THE POWER 
 )  gOFLAN 
 
 ENDLESS 
 TELPE 
 By 
 Henry Hattam SAUNDERSON 
 
 THE CENTURY. CO. 
 New York and London 
 
 
 

 
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THE POWER 
 OF AN 
 ENDLESS LIFE 
 

 
THE POWER 
 OF AN 
 
 ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 BY ; 
 HENRY HALLAM SAUNDERSON 
 
 THE CENTURY CO. 
 New York and London 
 1924 
 
 
 
Copyright, 1924, by 
 THE CENTURY Co. 
 
 PRINTED IN U. 8. A. 
 
DEvIcaTEp 
 TO 
 Tue Memory or 
 
 MY MOTHER 
 

 
CHAPTER 
 
 I Tue Discovery or IMMorTALITy . 
 II Tue Source or Power. .. . 
 III Immorrauity as a Duty 
 IV Tue Spirit anp 1ts IMPLEMENT . 
 
 V Tue Lirt or THE Tipe . 
 
 VI 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Tue UNFAILING COMRADE . . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 3 
 27 
 Ay 
 65 
 81 
 95 
 

 
THE POWER OF 
 AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 

 
THE POWER OF 
 AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 
 
 N imagination go back to a time 
 I about nineteen hundred years ago 
 when there were thousands of pilgrims 
 in Jerusalem. They had assembled 
 there for a great festival which was 
 held every spring-time. They came 
 from many lands, and spoke many lan- 
 guages; but they were drawn together 
 by the traditions of the land of their 
 ancestors. ‘This time there was an in- 
 terest, more intense than in other years, 
 in the events of the passing days, be- 
 
 3 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 cause of the teaching of Jesus of Naz- 
 areth. The people thronged about 
 him in the temple and in the city 
 streets. 
 
 At the end of the week there were 
 pilgrims who began the long journey 
 homeward, slow of tread and heavy- 
 hearted, telling as they went the story 
 of the tragedy on Calvary. Along the 
 same highways, at the beginning of a 
 new week, went other pilgrims fleet of 
 foot and winged with joy. They over- 
 took these first pilgrims and told the 
 strange tale of the resurrection. After 
 that the two stories traveled on to- 
 gether: tragedy and triumph, death 
 and resurrection. ‘They have traveled 
 down through the centuries together. 
 Wherever the story of Calvary is told, 
 there is told also the story of the gar- 
 den in which was the new tomb. 
 
 # 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 
 
 The two stories are like two streams 
 that have flowed together, and become 
 intimately mingled. Yet if we trace 
 them back to their beginnings they are 
 like two streams flowing from the two 
 sides of a mountain,x—one from the 
 north with its shadows and its chill, the 
 other from the south with its sunlight 
 and its warmth. One is the story of 
 Friday with its despair, the other the 
 story of Sunday with its hope. ‘These 
 two days have been studied with the 
 utmost care, and every possible item of 
 knowledge about them noted. But the 
 day which lies between is a strange day, 
 which has never been adequately inter- 
 preted. 
 
 On that strange day no one was get- 
 ting ready for what was to happen the 
 next day. It has been said _ that 
 the stories of the resurrection were 
 
 5 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 prompted by the hopes of the disciples: © 
 but they were in deep despair. Even 
 the faithful women who were follow- 
 ers of Jesus spent that day in prepar- 
 ing their spices to be carried to the 
 tomb. They had no expectation of 
 throwing them away in the joy of the 
 discovery of immortality. Judas had 
 ended his own life. Peter and others 
 were planning to go back to their fish- 
 ing, thinking to take up life where they 
 had left it when Jesus called them. 
 The priests and Pharisees were con- 
 gratulating themselves that they had 
 silenced the disturber of their peace by 
 taking his life. A detachment of the 
 temple police was on guard outside the 
 tomb where the body had been hastily 
 laid. So many things were being 
 done, and none of them a preparation 
 for the real event of the new morning! 
 6 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 
 
 Exactly what happened nobody 
 knew at the time, and nobody has been 
 able fully to explain since. But very 
 suddenly, out of the black despair, 
 came the conviction that the spirit of 
 Jesus was immortal. By voice and 
 appearance that spirit had made itself 
 known. Against the barriers of grief 
 and doubt that knowledge made its 
 way to human hearts. It became a 
 great conviction, a radiant certainty. 
 To the disciples it carried the convic- 
 tion of the immortality of their own 
 souls. It transformed for them the 
 world in which they lived. 
 
 Sometimes we may understand a 
 light, in some measure, by its radiance, 
 even when we cannot make an analysis 
 of its source. No one can get the 
 meaning of the faith of the disciples in 
 the immortality of their Master who 
 
 7 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 does not see the light which was shed 
 upon the years that followed. That 
 faith in immortality became the glow- 
 ing heart of their message: the immor- 
 tality of Jesus and of all who became 
 his disciples. 
 
 The years brought the utmost hard- 
 ship, the bitterest persecution, to the 
 followers of the new faith; but there 
 was a joy which transformed the pain, 
 and a radiance which redeemed the 
 darkness. It is impressive to see the 
 expressions of this paradox, to see the 
 light of that changed world in which the 
 early Christians lived. The ardor of 
 youth, the idealism of devotion to an 
 unseen Leader, and the glory of the 
 dream of a changed world were ele- 
 ments in the spirit of those people. 
 
 Christian art has rendered priceless 
 service in the interpretation of the 
 
 8 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 
 
 Christian story; but it has also done 
 some damage to truth, damage which 
 is difficult, if not impossible, to repair. 
 How many pictures there are of the 
 face of Christ which suggest weakness 
 and depression! How few there are 
 which express adequately the wondrous 
 cheer, courage and faith of that radi- 
 ant life! 
 
 Again, how many pictures there are 
 of the disciples of Christ which repre- 
 sent them as men of great dignity and 
 of venerable years! None of the great 
 artists has expressed adequately the 
 spirit of youth in that company. Jesus 
 was only about thirty years old when 
 he began to preach. He gathered 
 about him a group of eager young men 
 ready for an adventure. They were 
 not cold, calculating, mature men who 
 abandoned promptly their boats and 
 
 9 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 their nets and their remunerative tax- 
 gathering when the voice of the Car- 
 penter of Nazareth called them to 
 share his life in the open. 
 
 The men who were ready to obey the 
 message, given in glowing words upon 
 the hillside, were not those in whose 
 hearts the fires of youth had burned 
 low, or to whose eyes the world had 
 lost the light of morning. It was not 
 out of a drab world that the men came 
 who leaped to the challenge, “The time 
 cometh that whosoever killeth you will 
 think that he doeth God service!’ And 
 the challenge was not merely an ap- 
 peal to grim determination and stoical 
 endurance, for in the same hour Jesus 
 spoke the profound truth, “Your sor- 
 row shall be turned into joy.” 
 
 We have missed the real meaning of 
 that heroic age if we have not learned 
 
 10» 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 
 
 two things about it: the suffering in- 
 volved in it, and the joy that made its 
 matchless radiance. These two things 
 seem contradictory, but in reality they 
 were inseparable. It was an era of 
 high courage, and chivalry, and roman- 
 tic daring on the part of the followers 
 of Christ. But it was the conviction 
 that their Master had risen from the 
 dead that gave the disciples that cour- 
 age. During his lifetime their confi- 
 dence in him was a confidence that he 
 would overcome his foes and win a visi- 
 ble triumph. When the shadow of 
 Calvary darkened that hope, they for- 
 sook him, denied him, and despaired of 
 his cause. Their courage, even to the 
 point of martyrdom, becomes the more 
 luminous against that dark background 
 of their despair. 
 
 - When the conviction came that their 
 
 11 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 Master lived eternally, and that noth- 
 ing on earth could terminate his com- 
 radeship with them, they lived a new 
 life in a new world: not an easy life in 
 a kindly world, but a life of heroism in 
 a hostile world. That life and that 
 world were illuminated, however, by 
 this matchless radiance of faith in the 
 immortality of their spirits and in a 
 comradeship, with their Master, which 
 should be unending. 
 
 These men saw their world through 
 the eyes of youth, and felt life with 
 the pulse of youth and had the ideal- 
 ism which is characteristic of the un- 
 spoiled heart untouched by materialism 
 and cynicism. Like golden threads 
 woven into a great tapestry are those 
 passages, in the early Christian writ- 
 ings, which tell of the suffering and 
 the joy that were in the hearts of those 
 
 12 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 
 
 early followers of Christ. James was 
 elucidating this paradoxical truth when 
 he said, “The trying of your faith 
 worketh patience,” and then added, 
 “My brethren, count it all joy.” 
 
 Was it in reality all joy to endure 
 discipline? Yes, to those who had the 
 high-hearted courage to count it all joy. 
 This is a magnificent expression of 
 their attitude toward life. The writer 
 of the book of Hebrews says of Christ, 
 “Who for the joy that was set before 
 him endured the cross.” Paul, on his 
 last journey to Jerusalem, addressed 
 the elders of the church of Ephesus. 
 He told them of his certainty that 
 “bonds and afflictions’ awaited him. 
 But connected inseparably with this 
 was the note of triumphant joy. He 
 says, “But none of these things move 
 me, neither count I my life dear unto 
 
 13 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 myself, so that I might finish my 
 course with joy and the ministry which 
 I have received of the Lord Jesus, to 
 testify the gospel of the grace of God.” 
 
 The hardship and the joy were not 
 associated by mere accident. ‘These 
 men had the utmost conviction that 
 they had come into contact with an im- 
 mortal world, that they lived an im- 
 mortal life, that they were sustained by 
 power which came from that world. 
 That power was not, to them, imper- 
 sonal; for they were perfectly certain 
 that it was the working of the person- 
 ality, the will, of their divine Master, 
 in whose unbroken comradeship they 
 lived. In that relationship they found 
 a throbbing joy which language could 
 not adequately express. But they 
 were certain that through their hard- 
 ships they were serving the purposes 
 
 14 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 
 
 of their Master, were living the life of 
 the unseen world and were sustained 
 by immortal power. It was an expe- 
 rience of sustaining strength, a clear 
 consciousness of a deathless comrade- 
 ship. 
 
 When the great artists portray the 
 disciples of Christ, who became apos- 
 tles, as men of dignity and of vener- 
 able years, they forget that few if any 
 of them lived to venerable years or es- 
 caped martyrdom for their Master. 
 Their bitter enemies endeavored to cut 
 them off without remembrance, to ob- 
 literate them and their work so com- 
 pletely that the world would forget 
 that such men had ever lived. Little 
 do we know, indeed, of the material 
 facts of their fate. But Christian tra- 
 dition tells us that they went with joy 
 to torture and to death. Their figures 
 
 15 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 faded from the eyes of living men, but 
 the light of their lives is an undying 
 radiance. 
 
 If in the words of one or two men we 
 caught the note of joy in hardship we 
 might say they were ecstatic; but this 
 was the major characteristic of a fel- 
 lowship which extended to uncounted 
 thousands, to many lands, to people of 
 various races and languages, and which 
 continued for many years. ‘There was 
 more than an individual experience in 
 this association of hardship with joy, 
 for there was a great comradeship 
 among these men who had taken the 
 cross as the symbol of their triumphant 
 faith. Paul, writing to the church in 
 Corinth, says, “I am filled with com- 
 fort; I am exceeding joyful in all your 
 tribulation.” | 7 
 
 From these golden threads, running 
 
 16 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 
 
 through the fabric of the New Testa- 
 ment, we learn something of the mean- 
 ing of that radiant faith of those first 
 Christian years. There is a large sig- 
 nificance in that cheerful faith, that 
 capacity for endurance, that way of 
 looking at the world. If we are to 
 account for it we must acknowledge 
 that a new meaning had come into the 
 life of that time. Such illumination 
 calls for a search for the source of the 
 light itself. There was something 
 more than human strength in the en- 
 durance of these men, something more 
 than human wisdom in their councils. 
 
 The manner of the coming, to the 
 first disciples, of the conviction of im- 
 mortal life is revealed in the stories of 
 the appearances of the risen Christ to 
 these disciples. There is much variety 
 in those stories. It was a memorable 
 
 17 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 day in the experience of these disciples 
 when they beheld the last of these ap- 
 pearances. ‘They had learned that life 
 is more than the life of earth: that it is 
 immortal. They had been taught the 
 message of the gospel. They had 
 been commanded to carry to the whole 
 world the good news of the immortal 
 life, to preach the principles of Christ 
 to all the nations. The wide world 
 and its great need had been pointed 
 out to them. The colossal task was set 
 before them. 'The message was so ur- 
 gent, and the need of the world so 
 creat! 
 
 But abruptly they are told by the 
 risen Christ that they are to “tarry 
 in Jerusalem.” "What, remain silent 
 with such a message burning on their 
 lips? Wait when there were such im- 
 portant reasons for haste? Delay 
 
 18 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 
 
 when the whole world was stumbling 
 on its way in need of this light? Yes, 
 they must wait until they were really 
 ready for so great a task. 
 
 If worldly wisdom had been con- 
 sulted as to the need of tarrying in 
 Jerusalem, they might have received a 
 number of answers. They might have 
 been told that these fishermen should 
 learn more of the ways of good society; 
 or that uncultured men should learn 
 the rules of logic before they undertook 
 the work of instruction; or that there 
 should be careful and effective organ- 
 ization, with officers and directors and 
 committees, if so great a piece of work 
 were to be undertaken. Surely, too, 
 they ought to get an endowment fund 
 and make sure of the financial re- 
 sources of the movement. Should not 
 these men arrange for letters of credit 
 
 19 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 before going to foreign countries? 
 And would it not be necessary to seek 
 the support of men of social standing 
 and political influence if the existing 
 world were to be evangelized? 
 
 But it was not worldly wisdom which 
 told them to tarry in Jerusalem, and 
 which gave the reason for a breathless 
 expectancy: for the command was to 
 tarry “till ye be endued with power 
 from on high.” That power could use 
 the tongues of fishermen, could give 
 them utterance, and could communi- 
 cate through them the deathless mes- 
 sage of the gospel. 
 
 Indeed these men were not to en- 
 tangle themselves with the social ways 
 and the financial resources and the po- 
 litical intrigues of the established life 
 of the world. They were to go out 
 with a message that had within it the 
 
 20 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 
 
 power of a great upheaval. They 
 were assured that the existing pattern 
 of the world was transitory. They 
 were not to love that world and the 
 things of that world. ‘They were not 
 to be conformed to it; for they were in 
 contact with a power, working through 
 their inner life, which would transform 
 them into the likeness of an eternal 
 world. They were to justify what was 
 later said about them, “These that have 
 turned the world upside down are come 
 hither also.” 
 
 When Pentecost had come, and these 
 men had received the fulfilment of the 
 promise of power, they did go out as 
 the bearers of the message which had 
 been entrusted to their care. Other 
 teachers of the time (notably the 
 Stoics) had excellent moral principles 
 to impart; but these men had the story 
 
 21 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 of a life. And more than that: it was 
 an endless life. Still more it was not 
 simply the narrative of a life which had 
 proved itself deathless: they went out 
 to show men the power of an endless 
 life. 
 
 These men had come close to the 
 heart of reality. They had made the 
 discovery that it is spirit that creates 
 and recreates the world; and that spirit 
 outlasts the things which it creates. 
 They were assured that the visible is 
 always dependent on the invisible. To 
 gain the transitory things and to lose 
 the eternal would be folly indeed. It 
 is a great word which Paul speaks 10 
 the disciples in Corinth, “For the 
 fashion of this world passeth away.” 
 
 In writing to Rome he addressed 
 men who were under an enormous pres- 
 sure of tradition and custom which 
 
 22 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 
 
 tended toward worldly ways. It was 
 to these men in the world’s capital that 
 he wrote, “Be not conformed to this 
 world, but be ye transformed by the 
 renewing of your minds.” That spir- 
 itual power with which they were in 
 contact would work through their spir- 
 its for the transformation of their visi- 
 ble life, and through that transforma- 
 tion would be revealed “the perfect will 
 of God.” They would not attach 
 themselves to transitory things; they 
 would not build on foundations al- 
 ready crumbling. ‘They had come to 
 the heart of reality, and established in- 
 dissoluble bonds with that which is 
 deathless. 
 
 Their message to the world was, 
 then, a message that communicated 
 that same power. Again we find a 
 glowing expression of this faith when 
 
 23 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 Paul says, “When I came to you, I 
 came not with excellency of speech or 
 of wisdom ...and my speech and 
 my preaching was not with enticing 
 words of man’s wisdom but in demon- 
 stration of the spirit and of power.” 
 And in elucidating this great truth he 
 adds, “Not in the words which man’s 
 wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy 
 Ghost teacheth.” 
 
 Such faith opens the door of a new 
 world. Instead of spiritual things be- 
 ing vague and shadowy, and material 
 things substantial, the reverse was 
 true; for they had a most vivid sense of 
 the reality of the unseen while material 
 things were, to their vision, vanishing 
 like mists dissolved by the sun of a 
 new and glowing day. This gives 
 great significance to the saying, “Ye 
 took joyfully the spoiling of your pos- 
 
 24 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 
 
 sessions, knowing that ye have for 
 yourselves a better possession and an 
 abiding one.” This is not only a joy 
 which sheds a glory upon hardship but 
 a sense of the reality of eternal power 
 in a transitory world. } 
 
 When a company of young men had 
 seen the immortal spirit of their risen 
 Master, when they had passed through 
 the experience of Pentecost, and when 
 they had gained this vivid sense of the 
 presence of the eternal world, they 
 were ready to preach a gospel of power. 
 It was a gospel which was to be tri- 
 umphant over the material world. 
 That company of men had in it the 
 spirit of youth, a spirit which was se- 
 cure against the deadly cynicism of 
 that age. High-hearted, with daunt- 
 less courage, with indomitable will, 
 they went out to bear their message. 
 
 25 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 What mattered any material thing in 
 comparison with that message? Suf- 
 fering, hardship, toil and journeying— 
 yes, even martyrdom—were of the ma- 
 terial world, and the winds of the Eter- 
 nal were blowing away the dust of that 
 world. 
 
 With differing personalities, with 
 varying forms of expression, the hope 
 which they conveyed to men was, 
 “That ye may know Christ and the 
 power of his resurrection.” ‘They won 
 new disciples for their unseen Master, 
 and wove the fabric of a fellowship 
 which included men of all the nations. 
 When those nations crumbled, this fel- 
 lowship was destined to endure. ‘These 
 followers of Christ had the assurance 
 that they were sustained by the power 
 of an endless life. 
 
 26 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE SOURCE OF POWER 
 
 HEN, at dawn, one is looking 
 
 \ \ westward, and sees the hill- 
 tops touched with gold, and then the 
 advancing illumination which glorifies 
 trees and shrubs and finally floods the 
 fields, he knows that the sun has risen 
 over the eastern horizon. He is as 
 sure of this as if he directed his gaze 
 toward the sun itself. When one looks 
 at the landscape of the first Christian 
 centuries and sees the radiance upon 
 them, he knows that there was a source 
 of illumination. ‘To estimate the in- 
 fluence of the coming of Jesus into the 
 world one must do several things: one 
 
 27 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 of them being to see the light upon the 
 rugged landscape of those years. 
 
 The world situation at that time was 
 not prophetic of a revival of religion. 
 There were three major influences in 
 that era: Rome, with its law, its organ- 
 ization and its military dominance; 
 Greece, with its philosophy, its art and 
 its expressive language, though Greece 
 was under the political power of Rome; 
 and the tradition of Israel, represented 
 in two little provinces, ruled by Rome, 
 and in a scattered people who still kept 
 the memories of their fatherland. 
 
 These three had lost their youth. 
 Rome was materialistic, and the forces 
 were at work which would bring about 
 her dissolution and destruction. The 
 vigor of Greece had waned, though 
 there was still the desire to teach lan- 
 guage and literature and a method of 
 
 28 
 
THE SOURCE OF POWER 
 
 living. The religion of the Jews, their 
 supreme achievement, had become 
 formal. Not long before the time of 
 Jesus the high priest deemed it advis- 
 able to construct, in the temple in 
 Jerusalem, a screen, a net, that he 
 might not be in danger of attack dur- 
 ing the ceremonies. 
 
 Rome was watchful for any signs of 
 spontaneous movement in any part of 
 the empire, which might tend toward 
 revolt. Hence the Christian move- 
 ment was alarming, and the force of 
 the empire was set against it. This 
 new faith was persecuted by the author- 
 ities of the Jewish religion, but that 
 was a minor matter compared with the 
 persecutions by the Roman military 
 power. 
 
 Judging the worldly forces of the 
 times, one would not expect a great 
 
 29 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 spiritual movement to arise; and when 
 Christianity did arise one would pre- 
 dict that it would be checked and then 
 destroyed. When the time came that 
 Christians used the catacombs, under- 
 ground tombs, as places of worship, it 
 would seem as if their plight was piti- 
 able in the extreme, that they were re- 
 duced to desperate straits and that 
 their situation was utterly hopeless. 
 Overhead in the sunlight rolled the 
 chariots of the empire, with all the evi- 
 dence of permanent and dominant 
 power. It would seem as if that power 
 possessed the future. Who would 
 predict that those few hymn-singing 
 people in the darkness and the flicker- 
 ing shadows of the catacombs pos- 
 sessed a power which would survive 
 the empire? Yet those chariots were 
 really rumbling on their way to ruin, 
 30 
 
THE SOURCE OF POWER 
 
 and the spiritual power of a new faith 
 was destined to rise above the ruin. 
 
 At one time a Roman emperor was 
 musing. He recalled that a Roman 
 governor had sentenced Jesus to cruci- 
 fixion, and that the power of Rome had 
 done its utmost to obliterate the faith 
 of Jesus as it spread throughout the 
 empire. He saw the growing power 
 of that faith. He saw the processes of 
 disintegration in his own empire, proc- 
 esses which would bring its ruin, for 
 the empire had no spiritual bonds to 
 hold it together. And as he mused, 
 this Roman emperor exclaimed, “O 
 Nazarene, thou hast conquered.” 
 
 As one, looking westward, knows 
 that the sun has risen because he sees 
 the illumination of the landscape, so 
 one must recognize that a new spirit- 
 ual power had come abruptly into the 
 
 31 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 life of that time, for its effects are evi- 
 dent. What was it that Jesus brought 
 into the world, which was to rise 
 above the ruins of the empire? The 
 time was approaching when Jerusalem 
 would be destroyed and the people of 
 Judea dispersed; but a spiritual power, 
 born within Judea, would survive. 
 Greek was to become a dead _ lan- 
 guage, though at the time of Jesus 
 it was the principal international 
 tongue. Jesus spoke in Aramaic, a 
 language known to comparatively few, 
 and despised by many, in the world of 
 his time. But his faith used Greek as 
 an implement and did its work among 
 the nations. The Christian faith 
 reached out, in the ardor of its mis- 
 sionary zeal, even to the barbaric tribes 
 of the north; and when those tribes 
 overran Rome they had respect for the 
 32 
 
THE SOURCE OF POWER 
 
 institutions of the religion of Jesus. 
 Upon the pattern of the organization 
 of the empire, a new spiritual organ- 
 ization was formed, rising out of the 
 ruins. 
 
 Not the influence of Judaism in dis- 
 persion; nor the beauty of the Greek 
 language, fading from the minds of 
 living men; nor the waning power of 
 Roman law and armies was to domi- 
 nate the new age. ‘These things were 
 implements in the hands of a new spir- 
 itual power,—implements to be used, 
 and, in time, to be cast aside when they 
 were outworn. That new spiritual 
 power was the faith of Jesus Christ. 
 
 What, then, did he bring into the 
 world? What is the essential thing in 
 his gospel? What did he really add to 
 the life of humanity? Having looked 
 westward, at the dawn of that new day, 
 
 33 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 and observed the radiance upon the 
 rugged landscape of the world, it is 
 well to turn and look eastward and 
 seek a better understanding of the 
 source of that illumination. 
 
 Turning to the story contained 
 within the gospels, several answers 
 have been offered as to what is the first 
 essential of that story. One is that 
 Jesus was the supreme teacher of the 
 ages; that the Sermon on the Mount 
 contains the highest ethics which the 
 world has known; that the essential 
 thing is that Jesus offered men a new 
 plan for their living. 
 
 The answer is important, but is it 
 sufficient? ‘True, the teachings of Je- 
 sus are the wisest in the world. He 
 taught men how to live. He gave 
 matchless precepts for the conduct of 
 the individual. He also showed the in- 
 
 34 
 
THE SOURCE OF POWER 
 
 dividual how to relate himself to so- 
 ciety, so that he may become a useful 
 and loyal citizen in his community. 
 The kind of individual which Jesus 
 taught that a man should be makes a 
 good neighbor. Men who live after 
 his plan of life find it easy to live to- 
 gether. 'The plan contained within the 
 teaching of Jesus is a good plan for the 
 personal life and for the social order. 
 
 The teaching of Jesus applies also to 
 the contacts of the nations. If com- 
 munities adopt his plan, it is easy for 
 them to adjust their relationships with 
 other communities; and nations could 
 establish a wholesome life for the 
 world. After nineteen hundred years 
 the possibilities of that teaching are not 
 exhausted; they have not been “tried 
 and found wanting.” Men turn to that 
 teaching for guidance in time of doubt, 
 
 35 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 for the clarifying of conscience, for 
 wisdom when civic affairs are baffling, 
 for the reinforcement of their wills. 
 Very wistfully men turn to that teach- 
 ing, hoping for abiding peace among 
 the nations of the world. 
 
 Wise and comprehensive as is the 
 plan of life which Jesus taught, we still 
 ask, Is that the heart of his gospel? 
 Was it of the ethics of the Sermon on 
 the Mount that the Roman emperor 
 spoke when he said, “O Nazarene, thou 
 hast conquered”? Was it this better 
 plan of living, this deeper wisdom in 
 behavior, which shattered old king- 
 doms and created new ones? Evi- 
 dently there was something more in the 
 message of the gospel. 
 
 A second answer that is given, to the 
 question of what Jesus gave the world, 
 is that he differs from other teachers in 
 
 36 
 
THE SOURCE OF POWER 
 
 his emphasis upon the inner life, that 
 he exalts purpose to its full moral sig- 
 nificance. He offered more than rules 
 of conduct, rules for men and commun- 
 ities and nations: for he showed men 
 what their motives should be. The 
 older law judged men by their visible 
 deeds, by what could be seen, in their 
 conduct, by the eyes of men. Jesus 
 emphasized the spirit of the ancient 
 declaration, “The Lord judgeth not as 
 man judgeth; for man looketh upon 
 the outward appearance, but the Lord 
 looketh upon the heart.” 
 
 Jesus may be compared with Moses 
 as a law-giver, and similarities and con- 
 trasts may be found. The mountain 
 of the ten commandments may be com- 
 pared with the mountain where Jesus 
 taught the Sermon on the Mount. 
 Jesus himself makes these contrasts: 
 
 37 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 “Ye have heard that it hath been said 
 . . . but I say unto you.” He shows 
 that righteousness is of the heart, that 
 obedience is of the will, and he warns 
 men of the origin of sin within them- 
 selves. A man’s obedience to the older 
 law could be known by those who 
 watched his physical behavior. But if 
 we understand the teaching of Jesus 
 we know that a man can sit down on a 
 chair, fold his hands, and violate every 
 one of the ten commandments. Not 
 merely other rules for outer behavior, 
 but a new valuation of motives, of the 
 inner impulses, of the action of the 
 will, distinguish the teaching of Jesus. 
 
 Is this answer, however valuable it 
 is, sufficient however to account for the 
 effects of the Christian faith? Was it 
 an emphasis on will which sent the 
 apostles out to die for their faith? 
 
 38 
 
\ 
 
 THE SOURCE OF POWER 
 
 Was it for this that men went cheer- 
 fully to the stake and to the lions? 
 Very evidently there was something 
 more in the gospel message. 
 
 A third answer goes one step fur- 
 ther. Jesus did not merely teach ab- 
 stract principles of living, even for the 
 inner life: he gave men a pattern in 
 his own being, in his own living. The 
 apostles, conveying the teaching of Je- 
 sus, did not have to give merely forms 
 of words and statements of principles; 
 for they could picture their Master as 
 they had seen him, and could interpret 
 his motives expressed in his own life. 
 
 Men expect from a religious teacher 
 that he shall exemplify his teaching in 
 his own living. An engineer may do 
 his work on paper, and design bridges 
 and project tunnels without ever see- 
 ing the valleys bridged or the moun- 
 
 39 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 tains bored. He may use his imagina- 
 tion, draw his plans, use measurements 
 made by his surveyors, and give in- 
 structions to those who do the work. 
 All this he may do within the four 
 walls of a room without seeing the 
 work done or lifting a finger in the 
 labor. 
 
 A man may bear, and may deserve, 
 the name of physician though his medi- 
 cal work is entirely within the class- 
 room. He may instruct other men in 
 the art of healing without himself ever 
 seeing a patient or writing a prescrip- 
 tion. He may gather needed informa- 
 tion, give it orderly arrangement, and 
 impart it to others while he does not 
 come into contact with the sick, even 
 those who, in time, owe their lives to 
 his wisdom. 
 
 Not so with the teacher of religion: 
 
 40 
 
THE SOURCE OF POWER 
 
 
 
 it is expected of him that he will not be 
 dissociated from the life he is teaching. 
 As the teacher of athletics should be an 
 athlete, so the teacher of morals should 
 be righteous. The teacher of religion 
 should set an example before the eyes 
 of those whom he instructs. He should 
 be that which he admonishes other 
 men to be. His whole personality is 
 involved in his instruction. And, 
 judged by this standard, Jesus is the 
 supreme teacher of the race. If one 
 could understand the life he lived 
 among men, and reproduce his pur- 
 poses, then indeed would the life of the 
 disciple be guided by the life of the 
 Master. 
 
 But again, is this a sufficient answer 
 to the question, What was the heart of 
 the gospel message? Was the exam- 
 ple which Jesus set before the eyes of 
 
 41 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 men, for their living, the cause of the 
 radiance of the years that followed his 
 life? Was it this that rose in triumph 
 over the red ruin of the greatest em- 
 pire of the ancient world? 
 
 We approach the real answer to our 
 question when we discover the power 
 which was manifested in the life of 
 Jesus, and learn the source of that 
 power. This discovery leads to the 
 real secret of that transformation of 
 life, and that radiance which illumi- 
 nated the world. 
 
 Naturally we find little said, in the 
 gospels, about what Jesus did in soli- 
 tude. The records are exceedingly 
 brief, but they are infinitely precious. 
 The truth back of those records is of 
 supreme importance. 
 
 Imagine people out upon the hillside 
 listening to the Master. They forget 
 
 42 
 
THE SOURCE OF POWER 
 
 all about the passing of time. They 
 listen to the music of his voice, are 
 moved by the ardor of his words, and 
 they watch his animated countenance. 
 “Never man spake like this man.” ‘The 
 day is waning, and evening approaches. 
 Long shadows fall across the valleys. 
 The west is crimson and gold. The 
 hills become purple. The valleys fill 
 with silvery flowing mists. Still the 
 people listen, until the message ceases 
 and they are dismissed to seek a lodging 
 for the night. 
 
 Early next morning some of these 
 people, eager to hear the Master again, 
 rise and seek for him. They go to the 
 market-place thinking he may be 
 among the early traders; but he is not 
 there. Then they go to the synagogue 
 hoping to find him reading or teaching; 
 but he is not to be found. They search 
 
 43 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 up and down the narrow streets of the 
 village, but no one has seen him. 
 Then they boldly go to the house where 
 they know Jesus was a guest, and they 
 ask for him. ‘The host replies that he 
 knows nothing of where his guest has 
 gone. All he knows is that some time 
 in the darkness of the night he heard 
 a quiet foot-fall, and heard the door 
 open and close softly; but in the morn- 
 ing the guest chamber was empty. 
 
 The inquirers find a shepherd who 
 has been out all night on the hills with 
 his flock, and they ask him if he has 
 seen the Master. He replies that all 
 he knows is that he saw a tall, strong, 
 stalwart figure against the light of the. 
 stars, taking the upward path to the 
 heights. 
 
 The gospel gives us the simple state- 
 ment that “he rose a great while be- 
 
 44 
 
THE SOURCE OF POWER 
 
 fore day, and departed into the moun- 
 tain to pray.” Brief and simple as are 
 these records, we learn that Jesus 
 Christ lived in communion with the 
 eternal power of God. At the glow- 
 ing heart of his living was this habit of 
 going into solitude for prayer, and for 
 the renewal of power. When he re- 
 turned from those times of solitude, his 
 utterance was like pure flame, because 
 of the warmth and the light of his faith 
 in the sustaining power of God. His 
 hands communicated peace and life and 
 power to those who were distressed. 
 
 The all-important thing in the gos- 
 pel was a new discovery of divine 
 power, available for the lives of men. 
 That power redeemed from sin, healed 
 disease, and brought light, courage, 
 hope and joy to human lives. 
 
 In the course of events it brought the 
 
 45 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 conviction of immortality. It sent 
 men out with the faith that they were 
 in contact with the everlasting, and 
 that nothing which the material world 
 could do could separate them from the 
 divine comradeship. Nations might 
 fall, but that faith would outlive all 
 other things. “The things which are 
 seen are temporal, but the things which 
 are not seen are eternal.” 
 
 46 
 
CHAPTER III 
 IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 
 
 HE habit of Jesus of going into 
 
 solitude was central in his whole 
 plan of life, his faith, his hope for the 
 world. ‘To pray in the wilderness was 
 not a new thing; but the use that Jesus 
 made of: this did make a new revelation 
 of divine power. The world was al- 
 ready familiar with the “holy men” 
 who made the wilderness their habita- 
 tion, emerging into human society only 
 when driven by their physical necessi- 
 ties. ‘These men solved the problems 
 of human society by renouncing that 
 society. Their answer to the needs of 
 the world was to run away from the 
 
 47 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 world. They sought the salvation of 
 their own souls by detaching them- 
 selves from humanity. And the in- 
 evitable result was that, for them, the 
 meaning of life and religion faded out. 
 
 The use which Jesus made of soli- 
 tude is expressed with the utmost clar- 
 ity in his phrase, “For their sakes 1 
 sanctify myself.” His hours in the 
 wilderness were for the renewal of 
 power which could be used for the help 
 of humanity. On the Mountain of 
 Transfiguration the common thought 
 of the time was expressed in the words 
 of the disciple who proposed building 
 habitations there, since the experience 
 was so delightful, the privilege so great. 
 The chosen few might revel in their ec- 
 stasy. But Jesus already saw the lit- 
 tle lad down on the plain, distressed 
 beyond endurance, and needing the re- 
 
 48 
 
IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 
 
 ——- 
 
 lief which spiritual power could bring. 
 His impulse was not to linger in the 
 delights of the exalted experience but 
 to hasten to the help of human life. 
 To him the transfiguration was the 
 coming of a new access of power to be 
 used in service. 
 
 It is a profound truth of personality 
 that we do not get power which we do 
 not use. ‘This is true physically, men- 
 tally and spiritually. Life will not use 
 us as stagnant reservoirs of power, but 
 as flowing streams. Whoever follows 
 the method of Jesus in going into the 
 wilderness will learn nothing from it 
 unless he follow also the way of Jesus 
 in. self-forgetting service. 
 
 Jesus sometimes opened to his dis- 
 ciples the door into this inmost secret 
 of his life. Again, little of this is re- 
 corded in the gospels. But he said, 
 49 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 “Come ye yourselves apart into a des- 
 ert place and rest a while.” And at 
 another time the disciples said to him, 
 “Master, teach us to pray.” He 
 taught them the uses of solitude, of 
 what may be learned and may be 
 gained, beside the sea, and in the moun- 
 tains, and along the paths of the desert. 
 It was not as an invitation to idleness, 
 but for the discovery of more than hu- 
 man power, that he said, “Come unto 
 me all ye that labour and are heavy 
 laden, and I will give you rest.” 
 
 But there were people who replied 
 that they were so tied by daily and 
 hourly duty, so entangled with the 
 cares of house and shop, that they 
 could not go into the wilderness. And 
 Jesus showed them how to find in their 
 own homes the same. solitude: for he 
 said, “Thou, when thou prayest, enter 
 
 50 
 
IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 
 
 into thine inner chamber, and having 
 shut thy door, pray to thy Father who 
 is in secret.” Not the place, and not 
 the method, but the inmost secret of 
 the soul was most significant. ‘That 
 direct relationship of the inner spirit to 
 the Eternal Spirit meant the coming 
 of sustaining strength to the faithful 
 disciple. 
 
 This leads us to the confidence that 
 the immortal spirit of man establishes 
 a conscious relationship with the Ever- 
 lasting, and derives joy and peace and 
 sustaining strength from that relation- 
 ship. 
 
 From that relationship with the 
 Everlasting, Jesus derived his inter- 
 pretation of the world and of life. To 
 him light was not an envelope put 
 around a dark world; but a radiance 
 from the very heart of reality. He 
 
 51 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 was not speaking of exotic blooms but 
 of the common flowers of the field 
 when he said, “Solomon in all his glory 
 was not arrayed like one of these.” 
 Not of the children of the privileged 
 few, but of the little urchins playing in 
 the street, he spoke when he said, “Of 
 such is the Kingdom of God.” 
 
 The kind of world he lived in is re- 
 vealed in these expressions of the dis- 
 covery of divine glory. He had “eyes 
 to see” and his land has become the 
 “holy land” for the generations since 
 his time. The vision of childhood and 
 the heart of youth are necessary in 
 those who would interpret fully the 
 kind of world in which Jesus lived and 
 which he revealed to those about him. 
 
 Older forms of faith, held by older 
 men, enforced the restrictions of the 
 moral law; while Jesus showed a spirit- 
 
 52 
 
IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 
 
 ual power which brought a great eman- 
 cipation in a life of loyalty instead 
 of a life of rules. Some interpreta- 
 tions of Christianity dwell upon the 
 physical meagerness of the life of its 
 founder, upon the simplicity of his 
 birthplace, a stable, upon the narrow- 
 ness of the horizons of the little coun- 
 try where he lived, and upon the scanty 
 space of the borrowed tomb in which 
 his body was laid. But he contrasts 
 himself even with John the Baptist, the 
 ascetic, and emphasizes his own joy in 
 living. When asked why the young 
 men who were his comrades in his trav- 
 els did not keep the customary fasts, 
 he replied that their comradeship with 
 him was like that of the young men at 
 a wedding, with the bridegroom. His 
 reply means this, “Would you fast at a 
 wedding feast?” 
 53 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 No wonder the stories of his birth 
 put more emphasis upon the song from 
 the heavens than upon the narrowness 
 of the manger; that the wondering 
 shepherds are pictured, while there is 
 no mention of the dull people of the 
 town, who neither saw nor heard any- 
 thing out of the common. And the 
 story of the life of Jesus does not lead 
 merely to a narrow niche in a rock, 
 with a great stone to shut out the light. 
 It leads to a garden in the full glory of 
 the spring-time, and to human hearts 
 which have discovered the immortality 
 of the spirit. 
 
 The joyousness of the comradeship 
 of the disciples with Jesus led them to 
 believe that their earthly life together 
 would be continued, that Jesus would 
 not be crucified. And when that trag- 
 
 54 
 
IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 
 
 edy had come, they were in utter be- 
 wilderment. 
 
 When the disciples received the first 
 intimation that the immortal spirit of 
 Jesus had made itself known, they 
 were not credulous. THis crucifixion 
 had brought despair, the feeling that 
 their adventure with him was done. 
 When Peter, in a brief phrase, de- 
 clared his determination to go back to 
 his former occupation of fisherman, he 
 received. an immediate response from 
 others, who said, “We also go with 
 thee.” They thought they could take 
 up life again where they had left it off, 
 when Jesus had called them. 
 
 It is easy to imagine these fishermen 
 making the needed repairs to their old 
 boat, and shaking the dust from the 
 nets which had been hanging idle. 
 
 55 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 Not so easy is it to imagine their grad- 
 ual discovery of how completely their 
 world had changed since last they cast 
 their nets into the sea. 
 
 It was spring-time, and, as they 
 looked up to the hillsides, that neigh- 
 bor scattering seed was not just an or- 
 dinary man: he had become “the 
 sower” who “went forth to sow” and 
 whose living seed was like the truth of 
 the Kingdom of God. The birds fly- 
 ing over the lakes were not common, 
 almost worthless, little creatures which 
 were sold two-for-a-farthing in the vil- 
 lage market: they were care-free recip- 
 ients of the unfailing care of God. 
 The flowers on the shore, and the chil- 
 dren playing in the sand, were not the 
 unimportant things they had once 
 been: for through them the divine glory 
 was shining. Even the solitude of the 
 
 56 
 
IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 
 
 highest hills upon the horizon held 
 memories of sacred hours of prayer 
 with the Master. The boat itself re- 
 minded them of the time they were 
 crossing the lake, and they had been in 
 panic because of the storm, and he had 
 spoken the words, “Peace, be still.” 
 
 Even the waters seemed to speak his 
 memories, and the winds to repeat his 
 words. The grass of the field, the 
 sands upon the shore, every least thing 
 had been changed by his interpretation 
 of life and of the world, by the fa‘th, 
 learned of him, in the divine glory that 
 shines through all that is most common. 
 To break bread together and to share 
 their cup brought back glowing mem- 
 ories of the infinitely precious hours 
 in the upper room. 
 
 No, these men could not take up life 
 again just where they had left it when 
 
 57 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 they were called to become fishers of 
 men. ‘These discoveries prepared their 
 minds for the new call to take up that 
 work. ‘They were making the discov- 
 ery of a new comradeship with their 
 Master, transcending his physical pres- 
 ence. ‘They were turning their hearts 
 to a new loyalty to the unseen Com- 
 rade. 
 
 Then came that wondrous hour of 
 revelation. All night long upon the 
 restless waters these men had toiled. 
 The oars grew heavier, the nets more 
 cumbersome, as the hours dragged 
 their weary length. The morning 
 stars appeared, and rose higher; while 
 the constellations, which they had 
 watched, sank toward the west, and be- 
 gan to pale as the east grew gray, then 
 luminous. Deep shadows filled the 
 valleys among the hills, and filmy 
 
 58 
 
IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 
 
 mists floated over the face of the sea. 
 The morning twilight advanced, and 
 the east began to show color, and the 
 stars were gone. ‘The shadows among 
 the hills became purple, and the wa- 
 ters, to the eastward, reflected the 
 crimson of the sky, while the mists be- 
 came opalescent. They had learned 
 to see beauty and to love it in the won- . 
 drous comradeship of him who had 
 “eyes to see.” They, too, had learned 
 to see. 
 
 Then suddenly they forgot their 
 weariness, and the weight of the oars, 
 and the long hours of toil through the 
 night. On the shore stood a figure, 
 and across the water came a voice, and 
 they knew the immortal spirit of their 
 Master. Again came the call to duty, 
 again the demand for service in the 
 face of hardship. Of that demand we 
 
 59 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 read, “Now this he spake, signifying 
 by what manner of death he should 
 glorify God.” 
 
 This faith in the immortality of the 
 spirit of their Master did not come eas- 
 ily. The disciples were not over- 
 credulous. And that faith came to 
 them with the demand for martyrdom. 
 It was no easy faith. It did not offer 
 a way of escape from the monotony of 
 the material world; it called them to 
 face the worst that the world could in- 
 flict. It came with a demand for en- 
 durance, for chivalry, for loyalty, for 
 courage. 
 
 It was no easy journey for these 
 Galilean fishermen to retrace their 
 steps to Jerusalem. ‘The men who had 
 recently put their Master to death 
 were in authority there, and were de- 
 termined to rid the world of this new 
 
 60 
 
IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 
 
 faith. In Jerusalem was the temple, 
 the home of the formalism against 
 which their Master had protested, but 
 a formalism so strongly intrenched that 
 Jesus had exclaimed, “O Jerusalem, Je- 
 rusalem, thou that killest the prophets, 
 and stonest them that are sent unto 
 thee.’ But into that temple went 
 these fishermen to preach, even as he 
 had preached in the last days he was 
 permitted to live. 
 
 It would be unfair to the truth to 
 minimize the moral courage which had 
 come to these disciples, not merely the 
 kind of courage that can do one heroic 
 act, or that enables a man to fling his 
 life away in one glorious moment of 
 self-forgetfulness; but the courage 
 that could undertake years of toil and 
 hardship, could face persecution, and 
 could unite joy with the anticipation 
 
 61 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 of martyrdom. It could be no slight 
 thing which gave them that matchless 
 heroism. It was nothing less than an 
 experience, convincing them against all 
 their doubts and despondency, that 
 their Master lived, had revealed him- 
 self to them, and had commanded them 
 to go out and preach his gospel. 
 There is a kind of rationalism which 
 reads the gospels cautiously, accepts 
 their ethical teaching with mild enthu- 
 siasm, passes over the record of any- 
 thing above the drab and the dust of 
 the surface of the material world, and 
 puzzles over the motives which are de- 
 rived from the Unseen. It reads the 
 story of the last days of Jesus, until the 
 twilight of the day of crucifixion. 
 Then it closes the book. It does not 
 read, nor does it attempt to interpret, 
 the stories of a new life which conquers 
 62 
 
IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 
 
 death. It does not explain how the 
 cross of shame became the symbol of 
 glorious victory. It does not under- 
 stand the message which the apostles 
 carried to the world. After the twi- 
 light following the crucifixion it leaves 
 the book closed. But also it cannot 
 account for what happened in the 
 Greek and Roman world in the years 
 immediately following. It cannot ex- 
 plain the changes in the map of the 
 ancient world. It closes its eyes to a 
 radiance which shone upon those years. 
 It leaves closed a great literature which 
 was created at that time. 
 
 But the simple truth is that those 
 years, out of which were born the books 
 of our New Testament, were glorified 
 by a spiritual power which rationalism 
 cannot explain. Whoever seeks to ex- 
 plain the world by drawing geometric 
 
 63 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 figures in the dust, or by putting truth 
 merely into the lines of logic, or by 
 measuring the motives of men by what 
 is commercially profitable, misses the 
 real meaning of the world and the 
 glory of life. 
 
 64 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 THE SPIRIT AND ITS IMPLEMENT 
 
 HE most important message of 
 ai the early apostles of the Chris- 
 tian faith, the truth upon which they 
 laid the greatest emphasis, was the im- 
 mortality of the spirit of Jesus Christ. 
 This they presented principally in the 
 form of narrative. The reappearance 
 of that spirit to their vision gave them 
 a great conviction. The story of that 
 reappearance went out as a piece of 
 news. Men did not explain the news: 
 they related it, and drew their moral 
 and spiritual conclusions from it. In- 
 stead of rationalizing that piece of 
 news, Paul frankly says, “Behold I 
 
 65 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 show you a mystery.” Not a philoso- 
 phy of immortal life, but a narrative, 
 was the glowing heart of the message 
 of the apostles. 
 
 The narrative carried conviction not 
 because of a logical argument but be- 
 cause of its moral incentive and its 
 spiritual power. If the story had gone 
 out that Judas, after hanging himself, 
 had reappeared among his fellows, the 
 moral sensibilities of people would 
 have stood in the way of belief. But 
 when the disciples became convinced 
 of the reality of their experiences of 
 seeing the spirit of Christ, and related 
 those experiences to people who had 
 known the life of the Master, there was 
 a moral presumption in favor of belief. 
 People knew by the deepest instincts 
 of their hearts that the qualities they 
 had seen in him ought to be immortal. 
 
 66 
 
THE SPIRIT AND ITS IMPLEMENT 
 
 Whether put into definite phrase, or 
 cherished as a glowing hope, men felt 
 that what deserves to live is indeed 
 deathless. 'The human heart has an 
 instinctive faith that integrity is im- 
 mortal, that love is eternal, that truth 
 is imperishable. 
 
 The gospel came to men not prima- 
 rily as a new logic but as a new discov- 
 ery of power. If one reads the gos- 
 pel narratives, watching for the word 
 “power,” or its equivalents, he will be 
 impressed by the truth that the teach- 
 ing of Jesus Christ was dynamic rather 
 than argumentative. A typical phrase 
 is, “His word was with power.” Car- 
 rying the same inquiry into reading 
 the other books of the New Testament 
 will strongly confirm the conviction 
 that the new discovery of power was 
 central in the gospel message. 
 
 67 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 It brought a new sense of the value 
 of personality, a conviction of its 
 deathless quality. The greatest moral 
 incentive that ever came into the world 
 came with the presence of the spirit of 
 Christ as he joined the company of his 
 disciples, and brought to them the con- 
 viction that he was immortal. 
 
 Two things these men came to be- 
 lieve ardently. One was that even 
 when no longer visible, the spirit of 
 Jesus Christ maintained a comradeship 
 with them. ‘The other was that he be- 
 stowed upon them immortality even as 
 he himself possessed it. And in their 
 minds these two things were indissolu- 
 bly linked. Conceivably they might 
 have separated the two: they might 
 have believed in the living spirit of 
 Christ walking with them without hav- 
 ing a confidence in their own immortal- 
 
 68 
 
THE SPIRIT AND ITS IMPLEMENT 
 
 ity; or they might have believed that 
 the spirit of Christ lived in a detached 
 world, and that they themselves would 
 live eternally. But they did, in real- 
 ity, believe that Christ lived in constant 
 companionship with them, a source of 
 power for every need, and the giver of 
 immortal life to them. 
 
 Thus the eternal life was to thém a 
 present reality. It was not something 
 merely to be added at the far end of 
 this life; not an appendix to the vol- 
 ume that tells the tale of this world. 
 Instead of looking afar for the im- 
 mortal life, and seeing it across the 
 chasm of death, they found it as a qual- 
 ity in their present life. They discov- 
 ered that there was a power working 
 in and through them which gave the 
 promise of imperishable life. It is in 
 the present tense that the admonition 
 
 69 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 was written, “If ye then be risen with 
 Christ, seek those things that are 
 above.” ‘This immortal life, a present 
 reality, had a right to demand all their 
 loyalty and their entire life. 
 
 After the opportunity for wide ob- 
 servation and long experience, the 
 apostle John gave the results which 
 were evident in clean living which 
 justified the faith in immortality. He 
 wrote, “Every one that hath this hope 
 in him purifieth himself.” 
 
 The moral consequences of the im- 
 mortal hope were evident not only in 
 the lives of individuals, but in the fel- 
 lowship of a new social order. ‘The 
 consciousness of having an unseen 
 Comrade did not alienate the hearts of 
 men from their fellows. Nor did their 
 intense conviction of a life to come 
 lessen their sense of duty in their pres- 
 
 70 
 
THE SPIRIT AND ITS IMPLEMENT 
 
 ent life. Nor did the anticipation of a 
 future world make them indifferent to 
 the world in which they lived. Indeed 
 this faith gave them the courage for 
 the colossal task of changing the ex- 
 isting social order and its political or- 
 ganizations, and bringing men into the 
 new Kingdom of God, which was to be 
 fulfilled on the earth. This faith gen- 
 erated a great power, and a burning 
 zeal, which did not hesitate in the pres- 
 ence of any task which was conceived 
 as duty. 
 
 Three significant phrases are used by 
 Paul: “The kingdom of God is not in 
 word but in power”; “The fashion of 
 this world passeth away”; and “Our 
 citizenship is in heaven, whence also 
 we look for a Saviour.” ‘The world 
 was to be transformed, and the bearers 
 of the message of the gospel of Christ 
 
 71 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 
 
 had the moral responsibility of giving 
 themselves as the implements for this 
 work. How far this is from a sense of 
 dissociation from life, and detachment 
 from duty! 
 
 The conviction of immortality lifted 
 life by the power of new moral incen- 
 tives. Conversely these moral incen- 
 tives intensified the conviction of im- 
 mortality. The eternal world made its 
 demands upon these men, by the very 
 stern voice of duty. But the fulfil- 
 ment of duty gave a moral worth to 
 life which carried the conviction that 
 their life should be, and therefore was, 
 imperishable. 
 
 Wherever men endured hardship 
 with high courage and a great cheer, 
 for their loyalty to the living Christ, 
 other men became convinced of the 
 reality of immortal life. Their con- 
 
 72 
 
THE SPIRIT AND ITS IMPLEMENT 
 
 duct became an argument for their 
 faith. Men saw the power of their 
 moral incentives and said, “This kind 
 of life cannot perish.” When a mar- 
 tyr was chained to the stake and en- 
 dured the flames, for his Master’s sake, 
 there were those who saw and were not 
 terrified. Rather were they impelled 
 to accept the same discipleship and en- 
 dure, if need be, the same tortures. 
 This kind of conviction has, indeed, 
 done its work down through the Chris- 
 tian centuries. Men have heeded the 
 command of the living Christ, “Go into 
 all the world and preach the gospel.” 
 In their obedience they have endured 
 measureless hardship and untold suf- 
 fering. Going to men of many races, 
 there have been those who have be- 
 lieved the gospel because of the mes- 
 sage; but there have been those also 
 
 73 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 who have been convinced of the truth of 
 the message by the fortitude of its 
 bearers. Not so much by their words 
 as by the evidence of power in their 
 lives have these new converts been won. 
 Such heroism is, itself, immortal. 
 
 The courage, the fortitude, the faith 
 that men have shown in their service to 
 humanity have been a powerful incen- 
 tive to confidence in life everlasting. 
 Such qualities are, themselves, death- 
 less, and men turn with confidence to 
 the future believing that what deserves 
 to live shall live eternally. Every no- 
 ble life leaves the fiber of itself woven 
 into the fabric of the world. ‘The kind 
 of world we live in will not let integ- 
 rity perish. ‘The man who throws him- 
 self into the doing of his whole duty, 
 letting himself be carried by the full 
 force of moral and spiritual convic- 
 
 74 
 
THE SPIRIT AND ITS IMPLEMENT 
 
 tions, is likely to be carried far by the 
 very momentum of that movement,— 
 to be carried, indeed, past all fear of 
 death. Such is the evidence from the 
 early years of Christianity; and this is 
 confirmed in our own experience. 
 
 This faith of the apostles had, of 
 course, its difficulties to be overcome; 
 arising principally from the material- 
 ism and cynicism of the age. ‘The tes- 
 timony of the senses to the presence of 
 the material world always spreads a 
 veil of obscurity over the reality of the 
 spiritual world. Yet Jesus showed 
 men the way into a direct relationship 
 with that spiritual and eternal world. 
 “God is spirit” was one of his brief in- 
 tense statements. And again he said, 
 “The words that I have spoken unto 
 you are spirit and are life.’ This di- 
 rect relationship to God, the secret of 
 
 75 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 which he revealed to men, was the 
 glowing center of the immortal life. 
 “This is life eternal that they might 
 know thee, the only true God, and Je- 
 sus Christ whom thou hast sent’ was 
 one of his last utterances. 
 
 A reading of the gospels and the 
 epistles, with this thought in mind, will 
 convey the impression of the essential 
 similarity of the spiritual experiences 
 of Jesus and Paul. Jesus finds a sus- 
 taining strength which comes from his 
 times of solitude when he enters into 
 mystical communion with the unseen 
 Being, whom he calls Father. Paul 
 explains the power of his own life by 
 relating it to an unseen Being, for 
 whom he uses the name Christ. One 
 of his most significant statements is 
 this, “It is no longer I that live, but 
 Christ liveth in me: and that life which 
 
 76 
 
THE SPIRIT AND ITS IMPLEMENT 
 
 I now live in the flesh I live in faith, 
 the faith which is in the Son of God, 
 who loved me, and gave himself up for 
 me.’ ‘That mystical life possessed his 
 whole being. Again he says, “To me, 
 to live is Christ.” 
 
 To Paul there was no contradiction 
 in the experience of his Master and of 
 himself regarding the object of their 
 devotion, the unseen Being with which 
 they were in mystical relationship. 
 To the disciples in Colossae he wrote, 
 “Your life is hid with Christ in God.” 
 He bids them pray, “That God may 
 open unto us a door for the word, to 
 speak the mystery of Christ.” That 
 there was a mystery about the im- 
 mortal life, and about the relationship 
 of living men with the source of spirit- 
 ual power, was not, for him, a reason 
 for skepticism. 
 
 V7 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 Yet the minds of other men found 
 a serious barrier to faith in the prob- 
 lem of the body as an implement of a 
 living being, for they could conceive no 
 real dynamic life apart from a physical 
 body. When the apostles declared 
 their faith in the immortality of hu- 
 man spirits, men asked (even as they 
 do today), ‘““With what body do they 
 come?” And Paul meets this with his 
 vivid figure of the wheat. His answer 
 is essentially this: “Foolish one! Even 
 in your wheat field, when the life of the 
 wheat grows anew, it does not restore 
 the body of the seed which you sowed. 
 That life within the seed is a creative 
 life. ‘The seed you sowed perished. 
 But that creative life builds for itself a 
 new body, according to its need in the 
 new life.” This faith relates itself di- 
 rectly to the confidence, which the gos- 
 
 78 
 
THE SPIRIT AND ITS IMPLEMENT 
 
 pel of Jesus Christ taught men to hold, 
 that they had discovered an eternal 
 world as a present reality, and had estab- 
 lished a vital relationship with it, so that 
 the present material and visible life be- 
 came a thing of secondary significance, 
 while the power of that immortal life 
 became the primary thing in living. 
 This problem of the body as an ef- 
 fective implement for the spirit, if the 
 spirit is to live a dynamic life, disturbed 
 the minds of some of those who heard 
 the stories of the reappearances of the 
 immortal spirit of Jesus Christ. A dis- 
 embodied spirit seemed to them a mere 
 wraith, a mere shadow of personality. 
 On the other hand, the resuscitation of a 
 physical body, ponderable and earthly, 
 seemed an imprisonment rather than an 
 emancipation of the deathless soul. 
 They had difficulty in grasping the 
 79 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 thought of a spiritual immortality; of a 
 dynamic spirit perfectly self-reliant; of 
 a spirit that could not die and that, in 
 the eternal world, was emancipated 
 from all that is “of the earth, earthy.” 
 
 Very wistfully men asked the ques- 
 tion, “If a man die shall he live again?” 
 If death meant that the whole of hu- 
 man personality perished, even for the 
 time, there would be difficulties well- 
 nigh insurmountable in the way of faith 
 in another life. But the faith of the 
 gospel was that the spirit is itself im- 
 mortal and “shall not see death.” 
 Spirit builds the body, not body the 
 spirit. In the course of a normal hu- 
 man life, the spirit builds and rebuilds 
 the body many times. The immortal 
 faith says that it can be trusted to 
 create for itself whatever implement it 
 needs in the eternal world. 
 
 80 . 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE LIFT OF THE TIDE 
 
 HE first Christian centuries were 
 a time of radiant light, of buoy- 
 ant faith, of vibrant life. ‘Then this 
 unearthly glory passed, like the color 
 of a wondrous sunrise fading into the 
 common light of day,—and a gray day 
 with the threat of storm. Was it nec- 
 essary for that light to fade and for 
 the glory to depart? It was not because 
 persecutions became unbearable, dis- 
 couragements many, and numbers few. 
 The church was not, indeed, extermi- 
 nated, though its enemies had aimed at 
 that. 
 On the contrary, the church had num- 
 81 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 bers, and influence and growing wealth. 
 It had survived its persecutors. It 
 had begun to build for itself a kingdom. 
 
 With the obstacles gone from its 
 path, why did its progress halt? With 
 its numbers not constantly decimated 
 by martyrdom, but instead increasing 
 easily, why did the light of its faith 
 fade? With more of wealth with which 
 to work, why did courage and conse- 
 cration abate? 
 
 One reason is that men began to 
 make the realities of the Christian life 
 the material for logic, for argument, 
 for debate and for strife. Christian- 
 ity was, in its first years, called, “The 
 Way.” It was not proved argumenta- 
 tively, nor defined with precision. It 
 was lived, and the joy of living that life 
 was contagious. It spread from heart 
 to heart by the power of its own vital- 
 
 82 
 
THE LIFT OF THE TIDE 
 
 ity. It was a mystic experience in 
 men’s souls, a power from unseen 
 sources, a conviction for which men 
 gladly gave even their physical life. 
 When the endeavor was made to state 
 it logically, it eluded statement; and 
 when it became the subject of contro- 
 versy the life itself was stifled. 
 
 At the first, the religion of Jesus was 
 a religion of youth. Instead of the 
 problem of taking the religion of the 
 minds of the old and adapting it to the 
 young, the religion of Jesus had the 
 ardor, the joy, the spirit of adventure 
 which won an increasing number of 
 young men, ready for any service to 
 which it might call. 
 
 But in its progress, Christianity en-. 
 countered the Greek mind which de- 
 lighted in making philosophies of all 
 that came within its reach. The simple 
 
 83 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 question, “Are you of the Way?” had 
 been the test of the new faith. ‘This 
 was changed, and men were asked to 
 state, to define, to argue about and to 
 defend their philosophy of religion. 
 This is largely the interest of older 
 minds. Sedate, logical, methodical old 
 men gave this mystic life a series of 
 definitions; and failed to see that the 
 life itself was gone. 
 
 In its further progress, Christianity 
 encountered the Roman mind with its 
 genius for legalism and organization. 
 The Roman was trained in the task of 
 repressing subject people, and of col- 
 lecting revenue from them. Christian- 
 ity began to do the same things: to 
 build a system of laws, to give authority 
 to organizations, to become thirsty for 
 revenue. Restriction took the place of 
 inspiration, and a new legalism was 
 
 84 
 
THE LIFT OF THE TIDE 
 
 built up that was as repressive as that 
 against which Jesus himself had pro- 
 tested. Obedience to the authority 
 of organization, and conformity to its 
 regulations, took the place of the spon- 
 taneous life which Jesus lived and 
 taught; and the light and joy and ardor 
 faded. Again, this legalistic work 
 was done by older minds; and the 
 spirit of youth, with its idealism, dis- 
 appeared. | 
 
 This change from poetry to prose, 
 from joyous life to formalism was so 
 pronounced, that it is difficult even to 
 picture the glowing light, the ardent 
 fervor of the first years of the Christian 
 faith, It has sometimes been de- 
 scribed as a mere passing beauty, like 
 the brief color in the east on the morn- 
 ing of a gray day. ‘But in reality it is 
 of the very genius of the religion of 
 
 85 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 Jesus to have that joy, that light, that 
 sense of sustaining power, that ardent 
 faith in life immortal. 
 
 Men ask very wistfully whether it be 
 possible to restore it; or if it faded in 
 those early years, never to return. The 
 answer is that it never wholly faded, 
 and that it can be restored. The land- 
 scape of Christianity, with its rational- 
 ism, its legalism, its formalism and its 
 restrictions, became harsh and gray; 
 but in every generation, throughout the 
 Christian centuries, there have been 
 those who have kept the undying fire, 
 whose hearts have been warmed by it, 
 whose eyes have seen the heavenly 
 radiance, and who have transmitted 
 that mystical life to those who followed 
 in their steps. 
 
 Down the highways of Christian his- 
 tory have come its theologians, its phil- 
 
 | 86 
 
THE LIFT OF THE TIDE 
 
 osophers, its law-givers, its organizers, 
 and its generals with their marching 
 armies. To the eyes of the world, this 
 is Christianity. But there are lines of 
 travel, all through the centuries, that 
 have not followed these highways with 
 their pomp and their show of worldly 
 power. ‘There is a tradition of free- 
 dom, of originality, of spontaneous life, 
 of direct personal experience, which has 
 never been lost. The flame of mystical 
 experience has never been allowed to 
 die out. Its radiance, kept in secret 
 places, has been an unfading reality. 
 Christianity still has the hot blood of 
 youth coursing within its veins. The 
 inner life is immortal. 
 
 One of the serious checks upon the 
 mystical life has been controversy over 
 the object of man’s devotion. Who is 
 the unseen Comrade with which the 
 
 87 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 mystic walks the path of his life? The 
 endeavor to answer this question, and 
 the arguments concerning it, have often 
 inhibited the vital experience of the 
 Christian life. Men try to define the 
 indefinable and may be unconscious 
 that they have shut out the glowing 
 reality of spiritual experience. 
 
 Jesus went into solitude for spiritual 
 experience, and to renew his power for 
 human service. He called the object 
 of his devotion, and the source of this 
 power by the name, Father. Paul 
 had like experiences of communion and 
 of sustaining strength. He said, “I 
 can do all things through ‘Christ which 
 strengtheneth me.” Evidently the un- 
 seen Comrade is not exacting regarding 
 the name by which he shall be called. 
 Yet when controversy rages around the 
 endeavor to give exact definitions to 
 
 88 
 
THE LIFT OF THE TIDE 
 
 
 
 
 
 divine power, men close for themselves 
 the channels through which that power 
 comes. When argument waxes loud, 
 the Still Small Voice is silenced. The 
 logical faculty closes the door which 
 leads to the mystic Way. 
 
 No one can explain fully the power 
 that lifts the tides of the sea. Yet men 
 use that reinforcing power: they make 
 an ally of the lift of the tide. There 
 are three impulses in the tide; a lift 
 and then a pause, another lift and a 
 second pause, then a third lift. The 
 momentum of the whirl of the earth, 
 the gravitation of the sun and of the 
 moon, are elements in this power which 
 lifts the tides. We cannot separate 
 these influences, nor give to each its 
 definition. But meantime we can use 
 this power in the great deep. To en- 
 gage in controversy over the source of 
 
 89 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 this power and leave our boats upon 
 the shore, would be folly indeed. 
 
 The unseen Presence is indefinable. 
 But Christian experience through the 
 ages has found its reality. Imagine 
 that this earth had an unbroken en- 
 velope of cloud. We could not see the 
 moon. Yet the tides would ebb and 
 flow upon the shores of the sea. They 
 would still be timed by the passing of 
 that unseen heavenly body. Men would 
 marvel that unseen hands beckoned to 
 the waters and they rose and followed; 
 that a voice unheard spoke to them and 
 they obeyed with the utmost fidelity. 
 Yet men would prepare their tide- 
 tables, knowing that that lifting power, 
 and the flow of the waters in response 
 to it, were perfectly dependable. They 
 would make an ally of the moon in its 
 passing though they had no hint of its 
 
 90 
 
THE LIFT OF THE TIDE 
 
 
 
 
 
 existence save only this mysterious flow 
 of the sea. 
 
 The outermost planets of our solar 
 system were discovered because visible 
 planets responded to their influence 
 when they passed. Men knew there 
 must be a heavenly body, as yet unseen, 
 which wielded this influence. Some- 
 thing more than empty space must be 
 out there beyond their normal vision. 
 In the same way men would infer the 
 passing of a heavenly body, such as the 
 moon, even if this earth moved ever 
 enveloped in mist, and the moon were © 
 never seen. Men would not argue that 
 as the moon was unseen, the tides were 
 a delusion. ‘They would not leave their 
 boats upon the bank arguing that other 
 men merely imagined the tides. ‘That 
 mysterious but perfectly dependable 
 power would be used as an ally. 
 
 91 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 
 
 There is an unbroken continuity to 
 mystical experience throughout the 
 Christian centuries. The object of the 
 mystic’s devotion is unseen, but the 
 divine power is a great reality. The 
 tides of the spiritual life have immeas- 
 urable lifting power. Without defin- 
 ing that power, without reducing its 
 working to a rational statement, men 
 can use and do use that sustaining 
 strength. 
 
 Watch the course of this vital reality 
 in the Christian faith, and phenomena 
 are seen which cannot be accounted for 
 except by a measureless Power which 
 moves through the skies of our life. 
 The tides of the ‘Spirit are a reality. 
 Something more than human power is in 
 the tasks that are performed; something 
 more than worldly wisdom is in its 
 counsel; something more than human 
 
 92 
 
THE LIFT OF THE TIDE 
 
 stoicism in its endurance of pain; 
 something more than the happiness of 
 the outer world in its radiant joy. 
 
 Sometimes this divine Power has 
 manifested itself in great revivals of 
 spiritual religion, in spite of the world- 
 liness of the more formal elements of 
 Christianity. Sometimes it uses im- 
 plements which seem utterly inade- 
 quate or altogether hopeless. ‘The 
 material world and the animalism of 
 man can account for Jerry McAuley in 
 the gutter. But only superhuman 
 Power can account for Jerry McAuley 
 sobered, cleansed, spiritually renewed, 
 and used as a mighty influence for the 
 redemption of a multitude of other men 
 from their sins. 
 
 He is not a solitary instance. The 
 pathway of the mystical form of Chris- 
 tianity is marked by men whose lives 
 
 93 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 are monuments to this divine Power. 
 Above the mists that limit our vision 
 there is a Being who is eternally con- 
 cerned for the welfare of men, and 
 whose passing lifts human lives, even 
 from depths of degradation, to higher 
 levels. We may see the working of 
 that lifting Power and may know 
 thereby the nearness of the Source of it. 
 
 94 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 THE UNFAILING COMRADE 
 
 HE era in which we live is 
 marked by great advances in 
 material knowledge. Observation has 
 been developed to the utmost capacity 
 of human organs of sense. Reason has 
 been trained to the highest degree of 
 precision. Invention has attained re- 
 sults that surpass men’s dreams and im- 
 agination. 
 
 The inevitable consequence is a great 
 confidence in the things of the material 
 world, and a great activity in acquiring 
 them. ‘To be guided by the senses, and 
 satisfied with the results, is characteris- 
 tic of the lives of thousands of people. 
 
 95 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 The spiritual life has new and novel 
 obstacles. There is a materialism 
 which may be defined as the confidence 
 that the realities of this world are those 
 perceived by the physical senses. 
 There is a rationalism which may be 
 defined as a complete trust in logic as 
 the mental operation which will lead to 
 truth. Materialism and_ rationalism 
 shut out the world of spiritual expe- 
 rience and deny the validity of that 
 experience. 
 
 But a great scientist of our own time 
 has said that only a part of this world 
 consents to record itself on our physical 
 perceptions; that only a limited part of 
 truth flows in the forms and patterns of 
 reason; and that man’s real life rests 
 on unseen foundations. This is the 
 confession that science is limited in its 
 field and in its methods. He has de- 
 
 96 
 
THE UNFAILING COMRADE 
 
 clared that faith leads men to the abid- 
 ing realities by which they live the 
 higher life. 
 
 The endeavor has been made in some 
 quarters, indeed, is still made, to apply 
 “scientific methods” to the spiritual 
 world and to make an analysis of reli- 
 gious experience by rational processes. 
 But the realities of the spiritual world 
 transcend such research, and religious 
 experience defies analysis. The botan- 
 ist, excellent as is his work, leaves be- 
 hind him a trail of dead flowers which 
 he has picked to pieces in his analytical 
 work. The gardener, with his water- 
 ing pot and his hoe, leaves more flowers 
 beside his path. The mystic is not 
 analytical. But his experience and his 
 faith are vital. The religious needs of 
 the world today are better served by 
 those who cultivate the flowers of the 
 
 97 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 spiritual life than by those who make an 
 analysis of those blossoms, and who fail 
 to record their aroma and their beauty. 
 
 An immigrant, coming to America, 
 wandered over this new land for a long 
 time before gaining a foothold. Fi- 
 nally he bought, for very little, a tract 
 of dry unproductive land. It lay be- 
 tween the mountains and the sea, and 
 this man had made a discovery. The 
 streams which came down the sunlit 
 sides of the mountains lost themselves 
 in the loose soil of this gently sloping 
 tract, and the waters percolated slowly 
 through it, on their way toward the sea. 
 The surface of the tract was dry, but 
 there was an abundance of warmth and 
 moisture beneath the surface. He 
 planted vines deeply, and soon he had 
 completely transformed that tract of 
 land. 
 
 98 
 
THE UNFAILING COMRADE 
 
 Searching far and wide over the sur- 
 face of that land would not have made 
 the great discovery. Drawing the 
 geometric figures of a surveyor would 
 not have changed it. What was needed 
 was a digger; and when he came he had 
 not far to go to make the vital discovery. 
 
 Our modern life stands in direct re- 
 lationships with the majestic spiritual 
 realities; but its surface is dry and un- 
 productive of joy and peace and faith. 
 The materialism which stirs the surface 
 dust, and the rationalism which draws 
 geometric figures on its surface, declare 
 that they are gaining an understanding 
 of the whole area. But they leave us in 
 the dust. 
 
 Spiritual experience goes beneath 
 the surface, and has not far to go to 
 make the infinitely precious discovery 
 of life-sustaining powers. If we send 
 
 99 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 the roots of our being into the deep soil 
 they shall be nourished from secret 
 streams of life. 
 
 Men are still arguing about the na- 
 ture of the Being who responds to man’s 
 spiritual aspirations. And the argu- 
 ment inhibits spiritual experience. 
 There is need of the adventure of faith 
 which is willing to test the reality of 
 this experience, and to receive the 
 sustaining Power which waits for 
 the opportunity to work man’s re- 
 demption. 
 
 Men argue about, and seek to make 
 distinctions among, the divine Father, 
 the Christ of the mystic, and the Jesus 
 who lived in Palestine. If the mystic 
 declares that his Christ is identical with 
 the immortal Spirit which the disciples 
 recognized as their’ Master, someone 
 asks to be shown the marks of identifi- 
 
 100 
 
THE UNFAILING COMRADE 
 
 cation. And when someone else seeks 
 to draw a line between what is done for 
 man by the love of the Father and what 
 is done by the influence of Jesus Christ, 
 someone else declares them to be 
 indistinguishable. 
 
 Meantime the poets seem to approach 
 the heart of the reality of spiritual ex- 
 perience with surer tread than do the 
 theologians. Affirmation reaches some 
 goals which are missed by logic. In 
 some journeys we have to let expe- 
 rience take the lamp and be the guide. 
 Whittier says: 
 
 The healing of his seamless dress 
 Is by our beds of pain: 
 We touch him jn life’s throng and press, 
 
 And we are whole again. 
 
 This is the expression of mystical expe- 
 rience, the reality of knowing that we 
 101 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 are in relationship with an unseen 
 Comrade. 
 
 The further we go, in our modern 
 progress, in a knowledge of the uni- 
 verse, the more majestic is our thought 
 of the Creator. And as that thought 
 grows in majesty, there is a deeper 
 sense of contrast between it and the 
 sense of nearness, of intimacy, of ten- 
 derness of the Christ of the mystic. 
 
 We apply majestic terms to God the 
 Father, who is the Creator of the 
 worlds. He is eternal, almighty, in- 
 finite. But how are these universal 
 qualities to be blended with the sense of 
 a comradeship with One who shares 
 our experiences and understands our 
 simplest needs? 
 
 We derive the thought of eternity 
 and of infinity from meditation. We 
 gain the feeling of intimacy and sym- 
 
 102 
 
THE UNFAILING COMRADE 
 
 pathy from mystical experience. We 
 experience God only in the nearer 
 phases of his Being. We do not ex- 
 perience infinity. We will not know, 
 by experience, eternity except by the 
 continuity of our own immortal life. 
 But spiritual experience does lead to 
 adoration, to worship, to a sense of es- 
 tablishing a relationship with a Power 
 which has measureless resources. 
 Spiritual experience gives a great 
 chorus of testimony to the reality of a 
 Being who is near, sympathetic, power- 
 ful, and wise; a Being who responds to 
 our call, who helps in our weakness, and 
 who guides in time of need. And who- 
 ever, with open mind, and with under- 
 standing heart, has seen a human life 
 visibly sustained by a Power more than 
 human, a Power unseen but ever real, 
 knows that our life is more than what 
 103 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 the eyes see, and the world is more than 
 what the hands handle. 
 
 We do deal with mystery; and reascn 
 cannot give exact definitions to expe- 
 riences and to the Source of them. 
 But the mystery invites us to a great 
 spiritual adventure. Reason has no 
 right to make us halt in that adventure. 
 The greatest need of the world today, 
 of our modern life, is the sense of a vital 
 relationship with the things that are 
 eternal, the consciousness of living the 
 life which is immortal. 
 
 Can the radiance of the first Chris- 
 tian years be restored? Yes, for the 
 light which has sometimes burned low 
 has never been quenched. We still 
 live in the kind of world which Jesus 
 interpreted to men. The _ physical 
 world but thinly veils the glory of God; 
 and that glory sometimes breaks 
 
 104 
 
THE UNFAILING COMRADE 
 
 through. In the flowers of the field, in 
 the faces of children, in the order and 
 beauty of the world, he is visible for 
 those who have “eyes to see.” 
 
 ‘Still do prayer and meditation yield 
 the results which Jesus found when he 
 “rose a great while before day, and de- 
 parted into the mountain to pray.” 
 The shepherds of Israel, in far-off 
 times, watching by night the stars and 
 guarding their flocks, learned the way 
 into the mystical experience of the 
 Eternal. They learned that there is a 
 Voice which speaks in silence, a Pres- 
 ence that makes itself known in the 
 quiet of the heart. They did not make 
 a theology of it, but they did set it to 
 music. And the joyousness which 
 flows in music, and in poetry, is a 
 better expression of the inner spirit of 
 the religion of Jesus than are the logi- 
 
 105 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 cal explanations which do not explain, 
 and the. philosophical forms in which 
 the spiritual life refuses to flow. 
 
 Human life has still the promise and 
 the possibilities which Jesus found in it. 
 Into man’s personality the power of the 
 Infinite is waiting to flow, if he will 
 make himself a channel for service to 
 humanity. Still do we need inspira- 
 tion rather than repression; still does 
 humanity possess a capacity for origi- 
 nality, for spiritual initiative, for re- 
 sourcefulness and for unmeasured 
 growth. It was the spiritual expe- 
 rience of a man of our own times that 
 led to the writing of these lines: 
 
 O Master, let me walk with thee 
 
 In lowly paths of service free; 
 
 Tell me thy secret ; help me bear 
 
 The strain of toil, the fret of care. ... 
 
 106 
 
THE UNFAILING COMRADE 
 
 Teach me thy patience. Still with thee, 
 In closer, dearer company, 
 In work that keeps faith sweet and strong, 
 
 In trust that triumphs over wrong; 
 
 In hope that sends a shining ray 
 
 Far down the future’s broadening way ; 
 In peace that only thou canst give, 
 With thee, O Master, let me live! 
 
 In such experience, Christ does not 
 become a fading memory from the 
 ancient world, nor a mere tradition 
 from an ever-receding past. The gap 
 between his life and ours does not 
 widen with the years. His story is not 
 simply an oft-told tale from a far-off 
 land. Spiritual experience bridges the 
 gap of time and space; for that expe- 
 rience is timeless. There is an impres- 
 sive continuity about it, through the 
 ages. Life is lifted out of its narrow- 
 
 107 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 ing horizons and gains eternal meaning. 
 
 There are men today who are willing 
 to acknowledge that there is a wisdom 
 in Christ’s teaching, a shrewdness in his 
 answers to his critics, a value in his 
 principles of conduct, but who have 
 never flung themselves into a loyalty 
 to the unseen Leader, and do not know 
 the secret joys of an undivided heart. 
 Indeed the rationalism of today dis- 
 sects the motives of idealism, and thus 
 destroys them. 
 
 There are lines along which knowl- 
 edge is advancing very slowly from 
 generation to generation and from age 
 to age; and concerning which we need 
 feel no deep concern, no consuming 
 ardor. For example, the unsolved 
 problems of mathematics and the mean- 
 ing of the spiral nebulae are not of the 
 most vital importance for us. But, on 
 
 108 
 
THE UNFAILING COMRADE 
 
 the other hand, the results of spiritual 
 experience are of prime importance. 
 While we are living we either get or fail 
 to get the essential meaning of our life. 
 
 The realities of the spiritual world 
 are outside of our sense perceptions. 
 They escape the crucible and the test 
 tube; they transcend the measuring 
 rod and the scales. But they respond 
 with light and with power to the test 
 of spiritual experience. ‘The way for a 
 man to make the test is to fling himself 
 whole into the life which religion im- 
 plies. This is done not by rationalistic 
 processes but by the will; by a whole- 
 hearted loyalty to duty, and a complete 
 consecration to the Eternal. 
 
 Any theory of the world, any inter- 
 pretation of life, may be tested by ask- 
 ing what incentives it gives for living, 
 by inquiring what kind of motives 
 
 109 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 would really express it. The Chris- 
 tian faith tells us that the real world is 
 eternal, and offers immortality unto 
 men. Men take, toward this declar- 
 ation, the attitude of agnosticism or of 
 faith. But what is the effect of this 
 choice upon men’s vital motives? 
 
 The position of agnosticism may be 
 rationally defended: point by point it 
 may make its argument with no break 
 in the logical chain. But what incen- 
 tives to conduct, what motives for life, 
 does it offer? It advises caution; jus- 
 tifies timidity; bids one hesitate. It mn- 
 spires no master-motives, no coura- 
 geous adventures, no magnificent dar- 
 ing. It says there is nothing worth 
 dying for; and it doubts if there be any- 
 thing worth living for. It produces no 
 great leaders, and bestows no inspiring 
 visions. It is neutral in its colors and 
 
 110 
 
THE UNFAILING COMRADE 
 
 lukewarm in its affections. It asks, 
 “Will it pay?’ And when the ardent 
 heart of youth is readv for a great con- 
 secration, agnosticism chills his heart 
 by asking, “What’s the use?” 
 
 May faith be rationally defended? 
 That is not the highest test. Rather 
 ask, “What motives does it supply? 
 What impulses does it inspire?” Faith 
 in immortality is its own highest jus- 
 tification. ‘Tested by the incentives it 
 furnishes toward clean living, that faith 
 stands secure. Ask, ““What conduct 
 is in keeping with it?” The answer is 
 that it justifies integrity and truth and 
 honor. Faith is the mother of chivalry, 
 of splendid daring, of complete loyalty 
 to a cause. It is far-sighted, and is 
 willing to devote itself to ends that lie 
 far beyond the span of a single life- 
 time. It puts a high value on the 
 
 111 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 powers of human personality. It dares 
 to trust the sustaining power of God. 
 It does not ask, in advance of service 
 rendered, that there be guarantees of 
 economic profit. It justifies ideals 
 and aspirations and hopes and prayers. 
 
 Jesus set before the eyes of men a 
 picture of a better world, which would 
 come by transforming the existing 
 world. ‘To this picture, this vision, 
 this dream, he gave the name, the 
 Kingdom of God. When men asked 
 him for a prayer, he gave them a very 
 brief one: but among its few petitions 
 was one for the coming of this King- 
 dom. Why should men believe that it 
 will come? Why pray for it? Why 
 labor and, if need be, die for it? How 
 can any one prove to men that they 
 ought to cherish this age-long hope for 
 the new Kingdom? 
 
 112 
 
THE UNFAILING COMRADE 
 
 If for no other reason we should 
 cherish that hope because it is associated 
 with all the greatest incentives in life; 
 with all the most buoyant hopes of the 
 human heart; with all the noblest mo- 
 tives of the human will; with all of our 
 most ardent ideals. The doubt of it is 
 linked with our times of depression. 
 Selfishness bids us withhold our service 
 from it. Cynicism questions the worth 
 of it. Strife and jealousy are out of 
 harmony with it. Agnosticism says it 
 is not worth while. Thus the doubt of 
 it is discredited because of the kind of 
 motives to which it prompts; and faith 
 in it is justified by the inspiration which 
 it brings. 
 
 Even so with faith in immortality: 
 depression and doubt and cynicism bid 
 us hesitate to trust its promptings; but 
 all things that make joy and affirma- 
 
 113 
 
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 
 
 tion and chivalry link themselves with 
 it. Doubt stands in weakness, not dar- 
 ing to trust the resources of the unseen. 
 Faith walks in power, confident that its 
 path is imperishable and that the sus- 
 taining strength of the Eternal cannot 
 fail. Immortality begins as a quality 
 of the life that now is, giving it moral 
 worth and spiritual meaning. It gains 
 assurance from the power which comes 
 into human life from invisible sources. 
 It illuminates the landscape of life with 
 an unfading radiance. The hills shall 
 dissolve, but the eternal light shall con- 
 tinue, 
 
 114 
 
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