^ ) 
 
/ a .2i:i.x:^ 
 
 LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 Presented by 
 
 TneL Widow or Greor6'e."I3uo'b\n ;, ^(» 
 
 BS 511 .W43 1919 
 
 
 Wheeler, Everett 
 
 Pepperrell 
 
 1840-1925. 
 
 
 A lawyer's study 
 
 of the 
 
 Bible 
 
 
(7 
 
A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 ITS ANSWER TO THE QUESTIONS OF TODAY 
 
A LAWYER'S STUDY OF 
 THE BIBLE 
 
 Its Answer to the Questions of Today 
 
 BY , 
 
 EVERETT PEPPERRELL''WHEELER;^?r:M: 
 
 Author of "Sixty Years of American Life," "Daniel Webster, 
 
 the Expounder of the Constitution," "The Modern 
 
 Law of Carriers," etc. 
 
 "The Bible the best gutcU to Political sktll and fotsstght." 
 
 —Coleridge 
 
 New York Chicago 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 London and Edinburgh 
 
Copyright, 1919, by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
 London: 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTEE PAQB 
 
 Introduction 7 
 
 I Rules for the Study of the Bible 13 
 II Truth 22 
 
 III The Presence of God in the Soul 
 
 OF Man 30 
 
 IV Prayer . . .. .. . . .46 
 
 V Miracles 58 
 
 VI Fatalism and the Individual . . 66 
 
 VII Socialism 80 
 
 VIII Social Settlements .... 108 
 
 IX The Christian Church as a Fac- 
 tor in Social Progress . . . 128 
 
 X Formalism i53 
 
 XI War 162 
 
 XII Justice and Mercy . . . .173 
 
 XIII Judicial Proceedings . . .180 
 
 XIV Labour, Capital, and Strikes . 186 
 XV Immortality . . . . .214 
 
 Index . . ■,- . . . . 225 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE experience of a long and busy life has 
 led me to the conclusion that the principles 
 of action which are taught in the Bible are 
 wise; that they are the true foundations for right 
 living ; that they contain the principles according to 
 which social reforms can be most wisely promoted, 
 and are, to use the words of Coleridge, ** the best 
 guide to political skill and foresight." 
 
 And it seems to me that most of the errors into 
 which religious people have fallen from age to age, 
 have been occasioned by a partial and inadequate 
 study of the Bible. If I am right in this, it follows 
 that it is a matter of great importance to know and 
 follow the rules which should guide us in the inter- 
 pretation of the Scriptures. 
 
 I have in my first chapter endeavoured to present 
 these rules as we have been taught them by the 
 greatest judges of England and America. In subse- 
 quent chapters, I have endeavoured to state the con- 
 clusions upon many questions of present interest, to 
 which a study of the Bible, according to these prin- 
 ciples, has led my mind. 
 
 I have not tried to present the results of modern 
 criticism respecting the dates when various portions 
 of the Bible were composed and published. These 
 have an interest for many, but for those who believe 
 
 7 
 
8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 in the divine authority of the Scriptures, it seems 
 to me comparatively unimportant whether, for 
 example, the Book of Genesis had one author or 
 several. 
 
 One of the objections to the present authority of 
 the Scriptures is drawn from the great changes in 
 human conditions since they were written. It is 
 undoubtedly true that conditions .change from age to 
 age, and that rules which are wise in one generation 
 often are not susceptible of literal application in 
 another. But on the other hand, the fundamental 
 principles of human conduct, and the moral law of 
 God are unchangeable. 
 
 We may apply to them what Whibley says of the 
 philosophy of the great French General of our time, 
 Foch : 
 
 " Although the manifold inventions of modern 
 times have given to warfare a wider scope and fresh 
 materials. General Foch declares that in its conduct 
 it remains obedient to the same laws as in the past, 
 but it applies these laws with means more numerous, 
 more powerful, and more delicate. For that reason 
 the executive part of war demands greater care on 
 the part of all. And by an apt illustration he makes 
 his meaning plain to all. " Thus," he writes, " at cer- 
 tain epochs the art of construction in a particular 
 style takes a wider range, which permits the use of 
 new materials, and a more highly finished method of 
 work; but for all that, the principles of statics, which 
 govern the architecture of all time, remain unmodified. 
 It is the same with the art of war, even after the 
 latest campaigns. Forms evolve, directing principles 
 are unchanged. 
 
INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 " For in reality as Marshal Foch concludes : ^ 
 " * The great events of history, the disasters which it 
 records in some of its pages, such as the destruction 
 of the French power in 1870, are never accidents but 
 rather the results of superior and general causes, such 
 as the forget fulness of the commonest moral and in- 
 tellectual truths, or the abandonment of the activity 
 of mind and body which constitute the life and health 
 of armies.' " 
 
 It ought not to be necessary to adduce authorities 
 in support of my main proposition, that the Bible, 
 when wisely studied and rightly understood is of 
 inestimable practical value. Yet we are told on 
 every side that young people neglect this essential 
 part of their education. Let me call their attention 
 to what some of the most effective men of the pres- 
 ent generation have said on this subject. 
 
 President Woodrow Wilson : 
 
 " I am glad to have an opportunity to endorse the 
 eflfort of the American Bible Society to procure a 
 fund of $400,000 to cover the expenses of supplying 
 the men in the Army and Navy with Bibles. This is 
 an object which I am sure all Christian people will 
 wish to see accomplished. I hope that it may be, for 
 the sake of the men who are going to the front. They 
 will need the support of the only book from which 
 they can get it." 
 
 Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt : 
 
 " I send my good wishes to you in your efforts 
 to put the Church behind Pershing and the American 
 
 "I Philosophy of Gen. Foch. BJackzvood's Magazine. Re- 
 printed in The Living Age, Aug. 3, 1918. 
 
iG INTRODUCTION 
 
 Army abroad. Christianity is not a milk-and-water 
 affair ; it is not a teaching for those who shrink from 
 what is rough and evil and terrible in life. There is 
 no other book in the world that teaches courage, 
 obedience, integrity, and self-sacrifice, as does the 
 Bible. I earnestly hope that you will succeed in put- 
 ting the Bible into the hands of every soldier in our 
 Army, and that you will inspire the American people 
 to put the spirit of the Bible into themselves." 
 
 Marshal Foch — A la New York Bible Society : ^ 
 
 " La Bible est certainement le meilleur viatique que 
 vous puissiez donner au Soldat Americain partant a 
 la bataille pour entretenir son magnifique ideal et sa 
 foi." 
 
 Premier Lloyd George said in 1918: 
 
 " The more our two peoples know one another the 
 better I believe they will get on together, and the 
 greater the work they will be able to do for the 
 world. Their ideals, as well as their literature, are 
 fundamentally the same and are equally derived from 
 that great source of wisdom, the Bible." 
 
 In an admirable history of the Renaissance we 
 are told of that fruitful period of the development 
 of the human intellect.^ 
 
 " Religion answered to an ever-living need of the 
 human heart. The Bible was no longer a mere docu- 
 
 2 To the New York Bible Society: The Bible is certainly 
 the best viaticum that you can give to an American soldier 
 about to go into battle to sustain his magnificent ideal and 
 his faith. 
 
 3 Bcrenson, " The Venetian Painters," p. 54. 
 
INTRODUCTION ii 
 
 ment wherewith to justify Christian dogma. It was 
 rather a series of parables and symbols pointing at 
 all times to the path that led to a finer and nobler 
 life." 
 
 Some portions of some of the chapters in this 
 book have heretofore appeared in magazines. My 
 acknowledgments are due, and are rendered to the 
 Outlook, the Churchman, and the Chronicle for con- 
 senting to their use in this volume. 
 
 E. P. W. 
 
RULES FOR THE STUDY OF 
 THE BIBLE 
 
 ALL Christian churches agree that the Bible is 
 a collection of sacred books, inspired by the 
 ^ Holy Spirit of God, and " profitable for doc- 
 trine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in 
 righteousness/' ^ 
 
 It is then in these books that we should study the 
 principles of Christian Ethics— the Christian Law 
 of Life and Love. 
 
 But the reader will ask— What do you mean by 
 inspiration? To this I answer— not verbal inspira- 
 tion. We do not believe that the authors of these 
 books wrote them down from dictation as a secre- 
 tary writes what the chief dictates. But we do 
 believe that " holy men of God spake, moved by the 
 Holy Ghost.'' ^ The books of the Bible have been 
 selected by the general voice of Christendom, as 
 distinctly— the inspired books— the Bible. Christ 
 said to His apostles the evening before the cruci- 
 fixion: "When he, the spirit of truth is come, he 
 will guide you into all truth." ' The authors of the 
 New Testament books did receive this guidance and 
 were enabled to receive and teach many truths that 
 
 1 3 Tim. 3 : i6. « 2 St. Peter 1:21. » St. John 16 ; 13. 
 
 13 
 
14 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Christ had not taught. He said Himself on the 
 same occasion,* *' I have yet many things to say 
 unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." But He 
 also said just before His Ascension ^ — " Lo, I am 
 with you always, even unto the end of the world." 
 This thought of continuous inspiration will be dwelt 
 upon later. I speak of it now lest it be supposed 
 that I limit the power and teaching of the Holy 
 Spirit to the contents of the Bible. 
 
 The man vv'ho really believes that " Holy Scrip- 
 ture containeth all things necessary to salvation " * 
 must first ask himself — How shall I study Holy 
 Scripture? What shall be my guide? What rules 
 shall I follow? 
 
 To this we answer — Follow the same rules that 
 wise jurists have laid down for the study and inter- 
 pretation of Constitutions and statutes. These laws 
 are rules of action, dictated by the supreme author- 
 ity in the State. So far as the interpretation of their 
 language, and the ascertainment of their real mean- 
 ing are concerned, the methods of study, and the 
 principles of construction have been made the sub- 
 ject of careful investigation by some of the wisest 
 of mankind. The judges who formulated the rules 
 of judicial interpretation have been aided by the 
 arguments of Counsel, many of whom were the 
 leading statesmen of their time. If these rules had 
 been more carefully studied and more closely fol- 
 lowed by the students of Holy Scripture, many mis- 
 
 4 St. John i6: 12. 
 6 St. Matt. 28 : 20. 
 « Articles of Religion, Episcopal Church, No. VI. 
 
RULES FOR STUDY OF THE BIBLE 15 
 
 takes would have been avoided. Indeed we hope 
 to prove that many of the religious errors of 
 well-meaning people are due to partial and 
 one-sided conception of the teaching of the 
 Bible. 
 
 I. The first rule for the construction of human 
 laws is this : Follow the rule of construction which 
 the law itself prescribes. Such rules are often pre- 
 scribed in statutes. The United States Judicial 
 Code does this (Sections 291-295). In every State 
 there are similar instances of definite legislative 
 rules of construction. These rules are to be treated 
 as controlling. 
 
 For example the Code of Civil Procedure adopted 
 by the State of New York in 1876 contains the 
 following Section (519) : 
 
 " The allegations of a pleading must be liberally 
 construed with a view to substantial justice between 
 the parties." This section became a fundamental 
 rule which judges were bound to obey. They are 
 human, as well as clergymen, and have not always 
 followed this statutory rule. 
 
 In Holy Scripture there is prescribed a funda- 
 mental rule of construction which is really the 
 parent of this and all similar statutory enactments. 
 After Christ had fed the multitude and given His 
 wonderful sermon in Capernaum about the bread of 
 life, many took His words literally, " went back, 
 and walked no more with him." But Jesus said to 
 the faithful disciples — " The words that I speak 
 ynto you are spirit, and are life." ^ 
 ^St. John 6:63, 66. 
 
i6 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 So when the spirit of truth had come, He guided 
 St. Paul to say to the Corinthians : ^ " The letter 
 killeth, but the spirit giveth life." There is a legal 
 maxim to the same effect — He that sticks in the 
 letter sticks in the bark, and never gets to the heart 
 of the tree.® Tagore puts it well — " The men who 
 are cursed with the gift of the literal mind are the 
 unfortunate ones who are always busy with their 
 nets, and neglect the fishing.". 
 
 This then is our first rule for understanding Holy 
 Scripture. Interpret its language spiritually, and 
 not literally. 
 
 No doubt this rule may be abused. So may every 
 rule. But no abuse from spiritual interpretation has 
 been so harmful as those that have flowed from 
 literal interpretation. 
 
 2. A second rule of especial importance is the 
 requirement that the books of the Bible are to be 
 interpreted according to the circumstances under 
 which they were respectively written, and the char- 
 acter of the people to whom they were originally 
 addressed. 
 
 As Mr. Justice Wayne puts it in Norris v. City 
 of Boston : ^« 
 
 " The Constitution is to be interpreted by what was 
 the condition of the parties to it when it was formed, 
 by their object and purpose in forming it, and by the 
 actual recognition in it, of the dissimilar institutions 
 of the States." 
 
 8 2 Cor. 3 : 6. 
 
 9 Qui haeret in litera, haeret in cortice. 
 
 1^ Passenger Tax Cases, 7 Howard U, S. Rep. 283, (1848.) 
 
RULES FOR STUDY OF THE BIBLE 17 
 
 An even greater judge, Chief Justice Marshall, 
 thus expressed this canon in the celebrated case of 
 Gibbons v. Ogden,^^ which established the right of 
 freedom of trade between the States of the Union: 
 
 ** If from the imperfection of human language 
 there should be serious doubts respecting the extent 
 of any given power, it is a well settled rule that the 
 objects for which it was given, especially when those 
 objects are expressed in the instrument itself, should 
 have great influence in the construction." 
 
 Mr. Justice Story thus states this rule in its 
 application to conveyances from one party to 
 another : ^^ 
 
 " It has been very correctly stated at the Bar, that 
 in the construction of grants the court ought to take 
 into consideration the circumstances attendant upon 
 the transaction, the particular situation of the parties, 
 the state of the country, and the state of the thing 
 granted, for the purpose of ascertaining the intention 
 of the parties." 
 
 3. A third rule of interpretation is that the whole 
 of a written instrument, whether a Constitution, an 
 agreement, or a book should be considered, when 
 a question arises, as to the meaning of a particular 
 part."" 
 
 This rule is thus stated by Mr. Justice Clifford : " 
 
 «9 Wheaton U. S. Rep. i. (1824.) 
 12 United States v. Appleton, i Sumner Rep. 492. 
 ^3 The Latin form of this maxim is, "Ex antecedantibus 
 €t consequentibus, melior fit interpretatio." 
 i* United States v, Reese, 92 U, S. Rep. 314. 
 
i8 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 " Statutes should be interpreted, if possible, so as 
 to avoid any repugnancy between the different parts 
 of the same, and to give a sensible and intelligent 
 effect to every one of their provisions." 
 
 A striking illustration of the application of this 
 rule to the construction of a book, was given by 
 Lord Erskine in his famous argument in the Dean 
 of St. Asaph's Case/^ He contended there, upon a 
 trial for libel, that the jury must consider the whole 
 book and not only the sentences alleged in the in- 
 dictment to be libellous. Were it otherwise, he said, 
 the printer of the Book of Psalms could be indicted 
 for publishing the false, blasphemous, and seditious 
 libel — '* There is no God.'* Those words were in- 
 deed contained in that book ^^ but prefixed to them 
 are the other words which qualify the meaning — 
 " The fool hath said in his heart." 
 
 4. A fourth rule of interpretation is the logical 
 consequence of the third. When a series of enact- 
 ments are under consideration they should be con- 
 strued together. This fundamental rule for the 
 construction of statutes has recently been clearly 
 stated by the Supreme Court as follows : ^^ 
 
 " The legislation is in pari materia with the Act 
 of 185 1 and must be read in connection with that law, 
 and so read, should be given such an effect, not incon- 
 gruous with that law, so far as consistent with the 
 terms of the later legislation." 
 
 15 Speeches of Lord Erskine. (Ed. Callaghan and Cock- 
 roft, 1870.) Vol. I, p. 268. 
 
 16 Psalm 53:1. 
 
 1^ Richardson v. Harmon, 222 U. S. 96, 103. 
 
RULES FOR STUDY OF THE BIBLE 19 
 
 An illustration of the application of this rule is 
 to be found in the recent decision of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States in the Conscription 
 Cases.^^ Certain persons who had been drafted to 
 serve in the National Army contended that the Con- 
 scription Act was in violation of the Thirteenth 
 Amendment to the Constitution of the United 
 States : 
 
 " Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except 
 as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have 
 been duly convicted, shall exist within the United 
 States or any place subject to their jurisdiction." 
 
 It was argued that compulsory service in the 
 Army was '' involuntary servitude." But the court 
 construed this Amendment in connection with Sub- 
 division 12 of Section 8, Article I, which gives to 
 Congress power — " To raise and support Armies." 
 And the court held the Conscription to be author- 
 ized by the Constitutional power thus granted to 
 Congress. 
 
 5. A fifth rule of construction (which is the 
 logical consequence of the second) is that a reason- 
 able interpretation is to be given to words, which 
 if taken literally would contravene the purpose of 
 the statute. In other words the court presumes that 
 the legislature had a reasonable purpose in enacting 
 the law under consideration. 
 
 This rule is thus expressed by Judge Miller of 
 the New York Court of Appeals : ^® 
 
 18 Arver v. United States, 38 Supreme Court, Rep. 159. 
 1^ People V. Lacombe, 99 N. Y. Rep. 43, 49. 
 
20 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 " It is the spirit and purpose of a statute which 
 are to be regarded in its interpretation and if these 
 find fair expression in the statute it should be so 
 construed as to carry out the legislative intent, even 
 though such construction is contrary to the literal 
 meaning of some provisions of the statute. A rea- 
 sonable construction should be adopted in all cases 
 where there is a doubt or uncertainty in regard to the 
 intention of the law-makers," 
 
 A very interesting application of these rules of 
 construction is to be found in a decision of the 
 Supreme Court on the proper construction of the 
 Contract Labour Act.'^ 
 
 It was forbidden by that act to assist in any way 
 the migration of any alien " under any contract to 
 perform labour or service of any kind in the United 
 States." 
 
 The court held that it was not a violation of this 
 statute for a church in the State of New York to 
 make an agreement with an English clergyman that 
 he should come to this country and render service 
 as its rector. This was literally within the statute, 
 but not within its spirit. 
 
 Mr. Justice Brewer said: 
 
 " The court properly looks at contemporaneous 
 events, the situation as it existed and as it was pressed 
 upon the attention of the legislative body. 
 
 " It is a familiar rule that a thing may be within 
 the letter of the statute, and yet not within the 
 statute, because not within its spirit, nor within the 
 intention of its makers." 
 
 20 Church of Holy Trinity v. United Statw, 143 U. S. Rep. 
 457. 
 
RULES FOR STUDY OF THE BIBLE 21 
 
 Having thus stated the rules which should guide 
 the student of the Bible to a correct understanding 
 of the spirit and meaning of the books which com- 
 pose the sacred volume, we will take up various 
 subjects which have been the subject of discussion 
 among Christian people and respecting which there 
 have been diversities of opinion, and will show how 
 the application of the rules which have been stated 
 will lead to a correct understanding of the true 
 Christian doctrine on these subjects. 
 
II 
 
 TRUTH 
 
 WHEN Christ was arraigned before Pilate 
 upon the accusation that He was a traitor 
 to the Roman government, and was try- 
 ing to make Himself King of the Jews, the Roman 
 judge put the question to Him, as judges do now 
 when a culprit is arraigned — ^guilty or not guilty? 
 As Pilate put the question, it was — Art thou the 
 King of the Jews? Jesus declared that His king- 
 dom was not of this world, though He was indeed 
 a king, and then he added : " To this end was I 
 born, and for this cause came I into the world that 
 I should bear witness unto the truth ; every one that 
 is of the truth heareth my voice." 
 
 No religion has ever laid such stress upon the 
 truth as that which is revealed in the Scriptures of 
 the Old and New Testament. God is described by 
 Moses as the " God of truth." ^ His counsels are 
 said to be " faithfulness and truth." ' " All his 
 works are truth." ^ 
 
 In man this quality is equally commended. 
 " Judges are to be men of truth." * The man who 
 is to abide in the tent of the Almighty and to dwell 
 upon His holy hill is the man "that speaketh the 
 
 iDeut. 32:4; Psalm 31:5. sDan. 4:37. 
 
 2lsa. 25:1. *Exod. 18:21. 
 
 22 
 
TRUTH 23 
 
 truth from his heart." ^ God desires truth in the 
 heart of man.^ One of the commandments deliv- 
 ered by God Himself upon Mount Sinai is : " Thou 
 shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." ^ 
 
 Again and again in the Book of Proverbs the 
 quality of truth is attributed to the righteous man. 
 Men are exhorted to '' buy the truth and sell it not." 
 In Isaiah it is " the righteous man who keepeth the 
 truth that is to enter into the Holy City." ® 
 
 When Hosea states the controversy that the Lord 
 hath v/ith the children of Israel, one of the first 
 counts of his accusation is : " There is no truth nor 
 mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land." ^ For 
 this, as for other crimes, one of which is lying, the 
 judgment of God is denounced. 
 
 In the New Testament the divine counsel is de- 
 clared with equal plainness. The promise of Christ 
 (part of which the Johns Hopkins University has 
 adopted as its motto) is: 
 
 "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall 
 make you free." '^ During the same discussion 
 with the people in which these words were uttered, 
 Jesus declared to those that sought to kill Him be- 
 cause He had told them the truth, that they were not 
 really the children of God, but children of the devil, 
 because they did the devil's work, and Christ added : 
 " He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode 
 
 5 Psalm 15: 2. 
 
 6 Psalm 51:6. 
 
 ' Exod. 20 : 16. 
 
 8 Prov. 23 : 23 ; 3:3; 12:19; 22 : 21 ; Isa. 26 : 2. 
 
 9 Hosea 4: i- 
 10 John 8 : 32. 
 
24 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. 
 When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for 
 he is a liar, and the father of it." ^^ The might of 
 the truth St. Paul declares : " We can do nothing 
 against the truth, but for the truth," ^^ Christians 
 are exhorted to " speak the truth in love," and wear 
 the girdle of truth.^^ In the Book of Revelation 
 St. John states that there shall be cast out of the 
 Holy City *' whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." ^* 
 
 Many other passages might be cited. The Bible 
 is full of them. Truth here, as the context evi- 
 dently shows, does not mean veracity alone. Still 
 less does it mean adhesion to any creed or dogma. 
 In the individual it is the love of reality; the hatred 
 of pretence; the fixed determination to find and to 
 hold fast that which is really true. The Christian 
 religion is the most genuine and real thing in the 
 world. It seems incredible that Christian people 
 should read the Bible and think they believe in it, 
 and so often shrink from adherence to this funda- 
 mental principle of truth. 
 
 There are many cases in life in which it seems 
 either that the truth is dangerous, or that for the 
 time being falsehood would serve a better pur- 
 pose. Many men with good intentions have shrunk 
 from loyalty to the truth, and have presented false- 
 hood in what seemed to them an attractive guise, 
 thinking thereby to accomplish some good end. To 
 those who thus do evil that good may come, the 
 Apostle declares that their condemnation is just. 
 
 "John 8:44. "Eph. 4: 15; 6:14. 
 
 12 2 Cor. 13 : 8. " Rev. 22 : 15. 
 
TRUTH 25 
 
 He says that it is a slander to charge Christian 
 people with that maxim/" 
 
 The most notable instances of the violation of 
 this divine command are in the press. Yet, in our 
 time it has become recognized as the duty of every 
 newspaper which has made an erroneous statement 
 to correct it. This development in the moral stand- 
 ard has been progressive. We find a similar de- 
 velopment in the standard of legal ethics. A hun- 
 dred years ago Lord Brougham maintained that it 
 was the duty of a lawyer to know no moral re- 
 straint in the defence of his client. A similar 
 proposition was maintained within thirty years by 
 so great a lawyer as David Dudley Field. But the 
 profession has officially condemned it. The Ameri- 
 can Bar Association has adopted canons of ethics 
 which it declares are obligatory upon every lawyer. 
 In some States of the Union these canons have been 
 enacted into statute. In many of them it is re- 
 quired that they shall be taught to law students. 
 Acquaintance with them is a preliminary to their 
 admission to the Bar, and constitutes part of the 
 required examination. Canon 22 is as follows : 
 
 " It is unprofessional and dishonourable to deal 
 other than candidly with the facts in taking the state- 
 ments of witnesses, and drawing affidavits and other 
 documents, and in the presentation of cases." 
 
 Yet it is unfortunately true that many religious 
 people in their ardour for what they believe to be a 
 just cause, resort to false statements, and forget 
 
 15 Rom. 3 : 8, 
 
26 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 entirely when they exaggerate or colour facts, that 
 " A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest 
 of lies." 
 
 Nothing has done more to alienate rightmindcd 
 and sincere men from organized Christianity than 
 this evil temper. The " odium theologicum " is 
 proverbial. Christian people are exhorted by St. 
 Paul " to do all things without murmurings and dis- 
 putings that ye may be blameless and harmless, the 
 sons of God." ^^ They are admonished that " all 
 bitterness and anger and clamour and evil speaking 
 and wrath be put away from you with all malice." " 
 " Lie not one to another," he cries.^^ These com- 
 mands are constantly forgotten in so-called religious 
 disputations, and when men ask, as they often do, 
 why Christianity has failed, perhaps the best answer 
 that has been made is that of Heber Newton, — " It 
 has never been tried." We must acknowledge, with 
 shame, that it is truly the fault of Christian people 
 that the truth of the gospel has not been made more 
 manifest to the world. It was manifested perfectly 
 in the life of Christ. But, alas. His followers have 
 fallen far short of His example. 
 
 These statements are not inconsistent with the 
 conception of progressive revelation, nor with the 
 thought that teaching, which is adapted for one race 
 and one social condition, is not necessarily the best 
 for another. 
 
 The study of the Bible as a whole, and the 
 
 i«Phil. 2:14, 15. 
 i^Eph. 4:31. 
 "Col. 3:9. 
 
TRUTH 27 
 
 comparison of its several books in connection with 
 what we know of the history of the times in which 
 these books were written, makes it clear that their 
 revelation is progressive. This is expressly declared 
 by Christ Himself. When the Pharisees asked 
 Him — " Is it lawful for a man to put away his 
 wife ? " He asked them — " What did Moses com- 
 mand you ? " and they said, " Moses suffered to write 
 a bill of divorcement, and to put her away." ^^ 
 
 This requirement of writing a bill of divorce- 
 ment, given by the husband to his wife, was in 
 itself an improvement upon the condition in savage 
 tribes where the husband was at liberty to turn away 
 his wife at will. To reduce his decision to writ- 
 ing, to be signed by him, gave at least some time for 
 deliberation and reflection. There is a certain 
 analogy in it to the civil service rule which was 
 adopted after much consideration, that the head of 
 an office who desires to dismiss a clerk should give 
 him an opportunity to be heard, and should state in 
 writing his reasons for the dismissal. 
 
 But this condition of married life was to be tem- 
 porary only. It was better than the savage state, 
 but altogether unsuitable for the permanent condi- 
 tion of man. Christ said to the Pharisees that 
 Moses had permitted it because of the hardness of 
 the hearts of the people. He declared that the man 
 should ** leave his father and mother, and cleave to 
 his wife, and they twain should be one flesh; what 
 therefore God hath joined together, let no man put 
 asunder." ^^ 
 19 Mark 10:4; Deut. 24:1. 20 ]viatt. 19:5-6; Mark 10:7-9. 
 
28 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 It is unfortunately true that the two who have 
 thus been united, afterwards may become really 
 severed by the sin of one or the other; possibly 
 of both. It is not within the scope of this present 
 chapter to discuss the subject of divorce, but atten- 
 tion is drawn to a fact which experience shows does 
 sometimes exist. The putting asunder in reality 
 comes from the sin of one of the married pair. 
 Whatever may be rightfully done by a divorce 
 court, should be simply an authentication by a com- 
 petent tribunal of a fact which already in reality 
 exists. 
 
 But it is not only in this famous passage which 
 has been the subject of so much discussion that we 
 are taught the truth of progressive revelation. In 
 His last great discourse to His disciples, Jesus said : 
 *' I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye 
 cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the 
 Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all 
 truth." '' 
 
 Here is a clear statement that the purpose of 
 Christ and of the gift of the Holy Spirit w^as from 
 time to time and by degrees to guide the disciples 
 into all truth. The divine purity is absolutely free 
 from the slightest taint of untruth : but the 
 truth is manifested slowly as man is able to receive 
 it. 
 
 Again St. Paul shows that in his dealing with 
 the new converts he found it the part of duty and 
 wisdom to teach them gradually. He says to the 
 Corinthians : *' I have fed you with milk, and not 
 
 21 John i6: 12-13. 
 
TRUTH 29 
 
 with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, 
 neither yet now are ye able." ^^ 
 
 The Epistle to the Hebrews uses the same simile. 
 In the beginning of the Christian life the converts 
 are to be fed with milk ; to be taught " the first 
 principles of the oracles of God." Then when they 
 become of full age and " by reason of use have 
 their senses exercised to discern both good and 
 evil," they should " go on to perfection." ^^ Thus 
 it is clear from revelation as well as from reason 
 that the whole truth cannot be taught at once, and 
 must be imparted by degrees, *' line upon line and 
 precept upon precept." Yet the passages already 
 quoted show that falsehood is never to be taught, 
 and that it is a breach of Christian duty to use 
 falsehood as argument, or to misrepresent the 
 character or conduct of our adversaries. 
 
 22 I Cor. 3 : 2. 
 
 23Heb. 5: 13-14; 6:1-3. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN THE 
 SOUL OF MAN 
 
 FROM the beginning there have been two 
 schools of thought in the Christian Church. 
 Some have dwelt with more emphasis on the 
 presence of God in Heaven. The pictorial repre- 
 sentations of His presence there, in Isaiah and 
 Ezekiel and in the Book of Revelation, have ap- 
 pealed to them. 
 
 Other divines have been more impressed with 
 what has been called " the immanence of the 
 divine " ; that is to say, with the omnipresence of 
 God. These teachings apparently diverse, really 
 represent two sides of the same shield. It is un- 
 doubtedly true that both the Old and New Testa- 
 ment speak of Heaven as a place where the divine 
 presence and glory are especially manifested. In 
 His last great discourse to His disciples on the 
 evening of Holy Thursday, Christ said to them : 
 " In my Father's house are many mansions. If it 
 were not so, I would have told you. I go to pre- 
 pare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a 
 place for you, I will come again and receive you 
 unto myself; that where I am, ye may be also." ^ 
 
 The next day, on the Cross He said to the peni- 
 
 ijohn 14:2, 3. 
 
 30 
 
GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN 31 
 
 tent robber by His side : " Today shalt thou be with 
 me in Paradise." ^ 
 
 In every generation a convert comes to the front 
 who thinks he has discovered something new, simply 
 because it is new to him. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 
 principal propositions in his book called " The New 
 Revelation," are, that death is only " birth into an- 
 other life," and that the human iDeing passes into 
 that life " clothed," in St. Paul's words, '' with a 
 spiritual body, which is the counterpart of the 
 physical body at its best. All fears and imperfec- 
 tions disappear, being a product of the grosser 
 matter of which we are built in this life." 
 
 It would seem as if this description of the spirit- 
 ual body is a natural inference from what St. Paul 
 says in the fifteenth chapter of the Epistle to the 
 Corinthians. One hundred years ago a great poet 
 who was also a great spiritual teacher put that 
 thought into verse. 
 
 In " Laodamia " Wordsworth describes the hero 
 who returned from his life beyond the grave, in the 
 likeness of his appearance upon earth. 
 
 " In his deportment, shape and mien appeared, 
 Elysian beauty." 
 
 " Redundant arc thy locks, thy lips as fair, 
 As when their breath enriched Thessalian air." 
 
 He 
 
 " Spake as a witness of a second birth. 
 For all that is most perfect upon earth, 
 
 2 Luke 23:43. 
 
Z2 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Of all that is most beauteous, imaged there 
 In happier beauty, more pellucid streams, 
 An ampler ether, a diviner air, 
 And fields invested with purpureal gleams, 
 Climes which the sun who sheds the brightest day- 
 Earth knows, is all unworthy to survey." ^ 
 
 As for Sir Arthur's thought that death is birth 
 into another life, that ''people go over with the 
 same intellectual and ethical equipment as on earth," 
 that is the keynote of Browning's poem of Easter 
 Day. How indeed could it well be otherwise, if the 
 life beyond the grave is the continuation of this? 
 
 It is indeed satisfactory to find that this keen 
 observer and diligent student of history should have 
 drawn from his study of psychical phenomena the 
 same conclusions that these poets drew from the 
 study of the Bible and human experience. 
 
 It may be said that these authors were poets. 
 They were, but they were also men of genius with 
 spiritual insight. Even in the most serious scien- 
 tific studies genius leads the way. This insight 
 often discovers great truths, as Lord Lister did in 
 his antiseptic treatment, before these truths are veri- 
 fied by experiment. As Doctor Wrench says in his 
 "Life of Lister": 
 
 " It is the ability of genius that rescues * petty 
 mortals ' from the labyrinth of confusion in which 
 they involve themselves in attempting to solve or even 
 to find a safe path through the mysteries and difficul- 
 ties of life. Genius makes the tortuous path straight 
 and the complex simple." 
 
 3 We quote from the Boston edition of 1824: Vol. I, p. 165. 
 Two of the lines are changed in later editions. 
 
GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN 33 
 
 These beautiful visions are not inconsistent 
 with the teaching that God is now present here on 
 earth and dwells in the soul of man. This truth is 
 revealed both in the New Testament and in the Old. 
 In Leviticus the Lord declares : " I will w^alk among 
 you and be your God and ye shall be my people." * 
 In the Book of Exodus the same thought is ex- 
 pressed: " I will dwell among the children of Israel 
 and will be their God." ^ 
 
 These promises are extended by the prophets to 
 nations other than the Hebrews. The later chapters 
 of Isaiah are full of this gracious assurance. The 
 Lord declares to His suffering servant : " It is too 
 light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to 
 raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the 
 preserved of Israel; I will also give thee for a light 
 to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation 
 unto the ends of the earth." ^ 
 
 In language of infinite tenderness it is declared 
 that the Lord loves His people more tenderly than 
 the mother her sucking child. *' As one whom his 
 mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." " For 
 the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed ; 
 but my lovingkindness shall not depart from thee, 
 neither shall my covenant of peace be removed, 
 saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee." ^ 
 
 Probably these promises, when they were first 
 made, appealed especially to the Hebrews. But the 
 language already quoted shows that it was part of 
 the prophetic vision to reveal them to all nations. 
 
 4 Lev. 26:12. « Isa. 49 : 6, R. V. 
 
 5 Exod. 30 : 45. "^ Isa. 49 : 14, i5 ; 54 : 10 ; 66 : 13, R. V. 
 
34 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 The Hebrews, however, were slow to receive this 
 teaching of their great prophets. The conviction 
 that they were especially the people chosen of God 
 was too strong. Even in the first century of the 
 Christian era, over six hundred years after Isaiah 
 had prophesied, it was strange to them that " the 
 Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body 
 and partakers of his promise in Christ by the 
 gospel." ^ All experience shows how easy it is for 
 the human mind to accept theoretically the authority 
 of a law or a teacher, and yet fail entirely to obey 
 the teaching. That was Christ's pathetic appeal — 
 " Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things 
 which I say?"'^ In both Testaments it is plainly 
 declared : " To do justice and judgment is more 
 acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice." ^" Yet 
 religious people are prone to forget this, and to 
 lay undue emphasis on the outward observances 
 which, for us, correspond to the Jewish sacrifices. 
 
 After this short digression, we return to the 
 immediate topic of this chapter. When the divine 
 promise is repeated that God will enter the human 
 heart, and abide there, when the door is opened to 
 receive the divine visitor, it is natural to repeat 
 the question of Solomon in his wonderful prayer at 
 the dedication of the Temple : " Will God, in very 
 deed, dwell with men on the earth? " ^^ 
 
 When in the evening before the crucifixion, St. 
 Thomas pathetically asked, '' How can we know the 
 
 8 Eph. 3:6. 
 
 » Luke 6 : 46. 
 
 10 Prov. 21:3: Hosea 6:6; Matt. 12 : 7. 
 JI2 Chron. 6:18. 
 
GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN 35 
 
 way ? " Jesus answered : " I am the Way, the Truth, 
 and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father, but 
 by me. . . . From henceforth ye know him, and 
 have seen him." 
 
 But we, in this twentieth century, do not see 
 Christ with our eyes of sense, and the question of 
 St. Thomas constantly recurs: How can we know 
 the way? 
 
 The Christian Church has the answer. In the old 
 Epiphany Collect which the Anglican churches re- 
 tain in their liturgy we pray : " Grant that we, who 
 know Thee now by faith, may after this life have 
 the fruition of Thy glorious Godhead." 
 
 Here the Church for many centuries has assured 
 us that we may know God by faith. What is meant 
 in this connection by faith? Clearly that spiritual 
 faculty in man by which he comes into union with 
 God and becomes " partaker of the divine nature " 
 (as the apostle tells us) and thus escapes the cor- 
 ruption that is in the world through greedy desires 
 and selfish passions. 
 
 It is common to speak as Tennyson does, in a 
 famous passage of " In Memoriam," of knowledge 
 as being limited to the result of the perceptions or 
 the senses. " Knowledge," he says, " is of things 
 we see." But any one who studies human experi- 
 ence knows that this is but one, and perhaps the 
 least important, kind of knowledge. The faculty 
 by which we become conscious of the love of father 
 and mother, of wife and children, and of friends, 
 is akin to the faculty by which we become con- 
 scious of the existence and love of God. He that 
 
36 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 loveth God will love his brother also. The percep- 
 tions and assurances of that side of human nature 
 are just as reliable as perceptions of the eye or of 
 the touch. 
 
 Throughout the world, there are numberless men 
 and women who are sensible of the being and love 
 of God. They know God; not by what they think 
 of Him or conjecture about Him, but by their own 
 consciousness of His presence, His power, and His 
 goodness. This consciousness is as distinct and 
 real as their consciousness of the presence and love 
 of father, or brother, or child. He comforts them in 
 trouble, gives them strength in weakness, inspires 
 them with resolution to plan and courage to achieve 
 the most difficult undertakings ; even the conquest of 
 selfishness, which is the hardest of all. 
 
 Why is not this affirmation of the consciousness 
 of so many witnesses truly knowledge? Some may 
 not have felt it. Whatever intellectual opinion they 
 may have about the being of God, if they are not 
 conscious of His presence and love, they do not 
 know Him. But why doubt the knowledge of the 
 thousands who do. Why is it not as authentic as 
 the knowledge of the material world that some men 
 attain by long years of study? The ordinary man 
 cannot verify their processes, but accepts the result. 
 Why not accept the experience of those who know 
 and love God? 
 
 A man may reply that these do not agree, and that 
 the diversity of their experience takes away the credit 
 that might otherwise attach to it. But is the experi- 
 ence referred to so diverse? There are innumerable 
 
GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN 37 
 
 opinions and speculations about the divine being. 
 These are as different as the opinions about the 
 organs of the human body were before it was actu- 
 ally examined and observed ; as different as the opin- 
 ions about the heavenly bodies, before Galileo and 
 Copernicus and their successors accurately observed 
 the heavens. All of which simply show^s that specu- 
 lative opinions differ as much as individual minds. 
 But when we come to collate the results of the con- 
 sciousness of those who know and love God, we 
 find them in substantial agreement. Nothing shows 
 this more plainly than the fact that they use and 
 enjoy the same hymns of love and praise, though 
 their books of dogmatic theology dift'er. In the 
 hymnals of various Christian churches are to be 
 found hymns written by Greeks, by Latins, by 
 Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Unita- 
 rians. As Principal Fairbairn justly says : ^^ 
 
 " This unity In praise and worship which so 
 transcends and cancels the distinctions of community 
 and sect, but expresses the unity of the faith and fel- 
 lowship of the heart in the Son of God. In the re- 
 gions of the higher devotion and the purer love all 
 differences cease." 
 
 But it may be asked. How do you discriminate 
 between the spiritual perception of one and the wild 
 visions of another? Which is the authentic evi- 
 dence on which you ask us to rely? We answer — 
 Divine knowledge, like all other knowledge, is pro- 
 gressive. It must be learned gradually, by faithful 
 
 12 Fairbairn, "The Place of Christ in Modern Theology," 
 p. 20. 
 
38 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 endeavour, and after long experience. Doubtless to 
 some it comes more readily than to others. 
 
 As with the individual, so with the race. For 
 centuries, God had been educating man and pre- 
 paring him for the fuller perception of spiritual 
 truth. He did not leave Himself without witness 
 among men. But not until Christ came into the 
 world did the race perceive what was possible to 
 man. Christ showed in His own person that it was 
 possible for man to perceive divine truth, and to be 
 transfigured by it. His life was full of beauty and 
 power. Metaphysical discussions about His nature 
 have somewhat obscured the truth He taught, that 
 man could become partaker of the divine nature, 
 that God would dwell in him, and he in God. This 
 is the true and vital significance of the Incarnation. 
 In the world of spiritual knowledge Christ fills the 
 place that Copernicus and Newton do in astronomy. 
 Like Columbus, He gave to man a new world. And 
 if the seeker after spiritual truth is willing modestly 
 to learn of Christ, he will know by his own experi- 
 ence the truth of what Christ taught. 
 
 The possibility of a divine life in man, that was 
 revealed by the life of Christ; the extent of the 
 knowledge of divine truth to which Christ showed 
 that man might aspire, henceforth became the basis 
 of all genuine spiritual life and truth. He revealed 
 it, and the experience of man verifies it. 
 
 Here we anticipate two objections — one from the 
 doubter, and one from the orthodox member of 
 some Christian organization. 
 
 The doubter may say — Doubtless the life of 
 
GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN 39 
 
 Christ is admirable. But the lives of His professed 
 followers do not satisfy my ideal. Theirs is the 
 converse of His. He was serene, they are disputa- 
 tious; He was self-denying, they are greedy and 
 selfish; He was brave and tranquil amid all His 
 sufferings, they are worried and anxious; He told 
 Peter to put up his sword, but they have tried to 
 spread religion by fire and sword. It is with sorrow 
 that the Christian must admit there is truth in this 
 objection. The only answer is that the m.en of 
 whom the objector speaks were either not real 
 Christians or very imperfect ones. They did not 
 know the truth from their own experience. They 
 may have believed in Christ as an historic person- 
 age, and even given intellectual assent to the cor- 
 rectness of His doctrine. But their hearts were not 
 enlightened, their wills were not guided. 
 
 All this Christ plainly predicted. No teacher 
 ever cared so little for formal assent or outward 
 show. The people He talked to were always asking 
 for some external and material manifestation of 
 the kingdom of God. And He always answered, 
 " The Kingdom of God is within you." It was the 
 man who would do His will that should know of the 
 doctrine. 
 
 Hence this objection when rightly considered is 
 a proof of the truth of Christ's teaching. Neverthe- 
 less it must be admitted, and all professed Chris- 
 tians should take it to heart, that the inconsistency 
 of their lives and the selfishness of their conduct are 
 the greatest hindrance to the more general knowl- 
 edge of Christian truth. 
 
40 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 The other objection from the orthodox is this : 
 What do you make of the Christian Church? You 
 seem to attach all importance to the individual con- 
 sciousness. Would you rest the truth solely upon 
 the conviction of one man, however sincere or 
 earnest? 
 
 To which we answer — Certainly not. It is the 
 experience of many, in every generation since the 
 birth of Christ. And who are these men? They 
 are, as the Episcopal Church says in the Communion 
 Office : " very members incorporate in the mystical 
 body of thy Son, which is the blessed company of 
 all faithful people " — the true Church, made up of 
 Christians of every name — known well to the Lord. 
 
 Organization is necessary and useful. But every 
 organization — political, philanthropic, or religious — 
 has its dangers. The greatest is that the members 
 of the organization shall come to look upon it as 
 more important than the truth it w^as formed to 
 teach. And then man falls into surprising estrange- 
 ment. Take for example the life of Philip the 
 Second. This was diametrically opposed to the life 
 of Christ. Yet he was a rigorous observer of the 
 exterior requirements of the organization to which 
 he belonged. To him the organization was all, its 
 vital principles nothing. And so he became the 
 embodiment of all that is cruel, selfish, and lawless 
 in human nature. 
 
 The higher the value that any one sets upon the 
 Christian Church, as an organization, the more sen- 
 sible he ought to be of the responsibility which de- 
 volves upon each of its members. '* By their fruits 
 
GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN 41 
 
 ye shall know them.'* If the fruits are not Christ- 
 like, we may be sure that the individual is at least 
 very backward and has much to learn. Therefore 
 it is that we emphasize for the individual, and most 
 of all for those who are in communion with Chris- 
 tian churches, the necessity of that personal 
 knowledge of divine and spiritual truths which 
 strengthens and directs the will to the practice of 
 the Christian virtues. 
 
 For there is a distinct type of virtue, which Christ 
 was the first to manifest fully, and which is not hard 
 to recognize. Instances might be taken from every 
 Christian communion. Let us mention one whom 
 all churches have delighted to honour, Fenelon, the 
 Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cambrai. His writ- 
 ings and life evince the same sweetness of temper, 
 serenity of soul, keen discrimination of moral and 
 religious truth, and steadfast courage in its ad- 
 vocacy that are characteristic of Christ. This was 
 so well recognized that when Marlborough's army 
 invaded that part of France, their leader com- 
 manded that Fenelon's house and its contents 
 should be preserved intact. 
 
 As Milton says : 
 
 " The great Emathian conqueror bade spare 
 The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower 
 Went to the ground." 
 
 Great teachers before Christ had said wise things, 
 but He spoke with power that is still mighty even 
 in the weakest of His true disciples. This percep- 
 tion of divine truth is the unspeakable gift of the 
 Spirit of God. It compels loving obedience, it frees 
 
42 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 the heart from a thousand burdens and leads the 
 soul into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 
 It is the parent of generous and unselfish thoughts 
 and noble and helpful actions. Some, no doubt, 
 have keener perception of this truth than others. 
 But it is possible for every one to have some knowl- 
 edge of it. Witnesses whom no man can number 
 have found this the most precious possession to 
 which man can attain, and therefore best worth 
 striving for. To him who doubts they reply: 
 " Come and see." And those that hearken to the 
 teachings of Christ and enter into communion with 
 Him will learn to declare as believers have from 
 the beginning : " Now we believe, not because of Thy 
 saying, for we have heard Him ourselves, and know 
 that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the 
 world.'' 
 
 Nineteen centuries after these words were spoken 
 another believer, Phillips Brooks, put the same 
 thought into modern phrase. He, too, had seen 
 Christ, not with outward eyes, but with inward and 
 spiritual vision. In one of his letters he writes from 
 his own actual experience : 
 
 " These last years have had a peace and fulness 
 which there did not use to be. I say it in deep 
 reverence and humility. I am sure that it is a deeper 
 knowledge and truer love of Christ. I cannot tell 
 you how personal this grows to me. He is here. He 
 knows me and I know Him. It is no figure of speech. 
 It is the realest thing in the world and every day 
 makes it realer, and one wonders with delight what 
 it will grow to as the years go on." 
 
GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN 43 
 
 When we reach this point we perceive that there 
 is no real conflict between science and reHgion. 
 Any religion which deserves that name seeks to pro- 
 duce communion or intercourse between the soul of 
 man and God. It implies and indeed teaches that 
 man can know and love God, can realize His pres- 
 ence, and be taught by Him. And this implies that 
 the Deity is a personal God, who can choose and 
 love. 
 
 The scientific man studies animals and plants and 
 inorganic matter. He finds them governed by fixed 
 laws. So far as he is able to discover there is 
 no variation from these laws. He is not likely to 
 be an atheist, but he is apt to conclude with Lucre- 
 tius that " Nature is seen to do all things spon- 
 taneously, of herself, without the intermeddling of 
 the Gods.'' In other words, that the Creator set 
 matter in motion and fixed a law for its direction 
 which should forever control it and withdrew from 
 all further '' intermeddling." This be it observed, 
 is not science, but only the inference or guess of a 
 scientific man — a very different thing. 
 
 Now the fault that religious men, more or less 
 clearly, find with this inference or guess is this. 
 It leaves out of view entirely the experience of men, 
 derived from intercourse with each other. All 
 human life is based on the consciousness that man 
 is capable of choice and affection — that he can bal- 
 ance probabilities, and weigh motives — that he can 
 learn that there is such a thing as the right, and 
 another and opposite thing — the wrong; and can 
 learn to love and follow the one and hate and avoid 
 
44 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 the other. The consciousness of the race assures 
 us of all this. We know it as certainly as we know 
 that the sun shines, or that two and two make four. 
 A man may reason himself into maintaining the 
 proposition that he is a mere machine, governed 
 by an unchangeable external law or fate, and deter- 
 mined always by the strongest motives. But all the 
 while he knows this is not true, and he never acts 
 upon any such theory. The only people that do 
 are the lunatics. 
 
 Now if from the uniformity of nature a scien- 
 tific man infers the God of Epicurus; the man who 
 is versed in the study of mankind will rather infer 
 that God is a being of love and choice. Professor 
 Tyndall finds fault with anthropomorphic concep- 
 tions of the Deity. But what is there in the form of 
 the external world from which the idea of God can 
 so justly be drawn, as from all we know that is best 
 and loveliest in man? Nature is bigger than we, 
 but we are greater than it. A God who could not 
 choose and could not love might be more powerful 
 than man. So is a locomotive or a steamship. But 
 he would be infinitely lower in the scale of being; 
 just as these machines are. 
 
 When we go farther than this and examine the 
 experience of religious men we are assured by in- 
 numerable persons of all classes and in all ages, that 
 they have known God, have felt in their hearts His 
 power and His love, and have been directed and 
 guided by Him. Make all the deductions for igno- 
 rance and self-deception that can reasonably be 
 asked. There remains this great fact in human 
 
GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN 45 
 
 experience, and the theory of Lucretius does not 
 account for it. Our knowledge of the external 
 world rests on no better foundation. For that too 
 we can only say that the mind declares to itself that 
 it can rely upon the eye, or the ear, or some other 
 of the bodily organs, which the mind controls. 
 
 In short, Lucretius believed that God either is, 
 or has made, a uniform law which governs all 
 things inexorably, and that God has no further con- 
 cern with men or their affairs. Religious men be- 
 lieve that God is a person, who can and does choose 
 and love, who cares for and loves mankind and can 
 be known and loved by them. This is commonly 
 called the conflict between science and religion. It 
 is really the conflict between the inferences of scien- 
 tific men and the experience of religious men. 
 
IV 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 IN the conduct of life it is of the first im- 
 portance to fix clearly in the mind and heart 
 the essential principles of human action. This 
 is true in business, in politics, in all professions, and 
 most of all in religion. The failure to observe this 
 rule has produced many of the difficulties which 
 perplex thoughtful men. In no case is this more 
 obvious than in prayer, the subject of this chapter. 
 The distinctive feature of the teaching both of 
 the Old Testament and of the New is that of one 
 personal God. Thoughtful men have conceived of 
 God as " the power above ourselves which makes 
 for righteousness." This is true as far as it goes. 
 But it falls vefy far short of the teaching of Reve- 
 lation. The God of the Bible is a Person who loves, 
 who creates, who gives to His creatures the power 
 of choice, in order that they may be intelligent be- 
 ings, and not mere machines, blesses them when 
 they choose well, and brings suffering upon them if 
 they choose ill. The great poet Goethe, who is 
 also a wise philosopher, expresses the latter thought 
 in the well-known line : ^ 
 
 r 
 
 " Every sin brings its own punishment upon earth." 
 
 1 Alle Schuld racht sich auf Erden. 
 46 
 
PRAYER 47 
 
 But this truth is in no wise inconsistent with the 
 conception of divine law. When we speak of God 
 as a Person, we do not at all imply that He is arbi- 
 trary. He acts in accordance with the laws which 
 He Himself has made. In our human relations, we 
 expect the law- givers to conform to their own laws. 
 The same is true in the divine economy. Words- 
 worth expresses this thought : 
 
 " Submission, constituting strength and power, 
 Even to Thy being's infinite majesty." 
 
 But in the divine realm, as in human affairs, sub- 
 mission to law does not at all imply a merely 
 mechanical system. The world is not like a clock, 
 a mere piece of machinery to be wound up and 
 to run as long as the spring continues to uncoil, or 
 the weights to fall. The very conception of the 
 divine presence, as well as of the human presence, 
 implies the power to use these laws for purposes, 
 which transcend the ordinary operation of law. Of 
 this there are innumerable instances. A few will 
 suffice. A man left to himself in the air will drop 
 to the earth. Yet, man has constructed machines, 
 by the operation of which he is able to fly above the 
 highest mountains. The human voice in its great- 
 est power cannot be heard for the distance of a 
 mile, yet, man has availed himself of the electric 
 force, and has so adapted it to his wants, that he 
 can be heard, and the inflections of his voice dis- 
 tinguished at a distance of three thousand miles. 
 These activities of man are not in opposition to law. 
 But in a very real sense they transcend law. That 
 
48 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 is to say, they accomplish results which, according 
 to the ordinary operations of law, are impossible. 
 
 The same is true of the power of prayer. The 
 more fully we believe in a personal, loving Father, 
 the more we believe in the power of prayer and 
 realize its value. 
 
 In the previous chapter, it has been shown that 
 revelation teaches, and experience confirms that it is 
 possible for the human person to become acquainted 
 with the divine Person; to enter into friendly rela- 
 tion with Him, to become conscious of ITis per- 
 sonal presence and love. Hence, it follows that the 
 infinite being and the finite being can converse to- 
 gether. In the Book of Exodus it is said that, " the 
 Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man 
 speaketh unto his friend." ^ 
 
 This communication between the divine and the 
 human, between God and man, is prayer. Prayer 
 is frequently conceived as the asking for some 
 favour. But this is a very small part of true prayer. 
 If we would only realize the love and the presence 
 of God, and that man can love and talk with God, 
 as a man speaketh with his friend, just as truly as 
 he could three thousand years ago, we would see 
 that the asking of favours has a very small part in 
 this converse. When we talk with our human 
 friends we do, no doubt, often ask favours of them, 
 but much more frequently do we express to them 
 our thoughts and feelings, and receive from them 
 the expression of their love and sympathy. This is 
 indeed the most endearing part of friendship. 
 *Exod. 33: II. A similar expression is used in Num. 14: 14, 
 
PRAYER 49 
 
 When we take this view of prayer, the difficul- 
 ties that have been raised respecting its supposed 
 interference with the law of God, and the supposed 
 dictation by man to God, disappear. When we truly 
 pray, we express to God our thoughts, our feelings, 
 our desires. At the same time we realize that God 
 is wiser than we, and that our wisdom is small 
 compared with His. We know His love, and that 
 He will give us whatever we need in His own good 
 time, and according to His infinite wasdom. But 
 we delight to express our feelings and our desires, 
 knowing that they also enter into His plan, and are 
 taken into account by Him. This is most fully 
 expressed by St. John : " This is the confidence that 
 we have in him, that, if we ask anything according 
 to his will, he heareth us; and if we know that he 
 hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have 
 the petitions that we desired of him." ^ 
 
 There is perhaps no part of the Christian life in 
 connection with which it is more important to con- 
 strue various promises of Scripture together, and 
 to refrain from dwelling upon the literal sense of 
 isolated passages, than in this matter of prayer. 
 For example, when Christ says in the Sermon on 
 the Mount : '* Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, 
 and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto 
 you."* And when our Lord continues, "If ye 
 then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto 
 your children, how much more shall your Father 
 which is in heaven give good things to them that 
 ask him," we need not suppose that Christ prom- 
 « I John 5 : 14-15. * Matt. 7 : 7. 
 
50 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 ises that the human will should control the wisdom 
 of God. In the same great discourse, He bids us 
 pray, " Thy will be done in earth, as it is in 
 heaven." ^ 
 
 Thus we see that the prayer explains the promise. 
 We are to ask for the good things which we think 
 we need. In the same prayer we submit ourselves 
 gladly to the will of God, knowing that His will is 
 infinitely wiser than ours. 
 
 These considerations should relieve the difficulties 
 of the good men who scruple, for example, to pray 
 for rain. In the liturgies of different churches the 
 thought is expressed diversely. One old collect thus 
 expresses the Christian thought : 
 
 " O God, heavenly Father, who, by Thy Son, Jesus 
 Christ, has promised to all those who seek Thy king- 
 dom, and the righteousness thereof, all things necessary 
 to their bodily sustenance ; Send us, we beseech Thee, 
 in this our necessity, such moderate rain and showers, 
 that we may receive the fruits of the earth to our 
 comfort, and to Thy honour; through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord." 
 
 This prayer, which expresses the thought and 
 feeling of Christian churches in many centuries, 
 tells the Almighty Power of the needs of His crea- 
 tures, and, in submission to His will, asks for 
 relief. 
 
 The author may be permitted to recall an experi- 
 ence in 191 1. The autumn had been very dry, a 
 fire broke out in the mountain forests. The flames 
 
 5 Matt, 6: 10, 
 
PRAYER 51 
 
 leaped high, and it seemed that no human power 
 could check their course. It was an awful spec- 
 tacle. The instinct of many was to ask the Father 
 to send rain, and put out the conflagration. All 
 that human skill could do, was done. But it was 
 inadequate. The fire was mightier than the power 
 of man. The next day there came such a storm as 
 Job describes, which he felt himself unable to ex- 
 plain, and which he attributed to the divine power. 
 We have learned much since his time, but we have 
 not learned how to explain such storms. Never- 
 theless, in ways we cannot understand, it did come. 
 The fire was extinguished, and we thanked God 
 for doing what we had asked Him to do. 
 
 One of the objections that is taken by those who 
 doubt the efficacy of prayer, is to ask why God 
 does not always answer our prayers. To this the 
 reply is simple. He is wiser than we. We do not 
 pretend to explain the divine conduct or to set 
 bounds to the divine wisdom. But we do know 
 that human beings who have formed the habit of 
 praying to the Father, whom we love, and to whose 
 infinite wisdom we gladly submit, do find an answer. 
 It is indeed through prayer that we come to realize 
 the divine presence and love. This is the first and 
 best of all answers, and when we ask specifically 
 for some good thing, as the child asks of his human 
 father, we sometimes receive, sometimes we do not. 
 In either case the father's judgment controls. 
 
 One cannot lay too much emphasis upon the sub- 
 missive spirit which can pervade the most earnest 
 prayer. Some of the great moralists teach us that 
 
52 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 sometimes, when the prayer is not submissive, the 
 very granting of it may bring about its own punish- 
 ment. For the man as for the child, it often hap- 
 pens that the gift you ask would be harmful. No 
 wise parent would always give the best beloved 
 child everything that the child asks. It is indeed 
 part of the training of life to learn that there may 
 be even more love in refusing than in granting the 
 petition. It is by such experiences as these, that 
 the child enters into more perfect relation with the 
 human father, and that the human soul enters into 
 more complete and sympathetic relation with the 
 Divine. 
 
 Another difficulty that is often raised is this — 
 How can God hear the myriad prayers that are sent 
 to Him at once from this earth? This objection 
 really springs from the feeling that the God re- 
 vealed in the Scriptures, like the Gods of Olympus, 
 lives in some remote place. It fails to realize the 
 omnipresence of God. This is one of those spirit- 
 ual facts that we cannot understand, and which we 
 do not attempt to explain, but which it is possible 
 for the soul to know and to realize. And after all, 
 even in natural laws, the laws which govern matter 
 and the material universe, we do not need to go 
 very far before we reach a point where we cannot 
 understand. But yet, we know. For example, a 
 century ago, it was impossible to transmit a mes- 
 sage from one continent to another. The concep- 
 tion, even, of this possibility was too great for 
 human grasp. But the discoveries of science first 
 pointed out a v/ay by which an insulated cable could 
 
PRAYER 53 
 
 be laid at the bottom of the sea, and by which 
 electric currents could be transmitted through the 
 copper wires enclosed in this cable ; first from Ire- 
 land to Newfoundland, then from France to Cape 
 Cod, and at a later period across the great Pacific 
 Ocean. We can study the laws which govern the 
 transmission of such messages and the operation of 
 the machinery which man has used to accomplish 
 these wonderful results. But who can understand 
 the principle of the electric current? More wonder- 
 ful still! After long experience with the trans- 
 mission of messages along the wires of the electric 
 cable, Marconi conceived the possibility of trans- 
 mitting electric vibrations through the air, so that 
 they might be taken up by a receiver, which was 
 attuned in harmony with the transmitter, and recog- 
 nized intelligently at a distance of thousands of 
 miles. This wireless telegraph is now in operation 
 all over the world. It is quite possible to teach the 
 student how to construct the apparatus which is 
 used to accomplish these results, and how to regu- 
 late its action. But who can understand the won- 
 derful electric force, which man has thus been 
 enabled to utilize for intercommunication? Again, 
 before Marconi's wireless telegraph, Thomas A. 
 Edison invented an apparatus by which four mes- 
 sages could be transmitted at the same time over the 
 same wire without interference with each other, and 
 could be separately picked up and translated into 
 ordinary speech at four separate receivers. It is 
 possible to understand the construction of the in- 
 struments by which this feat was accomplished. 
 
54 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 These have been described in letters patent, and are 
 known to all the scientific world. But Mr. Edison 
 himself would be the last to say that he understood 
 the mystery of the electric force which he has thus 
 been enabled to utilize for the service of man. In 
 short, it may truly be said that those who have 
 penetrated farthest into the mysteries of nature, 
 realize most fully the depth of the mystery which 
 lies be3^ond. 
 
 The same is true of the mystery of prayer. 
 Christians should not attempt to explain it. The 
 fact, as Daniel Webster said, is what we want. 
 That fact in its very nature can be learned only by 
 experience. That experience is a growth, a develop- 
 ment. There is no better expression for it than the 
 beautiful verse in the Book of Proverbs : " The path 
 of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more 
 and more unto the perfect day." ^ 
 
 Even those who are most doubtful as to the ef- 
 ficacy of prayer admit its reflex influence upon the 
 person who prays. Surely this is not to be disre- 
 garded. The man who feels that, not only at ap- 
 pointed times and places, he can speak with God, 
 and utter the thoughts of his heart to the Almighty 
 Father, but that in every moment of need, in the 
 most crowded thoroughfare, in the greatest emer- 
 gency, he has a friend who knows the need, and 
 who listens to the expression of the human soul; 
 this man finds a spring of strength and courage and 
 hope that can come from no other source. No one 
 has expressed this better than Archbishop Trench 
 eProv. 4;i8. 
 
PRAYER 55 
 
 in the sonnets which have found an answering echo 
 in many a human heart. 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 Lord, what a change within us one short hour 
 Spent in Thy presence will avail to make ; 
 What heavy burdens from our bosoms take, 
 
 What parched grounds refresh as with a shower! 
 
 We kneel, and all around us seems to lower; 
 We rise, and all — the distant and the near — 
 Stands out in sunny outline, brave and clear. 
 
 We kneel, how weak ! W^e rise, how full of power ! 
 
 Why therefore should we do ourselves this wrong, 
 
 Or others, that we are not always strong; 
 
 That we are ever overborne with care ; 
 That we should ever weak or restless be, 
 
 Anxious, or troubled, when with us is prayer 
 
 And joy and strength and courage are with Thee! 
 
 When hearts are full of yearning tenderness 
 For the loved absent whom we cannot reach 
 By deed or token, gesture or kind speech, 
 
 The spirit's true affection to express. 
 
 When hearts are full of innermost distress 
 And we are doomed to stand inactively, 
 Watching the soul's or body's agony 
 
 Which human effort helps not to make less, 
 
 Then like a cup capacious to contain 
 
 The overflowing of the heart is prayer; 
 The longing of the soul is satisfied ; 
 
 The keenest darts of anguish blunted are ; 
 
 And though we have not ceased to yearn or grieve 
 Yet we may learn in patience to abide. 
 
 Finally, we must not omit to call attention to the 
 inspiration that comes from united prayer. When a 
 multitude of brethren meet, and with one accord 
 
56 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 pour out their hearts to God ; utter His praises, and 
 ask for His blessing, there comes a sense of brother- 
 hood, a sense of unity with the Divine, that some- 
 times rises almost to transport. The danger is that 
 the worshipper may become so familiar with the 
 hymns or the liturgy to which he is accustomed, that 
 their use becomes insensibly formal; that their 
 voice is no more to him than that of a pleasant 
 instrument. Experience shows that those who use 
 the most elevated forms of prayer, often fail to rise 
 to the height of the words they so frequently ex- 
 press. We would not in any way discourage the use 
 of these noble forms. They ought to set before the 
 soul an ideal to which it may gradually attain. But 
 let every one be on his guard lest he become so satis- 
 fied with the outward expression that he lose the 
 inward spirit. 
 
 We cannot forbear to add an extract from Gen- 
 eral Pershing's letter to the Federal Council of the 
 Churches of Christ in America : ' 
 
 " The powerful resources of the nation which have 
 been placed ungrudgingly at the disposition of the 
 Army are indispensable for the accomplishment of our 
 duly. But we know that mere wealth of material 
 resources or even of technical skill will not suffice. 
 The invisible and unconquerable force let loose by 
 the prayers and hopes and ideals of Christian America, 
 of which you are representative, is incalculable. It 
 furnishes the soul and motive for the military body 
 and its operations. It steadies us to resist manfully 
 those temptations which assail us in the extraordinary 
 conditions of life in which we find ourselves." 
 
 7 The Churchman, Sept. 21, 1918, p. 318. 
 
PRAYER 57 
 
 This counsel from the great general who com- 
 manded the American Army is in harmony with 
 the counsel of the great French leader, Marshal 
 Foch, quoted in the introduction. What inspiration 
 to realize that these two leaders, who have con- 
 ducted successfully against victorious armies the 
 greatest military operations in the history of the 
 world, should both be devout Christians," praying 
 men, deriving power and wisdom from the unfailing 
 fountain of both — communion with God. When we 
 remember their extraordinary achievements, and 
 above all, perhaps, their success in effecting the 
 united action of millions of men — different in race, 
 in education, in tradition — will not some doubts 
 which have been referred to in this chapter disap- 
 pear ? Here are great facts ; real men ; real achieve- 
 ments. Let us not hesitate to accept them. 
 
MIRACLES 
 
 THE difficulties that sincere men have raised in 
 connection with the miracles of the New- 
 Testament are similar to those which they 
 have felt in reference to the subject of prayer. The 
 root of them all is a false conception of God. We 
 cannot too often refer to the admonition of St. 
 John : " My children, guard yourselves against false 
 ideas of God." ^ 
 
 In a previous chapter, we have dealt with this 
 subject, and endeavoured to point out the conception 
 of God, as revealed in the Bible. He is not an in- 
 flexible law. He is not a machine, even though it 
 be of infinite power and duration, which goes on its 
 established course without deviation. On the con- 
 trary, He is a Father, full of love and sympathy for 
 the creatures whom He has made. He was revealed 
 in Christ, who took upon Him our human nature 
 in order that we might more fully realize that He 
 is our elder brother and our best and dearest friend. 
 To use the language of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
 — '' We have not a High Priest who cannot be 
 touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; but was 
 in all points tempted (tried) as we are, yet without 
 
 1 1 John 5 : 21, Twentieth Century Testament, 
 58 
 
MIRACLES 59 
 
 sin.'^ ^ This divine man appeared on earth, and it 
 is related of Him that he healed the sick, gave sight 
 to the Wind, hearing to the deaf, strength to the 
 lame. It is even related that not only did He him- 
 self arise from the dead and appear visibly to His 
 followers, but that He restored to life His friend 
 Lazarus and the son of the widow of Nain. Now 
 if we really believe in a Personal God, who has a 
 character such as the New Testament reveals, why 
 should we hesitate to believe that all these things 
 happened just as they are related? It is another 
 case of believing in a result, the underlying principle 
 of which we cannot understand. Without repeat- 
 ing what has been said on this subject in a previous 
 chapter, let us call attention to facts which we 
 really believe, because they have become familiar, 
 but which to our forefathers would have seemed as 
 incredible as the miracles themselves. The achieve- 
 ments of modern medicine and surgery, and of 
 modern science are our modern miracles. 
 
 Take, for example, anaesthetics. Since the power 
 of ether and chloroform was discovered and made 
 known to the world, many operations, which were 
 impossible, have become feasible. Some of our 
 readers have probably witnessed the effect of these 
 anaesthetics. Some of us have experienced their 
 power, have lain down on a couch, subject to some 
 physical malady, some deranged organ; the con- 
 tinuance of which in its diseased condition threat- 
 ened life itself. We have passed into a quiet slum- 
 ber, and when we awoke, all danger was removed. 
 
6o A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Perhaps the diseased member had been altogether 
 taken away from the body, and the incision left to 
 heal. 
 
 Again we behold another wonderful achievement, 
 for which man is especially indebted to Pasteur and 
 Lister. These great men showed us what was quite 
 unknown before, that there were germs which were 
 the source of infection, poison, and often of death. 
 They showed us, that by an antiseptic treatment, 
 which would destroy these germs and destroy their 
 power, wounds, formerly fatal, could be healed and 
 were healed. 
 
 Now again the blind receive their sight, the deaf 
 hear, the lame walk, and those who are stricken with 
 a malady or receive a wound, which a century ago, 
 would have been fatal, retain their life and are 
 restored to health and strength. We have learned 
 that many of the maladies of infancy that caused 
 the death of myriads of little children before they 
 attained the age of five, were due to the ignorance 
 of those who had them in care, and that by proper 
 feeding and treatment, these little bodies can be pre- 
 served and come to vigorous maturity. 
 
 Two centuries ago, man had not learned to domi- 
 nate the forces of nature. To him they were ob- 
 scure ; the laws that regulated them were unknown. 
 The fact that they could be controlled by man had 
 not entered the mind of the most visionary. Within 
 these two centuries men have seized the great agent, 
 heat, have by its use availed themselves of the ex- 
 pansive force of water, and have made steam a 
 mighty agent for doing an infinity of work that two 
 
MIRACLES 6i 
 
 centuries ago could not have been done at all. To go 
 from Boston to New York in five hours was, a cen- 
 tury ago, not only difficult, but physically impos- 
 sible. Its accomplishment at that time would have 
 seemed as much a miracle as the turning of the 
 water into wine. Now it is common and fa- 
 miliar. 
 
 A hundred years ago men enjoyed the light of 
 the sun when it shone, but how meagre and inade- 
 quate were their artificial substitutes. Light itself 
 was put to no useful purposes to which nature 
 itself did not apply it. But what do we now see? 
 Not only do we draw from deposits in the earth, 
 oil, in which the sunlight has been stored in 
 secret for thousands of years, and gas, which il- 
 lumine our buildings, but we have found how to 
 convert the power of steam or the force of water 
 into electricity, and to produce an electric light as 
 brilliant as that of the sun at noon-day. 
 
 A hundred years ago the lightning as it flashed 
 from the clouds was practically the only form in 
 which man was acquainted with the power of elec- 
 tricity. But now, not only do we use it for light, 
 but we have made it our servant for myriad pur- 
 poses. By its means, we transmit a question to 
 London, and receive an answer, within an hour. 
 By its means we are practically in immediate com- 
 munication with all the ends of the earth, and are 
 using it as a medium of force and power, more 
 easily managed, and more conveniently transmitted 
 than steam itself. 
 
 The men who have accomplished all this, can only 
 
62 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 be won to the Christian faith by making them feel 
 that it is a force as real as those forces of nature 
 with which they are familiar. If we wish to con- 
 vince the mass of mankind, not only of our sin- 
 cerity, but of the truth of the faith we hold, we 
 must show it by its power. " The words that I 
 speak unto you," said the Lord, " are spirit and are 
 life." The works that He did were proofs to the 
 people of His helpfulness, His power, and His love. 
 In every instance where a miracle was wrought, it 
 was wrought as a means of helping some need. 
 The sick were cured, not as a magical display but 
 as a means of relieving actual suffering. When the 
 Master appeared in the morning, through the mists 
 that were rising from the Sea of Galilee, and bade 
 the disciples cast in the net on the right side of the 
 ship, He appeared as a helper to men who had been 
 toiling all night, and had caught nothing; to men 
 who had done their very best in their own calling, 
 and had failed. The wonderful power and effec- 
 tiveness of our Lord's ministry were distinctly this : 
 He came with power to help those that needed it. 
 If Christians are to transform the world, we must 
 do the same. The promise, in one sense, is not that 
 we shall work miracles. But in another and most 
 important sense it is. The greatest miracle is the 
 transformation of the human soul, strengthening 
 the weak and erring will, making a man who has 
 been dishonest and deceitful, and a slave of his 
 passions, an honest, true, unselfish man. This is 
 the work of the Christian Church, and to succeed 
 in this, we must show to the world that our claims 
 
MIRACLES 63 
 
 are not based on any argument derived from his- 
 tory, but on our present power and usefulness. 
 
 The fact that the wonders, to which we have 
 referred, are achieved frequently, and by means 
 which can be studied and learned and used by the 
 learner, to the ordinary mind takes away the 
 wonder of them. But are they really any less 
 wonderful than the miracles of Christ? Assume, 
 as we do from a Christian standpoint, that He was 
 a being of infinite love and infinite power, why 
 should we hesitate to believe that He did all that is 
 related of Him ? And why, again, should we doubt 
 that these achievements in surgery and medicine are 
 the fulfilment of the promise which He gave in His 
 last great discourse to His disciples ? 
 
 " He that believeth on me, the works that I do 
 shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall 
 he do/' ^ 
 
 It must be remembered that these works of Christ 
 were always done as works of benevolence and love. 
 He refused to give any other manifestation of His 
 power. He was frequently asked to give some sign 
 from heaven.* This He always declined to do. 
 Even on the Cross, the passersby cried : " He saved 
 others, himself he cannot save;" "If he be the 
 King of Israel, let him now come down from the 
 cross, and we will believe him." ^ 
 
 To this He remained silent. 
 
 When the disciples of John asked Jesus for some 
 statement of His mission, St. Luke says: "He 
 
 3 John 14 : 12. 4 Matt. 12 : 38 ; Luke 1 1 : 39. 
 
 5 Matt. 27148; Mark 15:31, 33. 
 
64 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 cured many of their infirmities and plagues and of 
 evil spirits/' ^ 
 
 Here, again, difficulties have been raised. The 
 casting out of evil spirits has seemed to many a 
 hard saying. But we must remember the rule of 
 construction, which He Himself gave, and which 
 has been dealt with in the first chapter, " The words 
 that I speak unto you are spirit and are life." ^ It 
 does not need much study of history or very ex- 
 tended observation of human nature to realize that 
 in the hearts of men, there are today, and have 
 been ever since Christ was on earth, spirits more 
 evil than those which He is described as casting out. 
 Anger, hatred, lust, covetousness, selfishness, these 
 very spirits have devastated some of the fairest por- 
 tions of the earth; have slain millions of human 
 beings, not sparing even women and children, and 
 sometimes subjecting them to outrage worse than 
 death. When we turn our eyes away from this 
 great international theatre, and look into individual 
 lives, we see the same evil spirits at work. Here 
 again the promise to the disciples, already quoted, 
 has been fulfilled. The number of human souls that 
 have been turned from their vicious courses, puri- 
 fied from evil passions, and led into the right path, 
 is innumerably greater than that of those whom 
 Christ directly reached. Men complain that the 
 teachings of Christ have not converted the world. 
 They sometimes call it a failure of Christianity 
 that this conversion of the world has not been ac- 
 complished. No doubt much of the delay is due to 
 
 «Luke 7:21. 7 John 6:63. 
 
MIRACLES 65 
 
 the faults of Christians themselves, to their failure 
 to observe the commands of the Master. But apart 
 from all this, the study of the natural world, as 
 well as of the spiritual world, teaches us that devel- 
 opment is usually a slow process. This is the divine 
 plan. We see it in the history of the material 
 universe. We ought not to expect that it should be 
 otherwise in the dealings of God with His human 
 creatures. 
 
 The reader will observe that we have not in this 
 chapter made any reference to the miracles related 
 in the Old Testament. It seems more important to 
 consider in detail those of the New. But we be- 
 lieve that the same principles, which have been laid 
 down with reference to the later revelation, are 
 equally applicable to the earlier. After all, the vital 
 point is to believe firmly in the power and love of 
 God, nozv, for each human soul. If we do that, we 
 need not perplex ourselves about any manifestations 
 related in the past. It is in the present that we 
 must live. For this life, we need the full assurance 
 of faith, the present help of the loving Father, and 
 of our elder Brother. And the soul that is still per- 
 plexed with doubts as to the details of other mani- 
 festations, centuries ago, may well turn aside from 
 those doubts, and rest in the consciousness of pres- 
 ent power and love. 
 
VI 
 
 FATALISM AND THE INDIVIDUAL 
 
 THE controversy between those who believe in 
 the doctrine of necessity, or, as the theolo- 
 gians have sometimes called it, predestina- 
 tion, and the advocates of free wull, 'is as old as 
 man. It really springs, as most controversies do, 
 from the failure of the champions of each side to 
 observe the certain amount of truth, ^which is on 
 the other side. The old fable of the shield, gold 
 on one face and silver on the other, is constantly 
 verified by experience of life. 
 
 We find the truth on this subject expressed in 
 the Scriptures. It is sometimes stated, as you read, 
 from one standpoint and sometimes from the other. 
 It is especially necessary in our thoughts upon 
 these controversies to remember the rule of construc- 
 tion, that the book must be taken as a whole, and 
 that it is not scientific or just to dwell upon isolated 
 passages to the exclusion of the rest. 
 
 The doctrine of the sovereignty of God is clearly 
 stated in the Scriptures. For example, the prophet 
 Isaiah speaks of man as the clay which the Lord 
 has fashioned. He cries : " Now, O Lord, thou 
 art our Father; we the clay and thou our potter, 
 
 66 
 
FATALISM AND THE INDIVIDUAL (,j 
 
 and we all are the work of thy hand." ^ On the 
 other hand, Ezekiel condemns the proverb to which 
 the Jews of his time gave credence. " The fathers 
 have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are 
 set on edge." He declares in elaborate and repeated 
 argument that it is the soul that sinneth, which 
 shall die, that if the son of the righteous man be- 
 comes a robber, oppresses the poor and needy, " he 
 shall surely die." His father's righteousness shall 
 not save him. On the other hand, if this robber has 
 a son that repudiates his father's sins, and, instead 
 of following in his course of greed, gives his bread 
 to the hungry, and covers the naked with a garment, 
 " he shall surely live." " The son shall not bear 
 the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father 
 bear the iniquity of the son." He points out also 
 that for the wicked there is redemption. " If the 
 wicked will turn from all the sins that he hath com- 
 mitted, and keep all my statutes, and do that which 
 is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall 
 not die." " All his transgressions that he has com- 
 mitted, they shall not be mentioned unto him." - 
 
 ilsa. 64:8; 45:9. 
 
 Carlyle puts this admirably (''Sartor Resartus," Bk II, Ch. 
 IX) : *' Our Life is compassed about with Necessity ; yet is 
 the meaning of Life itself no other than Freedom, than Vol- 
 untary Force : thus have we a warfare in the beginning, espe- 
 cially a hard-fought battle." In the same volume he reduces 
 to an absurdity the famous theorem of Jonathan Edwards 
 that the action of man is always governed by the strongest 
 motive, and that, therefore, there is no real freedom of 
 the will. ** To fancy himself a dead Iron-Balance for weigh- 
 ing Pains and Pleasures on, was reserved for this his latter 
 era. There stands he, his universe one huge manger filled 
 with hay and thistles to be weighed against each other; and 
 looks long-eared enough.'' 
 
 2 Ezek. 18. 
 
68 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Again, in the New Testament, Christ says to His 
 apostles, " Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen 
 you." ^ In the Epistle to the Romans St. Paul uses 
 the image of Isaiah and speaks of man as the clay, 
 and of God as the potter.* 
 
 But on the other hand, the gospel tells us that one 
 of these very chosen apostles betrayed his Lord, and 
 in the same Epistle St. Paul expressly declares in 
 graphic language that ** God will render to every 
 man according to his deeds ; to them who by patient 
 continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour 
 and immortality, eternal life; but unto them that 
 are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey 
 unrighteousness; indignation and Vvrath, tribulation 
 and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth 
 evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile. But 
 glory, honour, and peace to every man that worketh 
 good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. For 
 there is no respect of persons with God." ^ 
 
 Words could not express more clearly the 
 thought that man has the power to choose between 
 good and evil, and that if he choose the good, he 
 will be blessed in the end, whatever trials may for a 
 time assail him, and that if he choose evil, he will 
 in the end be punished, whatever temporary success 
 he may for a time achieve. Here we have another 
 notable illustration of what Carlyle calls — '* The 
 everlasting Yea, wherein all contradiction is 
 solved." 
 
 It is true that God is sovereign, but it is also 
 true that, when He made man, He gave to him the 
 
 «John 15:16. *Rom. 9:21. * Rom. 2:6-11. 
 
FATALISM AND THE INDIVIDUAL 69 
 
 power of choice, and deals with this wonderful 
 creature with absolute justice, tempered with mercy. 
 This God-given power of choice is assumed by 
 every man every day of his life, yet we find from 
 time to time a recurrence to the old Greek idea of 
 fate. This pervades the tragedies of ^schylus. It 
 w^as sometimes thought that even Gods were not 
 exempt from this controlling and mysterious power. 
 In our own day a thoughtful woman (Professor 
 Vida Scudder) has thus expressed the idea : 
 
 " As we scan the great crises of historic change, the 
 part of the free individual dwindles, and a Necessity, 
 usually economic in origin, stands forth as the pro- 
 tagonist to whose secret Will all must conform." 
 
 It seems to be one of the standard arguments of 
 advocates of modern Socialism to insist upon the 
 dominant influence of the spirit and tendencies of 
 each age, and to belittle the force of leadership. 
 This harmonizes well with their general scheme for 
 reconstructing societ}-. It is a comfortable doc- 
 trine, and if conscience would allow us to believe 
 it, there would be relief from the stress of benevo- 
 lent activity. We need only to drift with the 
 stream of our time and all will go well. But will 
 this theory stand the test of the observed facts of 
 history? 
 
 In all discussions it is of vital importance to avoid 
 a priori reasoning and to submit every theory, how- 
 ever plausible, to the test of facts. That great 
 scientist, Wolcott GIbbs, taught his classes that a 
 theory is only a convenient method of classifying 
 
70 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 facts. Certainly the facts must be carefully exam- 
 ined. We need a wide induction. But if, after full 
 and accurate investigation, the theory and the facts 
 do not coincide, we must revise the theory. That 
 was w^hat happened to the old Ptolemaic theory of 
 the movements of the heavenly bodies. To all out- 
 ward appearance the sun revolved around the earth. 
 For many centuries this proposition was firmly be- 
 lieved. But the observations of Copernicus and 
 Galileo brought facts to light entirely inconsistent 
 with this theory, and finally, with great reluctance, 
 it was abandoned. None of us believe in it now. 
 It behooves us, then, to test the comfortable theory 
 that has been referred to, by the facts of history. 
 
 At the outset, however, we freely admit that there 
 is such a thing as the Zeitgeist. Shakespeare ex- 
 presses it in the familiar quotation : 
 
 " There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
 Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." 
 
 But the point in which every one should be inter- 
 ested is whether the individual does not still con- 
 tinue to play an essential part in human affairs. 
 The instance that is put forward by the counsellor 
 whom we have quoted is our own Civil War. She 
 admits that Lincoln played an important part in the 
 conduct of our affairs. But it is said that if he 
 had died in infancy '' the course of events would 
 have been essentially the same." Can this proposi- 
 tion be substantiated? On the one side, it is ob- 
 viously fallacious to infer that one thing is neces- 
 sarily the cause of another because the latter sue- 
 
FATALISM AND THE INDIVIDUAL 71 
 
 ceeds the former. But is it not equally an assump- 
 tion to say dogmatically that such is not the case? 
 Clearly it is necessary to analyse the sequence of 
 events, and from this to judge of the connection. 
 Bearing this in mind, let us refer to one very im- 
 portant crisis in the Civil War, that which grew 
 out of Commodore Wilkes stopping the British 
 steamer Trent and taking from her the Confederate 
 envoys Mason and Slidell. The country gen- 
 erally thought Wilkes was right. When he came 
 into port, he was received with great enthusiasm. 
 The Northern newspapers, almost without excep- 
 tion, rang with applause. It was very difficult for a 
 President to overrule Wilkes in the face of this 
 popular sentiment. We know now from the re- 
 markable diary of Mr. Welles, as well as from many 
 other sources, that it required all Lincoln's force of 
 character and strength of will to overrule the Com- 
 modore, and restore the Confederate envoys. Yet, 
 if anything which has not actually happened can 
 possibly be clear, it is that if Lincoln had not re- 
 stored them, there would have been war between 
 Great Britain and the Northern States. The fleet of 
 England would have broken the blockade, and the 
 success of the North would have been impossible. 
 That certainly would have made a difference in the 
 history of the world, the extent of which we can- 
 not calculate, but the greatness of which none can 
 deny. 
 
 Look at the same crisis from the British stand- 
 point. Lord Palmerston was then the British 
 Premier. He resented hotly, as he always did, any 
 
J2 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 insult to the British flag. It was part of his theory 
 that the rights of an Englishman should be as 
 sacred everywhere in the world as those of a Roman 
 citizen used to be in the days of the Empire. The 
 dispatch which he prepared, demanding the return 
 of the Confederate envoys, was couched in such 
 language that it would have been difficult, if not 
 impossible, for any self-respecting nation to yield 
 to such a demand. That great man, Prince Albert, 
 w^as consulted by the Queen. They modified the 
 dispatch in such a sense as to make it easy for the 
 United States to yield. 
 
 Here, then, we have an instance where one may 
 assert with scientific accuracy that the continuance 
 of the American Union or its dissolution, with all 
 that that implied, depended upon the co-ordinate 
 action of two great and wise men. If their conduct 
 had been different, the result would have been 
 different. 
 
 But one illustration, however clear, is not suf- 
 ficient for scientific purposes. Let us, therefore, 
 refer to two other notable crises in American his- 
 tory, one before and one after the great Civil War. 
 
 After the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, a 
 cabal w^as formed to displace Washington and make 
 Gates Commander-in-Chief. This came very near 
 succeeding. We know now from the researches of 
 many historians, which Mr. Oliver has summarized 
 in his remarkable " Life of Hamilton,*' that it re- 
 quired all the force, courage, and tact of Washing- 
 ton to keep together the forces of the revolted 
 colonies. We know also that the British Minister 
 
FATALISM AND THE INDIVIDUAL 73 
 
 offered concessions in 1778 which the country 
 would have accepted in 1775. We also know now 
 very well what sort of man Gates was. Is it not 
 clear that if the cabal had succeeded and Wash- 
 ington had been displaced, Gates could never have 
 kept the colonies together, could never have ob- 
 tained the effective support of the French army and 
 navy, and that the Revolution would have been a 
 failure? The colonists were the same, but under 
 Washington they succeeded, under Gates they cer- 
 tainly would have failed. 
 
 Let us take another illustration, drawn from the 
 second administration of President Cleveland. 
 There w^as a time during this administration when 
 the confidence of financiers in the adherence of the 
 United States to the gold standard was impaired, if 
 not lost. The spirit of the American people, led 
 astray by the time-serving policy of almost all our 
 public men, rather inclined to the silver standard. 
 A remarkable cartoon of the period represents a 
 parting of the ways which led to the White House. 
 One finger-post marks gold standard, the other 
 silver. Harrison, McKinley, and Reed stand at the 
 parting of the ways, quite undecided which to take. 
 
 This condition of the public mind led our credi- 
 tors to demand gold, w^hen they could get it. 
 There was a rapid drain upon the Treasury, and in 
 two weeks the Treasury stock of gold would have 
 been entirely exhausted, the country would have 
 been put on a silver standard, and the value of all 
 indebtedness would thereby have been reduced just 
 one-half. The silver dollar at that time was worth 
 
74 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 fifty cents in gold and no more. From this shame- 
 ful national dishonour we were saved by the 
 courage and wisdom of one man, Grover Cleveland. 
 
 He got no help from Congress. His recommen- 
 dation of additional legislation which would have 
 enabled the government to sell its bonds on better 
 terms was rejected. The discredit of the govern- 
 ment was increased by the fact of a deficit. This 
 was due to the unexpected decision of the Supreme 
 Court that the income tax embodied in the Wilson 
 Bill was unconstitutional. That source of revenue 
 being cut off, there was inevitably a deficit. The 
 fact of the deficit and the refusal of Congress to 
 make it good naturally increased distrust in the 
 solvency of the Treasury. Yet the Republican ma- 
 jority refused to support the Treasury, even by put- 
 ting a tax of a dollar a barrel on beer. But Cleve- 
 land availed himself of an old statute, announced 
 his determination to maintain the credit of the 
 government, sold bonds for that purpose and suc- 
 ceeded. 
 
 Here, then, we have an undoubted instance of a 
 single man changing the destinies of a great nation, 
 in opposition to the majority in both houses in 
 Congress, and to the prevailing temper of his people. 
 We all thank him now. A Republican Secretary of 
 the Treasury (Shaw) has said that Mr. Cleveland 
 was specially raised up by God to do this particular 
 work. In the face of this, what becomes of the 
 theory that the individual dwindles and that there 
 is an overruling Necessity " to whose secret Will 
 all must conform? " 
 
FATALISM AND THE INDIVIDUAL 75 
 
 But it may justly be said that facts taken from 
 the history of one country are an insufficient basis 
 for general induction. Let us, then, recall two crises 
 in the history of Great Britain which have a world 
 importance. First, let us consider the dominance of 
 the Anglo-Saxon race in North America. It is 
 showing unparalleled assimilative power and extend- 
 ing its influence into every part of the world. That 
 dominance we owe to the success of Great Britain 
 in the Seven Years' War. Up to that time it seemed 
 to all outward appearance that the French were as 
 likely as the English to control the continent. At 
 the beginning of that war the English generally 
 were unsuccessful. This was due to the inefficiency 
 and corruption of the government. It was actually 
 thought necessary to summon Hanoverian and Hes- 
 sian regiments to the defence of the British Isles. 
 In the previous war (1745), but under the same 
 reign, the Pretender with his Scottish troops 
 marched as far as Derby, and probably would have 
 taken London had he pushed boldly on. Leading 
 men there packed their plate and made ready to 
 fly to the Continent. 
 
 As Pitt declared, " The maxims of our govern- 
 ment were degenerated, not our natives." Port 
 Mahon surrendered to the French. Byng refused 
 to join battle with their fleet. Chesterfield cried 
 in despair, " We are no longer a nation." 
 
 At this extremity of disgrace a man came to the 
 front. William Pitt became Secretary of State. 
 The electoral troops were sent back to Hanover. 
 The spirit of the Great Commoner was impressed 
 
76 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 upon every branch of the service. Wolfe con- 
 quered at Quebec. Hawke cried to his pilot, who 
 had represented the danger of the position, " Lay 
 me alongside the French Admiral." At every point 
 British arms were successful. By the treaty of 1763 
 the French ceded Canada. This has now become 
 a great Dominion, and is rapidly developing into 
 one of the important factors in our complex modern 
 civilization. 
 
 And must it not also be said that the acquisition 
 of Canada and the consequent security of the colo- 
 nies on their northern frontier were among the 
 most powerful factors in the development of the 
 spirit which produced the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence ? 
 
 Let us conclude with another group of facts 
 from English history. " Peace hath her victories 
 no less renowned than war." 
 
 The condition of morals, both public and private, 
 in Great Britain during the latter part of the 
 seventeenth and the first part of the eighteenth 
 century was shocking. Of the first White says : * 
 
 " William was probably the only honest man in the 
 English Court — the only man who felt bound not to 
 do a thing because he had sworn to abstain. The 
 others were brought up in a school of profligacy and 
 duplicity which only a despotic Court pretending to 
 liberality can supply." 
 
 And as to the latter century, all contemporary 
 accounts agree that the general tone of manner* 
 
 ^J. White, "History of England," quoted in "Historians* 
 History of the World," Vol. XX, p. 449. 
 
FATALISM AND THE INDIVIDUAL ^j 
 
 and morals was corrupt, profligate, dissolute. Swift 
 in his " Voyage to Laputa '^ describes a college of 
 madmen. One distinctive trait was the fancy that 
 public offices could ever be bestowed for merit. 
 
 Into this pandemonium came John Wesley. He 
 was mobbed, but persisted with undaunted courage. 
 As he " reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and 
 judgment to come," every Felix trembled. There 
 began a great religious reformation, the influence 
 of which extended far and v/ide. With our present 
 standard of righteous conduct in public and private 
 life, it is difficult to conceive how low the standard 
 was two hundred years ago. John Wesley raised 
 it and carried it aloft from land to land. Certainly 
 the spirit of God moved upon the face of the chaos 
 and brought light and life to the dark disorder. 
 But the influence of the individual was the most 
 potent means to achieve the great result. 
 
 This brief analysis of historic facts might be 
 greatly extended. We might have compared the 
 process of reconstruction under Andrew Johnson 
 with what might reasonably have been expected 
 had Abraham Lincoln lived. But enough has been 
 said to justify the conclusion that in all our schemes 
 for social reform we should aim first at the educa- 
 tion and development of the individual. 
 
 There are some who think that it elevates the 
 race to underrate the influence of individuals. It 
 has been said that the greatest man is but little in 
 advance of his time, and is to the advancing flood 
 what the crest of the wave is to the billow below. 
 The proposition is pleasing to small minds. Since 
 
^8 A LAWYER'S. STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 they cannot rise themselves, it flatters their vanity 
 to diminish the interval which separates them from 
 the leaders of mankind. But the plainest teachings 
 of history and the most ordinary facts of everyday 
 life must be disregarded in order to maintain this 
 ingenious hypothesis. 
 
 The traveller who stands in the Union Station at 
 Chicago beholds numerous tracks side by side, all 
 apparently leading in the same direction. A man 
 at one end of the station moves an iron rod, and 
 one train, obedient to the steel ribbons on which it 
 rolls, passes away to the East. He moves another, 
 and the next train departs for the West ; and so 
 they go, parallel at first, but diverging as far as the 
 waters of the Atlantic are from the Golden Gate of 
 the Pacific. Such is the influence of individuals 
 upon nations. The bigotry and cruelty of Philip 
 brought the proud Castilian monarchy of Ferdinand 
 and Isabella to the dust. The weakness and selfish- 
 ness of Charles humiliated and degraded the great 
 nation which with Cromwell at its head received the 
 respect and deference of all Europe. The same 
 army which was discomfited and driven back at 
 Chancellorsville, carried the banners of the Republic 
 in triumph upon the bloody field of Gettysburg. 
 
 Foch, who is perhaps the greatest General of our 
 time, quotes Napoleon to the same effect : '^ 
 
 " It was not the Roman legions which conquered 
 Gaul, wrote the Emperor, but Csesar. It was not the 
 
 ^A notable instance of the great change in history pro- 
 duced by the death of a Icadt-r is the story of Gustavus 
 Adolphus, killed at Liitzen, 1632, "Cambridge Modern His- 
 tory," Vol. IV, pp. 221, 222, 568, 68j, 696. 
 
FATALISiM Ai\D THE INDIVIDUAL 79 
 
 Carthaginian soldiers who made Rome tremble, but 
 Hannibal. It was not the Macedonian phalanx which 
 penetrated India, but Alexander. It was not the 
 French army which reached the Weser and the Inn, 
 but Turenne." 
 
 What thus we have said in plain prose was ex- 
 pressed in immortal verse by two prophets of the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 Lowell was a student of history. This was his 
 conclusion upon the facts of history: 
 
 " Manhood is the one immortal thing 
 Beneath Time's changeful sky." 
 
 And Tennyson spoke wath equal truth: 
 
 " Tho' the Giant Ages heave the hill 
 And break the shore, and evermore 
 Make and break, and work their will; 
 Tho' world on world in myriad myriads roll 
 Round us, each with different powers, 
 And other forms of life than ours, 
 What know we greater than the soul? 
 On God, and Godlike men, we build our trust." 
 
VII 
 
 SOCIALISM 
 
 THE Fatherhood of God and the Brother- 
 hood of Man are fundamental truths of 
 Christianity. *' All ye are brethren/' said 
 Christ. " One is your Father which is in heaven." ^ 
 He expanded the thought which Moses expressed 
 during the Hebrew servitude in Egypt. '' Sirs, ye 
 are brethren.'' - These words were limited then to 
 the men of one race. But Christ bade His disciples 
 to go " into all the world, and preach the gospel 
 (the glad tidings) to every creature " — " to observe 
 all things, whatsoever I have commanded you." ® 
 And St. Paul declared to the Athenians, when he 
 stood on the Areopagus — God, *' hath made of one 
 blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the 
 face of the earth." " In Him we live and move 
 and have our being." * And in all the Epistles, 
 the fellow-disciples are addressed as brethren. This 
 was, indeed, " glad tidings of great joy, which shall 
 be to all people," as the angels announced at the 
 birth of the Saviour.^ 
 
 When Christianity was no longer persecuted, and 
 became the official religion of the Roman Empire 
 
 1 Matt. 23 : 8, 9. ■* Acts 17 : 26, 28, 29. 
 
 ^ Acts 23: 26, *Luke2:ii, 
 
 a Mark 16:15; ^latt. 28 : 20. 
 80 
 
SOCIALISM 8i 
 
 under the Emperor Constantine, the rich and the 
 powerful, not many of whom were members of the 
 primitive church,^ became adherents of organized 
 Christianity, the spirit of formaHsm became more 
 influencive, and the Fatherhood of God and the 
 Brotherhood of Man were both forgotten by many 
 nominal Christians. To true believers, however, 
 they continued precious; and in every century en- 
 deavours were made by groups of Christians to 
 improve social conditions, by the application to daily 
 conduct of fraternal principles. 
 
 In the last two centuries, the protest against social 
 wrong and injustice, which are unchristian, has 
 united many sincere persons into groups, and finally 
 into organized parties, called Socialists. 
 
 Individual leaders, like St. Simon and Fourier, 
 did not look for relief to a re-organization of the 
 State. But as organized parties, socialists now 
 assume an attitude of antagonism to the present 
 systems of government, and to the present organiza- 
 tion of society, even in free America. For example, 
 the platform of the American Socialist party in 
 1912 denounces what it calls, " the capitalist sys- 
 tem " which is the existing system in free America, 
 " as incompetent and corrupt, and the source of 
 unspeakable misery and suffering to the whole work- 
 ing class. . . . The overwhelming majority of the 
 people of America, are being forced under a yoke 
 of bondage by this soulless industrial despotism." 
 It continues: 
 
 "We demand the collective ownership of land 
 
 « I Cor. 1 : 26. 
 
82 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 and also of the banking and currency system." It 
 declares in another paragraph, that, 
 
 " Such measures of relief as we may be able to 
 force from Capitalism are but a preparation of the 
 workers to seize the whole powers of government 
 in order that they may lay hold of the whole system 
 of socialized industry." 
 
 A practical illustration on a great scale of Social- 
 istic Democracy has just been seen in Russia. No 
 doubt the old Russian autocracy was cruel and 
 corrupt. " Oppression," we are told, " maketh a 
 wise man mad," and it is no wonder that millions, 
 who were not wise, and had been kept in ignorance 
 by their rulers, went mad. We pity them, but pity 
 must not blind our eyes to the character and conduct 
 of the revolutionists. 
 
 The fundamental principle and motive power of 
 the Russian Revolution is the same spirit of hate 
 which American Socialists expressed in their plat- 
 form. Whatever is, is wrong. Capitalism is our 
 enemy. We hate that and will confiscate it. The 
 bourgeoisie is our enemy. We must rob them and 
 make them slaves to us. Discipline is hateful. We 
 abolish it. The officers in the Army are oppressors, 
 because they enforced discipline. We degrade them, 
 and kill them. The death penalty is abolished, when 
 it applies to us, but we may murder with impunity 
 our enemies. Courts of justice have enforced the 
 law. We did not make that law. Whether bad or 
 good, we repudiate it, and abolish the Courts which 
 administered it. A graphic picture of the chaos 
 is given by an English observer. A group of work- 
 
SOCIALISM 83 
 
 men go into the office of their factory. " Get out 
 of this " — they say to the manager and clerks — 
 " We will work for you no longer, you must work 
 for us." " And what will you do ? " answered the 
 manager. " Sit on these chairs, smoke cigarettes, 
 and sharpen pencils, just as you do," was the 
 reply. The men who did work demanded double 
 pay and a six hour day. So production in factories 
 stopped. 
 
 The railways fared little better than the factories. 
 Why should Comrade (Tovarish) Ivanovitch run 
 an engine, or stoke it? Why should Comrade 
 Basilovitch watch the signals and turn the switches ? 
 Why should Comrade Smolensky, who collects 
 money for tickets, turn it over to the cashier? So 
 transportation stopped. 
 
 When the workmen in cities had consumed all 
 the food they had and all they could steal from the 
 bourgeoisie, they sallied forth into the country. 
 " Comrade," they said to the peasant, " we are all 
 brothers now — give us some of your wheat or rye, 
 or potatoes — whatever you have got." 
 
 " Comrades," the peasant replied, " I had to work 
 for this — give me in return clothing that you have 
 made, or sugar; some goods that you have worked 
 for." The factory comrades had in part quit 
 work, but they had some goods for barter. Where 
 they could not barter, they fought for food with 
 the peasants, like apes in a cage. 
 
 The peasants, not to be outdone, robbed the 
 chateaux of the landowners, often burned them, and 
 turned the women and children out to starve. Thus 
 
84 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Russia, wherever the Bolshevists controlled, became 
 a chaos, which they called Democracy, but which 
 was really a despotism more cruel than that of the 
 Czar. 
 
 Naturally they became an easy prey to the 
 German armies. In Discord is Weakness. Their 
 weak and greedy rulers made the shameful treaty of 
 Brest-Litovsk, whereby they bartered for a mess 
 of pottage — immunity for their wretched selves — 
 provinces which were not theirs, and promised in- 
 demnity in billions of roubles, which were not theirs 
 to give. 
 
 As the natural consequence of this chaos — an- 
 other word for lawlessness — Russia is desolated by 
 famine and pestilence. This frightful debacle is the 
 direct result of the doctrines which were taught 
 by Lenine and Trotzky and the other Russian Social- 
 ists. For example, when Comrade Trotzky was 
 living in New York — not earning an honest living, 
 like a man — a mere " fighting agitator," he made 
 a speech in Beethoven Hall, March 25, 19 17. Henry 
 Moskowitz thus reports him : ^ 
 
 " Trotzky depicted the world war as the clash 
 
 ■^ Henry Moskowitz in the Outlook, reprinted in New York 
 Times, Feb. 10, 1918, p. 12. See also George Kennan's 
 article: "Russia in Upheaval" Outlook. Oct. 2, 1918, p. 166. _ 
 
 This melancholy condition, Carlyle describes with prophetic 
 instinct in his '"Sartor Resartus," Bk. Ill, Ch. Ill: 
 
 " Men were no longer social, but gregarious ; which latter 
 state also could not continue, but must gradually issue in 
 universal selfish discord, hatred, savage isolation, and dis- 
 persion." 
 
 The Bolshevist Constitution (New York Times, Sept. 6, 
 1918), declares "it is necessary to destroy the existing 
 social structure." 
 
SOCIALISM 85 
 
 of capitalistic states in their race for world empire. 
 . . . He contrasted the conflict of interests of the 
 capitalistic states, with the common interests of the 
 workers of the world, and pointed out that there 
 was only one war in which the workers of all lands 
 were concerned — the class struggle; and only one 
 enemy — capitalism." 
 
 This message of hate and war was preached 
 secretly in Russia. Whatever measure of freedom 
 had been granted by the Czar was discredited. The 
 Duma was not a British Parliament nor an Ameri- 
 can Congress. But it was an advance. Trotzky 
 and his associates called it a " bourgeois " institu- 
 tion. For them that was the worst of epithets. 
 
 Thus have they proved themselves the " ablest 
 architects of ruin the world ever saw." The Rus- 
 sian peasant (moujik) had reverence for the Czar. 
 He was dethroned, and the Bolshevists murdered 
 him. The peasants had reverence for the Church. 
 That form of organized Christianity had preserved 
 imperfectly the spirit of Christ. Still it did stand 
 for order, duty, honesty, respect for the rights of 
 others. Therefore the Bolshevists hated it. They 
 looted the churches, and persecuted the priests. 
 
 This is Russian Socialism. American Democracy 
 rests on the proposition that all men should have 
 equal civil rights, which should be guaranteed by 
 written Constitutions and enforced by impartial 
 courts, behind which stands all the power of gov- 
 ernment. It does not assume that all men have equal 
 powers, or that they should live on a dead level. It 
 recognizes that their powers and qualifications are 
 
86 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 different. American Democratic government en- 
 deavours to give to each an opportunity to make 
 the most of his particular quaHfications. It recog- 
 nizes all labour as honourable. It requires of every 
 individual that he shall use his talents and 
 avail of his opportunities to the utmost so as to 
 produce the greatest good for the whole. An es- 
 sential part of American Democracy is security to 
 individual rights, which are protected by impartial 
 courts of justice. These rights are defined in 
 written Constitutions. The powers of government 
 are limited by these. In short the majority rules, 
 but it is a limited, not a despotic rule. 
 
 Socialism, as we see it defined in the socialist 
 platform demands " the abolition of the power 
 usurped by the Supreme Court of the United States 
 to pass upon the constitutionality of the legislation 
 enacted by Congress." It demands the " abolition 
 of all Federal District Courts and the United States 
 Circuit Courts of Appeal," "the election of all 
 judges for short terms " ; and " the immediate curb- 
 ing of the power of the courts to issue injunc- 
 tions." « 
 
 Thus it would return to mediaeval despotism, and 
 deprive the judges of power and independence. 
 Their terms would be really at the pleasure of the 
 electors — not during good behaviour. The Act of 
 Congress, not the Constitution, would be the su- 
 preme law of the land. Nothing would prevent 
 Congress from passing bills of attainder — as the 
 British Parliament did before the Bill of Rights — 
 
 8 World Almanac, 191 3, p. 699. 
 
SOCIALISM 87 
 
 which condemned unpopular persons to death with- 
 out a trial. 
 
 This exaltation of a temporary majority, and giv- 
 ing it unbridled power, is opposed diametrically to 
 Christian Ethics as taught in the New Testament. 
 St. Paul and St. Peter concur in teaching obedience 
 to law, submission to the authority of judges (the 
 Roman procurators) rendering to all men their due. 
 St. Peter sums it up in one sentence — " Honour 
 all men, love the brotherhood, fear (reverence) 
 God, honour the King." ^ 
 
 St. Paul constantly speaks of Christian society 
 as a body composed of many members, performing 
 different functions, all combined in mutual help- 
 fulness. " The e}e cannot say to the hand, I have 
 no need of thee ; nor again, the head to the feet, I 
 have no need of you. Nay, much more, those mem- 
 bers of the body which seem to be more feeble, are 
 necessary, — God hath tempered the body together, 
 having given more abundant honour to that part 
 which lacked; that there should be no schism in the 
 body; but that the members should nave the same 
 care one for another. And whether one member 
 suffer, all the members suffer with it ; or one mem- 
 ber be honoured, all the members rejoice with it." ^^ 
 Then he points out the different parts that individ- 
 uals play in the social union, which is to him a 
 divine union. "Ye are the body of Christ, and 
 severally members thereof." ^^ 
 
 »i Pet. 2:13-15: Rom. 13:1-8. 
 10 I Cor. 12:14-26; Titus 3:1. 
 "I Cor. 12:27-30 R. V. 
 
88 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 This body, however diverse its members and their 
 condition, is pervaded by the divine spirit of Christ. 
 " In one spirit were we all baptized into one body, 
 whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free; 
 and were all made to drink of one Spirit." ^^ 
 
 In the Epistle to the Ephesians, he expresses the 
 same thought in even more exalted strains. These 
 are well rendered in the Twentieth Century Testa- 
 ment : ^^ 
 
 " Every one of us however has been entrusted with 
 some charge, each in accordance with the extent of 
 the gift of the Christ. . . . This shall continue until 
 we all attain to that unity which is given by faith 
 and by a fuller knowledge of the Son of God; until 
 we reach the ideal man, the full standard of the per- 
 fection of the Christ. Then we shall be no longer 
 like infants, tossed backward and forward, blown 
 about by every breath of human teaching, through the 
 trickery, and the craftiness of men, towards the 
 snares of error; but holding the truth in the spirit of 
 love, we shall grow into complete union with Him 
 who is our Head — Christ Himself. For from Him the 
 whole body, closely joined and knit together by the 
 contact of every part with the source of its life, de- 
 rives its power to grow, in proportion to the vigour 
 of each individual part, and so is being built up in a 
 spirit of love." 
 
 The whole pitiful condition of Russia is the 
 result of a disregard of these fundamental Christian 
 ideals. Their teachers have forsaken the fountain 
 of living waters, and have hewn out for themselvei* 
 broken cisterns that can hold no water. 
 
 12 I Cor. 12 : 13, R. V. " Eph. 4 : 7-16. 
 
SOCIALISM 89 
 
 When attention is called to these Christian teach- 
 ings, socialists sometimes bring forward the account 
 of the first Christians at Jerusalem, of whom it is 
 recorded : ^* " The multitude of them that believed 
 w^ere of one heart and one soul, neither said any 
 of them that aught of the things that he possessed 
 was his own, but they had all things in 
 common." 
 
 The spirit of these enthusiastic converts is the 
 true Christian spirit. Every man who has lands or 
 goods, should feel that they are the gifts of God, 
 to be held by him in trust, and used for the good of 
 his fellow-men. But we are nowhere told that the 
 particular community method adopted by these early 
 Jerusalem Christians was the wisest. A few years 
 afterwards, we find that the Jerusalem Christians 
 w^ere poor and St. Paul took up collections for them 
 in Galatia, in Macedonia and in Corinth.^'^ 
 
 The community method, in every age, has ap- 
 pealed to some zealous souls, and certainly they are 
 to be honoured. But to make their method a rule 
 of obligation, binding on all men, is opposed to the 
 teaching of the New Testament. To do honest 
 work according to the ability that God gives to each, 
 to respect the rights of others, to honour all men, 
 each in his place and according to the use he makes 
 of his talents, this is Christianity. These are the 
 principles of the American Constitution, and to the 
 observance of them, with the blessing of God upon 
 those who do keep His commandments, and do those 
 
 1* Acts 4:32; 2: 44. 45. 
 
 15 1 Cor. 16:1-4; Rom. 15:25-26; Acts 24:17. 
 
90 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 things that are pleasing in His sight, our unex- 
 ampled prosperity is due. 
 
 The fundamental proposition upon which social- 
 ists base their argument for socialism is this : " The 
 vast, overwhelming majority of the people of this 
 country are poor and steadily growing poorer." 
 This is one of the plausible statements that will not 
 stand the test of examination. It is true that there 
 are more poor, but the proportion is less. 
 
 Let us examine the facts as given in the last 
 census. First let us consider the farmers. The 
 value of farm property in the United States doubled 
 between 1899 ^"^ 1909. The value of the farm 
 crops produced on these farms increased 83 per 
 cent. The amount of the increase was two billion, 
 four hundred and eighty-eight million dollars. This 
 certainly does not look like increasing poverty. 
 Then examine the figures for those engaged in 
 manufacturing. The percentage of increase in popu- 
 lation from 1900 to 1910 was 21 per cent. The 
 percentage of increase of wage earners engaged in 
 manufacturing was the same; but the average wage 
 to each wage earner increased 31 per cent. This 
 certainly does not look like increasing poverty. No 
 doubt, the cost of living also increased. But the 
 average increase of wages kept pace with that, be- 
 fore the war. The conditions produced by the 
 world war are anomalous and transitory. Under 
 these, some wages have trebled, the income of others 
 has not increased. That inequality we must en- 
 deavour gradually to rectify. 
 
 The operation of the Income Tax is often re- 
 
SOCIALISM 91 
 
 ferred to in this connection, and stress is laid on 
 the comparatively small number who pay an in- 
 come tax direct to the government. This argument 
 overlooks the obvious fact that the smaller incomes 
 are not taxable and yet enable their owners to live 
 in comfort. But for other reasons the figures as to 
 the number of persons in the United States who 
 pay an income tax are misleading. The taxable 
 income is different from the actual income. A man 
 may have $100,000 invested in municipal bonds. 
 He pays no tax on his income from these bonds. A 
 man may have the same amount invested in stocks 
 of corporations, which themselves pay a tax on their 
 income. These receipts of the stockholder are not 
 taxed in his hands. So it may well happen that a 
 man might have an income of $6,000 a year and 
 not pay a penny of incom.e tax directly to the 
 United States government. 
 
 Again take the case of the farmer or any other 
 producer who lives in his own house. The use of 
 this house and of the land connected with it is a 
 valuable thing and enhances the comfort of the man 
 that lives in it, but on this also no income tax is 
 paid. The income tax is predicated solely on cash 
 receipts. Not only is no account taken of the use 
 of the property on which a man lives or w^hich he 
 cultivates, but no account of the benefits which 
 wage earners receive independent of their wages. 
 For example, a domestic servant living in her em- 
 ployer's house often receives $40 a month or more; 
 sometimes much more. This is about $10 a week 
 and in the averaging of incomes she is credited only 
 
92 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 with that. But she has her home, her food, her 
 light, her rooms and heating without expense to 
 her. She really receives for her services the value 
 of $75 to $80 a month. Again, take another in- 
 stance of which many will have personal knowledge. 
 A widow is left with sons and daughters over the 
 age of fourteen. They go to work. The young 
 people probably for the first year or two will not 
 receive more than ten dollars a week each. But the 
 average income of the whole family is $40 or $50 a 
 week. On this they live comfortably. The author's 
 own observation is that in such cases the children 
 grow up more intelligent, more independent, more 
 helpful to their mother, are more industrious and 
 become better citizens than if the mother had been 
 pensioned by the State. 
 
 The American idea from the first was to give an 
 opportunity to every citizen to improve his condi- 
 tion. By the practice of this principle we have pros- 
 pered. The best evidence of this is shown by the 
 immigration to this country. If the people who 
 come here in such crowds from other countries 
 did not like our conditions, they would not come, 
 or, if misled into coming, they would return. Mary 
 Antin in her wonderful book, "The Promised 
 Land," and Mr. Rihbany in his " Memoirs," show 
 clearly the satisfaction with which immigrants ac- 
 cept and benefit by American conditions. Mr. Rih- 
 bany for example tells us : ^* 
 
 " I was told while in Syria that in America money 
 oculd be picked up everywhere. That was not true. 
 ^8 Rihbany, " A Far Journey," p. 2'j'j. 
 
SOCIALISM 93 
 
 But I found that infinitely better things than money — 
 knowledge, freedom, self-reliance, order, cleanliness, 
 sovereign human rights, self-government, and all that 
 these great accomplishments imply, — can be picked up 
 everywhere in America by whosoever earnestly seeks 
 them." 
 
 But we do not need to go either to statistics of 
 the census, or to the report of these intelligent 
 foreigners to be sure that the statement is untrue 
 upon which socialistic propaganda is based. The 
 author has given close personal attention to the 
 condition of the plain people in New York City and 
 on the farms of Vermont and New York. He 
 knows from experience and observation that the 
 people of New York are much better clothed and 
 fed and housed than they were sixty years ago; 
 the streets are cleaner, better lighted ; the water sup- 
 ply is more ample, the means of transportation from 
 one part of the city to another are more adequate ; 
 libraries, parks, and playgrounds have greatly multi- 
 plied; the whole condition of city life is more 
 healthful than it was sixt}^ years ago. The schools 
 are more numerous even in proportion to the great 
 advance in population, and are better equipped and 
 better taught. The churches and synagogues are 
 more active and reach larger portions of the com- 
 munity. Activity in philanthropic work is far 
 greater and more general. In short, we have made 
 enormous progress during this period, so that the 
 majority of Americans can and do live decent, nor- 
 mal, useful, and happy lives. 
 
 About the time of the Civil War the attention of 
 
94 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Christian and benevolent people was awakened to 
 the crowding of families in the cities of that day. 
 These cities would not now be called great, but 
 there was worse congestion than at present. Com- 
 mittees were appointed in New York and other 
 'cities to investigate the subject. Public interest 
 was aroused. Alfred White, in Brooklyn and many 
 others showed what could be done in the way of 
 improving tenements in cities. These have in- 
 creased in convenience. Tenement House Commis- 
 sioners have been authorized to supervise them. 
 Great companies have been formed to construct 
 model buildings. It is not too much to say that 
 there were no buildings in America seventy-five 
 years ago that had the comfort and convenience of 
 the improved tenements that are now inhabited in 
 the city of New York. In Philadelphia and in 
 Baltimore the tendency has been to put up small 
 houses covering a larger area. Different cities have 
 different conditions, and naturally deal with the sub- 
 ject in different ways. But in every part of the 
 United States improvement in the houses of the 
 plain people is progressive. Except in a few iso- 
 lated districts no decent American family now lives 
 in such a house as that in which Abraham Lincoln 
 was born. 
 
 Thus have we happily combined individual initia- 
 tive with legal regulation. But the socialist plan 
 put into plain English is this. At every election 
 the majority of the voters will choose officers who 
 will have authority to compel every individual to do 
 the work which the elected taskmaster thinks he 
 
SOCIALISM 95 
 
 ought to do, and will be compelled to receive such 
 compensation as the taskmasters choose to allot. 
 Collective ownership of the whole system of social- 
 ized industry certainly cannot mean that every per- 
 son can use everything. What each person is to use, 
 and what each person is to do, in order to produce 
 what is used, must either be determined by that in- 
 dividual under our present system, or it must be 
 determined by elective taskmasters under the social- 
 ized system. And that is slavery pure and simple. 
 There was a time in this country when many good 
 people thought that was a good system. Chancellor 
 Harper of South Carolina, nearly eighty years ago 
 made the following description of slavery: ^' 
 
 " If some superior being would impose on the 
 labouring poor of any country this as his unalterable 
 condition: you shall be free from the torturing 
 anxiety concerning your own future support and that 
 of your children, which now pursues you through life 
 and haunts you in death ; you shall be under the neces- 
 sity of regular and healthful, though not excessive 
 labour, and in return you shall have the ample supply 
 of your natural wants ; you may follow the instincts 
 of nature in becoming parents without apprehending 
 that this supply would fail yourself or your children ; 
 you shall be supported and relieved in sickness, and 
 in old age wear out the remains of existence among 
 familiar scenes and faces without being driven to beg, 
 or to resort to the hard and miserable charity of the 
 workhouse ; you shall of necessity be tempted, but 
 shall have neither the temptations nor the opportuni- 
 ties to commit great crime or practice the more 
 destructive vices, how inappreciable would the boon 
 be thought." 
 
 IT "Lives of Great Lawyers," Vol. Ill, p. 2^2, 
 
96 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 This system was tried on a great scale in the slave 
 States. Its results were so bad that the majority of 
 the American people spent billions of money and 
 sacrificed thousands of lives to subvert it. That 
 is really the system which socialists want to re- 
 establish in this country. They call it brotherhood. 
 But in the words of Walter Scott : 
 
 " It is by giving fair names to foul actions that those 
 who would start at real vice are led to practise its 
 lessons under the disguise of virtue." 
 
 We appreciate the motives which lead some 
 warm-hearted and well-meaning men to seek in 
 socialism a remedy for sin and suffering. But there 
 is but one panacea, and that is '' the everlasting 
 gospel "of Christ. The Episcopal Church teaches 
 every child — " My duty to my neighbour is to love 
 him as myself and to do unto all men as I would 
 they should do unto me." All Christian churches in 
 substance teach the same. It is because some men 
 have forgotten this duty, and few have fully per- 
 formed it, that there still remain so much sin and 
 suffering. But the duty is individual. Love is not 
 to be attained by collective ownership. And the 
 Episcopal Church does not stop with these general 
 principles. In her great Manual, which is taught 
 to every child and which grown men must not for- 
 get, it is plainly declared to be part of each man's 
 duty ** not to covet or desire other men's goods, but 
 to learn and labour truly to get mine own living, 
 and to do my duty in that state of life to which 
 it shall please God to call me." This is not neces- 
 
SOCIALISM 97 
 
 sarily the state of one's parent, but the state for 
 which each man is fitted according to the gifts which 
 God has given him. 
 
 The crime of sociahsm is that it teaches its fol- 
 lowers to covet the goods of other men, and to seek 
 their living — not by honest labour, but by robbing 
 their fellows. Thus they break two commandments. 
 Extremists go farther and teach not only commun- 
 ity of goods, but of wives.^^ They argue that to 
 kill the man who has property is the best way to get 
 the spoils. That is the Bolshevist method. Let 
 good Christians turn to the better life of love and 
 obedience that Christ and the Christian Church 
 alike make plain. 
 
 In what has been said, we have considered social- 
 ism on the basis of the platform of the party in the 
 United States. We are well aware that socialism 
 is not a term susceptible of accurate definition. 
 Some good men lil:e Kingsley and Maurice in Eng- 
 land have been called Christian Socialists. There 
 have been such in America. They have taught the 
 brotherhood of man and condemned all violations 
 of duty which tend to break up this brotherhood 
 and produce hatred in its stead. They deserve and 
 receive honour and gratitude as the Kingsley cen- 
 tenary attests. 
 
 It was part of their duty to teach the Gospel of 
 
 18 In the testimony of R. E, Simmons before the Judiciary- 
 Committee, U. S. Senate, printed in New York Times, 
 Feb. i8, 1919, he gives copies of these Bolshevist decrees, 
 establishing community of sexual intercourse, in effect abol- 
 ishing marriage, and providing for bringing up children by 
 the State. 
 
98 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 love and to point out and condemn hatred, greed, 
 selfishness, envy. But that is the reverse of an 
 indiscriminate attack upon existing conditions. 
 " He that justifieth the wicked and he that con- 
 demneth the just, even they both are abomination 
 to the Lord." '' 
 
 What our fathers strove to accomplish, and what 
 they did accomplish, was to send down upon the 
 dry and parched field a refreshing shower that 
 would quicken every drooping plant. What the 
 revolutionists are striving to produce is a flood, like 
 that in Ohio in 19 13, which sweeps away the results 
 of toil and experience, and makes a desert where 
 once there was fertility. This they have done in 
 Russia and are doing in Hungary. 
 
 Again it is frequently asserted and often believed 
 that the advantages of machinery have gone to capi- 
 tal and not to labour and that the workmen do not 
 get a fair share of the products of industry. 
 " Envy," says Longfellow, " is the vice of Repub- 
 lics." The fallacy of the assertion referred to con- 
 sists in overlooking the fact that the great fortunes 
 are exceptional. The aggregate share of the prod- 
 ucts of industry received by the workmen is far 
 greater than the dividends of the captains of in- 
 dustry. The general gets higher pay than the pri- 
 vate soldier, but the total pay of the soldiers is far 
 more than that of the generals. When, for example, 
 Mr. Armour died there was a great outcry because 
 he had left a large fortune. This cry subsided when 
 it was pointed out that if this fortune had been 
 
 i»Prov. 17:15. 
 
SOCIALISM 99 
 
 divided among the people of the United States it 
 would give to each about fifty cents. 
 
 There are a few great captains of industry. God 
 has given to them the talent to devise great com- 
 binations or useful inventions, it may be to build a 
 railroad ; it may be to erect a vast factory ; it may be 
 to supply a great city with water. Such a man 
 was James J. Hill, who has recently died. The 
 financial rewards to such a man are large. But 
 these rewards do not compare, in the aggregate, 
 with what those receive who benefit by the results 
 of their talent and their capital. 
 
 The author, when a boy, worked sometimes on his 
 grandfather's farm in Vermont. At that time the 
 mowing machine, the reaper, and harvester had not 
 been invented. This machinery has done more for 
 the advantage of the man who mows or reaps than 
 it has for the inventors of those useful machines 
 or for the men who furnished the capital which 
 enabled them to be put on the market and sold. 
 There is, for example, no comparison between the 
 labour involved in driving a span of horses hitched 
 to a mowing machine or a reaper and that involved 
 in mowing with a scythe or reaping with a cradle. 
 The same is true of the machinery and the processes 
 used in the refining of crude petroleum. Vast as 
 are the fortunes that have been made by the men 
 who invested their capital in the experiments which 
 resulted in the refining of this petroleum and the 
 creation of its manifold products, they do not com- 
 pare with the advantages which have accrued to the 
 working people all over the world who use these 
 
loo A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 products. There is perhaps no country in which 
 kerosene oil is not used for Hght and heat. A cen- 
 tury ago the tallow on farms was melted in kettles 
 and used in making tallow dips. The best oil avail- 
 able was whale oil, which furnished inferior light, 
 at a much greater cost than that at which light is 
 now supplied from our common kerosene. And so 
 we might go through the whole list of the great 
 inventions which have come into common use in 
 the past sixty years. 
 
 Let us mention one more. Can there be a doubt 
 that the benefits to the working man from the 
 manifold electrical inventions have been far greater 
 than those which have accrued to either Bell or 
 Edison ? Labour managed to get along for centuries 
 though under great difficulties, without any of these 
 inventions. They have been brought into common 
 use by the united skill of the inventor and the 
 capitalist, and have benefited the labouring man be- 
 yond expression. Labour of itself is just as limited 
 in power without the directing skill of the intelligent 
 owner of capital, as the hand is without direction of 
 the brain. 
 
 The fundamental principle of American Democ- 
 racy is that the man or woman who is thrifty, in- 
 dustrious, and honest shall have an opportunity to 
 better his condition, save something from the result 
 of his toil, and thus climb to a higher level. Society 
 does not owe any man a living. It owes him the 
 opportunity to earn his own living. All wealth is 
 the result of co-operation and whatever tends to 
 produce enmity between the creative mind that plans 
 
SOCIALISM loi 
 
 the work and the industrious hand that does it, 
 cripples both the head and the hand. The American 
 conception of democracy is to give to each citizen 
 an opportunity to make the most of his natural 
 gifts, to restrain him from unlawful interference 
 with the rights of his neighbour, and to teach him to 
 rely for success on the blessing of God, and on his 
 own honest industry and dauntless courage. This 
 is the law of God, and our fathers embodied it in 
 our Constitution. Emerson only paraphrases the 
 words of Scripture when he describes the Lord say- 
 ing to the people of America : 
 
 " I cause from every creature 
 His proper good to flow; 
 As much as he is and doeth. 
 So much he shall bestow. 
 
 " The world was made for honest trade. 
 To plant and eat be none afraid. 
 
 " For he that worketh high and wise, 
 Nor pauses in his plan 
 Shall take the sun out of the skies, 
 Ere freedom out of man." 
 
 American Freedom is the child of American 
 Democracy. It involves equal rights and equal 
 duties. It involves on the one hand the supremacy 
 of law, on the other it means freedom from need- 
 less governmental restraint. The distinctive Ameri- 
 can idea which we ought to cherish sacredly and 
 from which we should never depart is that the 
 ; greatest good of the greatest number can be best 
 
I02 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 achieved by giving to each individual the right to 
 work out his own salvation. 
 
 Long before 1789 other nations had tried forms 
 of government in which the will of the public of- 
 ficials was supreme and in which the individual had 
 no protection from arbitrary power. By the law 
 of the Roman Empire the will of the Prince was 
 paramount. He had the right by special decree to 
 interpret statutes in reference to cases pending in 
 the courts : 
 
 Sic Volo, sic JiibcOj stet pro Ratione Voluntas. 
 
 The result was t3Tanny, not freedom. 
 
 The Legislative Assembly in France in the days 
 of the Directory had unlimited powers. They were 
 constantly depriving citizens of life, liberty, and 
 property without due process of lav/. The result 
 was justly called the Reign of Terror, and it re- 
 sulted in national ruin and disgrace. At last Na- 
 poleon got into the saddle and at least gave the 
 people security and order. All experience shows 
 that the honest, hardworking people w^ho are the 
 real life and strength of a nation will not long sub- 
 mit to be plundered or oppressed by public officers, 
 even though these were selected by a temporary 
 majority of voters. The real majority will have 
 security and order at any cost. The American 
 method, embodied in the American Constitution, 
 maintains security and preserves order, and pro- 
 tects the life, liberty, and property of the individual 
 from unlawful restraint or interference. It is a 
 distinct evolution in civilization. To it in large 
 measure we owe that security and good government 
 
SOCIALISM 103 
 
 which have stimulated our youth to dihgent en- 
 deavour, and made us on the whole a happy and 
 prosperous people. The American system is a suc- 
 cess ; a glorious, unprecedented success. Americans 
 will remove existing wrongs and cure existing evils 
 by a process of regeneration and not undertake a so- 
 cial revolution. Our campaign will be conducted in 
 the spirit of love and not in the spirit of hate. We 
 believe with Bishop Henry C. Potter, " The world 
 is not waiting for regeneration by machinery, but 
 regeneration by love." 
 
 Of the truth of what has been said, the action of 
 the American people during the recent world war 
 is the best possible proof. If the system prevailing 
 in this country had been, as some zealots declare, a 
 system of wage slavery, if the employers, called 
 capitalists by the socialists, had been oppressors, the 
 spirit and temper of the people would have been 
 corrupted and debased. None but a free people 
 could possibly have risen to the exigencies of the 
 situation with such absolute devotion and self-sacri- 
 fice. The exceptions have been so few as to make 
 the practical unanimity more conspicuous. No sac- 
 rifice of life or personal interest or fortune has been 
 too great for the American people. There could be 
 no better proof of the soundness of the principles 
 which are the foundation of the American govern- 
 ment than the readiness with which the American 
 people has adapted itself to an extraordinary strain. 
 It did this during the Civil War, but has done it 
 even more absolutely and with far greater unani- 
 mity during the world war that is just ended. 
 
I04 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 In the old Roman Republic experience showed 
 that in times of great public danger it was necessary 
 to appoint a dictator who should have far more 
 absolute authority so long as the danger lasted than 
 any officer had in time of peace. The American 
 Constitution has made provision for such an emer- 
 gency (Art. II, Sec. 2) : " The President shall be 
 Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the 
 United States, and of the militia of the several 
 States when called into the actual service of the 
 United States." This gives to him, as the courts 
 have held, absolute power to carry on war, which 
 however, can only be declared by the Congress. 
 (Art. I, Sec. 8.) 
 
 During the period of hostilities many individual 
 rights, which in time of peace are inviolable, must 
 yield to the requirements of the situation in which 
 the declaration of war has placed the country. But 
 after every war in which the United States has 
 engaged, the almost absolute power which has thus 
 been conferred upon the President has ceased with 
 the occasion that gave it birth. The rights of the 
 individual have resumed their rightful position and 
 their sacredness, and the country has gone on and 
 prospered on the American road, the main lines of 
 which have been described. 
 
 Let no one think from what has been said that 
 we maintain that the American people have no 
 faults. Their very prosperity, which has been de- 
 scribed, has been a temptation. The selfishness, 
 greed, and luxury of some has led to lawlessness 
 in others. We have often failed to support prop- 
 
SOCIALISM 105 
 
 eriy the unselfish and devoted men and women who 
 have tried to make the glad tidings known to every 
 human creature. 
 
 The war has taught us many lessons — a 
 bitter experience, which will in the end be salutary. 
 If we are true to the fundamental principles of right 
 and justice, which form the foundation of Ameri- 
 can Democracy, we shall emerge from the storm 
 and tempest of war a regenerated people, realizing 
 that the real interest of each class of the community 
 is identical with that of all the rest, and that it is by 
 the faithful discharge of the duty that each owes 
 to the other, and by this alone, that we can per- 
 manently prosper. 
 
 And above all things Christian men should teach 
 that the recent iVterance of a very successful manu- 
 facturer (Henry Ford) is untrue. "Make him 
 comfortable in a physical way and give him a chance 
 to show that he can produce anything, and then he 
 will get in shape, spiritually, and will be normal, 
 useful, and thoroughly moral." 
 
 To the contrary of this, Moses taught — " Man 
 cannot live by bread only, but by every word that 
 proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man 
 live." '' 
 
 And Christ said to the woman of Samaria: 
 " Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst 
 again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that 
 1 shall give him shall never thirst, but the water 
 that I shall give him shall be in him a well of 
 water, springing up into everlasting life." ^^ 
 20 Deut. 8:3. 21 John 4 : 13, 14. 
 
io6 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 And St. John represents Christ, " the faithful and 
 true witness," saying to the Church in one of the 
 rich cities of Asia Minor: '' Because thou sayest, I 
 am rich, and increased with goods, and have need 
 of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, 
 and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." ^^ 
 
 It is possible that the accusation of '* other world- 
 liness " was justly brought against our fathers. But 
 that does not justify us in going to the other ex- 
 treme and worshipping physical ease and comfort. 
 These are good, but not the chief good. It is not 
 only the sacred books of the Bible, but the prophets 
 of all ages that teach us this. Confucius and 
 Buddha, Plato and Seneca, St. Augustine and 
 Phillips Brooks, alike agree in this eternal truth. 
 
 To the man who is discontented with his posi- 
 tion and desires to improve it, not by faithful devo- 
 tion to duty, but by grasping that which another has 
 acquired and depriving his brethren of means of 
 usefulness or comfort for which they have laboured, 
 we answer with Carlyle : ^^ 
 
 " The Situation that has not its Duty, its Ideal, was 
 never yet occupied by man. Yes here, in this poor, 
 miserable, hampered, despicable Actual, wherein thou 
 even now standest, here or nowhere is thy Ideal : work 
 it out therefrom ; and working, believe, live, be free. 
 Fool ! the Ideal is in thyself, the impediment too is in 
 thyself : thy Condition is but the stuff thou art to 
 shape that same Ideal out of : what matters whether 
 such stuff be of this sort or that, so the Form thou 
 
 22 Rev. 3: 17. 
 
 23 "Sartor Resartus," Bk. II, Ch. X. 
 
SOCIALISM i(yj 
 
 give it be heroic, be poetic? O thou that pinest in 
 the imprisonment of the Actual, and criest bitterly to 
 the gods for a kingdom wherein to rule and create, 
 know this of a truth : the thing thou seekest is already 
 with thee, ' here or nowhere,' couldst thou only see ! " 
 
 We do not maintain that intelligent efforts to im- 
 prove physical conditions are not important. They 
 are. But to put them first, defeats the desired end. 
 The most comfortable people are not as a rule the 
 noblest, the best or the most useful. Love of God 
 and love of man should come first. Where they 
 dwell, all that is needful will be added. 
 
 " Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his 
 righteousness, and all these things shall be added 
 unto you." " 
 
 23 Matt. 6 : 33 ; Luke I2 : 31. 
 
VIII 
 SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 
 
 THE desire for human brotherhood which has 
 often inspired dreams of socialistic revolu- 
 tion has found more rational expression in 
 the work of the Social Settlements. This has justly 
 been called " applied Christianity." 
 
 The need which the Settlement is designed to 
 supply is, in brief, the want of sympathy and mutual 
 understanding between persons occupying different 
 social positions and possessing different degrees of 
 education. The Settlement aims to bring such per- 
 sons into friendly relations. In this country the 
 Settlement has the additional function of bringing 
 together into mutual understanding persons of dif- 
 ferent religion and race. 
 
 In a small town, this office is performed by other 
 instrumentalities. Until recently, our great cities 
 have been treated like exaggerated small towns. 
 We have only recently come to realize how radi- 
 cally social conditions have changed, and how im- 
 possible it is to bring together on terms of sym- 
 pathy and friendship the different classes of society, 
 without some such medium as that of the Social 
 Settlement. 
 
 In a small town all are neighbours. All know 
 io8 
 
SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 109 
 
 more or less, and generally more rather than less, 
 of each other's position, condition, and require- 
 ments. The clergyman, the lawyer, the doctor, all 
 bring to bear upon the little community a certain 
 amount of literary education and professional train- 
 ing. Some inequality of social conditions always 
 exists. But this inequality is as nothing compared 
 with those enormous differences in wealth which 
 separate an Armour or an Astor from the day 
 labourer. The very fact that in the small town the 
 dwellings of all the inhabitants are near one an- 
 other, that every man passes his neighbours' houses 
 as he goes to and fro in his daily occupation, gives 
 to each a sense of relationship, and a certain amount 
 of knowledge concerning his neighbours, that is in 
 itself humanizing. It may not be profound, but it 
 forms at least a foundation for the establishment of 
 a closer and more intimate acquaintance as occasion 
 may arise. In our great cities, unfortunately, none 
 of these means of mutual acquaintance exist. 
 
 The clergyman ministers to a parish which is 
 ordinarily made up on the one side of well-to-do 
 people, and on the other side of those who are very 
 poor, and from various causes have come to be 
 more or less dependent upon benevolence for their 
 support. 
 
 The ph3'siclan has his own set of patients, and 
 while he may sometimes give advice freely to the 
 very poor, yet it more often happens that their 
 wants are provided for by the public dispensary and 
 the public hospital. 
 
 The lawyer has his own clientage and the require- 
 
no A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 ments of his business are such that in the nature of 
 the case he will rarely be brought into contact with 
 people of little means who have no occasion to seek 
 advice about property, and are rarely engaged in 
 litigation. He may occasionally meet them as wit- 
 nesses. He may sometimes encounter them as 
 jurors. But when the jury has given in its verdict, 
 and the witnesses are dismissed from the Court, he 
 is likely never to meet or recognize any of them 
 again. 
 
 These elements of separation are the necessary 
 outgrowth of great diversities in property and social 
 condition. But other causes combine to increase 
 their force. One of the most obvious of these is 
 the division that naturally exists, in every great 
 city, between the dwellings of the very rich and 
 those of people in moderate circumstances. Some- 
 times it is accident, sometimes it is natural advan- 
 tage, which causes a particular quarter of the city 
 to be chosen by fashion or caprice for the abodes 
 of the wealthy. In point of fact, in all large cities 
 some such quarter is situated; the land becomes 
 valuable there; costly buildings are erected, and 
 people of moderate means cannot afford to live 
 there, and naturally go and live somewhere else. 
 
 The political traditions of our country tend to 
 accentuate these conditions. From a very early 
 period in our history it has been customary, and is 
 sometimes required by law, that a delegate to any 
 political or public body should reside in the locality 
 from which he is elected. The primary political 
 units are generally of limited area, and the great 
 
SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS iii 
 
 majority of those residing in one have very little 
 political communication with those residing in the 
 other. 
 
 We naturally look to religious bodies for teaching 
 a more brotherly spirit. But unfortunately 
 churches are naturally built in a neighbourhood 
 where a majority of those who attend them reside, 
 and this location is in large cities often remote from 
 the abodes of the mechanic and artisan. 
 
 There was a time in our country when the public 
 school was an effective means of bringing together 
 the children of all sorts and conditions of men. 
 This has now largely ceased to be the case, for 
 several reasons: In the first place, most wealthy 
 people have ceased to send their children to public 
 schools; and in the second place, there is a certain 
 aristocracy even among these schools. Those that 
 are built in locaHties where wealthier citizens reside 
 are naturally attended more by the children of those 
 residing in the neighbourhood. A person visiting, 
 for example, the public schools of New York, and 
 going into one in the district between Broadway 
 and Fifth Avenue, between Thirty-fourth Street 
 and Central Park, and then entering a school in the 
 seventh or tenth wards, might think he was in an- 
 other city, so marked would be the difference be- 
 tween the children he would see gathered together 
 in the classes.^ 
 
 Thus we have enumerated various means of knit- 
 
 1 In justice to New York it should be said that the City 
 College for men, and Hunter College for women, both main- 
 tained at public expense, and open not only to the best pupils 
 
112 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 I 
 ting the different members of the body politic to- 
 gether into one friendly family, which formerly 
 exercised most beneficial influence, and we find that 
 the unifying force of each of them has greatly 
 diminished. 
 
 There is one other consideration to which, in this 
 connection, we desire to call attention, the import- 
 ance of which cannot be overestimated. We refer 
 to the growth of trades-unions. It is not our inten- 
 tion to condemn these organizations. In many in- 
 stances they subserve a most useful purpose. But 
 it cannot be denied that one of their tendencies is to 
 keep employer and employee at arm's length from 
 each other. Most of the business between them, in- 
 stead of being conducted at first hand, as it formerly 
 was in this country, is now conducted by delegates 
 from one organization who carry terms to the em- 
 ployer, and negotiate agreements WMth him, which 
 are to be performed, not by the delegates themselves, 
 but by those whom they represent. 
 
 Thirty years ago, Abram S. Hewitt said, that 
 when, about 1850, he became a member of the firm 
 of Cooper, Hewitt & Co., he knew every workman 
 in their employ, and that at the time he spoke he 
 did not know one. It is impossible, in the nature of 
 the case, that the relations between the employer and 
 his work people should not have been, under these 
 earlier conditions, more friendly than they now are. 
 Nothing takes the place of that kindly spirit which 
 
 in the public high schools, but to those trained elsewhere, 
 constitute unifying influences of great value. In these two 
 institutions New York is in advance of any other city. 
 
SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 113 
 
 grows up between man and man from mutual ac- 
 quaintance and the consciousness of mutual help- 
 fulness. 
 
 The difficulties which have been thus far sug- 
 gested are almost as serious in England as in this 
 country. It is true that in England the existence 
 of endowed churches often keeps up active religious 
 work in a very poor neighbourhood, which in this 
 country could not maintain any sort of religious 
 organization. In that respect they have the advan- 
 tage of us. 
 
 In another respect, there is decided advantage in 
 the conditions of English life as compared with 
 those of this country. The population of England 
 is far more homogeneous than that of the United 
 States. Not more than 3 per cent, of the population 
 of London is of foreign birth, whereas in 19 10, 
 40.4 per cent, of the population of New York, and 
 36 per cent, of that of Chicago was of foreign 
 birth.^ Not only so, but they come to us from 
 many widely differing nationalities. In New York, 
 beside the preponderating Irish and German ele- 
 ments, there are large colonies of Italians, Scandi- 
 navians, Russians, Poles, Bohemians, Hungarians, 
 Chinese, and even Armenians. The diversity in 
 Chicago is as great. These people differ from the 
 American stock in religion, in traditions, both politi- 
 cal and social, and in language. Their standpoint, 
 in a word, is widely different from that of the 
 
 2 " International Encyclopaedia," Vol. XIV, p. 333 ; Vol. 
 XVII, p. 93; Vol. V, p. 172. Of the native born in Chicago, 
 54 per cent, were of foreign parentage. 
 
114 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Anglo-Saxon American. People often complain of 
 defects in our municipal governments. Doubtless 
 they are serious. But when we consider the enor- 
 mous difficulties that beset the municipal govern- 
 ment of New York and Chicago by popular suf- 
 frage, the wonder is, not that they are so badly 
 governed, but that they are so well governed. They 
 offer the best possible proof of the educational value 
 of free government. 
 
 We are persuaded that nothing but popular suf- 
 frage, and the responsibilities that it brings with 
 it, could possibly have welded together into any sort 
 of cohesion the incongruous masses from all parts 
 of the world that compose the population of the 
 largest cities of the United States. Our political 
 system has done, and is doing, a great deal to unite 
 this fragmentary and disorganized population. 
 
 But while it is true that political influences are 
 in themselves a means of unity, yet we must never 
 forget that political power implies a certain degree 
 of intelligence in the voters, and still more a com- 
 munity of interest between the different members 
 of society, which those voters are in danger of for- 
 getting. 
 
 People of education in our great cities too often 
 take refuge in indiscriminate condemnation of the 
 faults and insufficiencies of the government which 
 is the product of our voters, and which they in a 
 real sense create. That is to say, our system of 
 suffrage gives to the majority of voters the power 
 to have whatever government in a city they prefer. 
 If the majority has any decided preference, it will 
 
SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 115 
 
 have its own way, and therefore it is, as all agree, 
 that the voter must be educated. 
 
 But this proposition brings us back to the point 
 from which we started. All the elements of dis- 
 union in our social fabric to which we have re- 
 ferred make it exceedingly difficult to bring the in- 
 fluence of educated and intelligent men, imbued 
 with the traditions of the Anglo-Saxon race, to bear 
 upon the mass of the people. Their political organi- 
 zations are led and officered by men who reside in 
 their districts, and who, by residing there, have 
 come to understand the temper of their constituents, 
 and to learn how to influence them. 
 
 What political tradition has done, the love of 
 gain has also done. The district leader lives in his 
 district, becomes acquainted with the voters in it, 
 and seeks to help them in a thousand different ways, 
 in order to obtain their support during the year, 
 and especially on election day. The man who wants 
 to make money out of the passion for drink, or the 
 passion for gambling, opens a corner saloon or 
 policy shop in the district, and makes his place at- 
 tractive, in order to draw within its grasp as many 
 as possible of the neighbours. Go into the tenement- 
 house district of any of our great cities. You will 
 find there innumerable saloons and many policy 
 shops. You will find very few churches, hardly any 
 libraries, no picture galleries, rarely a lecture room. 
 In short, there may be a population of 250,000 
 people such as you will find in the city of New York 
 between Third Avenue and the East River, and east 
 of the Central Park, or as you will find in some 
 
ii6 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 districts of Chicago, in which there are fewer in- 
 fluences for civiHzation, or for religious training, 
 than would be found in the average small city of 
 25,000 people. Yet this population sends its mem- 
 bers to the State Legislature, elects its members of 
 Congress, has its influence in every branch of our 
 body politic. 
 
 The wealthy people who live on the east side of 
 the New York Central Park have hardly any social 
 relations with their neighbours who live a thousand 
 feet to the east of them, and most of them might as 
 well be separated by a continent, so far as the exist- 
 ence of friendly relationship is concerned between 
 themselves and those who are near to them. The 
 same thing is true in other large cities. 
 
 The Social Settlement undertakes to meet these 
 difficulties. It says that as Christians, as American 
 citizens, we ought to recognize that people of dif- 
 ferent race, education, and social condition from 
 ourselves are yet our neighbours, and ought to be 
 our friends. That as the law recognizes no distinc- 
 tion of rank between us, so our heart and judg- 
 ment should admit that in order to make a pros- 
 perous community under such a form of govern- 
 ment as ours, it is absolutely essential that these 
 middle walls of partition should be taken down. 
 The expression of the great apostle springs natu- 
 rally to the lips. We feel that in such a country as 
 ours, there should be " neither Greek nor Jew, 
 neither barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free"; that 
 the human nature which we see in our fellow-citi- 
 zens should form a stronger bond of union than any 
 
SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 117 
 
 of the adventitious circumstances which divide 
 us. 
 
 The Settlement recognizes that in order to bring 
 about such a friendly relation, it is absolutely essen- 
 tial that there should be mutual acquaintance. The 
 Settlement which we look forward to, is a home 
 where twenty or thirty men or women shall reside. 
 It is a home surrounded by a library, a lecture 
 room, a picture gallery, provided with teachers, 
 club rooms, gymnasia, music, every instrumentality, 
 in short, which tends to humanize, to civilize, to 
 give innocent pleasure and to unite, in the enjoy- 
 ment of such pleasure, men differing in race, in 
 education, in social condition, but agreeing in the 
 one essential point, that each has a human soul, and 
 that each can be, and ought to be, helpful to his 
 neighbour. When we have such a living organism 
 as that which we have thus briefly outlined, we shall 
 expect it to be the centre of a system of clubs, 
 which will enter into every natural and legitimate 
 activity of the neighbourhood. It will, for example, 
 interest itself in the public schools. It will seek 
 to bring together, in friendly interest, the teachers 
 of those schools. It will seek to make its libraries 
 and all its means of social improvement available 
 to supplement the education given in those schools 
 and to help the teachers and the scholars alike. It 
 will interest itself in political improvement in the 
 neighbourhood ; and while not entering into any field 
 of national politics, or discriminating on that ac- 
 count between any of its members, yet it will en- 
 deavour to unite them in some organized effort to 
 
ii8 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 make municipal government more efficient and intel- 
 ligent, to improve the sanitary condition of the 
 buildings the people live in, and to give them streets 
 cleaner, better paved, and better lighted. In Eng- 
 land, you find residents of Oxford House and Toyn- 
 bee Hall active in municipal councils and school 
 boards, and bringing to their deliberations most use- 
 ful experience. We may reasonably hope to do the 
 same thing in America. Not only so, but we may 
 expect that our residents will go into the trades- 
 unions, and endeavour to make the members of those 
 unions better acquainted with their employers; so 
 that each may come to understand the intrinsic con- 
 ditions which produce success or failure in business, 
 and that each may deal with the other, not in the 
 heat of passion or the blindness of prejudice, but in 
 the clear and calm light of mutual understanding 
 and mutual friendship. 
 
 The members of the Settlement will take part in 
 the committee work of charity organization socie- 
 ties, fresh air funds, and summer homes. They 
 will endeavour to make all those who come in any 
 way within the sphere of their influence acquainted 
 with whatever means there may be existing for 
 bettering their condition. 
 
 In short, the object of the Setdement is not to 
 displace any existing means of social improvement. 
 On the contrary, its aim and purpose is to utilize 
 them all, to study them all, to give to them all the 
 benefit of the experience acquired within the Settle- 
 ment; and thus to give more unity to their activity, 
 and combine their forces more effectively. 
 
SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 119 
 
 The method which we advocate is in truth the 
 most scientific of methods. Scientific men have 
 come to recognize that all improvement springs 
 from the study of facts; that until we master these 
 and understand their mutual relations and de- 
 pendence, we never can make substantial progress. 
 The true reason why more progress has not been 
 made in the growth of human society is because 
 those who have had the power to govern have 
 understood so little of the needs, the temper, the 
 desires of the governed. 
 
 How many well meant, but disastrous, social ex- 
 periments might have been avoided, had the good 
 people who undertook them taken the pains intelli- 
 gently to study what those whom they sought to 
 benefit actually required. The men and women who 
 go into residence in a Settlement go there to learn 
 as well as to teach. They go in part, at least, to 
 qualify themselves to act wisely in dealing with the 
 social problems of the day, which cry aloud for solu- 
 tion, and for the treatment of which there are, alas, 
 quacks as well as skilled physicians. 
 
 If the Settlement idea once becomes thoroughly 
 implanted in the American conscience; if our 
 w^ealthy people come to understand that they can do 
 no better service to the cause of religion, the cause 
 of morality, the cause of social improvement, and 
 especially to the improvement of municipal govern- 
 ment, than by giving cordial and friendly support to 
 existing Settlements, by establishing new ones, by 
 sending their sons and their daughters to live in 
 them, and in this way to become students in the 
 
I20 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 great social university from which it is more im- 
 portant to graduate than from Harvard or Yale, 
 Princeton, Columbia or Chicago; then indeed may 
 we hope in another generation to see more intelli- 
 gent and efficient municipal government. We shall 
 see cities in every part of which it may be healthful 
 and pleasant to live. We shall have better schools 
 and larger and more liberal colleges. We shall see 
 churches more thoroughly inspired with the spirit 
 of their Founder. We shall, in short, behold a 
 nation developing upon the lines which the author 
 of the Declaration of Independence embodied in 
 that immortal instrument, which set the whole 
 fabric of American institutions upon the founda- 
 tion of equality, so far as the law can give it, in 
 all that tends to make life really happy, in all that 
 tends to secure a reasonable and self -restrained lib- 
 erty, in all that tends to give to the poorest and 
 weakest the opportunity for that pursuit of happi- 
 ness which is dear to the heart of every man. 
 
 Those who have not studied what Social Settle- 
 ments have already accomplished, nor considered 
 the possibilities of their future, may speak of these 
 hopes as visionary. To all their critics, Settlement 
 workers can only say: Come and see what we are 
 doing; and if you then approve, give us sympathy 
 and support. Both are needed in far larger measure 
 than they have yet been given. 
 
 Toynbee Hall in London was the first college 
 Settlement founded in East London in 1884. 
 Oxford House followed it. In New York, the 
 Neighbourhood Guild, since developed into the Uni- 
 
SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 121 
 
 versity Settlement, the College Settlement (for 
 women residents) and the East Side House were 
 established in 1890 and 1891. Hull House in Chi- 
 cago was founded about the same time. Their 
 example has been followed both in England and 
 America. There are about fifty Settlements in New 
 York City alone. 
 
 They differ somewhat in their methods. They are 
 more unlike in the circumstances which led to their 
 foundation. But all are alike in this. Each is a 
 home where those can reside who love their fellow- 
 men and are enough in earnest to make some sacri- 
 fices in order to learn what their fellows need, 
 what they think, and how they can best be helped. 
 Each Settlement is to some extent a social univer- 
 sity for the study of man^ — his feelings, his ambi- 
 tions, his difficulties, his discouragements. 
 
 Arnold Toynbee, a university man, gave the im- 
 pulse which led to the foundation of the first of 
 these Settlements. He was shocked at the depth 
 and width of the gulf between different classes of 
 society, at the ignorance of the real needs of the 
 wage earner that spoils so many well meant efforts. 
 He said : " H I am to love my neighbour as myself, 
 I must make him indeed my neighbour. I must go 
 and live where he lives, and learn by experience 
 what manner of man he is." From this beginning, 
 university men and women have been the most 
 active in founding Settlements and in conducting 
 Settlement work. The true university spirit which 
 recognizes gladly the distinction of real talents and 
 acquirements, but is somewhat impatient of the 
 
122 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 artificial distinctions of wealth and station, is at the 
 heart of Settlement work. But more than this, 
 love for the truth, desire to know it just as it 
 really is, the modest, painstaking spirit of research 
 and investigation — this also is most helpful. 
 
 One man puts this spirit into theology, another 
 into the law, another into medicine, another still 
 into history or science. But every man ought to 
 know men. Every citizen of the Republic ought to 
 realize the responsibility of his citizenship, and 
 every one who has learned something of the Father- 
 hood of God, must feel some stirrings of love for 
 the other children of the All-Father, who are there- 
 fore his own brethren. This last is not an easy 
 lesson. But no one reaches to the full dignity and 
 honour of manhood who has not learned it. 
 
 Therefore Settlement work appeals to every 
 man and every woman. Each resident has full 
 scope for the play of his own individuality. He will 
 find among his neighbours all sorts and conditions 
 of men. He makes friends among them. They 
 come after a while to exchange confidences and be- 
 come mutually helpful. To use the words of Jane 
 Addams, who did such admirable work when she 
 was head of Hull House: 
 
 " The advantage of an unsophisticated neighbour- 
 hood is that the inhabitants do not keep their ideas as 
 treasures ; they are untouched by the notion of ac- 
 cumulating them, as one does knowledge or money, 
 and frankly act upon those they have." 
 
 Let each person who has grown up amid books 
 and pictures, and objects of beauty and interest, 
 
SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 123 
 
 realize what it means for the majority who, in great 
 cities, grow up without any of these. And then let 
 him imagine what it means to help intelligent, 
 thoughtful young men and women to the knowl- 
 edge of these, and of all that they imply. That 
 which has perhaps become indifferent from its very 
 commonness, takes on new life and beauty when you 
 put it where it is uncommon. Nothing in life can 
 be more interesting than to guide and stimulate the 
 growth of a soul that has developed slowly in twi- 
 light, and comes through your aid and that of your 
 associates to the light of day. 
 
 The conditions of the domestic life in a Settle- 
 ment are not unlike those of a college student away 
 from home. Each has his room, and his books, 
 and there is the common table. Each continues his 
 own work, whatever that may be. The distinctive 
 Settlement life fills up the hours that were given to 
 the diversions which do indeed lend zest to the 
 academic career; but which for the graduate may 
 well give place, for a time at least, to something 
 more generous and unselfish. The resident in Riv- 
 ington Street or in Seventy-sixth Street, or in any 
 other Settlement, may be a leader there in athletics, 
 or in a class in politics, or social science, or litera- 
 ture, or ethics, or religion. Or, without taking a 
 class, he may simply devote himself to getting ac- 
 quainted with his neighbours. If his chosen pro- 
 fession is the law, he will learn at first hand, and 
 from the original sources something of the temper 
 and peculiarities of the jurymen who will decide his 
 cases, and of the witnesses whom he will examine. 
 
124 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 If he is aiming to be a physician, he will acquire in- 
 valuable knowledge of the temperament and idiosyn- 
 crasies of human beings, which the skilful doctor 
 needs to know as well as their physical nature, or 
 as the drug that may cure or mitigate the maladies 
 of the body. If he is going into the ministry, he 
 will find out more of the workings of the human 
 heart, and the way to move it, than in a whole 
 course at the seminary. If he has political ambi- 
 tions, he can find no better school than the Settle- 
 ment. The power of the political boss is not alto- 
 gether evil. Nor is it entirely based upon the self- 
 ish passions, or influenced solely by selfish motives. 
 The district leader knows the individuals who live 
 in his district. He has a part in their humble joys 
 and sorrows and helps them to carry their burdens. 
 To quote again from Miss Addams : 
 
 " What headway can the notion of civic purity, of 
 honesty of administration, make against this big mani- 
 festation of human friendliness, this stalking survival 
 of village kindness ? " 
 
 The men of higher purposes and nobler aspira- 
 tions must do the like, or their influence can never 
 rival his. In short, the resident in a Settlement 
 ought to share in the political, the intellectual, the 
 religious life of his neighbourhood. It may, and 
 should, become to him like a little village, in which 
 he would know everybody and everybody would 
 know him. The knowledge of the human heart is a 
 mighty power. And here in the Settlement is a place 
 where a man must be dull indeed if he does not 
 
SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 125 
 
 learn something of the springs that move the hearts 
 of his fellows. 
 
 To gain this, it is not enough to go in residence 
 for a month or so, or to made a fad of the thing. 
 The resident must take it seriously and must enter 
 on the unfamiliar life with a fixed purpose to make 
 the most of it, both for himself, and his new neigh- 
 bours. 
 
 Indeed there is a career in these modern organiza- 
 tions, which may well be attractive to a university 
 graduate. The head of a Settlement is a power for 
 good. His influence steadily increases. He plays a 
 very important part in the evolution of the modern 
 democracy. What that has in store for us in the 
 twentieth century, we cannot predict with certainty. 
 But we know that improved methods of production 
 lessened before the world war the cost of the 
 necessaries of life, increased wages, and shortened 
 the hours of labour. During the war and after its 
 close wages still continue to be much higher than 
 they were in 1914, the hours of labour are shorter, 
 we may well hope that the cost of living will de- 
 crease. How will the workman use his spare hours, 
 and the cash that remains, after providing for the 
 subsistence of himself and his family? To answer 
 that question would be to forecast pretty .accurately 
 the future of popular government. Those men and 
 women who come from the university, with ideas 
 and aspirations, w^ith faith in God and faith in man 
 — these will discern the riddle of our modern civi- 
 lization, with its startling contradictions, and may 
 help to unravel it. The words of Lord Beaconsfield 
 
126 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 are just as applicable to the university men and 
 women of our time, as they were in his. 
 
 " We live in an age when to be young and to be 
 indiflFerent can be no longer synonymous. We must 
 prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the 
 Future are represented by suffering millions, and the 
 Youth of a Nation are the Trustees of Posterity." 
 
 There are many who look upon the Settlements as 
 ephemeral. But these critics do not realize what 
 their work really is. It is said that they do what 
 cities ought to do. But no public official can give 
 the personal sympathetic touch, which is an essen- 
 tial part of the Settlement work. 
 
 No doubt sometimes they have begun what cities 
 ought to do. In such cases, that particular depart- 
 ment may wisely be consigned to the public authori- 
 ties, who have more money and can do the work on 
 a larger scale. 
 
 For example, when the East Side House Settle- 
 ment was established in 189 1, on the shore of the 
 East River, Seventy-sixth Street, New York City, 
 it gave to the children a playground, and to the 
 public generally baths and a library and reading 
 room. Situated in a district largely settled by 
 Bohemians, it established the first public Bohemian 
 library in New York. 
 
 These beneficent activities are now conducted by 
 the municipal authorities. John Jay Park has been 
 laid out and equipped with facilities for the comfort 
 and enjoyment of the neighbours. A large public 
 bath house has been provided opposite the Settle- 
 
SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 127 
 
 merit. The books of the library have been given to 
 a Carnegie library which the city now maintains in 
 the vicinity. The remaining business of the Settle- 
 ment has not slackened because of these changes, 
 but on the contrary has continually developed and 
 increased. Similar instances might be narrated of 
 the results accomplished by other Settlements. The 
 point is that they have a permanent work to do, and 
 constitute a very important part of the organization 
 necessary to achieve a better and happier world in 
 which, to use Macaulay's words : 
 
 " Then none was for a party ; 
 Then all were for the State; 
 Then the great man helped the poor. 
 And the poor man loved the great." 
 
IX 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AS A FACTOR 
 IN SOCIAL PROGRESS 
 
 IN considering the present, it is always wise, 
 and even necessary, to look upon it as a de- 
 velopment from the past. No social condition 
 is an immediate creation. It is rooted for good or 
 for evil in the centuries that have gone before, and 
 therefore we must call attention to the Church from 
 the beginning as a most important factor in social 
 progress. The great reformer who established the 
 'fundamental principles upon w'hich all wise and per- 
 manent reform must rest, was also the founder of 
 the Christian Church, and it is to His example that 
 we must look if we are to make our reforms thor- 
 ough or lasting. Any one who reads the social 
 history of the Roman Empire and compares it with 
 the social conditions of today, cannot fail to be 
 struck by the incalculable growth in humanity that 
 has developed wherever the truths of Christianity 
 have penetrated. We would not for a moment 
 maintain that there was no humanity in the world 
 before Christ was born at Bethlehem. Such a state- 
 ment would be repugnant to our belief in the power 
 and love of God. But in all of His works He has 
 been pleased to proceed by gradual stages, and it is 
 
 X28 
 
THE CHURCH IN SOCIAL PROGRESS 129 
 
 very plain, as a historical fact, that disregard of 
 the sufferings and privations of those to whom a 
 man was not bound by some very special tie, either 
 of family or contract, was the prevailing condition 
 of the world two thousand years ago. The en- 
 thusiasm for humanity that shows itself in hospi- 
 tals, in asylums, in education, in the work of Social 
 Settlements, and in the thousand healthful activities 
 in which what we call organized Christianity is 
 engaged, have no parallel in the ages before the 
 Christian era. Individuals felt and expressed the 
 spirit. It was a Roman who said, " I am a man. 
 Nothing that pertains to man is alien to me." But 
 Cicero and Seneca and Terence were not able to im- 
 press this spirit upon society as a whole. 
 
 Now it must be admitted that at present there are 
 many who are totally regardless of their social 
 duties; that there are many among our rich people 
 who are just as cruel and selfish and extravagant 
 and ostentatious as any of the Roman millionaires. 
 Ferrero has shown this clearly by some pungent 
 comparisons that it is well for us to study and lay 
 to heart. But the difference is here. In the present 
 day there is not merely a protest from a few philoso- 
 phers against this selfishness and extravagance and 
 cruelty, but we find a spirit in every place where the 
 gospel is preached, w^arring against it, and striving 
 to put a nobler and more humane spirit in its place.^ 
 That is the direct fruit of the teaching of Christ 
 
 ^We may say even of Germany, what St. John said of 
 Sardis — " Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have 
 not defiled their garments." (Rev. 3:4.) 
 
130 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 and of His gospels. When St. Paul declared that 
 God had " made of one blood all nations of men for 
 to dwell on all the face of the earth " ; when he says 
 again that Christ had come " to break down the 
 middle wall of partition " between the Jew and Gen- 
 tile; that henceforth Gentiles were "no more 
 strangers and foreigners but fellow-citizens with 
 the saints and of the household of God," he de- 
 clared principles of life and growth that have been 
 bearing fruit in successive generations.^ Slavery 
 has been abolished ; the slave trade has been broken 
 up; provision is made in every place, more or less 
 wisely and completely, but still in all Christian 
 countries, for the education of children; the hours 
 of labour for them and for women are becoming 
 regulated; provision is being made for the suitable 
 care of the veterans and invalids of labour as well 
 as those of war. Cruelty to animals is condemned 
 and punished. We must admit that armaments and 
 arms have increased in number and in power. The 
 world war, just ended, was on a scale unprece- 
 dented in history. But in every really civilized 
 nation the wisest and best are promoting a League 
 of Nations which will hinder, and if possible, pre- 
 vent wars in the future. The nations did in 1899, 
 establish an international court of arbitration. 
 Many of the controversies which centuries ago 
 would have been settled only by the sword have 
 been settled by judicial decision of the Hague 
 tribunal or by special arbitral tribunals. In all 
 these reforms Christian men have been the leaders. 
 2 Acts 17:26. 
 
THE CHURCH IN SOCIAL PROGRESS 131 
 
 It was the shameless violation of the Convention on 
 this subject and the refusal of Germany and of 
 Austria to submit to arbitration which brought on 
 the present war. 
 
 Let us for a moment look back over the story of 
 the ages, and recall the extent to which Christian 
 men have been factors in human progress. Chry- 
 sostom struggled against the vices of his age, and 
 showed that the care of the poor and sick was an 
 essential part of the Christian life. Augustine, in 
 the City of God, held up to us the ideal of the 
 Christian Commonw^ealth. At a later period, 
 Fenelon and Luther were teachers of righteousness, 
 and leaders in the cause of human progress. Las 
 Casas nobly and persistently pleaded for the inno- 
 cent natives of America. John Woolman was one 
 of the first to point out the evils of slavery, and to 
 teach that Christian men must unite for its gradual 
 abolition. John Howard, that devout and earnest 
 Christian, was the leader in the campaign for 
 prison reform that has made such wonderful prog- 
 ress in the last hundred and fifty years. Of that 
 single-minded and devout man, Bentham justly 
 said : 
 
 " In the scale of moral desert the labours of the 
 leader and the law-giver are as far below his as earth 
 is below Heaven. 
 
 " His kingdom was a better world — he died a 
 martyr after being an apostle.*' 
 
 Not to speak of the unceasing labours of Wesley 
 and Whitfield, not only for the propagation of 
 
132 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 religious truth, but for the betterment of social con- 
 ditions, we must never forget that we owe to Lord 
 Shaftesbury, more than to any other man in our 
 time, the inception and development of improve- 
 ment in the conditions of the working people, not 
 only in England, but in this country, and that he 
 was a devout and earnest member of the Christian 
 Church. It is especially important now to remem- 
 ber the institution for the training of deaconesses 
 at Kaiserswerth. Let us also recall the founding of 
 St. Luke's Hospital in New York, the example of 
 which as a Christian hospital has been followed by 
 many through the world; the steadfast devotion to 
 the work of social reform exhibited by the Bishop 
 of London, with whose apostolic words and works 
 all are familiar. The founder of the Social Settle- 
 ment, who gave his life at East London for the 
 uplift of the wretched, Arnold Toynbee, was a loyal 
 member of this universal Church. We find these 
 Settlements now in every great city; they follow 
 absolutely the example of the founder of Christian- 
 ity, of whom it was said that " though he was rich, 
 yet for our sakes he became poor that we, through 
 his poverty, might be rich." The noble and con- 
 secrated men and women who have given up the 
 luxuries of life and the enjoyment of social inter- 
 course with those among whom they were educated 
 to go into poor neighbourhoods and be a source of 
 light and leading there to all their neighbours, are 
 factors in social progress of the greatest value. As 
 Dr. Devine, himself an earnest Christian, said in 
 1910: 
 
THE CHURCH IN SOCIAL PROGRESS 133 
 
 " The religious treatment of poverty differs from 
 all other in that it has behind it spiritual power, the 
 quickening influence of a passion for rescuing a human 
 soul from destruction, a calm faith that every human 
 effort directed toward a good end is in line with 
 the moral order of the universe, that God is in na- 
 ture and in human history, and that we are His in- 
 struments — intelligent, co-operating instruments, with 
 great advantage to ourselves when our will is in har- 
 mony with the Divine Will ; instruments none the less 
 if blind, rebellious, or unreconciled. The religious 
 treatment of poverty lies in its inspiration, not in its 
 mechanics. The religious elem.ent is in the field of 
 motive, desire, purpose, not in the field of method, 
 agency, or result. 
 
 '' A new situation has arisen in the Church because 
 of the growth of constructive philanthropy in the last 
 century. There are now at hand a vast array of in- 
 stitutions, societies, committees, foundations, govern- 
 mental bureaus and departments, all inspired by the 
 idea of social responsibility, all potentially religious 
 in aim and spirit, all ready and eager to become the 
 instrument of religion in its practical mission among 
 the sons of men. The one indispensable element which 
 these secular agencies of social betterment cannot 
 supply is inspiration. The one element which religion 
 alone can supply is inspiration. We make an irre- 
 trievable error if we assume that these secular agen- 
 cies will supply their own inspiration, if we ignore the 
 necessity for the direct cultivation and enrichment of 
 the life of the spirit which is in these movements today 
 because of the historic faith of yesterday and of the 
 ages past. If we have not our own religious faith, 
 rich, abounding, living, fructifying faith — the secular 
 
134 A LAWYER^S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 agencies will perish, or perhaps become the instru- 
 ments of the devil, for curiously enough faith in 
 the evil spirits seems to come easier; and in some 
 quarters to last longer, than faith in the power of 
 good. 
 
 " In order that we may have religious treatment of 
 poverty, therefore, the first essential of all is that we 
 shall have religion — a militant, aggressive religious 
 faith, with its deacons and prophets, with its sacra- 
 ments and sanctions, with its hopes and promises, even 
 with its commandments and terrors ; a historical re- 
 ligion with its festivals and fast days, its holidays 
 and holy days, a religion which makes appeal to rea- 
 son and to tradition, which commands our loyalty and 
 sanctifies our fellowship; such a religion as Chris- 
 tianity, purified of superstitions and enriched by 
 science, alone among the historic faiths offers to our 
 American people, except for that portion of our popu- 
 lation for whom the religion of Israel suffices, and 
 except for a few groups of immigrants so small and 
 fragmentary as to be a negligible factor." 
 
 The author will be permitted to speak from his 
 own experience of fifty years. In whatever line 
 of work he has been engaged, whether the reform 
 of the Civil Service, and the rescuing of the appoint- 
 ing power from the degrading servitude of the 
 spoils system, or the breaking down of those tariff 
 barriers which short-sighted men have set up to 
 hinder trade between nations, or the reform of 
 municipal governments, and the giving both purity 
 and efficiency to their administration, the men who 
 have been most active, most zealous, most per- 
 
THE CHURCH IN SOCIAL PROGRESS 135 
 
 suasive, and most wise, have been Christian men, 
 inspired by the spirit of Christ, and showing this 
 inspiration in their lives and actions. 
 
 In the cause of Civil Service reform and munici- 
 pal reform, for example, we owe much to two prel- 
 ates of the Roman Catholic Church, Archbishops 
 Ireland and Ryan, and to two Bishops of the Epis- 
 copal Church, Henry C. Potter and Phillips Brooks. 
 It seems invidious to mention names among laymen. 
 We would fain, however, speak of four useful citi- 
 zens who were taken away from the city of New 
 York within the space of two years : William E. 
 Dodge, John S. Kennedy, John Crosby Brown, and 
 D. Willis James. They were all consecrated Chris- 
 tians. They were all rich men, but no breath of cen- 
 sure, or even of suspicion ever impaired the lustre 
 of the methods by which they attained wealth. In 
 life and in death alike, they used this power for the 
 glory of God, and the good of their fellow-men. In 
 the cause of Civic Reform they gave not only 
 money, but generous unselfish service. They gave 
 it gladly. They are types of a great multitude 
 whom no man can number. Without the aid of 
 such, the salt woul_d be out of the system of govern- 
 ment and reform would die. 
 
 Lecky justly said : " The great characteristic of 
 Christianity and the proof of its divinity is that it 
 has been the main source of the moral development 
 of Europe." The same is true of America. The 
 spirit of Christ and the apostles is essential to 
 social progress. It is sane ; it is temperate ; it cares 
 much less for the correction of particular abuses 
 
r^.6 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 o 
 
 y 
 
 / 
 
 than for the regeneration of the evil spirit from 
 w hich those abuses spring. 
 
 The most serious mistake in the endeavours of 
 well-meaning people is the disposition to think that 
 legislation of itself is the most important factor in 
 social progress. That error is absolute. There can 
 be no perfect manners without Christian souls. 
 
 " The Christ Himself had been no Law-giver 
 Unless He had given His life too, with the Law." 
 
 All the legislation in the world will be futile un- 
 less there be in the hearts of men the spirit of love 
 and of helpfulness, which is the essential and dis- 
 tinctive spirit of Christianity. 
 
 We have designedly not dealt especially with the 
 direct work of Christian organizations. We do not 
 undervalue organized Christianity. It is a force of 
 great magnitude. But experience and history alike 
 teach that there is danger in relying exclusively 
 upon organization. It was to a church founded by 
 St. Paul himself, and at one time full of life and 
 rich in good works, that St. John exclaimed.^ 
 
 " Because thou sayest ; I am rich and increased in 
 goods and have need of nothing, and knowest not 
 that thou art wretched and miserable and poor, and 
 blind and naked." 
 
 It is not in organization, however historic, or in 
 symbols, however sacred, that we must trust, but in 
 the Christ ; living as truly now as when He walked 
 by the Sea of Galilee, proclaiming, '* The harvest 
 truly is great, but the labourers are few." 
 3 Rev. 3 : 17. 
 
THE CHURCH IN SOCIAL PROGRESS 137 
 
 In every place in which Christian and brave souls 
 are striving for human progress He calls for volun- 
 teers to fight His battles against the powers of evil. 
 The fundamental truth of Christianity is, that the 
 power that goes with education and wealth is a 
 power in trust; given by God Himself, and that the 
 only true life, the only free life, is a life of self- 
 devoted love, blessing as it does both him that gives 
 and him that receives. And never has there been a 
 more signal instance of this than during the war 
 which in 1914 was forced upon the world by the 
 selfish greed and ambition of the Prussian military 
 caste. In all the Allied nations. Christian men have 
 given without stint; money, time, energy, life itself, 
 in the cause of righteousness and freedom.. 
 
 It is often said that workingmen distrust the 
 Church. No doubt they often do. For this there 
 are several reasons. The present church system of 
 America is mainly the outgrowth of that which oiir 
 forefathers established in the colonies. Their 
 population was in the beginning comparatively 
 homogeneous. Diversities in wealth and material 
 condition were inconsiderable compared with those 
 which now exist. Every town or parish had a 
 church, and all the people in the town came to a 
 certain degree within the scope of the work of the 
 Church and were recognized as having some connec- 
 tion with it. This system was well adapted to the 
 wants of the time. It had no occasion to provide 
 for a large body of people within each town, who 
 had no interest in the work of the Church and were 
 indifferent to its welfare. As population extended 
 
138 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 westward the emigrants took the same limited ^ 
 parish system with them. The descendants of these 
 early colonists have been in the main the most pros- 
 perous and successful in business of all our popu- 
 lation, and they have established in every State, and 
 especially in every large city, a collection of 
 churches which do an important and useful work 
 among their own members and regular attendants, 
 and which bestow considerable sums in charity upon 
 the very poor whose immediate physical wants ap- 
 peal to the common sympathies of humanity, and 
 have ever found Christian people ready to help. 
 But this system has left out of account almost 
 entirely the incalculable change which has taken 
 place in the material conditions of cur people. 
 Great fortunes have multiplied. Great corporations 
 have united in one organization the capital and skill 
 of many. We have ceased to be a homogeneous 
 people; multitudes of foreigners have come to our 
 shores and established themselves among us. To a 
 large extent their children have become a part of our 
 people, but to a large extent also they have main- 
 tained their national customs and peculiarities. 
 
 The tendency of our public school system has 
 been to train American children for business and 
 professional pursuits. Until a very recent period 
 there have been no public technical schools what- 
 ever. The result of this has been that skilled work- 
 men in the different trades to a large extent are 
 foreigners, and for this reason also, have come to 
 constitute a class by themselves. 
 
 These difficulties had no existence in the middle 
 
THE CHURCH IN SOCIAL PROGRESS 139 
 
 ages. Five centuries ago the Christian Church in 
 Europe included within the scope of its organiza- 
 tion the whole people. There were, it is true, great 
 diversities in material condition, but the Church 
 found room for all. One of its principal func- 
 tions was to defend the poor against the oppres- 
 sion of powerful nobles. The terrors of the Church 
 were sometimes used on behalf of cruel and op- 
 pressive monarchs, but quite as often on behalf of 
 the lower and middle classes against their feudal 
 oppressors. The bitter disputes between different 
 theological schools in regard to various dogmas, did 
 not affect the unity of organization, and were not 
 appreciated or shared by the great body of the 
 people. The Reformation, which put an end to so 
 many abuses, and brought with it so many bless- 
 ings, had yet this great and unspeakable disadvan- 
 tage; that it divided Christendom into many dif- 
 ferent churches. The very eagerness with which 
 men maintained and even fought for the doctrines 
 in which they believed set them at enmity, one 
 against the other, and it came to pass that Chris- 
 tian people were more aggressive in the defence of 
 this or that theoretical proposition, than they were 
 diligent in the practice of the cardinal virtues of the 
 doctrine of Christ in which they all agreed. The 
 Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, which He estab- 
 lished as a bond of union, became an element of 
 discord, and in England was even made a political 
 test. Divided and torn asunder by these conflicting 
 elements, the churches lost, to a large degree, their 
 hold upon the common people; and ceased to be a 
 
I40 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 shelter for them against oppression. They lost 
 their power because they were untrue to their 
 Leader, from whom power alone could come. 
 
 The result of all this has been that we are con- 
 fronted in all our large cities with a great body of 
 workingmen who earn thirty to forty dollars a 
 week, often more, who are as much out of relation 
 with the Church, as if they lived in Greenland or 
 Kamchatka. Our churches do much good work in 
 alms to the very poor. They care for and feed the 
 sick and hungry. We would not for a moment 
 underrate the value of the work that is done in re- 
 lieving them, nor diminish by one jot the praise 
 that is due to the self-denial, patience, and sym- 
 pathy of those noble men and women, in every 
 church, who bring comfort and help to the suf- 
 fering. But it is not the very poor who most need 
 the instruction and aid of the Church. Too long 
 have we allowed thousands and hundreds of thou- 
 sands within sound of our church bells and within 
 sight of our church doors, to pass by on the other 
 side. The time has come when the churches must 
 awake to their duty in this matter, for upon the 
 discharge of that duty depends the permanence and 
 prosperity of the whole fabric of our civilization. 
 There is only one tree whose leaves are for the 
 healing of the nations and that is the Cross of 
 Christ. 
 
 The ideal Christian commonwealth is one in 
 which every citizen of the State is also a member 
 of the Christian Church, and in which, therefore, 
 all men not only are, but feel themselves to be 
 
THE CHURCH IN SOCIAL PROGRESS 141 
 
 brethren, and as brethren mutually helpful and 
 mutually dependent/. Poets sung of Arcadia, but 
 Christ and His apostles first presented to man, not 
 as an object of fanciful speculation, but as an ideal 
 for the realization of which every one is bound to 
 strive, this marvellous conception of universal 
 brotherhood. The Apostle describes the Christian 
 commonwealth as one where there " is neither 
 Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, 
 Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all 
 and in all." * These words sound familiar to our 
 ears ; we have heard them since childhood ; but have 
 we ever translated them into the language of the 
 twentieth century, have we ever presented to our- 
 selves the ideal Christian commonwealth as one in 
 which there is no distinction of race or caste, so far 
 as the ministry and services of the Church are con- 
 cerned; in which there should be neither white nor 
 black, neither Irishman, Scandinavian, Italian, or 
 Chinaman? What these words are to us the words 
 of the Apostle were to him, and they had even a 
 stranger sound in the ears of those who heard him 
 than the corresponding terms can have in ours. His 
 final words, *' bond nor free," once had terrible 
 significance in these United States, but after the 
 lapse of fifty years they have almost died out of our 
 recollection. When St. Paul wrote to the Colos- 
 sians, most of the unskilled labour throughout the 
 Roman Empire was slave labour. When he came 
 to speak of the duty of the employer to the em- 
 ployed, it was to those who filled the place of 
 4 Col. 3:11. 
 
142 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 master over slaves that he spoke.^' If to them, oc- 
 cupying such an unnatural position, he could speak 
 as he did, how much more significance have his 
 words to us, and what light they throw on all the 
 strife between labour and capital that often lights 
 our horizon like lightning out of a thunder cloud. 
 To the workman he says : Do your work to your 
 very best ability, not scamping it, not trying to do 
 the least work for the most pay, but working in the 
 sight of Him from whom no secrets are hid. And 
 to capitalists, owners of mills and factories, heads 
 of stores and counting houses, yes, all who employ 
 labour, he says : " Do the same things unto them, 
 forbearing threatening; knowing that your Master 
 also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons 
 with him." ^ 
 
 True is it, as Coleridge well said, that " the main 
 hindrance to the use of the Scriptures as your 
 manual, lies in the notion that you are acquainted 
 with its contents. Truths of all others the most 
 awful and mysterious, and at the same time of uni- 
 versal interest, are considered so true as to lose all 
 the power of truth, and lie bed-ridden in the dormi- 
 tory of the soul side by side with the most despised 
 and exploded errors."^ If the Christian people of 
 this country could once, even for a moment, realize 
 what is meant by the Word of God that has been 
 read by them and to them so many times, and for 
 so many years, if they could realize, that the more 
 
 5 Eph. 6: g. 
 
 « Statesman's Manual— Tht Bible the best guide to political 
 skill and foresight. 
 
THE CHURCH IN SOCIAL PROGRESS 143 
 
 mistaken societies of workingmen are, the more 
 they need to be educated; that the Church owes 
 them the duty of education, not the training of the 
 intellect but the training of the heart, the teaching 
 that man should not make it the main part of his 
 life to get the most he can from his fellows with- 
 out respect or consideration for their rights or his 
 duties; 'if we could once realize that it is our part y 
 and duty, iiTevery relation of life, not simply to con- 
 sider our own interest, but the interest and the wel- 
 fare of all with whom, as men, we become in any 
 way related, we should soon cease to deplore that 
 the majority of men who get their living by daily 
 wages have no interest in our churches and seldom 
 darken their doors. We have treated our minds as 
 we do the temples in which we worship. We shut 
 out or obscure the light of heaven and seek to pro- 
 vide an imperfect substitute by artificial illumina- 
 tion, which has neither the power nor the beauty of 
 that which God supplies. 
 
 We look about us and behold on every hand asso- 
 ciations of workingmen; they call themselves by 
 different names, but they have all learned the power 
 and usefulness of mutual helpfulness. Their obedi- 
 ence to their leaders is something that cannot fail to 
 excite our wonder; their fidelity even to a bad cause, 
 ought to arouse our admiration. They have done 
 much good; unfortunately, also, they have done 
 much harm. They have been often misled, and 
 have frequently imitated the injustice with which 
 too often they have been treated. In many of their 
 public utterances and actions they have shown want 
 
144' A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 of sympathy with the interests of their employers, 
 and have failed to see that in the only true sense, 
 the interest of the employer and the interest of the 
 workman are identical. But the power and in- 
 fluence of the demagogue is nothing new. Three 
 thousand years ago the prophet described in terms 
 which no subsequent writer has been able to make 
 more vivid, the vile person who spoke villainy, who 
 made empty the soul of the hungry, and caused the 
 drink of the thirsty to fail."^ The men who in all 
 time are leaders of causeless strikes, are quite in- 
 different to the sufferings of the hungry wife and 
 children of the men who are out, if they can only 
 feel the satisfaction of displaying their power, and 
 carrying their point. Yet we must not fail to 
 acknowledge that the labour organizations have had 
 wnse and temperate leaders like Mr. Powderly and 
 Samuel Gompers, whose influence has been in the 
 main for good and not for evil. 
 
 The same prophet who described the vile persons 
 of his day, left for all time the inspired maxim, that 
 " the liberal deviseth liberal things and by liberal 
 things shall he stand." ^ In many factory towns 
 mills are constructed and managed upon liberal prin- 
 ciples. For example, provision is made for purify- 
 ing the air. Boys sprinkle water in order that the 
 threads of cotton from the work may not float 
 about in the atmosphere and injure the lungs of the 
 working people. The place of their work is made 
 beautiful by plants along the wall; reading rooms 
 and comfortable dwellings are provided where the 
 
 7lsa. 32:6. sjsa. 32:8. 
 
THE CHURCH IN SOCIAL PROGRESS 145 
 
 hours of rest or recreation may be spent. There are 
 also many instances in which the employer has won 
 the confidence of his workmen by providing for the 
 increase of their wages when his profits increased. 
 No doubt there is the obvious objection that em- 
 ployees are unwilling to share in losses, and that 
 sharing in profits ought to involve sharing in losses. 
 It is easy to suggest difficulties. The question as to 
 how working people are most eflfectively to be inter- 
 ested in their work, in its success and the success 
 of their employers, is a problem not yet wholly 
 solved. It never will be solved until every man 
 who acknowledges allegiance to our Lord, feels it 
 his duty to care for and consider the welfare of all 
 whom he employs, or with whom he enters into any 
 business relation, as if it v/ere his own. But we 
 have not lost faith in the power of God. We be- 
 lieve that in the end evil will be conquered. As 
 Luther said : " Will you cringe and doubt as if the 
 world were to be conqueror, and not Christ? " And 
 how will it be overcome except by the united efforts 
 of Christian people? How can these efforts ever be 
 united, or ever be successful, unless begun in faith 
 and carried out with courage ? — unless we open our 
 eyes, as did Elisha's servant and behold the angels 
 of God, His power, His greatness, His omnipotence 
 on our side, and realize that they that be for us are 
 more than they that be against us? 
 
 The defects that have been pointed out in the 
 work of the Christian Church and the admitted im- 
 perfections of its organization, have often led men 
 to ignore some of the most important factors in 
 
146 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 social progress which the world has known during 
 the past century. 
 
 It is centuries since monastic orders were formed 
 in the Greek Church, and in the Roman Catholic 
 Church. These orders, during the middle ages, 
 were of great value in keeping alive the love of 
 books and literature; in defending the weak from 
 the oppression of the powerful; and in caring for 
 the poor and the sick. So much has been written 
 of the work of the Franciscans, the Dominicans and 
 other religious orders that it is unnecessary to refer 
 to them more at length. 
 
 But attention has not been sufficiently directed to 
 the fact that the Salvation Army, the Young Men's 
 Christian Association and the Young Women's 
 Christian Association are really Protestant religious 
 orders. Ever since the monastic orders were 
 formed there has been a certain amount of jeal- 
 ousy between them and the regular clergy. It is 
 not surprising that similar conditions in Protestant 
 churches should produce similar results, but in 
 neither case is the jealousy justified. 
 
 The organized Church has its members, men, 
 women, and children. Into the various parishes the 
 great events of human life, marriage, birth, and 
 death are constantly coming. It is the first duty of 
 the pastor of each flock to care for the members of 
 it and to sympathize, aid, and guide his people in 
 religious treatment of these fundamental facts. He 
 is to be an example to the believers " in word, 
 manner of life, in love, in faith, in purity." He 
 should "give heed to reading, to exhortation, to 
 
THE CHURCH IN SOCIAL PROGRESS 147 
 
 teaching." All this is the home work and it is of 
 the first importance. Following this naturally 
 comes the organ izc^tion for mission work outside the 
 various parishes. iMen and women who have love 
 in their hearts wirl naturally show it as our Lord 
 did. Some will have a call to go into foreign 
 lands and teach and encourage the people there. 
 Others will find work in their own country among 
 those who are ignorant or out of the way. In either 
 case the first duty of the Church is to teach the 
 fundamental principles of the gospel, and the men 
 and women who are taught, if they receive the truth 
 in reality, will feel it their duty to give to others 
 the unspeakable gift they have themselves received.^ 
 
 All this is what happened in the development of 
 the Christian Church. Its regular pastors and 
 teachers did their work, and those who received their 
 teachings and had their hearts quickened by the 
 spirit of God felt a call to share with others what 
 they themselves had received. One of them was 
 George Williams, a London merchant. In 1844 ^^ 
 founded there the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tion for social and religious work for young men. 
 This work has grown in a wonderful way. When 
 first we knew it in New York, in 1857, the Asso- 
 ciation had two or three small rooms in the old 
 Clinton Hall. Then it erected the building on the 
 corner of Twenty-third Street and Fourth Avenue. 
 Now it has branches and buildings all over the 
 city. Not only does it undertake to provide re- 
 ligious teaching, scientific and business instruction, 
 and innocent amusement for young men who are in 
 
148 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 business, but it does important work among the 
 students of the city. New York has come to have 
 the greatest student population of any city of 
 America. 
 
 There are Associations in every large American 
 city. There is an International Committee which 
 maintains branches in every continent. During the 
 war it has undertaken a special work for the sol- 
 diers. This has mainly been done by laymen. The 
 number of persons employed to give their whole 
 time to the Association is very large. It has estab- 
 lished a special training school for its secretaries. 
 Their work is largely done among men who have 
 no special Church associations and who have come 
 into the cities where the Association exists and have 
 not vet established a home there. But in the main 
 the Associations co-operate with the churches. Each 
 uro^es its members to join one of the Christian 
 churches in the city where they live, and thus not 
 only to receive the benefit of the church teaching 
 but to co-operate in church work. In every one the 
 purpose is to guide and encourage the members to 
 apply Christian principle to practical life. Men who 
 know this life can do that better than those who do 
 not know. This seems trite, but like many obvious 
 truths it is often overlooked. A caustic critic has 
 asked why the Christian ministers did not tell our 
 statesmen what they ought to do in the beginning of 
 the war? The answer is that Christian ministers 
 are not trained to be statesmen. When they under- 
 take that job they generally make a mess of it. 
 
THE CHURCH IN SOCIAL PROGRESS 149 
 
 There are many pastors but few are qualified to be 
 prophets. Henry C. Potter had perhaps as much of 
 the character and training of a statesman as any 
 American bishop. He saw clearly the fundamental 
 proposition that it is the duty of the clergy to teach 
 with all their might religious truths, and leave to 
 laymen the duty of applying these truths in practical 
 politics. In 1900 he pointed out in stinging words 
 the crimes that were tolerated in the Tenth Ward, 
 but he refused to join in the leadership of the 
 citizens' movement to clean the Augean stables 
 and punish the criminals. As a citizen he did his 
 part in the ranks. In Hke manner when the 
 brutality of the Huns became known to us there 
 were many clergymen who raised their voices in 
 indignant protest. But as a rule they wisely left to 
 the President the decision when to recommend a 
 declaration of war. 
 
 To illustrate. The minister should try to inspire 
 the young men who are going into the Navy with 
 courage, patience, unfaltering faith, absolute devo- 
 tion to duty. But it would be foolish for him to 
 try to instruct them in gunnery or navigation. 
 
 Many people seem to think it is an easy matter 
 to conduct a great government. But those who are 
 familiar with the facts know that this is more 
 difficult than the navigation of a ship. 
 
 The part which the Christian Church has taken in 
 this great crisis of world history has in part been 
 done by its chaplains, with devotion unsurpassed. 
 But it has also been done by the Young Men's Chris- 
 
150 A LAWYER^S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 tian Association, the Young Women's Christian 
 Association, the Salvation Army, and many others. 
 
 The men and women who are active in the Asso- 
 ciations or the Army are almost invariably members 
 of Christian churches. They received their train- 
 ing from the Church. To fault the churches be- 
 cause they do not do the work of the Associations is 
 as unreasonable as it would have been for President 
 Lincoln to blame the mother of the seven sons who 
 were killed in battle for the Union, because she had 
 not gone to the war herself. The Church taught 
 these men the love of God and man. It taught 
 them to show their love by works of kindness and 
 sympathy. No doubt it is true that the demands of 
 the millions of men engaged in the present war have 
 called forth contributions to the Christian Asso- 
 ciations and to the Salvation Army on a larger scale 
 than have ever been given in any one year to any 
 one specific work of the churches. But this money 
 is given largely by members of churches and is in 
 reality, if not in form, the work of the Church. 
 There is then no room for jealousy on either side, 
 but a call for the most cordial co-operation, and it 
 should be added that American churches gave in 
 1917 for their own specific Christian work, in the 
 aggregate, more than seven million dollars. 
 
 Perhaps no one has described the co-operation at 
 the battle front of the chaplain and of the Associa- 
 tion better than a Canadian, Harold R. Peat, in 
 the bock called '* Private Peat," which has recently 
 been published. He gives this illuminating ac- 
 count : 
 
THE CHURCH IN SOCIAL PROGRESS 151 
 
 " We have our thoughts, our hopes and our aspira- 
 tions. Some of us have our Bibles and our prayer 
 books, some of us have rosaries and crucifixes. All 
 of us have deep in our hearts love, veneration and 
 respect for the sky-pilot — chaplain, if you would 
 rather call him so. To us sky-pilot and very truly so ; 
 the man who not only points the way to higher things, 
 but the man who travels with us over the rough road 
 which leads to peace in our innermost selves. 
 
 " It does not matter of what sect or of what de- 
 nomination these men may be. On the battlefield there 
 are Anglican clergy, there are Roman Catholic priests, 
 there are ministers of the Presbyterian, the Methodist, 
 the Baptist and other non-conformist faiths. Creed 
 and doctrine play no part when men are gasping out 
 a dying breath and the last message home. The 
 chaplain carries in his heart the comfort for the man 
 who is facing eternity. We do not want to die. We 
 are all strong r.nd full of life and hope and power 
 of doing. Suddenly we are stricken beyond mortal 
 aid. The chaplain comes and in a few phrases gives 
 us the password, the sign which admits us to the 
 peaceful masonry of Christianity. Rough men pass 
 away, hard men * go West ' with a smile of peace 
 upon their pain tortured lips, if the padre can get 
 to them in time for the parting word, the cheerful, 
 colloquial ' best o' luck.' 
 
 " Hand in hand with the chaplains at the front is 
 the Y. M. C. A. It is doing a marvellous work among 
 the troops. The Y. M. C. A. huts are scattered all 
 over the fighting front. Here you will find the padre 
 with his coat off engaged in the real ' shirt sleeve ' 
 religion of the trenches. Here there are all possible 
 comforts, even little luxuries for the boys. Here are 
 concerts — the best and best-known artists come out 
 and give their services to cheer up Tommy. Here the 
 padres will hold five or six services in an evening for 
 the benefit of the five or six relays of men who can 
 
152 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 attend. Here are checker-boards, chess sets, cards, 
 games of all sorts. Here is a miniature departmental 
 store where footballs, mouth organs, pins, needles, 
 buttons, cotton, everything can be bought. 
 
 " * What's the place wid the red Triangle ? ' asked 
 the Irish soldier, lately joined up and only out, from 
 a Scotch-Canadian who stood near by. 
 
 "*Yon? D'ye mean to say ye dinna know the 
 meaning o' thon? Why, mon, yon's the place whaur 
 ye get a packet o' fags, a bar o' chocolate, a soft 
 drink and salvation for twenty-five cents.' 
 
 *' Can folk wonder why we love the padres, why we 
 reverence the Y. M. C. A.? Can folk wonder why 
 the men who used to look on such men as sissy-boys 
 have changed their opinions? Can folk wonder that 
 the religion which is Christian is making an impres- 
 sion on the soldier? Can folk deny the fact that this 
 war will make better men ? " 
 
 To sum it up : Critics of the Church should study 
 the twelfth chapter of the first Epistle to the Corin- 
 thians. "There are diversities of operations, but 
 it is the same God who worketh all in all. . . . 
 Are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers? " 
 There were many priests in Jerusalem, but only one 
 Isaiah. There were many priests among the cap- 
 tive Jews, but only one Ezekiel. Even so it is now. 
 And the prophet was not always a priest. Christ 
 Himself was of the tribe of Judah, "whereof no 
 man gave attendance at the altar." In His Church 
 there may be more prophetic gift in layman than in 
 priest. " All these worketh that one and the self- 
 same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he 
 will." * 
 »! Cor. 12:4-11. 
 
FORMALISM 
 
 TPIE besetting sin of religionists is the attach- 
 ing undue importance to outward observ- 
 ances. Devotion to duty implies conscien- 
 tiousness. The conscience naturally is offended 
 when it perceives external transgressions. If a man 
 is drunk and disorderly a commotion is produced. 
 If a man strikes another the natural impulse is to 
 strike back, and then there is a row. It is very 
 disagreeable to hear two angry women quarrel. 
 When any of these or the like offences are com- 
 mitted in public the man or the woman who does 
 not commit them naturally says : This must be 
 stopped. Call a policeman. 
 
 The more devout the believer, the more this 
 temper will extend to the externals of religious 
 worship. Reverence naturally makes the believer 
 more solicitous for the punctilious observance of 
 religious rites. 
 
 As we study the sacred books of the Hebrews, we 
 find, coupled with many spiritual precepts, detailed 
 requirements as to the construction of the taber- 
 nacle, with its curtains of blue, purple, and scarlet, 
 its veil, the ark of acacia wood, overlaid with pure 
 
 153 
 
154 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 gold, the golden candlestick with its almond flower 
 cups, the altar of acacia wood, overlaid with gold; 
 the brazen laver, the hangings of the court, with its 
 pillars and their capitals, overlaid with silver, the 
 covering of ramskins, dyed red/ Then follow in 
 Leviticus even more exact details as to the outward 
 worship of God; the burnt offerings, the meal offer- 
 ing, the peace offering, the sin offering, the trespass 
 offering,^ the anointing of the high priest, and his 
 sons, the consecration of the priests.^ Then we 
 find minute commands as to diet, hygiene, the treat- 
 ment of lepers,* and the great day of atonement for 
 sins.^ 
 
 The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, a thou- 
 sand years after, taught the Hebrews of his day, 
 and all men that '' it is impossible that the blood of 
 bulls and of goats should take away sins.^ He de- 
 clares that the ordinances of the Jewish temple 
 worship were '* carnal ordinances, imposed on them 
 until the time of reformation." ^ He quotes the 
 words of the prophet Jeremiah: "Behold the days 
 come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new cove- 
 nant with the house of Israel and the house of 
 Judah; ... I will put my laws into their mind, 
 and on their heart also wall I write them, and I 
 will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a 
 people." ^ And he declares that this " new cove- 
 nant" makes the first old. "Now that which 
 
 1 Exod. 3<^38. 5 Lev. i6. 
 
 2 Lev. Ch. 1-7. «Heb. 10:4. 
 
 3 Lev. Ch. 8, 9. "^ Heb. 9 : 10. 
 
 *Lev. Ch. 11-15. «Jer. 31:31, 33; quoted Heb. 8:8, 10. 
 
FORMALISM 155 
 
 decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish 
 away." ® 
 
 The elaborate ritual of sacrifices did vanish for 
 the gorgeous Temple was destroyed by Titus and 
 has never been restored. But the temper that made 
 it attractive remained and has not vanished from 
 the hearts either of Jews or Christians. To men 
 and women of a poetic temperament these elabo- 
 rate ceremonials and minute observances are at- 
 tractive. We must not condemn them altogether. 
 Yet we must not forget that they often tend to 
 draw the soul away from devotion to the new cove- 
 nant of love and of service to God, in the spirit 
 of love, as to a loving Father, and to men, as His 
 children and our brothers. 
 
 Startling, almost terrifying instances of this 
 have been manifested in our day and have brought 
 unspeakable woe to individual nations and to the 
 world. 
 
 The Russian Church for many centuries has been 
 punctilious in religious observances. In every 
 house there was a sacred ikon to which reverence 
 was paid. These details were diligently taught and 
 the traveller in Russia would say as St. Paul did 
 of the Athenians — *' I perceive that ye are very 
 religious." ^^ But alas ! " the weightier matters of 
 the law, justice and mercy and faith," " were too 
 often overlooked — smothered, as it were, by the 
 -superincumbent feather-bed of forms. Revolution 
 came, and chaos came with it. Religion means and 
 
 9Heb. 8:13. 10 Acts 17:22, R. V. 
 
 11 Matt. 23 : 23. 
 
156 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 ought to be, a bond that binds together the different 
 classes of society in mutual helpfulness. Instead of 
 this, we saw class hatred in bitter form, the work- 
 men against their employers, and against the peas- 
 ants; the peasants against the landowners and 
 against the workmen; the soldiers against their of- 
 ficers, and the officers against the soldiers. All 
 bonds were broken, the houses of people who had 
 any property and the churches themselves were pil- 
 laged and many of them destroyed. 
 
 Again, in Germany we beheld a Kaiser, devout in 
 all outward rites and ceremonies, appealing to God 
 as his ally, supporting liberally the national Church. 
 Yet he began a war in violation of sacred treaties, 
 and in its conduct broke all the laws of war em- 
 bodied not only in international law, but in the 
 Hague conventions, to which he had solemnly 
 agreed. He enslaved the captives taken by his 
 armies in Belgium and in France. Yet in the Bible 
 which he professes to reverence and which is read 
 in the churches of which he claimed to be the head, 
 he might have read, probably did read, of a Hebrew 
 king, who made a covenant with all the people at 
 Jerusalem to deliver their brethren from bondage, 
 and afterwards broke his treaty, and reduced them 
 to servitude. The warning of the prophet is already 
 fulfilled. " Therefore—thus saith the Lord—* Ye 
 have not hearkened unto me, to proclaim liberty, 
 every man to his brother, and every man to his 
 neighbour; behold I proclaim unto you a liberty — 
 saith the Lord — to the sword and to the pestilence, 
 and to the famine ; and I will make you to be tossed 
 
FORMALISM 157 
 
 to and fro among all the kingdoms of the 
 earth.' " ^^ 
 
 Men are always forgetting that the righteous law J 
 of God is just as certain and unchanging as the law' 
 of gravitation. Its applications change with chang- 
 ing conditions, but the law itself is unchanging as 
 God Himself, and can never be broken with im- 
 punity. 
 
 Thus have we briefly traced the progressive reve- 
 lation of God's will and shown how He taught a 
 primitive people, as children are taught, and how 
 afterwards the divine and spiritual reality was more 
 fully revealed as man became more ready to re- 
 ceive it. As St. Paul says : " The law was our 
 schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." ^^ 
 
 But actually, when Christ did come, notwith- 
 standing the teaching of the prophets to which we 
 have referred, and which was " read in the syna- 
 gogues every Sabbath-day " ^* He found a strong 
 party among the chosen people, of whom Robert- 
 son justly says: ^^ 
 
 " The Pharisees had no notion of any other good- 
 ness than that which is restrained ; they could con- 
 ceive no goodness free, but only that which is re- 
 strained by rewards and punishments : law-goodness, 
 law-righteousness: to dread God, not to love and 
 trust Him, was their conception of religion." 
 
 Christ knew that this temper was hostile to true 
 religion. He began His strife with the Pharisees by 
 
 i2Jer. 34:17. R. V. 
 
 ^3 Gal. 3 : 24. 
 
 1* Acts 5:21. 
 
 15" Sermons," Vol. Ill, p. 65, London ed., 1878. 
 
158 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 condemning their rigid and formal observance of 
 the Sabbath. The law of Moses prohibited work 
 on that day. All experience since has shown that 
 the observance of one day in seven as a day of rest 
 and worship is beneficial to mankind. In many 
 States of the American Union, in which manufac- 
 turies of steel and other products exist which re- 
 quire continuous operation, laws have been passed 
 requiring employers to give those workmen who of 
 necessity work on Sunday, another day of rest. 
 But this principle, embodied in the Fourth Com- 
 mandment the Pharisees perverted, and condemned 
 Christ and sought to kill Him for healing the sick 
 on the Sabbath and condemned His disciples for 
 plucking ears of grain on that day to satisfy their 
 hunger.^^ 
 
 Christ's reply went to the root of the matter. 
 " If ye had known what this meaneth — * I will have 
 mercy and not sacrifice' — (Hosea 6:6) ye would 
 not have condemned the guiltless. The Sabbath 
 was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath : 
 therefore the son of man is Lord also of the 
 Sabbath." 
 
 Here the two principles of action are sharply 
 contrasted. The soul which is devoted to mercy 
 and the soul which is devoted to external observ- 
 ances are antitheses. It is hard for the latter to 
 understand the former. Ignorance and misunder- 
 standing are the parents of hate and persecution. 
 
 Christ's next encounter with the Pharisees was 
 
 i« John 5:7-16; Matt. 12:1-8; Mark 2 : 23- 28 ; Luke 
 6:1-5. 
 
FORMALISM 159 
 
 with reference to their punctilious harshness re- 
 specting details of conduct. The law of Moses con- 
 tained many commands on the subject of cleanli- 
 ness and diet; most of which we can see were 
 reasonable, and for all of which, no doubt, there 
 was good reason at the time. The importance of 
 some of them is emphasized by modern science. As 
 a whole the hygienic code of the Hebrews was far 
 in advance of the period at which it was promul- 
 gated. But the Pharisees carried these requirements 
 to an absurd extreme : and tradition had added 
 many more of less value. On these the Pharisees 
 laid great stress, and neglected to teach or observe 
 the spiritual commandments of God.^^ So Christ 
 taught the people that it is what proceeds from the 
 heart that really defiles the man — " Evil thoughts, 
 adulteries, fornications, murders, covetousness, 
 wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blas- 
 phemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things 
 come from within and defile the man." ^* 
 
 Christ summed it all in the parable of the two 
 sons.^^ The Pharisees were represented by the son 
 who said he would go to work in his father's vine- 
 yard, but in fact went not. The Pharisees were 
 respectable people. Their outward conduct was pre- 
 cise. The letter of the law they rigidly observed. 
 But Christ said to them : " The publicans and the 
 harlots (the types of outward and conspicuous 
 transgressors) go into the kingdom of God before 
 you." '' 
 
 IT Matt: 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23. ^^Matt. 21:28-32. 
 
 18 Mark 7 ; 21-23, 20 ^^tt, 21 : 31. 
 
i6o A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 And when His last great debate with them was 
 ended, in the very week of His crucifixion He made 
 the famous address to the people in which He 
 warned them, and all His followers against the sin 
 of formalism. This is recorded most fully in the 
 twenty-third chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel. 
 Every Christian ought to read it often, and strive 
 to grasp and lay to heart its spiritual significance. 
 The sect of the Pharisees has passed away. But in 
 every age its spirit revives. Their name which 
 means — those separate from others — and which was 
 given because they thought themselves holier than 
 the common people, expressed their temper well. 
 
 The prophet of their own people, Isaiah, had con- 
 demned it, centuries before. The people that pro- 
 voked the Lord continually were those w^ho said : 
 " Stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am 
 holier than thou." ^' 
 
 The churches that have devoted their main teach- 
 ing to outward observances, and condemned all who 
 did not agree with them as heretics; the Puritans 
 who made music and dancing, and similar amuse- 
 ments a crime, punishable by fine and imprison- 
 ment, religionists who have made Sunday a day of 
 gloom, reformers who have expended their strength 
 and money in advocating penal laws against inno- 
 cent enjoyments, and sought to make men virtuous 
 by statute; these all partake of the Pharisee spirit, 
 and need to study the warnings of Christ. 
 
 We are fortunate that in this time of storm and 
 itress there is a religious leader who has expressed 
 ?Usa. 65:5. 
 
FORMALISM i6i 
 
 very clearly one distinctive quality of the lite and 
 ::haracter of Christ with which we may well con- 
 dude this chapter : ^^ 
 
 " There was, for instance the social quality of His 
 goodness. For His goodness was neither austere 
 morality, nor frigid self -culture. It was holiness, 
 blended with passion for the sinner, knowledge 
 softened with kindness toward the unenlightened, 
 purity radiant with passion to reclaim. The Evan- 
 gelist had seen Christ at Cana serving the needs of 
 the village wedding party. . . . He had seen Him 
 blaze out at the eyes and the lips when face to face 
 with the paralyzing cant of formal religion. . . . x\nd 
 John had recognized His righteous anger as having 
 in it something of the awful glory of God." 
 
 22 Rev. J. Stuart Holden, "Record Christian Work," 
 Aug., 1918, p. 473. 
 
XI 
 
 WAR 
 
 LET us now proceed to apply our rules of con- 
 struction to the Christian Ethics of War. 
 We must therefore consider the teaching of 
 the Old Testament as well as of the New. For 
 Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount : '' Think 
 not that I am come to destroy the law or the 
 prophet; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." ^ 
 Christ in His human nature, was a son of David, of 
 the tribe of Judah.' The twelve apostles were all 
 Jews. St. Paul calls himself " a Hebrew of the 
 Hebrews."^ They were all "taught according to 
 the perfect manner of the law of the fathers." * 
 They were permeated with the spirit of the Old 
 Testament. The New had not been written. Un- 
 doubtedly, it was part of their commission to bring 
 a new spirit into the life of man, to liberate him 
 from the bondage of the letter, and bring him into 
 the " glorious liberty of the children of God." ** 
 But any one who will compare St. Paul's Epistle to 
 the Romans with his speech before King Agrippa,* 
 will see that he conceived of this Christian liberty 
 
 1 Matt. 5 : 17. * Acts 22 : 3. 
 
 2 Heb. 7 : 14. ^ Rom. 8:21. 
 » Phil. 3:5. « Acts 22. 
 
WAR • 163 
 
 as did his Master, as a fulfilment of the law and 
 the prophets. What light then does the Old 
 Testament throw upon the Sermon on the 
 Mount ? 
 
 In the historical books, the wars of the Hebrews 
 against the cruel and licentious nations of Canaan 
 are described with as much satisfaction as the war 
 correspondents of today chronicled the victories of 
 the Allies. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Divine 
 Saviour as a warrior " that cometh from Edom, 
 with dyed garments from Bozrah." " " The day of 
 justice is in his heart and the year of his redeemed 
 is come." "Our holy and beautiful house where 
 our fathers praised thee (the Cathedral at Rheims, 
 we would say) is burned with fire, and all our 
 pleasant things are laid waste." ^ It was for jus- 
 tice upon the cruel oppressors, as well as upon the 
 sinners of his own people, that the Divine Saviour 
 came — the great and righteous Judge, King, and 
 Warrior. 
 
 Let the reader compare this sixty-third chapter 
 of Isaiah and the chapters in Ezekiel (a contempo- 
 rary prophet) which describe the pride and the 
 ruin of Tyre,^ with the Book of Revelation. In 
 each we have a graphic description of a proud and 
 prosperous commercial state. The prince of Tyre 
 said — " I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in 
 
 ^ Isa. 63; I, 4, George Adam Smith, "Book of Isaiah," 
 Vol. 11, p. 441. I would use in verse 4, the word justice 
 which in the authorized version is translated vengeance. To 
 us, justice is the true rendering. 
 
 8 Tsa. 64: Ti. 
 
 9 Ezek. 26-28. 
 
i64 A LAWYER^S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 the midst of the seas. ... By thy great wisdom 
 and by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches, 
 and thy heart is lifted up because of thy riches.*' 
 " Therefore behold I will bring strangers upon thee, 
 the terrible of the nations ; and they shall draw their 
 swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they 
 shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee 
 down to the pit; and thou shalt die the death of 
 them that are slain in the heart of the seas." ^^ 
 
 In the Revelation, centuries after, the Great City 
 Babylon is a Queen — " arrayed in purple and scarlet 
 and decked with gold and precious stones and 
 pearls." " She saith in her heart, I sit a queen, 
 and am no widow, and shall in no wise see 
 mourning." She was " drunken with the blood 
 of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of 
 Jesus." " In one day shall her plagues come, death, 
 and mourning, and famine, and she shall be utterly 
 burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who 
 judged her." " A strong angel took up a stone, 
 as it were a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, 
 saying, ' Thus with a mighty fall shall Babylon, 
 the Great City, be cast down, and shall be found no 
 more at all.* " ^' 
 
 Christ, of whom it is said — " In righteousness he 
 doth judge and make war," who is called *' Faithful 
 and True," comes with His armies; and the beast, 
 on which the queen sat, " and the kings of the earth 
 and their armies " made war against Him. These 
 enemies of righteousness were overthrown. *' And 
 lOEzck. 28:2, 7, 8. 11 Rev. 17:4, 6; 18:7, 8, 21, R. V. 
 
WAR 165 
 
 there was war in heaven, Michael and his Angels 
 going forth to war with the dragon, and the 
 dragon warred and his angels and they prevailed 
 not, neither was their place found any more in 
 Heaven." ^' 
 
 Thus in poetic form do the prophets of the Old 
 Testament and of the New alike declare that a war 
 to defend the oppressed and plundered and to punish 
 the cruel and remorseless oppressor and pirate is 
 righteous. It is plainly declared to be God's war, 
 and Christ is the leader of the hosts of justice. 
 
 In the language of prose St. Paul is equally 
 emphatic. In the most elaborate of all his letters, 
 the Epistle to the Christians in the metropolis of 
 Rome, he says of the Chief Magistrate : 
 
 "He is the minister of God to thee for good. 
 But if thou do that which is evil be afraid ; for he 
 beareth not the sword in vain ; for he is the minister 
 of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that 
 doeth evil." '' 
 
 The Twentieth Century Testament renders this: 
 
 " But if you do what is wrong, you may well be 
 afraid ; for the sword they carry, is not without mean- 
 ing! They are God's servants, to inflict his punish- 
 ments on those who do wrong." 
 
 This renders the meaning of the original more 
 accurately according to our use of words in this 
 century, than does the King James version. " Re- 
 venger," and " wrath," are now commonly used in 
 
 12 Rev. 12:7; 19, R. V. ^2 Rom. 13 : 4- 
 
1 66 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 a bad sense. We must dissociate such words from 
 our thought of God. As the same version well 
 renders the last verse of St. John's first Epistle: 
 " My children, guard yourselves against false ideas 
 of God." '* 
 
 But in either version the thought is clear that 
 it is part of the business of the State to punish 
 wrongdoers. St. Peter expresses the same idea in 
 his first Epistle.^^ The governors are sent by the 
 Emperor " to punish evildoers and to commend 
 those who do right." 
 
 When therefore an organized army of murderers 
 and robbers burst into Belgium and northern 
 France, killed the people, ravished the women, de- 
 stroyed the churches and universities, and robbed 
 whatever they could grasp, it was not only the right 
 but the duty of civilized nations to punish them, 
 " to execute justice," to be " a covert from the face 
 of the destroyer," and consume the oppressors out 
 of the land.^^ When this is accomplished the 
 prophecy of Isaiah will find complete fulfilment : 
 " A throne shall be established in lovingkindness 
 and one shall sit thereon in truth, in the tent of 
 David, judging and seeking justice and swift to do 
 righteousness." ^^ 
 
 These truths are vital. It is but a bastard Chris- 
 tianity that forgets that God is a God of justice, 
 and that the Magistrates, whatever their title, are 
 His servants and ministers to see that justice is 
 done. The old maxim " The judge is condemned 
 
 1*1 John 5:21. isisa. 16:3,4, 17. 
 
 15 1 Pet. 2 : 14. 17 Isa. 16 : 5, R. V. 
 
WAR ' 167 
 
 when he acquits the guilty," ^® is often forgotten, 
 in America, to our shame be it said. Then " the 
 wild justice of revenge prevails," and lynching, 
 blind and brutal, takes the place of justice. It is 
 the reaction of the natural man when he sees that 
 the administration of the law is slow and 
 uncertain. 
 
 But it will be asked — How do you reconcile these 
 propositions with the Sermon on the Mount? This 
 question is answered by the application of the rules 
 of construction established by Courts for the in- 
 terpretation of Constitution and law and ex- 
 plained in the first chapter. Let us briefly restate 
 them. 
 
 First, the rule, if any, given in the law itself is 
 to be followed. Second, it is to be interpreted as 
 a whole. Each part helps to explain the rest. 
 Presumptively all are harmonious when properly 
 understood. Third, all statutes relating to the 
 same subject should be construed together. Fourth, 
 the circumstances which led to the adoption of the 
 Constitution or to the delivery of the address throw 
 light upon its meaning. 
 
 Christ said in the beginning of this discourse: 
 " Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the 
 prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." ^^ 
 It is obvious therefore that it was no part of His 
 purpose to disannul the teachings of the Old Testa- 
 ment on the subject of righteous retribution in the 
 punishment of crime. And he added : " Except 
 
 18 Judex damnatur, cum nocens absolvitur. 
 i» Matt. 5:17. 
 
i68 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of 
 the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter 
 into the kingdom of Heaven." ^^ How then shall 
 Christians in their study of the words of Christ 
 exceed the righteousness of these Pharisees? They 
 were literalists, as Pharisees always are. They took 
 the words in the law, as given in Exodus and 
 Leviticus ^^ which regulated the judicial punishment 
 for crime, and applied them, disregarding the con- 
 text, to individual action. " An eye for an eye and 
 a tooth for a tooth " was the Mosaic law for the 
 punishment to be inflicted judicially upon the of- 
 fender who injured his neighbour. The Pharisees 
 would let him, as we say, " take the law into his 
 own hands." That Christ forbids, and our law 
 does the same. The Mosaic punishment was primi- 
 tive and is to be found in other ancient codes.^^ 
 But in none of them was it to be administered by 
 the injured party. The punishment was to be *' as 
 the judges determine.*' ^^ Aloses was advised by 
 Jethro to " provide out of all the people, able men, 
 such as fear God, hating covetousness . . . and let 
 them judge the people at all seasons." Moses did 
 so.^* The same command is repeated in Deuteron- 
 omy : " Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in 
 all thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth, 
 throughout thy tribes, and they shall judge the 
 people with just judgment. Thou shalt not wrest 
 
 20 Matt. 5:20. 
 
 21 Exod. 21:24; Lev. 24:20. 
 
 22 As for example, Code of Hammurabi, Sections i, 3, 200. 
 
 23 Exod. 21 : 22. 
 2*Exod. 18:21, 22. 
 
WAR 169 
 
 judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither 
 shalt thou take a gift." ^' 
 
 These inspired directions for choosing judges and 
 for their conduct when chosen, might well be re- 
 membered by all who under our laws have the 
 power of selection, as well as by the judges them- 
 selves, when chosen. Taken in connection with the 
 other passages quoted they show plainly that the 
 Hebrew law was not subject justly to the literal 
 interpretation put upon it by the Pharisees. Here, 
 as in so many other cases, Christ vindicated the law 
 and fulfilled it, as He said. 
 
 A consideration of the circumstances under which 
 the Sermon on the Mount was delivered, and of the 
 people to whom it was addressed, leads to the same 
 conclusion. 
 
 The famous sermon was delivered early in 
 Christ's ministry. He had not come in touch with 
 the Roman government. This was the sovereign 
 authority in Palestine. The Jews retained some 
 power of local self-government, but were subject 
 in all things to Roman sway. This we know from 
 the historians of the time. It plainly appears also 
 in the story of the crucifixion. It was to the Roman 
 governor that the Scribes and Pharisees went with 
 their accusation. It was not lawful for their court 
 to put any man to death.^^ So far as appears from 
 the gospels the only previous occasions on which 
 Christ had come in contact with any Roman of- 
 ficial were the payment of the tribute money, and 
 
 ^5Deut. 16:18, 19. 26 John 18:31. 
 
I70 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 the interview with the Centurion."^ He had no oc- 
 casion at this time to teach the duties or rights of 
 government. 
 
 But He saw before Him a muUitude of Hebrews 
 who had come to hear Him and to be healed. Many 
 of them were poor and weak. They needed com- 
 fort and he gave it. They belonged to a nation, one 
 of whose besetting sins was resentment for per- 
 sonal injuries and revenge. The same pride of 
 nationality which distinguished the Jews, and had 
 supported them amid countless persecutions and suf- 
 ferings, made them resentful. Christ warned His 
 hearers against this. It was the duty of His fol- 
 lowers to love their enemies, to bless them that 
 cursed, and not curse back. They were not person- 
 ally to resist evil.^® 
 
 This teaching of Christ has at last prevailed in 
 great measure in Christian countries. A gentleman 
 is not " sudden and quick in quarrel " as his ances- 
 tors were. The pacifist spirit, which was originally 
 a natural reaction against the revengeful spirit of 
 the time, did good work, so far as individual con- 
 duct was concerned, but it never had any proper ap- 
 plication to national justice. It was always a 
 national crime to oppress the weak, to slay the hus- 
 band and the father of unoffending people, to march 
 through the breadth of the earth to possess dwell- 
 ing places that are not theirs ; to carry the survivors 
 captive, and equally a crime to look on and give no 
 
 27 Matt. 17:24-27; 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10. 
 
 28 Matt. 5 : 38-47 ; Luke 6 : 2f>-36. David had set an example 
 when he endured patiently the cursing of Shimei, and com- 
 mitted his cause to God. 2 Sam. 16: 5-12. 
 
WAR 171 
 
 help when strangers stormed the cities of 
 your brethren and carried away their sub- 
 stance.^* 
 
 It was always a national duty " to seek justice, 
 relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for 
 the widow." ^^ It was the Lord that called Cyrus to 
 do justice upon the cruel oppressors of the Jews, 
 who had done to the people of Palestine what the 
 modem Huns have done to Belgium and northern 
 France and eastern Italy and Serbia ; and what their 
 allies the Turks have done to the Christians in Asia 
 Minor and Syria. This warrior prince is called the 
 "shepherd," the "anointed" of the Lord. The 
 great prophet expressly declares that the Lord would 
 go before Cyrus, and prepare the way for him, 
 " that they may know from the rising of the sun, 
 and from the west, that there is none beside me." ^^ 
 In our time also the words of the prophet are ful- 
 filled. We can sing the same paean over the Kaiser 
 that the Hebrews were bidden to sing over the fallen 
 king of Babylon — " How hath the oppressor ceased, 
 the Golden City ceased. The Lord hath broken the 
 staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. 
 He who smote the people in wrath with a continual 
 stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is perse- 
 cuted, and none hindereth. . . . How art thou 
 fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morn- 
 ing! how art thou cut down to the ground, which 
 didst weaken the nations." ^^ Then indeed will the 
 
 29 Isa. 1 : 21 ; Amos 1:6; Oba. 10, 1 1 ; Hab. i : 6. 
 
 30 Isa. 1 : 17. 
 
 31 Isa. 44 : 27 : 45 : 1, 6. 
 S2 Isa. 14 : 4, 5, 6, 12. 
 
172 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 whole earth be at rest and be quiet, and the rescued 
 people will break forth into singing.^^ 
 
 Truly did Milton say of the Hebrew prophets 
 that they were : 
 
 " Men divinely taught and better teaching 
 The solid truths of civil government, 
 In their majestic, unaffected style, 
 Than all the oratory of Greece and Rome. 
 In them is plainest taught and easiest learnt 
 What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so, 
 What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat." 
 
 May I add that when this chapter was first 
 written and published (May, 191 7) the sentences 
 in the later paragraphs were in the future tense. 
 Let us humbly thank God that He gave to so many 
 of His followers faith in the triumph of the 
 righteous cause, even when the invaders were most 
 triumphant, and darkness wrapt so large a part of 
 the world. 
 
 33Isa. 14:7. 
 
XII 
 
 JUSTICE AND MERCY 
 
 HERE we have another instance of an ap- 
 parent conflict, which on examination, be- 
 comes a real unity. Throughout the Old 
 Testament, and in many passages of the New, as 
 has been shown in previous chapters, God is de- 
 scribed as executing justice upon those who trans- 
 gress His law. He is a holy and a just God. When 
 Isaiah declaims against the crimes of the people in 
 his day, and warns them of the punishment that 
 God will bring, he declares : " The Lord of hosts 
 shall be exalted in judgment, and God, that is holy, 
 shall be sanctified in righteousness." ^ 
 
 When the later Isaiah has declared the judgment 
 that God's servant, Cyrus, is to execute upon the 
 cruel oppressors of His people, he represents the 
 Lord as saying : " There is no God else beside me ; 
 a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside 
 me." ^ 
 
 When Zechariah predicts the coming of the Mes- 
 siah, he says : " Rejoice greatly, O daughter of 
 Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy 
 King Cometh unto thee; he is just, and having 
 salvation." ^ 
 
 ilsa. 5:16. «Isa. 45:21. *Zech. 9:9. 
 
 173 
 
174 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 The Psalms are full of similar expressions. All 
 mankind and the whole creation are called " to re- 
 joice before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the 
 earth; he shall judge the world with righteousness 
 and the people with his truth." * In another Psalm 
 it is written : " The Lord shall endure forever ; he 
 hath prepared his throne for judgment; and he shall 
 judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister 
 judgment to the people in uprightness. The Lord is 
 known by the judgment which he executeth: the 
 wicked is snared in the work of his own hands." ^ 
 In another Psalm the poet praises the Lord for His 
 many gracious and loving acts, one of which is de- 
 clared to be — " The Lord executeth righteousness 
 and judgment for all that are oppressed." ^ 
 
 The New Testament is equally explicit. Beside 
 the wonderful description of the day of judgment 
 in the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, 
 and the woes denounced in the twenty-third chapter 
 of the same evangelist, the Book of Revelation is 
 full of poetic description of the judgments 
 of the Almighty upon cruelty, selfishness, and 
 oppression. 
 
 This justice of God is not at all inconsistent with 
 His mercy and His love. In the Psalm already 
 quoted it is declared : " The Lord is merciful and 
 gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. 
 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great 
 is his mercy toward them that fear him. Like as 
 
 * Psalm 96: 7, 12, 13. 
 5 Psalm 9:7, 8, 16. 
 
 « Psalm 103:6. To the same effect are Psalm no: 5-6; 
 Psalm III: 7-9. 
 
JUSTICE AND MERCY 175 
 
 a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth 
 them that fear him." ^ 
 
 The later Isaiah cries : " I will mention the loving- 
 kindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, 
 according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, 
 and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, 
 which he hath bestowed on them according to his 
 mercies, and according to the multitude of his lov- 
 ingkindnesses. In all their affliction he was af- 
 flicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in 
 his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he 
 bare them ; and carried them all the days of old." ^ 
 
 In the New Testament St. John sums it up in the 
 one memorable phrase, " God is love." 
 
 We must note the context, — " Beloved, let us love 
 one another; for love is of God; and every one that 
 loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God. He that 
 loveth not, knoweth not God ; for God is love." ® 
 
 Then the Apostle goes on to tell how God's love 
 was manifested by sending His Son into the world 
 that we might live through Him. In the third 
 chapter of the same epistle, he expresses another 
 manifestation, — " Behold, what manner of love the 
 Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be 
 called the sons of God : therefore the world knoweth 
 us not, because it knew him not." 
 
 Many more passages might be cited, but these suf- 
 fice. The New Testament writers speak so fre- 
 quently of the love of God that many have forgotten 
 the equally positive statements that He is a just 
 
 ^ Psalm 103:8, II, 13. sjsa. 6^:7, 9. 
 
 »i John 4:7, 8. 
 
176 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 God. This oversight is especially mischievous when 
 the duty of the State to execute justice is ques- 
 tioned. For the State should pattern its adminis- 
 tration upon the fundamental principles of divine 
 government. 
 
 One development of this one-sided view is to be 
 found in the agitation for the abolition of capital 
 punishment. In the very first book of the Old 
 Testament, the command is given : " Whoso 
 sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood 
 be shed; for in the image of God created he 
 man." '« 
 
 The opponents of capital punishment forget this 
 altogether, and cite the Sixth Commandment, — 
 '* Thou shalt not kill." ^^ Jesus Himself translated 
 this — " Thou shalt do no murder," ^^ and that is 
 really what it means. But apart from this, the 
 context shows that the commands were addressed 
 to the individual, and have no reference to judicial 
 punishment for crime. 
 
 Much of the discussion on this subject has 
 ignored the true reason for judicial punishment, 
 which is to prevent crime. The main object of 
 government is to protect honest, hard-working 
 people in the discharge of their daily duties. The 
 State should enable them to go about their business 
 in security; free from the fear of assault. If a 
 man wilfully, and with malice aforethought, kill 
 his neighbour, he shows that he is a peril to the 
 community. Mercy to the rest of men requires that 
 
 »o Gen. 9 : 6. " Exod. 20 : 13. 
 
 »2 Matt. 19 : 18. 
 
JUSTICE AND MERCY 177 
 
 he should be put to death. The people of Colorado 
 tried the experiment. They abolished capital punish- 
 ment. Murders were committed. The murderers 
 were lynched. At the next session of the legislature 
 the act repealing the death penalty was itself re- 
 pealed.^^ A man who has murdered his neighbour 
 and is sentenced to imprisonment for life can 
 murder his keeper with impunity. The maximum 
 punishment has already been inflicted. 
 
 A notable instance of the failure of this so-called 
 reform to accomplish any good for the community, 
 is to be found in the experience of Russia during 
 the present revolution. The government of which 
 Kerensky was the head, abolished the death penalty. 
 The result was that more innocent people were put 
 to death by violence in a year than the Imperial 
 Government had ever put to death in thrice that 
 time. One of our great editorial writers puts the 
 case so clearly that we cannot forbear to quote : ^* 
 
 " The World seems to think it an inconsistency in 
 the Bolsheviki that they, ' after " abolishing the death 
 penalty," have outdone historic record in murdering.* 
 It does the Bolsheviki an injustice. In abolishing 
 the death penalty they did not mean to show any 
 fondness for human life; they wanted to render the 
 taking of it easy. They did not object to murder, 
 but to the penalty for murder. The objection to capi- 
 tal punishment among Russian radicals is not that it 
 takes human life, but that it takes it under the forms 
 
 13 Cal'ital Punishment and Lynching. J. E, Cutler, pp. 182, 
 185. 
 i*New York Times, Sept. 11, 1918. 
 
178 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 of law. Individual killing is held in high respect; it 
 is the punishment for that kind of killing that is ob- 
 jected to, and it is objected to because it is a punish- 
 ment." 
 
 The truth is that justice to the guilty is mercy to 
 the innocent. And when men who plead for 
 leniency quote the promises of forgiveness, they for- 
 get that these promises are conditioned upon re- 
 pentance and reformation. Nowhere is this more 
 explicit than in the first chapter of Isaiah. That 
 great prophet declares that the worship of Judah 
 and Jerusalem is odious to the Lord. He will not 
 hear their prayers because their hands are full of 
 blood. The people must " cease to do evil," and 
 " learn to do well " ; they must " seek judgment, 
 relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for 
 the widow." Then their scarlet sins shall be " as 
 white as snow." 
 
 So in the gospel, Christ bids us forgive the erring 
 brother, " if he repent." ^^ The Christian should 
 never bear malice or cherish hatred, but he is not 
 required to restore the unrepentant offender to fel- 
 lowship. It was when the prodigal son forsook 
 the company of harlots and confessed his sin, that 
 the father lovingly welcomed him, as one that was 
 alive from the dead.^*' To think that there should 
 be no punishment for unrepented sin, is to ignore 
 the distinction, eternal as the heavens, between good 
 and evil. Kind-hearted people often forget the 
 warning, — " He that justifieth the wicked, and he 
 
 15 Luke 17:3, 4. 16 Luke 15:11-32. 
 
JUSTICE AND MERCY 179 
 
 that condemneth the just, even they both are abomi- 
 nation to the Lord." ^^ 
 
 If it be asked why the State should inflict punish- 
 ment upon a criminal who confesses his crime and 
 declares that he has repented, we reply : 
 
 The officials of the State cannot know whether his 
 repentance is sincere. God alone can judge of that; 
 and the offender in such a case may well be left in 
 His merciful hands. 
 
 But again, even the divine mercy does not always 
 remit all the penalties of sin. For example, a man 
 who has ruined his health by riotous living, may 
 repent and reform, and have peace in his heart. But 
 the bodily vigour may be gone, never to be restored. 
 
 So there often are cases where justice requires 
 that the law should have its course, by the infliction 
 of the penalties of crime declared by law, and pro- 
 nounced by the judge, after an impartial trial, and 
 after all mitigating circumstances have been con- 
 sidered ; even though the offender confess his fault 
 and declare his penitence. 
 I'Prov. 17: 15. 
 
XIII 
 JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS 
 
 WE have already spoken of the quaHfications, 
 which the Hebrew law required of the 
 judges. But there is need to develop this 
 topic farther, because of the misunderstanding of 
 some passages of the New Testament. 
 
 The greatest dignity is attached to judicial office. 
 God Himself is "the judge of all the earth." ^ 
 The cause of the widow and the fatherless is His 
 cause and He will punish those that afflict them. " I 
 will surely hear their cry." ^ " Justice and judg- 
 ment are the habitation of thy throne." ^ The 
 w^ord which is sometimes used to designate God 
 Himself is sometimes also applied to the judges. 
 In Exodus the command is rendered — " Thou shalt 
 not revile God." * The marginal reading is — the 
 judges. Christ refers to this in His discussion v/ith 
 the Jews after He had told the parable of the Good 
 Shepherd. Quoting the Psalm of Asaph in which 
 he warns the judges of his time,^ Christ said — " Is 
 it not written in your law — ' I said, ye are Gods.' " * 
 
 Into this divine office, the great Hebrew law-giver 
 entered. He sat to judge the people from morning 
 
 1 Gen. i8 : 25. * Exod. 22 : 28. 
 
 2 Exod. 22 : 22, 23. ^ Psalm 82. 
 
 3 Psalm 89 : 14. « John 10 ; 34. 
 
 180 
 
JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS i8i 
 
 until evening. When they had a matter in differ- 
 ence they came to him, and he made them to know 
 the statutes of God, and His laws/ When by the 
 advice of Jethro he appointed junior judges, he still 
 continued to be what would in England be called 
 Lord High Chancellor. Every great matter they 
 brought to him.* His charge to them should be 
 studied by judges in every land. 
 
 " I charged your judges at that time, saying, 
 Hear the causes between your brethren and judge 
 righteously between a man and his brother and the 
 sojourner that is with him. Ye shall not respect 
 persons in judgment; ye shall hear the small and 
 the great alike; ye shall not be afraid of the face 
 of man, for the judgment is God's." ^ 
 
 When the Israelites decided to have a king, the 
 sovereign succeeded to this judicial office. When 
 Solomon built his royal palace, he provided a porch 
 and a judgment seat, where he himself heard causes 
 and delivered judgments.^'* Before this was built, 
 however, he acted as Chief Justice, and delivered 
 his one recorded decision in the famous controversy 
 between the two mothers concerning the ownership 
 of the surviving infant. " And all Israel heard of 
 the judgment which the king had judged ; and they 
 feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of 
 God was in him to do judgment." " 
 
 7Exod. 18:15, 16. 
 
 8 Exod. 18:26. 
 
 9 Dent. 1 : 14, R, V. 
 i** I Kings 7 : 7. 
 
 11 1 Kings 3: 16-28. This judgment was a frequent subject 
 for sculptors and painters in the Middle Ages. 
 
i82 A LAWYER^S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 All through the Old Testament, the dignity and 
 importance of this judicial function are emphasized. 
 " A king that sitteth in the throne of judgment, 
 scattereth away all evil with his eyes." " To do 
 justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord 
 than sacrifice." ^" It is a just boast of the Hebrews 
 that in the days of their monarchy the humblest 
 Jew could claim justice from the sovereign. In 
 the evil days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the 
 prophet said of his royal father : " He judged the 
 cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with 
 him; was not this to know me, saith the Lord. 
 But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy 
 covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and 
 for oppression and violence to do it." Therefore 
 the Lord would judge him, and he would die a 
 shameful death.^^ In the same philippic the fearless 
 Jeremiah told the king and his servants: " Execute 
 ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the 
 spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, and do 
 no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the father- 
 less, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in 
 this place." " 
 
 The judgment was given after hearing both par- 
 ties. Nicodemus who was a judge himself in the 
 Jewish Sanhedrin declared : " Doth our law judge 
 any man before it hear him and know what he 
 doeth ? " ^^ Two witnesses against the accused were 
 required for conviction, in criminal cases.^^ And 
 provision was made for a review at Jerusalem in 
 
 12 Prov. 22 : 8 ; 23 : 3. i^Jer. 22:3. i^Dgut. 19:15. 
 
 13 Jer. 22 : 16-19. ^^ John 7 : 51. 
 
JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS 183 
 
 difficult cases. The decision there was final and 
 refusal to submit to it was a capital offence.^^ 
 
 In these judicial proceedings the witnesses were 
 sworn, and in the form of oath appealed to the name 
 of God. False swearing was a heinous crime.^* In 
 a criminal case the witness who swore falsely 
 against the accused was punished with the same 
 punishment as that of the crime of which he ac- 
 cused the innocent.^^ 
 
 With all this great body of inspired teaching there 
 came in time to be blended a mass of tradition re- 
 specting vows, which also were sometimes confirmed 
 by an oath. Such was that of Jephthah to offer in 
 sacrifice " whatsoever cometh forth from the doors 
 of my house to meet me." ^^ These again became 
 the subject of technical distinctions. Some were 
 held binding, some w^ere not. In Christ's final 
 philippic against the Pharisees, He refers to these 
 quibbles. " Whosoever shall swear by the temple, 
 it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold 
 of the temple, he is bound by his oath. . . . Who- 
 soever shall swear by the altar it is nothing, but 
 whosoever shall swear by the gift that is upon it, 
 he is bound by his oath." ^^ 
 
 It was with reference to such oaths, as well as to 
 profane swearing, in violation of the Third Com- 
 mandment, that Christ said in the Sermon on the 
 Mount : *' Swear not at all. . . . But let your speech 
 
 "Deut. 17:8-13. 
 
 18 Jer. 7:8; Zech. 5:4; Mai. 3 : 5- 
 
 19 Deut. 19 : 16-21. 
 2ojudg. 11:31. 
 
 21 Matt. 23:16, 17, R. V. 
 
i84 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 be, Yea, yea; nay, nay; and whatsoever is more than 
 these, is of the evil one." ^- To suppose that in the 
 same address in which He said that He came not to 
 destroy the law or the prophets, He gave a command 
 which would subvert the sanction of sworn testi- 
 mony on which rested the Jewish administration of 
 law, is really absurd. The words He did use have 
 their full application without putting any such un- 
 reasonable construction upon them. This is made 
 more clear by the passage in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews in which God Himself is described as tak- 
 ing an oath. " Since he could swear by no greater, 
 he sware by himself.'* "For men sw^ear by the 
 greater and in every dispute of theirs the oath is 
 final for confirmation." " It is evident that the 
 inspired author of this epistle did not under- 
 stand the words of Christ as referring to judicial 
 oaths. 
 
 Again, in the Book of Revelation, we are told 
 that the souls of those who had been slain for the 
 word of God, and for their loyalty to it had cried 
 with a great voice (as we may imagine the souls 
 of those who have been slain by the Huns in this 
 present war, for defending their homes and the cause 
 of righteousness, are crying now) : " How long, O 
 Master, the holy and true, dost thou not judge and 
 avenge our blood ? " Then soon a strong angel 
 came down from heaven, " and lifted up his right 
 hand to heaven, and swore by him who liveth for- 
 ever and ever . . . that there shall be delay no 
 
 22 Matt. 5:34. 37, R. V. 
 23Heb. 6:13, 16, R. V. 
 
JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS 185 
 
 longer." ^* What God did, what the angel did, 
 certainly is right for man to do ! 
 
 Yet by one of those curious literalisms that have 
 so often led good people astray, we read of an Eng- 
 lish judge, an upright, learned and useful man, who 
 took our Lord's words — '' Swear not at all " — to be 
 applicable to judicial oaths, and resigned his high 
 ofiFice because his conscience forbade the adminis- 
 tration of an oath to witnesses in his court. We 
 admire his sense of duty, but regret his perversity of 
 judgment. In other matters, he was a just judge, 
 but here he went astray. 
 
 2* Rev. 6:9, 10 ; 10 : 1-6, R. V. 
 
XIV 
 LABOUR, CAPITAL, AND STRIKES 
 
 WE have in the eleventh chapter shown that 
 the teachings of Christ in His Sermon on 
 the Mount are not inconsistent with the 
 action of a government in forcibly maintaining the 
 rights of the people against aggressive attack and 
 in defending them and their property from unjust 
 invasion. But it is equally clear that the words of 
 Christ forbid what has sometimes been called pri- 
 vate war — that is to say the attempt of a private 
 person to obtain by violence what he considers to be 
 his rights and to punish by his own action personal 
 affronts or individual injuries. Christ expressly 
 said : " Therefore when presenting your gift at the 
 altar, if even there you remember that your brother 
 has some grievance against you, leave your gift 
 there before the altar, go and be reconciled to your 
 brother first, then come and present your gift. Be 
 ready to make friends with your opponent, even 
 when you meet him on the way to the Court." ^ 
 
 The same principle of action is expressed graphi- 
 cally by St. James : " Who among you claims to be 
 wise and intelligent? Let him show that his actions 
 are the outcome of a good life lived in the humility 
 
 iMatt. 5:24, 25. "Twentieth Century Testament." 
 186 
 
LABOUR, CAPITAL, AND STRIKES 187 
 
 of true wisdom. But, while you harbour envy and 
 bitterness and a spirit of rivalry in your hearts, do 
 not boast or lie to the detriment of the Truth. That 
 is not the wisdom which comes from above; no, it 
 is earthly, animal, devilish. For, where envy and 
 rivalry exist, there you will also find disorder and 
 all kinds of base actions. But the wisdom from 
 above is, before everything else, pure; then peace- 
 loving, gentle, open to conviction, rich in compas- 
 sion and good deeds, and free from partiality and 
 insincerity. And righteousness, its fruit, is sown 
 in peace by those who work for peace. . . . What 
 is the cause of the fighting and quarrelling that goes 
 on among you ? Is not it to be found in the desires 
 which are always at war within you? You crave, 
 yet do not obtain. You murder and rage, yet can- 
 not gain your end. You quarrel and fight. You 
 do not obtain, because you do not ask. You ask, 
 yet do not receive, because you ask for a wrong pur- 
 pose — to spend what you get upon your pleasures." ^ 
 
 Be it remembered that this is the same Apostle 
 who condemns in no measured terms the arrogance 
 and greed of the rich men of his day.^ 
 
 To me the most wonderful characteristic of the 
 Bible is its fairness and impartiality. Where can a 
 book be found that holds the scales of justice with 
 such even hand? The emphasis that it lays upon 
 this divine quality has been dealt with in the thir- 
 teenth chapter. The real nature of the divine jus- 
 tice is obscured by the unfortunate use of the word 
 " vengeance," in modern translations, as applied to 
 
 2 James 3 : 13-18 ; 4 : 1-3. Ibid. 3 Jhid 5 : i-5. 
 
i88 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 God's retributive justice. It originally meant, as it 
 is defined in the Century dictionary, " Punishment 
 inflicted in return for an injury or an offence." But 
 in ordinary modern use, it implies anger and re- 
 venge. These are not divine attributes — Justice is. 
 The translation would convey a more accurate idea 
 of St. Paul's meaning if it read : " Retribution is 
 mine, I will recompense, saith the Lord." * The 
 Apostle adds and makes his meaning clear : '' Be not 
 overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." 
 
 Let us not therefore in our dealings with our 
 fellow-men permit the spirit of revenge for real or 
 fancied injustice to control our actions. The Old 
 Testament lends no countenance to the revengeful 
 spirit. 
 
 Moses commanded the Jews : " Thou shalt not 
 avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of 
 thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as 
 thyself : I am the Lord." ^ Thus to human love and 
 friendliness he gave divine sanction. 
 
 It may be said that this command applied only to 
 the conduct of the Jews to one another. But Christ 
 gave it a far wider scope. When He was asked by 
 the Jewish lawyer what he should do to inherit eter- 
 nal life, Christ answered: "Thou shalt love the 
 Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
 soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind, 
 and thy neighbour as thyself." ^ 
 
 4 Rom. 12:19. Translated in "Twentieth Century Testa- 
 ment " — "It is for me to avenge; I will requite, saith the 
 Lord." 
 
 5 Lev. 19: 18. 
 
 ^5 Luke 10:27. There is a similar answer at another time. 
 Matt. 22:34-40; Mark 12: 28-34. 
 
LABOUR, CAPITAL, AND STRIKES 189 
 
 When the questioner, " willing to justify him- 
 self," asked : Who is my neighbour — ^Jesus taught in 
 the parable ^ of the good Samaritan that he was any 
 man, even though belonging to an unfriendly nation, 
 to whom he could do good. " Go and do thou like- 
 wise,'* is Christ's command. 
 
 When Christ and the glad tidings that He taught 
 began to be preached throughout the Roman Em- 
 pire, and communities of believers were formed in 
 its great cities, St. Paul, who occupied much the 
 same position among the Gentiles in the early 
 Church, that Moses did in the Jewish nation, taught 
 the communities of his time how to apply these 
 fundamental rules of conduct in their dealings with 
 each other and with unbelievers. His conception 
 of society was that of a body. Every member had 
 its part to play with its own proper function. These 
 functions were different. Some were inferior to 
 others, but all were necessary, and every member 
 was to treat the others with consideration and 
 respect. 
 
 Christ was the divine leader, the great example, 
 the head, and every member was to discharge its 
 function with reference to Christ and His approval. 
 All this is very clearly taught in the letter to the 
 Church in the rich commercial city of Corinth.^ 
 When He has stated the ideal organization of so- 
 ciety. He does not object to saying: "Covet ear- 
 nestly the best gifts: and yet show I unto you a 
 more excellent way." 
 
 ^Luke 10:29-37. 
 
 8 I Cor. 12 : 12-27. Also Epistle to Romans 12 : 3-8. 
 
I90 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Then in the thirteenth chapter He gives us the 
 wonderful eulogy of love and its manifestations, 
 correcting with prophetic instinct the excessive zeal 
 which has so often disfigured the conduct of Chris- 
 tian believers and alienated them from their neigh- 
 bours. No religious teacher was ever more free 
 from bigotry than St. Paul, and none ever perceived 
 more clearly the normal development of character. 
 
 The spiritual as well as the intellectual life of 
 man grows from childhood to manhood. He sees 
 imperfectly for a time, but in the end will know 
 the truth more fully. St. Paul does not hesitate to 
 say, Man will know, even as he is known of God. 
 
 But St. Paul does not content himself with laying 
 down general principles of conduct. These are of 
 vital importance, but it is necessary also to point out 
 to man the application of these principles. This St. 
 Paul did especially in his letter to the Ephesians. 
 Ephesus was also a rich and prosperous commercial 
 city. 
 
 In his letter to the Colossians also he again deals 
 with the relation between employer and employed. 
 We must not be misled by the use of the words — 
 master and servant — in this and other writings of 
 St. Paul, and think that the commands as to the 
 duty of those occupying these positions are not ap- 
 plicable to every employer and to every workman. 
 That would be to violate the first rule of construc- 
 tion stated in the first chapter and to deal with 
 words literally when they should be understood in 
 their full spiritual meaning. 
 
 .There were few great corporations in the days 
 
LABOUR, CAPITAL, AND STRIKES 191 
 
 of St. Paul. Machinery was little used. The in- 
 genious inventions of modern times were unknown. 
 The workmen were mostly slaves. Herbert Spencer 
 expresses the opinion that this " discipline of 
 slavery " was necessary to the evolution of human- 
 ity. At any rate it was considered for centuries as 
 a normal relation, and we know from contempo- 
 raneous history that the slaves were often treated 
 with great consideration, and if they had ability 
 were promoted to posts of dignity and responsi- 
 bility. When these posts were attained they were 
 often made free. In any case the relation between 
 the master and the servant was one of mutual as- 
 sistance and helpfulness. 
 
 In our time slavery has been abolished, but men 
 are just as dependent upon each other as they were 
 when it existed. The fact that it has been found 
 profitable and advantageous to use machinery in 
 many ways which were formerly unknown, and to 
 replace hand labour by the work of machines, not 
 only in the weaving of cloth and the making of 
 garments, but in the preparation of food, the sowing 
 of seed, the cultivation of the land, and the reaping 
 of the harvests, does not change the essential prin- 
 ciples of right and wrong, w^hich should govern the 
 relation existing between man and man. And we 
 find briefly stated in these letters of St. Paul the 
 code which should govern the conduct of both 
 parties to every agreement for any kind of service. 
 The employee is to do his work heartily, not with 
 eye service, but in singleness of heart, as unto the 
 Lord, and not unto man ; remembering that his serv- 
 
192 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 ice is really rendered to the Lord Christ. The em- 
 ployers are to remember that God is no " respecter 
 of persons ** ; that they must render unto their em- 
 ployees " that which is just and equal, knowing that 
 they also have a Master in Heaven." ^ 
 
 When the code of Christian morality thus briefly 
 stated by the great Apostle is applied to our time, it 
 follows that the employer should treat his workmen 
 w^ith respect and consideration, remembering that 
 their work is just as important to the success of his 
 business as his directing skill. He is to pay them 
 fair wages and pay punctually. He is to provide 
 suitable places to work, and machinery equipped 
 with every approved device to avoid danger in the 
 work. He is to be Interested in the provision of 
 suitable dwellings, and in short give to his men 
 every reasonable and fair opportunity for doing 
 their work well, with safety to body and opportunity 
 for development. On the other hand the employees 
 owe a corresponding duty. St. Paul emphasizes 
 both. 
 
 The leader of one of the labour unions stated at 
 the Episcopal Convention at Cincinnati in 1910, that 
 the object of unions was the maximum of wages 
 and the minimum of work. That certainly is an 
 unchristian doctrine. St. Paul teaches that the 
 workman's work is to be done heartily as unto the 
 Lord, and that this command has a divine sanction. 
 We cannot imagine for a moment that when Christ 
 worked in the carpenter's shop in Nazareth, He did 
 anything but the best work, and did it cheerfully 
 »Eph. 6:5-9; Col. 3:22-2$; 4:1. 
 
LABOUR, CAPITAL, AND STRIKES 193 
 
 and gladly. He is the example for all workmen in 
 every age. 
 
 In short the whole spirit of Christ and His 
 apostles is that the various members of society are 
 dependent upon each other, and should be friends 
 and brothers; each mindful of the welfare of the 
 others, and avoiding that greed which thinks only 
 of itself. 
 
 That also is the true American spirit ; the funda- 
 mental principle of American democracy. One of 
 the great labour leaders, Samuel Gompers, president 
 of the American Federation of Labour, whose pa- 
 triotism and wisdom during the world war we 
 cannot admire too much, has thus expressed his con- 
 ception of this democratic principle : 
 
 " I believe in democracy, in justice, in fair dealing, 
 and in opportunity for the development of a social 
 conscience making for social justice and the attain- 
 ment of the best conditions consistent with the intel- 
 lectual development of the people of our country." 
 
 We would add to this statement after the word 
 *' intellectual," the words " moral and spiritual." 
 The development of the intellect is far from being 
 sufficient. Some of the most wicked and cruel of 
 men have had their intellects developed to a very 
 high degree. But if we add these words this state- 
 ment is admirable, providing always that it is under- 
 stood to be comprehensive. The criticism that may 
 justly be passed upon many of the declarations of 
 so-called labour parties is that they ignore the duty 
 of workmen and demand what they claim to be 
 
194 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 their rights, without reference to the corresponding 
 obligations that are involved in all rights. It is not 
 perhaps surprising that these one-sided claims 
 should be put forward. It is unfortunately true 
 that the teachings of Christ and St. Paul, to which 
 reference has been had, have been often ignored by- 
 professing Christians. Men have found it much 
 easier to pay outward reverence to their Lord, to 
 build beautiful churches, and sing hymns of praise, 
 than to obey His commands in their dealings with 
 their fellow-men. The more we study the history of 
 mankind since the coming of Christ, the more w^e 
 realize this sad truth. Yet we must remember with 
 gratitude that there has been wonderful develop- 
 ment and consequent progress. 
 
 Under the feudal system there were many organi- 
 zations with dukes and barons at the top. The 
 vassals of each of these chieftains were subject to 
 their lord's commands, and the organizations were 
 at war half the time. These wars destroyed life 
 and the property which is essential to life, and their 
 continuance became inconsistent with civilization. 
 Gradually the rights of the vassals were recognized 
 and protected by governments and by courts of 
 justice. The private wars which had desolated 
 Europe were prohibited. Through the operation 
 of the same civilizing spirit, which is really the 
 divine spirit, that species of private war between in- 
 dividuals which we call duelling was gradually abol- 
 ished. Even in the nineteenth century it prevailed 
 in some States of this Union, was common on the 
 Continent of Europe, and not infrequent in Eng- 
 
LABOUR, CAPITAL, AND STRIKES 195 
 
 land. This is now prohibited, and individuals are 
 compelled to submit their differences to the decision 
 of courts of justice. The most sacred rights and 
 relations, those of husband and wife, of parent and 
 child, come under the jurisdiction of our courts. It 
 is not only matters of contract they deal with, but 
 private wrongs and offences against the common- 
 wealth. The result of the security which this sys- 
 tem gives to the individual is a great increase in 
 comfort and in happiness. The honest, hard-work- 
 ing man who has saved a little money is not now 
 obliged to hide it lest he be seized by some one 
 stronger than he. He is not a mere " cog in the 
 wheel,'* but a citizen of the Republic. 
 
 All this is the fruit of Christianity. To use the 
 words of a wise and public-spirited citizen, Francis 
 Lynde Stetson : 
 
 " Today's moral uprising and insistence upon a 
 broader and deeper sense of association obligation 
 may seem to be wholly of our time, but in truth they 
 are the fruition of the seed sown by Jesus Christ. 
 Love, not hate is the universal solvent." 
 
 This principle is fundamental in true democracy. 
 American constitutions limit the powers of the 
 agents whom the people elect, and the courts of 
 justice have authority to decide whether these 
 agents of the people transcend the authority dele- 
 gated to them. The freedom that has been secured 
 by the protection thus given to the individual from 
 violence and fraud, has resulted in the growth of 
 great organizations. In one form we call them 
 
196 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 corporations. In another, we call them labour 
 unions. As the corporations became powerful their 
 presidents and directors realized their power. They 
 were human, liable to err, and they did sometimes 
 err. They realized that they were doing great 
 things for the prosperity of the country. What 
 would New York or Chicago, for example, be, with- 
 out the lines of railroad that bring to them the 
 treasures of the continent? But the sense of power 
 was not always accompanied by a sense of respon- 
 sibility. The human nature which found expression 
 in the feudal system again showed itself. The story 
 is that a president of one of these great corpora- 
 tions, when reminded of his duty to the public, 
 replied : " The public be damned." He may not 
 have said it, but he sometimes acted as if he felt 
 so. These human errors of pride and power have 
 been checked by the people. Commissions have been 
 appointed not only in the Federal system but in most 
 of the States, to whom is delegated great power to 
 regulate the conditions of railway, telegraph, and 
 telephone administration and to compel obedience. 
 It is the duty of the officers of public service com- 
 panies to give the public continuous service. It is 
 argued that they might strike and resign in a body. 
 This they never have done, but if they were to do 
 so, it would be an illegal act and they would be 
 liable in damages for the conspiracy. In that case 
 the State would step in, appoint a receiver and 
 manage the road. The remedy there is complete 
 already. 
 
 But no efficient and permanent remedial system 
 
' LABOUR, CAPITAL, AND STRIKES i^y 
 
 has yet been provided in the United States for con- 
 certed refusal by employees to perform the duties 
 which they have undertaken. Labour unions, 
 through their most distinguished representatives, 
 have asserted their absolute right to give up, as 
 a body, the duties they voluntarily assumed, and 
 to inflict upon the people of the country the suf- 
 fering which is caused by a general strike, whether 
 on railroad, telephone, telegraph systems or in 
 mines. This legal right they have frequently exer- 
 cised and caused untold suffering. 
 
 Some of these organizations have great wealth. 
 It was asserted, and not denied, that the railroad 
 brotherhoods who ordered a strike in August, 191 6, 
 had a million dollars in their treasury; had property 
 amounting to fifteen millions more, and an income 
 annually of not less than four million dollars. 
 While corporations generally are required to make 
 sworn returns of their receipts and expenses, and 
 are accountable for these not only to their stock- 
 holders but to the public, there is no such require- 
 ment placed upon the tmions. Their discipline is 
 extraordinary. Mr. Beaver, the Receiver of the 
 Second Avenue Railroad, gave in 191 7 a remarkable 
 instance of this. He said the men in his employ 
 were paid the highest wages, had no grievance what- 
 ever, promised him faithfully they would not strike, 
 assured him of their loyalty, yet, in obedience to 
 orders from some leader, not named, not an em- 
 ployee of the Receiver, they quit work in a body on 
 less than six hours' notice. The chiefs of these 
 great labour unions should seriously consider 
 
198 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 whether it is possible for society permanently to 
 tolerate this condition, and whether they can justify 
 the position, that they should claim the right and 
 power of the old robber barons, uncontrolled by 
 law. 
 
 Both employers and employed should welcome 
 any reasonable and well considered plan which 
 would put an end to these domestic wars and pro- 
 vide an impartial tribunal with power to hear and 
 to decide controversies between them. The plan for 
 industrial arbitration which was in general pre- 
 sented to Congress by President Wilson in 191 6 at 
 the time of the impending and threatened railway 
 strike and was afterwards embodied in bills intro- 
 duced in that body in December of that year, and in 
 another bill presented in February, 19 17, to the 
 Legislature of New Yoi*!c and considered by the 
 Public Service Commission of that State, recog- 
 nizes the liberty of railroad companies and their 
 men to make voluntary agreements, and the binding 
 force of these agreements. The men retain their 
 right to organize and make collective bargains. It 
 provides for a wage board on which they shall have 
 proportional representation, and which shall hear 
 and determine disputes respecting hours, wages and 
 working conditions, subject to appeal to the Com- 
 mission. It gives the men security of employment, 
 and, in the interest of the public, prohibits strikes 
 pending negotiation, investigation, and determina- 
 tion. 
 
 It is a fundamental principle of American govern- 
 ment that all citizens have equal civil rights. It is 
 
LABOUR, CAPITAL, AND STRIKES 199 
 
 the duty of government to protect each in the 
 reasonable exercise of these rights, and to prevent 
 him from infringing the rights of others; to pro- 
 vide tribunals which shall afford such protection and 
 which shall enable each citizen, in case of disagree- 
 ment as to what his rights are, to obtain a peaceable 
 settlement of them. 
 
 A strike in a public service system is a violation 
 of these rights. It is a combination by members of 
 a secret order, which is not now accountable to the 
 government, to prevent citizens from exercising 
 their lawful rights. The right of a citizen to travel 
 on the public highways is absolute. A com- 
 bination to prevent him from doing this is un- 
 lawful. 
 
 Cities in America have already about half the 
 population of the country. It is not a mere matter 
 of convenience whether these people can have rail- 
 road facilities within the city limits. It is a matter 
 of life and death. For their benefit the street rail- 
 roads have been built. Many of these are built 
 under the supervision of the city and belong to or 
 will ultimately become the property of the city. 
 They pay rent to the city for the use of the streets, 
 and they also pay taxes. More and more the 
 revenue from them will become an important part 
 of the city budget and will, to that extent, diminish 
 the taxes imposed on other property. The people 
 have decided that it is in the public interest to 
 have these railroads operated by corporations and 
 not directly by the city officials. But none the less, 
 they are public agencies. It was on this ground the 
 
200 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 ,1 
 
 courts decided that public service corporations could 
 be given the right of eminent domain. That is to 
 say, they have the right to take private property 
 against the owner's will, upon making hin? compen- 
 sation, which compensation is determined by what 
 is the equivalent of an arbitration board. Com- 
 missioners are appointed by the court to ascertain 
 the fair value of the property taken. They are, we 
 repeat, public ag'^ncies. It is on this ground that 
 they are subject to public regulation. For this pur- 
 pose public service commissions are created. They 
 act directly upon the corporations, and the courts 
 have power to compel obedience by their officers to 
 the orders given by them. 
 
 Those who advocate the right to strike say that 
 the strikers will not do any harm to person or 
 property; that one of their principles is — "They 
 will fold their arms and do nothing.'* For a 
 moment let us assume that no affirmative act of 
 wrongdoing would be committed. Is it not clear 
 that the stopping of the operation of the railways 
 of the telephone or telegraph lines, or the mining 
 of coal is just as injurious to the people who need 
 to use them in order to go to and fro to earn their 
 own living or to get necessary supplies for their 
 families, or to communicate with other citizens as 
 if the men burned the barns or destroyed the cars 
 or wires or blockaded the shafts? 
 
 It kills a man just as soon if you plug an artery 
 as if you cut his throat. Society cannot live without 
 the circulation of the blood. Railroads, telegraphs, 
 and telephones are the channels through which it 
 
LABOUR, CAPITAL, AND STRIKES 201 
 
 circulates; and coal feeds the "blood producing 
 organs. 
 
 But, alas, experience shows that when a strike 
 comes there always is violence. If any man comes 
 forward to take the place of the striker, he is 
 reviled, assailed, and sometimes murdered. In the 
 Colorado strike years ago it was said by men w^ho 
 ought to have known better, when workmen w'ho 
 took the place of the strikers were killed — '' It was 
 good enough for the scabs." In the railroad strike 
 in 1894 engines and cars, switches and tracks were 
 injured or destroyed, and those who were trying to 
 operate the trains in obedience to law, were mobbed. 
 In the coal strike of 1902, the cruelties practised by 
 the strikers upon all who did not co-operate with 
 them, were such that Wayne McVeagh, an impartial 
 observer, who had been a cabinet minister, and who 
 was a man of the utmost fairness, said it was hell. 
 Cruelties were inflicted not jonly on men, but on 
 their wives and children, on teachers in the public 
 schools, on every living being in the district who 
 did not co-operate with the strikers. These outrages 
 are not "always committed by members of the labour 
 unions. A strike always gives opportunity to the 
 lawless element in the community. That is one 
 reason why strikes, if possible, should be prevented. 
 
 The argument is put forward against this propo- 
 sition that it is better to have a voluntary agree- 
 ment between the parties. To this we reply : There 
 is nothing in the plan of compulsory arbitration to 
 prevent collective bargaining. On the contrary, the 
 plan contemplates organization by the employees 
 
202 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 and agreements between them and the employers 
 which shall, among other things, fixia definite term 
 of employment. There is nothing in the plan which 
 would prevent such an agreement. It has been 
 argued that if there were any legal sanction to such 
 an agreement the men would not be so willing to 
 make it. This fear is not justified by experience. 
 Men are making contracts all the time in ordinary 
 business. Not one in ten thousand of these ever 
 comes before a court, or is ever enforced by law. 
 But they can be enforced. This fact does not make 
 men unwilling to enter into contracts or to perform 
 the bargains they have made. 
 
 Such a plan, has been tried with success in munici- 
 pal government. When Colonel Waring was head 
 of the Department of Street Cleaning in New York 
 under Mayor Strong's administration, he provided 
 a tribunal of arbitration in his department which 
 took effect January 7, 1896. 
 
 This was Colonel Waring's method : 
 
 " In order to establish friendly and useful rela- 
 tions between the men in the Working Force and the 
 Officers of the Department, I shall be glad to see an 
 organization formed among the men for the discus- 
 sion of all matters of interest. 
 
 " This Organization will be represented by five 
 Spokesmen in a * Board of Conference,' in which the 
 Commissioner will be represented by the General 
 Superintendent, the Chief Clerk, one District Superin- 
 tendent, one Section Foreman and one Stable Fore- 
 man." The men were to elect a General Committee 
 who would elect these five Spokesmen. 
 
LABOUR, CAPITAL, AND STRIKES 203 
 
 " The General Committee will meet in a room to be 
 provided for them at 2 p.m. on every Thursday, ex- 
 cept the third Thursday of each month. The mem- 
 bers will not have their time docked for this. Their 
 meetings will be secret; and they will be expected to 
 discuss with perfect freedom everything connected 
 with their work, their relations with the Commis- 
 sioner and his subordinates, and all questions of 
 discipline, duties, pay, etc., in which they are inter- 
 ested or which the Sections, Stables and Dumps may 
 have submitted to them. The * Board of Conference ' 
 will meet monthly. 
 
 " The ten members of the * Board of Conference ' 
 will be on a perfect equality. It will establish its own 
 organization and Rules of Procedure, and will elect 
 one of its members Permanent Chairman and another 
 Permanent Secretary, one of these to be chosen from 
 the five Officers and another from the five Spokes- 
 men. 
 
 " It is hoped that this Board will be able to settle 
 every question that may come up to the satisfaction 
 of all concerned, because most differences can be ad- 
 justed by discussions in which both sides are fairly 
 represented. 
 
 " Should any matter arise as to which the Board 
 cannot come to a substantial agreement, the Perma- 
 nent Chairman and the Permanent Secretary will 
 argue the case before the Commissioner, who will try 
 to reach fair conclusion upon it." 
 
 This communication was received with suspicion. 
 As one of the men reported : 
 
 " Arbitration was looked upon as a far-off theory, 
 applicable, perhaps, at times, somewhere and under 
 
204 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 certain conditions; but the idea of its adaptation to 
 and adoption by a municipal department of the city 
 of New York, and especially the Department of 
 Street Cleaning, where political preference was the 
 only rule they had ever known, had never entered 
 their minds. In fact, they were warned by sceptics, 
 both inside of the Department and among themselves, 
 to 'look out for Waring; this is one of his tricks.' 
 That any commissioner of Street Cleaning, even 
 though he were an * angel,' should honestly intend, 
 and honestly endeavour to deal fairly with the rank 
 and file of those under him, was too much to believe. 
 There must, they thought, be some sinister motive 
 behind it. 
 
 " Gradually, however, . . . the * Committee of 41' 
 became a body of earnest and honest co-operators 
 with the Commissioner, toward the mutual confidence 
 so essential for contentment on the part of the men, 
 and without which the best results from the com- 
 bined efforts of the Commissioner and themselves, 
 could not be expected." 
 
 This committee dealt with all complaints made 
 against members of the force and with all griev- 
 ances which any member claimed to have felt. The 
 total number of cases considered by the board dur- 
 ing the year was 124, an average of over ten for 
 each meeting. There v^ere no " tricks of the 
 trade " here, but mutual confidence. That is what 
 Christians should try to secure. 
 
 Another point made against such a plan is that it 
 infringes the right of liberty of contract. This is 
 claimed to be absolute. We reply that such a plan 
 contemplates a contract freely made between the 
 
LABOUR, CAPITAL, AND STRIKES 205 
 
 employer and the employee. Nobody is obliged to 
 enter the service of a public service company. 
 When he does he becomes a public employee volun- 
 tarily, and subjects himself to the conditions of his 
 employment. That is why he is not a slave. The 
 slave did not enter service voluntarily. " The free- 
 man owns himself," it is said. Yes, but he owes a 
 duty to God, and to the State. It is part of his duty 
 to keep his contract. There is no real freedom on 
 any other terms. 
 
 The position thus assumed is not " involuntary 
 servitude," nor would a law compelling workmen to 
 keep their contract reduce them to involuntary servi- 
 tude. If irreparable injury should be caused by its 
 violation, the court could enjoin such violation. In 
 the case of seamen the United States Supreme Court 
 has held that an act compelling a seaman who has 
 deserted to return to his ship does not reduce him 
 to involuntary servitude. This is put on the ground 
 that he voluntarily entered the service. The court 
 said:^** 
 
 " A service which was knowingly and willingly 
 entered into could not be called involuntary." 
 
 The court pointed out that it is necessary for the 
 public welfare, the safety of passengers, and the 
 delivery of freight that a ship's crew should per- 
 form their contract. It is just as essential to the 
 safety and welfare of passengers that cars should 
 be run through to their destination as it is that a 
 ship should run through to hers. A carrier by land 
 
 10 Robertson v. Baldwin, 165 U. S. 281. 
 
2o6 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 is just as much a common carrier as a carrier by 
 sea, and subject to the same rules. This was held 
 by the Supreme Court in the Debs case, hereinafter 
 quoted. 
 
 It is important to notice that when conductors and 
 motormen quit their employment, they do it in 
 obedience to " orders." These orders are per- 
 emptory. Any restraint exercised by statute would 
 be a restraint upon the leaders, prohibiting them 
 from giving orders to the men to strike. These 
 leaders are not conductors or motormen. They 
 draw their salaries from the union treasury. It is 
 not involuntary servitude to prevent them from 
 interfering with the public service. 
 
 It is also important to notice that the leaders give 
 orders, not for the purpose of relieving men from 
 their jobs, but for the purpose of coercing em- 
 ployers to submit to their '' demands." 
 
 We are referred to the case of Adair v. United 
 States, 208 U. S., 161, decided in January, 1908. 
 The Supreme Court in that case did decide that the 
 provision in the tenth section of the Erdman Act, 
 which made it unlawful to discriminate against any 
 employee because of membership in a labour union, 
 was not within the power of Congress to enact. 
 The majority of the court put the decision on the 
 ground that " there is no such connection between 
 interstate commerce and membership in a labour 
 organization as to authorize Congress to make it a 
 crime against the United States to discharge an 
 employee because of such membership on his part." 
 It seems to the author that the railroad strike 
 
LABOUR, CAPITAL, AND STRIKES 207 
 
 ordered in August, 19 16, must have enlightened the 
 court upon this subject. It was there made plain 
 as a matter of fact, that the connection between 
 interstate commerce and the labour unions is vital, 
 and that it was within the power of the labour 
 unions, unless forcibly restrained in some way, to 
 destroy interstate commerce altogether. Probably 
 the court would now follow the same course that 
 they did in reference to laws limiting the hours of 
 labour in certain trades. Mr. Brandeis, who has be- 
 come a Justice of the court, satisfied the court that 
 such prohibition in the case of women was necessary 
 to the public welfare. It was therefore within the 
 legitimate exercise of the police power, and these 
 new facts appearing, the court held that the principle 
 they had relied upon was sound but did not apply to 
 the situation." This principle of liberty of contract 
 would, in our judgment, in like manner be held in- 
 applicable to existing conditions, if this question 
 should again come before the Supreme Court. 
 
 But let us point out a passage in the majority 
 opinion, which appears to have been overlooked. At 
 page 175, Mr. Justice Harlan, speaking for the 
 court, said: 
 
 " Of course if the parties, by contract, fix the 
 period of service and prescribe the conditions upon 
 which the contract may be terminated, such contract 
 would control the rights of the parties as between 
 themselves. And for any violation of those provi- 
 sions the party wronged would have his appropriate 
 civil action." 
 
 11 Muller V. Oregon, 208 U. S. 412, 420. 
 
2o8 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 , If, therefore, the contract which this plan pro- 
 poses should be entered into, the power of the court 
 to enforce it would be undoubted. 
 
 The question is asked, how can you enforce such 
 a law as this? Some labour leaders declare that it 
 cannot be enforced. Our answer to that is, that the 
 right of the public to have the arteries of commerce 
 kept open with free circulation, has been protected, 
 and can be again. In 1894 the American Railway 
 Union, of which Eugene V. Debs was president, and 
 which had then an enrolment of 150,000 members, 
 ordered a strike which extended through twenty- 
 seven States. A bill was filed by Attorney General 
 Olney under the direction of Mr. Cleveland, alleging 
 that Mr. Debs and his associates were combining 
 to obstruct the commerce of the country. The court 
 enjoined them from doing that. They were advised 
 by their counsel that the injunction was illegal, and 
 they disobeyed it. They were arrested and put in 
 prison. Mr. Debs testified before the Commission 
 of Investigation appointed by Mr. Cleveland as 
 follows : 
 
 " As soon as the employees found that we were 
 arrested and taken from the scene of action they 
 became demoralized, and that ended the strike." 
 
 He says that it was not the troops that broke up 
 that strike ; it was not the police that broke it up, it 
 was the action of the United States courts. Their 
 action was sustained by the Supreme Court.^" 
 
 12 In re Debs, isS^U S. 564, ex parte Lennon, 166 U. S. 
 548. 
 
LABOUR, CAPITAL, AND STRIKES 209 
 
 In the Phelan case (62 Federal Rep. 803), Judge, 
 afterwards President, Taft dealt with a disturbance 
 arising out of this strike. Phelan was an organizer 
 who induced railroad men to strike. The court 
 found that this w^as a violation of the order that all 
 persons refrain from interfering with interstate 
 commerce, and committed him for contempt. At 
 page 821, Judge Taft said that an individual had the 
 right voluntarily to quit work. He was under no 
 time contract. But the court could restrain the 
 chiefs of secret orders, in the management of which 
 the public had no voice, from doing injury to th* 
 public. To quote his words : 
 
 " The purpose, shortly stated, was to starve the 
 railroad companies and the public into compelling 
 Pullman to do something which they had no lawful 
 right to compel him to do. Certainly the starvation 
 of a nation cannot be a lawful purpose of a combina- 
 tion, and it is utterl}^ immaterial whether the pur- 
 pose is effected by means usually lawful or otherwise." 
 
 Debs further testified : 
 
 " A strike is war. Not necessarily a war of blood 
 and bullets, but a war in the sense that it is a con- 
 flict between two contending interests or classes of 
 interests." 
 
 Another grievance that Mr. Gompers has often 
 referred to is real. That is, the apprehension of 
 arbitrary discharge. It is often suspected, whether 
 justly or not, that men who are active in the man- 
 agement and direction of unions are " spotted " as 
 the phrase is, and that sooner or later some pretext 
 
210 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 is found for their discharge. We should deal with 
 this grievance and provide that employment by car- 
 riers should always be for a fixed term, as proposed 
 by a wise employer, Henry R. Towne. No man 
 should be summarily discharged. If any complaint 
 is made by a superior, it should be referred to a 
 committee, which can hear summarily the complaint 
 and the explanation to be given, and approve or dis- 
 approve the penalty which the superior claims 
 should be inflicted. As we write (June, 1919) a 
 strike is on in Winnipeg, by which violent method 
 it is sought to compel the adoption of this system in 
 that province of the Dominion. It is a good system, 
 and legislation should provide a peaceable way for 
 its adoption. 
 
 Such a system as this has been found successful 
 in many public offices and in many great private 
 establishments. For example, in the great works 
 under the general management of Edison at Orange, 
 N. J., with seven thousand employees, and in the 
 department store of Filene in Boston. Doubtless 
 investigation would show that it exists in other 
 places. Its operation in the main has been satis- 
 factory. Defects have been pointed out, but they 
 are mainly such as are incidental to public admin- 
 istration. It keeps up the tone of the service; pro- 
 tects the men from arbitrary action and from the 
 fear of it, which Is perhaps quite as serious as the 
 action itself. In New York City, Borough Presi- 
 dent McAneny found it desirable to have this com- 
 mittee composed in part of employees. He had 
 many hearings during his term of office, and in- 
 
LABOUR, CAPITAL, AND STRIKES 211 
 
 forms us that in every case the decision was unani- 
 mous. We can trust the men who are in the service 
 of the pubHc in connection with our great pubUc 
 utiHties corporations, and if we do trust them, they 
 will deal fairly with the public and with one another. 
 But if the public is to trust them, they, in turn, 
 should be willing to trust the public. The old saying 
 was that protection and allegiance are reciprocal. 
 Confidence certainly must be reciprocal, or it does 
 not exist. 
 
 The fear is expressed by labour leaders that im- 
 partial and competent tribunals of arbitration could 
 not be found. Miss Goldmark puts the case well in 
 a brief which she and Mr. Rosenstein presented on 
 behalf of the National Consumers' League: 
 
 "If strikes are to be avoided, the State should pro- 
 vide a method of adjudication which can give to 
 employees the relief now secured, if at all, by strikes, 
 and at the cost of inconvenience or danger to society. 
 The remedy afforded by the State must be broad 
 enough to enable the workers to get all the rights and 
 concessions which they could obtain by strikes." 
 
 Such a remedy was provided by the United States 
 in 1902 during the coal strike. A commission of 
 seven impartial and competent men was appointed 
 by President Roosevelt. They made a thorough in- 
 vestigation. The men went back to work pending 
 this investigation. The report provided a working 
 plan for three years. This plan included a board 
 like the wage board now proposed, which had power 
 to hear complaints respecting the working of the 
 
212 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 plan and to adjust grievances. The schedule was to 
 continue until 1906. In that year it was renewed 
 until 1909. In its general features it was renewed 
 again. 
 
 The essential point is to secure a board composed 
 — not of advocates for one side or the other — but 
 of impartial men. It should be a real industrial 
 court that will command confidence, and confidence 
 will secure obedience. 
 
 We appreciate the tenacity with which both labour 
 leaders and employers stand for freedom. Legisla- 
 tion is not a panacea. Our common object should be 
 the betterment of all, and arbitration legislation 
 would not be useful unless enforced. But public 
 service commissions would enforce it; the courts 
 would enforce it; public sentiment would stand be- 
 hind it, and in a year or two the unions and the 
 companies alike would think it excellent. The 
 fundamental proposition on which it is based is this : 
 There are duties as well as rights. A man who has 
 made a contract is in duty bound to keep it, and has 
 no right to quit when he pleases. A physician who 
 should undertake an operation and stop in the middle 
 of it, would be indictable, and if the patient died 
 would be guilty of manslaughter. A lawyer who 
 should desert his client in the middle of a case would 
 be disbarred and would be liable in damages for any 
 injuries his client might suffer. We must stand on 
 this principle, or we can only stand on the right of 
 the strongest. And when it comes to the point, 
 the leaders of the labour unions, who, after all, are 
 citizens of this great country, which Mr. Gompers 
 
LABOUR, CAPITAL, AND STRIKES 213 
 
 rightly says is the best in the world, will be obedient 
 to the law of the land. If, actuated by misguided 
 counsels, they should refuse obedience, we must 
 remind them that Justice, which has scales in the one 
 hand for settling controversies according to right, 
 has, in the other, a sword to enforce obedience if her 
 commands are violated. 
 
 When employers dominated, the public curbed 
 their power. Now the unions dominate, we must 
 curb theirs. Both sides must subordinate their 
 power to " the betterment of all." 
 
 Thus have I tried to express the conclusion 
 drawn by me from sixty years' experience and ob- 
 servation: that the Bible when intelligently studied 
 and understood in its true meaning provides the true 
 and adequate solution for the problems which nov/ 
 disturb civilised society, the failure to solve which 
 threatens the very existence of that society. But 
 we cannot forget that the struggle is long and 
 arduous. There are many adversaries. Let us 
 therefore find strength and cheer in the assurance 
 of immortality that Easter Day gives us, the faith 
 in which gave new life to the disappointed and sor- 
 rowful disciples. These are glad tidings indeed. 
 Let us consider them in our final chapter. 
 
XV 
 
 IMMORTALITY 
 
 IN considering this subject, we have to deal with 
 another instance of progressive revelation. St. 
 Paul tells us that Christ abolished death, and 
 brought life and immortality to light by the gospel.^ 
 Certain it is that the intimations of immortality in 
 the Old Testament are few. 
 
 Yet Christ has taught us a fruitful lesson for our 
 studies of the Old Testament. There was a sect 
 among the Jews who found so few intimations of 
 immortality in their sacred books that they denied it 
 altogether. These were the Sadducees. To use the 
 language of the Book of Acts, they say " that there 
 is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit." ^ In 
 the Passover week before the crucifixion, they came 
 to debate with Christ, and put to Him a question re- 
 specting the resurrection, which they based on 
 the Jewish law which honoured the family relation, 
 and was diligent to observe a continuity of family 
 life. 
 
 In the Book of Deuteronomy it was therefore 
 enacted : " If brethren dwell together, and one of 
 them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead 
 shall not marry unto a stranger: her husband's 
 
 ijt Tim^. i:io. 2 Acts 23:8. 
 
 814 
 
IMMORTALITY 215 
 
 brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him 
 to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's 
 brother unto her. . . . And it shall be, that the 
 first born which she beareth shall succeed in the 
 name of his brother which is dead, that his name be 
 not blotted out of Israel." ^ 
 
 A beautiful instance of this custom is to be 
 found in the Book of Ruth. 
 
 The Sadducees loved to perplex the Pharisees by 
 putting the case of a family of seven brothers, each 
 of whom in succession was married to the same wife 
 and none of whom had any children. Their ques- 
 tion was,* " In the resurrection therefore whose 
 wife of them shall she be?" Jesus taught them 
 that, while in the books of Moses the resurrection to 
 eternal life was not plainly taught, yet it was fairly 
 to be inferred. Moses describes the vision that he 
 had at the burning bush. God said to him there: 
 " I AM the God of thy Fathers, the God of Abra- 
 ham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." ^ 
 Christ quoted to his opponents this passage, and 
 then said, " He is not a God of the dead, but of the 
 living : for all live unto him." ^ 
 
 There is in the Book of Isaiah*' an assurance of 
 immortality which is founded there, as it was by our 
 Lord, on the presence and the power of God. In the 
 midst of the suffering that the invading Assyrians 
 had brought upon the Hebrews, there came the 
 promise *' that the Lord will destroy in this moun- 
 tain the face of the covering cast over all people, 
 
 3 Deut. 25 : 5, 6. ^ Exod. 3:5. "^ Isa. 25 : 6-8 ; 26 : 19. 
 
 4 Luke 20 : 33. ^ Lu^e 20 : 38. 
 
2i6 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 and the veil that Is spread over all nations." " He 
 will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God 
 will wipe away tears from off all faces. ... It 
 shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our 
 God; we have waited fbr him, and he will save 
 us." 
 
 Again when the prophet speaks of the anguish, 
 as it came upon the Hebrews, their sense of failure, 
 their feeling, — " we have not wrought any deliver- 
 ance in the earth," — the Lord said : '* Thy dead men 
 shall live, together with my dead body shall they 
 arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for 
 thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall 
 cast out the dead." ^ 
 
 It will be remembered that these prophecies of 
 Isaiah which have been referred to, were delivered 
 before the captivity. During that captivity there 
 came another prophet, the Hebrew statesman, 
 Daniel. There are many who think that the Jews 
 obtained from the Chaldaeans more faith in im- 
 mortality. No doubt the belief on this subject, 
 Vvhich they found among their conquerors, did 
 fortify their confidence in the revelation they had 
 already received. We find in the Book of Daniel 
 this encouraging assurance : *' They that are wise 
 shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and 
 they that turn many to righteousness as the stars 
 forever and ever." ^ 
 
 But while we have in the Old Testament these 
 
 "^ The student of this great prophecy should read the thirti- 
 eth chapter of Sir George Adam Smith's " Isaiah," Vol. I. 
 »Dan. 12:3. 
 
IMMORTALITY 217 
 
 few assurances of immortal life, the revelation of 
 the New is infinitely more distinct and clearer. In 
 this connection we must remember that Christianity 
 distinctly is a personal religion. Christ is the centre. 
 Those that loved Him and followed Him naturally 
 were called Christians, and have been so ever since 
 the name was first given in Antioch, very soon after 
 His ascension. But long before this, He Himself 
 declared: "I am the resurrection and the life; he 
 that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall 
 he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me 
 shall never die." ^^ 
 
 In many forms, particularly in the great discourse 
 the evening before the crucifixion, recorded in the 
 Gospel of St. John, Christ dwelt upon this truth. 
 His followers find in communion with Him, both in 
 that of prayer, of the Lord's Supper, and in the 
 active life in which they strive to fol- 
 low His example, the real union which is in itself 
 the assurance and foretaste of eternal life. As 
 He said Himself : " Because I live, ye shall live 
 also." ^^ 
 
 It follows from the passages that have been 
 quoted and many others that might be referred to, 
 which the reader will remember, that in the con- 
 ception of our Lord the life of the soul is continu- 
 ous. While on earth in the body we use our bodily 
 organs as means for the expression of the soul. 
 Many of these organs are designed solely to pre- 
 serve and continue the material life of the body, but 
 through many of them, also, the soul finds expres- 
 10 John 11:25, 26. 11 John 14:19. 
 
2i8 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 sion. We should, however, never forget that it is 
 the immortal soul which is the personality of each 
 individual. 
 
 No doubt it is true that there are many men 
 who are so absorbed in the pursuit of material ob- 
 jects, wealth, pleasure or power, whatever they de- 
 sire most, that the expression of the soul is ob- 
 scured and not easily discernible. As Browning 
 says: 
 
 " The soul doubtless is immortal where a soul can 
 be discerned." 
 
 Some teachers have maintained that it is possible 
 that a man should become so swallowed up in the 
 pursuit of the material, so absorbed in the routine 
 business of everyday life, that his soul shall die, 
 shall become extinguished. It is no part of the pur- 
 pose of this book to discuss this possibility. What 
 we aim at is to develop the positive teaching of the 
 Scriptures, and we therefore go on to consider the 
 most distinct expressions that are given in the New 
 Testament of the life of the soul, when the body is 
 dead. 
 
 The first of these is to be found in the same dis- 
 cussion with the Sadducees, to which reference has 
 already been made. Christ said to them expressly : 
 *' The children of this w^orld marry, and are given 
 in marriage, but they which shall be accounted 
 worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection 
 from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in mar- 
 riage. Neither can they die any more ; for they are 
 
IMMORTALITY 219 
 
 equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, 
 being the children of the resurrection." ^^ 
 
 When thus we are told that the blessed souls, 
 after the death of the body, are equal unto the 
 angels, we receive a flood of light. The author of 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews says of the angels : " Are 
 they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister 
 for them who shall be heirs of salvation? " ^^ 
 
 The books both of the Old and New Testament 
 are full of the ministry of angels. The word means 
 messenger, and they are constantly coming vvith 
 messages to the people of God. It was Gabriel who 
 announced to the Blessed IMary that she should be- 
 come the Mother of the Saviour. It was the angels 
 who announced His birth to the shepherds, and pro- 
 claimed the good news of '* peace on earth to men 
 of good-will." " 
 
 In the great epic of the Book of Revelation it is 
 the angels who are sent as the messengers of God 
 to do justice upon the cruel oppressors of His 
 people. In short, it is distinctly stated everywhere 
 in the Bible that the influences and messages of 
 God, the Almighty, are communicated to men very 
 often by these celestial visitants. It is true we do 
 not see them with our outward eyes, nor are they 
 manifested to us in material form. But the whole 
 Christian revelation is based upon the proposition 
 
 12 Luke 20:34-36. 
 
 "Heb. 1:14. 
 
 1* I follow here the version of the Vulgate-Hominibus 
 bonse voluntatis. This seems to me to express more accu- 
 rately the meaning of the original than our ordinary Eng- 
 lish version. 
 
220 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 of Christ Himself, that the " Kingdom of God does 
 not come in a way that admits of observation; nor 
 will people say — Look here it is ! or — There it is ! — 
 for the Kingdom of God is within you." ^^ 
 
 Christ constantly refused to give some won- 
 drous sign which the unbelieving asked for. Unless 
 \wt realize that there is a spiritual nature which can 
 commune with the divine nature, and is made, as 
 even the Book of Genesis tells us, in the likeness of 
 God, we have not taken the first step in the Chris- 
 tian progress. Once we take that step, and seek the 
 truth of Christ where He declared it to exist, the rest 
 follow^s. If it is through our spiritual perceptions 
 that we apprehend the divine truth, it is through 
 these same perceptions that we receive the influence 
 and message which God sends. Like every other 
 power of our human nature, this grows by use. It 
 gains vigour by training. The beginner must not 
 expect a full vision. The young student of art has 
 to go through many lessons before he begins to ap- 
 preciate the work of the great masters. The student 
 of music has to take many lessons, often difficult, 
 sometimes wearisome, before he can take in the 
 glory of Beethoven and Handel. So we need not be 
 surprised if, in the progress of the Christian life, 
 we find the steps difficult, and the journey arduous 
 and prolonged. 
 
 Taking, therefore, our Lord's assurance that the 
 souls of the blessed are equal unto the angels, we 
 need not doubt that they are engaged in active works 
 of helpfulness to their brethren who are still fight- 
 
 "Luke 17:20, 21. "Twentieth Century Testament." 
 
IMMORTALITY 221 
 
 ing the battle of this life. In the first battle of the 
 Marne, when it did seem as if all the powers of hell 
 had been launched against the French and the Eng- 
 lish, there were some who had a vision of an angel 
 leading the hosts of the brave defenders of the 
 righteous cause. Whatever we may think of the 
 outward visibility of this manifestation, we may be 
 sure that the skill, the energy, the patience, the 
 courage, which won that victory, were given from 
 God, and we need not doubt that He sent angels as 
 His ministers to comm.unicate to men the divine 
 power. Nor should we doubt that some of these 
 messengers who infused new life and courage into 
 the w^eary bodies of the faithful w^arriors, were the 
 souls of the heroes who had struggled in time past 
 for the cause of freedom and justice, and who now 
 came back to inspire new" life into the soldiers of 
 God. The spirits of Joan of Arc and Hampden may 
 well have been there, as w^ell as those of the brave 
 young men who were first in the field and first to 
 fall. 
 
 The most vivid description of the form, if we may 
 use the expression, in which these blessed souls are 
 clothed is to be found in the fifteenth chapter of 
 -St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians. His con- 
 ception of the existence after death is continuing 
 personality. The immortal is the development, the 
 completion of the mortal, just as the ripe wheat is 
 the development and completion of the seed which 
 has been sown. The husk of the seed moulders 
 away, but the vital principle is developed into th@ 
 new stalk, and branches, and fruit. 
 
222 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 " To every seed his own body," the Apstle said. 
 " Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of 
 God." ^^ This conception of immortality is far 
 from being a continuance of the material life of 
 this world. No doubt it is difficult for us to form a 
 distinct conception of this new life. The very real 
 and continuous needs of our material bodies neces- 
 sarily absorb a great deal of our time and thought. 
 The world where the human being will need neither 
 food or clothing is certainly hard for us to under- 
 stand, nor is it necessary that we should. The point 
 is to form a conception as vivid as possible of the 
 continuance of personality. Everything turns on 
 this. It is, after all, more through the distinctive 
 personality of each individual that we come to know 
 and love one another in this life. There is to be sure 
 the body of each. This is the material dwelling 
 place, and this certainly is one of our means of 
 knowledge and understanding and recognition. But 
 the more closely we come to know those whom we 
 love, the more does the spiritual personality become 
 the ground-work of affection and of knowledge. 
 When ^ve are parted, thousands of miles from our 
 beloved, this personality, which we do not perceive 
 with our outward eyes, is still real to us. We 
 should try and form an equally vivid conception of 
 the personality and continued life of the souls that 
 have gone from this existence into the spiritual life. 
 
 Here we need especially to remember the canon of 
 interpretation to which attention was drawn in the 
 first chapter, for the principal pictorial representa- 
 
 "i Cor. 15:38, 50. 
 
IMMORTALITY 223 
 
 tion of the future life in the Bible, is to be found in 
 the Book of Revelation. We should beware of 
 taking this book literally, and we should remember 
 that its images were primarily intended for orientals 
 to whom they especially appealed. To many of our 
 race these images are not particularly appealing. In 
 an illustrated edition of those parts of the Bible 
 which were thought by the editor to be especially 
 adapted for children, and which he therefore called, 
 " The Children's Bible," the artist of the earlier edi- 
 tion depicted some of these pictorial representations 
 in a literal way. Some of these were repugnant to 
 our feelings. One of them in particular, the author 
 always cut out of the book before he gave away a 
 copy. It is a satisfaction to know that in the later 
 editions these literalist pictures have been replaced 
 by others of more spiritual character. 
 
 The point after all for us is to treat all of these 
 pictures and promises as having not a literal but a 
 spiritual significance. If the blessed souls are equal 
 unto the angels, and are constantly engaged in mis- 
 sions of usefulness and comfort from God Himself, 
 it is obvious that they will not be all the time as- 
 sembled around the throne and constantly engaged 
 in songs of praise. These, too, have their place on 
 earth. " The service high and anthem clear," do 
 " dissolve us into ecstasies and bring all Heaven 
 before our eyes." But the active Christian, while 
 finding refreshment in these, knows very well that 
 to fulfil the will of the Father, he must take these 
 seasons as joyful interludes in the midst of active 
 work. 
 
224 A LAWYER'S STUDY OF THE BIBLB 
 
 In short, we must take for our guide the state- 
 ments of Christ and of St. Paul, and interpret these 
 pictorial representations in the light thus afforded. 
 Difficulties then will vanish. On the one hand we 
 will realize that it is not given to us to know much 
 that is definite about the activity of departed souls, 
 but on the other hand we shall have the assurance 
 that they are blessed, that they are full of life, and 
 are engaged in doing the Lord's work more fully 
 and perfectly than they were able to do on earth. 
 To this every soul who loves the Lord Jesus Christ 
 with sincerity may look forward with joyful hope. 
 He said : ** Where I am, there shall also my 
 servant be." ^' We shall meet with Him '' an in- 
 numerable company of angels, . . . and th© 
 spirits of just men made perfect." ^® 
 
 17 John 12:26. i« Hebrews 12:22, 23. 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
INDEX 
 
 Addams, Jane: gtatement position 
 Settlements, 122, 124 
 
 Agreement for term of employ- 
 ment, 207-9 
 
 American Democracy: position of 
 public officials and relation to 
 Courts, 195 
 
 American freedom, 103 
 
 Amusements, 160 
 
 Anaesthetics, 59 
 
 Angels: ministry of, 219, 221 
 types of Immortal Life, 219, 
 224 
 
 Anglo-Saxon race in America, 75 
 
 Antin, Mary: The Promised Land, 
 92 
 
 Antiseptic treatment, 60 
 
 Arbitration Board, composition of, 
 21 
 
 Arbitration, industrial: enforce- 
 ment decision, 207 
 
 Arbitration in public service, 202 
 
 Babylon, judgment upon, 164 
 
 Beaconsfield: message to Univer- 
 sity men and women, 126 
 
 Bible: erroneous idea we are ac- 
 quainted with it, 142 
 practical value of its study, 9 
 rules for construction of, 15-20 
 
 Bolshevism, 97 
 
 Brewer, Justice: rule of interpre- 
 tation, 20 
 
 Brooks, Phillips: knowledge of 
 Christ, 42 
 
 Brotherhood of Man, 80 
 
 Browning, Robert: idea of Im- 
 mortality, 32 
 
 Capitalism in America, 81, 103 
 Captains of industry: their func- 
 tion, 99 
 Carlyle, Thomas: on fatalism, 67 
 
 on the ideal and the actual, 106 
 
 on socialism, 84 
 Changes human conditions, 8 
 Chaplains, work of, 151 
 Children's Bible: illustrations of. 
 
 Christ: character of, 26, 38, 39, 
 41, 42, 58, 62-5, 80 
 head of the social body, 189 
 relation of His teaching to Old 
 
 Testament, 162, 167 
 Revelation of God, 58 
 social quality of His goodness, 
 
 161 
 social reformer, 128 
 source of power, 62 
 Teacher of Immortality, 217 
 type of virtue, 41 
 Christian Church: duty to social 
 reform, 149 
 failure to teach social duty, 142 
 Middle Ages, 138 
 parish work, 146 
 relation to the truth, 40 
 varied functions of, 152 
 Christian Commonwealth, ideal of, 
 
 140 
 Christian socialism, 97 
 Christians leaders in social prog- 
 ress, 131, 134, 13s 
 Christianity main source of moral 
 
 development, 135 
 Christianity, new covenant, 154 
 Church and State, 148 
 Circumstances guide to construc- 
 tion, 16 
 City govern»ient, 114 
 City social conditions, 109-10 
 Class hatred, 85 
 in Russia, 156 
 Cleveland, Grover: action in face 
 of commercial crisis, 74 
 action in railway strike, 208 
 Coal strike, 1902: cruelty in, 201 
 
 arbitration of, 211 
 Coleridge, Samuel T. : teaching as 
 
 to use of Scriptures, 142 
 Collective bargaining, 201 
 Colleges in cities, iii 
 Colorado strike, 201 
 Communism, 89 
 Conscription Act, 19 
 Contract Labour Act, 20 
 Corporations: growth and position 
 of, 196 
 
 225 
 
226 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Courts: function of, 195 
 Cyrus: mission of, 171, 173 
 
 Death penalty: abolition in Russia, 
 
 Debs, Eugene V.: testimony be- 
 fore Commission of investiga- 
 tion, 208-9 
 
 Demagogues, 143, 144 
 
 Devine, Dr.: statement of reli- 
 gious spirit in settlements, 
 133-4 , 
 
 District leaders, 115, 124 
 
 Divine life in man, 38 
 
 Divine truth: perception of, 41 
 
 Divorce, zj 
 
 Doyle, Sir Arthur C: views on 
 Immortality, 31-2 
 
 Edison, Thomas A.: electrical in- 
 ventions. 53, 100 
 
 Edison works: system of dis- 
 charge, 210 
 
 Electricity: utilization of, 52, 61, 
 100 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo: words to 
 America, loi 
 
 Employees: regulation discharge 
 of, 209-10. 
 
 Employers and employees: rela- 
 tion under Christian teaching, 
 190-2 
 
 Enforcement of industrial arbitra- 
 tion, 208 
 
 England, population of: more 
 homogeneous, 113 
 
 Enslavement by Germans of cap- 
 tives, 156 
 
 Envy: vice of republics, 98 
 
 Evil spirits: casting out of, 64 
 
 Existence after death, 221-2 
 
 Experiences of religious men, 43, 
 44 
 
 Factories: improvements in, 144 
 
 Falsehood in controversy, 26 
 
 Family conditions in America, 92 
 
 Farmers in America: condition of, 
 90, 91 
 
 Fatalism and the Individual, 66 
 
 Fatherhood of God, 80 
 
 Fenelon: example of Christian 
 character, 41 
 
 Ferdinand and Isabella: reign of, 
 78 
 
 Feudal system, 194 
 
 Filene department store: system 
 of discharge, 210 
 
 Foch, Marshal Ferdinand: quota- 
 tions from, 8, 9, 10, 57, 78 
 
 Forgiveness: duty of, 178 
 
 Formalism, 153 
 in Germany, 156 
 
 Freedom of will, 67-9 
 Future life: conditions of, 31 
 
 Gentiles: extension of promises to, 
 33. 68 
 
 Gibbs, Wolcott: teaching as to 
 theory, 69 
 
 God: false ideas of, 58 
 
 as God of justice, 173-4. 180 
 as God of love. 174-5 
 revealed as a Person, 46 
 
 God's relation to law, 47 
 
 Gold: drain upon the treasury for, 
 
 7i ... 
 
 Gompers, Samuel: position in re- 
 lation to industrial arbitra- 
 tion, 209, 212 
 
 Government: arbitrary powers of, 
 
 Harper, Chancellor: description of 
 slavery, 95 
 
 Head Workers: settlements, 125 
 
 Heaven as a place, 30 
 
 Hebrew monarchy: rights of in- 
 dividual citizens, 182 
 
 Hebrew worship and observances, 
 
 153-5 
 Holden, J. Stuart: teaching as t» 
 
 social quality of Christ, 161 
 Howard, John: work of, 131 
 
 Immortality, 214 
 
 teaching of Hebrew Scriptures, 
 215-16 
 
 Improvement in social conditions 
 in America, 93-4 
 
 Income Tax Law: returns under, 
 90 
 
 Individual influence upon nations, 
 78 
 
 Industrial arbitration, 198, 202 
 
 Inspiration Bible, 13 
 
 Intellect: development of not suf- 
 ficient, 193 
 
 International arbitration, 130 
 
 Interpretation statutes: rules of 
 law, 15-20 
 
 Involuntary servitude, 19, 205 
 
 Jeremiah a preacher of justice, 
 182 , 
 
 Judges: selection and position un- 
 der Mosaic law, 168-9, 180-2 
 
 Judgment of God upon pride and 
 oppression. 163-5 
 
 Judicial oaths, lawfulness of, 
 183-5 
 
 Justice more acceptable than sac- 
 rifice. 34 
 
 Kaiser: downfall of, 171 
 Knowledge: sources of, 35 
 Knowledge of God; sources of, 36 
 
INDEX 
 
 227 
 
 Labour: its share in products of 
 
 industry, 98 
 Labour unions: loyalty of mem- 
 bers, 197 
 strikes by, 197-201 
 teaching as to wages and work, 
 
 192-3 
 wealth of, 197 
 Law of God unchanging, 157 
 Legal ethics, 25 
 Legislation no panacea, iJS 
 
 in pari materia, 18 
 Lenine and Trotsky: influence in 
 
 Russia, 84 
 Liberal construction, 15 
 Liberty of contract, 204 
 Life immortal: conditions of, 218- 
 
 19 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham: part in Civil 
 War, 70-1, 77 
 
 Lister, Lord: influence in sur- 
 gery, 32, 60 
 
 Lloyd George, David: message as 
 to Bible, 10 
 
 Local representation in America, 
 no 
 
 Lord's Supper: abuse of, 139^ 
 
 Lowell, James Russell: on indi- 
 vidual influence, 79 
 
 Lucretius: teaching as to the 
 Gods, 43, 45 
 
 Machinery: advantages of, how 
 divided, 98 
 effects on social conditions, 99 
 
 Majority: exaltation of, 87 
 
 Marconi: wireless telegraph, 53 
 
 Marshall, Chief Justice: rule of 
 interpretation, 17 
 
 Materialism the enemy of immor- 
 tality, 217-18 
 
 McAneny, George: committee to 
 regulate discharge of public 
 service, 210 
 
 Miller, Justice: rule of interpreta- 
 tion, 19 
 
 Milton, John: teaching as to He- 
 brew prophets, 172 
 
 Miracles of Christ: distinctive fea- 
 tures, 62-3 
 
 Miracles: Old Testament, 65 
 modern, 63 
 
 Monastic orders: work of, 145 
 
 Morals: state of, in Great Brit- 
 ain, 76 
 
 Moses as law-giver, 180 
 
 Mosaic Law, 159 
 
 punishments under, 168 
 
 Napoleon on individual influence, 
 78 
 
 National duty in relation to ag- 
 gressive warfare, 170 
 
 Nature, forces of: man's control, 
 
 60 
 Neighbour: duty to, 96 
 
 Objects instrument guide to con- 
 struction, 17 
 
 Omnipresence of God, 30, 52 
 
 Optimism, 145 
 
 Orders by officers of labour 
 unions, 206 
 
 Organized Christianity; power and 
 danger of, 136 
 
 Pacificism, 170 
 
 Palmerston, Lord: action as to 
 seizure of Confederate en- 
 voys, 71 
 Pasteur, Louis: discoveries of, 60 
 Paul, St.: teaching as to duties of 
 magistrates, 165 
 truth, 24, 26 
 
 organization of society, i88-9« 
 literalism, 16 
 gradual progress, 28 
 justice of God. 68 
 brotherhood of man, 80, 87 
 Peat, Harold R. : religious spirit 
 
 in Army, 150 
 Perjury: punishment of, 183 
 Pershing, General J. J.: letter as 
 
 to prayer. 56 
 Personality of God, 59 
 Personality of the individual, 
 
 221-2 
 Petroleum: improvements refining, 
 
 usefulness, 99 
 Pharisees: action and teaching, 
 
 157-60 
 Philip II: influence and charac- 
 ter, 40, 78 
 Physical welfare, 105 
 Pitt, William: action in Seven 
 
 Years' War, 75-6 
 Population: foreign birth in Amer- 
 ica, 113 
 Potter, Henry C. : teaching rela- 
 tion of Church to social re- 
 form, 148 
 Poverty, 90 
 Power of choice, 67 
 Prayer: intercourse with God, 49 
 power and value, 48 
 for rain, 50 
 reflex influence of, 54 
 sonnets. Trench, 55 
 submissive spirit in, 51 
 united, 55 
 President: powers during war, 104 
 Pride, commercial and national; 
 
 punishment of, 163-4 
 Prince Albert modifies Palmerston 
 despatch, 72 
 
228 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Private war, 186-8 
 abolition of, 194 
 Professional men: position in 
 
 cities, 109-10 
 Profit sharing, 145 
 Progressive revelation, 27-9, 38 
 Promises God's presence to Is- 
 rael, 33 
 Protestant religious orders, 146 
 Ptolemaic theory, 70 
 Public schools in America: posi- 
 tion of, 138 
 in cities, in 
 Punishment of criminals, 179 
 
 Race prejudice: relation to Chris- 
 tianity, 141 
 Railway strike: 1894, 208 
 
 1916, 198 
 Reasonable interpretation, 19 
 Reconstruction after Civil War, 
 
 77 
 Reformation: effect of, 139 
 Reign of Terror, 102 
 Relipous organization in cities, 
 
 III 
 Residents in settlements; function 
 
 of, 121 
 
 Revenge: discussion of word in 
 translations, 165 
 by individuals, 188 
 
 Righteousness: attempt to pro- 
 duce by constraint, 157 
 
 Rihbany: observations of Amer- 
 ica, 92 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore: letter on 
 the Bible, 9 
 
 Rules for interpretation of stat- 
 utes and constitutions, 14-20 
 
 Russian Church: history of, 155 
 
 Russian Revolution, 82-8 
 
 Russia: social conditions changed 
 by Bolshevists, 82-4 
 
 Sadducees: discussion as to Im- 
 mortality, 214-15, 218 
 
 Salvation Army, work of, 149 
 
 Science and religion: mutual re- 
 lation, 43 
 
 Scientific method in relation to 
 social progress, 119 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter: plausible state- 
 ments of untruth, 96 
 
 Scudder, Vida: article as to eco- 
 nomic forces, 69 
 
 Sermon on the Mount: conditions 
 under which delivered, 169- 
 70 
 construction of, 167 
 
 Settlements: development of, 116- 
 122 
 relation to civic work, 126 
 
 Settlements: relation to neighbour- 
 hood, 116, 117 
 religious spirit of, 108, 132 
 social universities, 119 
 Seven Years' War: British con- 
 ditions in, 75 
 Shaftesbury, Lord: work of. 132 
 Silver standard: controversy over, 
 
 Slavery, 141 
 
 position of, in Roman Empire, 
 190-2 
 Social conditions in United 
 
 States, 90-3 
 Social democracy in Russia, 82 
 Socialism: criminality of, 97 
 
 really slavery, 94 
 Socialist party: demands of, 8t, 
 
 86 
 Social life in settlements, 123 
 Social progress: development un- 
 der Christianity, 128-30 
 Society a body with many mem- 
 bers, 87, 189 
 Society as the body of Christ, 83 
 Sovereignty of God, 66 
 Spirit of times, 69-70 
 Spiritual body, 31 
 growth, 105 
 nature: growth of, 220 
 significance Scriptural promises, 
 
 State: duty to punish wrongdoers, 
 
 165-7 
 Stetson, Francis Lynde: teachinf 
 
 association obligation, 195 
 Strategy in war, 8 
 Strikes in public service systems, 
 
 197-201 
 Suffrage: popular effect of, 114 
 Sunday: observance, 158 
 Supreme Court: rulings of, 16, 20, 
 
 74. 86 
 
 Taft, William H.: decision as 
 judge in strike cases, 208-9 
 
 Tagore, Rabindranath: literal in- 
 terpretation, 16 
 
 Tennyson on individual influence, 
 79 
 on knowledge of senses, 35 
 
 Testament, Old: relation to New, 
 162 
 
 Theory: true function of, 69 
 
 Toynbee, Arnold: founder of set- 
 tlements, 120, 132 
 principle of settlements, 121 
 
 Trade unions: relations to employ- 
 ers, 112. 143 
 
 Trench, Archbishop: sonnets on 
 prayer, 55 
 
 Trotsky on capitalism, 84 
 
INDEX 
 
 229 
 
 Truth, cardinal feature of 
 Christ's teaching, 23 
 cardinal feature of Old Testa- 
 ment teaching, 22 
 
 Tyre: judgment upon, 163 
 
 Uniformity of nature, 44 
 Unity in praise and worship, 37 
 
 Village conditions, 108 
 
 War, 162 
 
 Waring, Col. George E. : arbitra- 
 tion in street-cleaning depart- 
 ment, 202-4 
 
 Washington, George: influence in 
 American Revolution, 72 
 cabal to displace, 72 
 
 Wayne, Justice: rule of interpre- 
 tation, 16 
 
 Webster, Daniel: "the fact is 
 what we want," 54 
 
 Wesley, John: religious reformer. 
 
 Western United States: develop- 
 ment of, 137 
 
 White, Alfred: improved tene- 
 ments, 94 
 
 Whole instrument to be consid- 
 ered in interpretation, 17 
 
 Wilkes: seizure of Confederate en- 
 voys, 71 
 
 William III: position in English 
 Court, 76 
 
 Wilson, Woodrow: letter as to 
 Bible,- 9 
 
 Wordsworth, William : quotations 
 from, 31, 47 
 
 Working-men: distrust of Church: 
 reasons for, 137 
 
 Wrath: discussion of, as used in 
 translations, 165 
 
 Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tion, 147, 151 
 
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