term means a period of seven years for when Daniel 
 refers to a week of 7 days he says "shabua ganim," as 
 in the second and third verses of the next chapter. At 
 the completion of the first period, or seven weeks, the 
 church and state of Jerusalem and Judea was completed. 
 At the end of the second period mentioned, or the sixty 
 and two years Jesus was "annointed" by his baptism, and 
 thus became the Christ or the "annointed one." During 
 
98 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 the remaining week, or shabua, he confirmed the covenant 
 with many. In the midst of this week, too, he was "cut 
 off but not for himself." Thus he was mediator of the 
 "new covenant," and "a better covenant" and his was the 
 "Blood of the everlasting covenant." That covenant is 
 not to be confounded with the "covenant with death and 
 agreement with hell spoken of in Isaiah 28:15. 
 
 Again, when Jesus, comforting his disciples says, "I 
 go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare 
 a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto 
 myself ; that where I am there ye may be also," he evi- 
 dently did not expect that the sorrow stricken one would 
 wait two or three thousand years for him to redeem his 
 promise. Referring to the opinions of many that he will 
 come at death and receive them, W. E. B. makes the 
 thought ridiculous by confounding death with Christ, or 
 death itself as in itself his coming. The thought really 
 is that at death, as the spirit leaves the body, Christ re- 
 ceives it, and takes it to the home he has prepared for it. 
 
 It would have been poor comfort to those disciples to 
 know or think that they would have to live a conscious 
 existence for several thousand years before they could 
 see him again. 
 
 For myself, I am very much disposed to allow facts 
 to shape my theories or views, and as a fact of direct 
 personal knowledge, I know that in his spiritual body 
 Jesus has come and received one, in fact several, of his 
 loved ones and taken them to himself. The fact seems to 
 be that while we are confined to these bodies we are not 
 likely to realize that sentient beings can exist without 
 them. When the protomartyr Stephen was dying at the 
 hands of his murderers he prayed "Lord Jesus, receive 
 my spirit." It would not have been at all like Jesus to 
 have postponed an answer for thousands of years. Jesus 
 says to the thief on the cross, "This day thou shalt be with 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 99' 
 
 me in Paradise." Although Paradise was not considered 
 the final resting place of the spirit, yet it looks as if he 
 were to be with Jesus at any rate. Again note Christ's 
 prayer, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also 
 which shall believe on me through their word." And then 
 he gones on "Father, I will that they also, whom thou 
 hast given me be with me where I am ; that they may be- 
 hold my glory, which thou hast given me ; for thou lovedst 
 me before the foundation of the world." 
 
 It would certainly seem that he did not expect that 
 they were to wait for thousands of years and then behold 
 him with only the glory that he had while in the flesh. 
 But then, it is contemplated, of course, that in some way 
 his material body would be more glorious than the one' 
 he wore before. 
 
 Our Saviour's parables are designed to teach spir- 
 itual truth and in his parable of the rich man and Laz- 
 arus he says that Lazarus was carried by angels to Ab- 
 raham's bosom. When his faithful ones now die he does- 
 not send messengers. He comes himself, and so redeems 
 his promise, "I will come again and receive you unto 
 myself." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Second Coming — Continued 
 
 ! 
 
 "And ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the 
 right hand of power and coming in the clouds of hea- 
 ven." (Markl4:62. ) 
 
 We have been considering some of the passages of 
 scripture relating to this subject. But now, passing by 
 ■a great many that may or may not apply to it we come 
 directly to the great passages, which, more than any 
 other, and more than all others combined, the prophecy 
 from Olivet. This is contained in all of the synoptic gos- 
 pels but is brought out more fully by Matthew, twenty- 
 fourth chapter. Do these prophesies or that prophecy 
 as a whole refer to the present time? Is their, or its, 
 fulfillment yet future? 
 
 There was then, as now, a great expectancy of great 
 events. The disciples show him the great buildings of 
 the temple, but he tells them that "There shall not be 
 left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown 
 down." Then the disciples ask him privately "Tell us 
 when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign 
 of thy coming and of the end of the world?" (Age or dis- 
 pensation). And Jesus answered and said unto them, 
 ^'Take heed that no man deceive you. For many 
 ■shall come in my name saying, I am Christ, and shall 
 deceive many." Then he goes on to tell them of wars 
 and rumors, persecutions, all nations should hate them. 
 Many should be offended and betray one another, 
 iniquity should abound and the love of many should 
 wax cold. "But he that shall endure unto the end 
 shall be saved." The gospel of the kingdom was to 
 be preached in all of the world for a witness; and then 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Actiidtics 101 
 
 shall the end come. Luke records, "When ye shall see 
 Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know ye that the 
 desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them that are in 
 Judea flee to the mountains; and let them that are in 
 the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in 
 the countries enter therein. For these be the days ofven- 
 geance when all things that are written may be fulfilled." 
 A few verses further on Luke records, "And there shall 
 be signs in the sun and in the moon, and in the stars ; 
 and in the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the 
 sea and the waves roaring ; men's hearts failing them for 
 fear, and for looking after those things that are coming 
 on the earth ; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. 
 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a 
 cloud with power and great glory." Matthew records 
 essentially the same prophesies and adds, "For as the 
 lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the 
 west, so shall the coming of the Son of man be. For 
 wheresoever the carcase (the dead Jewish state) is, there 
 will the eagles (Roman ensigns) be gathered together." 
 Then in this immediate connection he narrates, "And then 
 shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and 
 then shall all of the tribes of the earth mourn, and they 
 shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds with power 
 and great glory." But Matthew goes further and says, 
 "And he shall send his angels with a great sound of trum- 
 pet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four 
 winds, from one end of heaven to the other."' The ful- 
 fillment of this last declaration may have occurred but 
 have not been visible to mortal eyes. But now passing 
 that, we may ask, how do all these signs apply to the pres- 
 ent time, or to the future ? How is it about Jerusalem ? 
 That city was destroyed centuries ago and with all of the 
 signs foretold by the Lord to his disciples. 
 
102 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 The temple was thrown down so that there is hard- 
 ly one stone left upon another. Before that, however,. 
 was done, the gospel had been preached in all the world 
 for a witness to all nations. This last statement may not 
 be clearly proven, but it can be very nearly so. By the 
 persecutions in Jerusalem and Judea the disciples were 
 scattered all over the then known world. The twelve, 
 the twenty, the one hundred and twenty, and perhaps 
 thousands more went everywhere preaching the gospel. 
 We know that it had reached Rome, the British Isles, 
 Babylon and China, and we have the record that the dis- 
 ciples went everywhere preaching the gospel, as a result 
 of their persecutions. 
 
 In Ephesus it was declared "They that have turned the 
 world upside down, have come hither also." As to- 
 present conditions in Jerusalem, the Christians are not 
 fleeing precipitately to the mountains, the Turks and 
 Huns are doing that or have been doing it. Jerusalem 
 is not compassed with armies, it did not need to be for 
 its oppressors fled without offering resistance. 
 
 One of the most pathetic scenes of the world war 
 occurred in Jerusalem. There were about thirty 
 thousand Jews and Christians in the city. The order 
 had been given that all of them should be deported the 
 next day. That meant what it did mean to hundreds 
 of thousands of Armenians and others, hunger, thirst,^ 
 loss of all their property, sickness and death, to per- 
 haps the most of them. The order had gone forth,, 
 they were to start the next day. And now I can do no 
 better than to take a few passages from a book, "Jeru- 
 salem, It's Redemption and Future." In these terrible 
 days in Jerusalem, Jews and Christians fasted and 
 prayed. Their common sorrow and desolation drew 
 them nearer to one another. They sought concealment 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 103 
 
 in the darkest cellars and deepest subterranean pas- 
 sages. Jews and Christians found refuge together. 
 
 It was in this darkness and dread that the Jews 
 awaited the coming of their great festival of light and 
 gladness, Hannucca, the Feast of Deliverance of form- 
 er days, and now approaching as the day of destruc- 
 tion. The women, weeping, prepared the oil for the 
 sacred lights, and even the men wept, saying that this 
 should be the last time they should keep the feast in 
 Jerusalem. They strained their ears to hear the sound 
 of horses' hoofs and the tread of the soldiers coming to 
 arrest them and drive them forth. The women pressed 
 their children to their breasts saying : They are coming 
 to take us, the assassins, the persecutors. 
 
 Then, suddenly, other women came rushing from 
 outside, crying, "Hosanna, Hosanna, the English, the 
 English have arrived." 
 
 Weeping and shouting for joy, trembHng and 
 stumbling over one another, they emerged and rushed 
 forth from the caverns and holes and underground 
 passages. 
 
 With loud cries, with outstretched hands, they 
 blessed the company of their deliverers, who advanced 
 in a glory of light, for all Jerusalem was illuminated 
 by the crimson light of the setting sun. 
 
 With the victors, entered Justice and Peace, into 
 the city so long ruled by terror and pain. 
 
 How vastly different this from the scenes foretold 
 in the prophecy on the mount of Olives. 
 
 The conquerors announced that they came not as 
 conquerors but as deliverers. General Allenby an- 
 nounced that every one should pursue his vocation and 
 he would be protected in all his civil and reHgious 
 rights. 
 
104 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 "How solemn and imposing was the reception of 
 the hero by the heads of three great reHgions — the Jew- 
 ish Rabbis, the Mufti and Sheiks, and the Christian 
 priests." 
 
 How impressive, with what rehef to waiting 
 hearts, was the proclamation that all shrines and sa- 
 cred places of the three religions should be equally 
 respected. 
 
 Life revived in the city which had been ravaged by 
 death. The new rulers distributed medicine and hospi- 
 tal supplies for the sick. The soldiers shared their ra- 
 tions with the famished populace. As soon as possi- 
 ble, food was brought from Egypt. Seed was given 
 to the peasants and army horses and mules were be- 
 stowed to plow the neglected fields. 
 
 The inhabitants, assured of the tranquility and in- 
 spired with confidence, began to organize themselves 
 and to develop a new order after their troubled exis- 
 tance. 
 
 It was an impulse of live after the reign of death. 
 
 How different is all this from the scenes foretold 
 in the Prophecy on Olivet. 
 
 But the question arises, when was that prophecy 
 fulfilled? Jesus himself announces the time within 
 which all should be fulfilled. "Verily, verily I say unto 
 you. This generation shall not pass, till all these things 
 be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away but my 
 word shall not pass away." 
 
 He could not possibly have made a stronger as- 
 sertion, and the assertion is reported by all of the syn- 
 optic gospel writers. 
 
 But it is said that Christ did not know when it 
 was to be and quote, "But of that day and hour know- 
 eth no man, no, not the angels of heaven but my Father 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 105 
 
 only." He does not say but that the Son knew, but it 
 was not best to tell any more than the general fact that 
 it was to be soon. But even if he did not know the day 
 or hour he was most emphatic that it was to be within 
 a few years. I may not know the day or hour of my 
 own departure, but I should be safe in saying that it 
 would be within two thousand years. 
 
 But again it is affirmed that the word "generation"' 
 means race, the Jewish race. But that race was never 
 to pass away, or to become extinct. Besides that Jesus 
 is very much more explicit in some of his declarations. 
 Note some of the declarations upon this subject. (Mat. 
 10:23) "Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, 
 till the Son of man be come." 
 
 (Luke 9:27,) "But I tell you of a truth there be 
 some standing here, which shall not taste death, till 
 *hey see the kingdom of God." 
 
 (Luke 21 :22,) "For these be the days of vengeance,, 
 that all things which are written may be fulfilled." 
 
 (Mat. 24:30,) "And then shall appear the sign of 
 the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes 
 of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man- 
 coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great 
 glory.." 
 
 (Mark 14:62.) Addressing the high priest Jesus 
 says, "Ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right 
 hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." 
 Note, too, that these words were addressed to the high 
 priest who would not be expected to see him in glory. 
 He was to see the one whom he was condemning to 
 death, coming in the clouds before he himself should 
 die. 
 
 (Mat. 16:27-28.) "For the Son of man shall come in 
 the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he- 
 
106 Th Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 shall reward every man according to his works. Veri- 
 ily I say unto you, There be some st'anding here, which 
 shall not taste death, till they see the Son of man com- 
 ing in his kingdom." What can be more clear than that 
 the coming he speaks of was to be within a few years of 
 the time when he was speaking? 
 
 The canon of the New Testament was closed be- 
 fore these things came to pass, all except the Revela- 
 tion. That, too, may have been written before the 
 traditional date assigned it. 
 
 But as for the apparent fulfillment of all of these 
 prophecies, note the account given by the great Jewish 
 historian Josephus. 
 
 After telling how the Roman general Cestius, had 
 completely surrounded the city with his legions, with 
 their heathen ensigns, "the eagles" spoken of by Christ, 
 and could have captured the city "that very day' as the 
 historian says, "he recalled his soldiers from the place 
 and by despairing of any expectation of taking it, 
 without having received any disgrace, he retired from 
 the city without any reason in the world." Then it was 
 that the Christians in the city remembering their Lord's 
 warnings from Olivet, left the city and fled to the 
 mountains of Perea, and escaped the terrible destruc- 
 tion in the city when one million three hundred thous- 
 and of the unbelieving Jews perished. 
 
 Christ warns his followers to beware of false 
 prophets, as has been said before. After speaking of 
 the destruction of a great number of men, Josephus 
 goes on. "A false prophet was the occasion of these 
 people's destruction, who had made a public proclam- 
 ation that every day God commanded them to get up 
 upon the temple and that there they should receive mi- 
 raculous signs of deliverance." But instead of deliv- 
 erance, it only hastened their death. But the historian 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 107 
 
 goes on, "Now there was then a great number of false 
 prophets, suborned by the tyrants to impose upon the 
 people, who denounced this to them that they should 
 wait for deliverance from God." 
 
 Those Jews who had rejected the true prophet 
 were lured to their death by false ones. 
 
 Josephus speaks of a star, resembling a sword 
 and a commet that continueed a whole year. He goes on, 
 "a great door of brass that required twenty men to 
 move, and was fastened with great bolts to the floor, 
 which was of one stone, opened of its own accord about 
 the sixth hour of the night." 
 
 So of other portents. He goes on to say, "Besides 
 these, a few days after the feast, on the one-and-twen- 
 tieth day of the month, Artemisius, a certain and in- 
 credible and prodigeous phenomenon appeared; for be- 
 fore sun setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their 
 armor were seen running about among the clouds and 
 surrounding cities. Moreover, at the feast that we call 
 Pentecost, when the priests were going into the inner 
 court of the temple, as their custom was, to perform 
 their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the first 
 place, they felt a quaking and heard a great noise and 
 after that they heard the sound as of a great multitude, 
 saying, "Let us remove hence." 
 
 Then he speaks of the lone herald, who, for seven 
 years and five months, pronounced woes upon the city, 
 and at last was hit with a stone from one of the Ro- 
 man engines of war and killed. 
 
 It may be urged that there is no mention of the 
 appearance of Christ in the heavens or in the clouds, 
 but we have no records that he was seen after his res- 
 urrection by any one but his own followers. That sign 
 which the Jews took to be a Roman short sword, and 
 
108 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 that continued a year may have been seen by those who 
 believed Christ's words, to have been a cross or cruci- 
 fix and which they saw as the "sign of the Son of man, 
 the Son of man" as they had been told. At any rate 
 its brightness may have been the brightness that Saul 
 saw on the road to Damascus. 
 
 However any of these things may be, the Chris- 
 tians of Jerusalem understood the signs that Jesus gave 
 them, fled from the city and escaped its destruction. 
 That was the end of the age or dispensation concern- 
 ing which the disciples had inquired. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 "How are the dead raised up? And with what 
 bodies do they come?" (I Cor. 15:35.) 
 
 In view of the preceding something more should 
 be said concerning Christ's resurrection body and that 
 of the human race in general. 
 
 But here the same difficulty presents itself as has 
 been before considered, that of conceiving that one 
 may be a complete being and yet not be clothed in flesh. 
 Yet God is pure spirit, angels have no physical append- 
 ages. Why should it be so hard to believe that the hu- 
 man race may exist in the same form after the material 
 body has performed its functions? 
 
 I believe most certainly, without doubt, or men- 
 tal reservation, that the body that Christ wore for 
 thirty- three and a half years on earth was re-animat- 
 ed by the same spirit that left it on the cross, the body 
 that was laid in the tomb of Joseph was literally 
 really restored to life, that an angel rolled away the 
 stone and Jesus came forth as proof that death had 
 had no claims upon him, and that his words while 
 he was living were true. But that is not equivalent 
 to saying that that is the body he is wearing now 
 nor the one that he wore at his ascension, nor the one 
 he wore all of the time that he was on the earth after 
 his resurrection and before his ascension. The apos- 
 tle speaks of "The Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall 
 change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like 
 unto his, glorious body?" 
 
 If he was able to "Change our vile body that it 
 may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,'' why 
 could not he have changed his own body in the same 
 
110 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 •way whenever he chose to? And it seems that he had 
 that glorious body when the apostle wrote. 
 
 But that he wore the flesh a part of the time after 
 his resurrection is very evident for he showed his 
 hands and feet with the nail prints in them and his side 
 with its spear wound. He also ate with them once or 
 twice. 
 
 But these manifestations may have been only to 
 prove that he had returned from Sheol, Hades, and 
 which he could not so satisfactorily demonstrate in 
 any other way. But as I have said before, that does 
 not prove that he wore that body to heaven nor all of 
 the time that he was on the earth. 
 
 If he wore that body in a natural way he must 
 ^have supplied himself with blood and clothing by a mir- 
 ;aculous act. He shed his blood on Calvary. His cloth- 
 ing was divided among the soldiers and at his burial 
 lie had on only his winding sheet, his grave clothes. He 
 did not appear in them. If he had he would have been 
 more easily recognized by those who saw him after 
 he had come from the tomb. But it seems strange that 
 he was not recognized more readily by those who saw 
 him. Mary did not know him on that morning when 
 she found the empty tomb, until he spoke her name. 
 The disciples on the way to Emmaus did not know him 
 though they walked with him, talked with him and even 
 when he "Began at Moses and all the prophets he ex- 
 pounded unto them in all the scriptures the things con- 
 cerning himself," they still did not recognize him. It 
 was not until he had been with them, talked with them 
 and not until he revealed himself as he broke the bread 
 that they knew him and then "He vanished out of their 
 sight." He did not walk away as he was accustomed 
 to do while on earth in the flesh. And nearly every time 
 he was seen, he simply "appeared" to them, sometimes 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 111 
 
 as they were locked up in a closed room for fear of the 
 Jews or as they walked or as he appeared to Saul oi 
 Tarsus. 
 
 He presented himself in his mortal body for a 
 time in order to prove as he could best prove to his dis- 
 ciples and the world that he had really returned from 
 Sheol, Hades, and had accomplished the work of re- 
 demption. He could put on or take off the robe of flesh 
 as easily as we can a loose fitting robe of any kind. 
 There was no girding of the loins for an exercise of 
 power when he made the worlds, for "The heavens are 
 the work of thy fingers," easily done, did not require 
 even the whole hand. The putting on or taking off 
 of the robe of flesh was not harder. There is no doubt 
 that his prayer that his Father should glorify him with 
 the glory he had with the Father before the world was, 
 was answered, and that he now exists in that glorified' 
 body, as he sits at the right hand of that Father, or as 
 he appeared to the apostle on the "isle that is called! 
 Patmos." 
 
 But there is a further question to be answered. 
 The Apostles Creed says "He descended into hell," that 
 is Hades, or Sheol. His body was in Joseph's tomb,, 
 but he himself, his real self, was in the place of depart- 
 ed spirits. 
 
 In Peter 3 :18 we read : "For Christ also hath once- 
 suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might 
 bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but 
 quickened by the Spirit; by which also he went an(S 
 preached to the spirits in prison ; which sometime were- 
 disobedient" and so on. The "prison" that Peter speaks 
 of was the place of departed spirits. Hades. Jesus was 
 there for a time, his rising out of that place was his 
 real resurrection. His putting on again of the flesh' 
 was but the proof, the occular demonstration that he- 
 
112 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 had so returned. But "Though we have known Christ 
 after the flesh, yet henceforth know we him no more," 
 that is "after the flesh." 
 
 It may be so with mankind. Their resurrection 
 may not mean the reanimation of physical bodies, the 
 lumps of phosphate and carbonate of lime, the oxygen, 
 hydrogen and others of the chemical, material elements 
 that now make up our bodies. I have not the shadow 
 of a doubt that God could collect together the identical 
 ions and electrons that composed the atoms that en- 
 tered into the body of Wycliff whose ashes were 
 thrown "Into the Severn, and from the Severn to the 
 sea," he could have formed them again into the body 
 that was burned at the stake, but it would be a great 
 deal easier, cheaper to make a body out of entirely new 
 material than to be to all that trouble. Then, after all, 
 what would be the use? It would immediately be 
 changed again into a spiritual body as Paul so earnest- 
 ly argues. God could collect again all of the ions and 
 electrons that composed the bodies of all those who 
 have been burned at the stake, devoured by wild beasts 
 to amuse a Roman audience, those who from "the tow- 
 ers of silence" have passed through the bodies of vult- 
 ures and from them nourished the soil from which 
 food has grown to nourish others of the human race. 
 But as before, what would be the use. As Paul urges, 
 they would be changed back into spiritual bodies. 
 Those identical physical felements may never be put to- 
 gether again to form a body that would, at least, be 
 immediately changed back again. 
 
 How the aspostle labors, struggles to teach us 
 something about the resurrection body in the fifteenth 
 chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians. "But some 
 man will say 'how are the dead raised up and with what 
 bodies do they come? Thou foolish one,' he goes on 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 113 
 
 to say, "that which thou sowest is not quickened ex- 
 cept it die." The original seed perishes, but that which 
 comes from it has a different form, as he says "and that 
 which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall 
 be, but bare grain, it may chance wheat or some other 
 grain. But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him 
 and to every seed his own body." "So also is the res- 
 urrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is 
 raised in incorruption ; it is sown in dishonor, it is 
 raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in 
 power; it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spirit- 
 ual body. There is a natural body and there is a spirit- 
 ual body." "As we have borne the image of the earthy, 
 so shall we bear the image of the heavenly. Now this 
 I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the 
 kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit in- 
 corruption. Behold I show you a mystery; we shall 
 not all sleep, but we shall be changed, In a moment, in 
 the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump ; for the trum- 
 pet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorrupt- 
 ible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must 
 put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on im- 
 mortality." 
 
 In his letter to the Philppians he says, "For our 
 conversation is in heaven from whence, also, we look 
 for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall 
 change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like 
 unto his glorious body.'' We have seen something of 
 what that glorious body is in what has been said be- 
 fore. 
 
 Jesus, himself makes the subject even more plain 
 than Paul, for he says that in the resurrection we shall 
 be like the angels, and the angels are pure spirits with 
 no physical material about them, for he says, "a spirit 
 hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." This he 
 
114 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 said to convince some that he had really risen from 
 the dead. But the affirmation holds, "a spirit hath not 
 flesh and bones." He thus supplements what Paul 
 says, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of 
 God." 
 
 Both Paul and Christ make it as strong as it can 
 possibly be put, that when these bodies have served the 
 purpose they were designed to serve, and they are laid 
 away, we are done with them. So far as I am con- 
 cerned, I am glad of it. These bodies cannot stand 
 much of pleasure or of joy. This body has been a pretty 
 feeble, too feeble, an instrument to realize much of the 
 hopes, the desires, the aspirations of the spirit that it 
 still holds in thrall. Though always slender, it has 
 served its purpose pretty well, though it has not ena- 
 bled its owner to accomplish his desires, yet it has done 
 pretty well. But when it has gone on a little longer, I 
 shall be glad to bid it a final farewell. 
 
 I have said this with regard to myself to intro- 
 duce some thoughts with regard to others. How may 
 we suppose it may be with those who have gone be- 
 fore? 
 
 Suppose that John on the isle of Patmos had a rev- 
 elation of facts, realities, and not some imaginary fan- 
 cies? Suppose that what he says that he saw, he really 
 did see? There would be some really astonishing rev- 
 elations, to say the least. 
 
 "What are these which are arrayed in white 
 robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him. 
 Sir thou knowest. And he said to me. These are they 
 that came out of great tribulation, and have washed 
 their robes and made them white in the blood of the 
 Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, 
 and serve him day and night in the temple; and he that 
 sitteth upon the throne shall dwell among them. They 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 115 
 
 shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither 
 shall the sun light upon them nor any heat. For the 
 Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed 
 them, and lead them to the fountains of living waters; 
 and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." (Rev. 
 7:14-17.) 
 
 Now, though we may not understand all about 
 these things, is it not reasonable to believe that he act- 
 ually saw the spirits of some of the redeemed ones 
 around the throne where Jesus prayed that his follow- 
 ers might be and see him in his glory? God opened the 
 eyes of Gehazi so that he saw the mountains around 
 them full of horses of fire and chariots of fire, an an- 
 gelic host there for their protection. Is it any harder 
 to believe that John really, in fact saw what he says he 
 saw, and not a mere vision, a creature of the imagin- 
 ation ? 
 
 Supposing, then, that there are really souls of the 
 departed saints now around the throne of God, in the 
 condition above described, would they want to come- 
 back here, even if God should fix their former bodies 
 better than they were before? 
 
 But now we may go a step further in considering 
 our resurrection bodies and their condition. 
 
 Matthew says, "The veil of the temple was rent 
 from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake- 
 and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and 
 many of the bodies of them that slept arose, and came 
 out of their graves after his resurrection, and went into 
 the holy city, and appeared unto many." 
 
 Now as Christ appeared in the flesh for a time to 
 prove that his spirit had left Sheol, how much of a 
 heresy would it be to believe that the appearance of 
 the bodies of those saints were the signs, the tokens,. 
 
116 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 the proofs, that the rest of the saints, also, had left the 
 place of departed spirits for their eternal abiding 
 place? Paul speaks of Christ's resurrection as being 
 "the first fruits of them that slept." 
 
 But after the first fruits, the rest of the crop soon 
 followed. He, indeed, speaks of some having erred, 
 saying that the resurrection was past already, but that 
 would not preclude the fact that it was in progress, 
 though not concluded. But waiving this for the time 
 being, note again what the Seer of Patmos says that 
 he saw, "And after this I beheld, and lo, a great mul- 
 titude that no man could number, of all nations, and 
 kindreds, and tongues and people stood before the throne, 
 and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palms 
 in their hands ; And cried with a loud voice, saying Sal- 
 vation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and 
 unto the Lamb." And then in this same connection, 
 "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judg- 
 ment was given unto them ; and I saw the souls of them 
 that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the 
 word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, 
 neither his image, neither had received his mark upon 
 their foreheads; or in the hands; and they lived and 
 reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of 
 the dead lived not until the thousand years were finished. 
 This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he 
 that hath part in the first resurrection ; on such the second 
 death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and 
 of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." 
 
 Now, again, supposing that John actually saw what 
 he says that he saw in fact and not in mere figures of 
 speech, what follows? Simply that the souls that had 
 been kept in Sheol, or in "Prison," as Peter says, were 
 released after the work of redemption was finally and 
 fully completed. 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 117 
 
 There was no use of their being confined there long- 
 er for the entire universe of spiritual beings had seen 
 God's justice vindicated in fact and not merely in prom- 
 ise, that the work of redemption was completed, and all 
 were at liberty to go to their eternal, final, homes with 
 Christ and God. 
 
 Accepting this view, we at least, bring our theories 
 ofEschatology into harmony with our practical beliefs. 
 
 Of course, at the grave of the departed, as the re- 
 mains are deposited to return to dust, we may say, 
 "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes and dust to its original 
 dust, yet sorrow we not as those who have no hope but 
 wait the morning of the first resurrection," and so on. 
 But practically, do we believe that the departed spirit is 
 to go to some dark abode to wait, perhaps a few thous- 
 and years, until Christ shall come, to pass judgment and 
 then send it to its home on high ? 
 
 Perhaps, after all, John, "on the isle that is called 
 Patmos" may have had a more perfect "Revelation" than 
 we have been accustomed to think, but that the revela- 
 tion may have had more to do with things unseen by 
 mortal eyes than we have thought. 
 
 And now, what was Paul's thought, his purpose in 
 explaining, in emphasizing so earnestly, the spiritual na- 
 ture of the resurrection? He explains in a few words, 
 "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, un- 
 movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for- 
 asmuch as ye know that your work is not in vain in the 
 Lord." 
 
 It was to stimulate their activity in the work that 
 Christ assigned them. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 "This is a great mystery, but I speak of Christ and 
 the Church," (Eph. 5:32.) 
 
 But with regard to "The Second Coming" of Christ, 
 is there then nothing to it? Why all of this universal ex- 
 pectation, this almost feverish anxiety, this hope deferred, 
 this preaching of this doctrine by some of the most loy- 
 al, the most effectual, the greatest ministers of the gospel 
 of this age? Why all this? Is it, then, all a false hope, 
 a delusion, a groundless expectation? I make no positive 
 assertion, but may there not be a reality vaster than the 
 conception, more real than the expectation, more inspir- 
 ing, even, than "the blessed hope" that with many now 
 is so enrapturing? I can conceive of such a reality and 
 partly, at least, as the result of this last world catastro- 
 phe. 
 
 We have considered some things regarding "thy com- 
 ing and the end of the world" that the disciples inquired 
 of Jesus about. He gave them many signs which those 
 who believed on him received as of "his coming" and they 
 fled to a place of safety in the mountains, as he warned 
 them. "The end of the world" or dispensation, followed. 
 That was the greatest convulsion that the world had ever 
 seen up to that time. It is passing strange how entirely 
 it has seemed to escape the notice of those who would 
 naturally be most interested in it, and most likely to rec- 
 ognize it. 
 
 But sometimes one event is the foregleaming, the 
 type, the prophecy of another and a greater. That was 
 true of some of the prophecies connected with Christ's 
 first coming, or rather of his incarnation. Possibly it 
 may be so now. As that greatest of all catastrophes 
 marked the "end of the world" or dispensation, or order 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 119 
 
 of things, may not this last and indefinitely greater con- 
 vulsion mark the beginning of a new world or order of 
 things ? 
 
 I make no positive affirmation, but it may be so. It 
 may be that "the new heavens and the new earth wherein 
 dwelleth righteousness" are not far away. At least, it is 
 partly true that now, how things are seen depends upon 
 the eyes that see. 
 
 The wooden crosses in France, "the poppies that 
 grow in Flanders fields" are mute, yet eloquent, monu- 
 ments of a heroism that may have had, perhaps uncon- 
 ciously, a higher than a human source. An object great- 
 er, infinitely greater and higher and purer than any hu- 
 man ambition or purpose or desire may have been in the 
 thoughts of Him in whose hands are the destinies of na- 
 tions. We hear a great deal about "making the world 
 safe for Democracy." It may be that God's plan is to 
 make Democracy safe for the world. Democracy is not a 
 word to safely conjure by. What it will do depends upon 
 the character of the people that compose it. Democracy is 
 not a new thing under the sun. Whether it will be a bless- 
 ing or not depends upon the extent to which the spirit of 
 Him who bled upon a greater wooden cross on Calvary 
 animates the people, the extent to which they are animat- 
 ed by the life, the eternal life he gives and for which he 
 gave his life to give. 
 
 It seems to be the almost universal opinion of think- 
 ing men of vision, that the past conflict has been more 
 than the conflict of human ambitions, buL of conflicting 
 "incarnate principles. Upon one side of the supermen of 
 Nietzsche, upon the other the supermen of Goethe. The 
 first animated by the gospel of hate, the other by the gos- 
 pel of Charity. It was a conflict of the same principles 
 as were involved in the battle of Tours cen<-uries ago, 
 when the armies of Charles Martel turned back the hosts 
 
120 The Divine Life: Its Development and Aetivilies 
 
 of Mohammedan Saracens that had almost overrun the 
 world. 
 
 The geographical Armageddon battle has been 
 fought, and by it the last of the hosts of the oppressor 
 was driven from Palestine, may not the mystical battle, 
 too, have been fought out between those two opposing 
 principles? Whether this be the thought or not, or ex- 
 pressed in such words or not, it is amazing the extent to 
 which the essential idea has taken possession of multi- 
 tudes of people. Secular papers vie with religious pa- 
 pers in voicing the essential idea, though far, perhaps, 
 from realizing in consciousness, the full meaning of their 
 words. Take, for example, the words of an American 
 man of letters, "For the civilization that is represented 
 at the Peace Congress, Christ is still the great mind, the 
 great restraint, the indispensable means to make democ- 
 racy safe and guard the liberty with forbearance. If 
 Christ is a failure, the congress will be a failure and the 
 world must have a new prophet. The congress at Ver- 
 sailles will have to listen to the Jesus Christ mandate 
 whether anybody puts it into words or not." 
 
 Take the following from a secular daily paper, "No< 
 league or society of nations formed conditionally can 
 stand unless supported by a league of churches and a 
 unity of moral ideas. 
 
 Civilization has a hand in unified religious bodies 
 the most powerful machine for moral and social ad- 
 vancement conceived in any age. 
 
 Any society of nations the proposed league of na- 
 tions, must crumble unless the world is leavened with a 
 unity of moral ideas. These moral and social ideas can- 
 not be put over by unrelated denominations. We de- 
 sire unity in the matter of economic justice and on all 
 moral issues and do not concern ourselves with the split- 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 121 
 
 ting of hairs or theologic discussions. Tomorrow, the 
 paper goes on to say, "174,000 preachers will go to work, 
 all driving at the same thing — the advancement of the 
 world's moral welfare. If this army of spiritual leaders 
 were united in a battle for some great issue nothing in 
 the world could stand up against the drive." 
 
 Some of these thoughts and words may have a bear- 
 ing more on what is to follow than upon what hat been 
 said. But they are samples of what we find in almost 
 any paper we chance to pick up. 
 
 The church of Christ is being called as never before 
 to "come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty," 
 and it is answering the call. 
 
 A few words more from a religious paper. "To pro- 
 vide the spiritual equivalent of the stupendous material 
 forces released in the world war the evangelical church 
 in all of her great denominations is prospecting a program- 
 of extension and enlargement on a vast and comprehen- 
 sive scale. The barest enumeration of this in naked out- 
 line is impressive. The aggregate impression is full of 
 inspiration and challenge." 
 
 Again, the same paper goes on to say, "It would be 
 a tragedy unspeakable if we should win the war and 
 after all fail to achieve the purpose for which we are 
 fighting. To what end shall we have spent millions of 
 treasure and the far more precious lives of our sons if 
 we fail to take a long step toward the creation between 
 nations and races, the relations of good will and help- 
 fulness that are in accord with the principles of Christ 
 and are necessary to the welfare of the human race ?" 
 
 Again "The Church is awake. The dry bones are 
 living. What does it all mean — this new determination, 
 this new endeavor? As the Church sees the world as it 
 has never seen the world before, so the world sees the 
 
122 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 church as it has never seen the church before. In the 
 great movements now being inaugurated there is some- 
 thing for everybody to do." 
 
 ^uch expressions are faint foregleams of the truth. 
 That fiercely soul stirring challenge of Col. McCrae is to 
 the Church. "Take up our quarters with the foe." 
 
 "To you from failing hands we throw 
 The torch; be yours to hold it high, 
 If ye break faith with us who die, 
 We shall not sleep though poppies grow 
 In Flanders Fields." 
 The challenge has been answered in words in the 
 language of another: 
 
 "And now the torch and poppy red 
 We wear in honor of our dead. 
 Fear not that ye have died for naught ; 
 We've learned the lesson that ye taught 
 In Flanders Fields." 
 
 Words? Yes, and deeds. The thin line of soldiers 
 firing their red hot rifles at Ypres, the hosts that at Ver- 
 •dun met the advancing tens of thousands with the cry, 
 "they shall not pass," others at Chateau Thiery and hun- 
 dreds of other bloody fields have answered the chal- 
 lenge but in part. 
 
 They have meet the physical challenge but the in- 
 tangible, invisible spirit back of it all, animating all, forc- 
 ing all still remains to be met. 
 
 That challenge of McCrae must be met, accepted 
 by spiritual forces and those forces are represented by 
 the Church of Christ. 
 
 After all may it not be that those who entertain "the 
 Ijlessed hope" may not be mistaken so much in the fact 
 of the Lord's return as the manner of it? 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 123 
 
 He did not come at first to meet the expectations, 
 the most ardent desires of a hungering world, but he did 
 better. 
 
 Israel expected that their Messiah would break the 
 power of Rome and set up a temporal kingdom, but he 
 did better. He came to break the power of a greater 
 than Rome and set up a greater kingdom, but not of this 
 world. 
 
 It may not be surprising if some now may be mis- 
 taken in the manner of his coming and the manner of his 
 working. Reasoning from the past can we expect that 
 the church can sit down with folded hands, look on and 
 wonder and applaud while He assumes again the human 
 form, comes as a great king and by an exercise of won- 
 derful, miraculous power abolish sin and crime, bring 
 order out of the world's confusion, and whether men 
 will or not, establish a reign of everlasting and perfect 
 righteousness on earth ? To accomplish that is just what 
 he commissioned his Church to do. 
 
 "Must I be carried to the skies 
 On Flowery beds of ease. 
 While others fought to win the prize 
 And sailed through bloody seas?" 
 
 Christ's answer would be a most decided negative. 
 
 He expects his Church to build up his kingdom in 
 this world, or rather that He will do it through and by 
 his Church. And let us not be mistaken in this regard 
 and think that if anything is accomplished we have done 
 it. It is after all Christ that is doing the work. After 
 writing the longest of the four gospels, Luke says, "The 
 former treaties have I made — of all that Jesus began 
 both to do and to teach." He only began his doing and 
 teaching while here in the flesh. He has been doing and 
 teaching -ever since. 
 
124 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 When the disciples wrought miracles they never 
 professed to do it by their own power. It was Christ 
 that did it. When they taught it was by the wisdom of 
 Christ. When they performed wonderful works it was 
 by the power of the risen Christ. I need not quote par- 
 ticular passages to prove such statements. They are 
 too many and too apparent to need quoting. 
 
 But let us gain the climax of this line of thought by 
 gradual approaches. As he delivers his last and great 
 commission, Jesus says to his disciples, "Lo I am with 
 you alway, even unto the end of the world." Note first 
 he is to be with them. Jesus is as omnipresent as God, 
 for he is God. 
 
 Further than that he is not only to be with them but 
 in them. He prays "that they may be one even as we are 
 one, I in them and thou in me that they may be made per- 
 fect in one," and so on. 
 
 Then how earnestly he prays "That the love where- 
 with thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them." 
 But Paul makes the fact very plain. "Know ye 
 not that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of 
 God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of 
 God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is 
 holy, which temple ye are." Again he is more specific 
 with regard to its being Christ that is spoken of, "Know 
 ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you 
 except ye be reprobates?" Again Paul prays, "That 
 Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith?" and so on. 
 But to be still more specific, (I Cor. 6:15,) "Know 
 ye not that your bodies are members of Christ?" Then, 
 (I Cor. 12-27) "Now ye are the body of Christ and 
 members in particular." 
 
 Then as for the Church in the aggregate, (Eph. 1 :22- 
 23), speaking of Christ he says "And hath put all things 
 under his feet, and gave him to be all things to the 
 
The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 125 
 
 Church which'is his body, the fulness of him that filleth 
 all in all." Again he speaks of "The aflflictions of Christ 
 in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the Church." He 
 speaks of the Church as the body of Christ. Finally, 
 (Eph. 5:30), speaking of Christ he says "For we are 
 members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones." 
 Then speaking of man and wife as being one flesh he 
 says "This is a great mystery ; but I speak of Christ and 
 the Church." It would seem that nothing could be more 
 plain than that the Church is the incarnation of Christ, 
 and it is the body of flesh and bones through which he 
 is to accomplish his work in the world. 
 
 Christ is too large to be confined to a single human 
 body. He fills the universe and can inhabit every human 
 being in the universe and then not exhaust his being. He 
 is the "Fulness of him that filleth all in all." 
 
 But what about his second coming? It may be like 
 that of tlie Comforter whom Christ promised to send to 
 the disciples. Just before he ascended he breathed on 
 them and said "receive ye the Holy Ghost."' They re- 
 ceived the Holy Spirit then and there but his full manifes- 
 tation was not until after that ten day's prayer meeting. 
 Then He came in the fulness of his power on the day of 
 pentecost. But it was not in the form of a man, even in 
 physical perfection, but as tongues of fire breaking oiT 
 from the Shekinah cloud in the room. These tongues 
 settled upon them and filled them and then was performed 
 the promise of Christ, "Ye shall receive power when the 
 Holy Ghost is come upon you." The world waited 2,000 
 years for the fulness of the Mosaic dispensation to come 
 in, and has waited nearly as long for the fulness of the 
 Christian dispensation to come in. 
 
 Christ has been in his church all these years, but 
 the Divine life in its individual members has not dominat- 
 ■ed the human, imperfect, life enough. That Divine life 
 
126 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 must gain the ascendency over the human hfe, it must 
 be supreme. That supremacy may assert itself in some 
 wonderful outpouring as on the day of Pentecost. Then 
 there may be, as in Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry 
 bones, a movement, a coming together, and finally flesh 
 and life. But the Church has not been entirely like that 
 valley. It has already accomplished much, particularly 
 during the last century. It has shown signs of increas- 
 ing life, but it has been mainly preparatory for still great- 
 er things, like the first fruits of a still greater harvest. 
 
 Christ is coming again with power, but that power 
 must be manifested through his body, the Church. Let 
 those who entertain "the blessed hope" of the Lord's 
 return, realize that they, themselves, are members of his 
 body, of his flesh and of his bones. All who have accepted 
 Christ and the new, the eternal life are members of his 
 body, though some of them may be obscure, unrecog- 
 nized by the world at large, and yet be like the heart, the 
 lungs, the veins and arteries of the body, the very source 
 of life and strength. What a picture the apostle draws of 
 the body of Christ in the twelfth chapter of First Cor- 
 inthians. A great many members and yet but one body. 
 
 But now, specifically, what is the work that the 
 church is to do? It is to continue what Christ "Began 
 both to do and to teach." But it would be well to remem- 
 ber that he had little to do with external affairs. He re- 
 fused to act as "a judge or a divider" when asked to use 
 his influence in an apparently just cause. He healed the 
 sick as his church is now doing as shown by the thous- 
 ands of Christian physicians and hospitals wherever the 
 Church has gained a foothold. The Church, too, should 
 continue his teachings. But those teachings were drawn 
 from the Book which he so much reverenced, the book 
 of which the Psalmist declares "Thy word is true from 
 the beginning." 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 127 
 
 That Word, unemasculated, unaltered, supplemented 
 by his own words, directly as he himself uttered them or 
 as uttered by those whom he moved by his inspiration to 
 write, must be the authority for all its teaching. 
 
 But all of these things, all of the activities of the 
 church must be accessory to, subordinated to the supreme 
 purpose that Christ came to accomplish, that purpose was 
 to impart eternal life. That life that is eternal not simply 
 as to duration, but that has the kind, the quality of the 
 life of God. As that was the supreme work Christ came 
 to do, so must it be the supreme work of his body now. 
 And there must be no mistake in this regard. Men do 
 not naturally have the Divine life. If we have it, it must 
 come as the gift of God through Christ. By receiving 
 that life is the only way by which men can be brought into 
 harmony with the workings- of the universe. When the 
 world was completed God pronounced it "very good." It 
 was so made as to work in harmony with and for the 
 good of man in the condition of Adam after God imparted 
 to him eternal life and before he lost it by his trans- 
 gression. The only way now by which the universe can 
 work in harmony with men is for men to get into har- 
 mony with it and its Creator. Even now, with all of the 
 chaos that sin has brought into the world, God is wise 
 enough and good enough and powerful enough so that 
 "All things work together for good for those that love 
 God." But it is desirable that all mankind place them- 
 selves in such an attitude that the universe may be in har- 
 mony with them and all be the beneficiaries of that work- 
 ing. That was, I repeat, the supreme purpose for which 
 Christ came into the world. So this must be the supreme 
 purpose of the church. However much we might wish it 
 otherwise, the preaching today must be still the preaching 
 of John the Baptist and of Christ, "Repent for the kingr 
 dom of heaven is at hand." A great deal is being said in 
 
128 The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 
 
 these days about "The Fatherhood of God and the Broth- 
 erhood of man." In a kind of loose, conventional way, 
 and perhaps the way in which it is meant to be under- 
 stood, there is much of truth in it. But it really indicates 
 more what should be than what is. It must not be inter- 
 preted as universalism. 
 
 What is the status of "a child of God" who has never 
 been born again? There can possibly be but one answer, he 
 is out of the kingdom and must stay out until he re- 
 ceives from God the life of the kingdom, the life that 
 alone can inhabit the kingdom. Jesus said to an amiable 
 and pious Rabbi, "ye must be born again." It is as true 
 now as then and of men now as it was of Nicodemus. 
 It is a sad thought, a thought that we should naturally 
 wish not to express, but the great Judge of all the earth 
 has said "Many will say to me in that day Lord, Lord, 
 have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have 
 cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful 
 works?" 
 
 But the terrible answer will be "I never knew you." 
 Many most excellent, large hearted, generous men 
 seem to be mistaken as to the best way of arriving at the 
 objects they wish to attain. They most sincerely wish to 
 benefit, to improve the external conditions of their fel- 
 low men. Upon the surface it would seem that the way 
 by which to secure that purpose, in their thought, is to 
 change external conditions. They seem to think that the 
 main work of the church should be along sociological 
 lines. Within its proper sphere and within certain limits 
 such work is excellent. It is a part of the work which the 
 hands have to do. It is all a manifestation of the spirit 
 of Christianity, and is prompted by that spirit. Such 
 work is never done where Christianity has not penetrat- 
 ed. And we may say as truly, that all work that is in any 
 way beneficial to mankind, may be the manifestation of 
 
The Divine Life: Its Development and Activities 129 
 
 the same spirit. The farmer at his plow, the clerk at his 
 desk, the banker among his accounts, the student among 
 his books, the miner as he throws out the coal, are but 
 famples of all men who may have the consciousness that 
 they are doing their Lord's work, if it is done with the 
 right spirit. All such work is beneficial, all is necessary. 
 
 So this work for the bettering of external conditions 
 of man has its place but it is not the great work of the 
 church. That kind of work in the early church was del- 
 egated to deacons while the apostles continued the main 
 work to which they were called. And even those who 
 were set aside for the humanitarian part of the work 
 were very successful preachers as well, and the first mar- 
 tyr was from that class. 
 
 The great, the supreme work of the church is to 
 impart a kind of life that has the formative power of its 
 own conditions. But it is too sadly true, that one may 
 read volumes upon sociology and never see a single hint 
 that Christ has a claim upon those for whom the most des- 
 perate efforts are being made to benefit. But when 
 masses accept the Divine life that Christ came to im- 
 part, they change their conditions themselves. Of course 
 they may need help, but they will have the life principle 
 that will inevitably elevate their surroundings. The same 
 is true of foreign fields. The church has a mighty work 
 to do among the nations that have lately been at war. The 
 spirit of Christ alone can bring about a peace that shall 
 be permanent and just. But the Church must not forget 
 the source, the only source of its power. The source of 
 Christ's power was intimacy with the Father. The power 
 of Pentecost came in answer to the united prayers of a 
 united Church for ten days. The modern church can ac- 
 complish its object, do its work in no other way for that is 
 
130 The Divine Life : Its Development and Activities 
 
 the only way by which its power can be obtained. But 
 when a united Church "Fair as the moon, clear as the 
 sun, and terrible as an army with banners" moves against 
 the powers of darkness, then will the activities of the 
 Divine Life be in the way of accomplishing its mission.