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CHRIST AND MEN 
 
The Works of 
 David James Burrell 
 
 The Wonderful Teacher and What 
 He Taught 
 
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CHRIST AND 
 
 MEN 
 
 ^s»i 0F n <m ( 
 
 of 
 
 SEP 24 1963 
 
 BY 
 
 Logical ^^ 
 
 DAVID J. BURRELL 
 
 PASTOR OF THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH 
 COR. FIFTH AVENUE AND 29TH STREET 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 London and Edinburgh 
 
Copyright, 1905, by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 New York : 158 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago : 80 Wabash Avenue 
 Toronto : 27 Richmond Street, W. 
 London : 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh : 100 Princes Street 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book is the outcome of a series of sermons in- 
 tended to set forth the teachings of Jesus in His 
 conversations with individuals and groups of men. 
 
 The human side of His character is revealed most 
 clearly in such interviews. There was never finer 
 tact than His, nor ever such nice discernment of 
 things and delicate handling of people. 
 
 We shall see herein that, as Heine says, "Jesus 
 was no dreamer among the shadows, but a man 
 among men." 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/christmen1905burr 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 The Child and the Emperor 9 
 
 The Youth and the Doctors 19 
 
 The Man and the People 29 
 
 The Plan of the Campaign 40 
 
 The Evolution of a Creed 52 
 
 The Credentials of Christ 64 
 
 The Evidential Value of Miracles 76 
 
 Intolerance 88 
 
 The Larger Christ 100 
 
 " Blessed be Drudgery " 109 
 
 Home Ministries 118 
 
 Covetousness 129 
 
 Practical Religion 138 
 
 The Problem of Poverty 147 
 
 A Friend in Need 158 
 
 " Room for the Leper ! " 168 
 
 Our Friends in Heaven 179 
 
 Fault-Finding 192 
 
 Forgiving 202 
 
 The Implacable Law 212 
 
 Profession and Practice 224 
 
 Stumbling Blocks 235 
 
 The Mistakes of a Pharisee 246 
 
 Freedom 258 
 
 In Sight of Heaven 269 
 
 The Second Coming of Christ 280 
 
CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 THE CHILD AND THE EMPEROR 
 
 In which the Imperial Son of God is brought into contact 
 with the most imperial of men; and thrones tremble at 
 the beginning of the March toward the Golden Age. 
 
 Now it came to pass in those days, there went out a 
 decree from Ccesar Augustus, that all the world should 
 be enrolled. And Joseph went up from Galilee, out of 
 the city of Nazareth, into Judcea, to the city of David, 
 which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house 
 and family of David; to enroll himself with Mary, who 
 was betrothed to him, being great with child. 
 
 And it came to pass, while they were there, the days 
 were fulfilled that she should be delivered. 
 
 And she brought forth her firstborn son; and she 
 wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a 
 manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. 
 Luke ii, 1-7 (cf. Matt, ii, 1-18). 
 
 " It came to pass in those days," says Luke. The 
 phrase is significant. Rome had overspread the world 
 " in those days," and Caesar was a name to juggle 
 with. " In those days " there was no more open 
 vision; the lights of the sanctuary were quenched and 
 the sceptre had departed from Judah. " In those 
 days " the cycle of the World Powers had been com- 
 pleted and the time was ripe for the fulfilment of 
 Daniel's vision : " / saw by night, and behold, the 
 
10 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 four winds of heaven strove upon the sea: and four 
 beasts came up, diverse one from another. The first 
 was like a lion and had eagle's wings. The second 
 was like a bear; and tJtey said unto it, Arise, devour 
 much flesh! The third was like a leopard, having four 
 heads; and dominion was given unto it. And, behold, 
 tlie fourth beast was dreadful and terrible and strong 
 exceedingly ; it had iron teeth; it devoured and brake 
 in pieces and stamped the residue of it." 
 
 The lion, the bear and the leopard had successively- 
 run their course in the rise and fall of Babylonia, 
 Medo-Persia and Macedonia; and Rome, the nonde- 
 script fourth beast, was now in its climacteric of 
 power. Let Daniel say what should follow : " / be- 
 held till the beast was slain and his body destroyed. 
 And behold the Ancient of Days did sit upon a throne 
 like the fiery flame, and there was given him dominion 
 and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and 
 languages should serve him. His dominion is an ever- 
 lasting dominion, and his kingdom for ever and ever." 
 (Dan. vii, 1-14.) 
 
 The fulness of time being come, God crosses the 
 border into the territory of earthly power. The Incar- 
 nation is an invasion. A strange invasion ! No trum- 
 pets are heard, no roar of artillery disturbs the quiet 
 of the early morning. A mother sits crooning a lullaby 
 to an Infant in her arms. This is the first note of the 
 onset. What could be more helpless than the pink, 
 dimpled hand that lies here on the mother's breast? 
 Yet this hand is destined to cut the sinews of Roman 
 supremacy and change the currents of history through 
 all the coming ages. 
 
 Once and again this Child, during the thirty years 
 
THE CHILD AND THE EMPEROR 11 
 
 of the earthly sojourn, is destined to meet the Em- 
 peror face to face ; and always with the same result. 
 All subsequent history will be the record of the tri- 
 umphant march of Immanuel toward his undisputed 
 reign in the Golden Age. 
 
 The first approach of the two powers was at the 
 massacre of Bethlehem. It is written that " Herod 
 was troubled " when he heard of one " born King of 
 the Jews." Well might he be troubled ; old, feeble, 
 bloody-minded, pursued by conscience, harried by the 
 furies of a mislived past, this Idumean usurper, repre- 
 senting Caesar's authority in Judea, was ill prepared to 
 meet a new disturbance of his provincial rule. And 
 his fear was well-grounded, since Jesus was really of 
 the royal line. Had he known all the facts in the case 
 he would have redoubled his efforts to destroy the 
 Child. His birth was a far more ominous fact than 
 Herod dreamed. Let Caesar himself tremble ! The 
 song of the angels on the Judean hills is the trumpet 
 call of a martial host arrayed against all powers of 
 evil. 
 
 The incident at Bethlehem, however, was a mere 
 preliminary skirmish. The murder of a score of chil- 
 dren was an episode of slight consequence in the royal 
 policies of those days. And it failed to accomplish its 
 purpose ; for " Joseph arose and took the young child 
 and his mother by night and fled into Egypt." 
 
 The affair was shrewdly planned; but Herod reck- 
 oned without God. The futility of the 'bloody deed is 
 set forth in two masterpieces of recent art. One of 
 them is Holman Hunt's " Triumph of the Innocents," 
 in which Joseph and the Virgin Mother and her Child 
 are represented on their wayto Egypt, followed by the 
 
12 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 spirits of the slain innocents, one of whom carries a 
 golden censer, while others come trooping after with 
 palm branches. These are the vanguard of that noble 
 army of martyrs who ever since have " followed in his 
 train." 
 
 The other picture is " The Repose in Egypt," by 
 Gerome. It represents the dull-eyed, wondering 
 Sphinx, on the verge of the desert, between the world 
 without hope and the world of progress. It is night. 
 In the arms of the great image the mother reposes 
 with the Child on her bosom ; and from his face there 
 radiates a light which penetrates the darkness of the 
 surrounding wastes. 
 
 It was indeed a memorable flight ; the first strategic 
 move in the long campaign of centuries. It was a re- 
 treat preparatory to an advance all along the line. 
 
 We shall not see the Child and the Emperor face to 
 face again until the former has grown to manhood. 
 His ministry is now under way. He has gone up and 
 down among the villages preaching, working wonders, 
 troubling the corrupt times. His name is on every lip. 
 He enters Jerusalem at length and begins to preach. 
 Herod, desirous of making an end to his influence, 
 presumes to threaten him. 1 His underlings come to 
 Jesus, saying, " Get thee out and depart hence, for 
 Herod will kill thee ! " But Jesus sees through the 
 shallow device of the intriguing court. Observe his 
 calm disdain : " Go tell that fox, Behold, I cast out 
 devils and do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the 
 
 1 This is not the Herod of the massacre, but Herod Anti- 
 pas, another of a smaller mould, who has been characterized 
 by a distinguished historian as "the meanest thing the world 
 ever saw." 
 
THE CHILD AND THE EMPEROR 13 
 
 third day I shall be perfected. Tell him, I must walk 
 to-day and to-morrow and the day following; for it 
 cannot be that a prophet shall perish out of Jerusalem." 
 And the work goes on. 
 
 In vain does the earthworm lift its head against the 
 advancing chariot of the King. " I must walk ! " The 
 behest of divine duty is upon Jesus ; and who or what 
 shall prevent it? He must accomplish the mighty task 
 which has brought him from heaven to earth. " The 
 kings of the earth do set themselves and the rulers 
 take counsel together, saying, ' Let us break his bands 
 asunder and cast his cords from us ! ' He that sitteth 
 in the heavens shall laugh ; the Lord shall have them in 
 derision." 
 
 It is the story of the centuries. " Kindle the fag- 
 ots ! Sharpen the sword ! Let loose the lions ! " cries 
 Caesar. " We will make an end of the Nazarene and his 
 religion ! " But the blood of the martyrs is ever the 
 seed of the Church. The royal standards onward go. 
 " I must walk ! " says the Master. " I must walk on 
 the heights of Bozrah, in the majesty of the Avenger, 
 with garments dyed red. I must walk in the glory of 
 him who cometh from Teman with the pestilence be- 
 fore him." 
 
 " Herod will kill thee," forsooth. So they said in 
 the Terror when the streets of Paris were slippery 
 with the blood of the innocents. The image of the 
 Virgin Mother was torn from its shrine in Notre 
 Dame and supplanted by a living courtesan, whom the 
 mob worshipped as Goddess of Reason. Through the 
 clash of arms and the shriek of the dying was heard 
 the grim word of Voltaire, " Crush the Nazarene ! " 
 But calm over all rose the voice of the Master, " I 
 
14 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 must walk to-day, to-morrow and the day following! 
 I must lead my militant hosts, until the tabernacle of 
 God shall come down among men." 
 
 So runs the Parable of Progress : " For the king- 
 dom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which 
 a man took and sowed in his field: which indeed is 
 the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the 
 greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the 
 birds of the air come and lodge in the branches of it." 
 
 The next meeting of Christ and Caesar was on the 
 last day of the public ministry, when Jesus was teach- 
 ing in Solomon's Porch. The Herodians, representing 
 the Roman government in the Jewish Sanhedrin, sent 
 a delegation to ensnare him. They said, " Master, we 
 know that thou teachest truth and regardest not the 
 person of men ; tell us, therefore, what thinkest thou. 
 Is is lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? " Observe 
 again the calm disdain : " Why tempt ye me, ye mask- 
 wearers? Show me the tribute money." They gave 
 him a penny ; and he said, " Whose is this image and 
 superscription?" They answered, "Caesar's." Then 
 said he, " Render unto Caesar the things that are 
 Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's." 
 
 This was " diplomacy " at its highest and best ; an 
 illustration of the truth that " peace hath its victories 
 no less renowned than war." The conference on this 
 occasion was of immeasurable importance not only 
 because the parties concerned were the authorities of 
 earth and heaven, but because of the great principle 
 which was evolved from it. 
 
 Once and again the world powers have met, in 
 what are technically known as " conventions," for the 
 distribution of spoils or the division of territory. Such 
 
THE CHILD AND THE EMPEROR 15 
 
 was the " convention of 1572," when Catharine de 
 Medici and the Duke of Alva came together on the 
 borders of Spain to divide between them the Continent 
 of Europe for the inquisition of the faith. Conven- 
 tions of like character have been held by the so-called 
 Great Powers in recent years for the partition of 
 China, of the Dark Continent, of Korea. For the 
 most part, however, they have left Christ out; the 
 King who sits supreme over all. 
 
 In the brief and inconspicuous " convention " in 
 Solomon's Porch a principle was laid down which for- 
 mulated for all time the right relations of civil and 
 ecclesiastical authority. In the proposition, " Render 
 unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto 
 God the things which are God's," the fact is fairly 
 stated, that Church and State are co-ordinate powers ; 
 that they are interdependent, yet independent each of 
 the other, since they proceed along distinct lines ; that 
 they rest on mutual support and are entitled to 
 loyal following, since both alike are ordained of 
 God. 
 
 The last meeting of Christ and Caesar was in the 
 judgment hall. " And Pilate saith unto Jesus, Art 
 thou a king? He answered, Thou sayest it; to this 
 end was I born and for this cause came I into the 
 world, that I should bear witness of the truth. And 
 Pilate brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judg- 
 ment seat in the place that is called Gabbatha ; and he 
 said, Behold, your king! But they cried out, Away 
 with him ! away with him ! Crucify him ! Pilate saith 
 unto them, Shall I crucify your king? They answered, 
 We have no king but Caesar. Then delivered he him 
 unto them to be crucified. And Pilate wrote a title 
 
16 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 and put it on the cross, Jesus of Nazareth, the King 
 of the Jews." 
 
 Thus the issue was fairly drawn; they would have 
 no king- but Caesar. And Jesus submitted. He bowed 
 his head to the powers that be. For three mortal 
 hours, hung up between heaven and earth, he bore 
 the shame and agony; then with a fluttering sigh 
 yielded up the ghost. 
 
 Defeat! Manifest defeat! Nay; he did but stoop 
 to conquer. Had he not said, " Except a corn of wheat 
 fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it 
 die, it bringeth forth much fruit " ? Wait. To-day, 
 to-morrow and the day following, and then he will be 
 perfected ! He breaks the bands of death and ascends 
 on high, taking captivity captive. The veil is drawn 
 and, lo, yonder he sits upon his throne high and lifted 
 up, saying, " Fear not ; I am he that liveth and was 
 dead, and, behold, I am alive forever more! " Alive? 
 Aye, witness the nineteen centuries of Christian prog- 
 ress. He is alive, as no other historic personage is 
 alive, in the councils of nations and of men. As the 
 white plume of Henry of Navarre was ever to be seen 
 in the forefront of battle, so are the presence and 
 power of Jesus manifest in the conflicts of the ages. 
 
 And now at the end of the years we stand again at 
 the watch-tower calling, " Watchman, what of the 
 night? " And the watchman answers, " The night lin- 
 gers but the shadows flee ! " — " And what of Caesar ? " 
 — " An empty name ! " — " What of Rome and the 
 Great Powers ? " — " One by one they flourish and are 
 gone ! "— " What of the Church? "— " Glorious things 
 of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God ! " — " And 
 what of Christ?" — "He goeth forth conquering and 
 
THE CHILD AND THE EMPEROR 17 
 
 to conquer. The head that once was crowned with' 
 thorns is crowned with glory now. His kingdom is 
 an everlasting kingdom and his dominion is forever 
 and ever ! " 
 
 The end should have been seen from the beginning. 
 It is vain to fight against God. The Child sits upon 
 his throne of power and the hearts of the mighties are 
 in his hands as the rivers of water. He came to estab- 
 lish his kingdom on earth; and he shall not forbear 
 until he reigns where'er the sun does his successive 
 journeys run. 
 
 It is vain to array one's self against manifest des- 
 tiny. It is vain to cry, in the presence of the great in- 
 vasion of the King of kings, " We will not have thee 
 to rule over us ! " The conflict is bound to be unequal, 
 because the decree went forth from the beginning of 
 eternity, " Thou art my son. Ask of me, and I will 
 give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the ut- 
 termost parts of the earth for thy possession ! " 
 
 Can we read history in the light of the Incarnation ? 
 If not, the lines must be blurred before our eyes. The 
 logic of events is as meaningless as were the scars and 
 fissures on the rocks until a scientist came, saying 
 " Once upon a time a glacier passed this way." So 
 the philosophy of history clears up when men look 
 toward Bethlehem and say, " Behold, the invasion ! " 
 In the light of that stupendous event we are able not 
 only to read old chronicles, but to discern the signs 
 of the times. All the incidents of these nineteen cen- 
 turies array themselves in lines converging toward the 
 final conquest of the world by Christ. 
 
 What then? The part of reason is manifestly to 
 fall in with the advance. The silver trumpet calls. 
 
18 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 The Rider on the white horse leads his militant host 
 to victory. Armageddon is near. Gog and Magog to 
 the fray! It is Christ against Caesar. It is truth 
 against error. It is light against darkness. It is free- 
 dom against tyranny. It is the Golden Age against 
 the dark ages. It is heaven against hell. Where do 
 we stand? Under what king, the Child or the Em- 
 peror? 
 
II 
 
 THE YOUTH AND THE DOCTORS 
 
 In which a Boy of twelve, in the presence of the most impor- 
 tant body of scholars of his time, shows himself to be 
 familiar with the problem of problems and his personal 
 relation to it. 
 
 And they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst 
 of the teachers, both hearing them, and asking them 
 questions: and all that heard him were amazed at his 
 understanding and his answers. 
 
 And when they saw him, they were astonished; and 
 his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt 
 with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. 
 
 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? 
 knew ye not that I must be in my Father's house? 
 
 And they understood not the saying which he spake 
 unto them. — Luke ii, 46-50. 
 
 The early life of Jesus is wrapped in mystery. It 
 has been called " the great silence." His four biog- 
 raphers are singularly agreed in omitting the entire 
 period between his birth and ministry, with the ex- 
 ception of a single episode. It is fair to presume, 
 however, that there was nothing extraordinary in his 
 youthful development. The record is, " He increased 
 in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and 
 man." At three years of age, in accordance with cus- 
 tom, he assumed the tasseled robe. At five he entered 
 the rabbinical school, where the Scriptures were his 
 text-book. At ten he began the study of theology, as 
 
 19 
 
20 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 elucidated in the Mishna, or traditional law. At 
 twelve, the climacteric of life, he became a ben-hat- 
 torah or " son of the law " ; and was permitted to at- 
 tend the Passover at Jerusalem. 
 
 That was a memorable event in the life of this 
 Jewish boy. The pilgrims setting out from Nazareth 
 would, doubtless, take occasion to join one of the 
 many caravans wending their way, at that time, to 
 the Holy City. As they journeyed they sang the 
 Psalms of Ascent ; such as, " I was glad when they 
 said to me, Let us go unto the house of the Lord ! 
 Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. 
 Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy 
 palaces ! " The heart of the young pilgrim must have 
 been deeply moved by historic scenes along the way. 
 The land was in its vernal beauty; the fig-yards and 
 olive-groves just coming into bloom. Yonder was the 
 battle field of Esdraelon; and, to the East, Gilboa, 
 where " the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and 
 his sons." A little further on were the heights of 
 Bethel, where Jacob dreamed his wonderful dream. 
 And now they were passing through the Vale of 
 Sychar, " where Jacob's well was." 
 
 At length they reached the summit of Olivet; and 
 Jerusalem was before them. The gilded roofs and 
 colonnades of the temple were gleaming in the sun. 
 The pilgrims sang, " The Lord hath chosen Zion ! He 
 hath said, This is my rest forever; here will I dwell, 
 for I have desired it. I will clothe her priests with 
 salvation, and her sons shall shout aloud for joy ! " 
 Then, crossing the Kidron, they ascended the opposite 
 slope at evening, where probably Joseph pitched his 
 tent outside the walls. The Paschal lamb was slain 
 
THE YOUTH AND THE DOCTORS 21 
 
 on the fourteenth of Nisan, and its blood was sprinkled 
 on the posts and lintels of the tent. There were thou- 
 sands of fires on the hillsides round about, where mul- 
 titudes of pilgrims were celebrating the feast. The 
 six succeeding days were devoted to imposing cere- 
 monies in the temple; and then the crowds began to 
 disperse. 
 
 It is not strange, when we remember the confusion 
 incident to the departure of the numerous caravans, 
 that the absence of the boy Jesus was not discovered 
 at once: but when Joseph and Mary found he was not 
 in their company, they immediately returned to the 
 city and discovered him " in the temple, sitting in the 
 midst of the doctors, hearing, questioning and answer- 
 ing." In reply to his mother's gentle reproof he said, 
 " How is it that ye sought me ? Wist ye not that I 
 must be about my Father's business ? " * And it is 
 written, " They understood not." But the significance 
 of his words is indicated in the statement that his 
 mother " kept these sayings in her heart." 
 
 This is our solitary glimpse into the early life of 
 Jesus ; and it is full of suggestion. Let us get the 
 picture before us. It was probably in the Hall Gazith ; 
 and in all the world there was no more distin- 
 guished body of scholars than those accustomed to 
 assemble there. Of the number were Annas, the high 
 priest and president of the Sanhedrin ; Ben Uzziel, the 
 Targumist who wrote the Chaldee Paraphrase ; Joseph 
 of Arimathea, a man of wealth and character; Ben 
 
 i The Revised Version, following the Syriac, renders, " in 
 my Father's house." This is too narrow an interpretation of 
 the original, which is, literally, "in the things or affairs of 
 my Father." 
 
22 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 Buta, who had been blinded by Herod for his devotion 
 to the Jewish cause ; Nicodemus ; the aged Hillel, 
 and Shammai, his rival ; and Gamaliel, a professor in 
 the University of Jerusalem, known as " the Flower of 
 the Law." In the midst of this notable assemblage 
 stood the boy of twelve, " hearing, asking questions 
 and answering them." 
 
 No intimation is given as to the themes traversed 
 in this remarkable conference; but we cannot go far 
 wrong in supposing that it had to do particularly with 
 the three supreme problems of life. 
 
 First: God. The men of that circle were theologians. 
 It was their special function as religious leaders of 
 Israel to make themselves familiar with what was then 
 and is still called " the Science of God." At that time 
 there were three parties in the Sanhedrin, to wit, the 
 Pharisees, or orthodox party ; the Sadducees, who 
 formed the " liberal " or destructive school ; and the 
 Herodians, who insisted on adjusting the national 
 faith and customs to the demands of Rome. But how- 
 ever these parties might differ in detail and particular, 
 they were all agreed as to the fundamental doctrine of 
 Deity. They were monotheists, stringent in their op- 
 position to idolatry as opposed to the worship of the 
 true God. 
 
 We may imagine the boy Jesus, listening to their 
 discourse on the abstract, self-existent, immaterial 
 One, and asking, " But how may we know that God 
 is?" To which they would reply by presenting the 
 stock arguments, " ontological," " teleological," " cos- 
 mological," et cetera, in proof of the divine existence ; 
 for these lines of evidence were practically as familiar 
 then as now. And when lie asked, " Has God ever 
 
THE YOUTH AND THE DOCTORS 23 
 
 revealed himself to men ? " they would open the Scrip- 
 tures and turn to the theophanies and the story of the 
 burning bush from which he spake, saying, " I AM 
 THAT I AM." But the boy would ask again, " Has 
 he ever bowed the heavens to come down, so that men 
 could behold him ? " And they could only say, " No, 
 never. He is the transcendent, the absolute, the in- 
 visible One." 
 
 And the boy of twelve in their midst was the incar- 
 nate God! A miracle? Yes; more wonderful than 
 all others, yet the one miracle necessary to the welfare 
 of man. Inexplicable? Yes; "great is the mystery 
 of godliness, God is manifest in flesh ; " yet no more 
 inexplicable, in its last reduction, than any other di- 
 vine work, as, for example, the union of Matter and 
 Spirit in the human constitution. We gain nothing by 
 too close scrutiny on the one hand, or by minimizing 
 the mystery on the other. The fact itself is so closely 
 interwoven with the fabric of the Scriptures that they 
 become as meaningless as the unintelligible Oracles of 
 Delphos unless we are prepared to say that Christ is 
 " very God of very God." And just there he meets the 
 necessity of the race. It is not enough to say, as the 
 Ritschlians do, that the incarnation is merely a " value 
 judgment " and that Jesus is God because to our inner 
 consciousness he answers the purposes of God. You 
 may paint a picture of the sun on a great canvas and 
 cover it with radiations of gold ; but no night is illum- 
 inated by it, no flower blooms under it, no shivering 
 people warm themselves before it. Christ is not a 
 pictured sun, but the veritable Sun of Righteousness 
 with healing in his beams. He is " the brightness of 
 the glory of God." The whole world feels his warmth ; 
 
24, CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 in his light we see light ; if he lay his quickening hand 
 upon us we straightway cry, " My Lord and my God ! " 
 
 Second: Man. Here is the complementary problem. 
 It was the business of the distinguished Rabbis in 
 Gazith to solve it. They were anthropologists ; they 
 were familiar with metaphysics and ethics. The two 
 schools of Hillel and Shammai, opposed in many par- 
 ticulars, were agreed in these : that man was originally 
 created in the divine likeness, that he had fallen from 
 his high estate through sin and that his chief concern 
 is to regain his forfeited birthright. 
 
 The boy in their midst may have been moved to 
 ask, " Has this recovery ever been realized? Is there 
 an instance of one who has so far delivered himself 
 from the bondage of sin as to enter fully into the in- 
 heritance of God?" And what could they say? If 
 they mentioned Abraham, he would answer, " But did 
 not the faith of Abraham, on occasion, fail him ?" If 
 Noah, " Did he not lie drunken in the entrance of his 
 tent? " If Moses, " Was he not betrayed by anger and 
 so forbidden to enter the Land of Promise?" If 
 David, " What means this cry from his closet on the 
 housetop ; ' Have mercy upon me, O God, according 
 to thy lovingkindness and according unto the multi- 
 tude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions ! 
 For I have sinned and done evil in thy sight ' ? " They 
 must have admitted that never once had there been an 
 illustration of the Ascent of Man. The Lord looked 
 down from heaven to see if there was any that wrought 
 righteousness ; and he sadly said, " There is none that 
 doeth good, no not one ! " 
 
 But the dream was realized in this boy of twelve. 
 His birth was the descent of God; his life was the 
 
THE YOUTH AND THE DOCTORS 25 
 
 ascent of man. Alone and solitary in a world of sin- 
 ners, he was the Perfect One. There was no guile in 
 his lips, no guile in his heart. The challenge of his 
 later life was, " Who layeth anything to my charge? " 
 And neither then nor during the succeeding centuries 
 has there been any to accuse him. 
 
 The character of Jesus was as really the result of 
 development as is the character of any common man. 
 True, there was no inherent sin in him ; but his cir- 
 cumstances were such as to make his conflict a very 
 real one. It was one of the purposes of his human 
 life to show how a man can get the better of his envi- 
 ronment and keep himself unspotted from the world. 
 But for this he might have come down from heaven 
 a mature and perfect man. The monk Tauler, a Do- 
 minican mystic who wrote five hundred years ago, 
 represents his advent in this wise : 
 
 There comes a galley laden, 
 A heavenly freight on board; 
 
 It bears God's Son, the Saviour, 
 The great Undying Word. 
 
 And proudly floats that galley, 
 From troubled coast to coast: 
 
 Its sail is love and mercy; 
 Its mast, the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Now earth hath caught the anchor, 
 The ship hath touched the strand; 
 
 God's Word, in fleshly garment, — 
 The Son, — steps out on land! 
 
 But had he appeared in such manner, he would have 
 separated himself from all mankind by an omission of 
 
26 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 the formative processes of life. In order that he might 
 know and sympathize with our upward struggle, he 
 must pass through it ; wherefore it is written, " He 
 grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with Go,d 
 and man." At every stage of this development, how- 
 ever, he was the Sinless One. His was the develop- 
 ment of a perfect nature limited by the conditions of a 
 sinful world. It was like the development of a foun- 
 tain, which is as perfect when it issues from the rock 
 as when it rolls in a torrent to the sea. Or, like that 
 of the oak, which is as perfect when it shoots from the 
 acorn as when it lifts its mighty arms to grapple with 
 the storm. Jesus was not hurt by his environment; 
 sin never touched him. As child, youth, man, he was 
 always sinless ; and thus he stands as a perpetual illus- 
 tration of the Ascent of Man. 
 
 Third: Reconciliation; the reconciliation of a holy 
 God with sinful men. At this point Messiah enters, 
 " the hope of Israel " ; one hand clasping the hand of 
 God and the other the hand of man. The earliest of 
 Jewish writers called him " the Daysman " ; that is, 
 the Reconciler. The prophecy of his coming runs un- 
 interruptedly through Holy Writ. It would be scarcely 
 possible for a company of such learned Rabbis as sat 
 in the Hall Gazith to refrain from discussing it. 
 
 The boy in their midst would ask, " Who is this 
 Messiah? When he cometh, how will ye know him? " 
 And they would answer, " He is to be King of Kings, 
 ' great David's greater Son.' In the fulness of time 
 he will appear to deliver Israel ; and he will reign in 
 glory among us." The boy would ask, " What then 
 is the meaning of this scripture, ' A virgin shall con- 
 ceive and bear a son and call his name Immanuel, 
 
THE YOUTH AND THE DOCTORS 27 
 
 which being interpreted is, God with us ' ; or of this, 
 ' He is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, 
 and we hid as it were our faces from him ; he is 
 wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our 
 iniquities, that by his stripes he may be healed ; or 
 what is the meaning of your sacrifices? Why is the 
 blood of the Paschal lamb sprinkled on the lintel of 
 every door and upon all the sacred things of the 
 temple ? Why this blood, blood, blood everywhere ? " 
 And they could only say in their bewilderment, " It 
 is written that if a man sin and bring a lamb without 
 spot or blemish to the altar, his sin is taken from him." 
 But how can the blood of a lamb atone for sin? How 
 can it wash away the crimson stain? They knew not. 
 
 This boy of twelve was their Messiah ; and they 
 did not recognize him. He was the antitype of all 
 their sacrifices. His was the blood that should cleanse 
 from sin. Was he aware of his personality and mis- 
 sion ? Aye ; always. The realization of his mission 
 began with dawning consciousness. He knew who he 
 was, whence he had come and what his errand was. 
 Else what did he mean when he said to his mother, 
 " Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's busi- 
 ness ? " It is true that, in assuming mortal form, he 
 " emptied himself " of the outward tokens of his God- 
 hood; but never for a moment in such manner as to 
 become ignorant of his mission or impotent to perform 
 it. He " laid his glory by," but never so that the 
 scepter was not within reach, and never so that the 
 shadow of the cross was not over him. 
 
 He returned to Nazareth after this incident and be- 
 came an apprentice in Joseph's shop. As the years 
 passed on, he grew in stature and wisdom and in favor 
 
28 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 with God and man. One day he closed the door of the 
 carpenter shop and went out into his ministry. Three 
 years later we find him again in the Hall Gazith in the 
 midst of the doctors. The old priest Annas is there, 
 grayer and more burdened with years ; and, as if 
 moved by some strange apprehension of the truth, he 
 cries, " I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell 
 us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of the living 
 God ? " Jesus answers, " Thou hast said. Hereafter 
 ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand 
 of power and coming in the clouds of heaven ! " Then 
 the high priest rent his clothes, and said, " He hath 
 spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of wit- 
 nesses. What think ye?" His associates said, "He 
 is guilty of death." 
 
 And behold him still in the midst of the doctors. 
 " Where is the wise, where is the disputer of this 
 world ? " Not yet with all their wisdom have they 
 found out God. He stands in the midst of the learned 
 ones, " hearing, asking, answering." And there is 
 none but himself in all the world to explain the three 
 great doctrines of God and man and reconciliation. 
 None but himself has ever answered or can answer 
 the two questions, " How can God be just and the 
 justifier of the ungodly?" and "How can a man be 
 just with God?" 
 
Ill 
 
 THE MAN AND THE PEOPLE 
 
 In which the man of Nazareth, being everybody's friend, 
 gets an audience with all sorts and conditions of men. 
 
 Now it came to pass, zvhile the multitude pressed upon 
 him and heard the word of God, that he was standing by 
 the lake of Gennesaret; and he saw two boats standing 
 by the lake: but the fishermen had gone out of them, 
 and were washing their nets. And he entered into one 
 of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put 
 out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught 
 the multitudes out of the boat. — Luke v, 1-3. 
 
 This Man was followed wherever he went by all 
 sorts of people. 1 " The multitude pressed upon him." 
 He had no need to resort to adventitious methods for 
 securing a congregation. No matter where he 
 preached, on the sea shore, at the street corner or in 
 Solomon's Porch, the people flocked to hear him. 
 
 Nor did they fail to give him their attention. All 
 the world knows that Paul was an orator; but on a 
 certain occasion, when he was preaching at Joppa, 
 one of his hearers was overcome with sleep. No such 
 incident ever happened, so far as we are aware, under 
 the preaching of Jesus. It is written, " All bare him 
 witness, and wondered at the gracious words which 
 proceeded out of his mouth." 
 
 1 When it is said " The common people heard him gladly," 
 we are to understand by the term " people " not the profanum 
 vulgus, but, as in the margin, the multitude. 
 
30 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 It would be interesting, were it possible, to analyze 
 his singular power over men. To say that he pos- 
 sessed all the elements of true eloquence such as sim- 
 plicity, directness, picturesqueness, logical coherence, 
 warmth, earnestness and convincing power, is not 
 enough. Here is something beyond the homiletic or 
 any other art. You have, perhaps, seen a portrait 
 wrought by a great master, with eyes that had the 
 singular quality of following you wherever you went. 
 A like characteristic we observe in the teaching of 
 Jesus. Coleridge expressed this in the terms, " It finds 
 me." Indeed, it searches out and finds the hearts and 
 consciences of all. Jesus was not merely able to sway 
 an audience — others have ruled from the throne of elo- 
 quence — but his influence was equally magnetic in per- 
 sonal conversation. It was distributive, holding the 
 multitude because it held every unit in it. 
 
 Were we required to put our hand on a single 
 quality or characteristic of which we might say, " This 
 accounts for it," we should name his intense human- 
 ness. He was called " the Son of Man " not only be- 
 cause of his representative relation to the race, but 
 because he was distinctively and pre-eminently a man 
 among men. He was able to address himself to the 
 wants of the multitude, all and singular, by reason of 
 his broad acquaintance and sympathy with humanity. 
 He was an intuitive and infallible psychologist, since 
 " he knew what was in man." 
 
 He was everybody's preacher because he was every- 
 body's friend. He stood on a level with his congre- 
 gation. He wore no robe but homespun ; he asked no 
 better pulpit than the prow of a little boat or a place at 
 the corner of a street. He touched men because he 
 
THE MAN AND THE PEOPLE 31 
 
 was ever in vital touch with them. And the secret of 
 his unparalleled power lay in the fact that he had 
 something to say, and said it. 
 
 He had something to say to the poor. 
 
 And the poor of his time were poor indeed. We 
 make a distinction between " God's poor " and the 
 " devil's poor." We take a sympathetic interest in the 
 relief of such as are thrifty and industrious, but un- 
 fortunate. Our hearts go out to those who with their 
 best efforts find it difficult to make both ends meet or 
 keep the wolf from the door. But Jesus had a place 
 in his heart for the ne'er-do-weels; for the thriftless, 
 penniless and friendless. Who cares for these? For 
 the men with sunken cheeks and watery eyes who 
 shuffle along our streets ? For the women whose faces 
 are sodden with drink, drawing thin shawls around 
 their shivering shoulders and stretching out their 
 hands for alms? Who cares for the devil's poor? 
 They live forlorn and die unwept. " Rattle his bones 
 over the stones; he's only a pauper whom nobody 
 owns." Who cares ? Christ cares ! His heart is warm 
 with compassion for them, and all the more because 
 they have so little pity on themselves. He hears their 
 helpless moan, their bitter cry. Do you ask the cre- 
 dentials of Jesus ? Here they are : " Go tell John that 
 the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers 
 are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and 
 the poor have the gospel preached to them." God be 
 praised ! The meanest beggar in the world has one 
 true friend who tells him hopefully that it is never 
 too late to mend; that though he has squandered his 
 inheritance and is as poor as poverty, he may turn 
 around and be rich toward God. 
 
32 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 And he had something to say to the rich. 
 
 The rich of his time were very rich ; for the wealth 
 of the world was then concentrated in the hands of a 
 few. Jesus did not denounce them indiscriminately. 
 He respected the rights of property and recognized the 
 fact that a man may have abundant possessions, yet be 
 a righteous man. He was, however, no sycophant. 
 He was often entertained by persons of rank and af- 
 fluence ; and his table-talk was full of searching truths. 
 He warned his wealthy friends against avarice, say- 
 ing : " It is easier for a camel to pass through a needle's 
 eye than for a man whose heart is set upon riches to 
 enter the kingdom of God." He warned them against 
 the folly of spending time and energy in acquiring 
 a mere modicum of yellow dust, saying : " The ground 
 of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully ; and 
 he said, What shall I do, because I have no room 
 where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I 
 do: I will pull down my barns and build greater; and 
 there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And 
 I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid 
 up for many years ; take thine ease, eat, drink and be 
 merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night 
 thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall 
 those things be? " He told them plainly that there are 
 rich men in hell, saying of one who had been clothed 
 in purple and fine linen and had fared sumptuously 
 every day, " He lifted up his eyes being in torment." 
 He pointed out to them clearly that it was better to 
 part with everything else than to lose eternal life: 
 " Go sell all that thou hast, and come and follow me." 
 
 He had something to say to workingmen. 
 
 And he could say it sympathetically and effectively, 
 
THE MAN AND THE PEOPLE 33 
 
 because he was himself a member of the Third Estate. 
 He knew what it was to shove the plane and drive the 
 saw and wipe the perspiration from his face at the 
 close of a weary day. One word of his, " The laborer 
 is worthy of his hire," has in it the ultimate solution 
 of all controversies between capital and labor. But 
 he knew the danger of the shop. He knew the prone- 
 ness of the toiling class to lose themselves in the sor- 
 did routine of bread-and-butter work. The truth of 
 Carlyle's parable respecting the men of the Dead Sea, 
 " They made no use of their souls and so lost them ; 
 but they retained a bewildered and half conscious 
 reminiscence of the time when they were men with 
 souls responsive to the eternal verities," was uttered 
 by Jesus in a far more effective way. He stood, as it 
 were, at the door of the workshop, saying, " O men, 
 be in your labor, yet not of it ! Let not your hand-to- 
 mouth struggle crowd out all nobler aspirations ! For 
 the life is more than meat and the body than raiment. 
 Behold the fowls of the air ; they sow not, neither do 
 they reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your heavenly 
 Father feedeth them. And consider the lilies of the 
 field, how they grow ; they toil not, they spin not ; yet I 
 say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not 
 arrayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so clothe 
 the grass of the field, shall he not much more clothe 
 you, O ye of little faith? Take, therefore, no anxious 
 thought for the morrow. But seek ye first the king- 
 dom of God and his righteousness, and all these things 
 shall be added unto you." 
 
 He had a message, also, for the wise. 
 
 Not for the " sophoi " ; that is, those who were wise 
 in their own conceit. The doctors came to him with 
 
34* CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 their hair-splitting questions, and he answered them 
 never a word. But he had much to say to the " philo- 
 sophoi " ; that is, such as desired to be wise. He gave 
 them great truths to ponder on. He spoke to Nico- 
 demus of regeneration, evoking the response, " How 
 can these things be ?" and having plainly announced the 
 mystery, he followed it with a statement concerning 
 the saving power of the gospel, simple as a kinder- 
 garten lesson, " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
 wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 
 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
 have everlasting life." If a man is in quest of sublim- 
 ities and profundities, he shall have something to think 
 of; he will find in the teaching of Jesus an unfathom- 
 able ocean of truth rolling before him. If he be 
 engaged in the earnest quest of truths that make for 
 righteousness and eternal life, he shall find them there, 
 clear as the sun at noon-day. The Master, taking a 
 child upon his knee, said to his hearers, " Except ye 
 become as this little child " — in your attitude toward 
 truth, in your readiness to receive it — " ye shall in no 
 wise enter the kingdom of God." His doctrine is, 
 indeed, like an ocean, on the shore of which seers 
 stand dreaming dreams and seeing visions and losing 
 themselves in contemplation of its mysterious depths, 
 while little children play along the edge, laughing and 
 making merry, the waters laving their feet. 
 
 And he had a message for doubters. 
 
 Nothing for defiant infidels like Pilate, who, with a 
 curling of the lip, asked, " What is truth ? " Not a 
 word for boastful agnostics who said, like Pliny the 
 elder, " There is only one thing certain, to wit, that 
 there is nothing certain." His pearls of truth were 
 
THE MAN AND THE PEOPLE 35 
 
 not scattered before such as these. But for honest 
 doubters, that is, those who were bewildered at the 
 cross-roads and eager to know the way, he had always 
 a word of comfort and encouragement. Every age is 
 " an age of doubt " ; and there are always those who, 
 having lost their bearings, long to know. One such 
 went wandering into the darkness, after the crucifixion 
 of Christ, like a blind man groping along the wall. 
 Poor Thomas ! His best friend was dead, his fondest 
 hopes were crushed. He had heard in a roundabout 
 way of the resurrection of Jesus, but it was too good 
 to believe. Ah, how gladly would he have believed it ! 
 For such as he, grieving by reason of their doubt 
 and doing their very best to be rid of it, Christ has 
 infinite consideration. Then said he unto Thomas, 
 " Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands, and 
 reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side; and 
 be not faithless, but believing." O doubting friend, 
 touch Jesus ! He can be touched. To know him, to 
 commune with him, is to believe. All doubts vanish 
 when the light of his countenance shines upon us. And 
 Thomas answered and said unto him, " My Lord and 
 my God ! " 
 
 And he had much to say to believers. 
 
 Two things in particular he required of his dis- 
 ciples ; namely, consistency and usefulness. What a 
 high ideal of character he set before them ! " Be ye per- 
 fect." " Be ye holy." " Ye are the salt of the earth ; 
 but if the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be 
 salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be 
 cast out and trodden under foot of men." " Ye are the 
 light of the world; let your light so shine before men 
 that they may see your good works and glorify God." 
 
36 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 And what frequent exhortations to usefulness ! " Say 
 not, there are yet four months and then cometh the 
 harvest. Lift up your eyes and see; the fields are 
 white already unto the harvest ! Thrust in your sickles 
 and reap." The Parables of the Barren Fig-tree, of the 
 Talents, of the Stumbling-block and the Millstone are 
 all for believers. In the teaching of Jesus there is not 
 a sentence to encourage the thought that the chief end 
 of a Christian is to secure his own salvation, or to 
 build up personal character. The spirit of unselfish- 
 ness breathes through his word. Go out after others. 
 " Give ye them to eat." " Constrain them to come in." 
 " As the Father hath sent me into the world so I send 
 you. Go ye, therefore, into the highways and hedges 
 and unto the uttermost parts of the earth, and evan- 
 gelize. Spend and be spent for others, and for the 
 glory of God." " If any man will come after me, let 
 him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." 
 
 And most searching of all was his message to hypo- 
 crites. 
 
 The word " hypocrite " is literally " under a mask." 
 Oh, how Jesus hated shams! He found the religious 
 leaders of his time living under a mask. As he stood 
 in the Temple-court he saw them ostentatiously fling 
 their golden coins into the trumpet-mouth of Corban ; 
 and when a poor widow came by, modestly dropping 
 in her farthing, he said, " Behold, she hath given more 
 than they all." He saw them wearing long robes, with 
 broad phylacteries, and frontlets between their eyes, 
 standing on the corner of the streets, and making long 
 prayers to be seen and heard of men; whereupon he 
 said, " Two men went up to the temple to pray ; the 
 one a Pharisee and the other a Publican. And the 
 
THE MAN AND THE PEOPLE 37 
 
 Pharisee prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee 
 that I am not as other men are! But the Publican 
 stood afar off, not daring to lift up so much as his 
 eyes to heaven, but beating on his breast and crying, 
 God be merciful to me the sinner! I say unto you, 
 This man went down to his house justified rather than 
 the other." He saw them offering their tithes of 
 garden-herbs and observing fasts, with long faces ; and 
 he said, " Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
 crites; ye are as whited sepulchres, fair without, but 
 within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness." 
 Thus his constant word was, " Be what you seem." 
 Be honest and true. Be transparent as the light. Off 
 with your masks ! Off with your disguises ! God sees 
 you through and through. All things are naked and 
 open before him. And to the people he said, " Except 
 your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of 
 the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in .no wise enter 
 the kingdom of God." 
 
 But sweetest, tendercst, most helpful was his word 
 to the sorrowing. 
 
 Hear his beatitude : " Blessed are they that mourn, 
 for they shall be comforted. Blessed are they that are 
 persecuted for righteousness' sake; for theirs is the 
 kingdom of heaven." And hear his invitation : " Come 
 unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I 
 will give you rest. Hear him saying, as he stands 
 beside an open grave : " I am the resurrection and the 
 life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, 
 yet shall he live. And he that liveth and believeth in 
 me shall never die." At that time the hope of immor- 
 tality had grown thin and tenuous, and the bereaved 
 were almost without hope. He bade them lift their 
 
38 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 eyes from the open grave to the open heavens ; he told 
 them of the Father's house, and said, " I go to prepare 
 a place for you." In the light of his teaching, our 
 farewell to dying friends is "Auf ivicdcrsehen." There 
 is to be a reunion beyond. Death does not end all. 
 
 But most of all, he spoke to sinners. 
 
 His enemies reproached him for being the " friend 
 of sinners." They said, " He eateth with publicans and 
 sinners." His simple defence was, " I am come to seek 
 and to save the lost." He was the incarnation of the 
 seeking love of God. His quest is set forth in the 
 parable of the woman with the lighted candle seeking 
 the lost coin ; and of the shepherd with lantern in hand 
 going out on the dark mountains after the lost sheep. 
 He was not ashamed to converse with the sinful 
 woman of Samaria at high noon, though he knew the 
 finger of every passer-by would be pointed at him. His 
 last miracle, as he hung upon the cross in the very 
 article of death, was to save a malefactor who, grieving 
 over a misspent life, was paying the death penalty be- 
 side him : " To-day thou shalt be with me in para- 
 dise ! " So, living and dying, he was the friend of 
 sinners. He is mighty to save, even unto the utter- 
 most. He hath power on earth to forgive sin. 
 
 He had one more message, for hearers; for such 
 as have long listened to his gospel, yet not heeded it. 
 
 How many there are who remember the old, old 
 story as it was told them at their mother's knee. They 
 have read their Bibles over and over again, and have 
 seen the blood-stained face of Christ looking out upon 
 them from every page of prophecy and chronicle, and 
 have yet not accepted him. To these and to all whose 
 ears are dull of hearincr and whose hearts have been 
 
THE MAN AND THE PEOPLE 39 
 
 hardened by long familiarity with the truth, he ad- 
 dresses this faithful admonition : " Whosoever heareth 
 these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him 
 unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock; 
 and the rains descended and the floods came, and the 
 winds blew and beat upon that house ; and it fell not ; 
 for it was built upon a rock. And every one that 
 heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not, 
 shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house 
 upon the sand : and the rains descended, and the floods 
 came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house; 
 and it fell ; and great was the fall of it." 
 
 These are some of the reasons why Jesus was the 
 popular preacher of his time, and so remains through 
 all the ages. He knew the heart of humanity and sym- 
 pathized with it. He aimed straight at the consciences 
 of men. If he were to return to-day and stand in the 
 pulpit, or preach at the corner of the street, or ad- 
 dress us in personal conversation, his word would be 
 to the same purport : " I am the way, the truth and 
 the life," he would say, " No man cometh unto the 
 Father but by me." If men resist his appeal, it is by 
 reason of fatuity and against the ultimate argument 
 of common sense. Is there any other who speaks 
 to me, to you, to the generic man as Jesus does ? " To 
 whom can we go but unto thee," asked Peter, " thou 
 only hast the words of eternal life ? " Let those who 
 reject him ask themselves, "To whom else can we go?" 
 
IV 
 
 THE PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN 
 
 In which the Campaign of the Kingdom begins with the 
 magical rule of One plus One. 
 
 Again on the morrow John was standing, and two of 
 his disciples; and he looked upon Jesus as he walked, and 
 saith, Behold, the Lamb of God! And the two disciples 
 heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. 
 
 One of the two that heard John speak, and followed 
 him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He findeth 
 first his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We 
 have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the 
 Christ. 
 
 He brought him unto Jesus. — John i, 35-42. 
 
 By the bank of the Jordan stands the prophet of 
 the wilderness, gaunt, cadaverous, clad in a gar- 
 ment of camel's hair and girt about the loins with a 
 leathern girdle, his eyes aflame with holy enthusiasm, 
 his voice lifted in the warning cry, " Repent ye ! Re- 
 pent ye ! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 
 The people come flocking to hear him from the towns 
 and villages near and far. 
 
 At this time there was, on every hand, a feeling that 
 the Messiah was about to come. Possibly this was he ! 
 But his words were plain, " I am not the Christ. I 
 am but the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 
 Make straight the way of the Lord! For there 
 cometh One after me whose shoe's latchet I am not 
 worthy to unloose. He shall baptize you with the 
 
 40 
 
THE PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN 41 
 
 Holy Ghost and fire. His fan is in his hand, and he 
 will thoroughly purge his floor. Repent ye, there- 
 fore, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance. The 
 time is at hand. Every valley shall be filled and 
 every mountain and hill shall be brought low; the 
 crooked shall be made straight and the rough ways 
 shall be made smooth, and all flesh shall see the sal- 
 vation of God ! " 
 
 One day as he stood preaching thus at the river 
 side he pointed to One in the distance, saying, " Be- 
 hold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of 
 the world! This is he of whom I said, After me 
 cometh a Man which is preferred before me; for he 
 was before me." And immediately two of his disciples, 
 detaching themselves from the crowd, followed Jesus, 
 who, turning, asked, " What seek ye ? " — "Rabbi," they 
 answered, " where dwellest thou ? " — He said, " Come 
 and see." One of them, however, was unwilling to go 
 further until he had first found his brother Simon, to 
 whom he said, " We have found the Messias " ; and he 
 brought him to Jesus. The next day Philip of Beth- 
 saida was invited to follow Christ; he also sought his 
 friend Nathanael, saying, " We have found him of 
 whom Moses in the law and prophets did write ! " On 
 his explaining that it was Jesus of Nazareth, his friend 
 exclaimed incredulously, " Can there any good thing 
 come out of Nazareth ? " to which he answered, "Come 
 and see." And he brought him to Jesus. 
 
 So runs the story of the beginning of the Church. 
 Coming and bringing! One coming to Christ and 
 bringing another to him. Thus was formed the little 
 group which was destined to be the nucleus of an or- 
 ganization of hundreds of millions. Coming and 
 
42 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 bringing I It is the watchword of the propaganda. 
 This is the magical rule of two, — one and another, — 
 by which the world is to be restored to God. 
 
 We follow in the footsteps of John the Baptist and 
 of all the evangelists of the ages in saying, " Come to 
 Jesus." There are those who insist that the invitation 
 is quite out of date. " The time is past," they say, 
 " when men can be frightened into repentance by the 
 fear of hell, or brought to righteousness by the affir- 
 mation that Christ alone can save." We are advised 
 that " the revival of the future," when it comes, will 
 not be along the old lines of solicitude for individuals, 
 but will aim rather at " social regeneration." Its gos- 
 pel will be a purely ethical gospel, in which men will 
 be invited not to " come to Jesus," but to turn over a 
 new leaf. But the method of Christ himself is good 
 enough for us and for all who follow him. 
 
 The invitation will not be out of date until the Bible 
 is out of date; for the Bible perpetually rings the 
 changes on it. In the midst of the Old Testament 
 stands One, like a huckster at the corner of the streets, 
 vending the wares of eternal life, crying, " Ho, every 
 one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ; and he that 
 hath no money, come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy 
 wine and milk without money and without price ! " 
 And in the midst of the New Testament stands An- 
 other, nay, the very Same, crying, " If any man thirst, 
 let him come unto me and drink; and the water that I 
 shall give him shall be in him a well of water spring- 
 ing up unto everlasting life ! " 
 
 The call of the Evangel will not be out of date until 
 our hymn books, also, are obsolete ; for this is their 
 constant refrain. In the revival of fifty years ago, 
 
THE PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN 43 
 
 when multitudes were in the Valley of Decision and 
 thousands on thousands were made prisoners of hope, 
 the song was, 
 
 Come to the Lord and seek salvation; 
 
 Sound the praise of his dear name; 
 Glory, honor and redemption; 
 
 Christ the Lord has come to reign! 
 
 In the earlier revival under the searching preaching of 
 Finney and his contemporaries, who declared the same 
 gospel of repentance and faith, the great assemblages 
 were swept along by such hymns as, 
 
 Come, ye sinners poor and needy, 
 Weak and wounded, sick and sore! 
 Jesus ready stands to save you, 
 Full of pity, love and power. 
 He is able, he is willing; 
 Doubt no more ! 
 
 The preaching of Moody, the old-fashioned presenta- 
 tion of the gospel of repentance and faith, on which 
 were placed the most unmistakable evidences of the 
 divine approval, was accompanied by the singing of 
 such persuasive songs as, 
 
 Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, 
 Come to Jesus just now! 
 He will save you, he will save you, 
 He will save you just now: 
 
 and 
 
 Come to the Saviour, make no delay; 
 Here in his Word he's shown us the way; 
 Here in his courts he's standing to-day, 
 Tenderly saying, Come ! 
 
44 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 All pastors and evangelists who have been efficient 
 in seasons of ingathering will bear witness to the 
 power of Philip's word, " Come and see ! " Let the 
 sound of going be heard in the tops of the mulberry 
 trees, or the Pentecostal sound of the rushing mighty 
 wind, and all theories and speculations as to the how 
 and wherefore of revival methods give place to the 
 old invitation, " Come to Jesus." And when sinners 
 turn from the error of their ways and fall in with the 
 overtures of divine grace, they tell their new-found 
 hope and gratitude in this wise: 
 
 Just as I am, Thy love unknown 
 Has broken every barrier down: 
 Now, to be thine, yea, Thine alone, 
 O Lamb of God, I come! 
 
 Out of date ? Oh, no ; not until sin and its penalty 
 are out of date : " Come now, saith the Lord, and let 
 us reason together; though your sins be as scarlet, 
 they shall be white as snow; though they be red like 
 crimson, they shall be as wool." 
 
 Not until sorrow is out of date : " Come unto me all 
 ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you 
 rest." 
 
 Not until salvation is out of date : " Seek ye the 
 Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while 
 he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the 
 unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto 
 the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to 
 our God, for he will abundantly pardon." 
 
 Not until heaven is out of date : " I am the way, the 
 truth and the life," said Jesus ; " no man cometh unto 
 the Father but by me." The celestial courts are 
 
THE PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN 45 
 
 thronged with redeemed sinners, and there is not one 
 among them who does not wear the " fine linen, clean 
 and white " of Christ's imputed righteousness and join 
 in the anthem, " Worthy art thou to receive honor and 
 glory and power and dominion ; for thou wast slain 
 and hast redeemed us by thy blood out of every tongue 
 and kindred and people and nation, and hast made us 
 to be kings and priests unto God ! " 
 
 So then we preach the old gospel of invitation. 
 Science and philosophy have ruled out many of the 
 customs of the past and devised new applications of 
 energy and new methods of thought; but they have 
 not improved upon the original plan of salvation. 
 They have discovered no new gospel to live and 
 die by. 
 
 One of the survivors of the ill-fated expedition 
 which set out recently to explore Labrador has 
 returned with a pathetic story. It appears that on 
 reaching their destination they plunged into the in- 
 terior with an inadequate supply of provisions. As 
 time passed the horrors of starvation stared them in 
 the face, until they were driven to eating their moc- 
 casins and cowhide mittens and mouldy scrapings of 
 flour bags. At length, growing weaker and weaker, 
 they threw away their sextant, camp equipments and 
 everything that could be dispensed with; but they 
 kept a treasured copy of the Bible. Finally, two of 
 them came staggering to a friendly cliff against which 
 they pitched their tent. One of these being able to 
 go no further, the other kindled a fire against the face 
 of the rock where it would cast its grateful warmth 
 over his companion, then sat down beside him and 
 read the Fourteenth Chapter of John : " Let not your 
 
46 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 heart be troubled. Peace I leave with you ; my peace 
 I give unto you." Then he turned away, lacking the 
 courage to say farewell, and started out upon a futile 
 quest for help. On returning some days later he 
 found poor Hubbard sitting against the face of the 
 rock, dead, with the Bible and his diary beside him. 
 In the diary he had written, " I think the boys will 
 be able, with the Lord's help, to save me. — I am pre- 
 pared; that is all." So long as the gospel can show 
 its effectiveness in such circumstances, and until we 
 are shown another Book, another gospel and another 
 Christ to help us, we are bound to keep on saying, 
 " Come to Jesus ! He is a help to the poor and needy 
 in his distress, a refuge from the storm and a shadow 
 from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is 
 as a storm against the wall." 
 
 But coming to Christ is not all ; it is only the begin- 
 ning of the Christian life. When a man has made the 
 first step of a journey he leaves that step behind him 
 and goes trudging on. So when one has come to 
 Jesus for salvation that ends his " coming." He has 
 taken the hand of a faithful guide who has promised 
 to bear him company to the journey's end. 
 
 All the rest is Bringing. Andrew goes out and 
 brings his brother Simon. Philip goes out and brings 
 his friend Nathanael. This is the harvesting of the 
 kingdom. This is the service of those who follow 
 Christ : " Go ye out into the highways and hedges and 
 constrain them to come in." 
 
 If it be asked, " Why should I spend my life in 
 this manner ? " we answer, All the motives that can 
 appeal to thoughtful men are applicable here. The 
 motives are three; let us begin with the lowest. 
 
THE PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN 47 
 
 The first and lowest is Self-interest. 
 
 We seek our personal salvation. This is completely 
 gained in one final and comprehensive act of self-sur- 
 render. If we ask " assurance," we shall find it not 
 by working in upon ourselves or seeking by sheer 
 introactive effort to deepen our spiritual life, but by 
 serving faithfully in the lines which our Master has 
 marked out for us. The assurance of faith, which is 
 the secret of a happy life, comes not to those who sit 
 down disconsolately to examine themselves and better 
 their condition by a dead lift of longing, but to those 
 who go into the yellow field, thrust in the sickle and 
 reap beside their Lord. 
 
 A traveller, lost on a bleak western prairie in the 
 deepening twilight, felt himself yielding more and 
 more to a drowsiness which meant certain death. He 
 bravely resisted, struggled on, felt his eyelids closing 
 down and his limbs growing numb, when suddenly he 
 stumbled over something in the way. It was the body 
 of a man. Dead? He stooped over him. The pulse 
 still fluttered, the flesh was warm. He chafed him, 
 gathered him up in his arms, and, seeing a light in the 
 distance, struggled on with his burden toward it. He 
 was weary, the perspiration stood upon his face, but he 
 must hold out. It meant life or death. At length he 
 staggered with his burden across the threshold of a 
 farmhouse. Saved ! Saved in saving the other man ! 
 Ah, there are multitudes who come up to heaven's 
 gate, wearied in like self-denying and self-forgetful 
 service, and have an abundant salvation ministered 
 unto them. 
 
 The happiest man that ever lived was the One who 
 most forgot himself in thinking of others. What was 
 
48 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 he doing at Sychar? A woman was there athirst for 
 the living water, and he had come through the scorch- 
 ing sun to give her the draught which alone could sat- 
 isfy her need. What was he doing in the porches at 
 Bethesda ? Here were the lame, the halt and withered ; 
 he had come to heal them. What was he doing yonder 
 at Gadara beyond the lake? A maniac was there 
 dwelling among the tombs ; he had come to dispossess 
 him of the Evil One. So he journeyed hither and yon, 
 on errands of mercy, thinking of all but himself. And 
 why is he climbing Calvary with the cross upon him? 
 He has assumed the burden of the world's sin and 
 will bear it in his body on the tree. Thus he empties 
 himself, makes himself of no reputation, forgets him- 
 self in our behalf. And in this he finds his happiness ; 
 " he sees of the fruit of the travail of his soul and is 
 satisfied." Let the mind which was in Christ Jesus 
 be also in us. 
 
 The second motive is Benevolence. 
 
 The world's aphorism is, " Look out for number 
 one " ; but the philosophy of a Christian has to do with 
 number two. It teaches us to be a neighbor to every 
 man. The initial step of the Christian life is out of 
 self. " If any man will come after me," said Jesus, 
 " let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow 
 me." To follow Christ is to tread in his footsteps; 
 and his footsteps lead to the places where the suffer- 
 ing cry for help. The utmost weight of emphasis is 
 placed on this duty by the fact that Jesus is pleased to 
 identify himself with those who thus appeal to us. 
 
 A Russian legend tells of a poor serf who on a bitter 
 night passed a soldier on guard whose teeth were 
 chattering with cold. " Man," said he, " you shiver, 
 
THE PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN 49 
 
 you are freezing : take my coat," and therewith, throw- 
 ing his greatcoat upon the shoulders of the sentry, 
 he passed on. Long after, the serf came up to heaven's 
 gate, and looked to see his Lord clad in royal garb. 
 He found him at last, but not arrayed in splendid 
 garments, as he had expected. " Master," he said, 
 " thou wearest my coat." — " Aye," said Jesus, " I 
 have worn it ever since thou gavest it me that cold 
 night." — There is truth in this legend; for did not 
 the Master himself say, " Inasmuch as ye have done 
 it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have 
 done it unto me " ? 
 
 The third motive, and the highest, is Piety. 
 
 It is a true saying, " The chief end of man is to 
 glorify God." We are created in his likeness, and 
 we regain our lost estate only by returning to him. 
 " This is life eternal, to know God." But how shall 
 we know him, and how shall we return to him, and 
 how shall we lose ourselves in him? In the Brahman 
 religion the highest degree of virtue is Apavarga, 
 that is, " to be swallowed up in Brahm." The devotee 
 sits all day long, indifferent to the world about him, 
 lost in meditation. Ask him what he is doing: and 
 he will tell you that he is sinking his personality in 
 the Ineffable One. There is beneath this pagan con- 
 ception a profound and glorious truth. The highest 
 attainment possible to a human soul is to lose itself 
 in God ; not, however, by any pantheistic surrender of 
 personality, not in any subjective process of sentimen- 
 tal reflection, but in the complete blending of the 
 human with the divine will ; in an entire surrender of 
 personal ambition to the divine plan of salvation. 
 
 God is at work in the world. His great purpose is 
 
50 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 to save the children of men. In pursuance of this 
 plan his only-begotten Son came into the world to 
 suffer and die for us. He never forgot his errand. 
 In his boyhood he said, " Wist ye not that I must be 
 about my Father's business?" and, later on, he said, 
 " My father worketh hitherto, and I work." What 
 was he doing? Seeking and saving the lost. In his 
 passion his hands were stretched out to the children 
 of men. And he invites his followers to participate 
 in his glory by co-operating in this work. " As the 
 Father sent me into the world," he said, " so send I 
 you. Go ye, therefore ; bring them in ! " At this 
 point manhood reaches its highest level. Here we 
 regain our lost inheritance; here we lose ourselves in 
 the Infinite; here we devote our lives to his service 
 and become partakers of the glory of God. 
 
 Is it not singular, in view of such considerations, 
 that any of those who profess to follow Christ should 
 stand in the market-place with folded hands ? " Alas 
 for the rarity of Christian charity under the sun." 
 
 The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we 
 are glad. We have the Bible; we have the Gospel; 
 we have Christ. The light of the cross streams over 
 us. And all around us are friends and kinsfolk still 
 in darkness and the shadow of death. Oh, let us run 
 with the message, " Come to Jesus ! " We have the 
 hope of heaven ; the windows are open above us ; the 
 call to the marriage supper falls upon our ears. The 
 leper of Samaria said to his fellows, when they had 
 feasted full in the Syrian camp, " My brethren, we 
 do not well ; this day is a day of good tidings and we 
 hold our peace." Oh, let us tell the besieged and 
 famishing that the siege is lifted, that the drought is 
 
THE PLAN OF. THE CAMPAIGN 51 
 
 past and God's dew and rain are falling- down ! My 
 brethren, we do not well. We have eaten at the 
 King's table; we have refreshed ourselves with his 
 grapes and pomegranates, his sacramental bread and 
 wine. And, behold, there is enough in the Father's 
 house for all; enough and to spare! Let us go out 
 and bring them in. 
 
V 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF A CREED 
 
 In which a man born blind comes into touch with Jesus and 
 receives his sight, and something more. 
 
 Jesus, to a man born blind: "Go wash in the Pool 
 of Siloam." And he went and came seeing. 
 
 The Man's Neighbors: "How were thine eyes 
 opened?" 
 
 The Man : " One that is called Jesus made clay and 
 anointed mine eyes and said ' Go wash in the Pool of 
 Siloam: ' So I went away and washed and came seeing." 
 
 Pharisees: "How didst thou receive thy sight?" 
 
 The Man: "He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed 
 and I see." 
 
 Pharisees: "Give glory to God; we know that this 
 man is a sinner." 
 
 The Man: "Whether he is a sinner I know not: one 
 thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." 
 
 Pharisees: " What did he to thee? How opened he 
 thine eyes?" 
 
 The Man: "I told you even now, and ye did not hear; 
 therefore would ye hear it again? Would ye also become 
 his disciples?" 
 
 Pharisees: " Thou art his disciple; but we are dis- 
 ciples of Moses. We know that God hath spoken unto 
 Moses, but as for this man we know not whence he is." 
 
 The Man: " Why, herein is a wonderful thing, that 
 ye know not whence he is, and yet he opened mine eyes. 
 We know that God heareth not sinners; but if any man 
 be a worshipper of God and do his will, him he heareth. 
 Since the world began it was never heard that anyone 
 opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were 
 not from God he could do nothing." 
 
 52 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF A CREED 53 
 
 Pharisees: " Thou wast altogether born in sins, and 
 dost thou teach us." And they cast him out. 
 
 Jesus, having found the man, "Dost thou believe on the 
 Son of God? " 
 
 The Man: "And who is he, Lord, that I may believe 
 on him?" 
 
 Jesus: " Thou hast both seen him, and he it is that 
 speaketh zvitli tlicc." 
 
 The Man: "Lord, I believe!" And he worshipped 
 him. — John ix, 1-38. 
 
 A man without a creed is a pitiable creature. No 
 one can have confidence in him. Would you patronize 
 a tradesman who did not believe in sixteen ounces to 
 the pound and in paying his obligations when they 
 fell due? Or would you vote for a candidate who had 
 no convictions as to political morality and did not 
 know whether public office is a " graft " or a public 
 trust? But if a well-formulated code of principles is 
 important in trade or politics, how much more in the 
 province of religion, which has to do with the mo- 
 mentous issues of eternal life? 
 
 If ever a man could be excused for having no 
 definite opinions in these premises, it was the blind 
 beggar at the gate. He lived apart in a world of 
 darkness, addressing himself to the difficult problem 
 of making both ends meet. He seems, however, to 
 have had certain clear-cut views of God and of the 
 supernatural. He had heard of Jesus, moreover, as a 
 great teacher and wonder-worker; but no occasion 
 had arisen for formulating an opinion as yet. Never- 
 theless, as events were destined to prove, he was ready 
 to accept the truth when it should dawn upon him. 
 The good God always comes out to meet such a man 
 while he is yet a great way off. 
 
54 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 " And as Jesus passed by he saw him." How brief 
 and simple the statement; yet what issues were in- 
 volved in it ! The disciples, it appears, were discuss- 
 ing the beggar's case from a theological standpoint, 
 the question being, Who had sinned, this man or his 
 parents, that he was born blind? We note three dif- 
 ferent views. Some of them regarded the beggar as 
 a notorious instance of heredity. His ancestors had 
 eaten sour grapes and his teeth were set on edge. To 
 others he was an object of just retribution. " Be not 
 deceived ; God is not mocked ; whatsoever a man 
 soweth that shall he also reap." But Jesus waved 
 both views aside, saying, " This man is a candidate 
 for divine mercy; the works of God shall be made 
 manifest in him." Thereupon he spat on the ground 
 and made clay, with which he anointed the eyes of 
 the blind man, saying " Go, wash in the pool of 
 Siloam." And he went and came seeing. As we 
 proceed with the narrative it will become more and 
 more obvious that the man's blindness was really a 
 blessing in disguise, since it brought him into the clear 
 light of truth and the mercy of God. 
 
 " Blest be the sorrow, kind the storm 
 That drives us nearer home ! " 
 
 But then the trouble began. The man was im- 
 mediately put under inquisition by his friends and 
 neighbors, who were overwhelmed with wonder and 
 curiosity, and by the rabbinical leaders, who found 
 here a new bone of contention. The question as to the 
 stupendous claims of Jesus was sufficiently vexed al- 
 ready without this addition of fuel to the fire. The 
 man was summoned before them and interrogated to 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF A CREED 55 
 
 little effect. He showed himself a clever dialectician ; 
 but as to the miracle, he knew as little as they about 
 it. The case is chiefly interesting because it marks 
 the progress of a man groping his way toward truth, 
 free from prejudice, obedient to the leadings of a 
 kind Providence and willing to go wherever the in- 
 creasing light should lead him. 
 
 The first question which arose was naturally as to 
 the man's identity. On this point there was a differ- 
 ence of opinion, some saying, " This is he " and 
 others, " This is like him ; " but, he himself, being in 
 a position to give the casting vote, said, " I am he." 
 So at the outset, there was something the man knew ; 
 and this is important as emphasizing the fact that one 
 in quest of a creed must have a starting-point. He 
 must be able to lay his hand upon something and say, 
 " This I know." However small and apparently in- 
 significant this something may be, it may, like the 
 broken oar that drifted eastward to the Spanish coast, 
 lead to the discovery of a new world. The A of this 
 blind man's alphabet is, " I am he." It is, as Decartes 
 indicates in his philosophy, a matter of tremendous 
 importance that a man should be able to say, " I am 
 myself," since this is the shibboleth of self-conscious- 
 ness. Just here man is distinguished from all the 
 lower orders of life : as Pascal says, " The universe 
 may be bulkier than I am, yet am I the greater ; since 
 if the universe crush me it knows nothing, while I 
 know what happens and what does it." 
 
 The beggar knew, furthermore, that he had been 
 blind. This is his second step toward a definite faith. 
 He was not likely to forget the long unbroken night 
 in which he had lived thus far. 
 
56 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 " O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon ; 
 Irrevocably dark, total eclipse, 
 Without all hope of day ! " 
 
 On analysis this will appear to be a great advance 
 on mere self-consciousness. It marks the continuity 
 of life. A Corporal of the Old Guard sits in the village 
 inn with a group of gossips about him. " It was 
 twenty years ago," he says, " when we charged up the 
 hill against the British troops. There I received this 
 sabre wound upon my cheek." But the horse he rode 
 in that fierce charge, long turned out to pasture, does 
 not dwell upon the memory of Waterloo. So much 
 is a man better than a horse. He who can link the 
 past with the present can also link the future with it. 
 To remember is to hope. Thus the backward look 
 is proof of immortality. If it be true, as scientists say, 
 that the chemical factors of our physical constitution 
 are completely changed in a cycle of seven years, how 
 could the old Corporal recall the events of three cycles 
 past were it not that the tenant is superior to the 
 house ? So Paul says, " We know that if our earthly 
 house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a house 
 not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Death 
 is but a line of shadow falling across our path: we 
 cross it and go living right on. 
 
 The third step in the blind man's progress is his 
 affirmation " Now I see." His words are " One thing 
 I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." It is 
 clear, however, that this one thing is really complex, 
 including his knowledge of the " I," the past blindness 
 and the restored sight. There could be no mistake 
 about his seeing now. Yonder was the blue sky ; here 
 the shining dome of the temple ; there the green slopes 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF A CREED 57 
 
 of Olivet and the purple vineyards ; and close to him 
 were the perplexed but kindly faces of his friends and 
 neighbors. There could be no question about it. 
 
 But it is a mistake to say that the blind man's 
 " creed " was comprehended in these words, 
 " Whereas I was blind, now I see. " The results of 
 personal experience do not furnish a sufficient 
 groundwork for the spiritual life. Faith must go 
 beyond experience. The assurance of pardon is not 
 the sum total, but only the beginning of salvation. 
 Of course a Christian should be able to say, 
 " Whereas I was once blind, now I see " ; but alas 
 for him if this is his whole Confession of Faith. 
 
 You may hear it in the " experience meetings." 
 of the church ; the story of conversion and the 
 song of gratitude. " Oh, happy day that fixed my 
 choice on thee, my Saviour and my God." But it is 
 not enough. Shall the fortunate sailors who have 
 made their way from the shipwreck to the shore stand 
 crying, " We are saved ! We are saved ! " or shall they 
 not rather heed the demands of duty in behalf of those 
 who are still clinging to the shrouds or drifting on 
 broken spars? The assurance of pardon is but a 
 meagre and inadequate creed for those who justly ap- 
 prehend the full significance of the higher life. 
 
 The next step taken by the blind man leads him 
 distinctly nearer the truth. He knows there has been 
 a miracle in his case ; and protests to the Pharisees 
 that it is a marvellous thing that they should be unable 
 to account for it. He reminds them that since the 
 world began there had been no such healing of con- 
 genital blindness. The " marvellous thing " is a mir- 
 acle ; a miracle is simply the interposition of the super- 
 
58 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 natural in the routine of current events; it is the 
 making bare and thrusting in of the divine arm. 
 
 "But how," they ask, "were thine eyes opened?" 
 Once, twice, thrice they insist upon it. He can only 
 tell them of the anointing with clay and the washing in 
 Siloam ; but he knows as well as they that this does 
 not adequately account for it. The clay and the wash- 
 ing were but phenomena. If the healing in this case 
 had been a plain operation for the removal of cataract, 
 no one would have thought of saying, " The scalpel 
 did it." We cannot help reasoning from the scalpel 
 to the surgeon. So, pursuing the record of creation 
 through the factors of matter, force and law, we come 
 at length to the ultimate proposition, " In the begin- 
 ning, God." 
 
 The tendency in our time is to rule out the super- 
 natural; to deny miracles, merely because we cannot 
 understand them. God is thus politely bowed out of 
 doors. In fact, however, the logical conclusion from 
 the visible facts of life and history is not agnosticism, 
 but faith. The case of the blind beggar is precisely 
 paralleled by that of Nicodemus, who, bewildered by 
 the statement of Jesus as to regeneration, cried, " How 
 can these things be ? " The answer was, " The wind 
 bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound 
 thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and 
 whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the 
 Spirit of God." 
 
 The next step of the blind man on his way truth- 
 ward brings him face to face with the relation of 
 Jesus to his case. The Pharisees, overwhelmed by ir- 
 refutable testimony, were driven to concede the 
 miracle, but they were not willing to allow that Jesus 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF A CREED 59 
 
 had any hand in it. " Give God the glory," they said ; 
 " this Jesus is a sinner ; since he has broken the Sab- 
 batic Law." But the man was not satisfied ; he could 
 not ignore Jesus, and, as was natural under the cir- 
 cumstances, was eager to know more about him. 
 
 The little that he did know served but to stimulate 
 his desire. At first, in answer to the question of the 
 Pharisees, "Who is he that opened thine eyes?" he 
 could only say, " A man named Jesus did it." On 
 being pressed a little closer, " What sayest thou of 
 him that he hath opened thine eyes? " he replied, " He 
 is a prophet " ; that is, a teacher having his commission 
 from God. But when questioned further still, he 
 affirmed that the healer must be " of God " ; that is, in 
 vital relation with God. All this indicates that he was 
 a sound inductive reasoner. The " marvellous thing " 
 must somehow be accounted for; and nothing could 
 account for it but the power of God. 
 
 The same line of argument was pursued by Na- 
 poleon in his historic conversation with General 
 Bertrand : " I know men," he said, " and I tell you that 
 Jesus was not a mere man. Superficial minds see a 
 resemblance between him and the founders of em- 
 pires ; but there is none. His birth and the history of 
 his life, the profundity of his doctrine which grapples 
 with the mightiest problems, everything is for me a 
 mystery insoluble, plunging me into reflections which 
 I cannot escape. What a master have we here ! In 
 his conflict with kings and empires I see no army, but 
 a mysterious energy ; no rallying sign but the common 
 faith in the mysteries of the cross. You speak of 
 Csesar, of Alexander, of their conquests and of the 
 enthusiasm which they kindled in the hearts of their 
 
60 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 soldiers ; but can you conceive of a dead man making 
 conquests with an army devoted to his memory? Can 
 you conceive of Csesar governing - Rome from the 
 silence of a mausoleum? Such is the mystery of the 
 Christian invasion and conquest of the world. Whose 
 is the army which for eighteen centuries has protected 
 the Church from the storms which have threatened to 
 engulf it? Caesar, Alexander, Charlemagne and I have 
 founded empires; but on what did we rest the crea- 
 tions of our genius? On force. Jesus alone founded 
 an empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men 
 would die for him. Have I so inspired multitudes that 
 they would die for me? Now that I am at St. Helena, 
 alone, chained upon this rock, who fights for me? 
 Where are my courtiers in my misfortunes? Where 
 are the friends who win empires for me? Ah, no, 
 Bertrand, I did wrong in placing you in command of 
 my army, unless you perceive that Jesus is God." 
 
 The blind beggar in his stumbling way was think- 
 ing along the same line. To account for the miracle 
 that had been wrought upon him he walks in the same 
 path that we must needs pursue in explaining the 
 march of Jesus through the ages. The miracles are 
 one and the conclusion is one, to wit, the divinity of 
 Christ. 
 
 The man who had charge of the execution on 
 Golgotha saw in the victim whom he led forth to exe- 
 cution only " a man called Jesus." But later on, as 
 he gazed upon the patient sufferer on the middle cross, 
 he was moved to say, " This was a righteous man." 
 And when the tragedy was over, reviewing all, he 
 was constrained to say, " Verily, this was the Son of 
 God ! " 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF A CREED 61 
 
 And now we come to the blind man's creed. He 
 had been cast out by the Pharisees ; excommunicated 
 with " bell, book and candle." And it is written, 
 " Jesus found him." Oh, blessed seeking Son of God ! 
 He is ever seeking the homeless and hopeless, the 
 lonely and lost. And to this man he said, " Dost thou 
 believe on the Son of God? " The answer was, " Who 
 is he, Lord, that I might believe on him ? " And 
 Jesus said, " Thou hast both seen him, and he it is 
 that talketh with thee." Then came the response of 
 faith, cordial, immediate, joyous, because the man had 
 been waiting to welcome the truth : " Lord, I believe ! " 
 and he worshipped him. 
 
 We have thus traced the Evolution of a Creed. 
 This man had felt his way, like one in a labyrinth seek- 
 ing a far-off gleam. He had " known " some things 
 all along, but now he is prepared to say, " I believe ! " 
 
 There is a great difference between knowing and 
 believing. One may know much and believe little, and 
 vice versa. A man may know that " honesty is the 
 best policy," but unless he is an honest man he does 
 not believe it. A citizen of New York may know that 
 municipal righteousness is a desirable thing, but unless 
 he casts his ballot accordingly he does not believe it. 
 Moses knew, beyond all possibility of doubt or perad- 
 venture, that God spoke to him from the burning bush ; 
 but he showed that he believed it when, obedient to 
 the divine command, he stood within the halls of 
 Pharaoh, saying, " Thus said the Lord, Let my people 
 go ! " The prodigal knew from the beginning of his 
 downward career that in his father's house there was 
 plenty and to spare, but his knowledge was not vital- 
 ized and transmuted into faith until he said, " I will 
 
62 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 arise and go ! " So the blind man's creed was not 
 reached until he made his confession of faith, " Lord, 
 I believe," and had demonstrated his sincerity by wor- 
 shipping him. 
 
 A large proportion of the people who attend church 
 and hear the preaching of the gospel from time to time 
 are such as were born and bred in an atmosphere of 
 Christian truth. They read their Bibles, know their 
 catechisms and confessions of faith, and are familiar 
 with the evidences of Christianity from beginning to 
 end. All that they need is to accept Christ. The real 
 touchstone of orthodoxy is not knowing but appro- 
 priating. The confessor who says, " I believe in 
 Christ," and does not worship and follow him in labor 
 of love and patience of hope, is a mere lay-figure. 
 His creed is as empty as a torn cocoon. His faith is 
 that " faith without works " which, being dead, is not 
 faith at all (James ii, 26). Knowledge must be re- 
 solved, amplified and converted into belief, that is, 
 appropriation of truth ; as Jesus said, " Except ye eat 
 the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, ye 
 have no life in you." 
 
 The facts of the resurrection of Jesus were all in 
 the possession of Thomas when, in the upper room, he 
 made his famous protest against it. The Marys, 
 Cleopas and his companion, John, James and others 
 of the Eleven had testified to seeing not only the open 
 sepulchre, but the risen Christ. But overwhelming as 
 the evidence was, Thomas would not believe. " I will 
 not believe," he said, " until I have seen for myself, 
 until I have thrust my fingers into the nail-prints." 
 And it was only when Jesus had thus convinced him 
 that he prostrated himself, crying, " My Lord and my 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF A CREED 63 
 
 God ! " So knowledge becomes faith by vital contact 
 with Christ. It is well to be able to say, " One thing 
 I know " ; but life and immortality are in this word, 
 " Lord, I believe ! " For by this our lives are inter- 
 woven with our Lord's and hid with him in God. 
 
VI 
 
 THE CREDENTIALS OF CHRIST 
 
 In which Jesus puts a group of Biblical Experts in a quandary 
 by requiring them to interpret a prophecy concerning 
 David's Son. 
 
 Jesus, to a group of Pharisees: " What think ye of 
 the Christ?. Whose Son is he?" 
 
 Pharisees: " The Son of David." 
 
 Jesus: "How then doth David in the Spirit call him 
 Lord, saying, 
 
 The Lord said unto my Lord, 
 
 Sit thou on my right hand, 
 
 Till I put thine enemies underneath thy feet? 
 
 If David then callcth him Lord, how is he his son?" — 
 Matt, xxii, 41-45. 
 
 The ministry of Jesus reached its climacteric on April 
 3rd of Passion Week. It was the last day of his 
 public teaching and is known as " the Day of Tempta- 
 tions." In the early morning he began to teach the 
 people gathered about him. 
 
 The religious leaders at once appeared and raised 
 the question, " By what authority doest thou these 
 things ? " We shall find that question running through 
 all the incidents of this historic day. One of " these 
 things " for which the Pharisees demanded the au- 
 thority of Jesus was his dogmatic presentation of 
 spiritual truth. It was said of him that " he spake not 
 as the scribes " — who were in the habit of supporting 
 their positions by reference to the fathers ; as, " Hillel 
 
 64 
 
THE CREDENTIALS OF CHRIST 65 
 
 saith thus," or " Shammai saith so " — but " as one 
 having authority." The word " authority " in this 
 case, exousia, means authority from within. The 
 formula of Jesus was not, " Thus saith the Lord," 
 but, " Verily, verily, I say unto you." There never 
 was a teacher who laid his hands so boldly upon the 
 problems of the eternal life as he ; and no other ever 
 presumed to speak with this oracular, " I say so ! " 
 It was not strange, therefore, that the Scribes and 
 Pharisees, whose monopoly of religious instruction 
 had thus far been unquestioned, should insist upon his 
 credentials : " Who art thou, a mere carpenter, un- 
 lettered and unordained, that thou shouldst thus exalt 
 thyself against the Holy Orders ? " 
 
 Another of the " things " which were challenged by 
 these Doctors of Divinity was the exercise of miracu- 
 lous power. There was practically no denial of the 
 fact of this power during the lifetime of Jesus. That 
 was scarcely possible, since in every town and village 
 through which he passed there were not only wit- 
 nesses, but living monuments, of his healing grace; 
 cleansed lepers, dispossessed demoniacs and restored 
 paralytics. It was to be expected, however, that the 
 popular leaders, who had no such supernatural thera- 
 peutics at their command, should insist on seeing his 
 diploma. " Show thine authority ! " they said. " Pro- 
 duce thy license ; where has thou received thy com- 
 mission to do these things ? " 
 
 But the one thing, above all others, which provoked 
 the challenge of these Rabbinical censors, was Jesus' 
 assumption of the power of absolution. Once and 
 again he had said to a penitent, " Thy sins be forgiven 
 thee." Observe, he did not say " In the name of 
 
66 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 God " ; but exercised his authority always as from 
 within. They were naturally amazed at such pre- 
 sumption. " He speaketh blasphemy," they said ; 
 "who can forgive sins but God only?" And again 
 came the demand for his authority. Quo warranto? 
 Hear the little men calling for the canonicals of this 
 great Man. They were graduates of the University 
 of Jerusalem and, behold, he had dwelt with the 
 Father in the primal glory of truth before the world 
 was! 
 
 At the first* he gave them no answer; or rather, he 
 baffled them with a counter question : " I also will 
 ask you one thing ; and if ye answer me, I will tell you 
 by what authority I do these things. The baptism of 
 John, whence was it, from heaven, or of men ? " And 
 they reasoned within themselves, saying, " If we say, 
 From heaven, he will reply, Why did ye not believe 
 him? But if we shall say, Of men, the people who 
 believe in John will rally about him." So they an- 
 swered, " We cannot tell." And he said, " Neither tell 
 I unto you by what authority I do these things." He 
 had no consideration for mere curiosity on the one 
 hand or for censoriousness on the other. But before 
 this eventful day was over he would definitely meet 
 this challenge, as we shall see, to the satisfaction of all 
 reasonable men. 
 
 An intimation of the truth was immediately given 
 in the form of a parable. A certain householder had 
 a vineyard, which he let out to husbandmen and went 
 into a far country. When the time of the vintage drew 
 near, he sent his servants to receive the fruits of it. 
 And the husbandmen beat his servants and killed them. 
 And again he sent other servants to demand the fruits ; 
 
THE CREDENTIALS OF CHRIST 67 
 
 and they did unto them likewise. Then he sent unto 
 them his son, saying, They will reverence him. But 
 when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among 
 themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him and 
 seize on the inheritance. And they caught him and 
 cast him out of the vineyard and slew him. " What 
 now," asked Jesus, " will the lord of the vineyard do 
 unto those husbandmen?" The people said, " He 
 will miserably destroy them, and let out his vineyard 
 to other men." And Jesus said, with special signifi- 
 cance to the Pharisees who were still lingering on the 
 outskirts of the crowd, " Did ye never read in the 
 Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, 
 the same is become the head of the corner; this is 
 the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes " ? 
 By this they were given to understand plainly that his 
 authority was that of the only-begotten Son, and that 
 they were to be condemned for their rejection of him. 
 
 As the day wore on the controversy between Christ 
 and his malignant critics waxed hotter and hotter, the 
 question of his authority being always uppermost. 
 The three parties in the Sanhedrin put their heads 
 together and sent representative delegations to entrap 
 him. The Herodians propounded the question of the 
 Tribute Money, which he disposed of with the words, 
 " Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and 
 unto God the things that are God's." The Sadducees 
 brought their pettifogging question of the Sevenfold 
 Widow, which he turned with the skill of an accom- 
 plished dialectician, rebuking them for " not knowing 
 the Scriptures nor the power of God." The Pharisees 
 approached him with the question of the Greatest 
 Commandment, to which he was pleased to make a 
 
68 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 direct answer : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
 with all thy heart and soul and mind and strength." 
 Thus all were foiled at every point. ' 
 
 It was now toward evening; and the Lord himself 
 turned questioner in such a manner as not only to ac- 
 count for his authority but to place his inquisitors in a 
 quandary from which they would find it impossible to 
 extricate themselves. " IVIiat think ye of Christ? " he 
 asked; "whose son is he?" They answered, "The 
 Son of David." He saith unto fJiem, " Hozv then doth 
 David in Spirit (tliat is, by inspirition) cull him Lord, 
 saying, Jchozvth said unto my Lord, Sit on my right 
 hand, till I make thine" enemies thy footstool? If 
 David then called him Lord, how is Jue his son?'" 'And 
 no man was able to answer him. 
 
 Observe, he asked the question but did not elucidate 
 it. Having given them food for reflection he left them 
 to digest it at their leisure. And this, " How, then ? " 
 opens up a problem which addresses itself imperatively 
 to the hearts and consciences of all thoughtful men. 
 It was propounded at a supreme moment in the life of 
 Jesus. All the events of this wonderful day had been 
 leading up to it. It is a question not only of the 
 authority of Jesus but of his nature and character as 
 the veritable Son of God. Let us, therefore, turn to 
 Psalm no, which was his proof-text on this occasion, 
 and learn if possible the meaning of it. 
 
 It will be in order to ask David, to begin with, " If 
 the Messiah was to be thy son, how didst thou call 
 him Adonai; that is, thy divine Lord?" His answer 
 must be, " I, being in the spirit, heard Jehovah say to 
 my son, ' Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine 
 enemies thy footstool.' I saw him place the rod of 
 
THE CREDENTIALS OF CHRIST 69 
 
 divine authority in his hand, saying, ' Rule thou in the 
 midst of thine enemies.' I saw a great company of 
 soldiers gather at his command, not as mercenaries, but 
 willing in the day of his power, ten thousand times ten 
 thousand and thousands of thousands like dewdrops 
 from the womb of the morning. I saw Jehovah lift his 
 hand and heard him swear, ' Thou art a Priest for- 
 ever after the order of Melchizedek.' And to me he 
 said, ' The Lord at thy hand shall strike through kings 
 in the day of his indignation.' All this I saw and 
 heard when in the spirit; and more I know not." 
 
 Let us next put the question " How, then ? " to the 
 destructive Critics, who profess to be the Scribes or 
 Biblical Experts of our time. Some of them will an- 
 swer by denying that the one hundred and tenth Psalm 
 is Davidic. What matters it that the title runs, " A 
 Psalm of David " ? they deny it. What matters it that 
 all Jewish scholars and commentators even to this day 
 are agreed as to its Davidic origin ? they deny it. What 
 matters it that this Psalm, which is more frequently 
 quoted by Christ and his apostles than any other por- 
 tion of the Old Testament, is invariably ascribed to 
 David? they deny it. What matters it that Jesus af- 
 firmed without if or peradventure that David was its 
 author? they deny it. What matters it that the testi- 
 mony of the Christian Church through all the cen- 
 turies, as formulated in its creeds and confessions, is 
 to the same purport ? they deny it. The ground of such 
 dogmatic denial should be obviously so convincing as 
 to secure an immediate and general assent. What 
 matters it that no such evidence is forthcoming, as 
 their mutual differences show? they still deny it. 
 
 Others of the destructive Critics will answer by dis- 
 
70 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 puting the Messianic character of the Psalm. It goes 
 for nothing, apparently, that the opposite view is en- 
 tertained by all except themselves ; they do not hesitate 
 calmly and complacently to set their personal opinion 
 against the united testimony of the scholarship of the 
 ages. If forced to admit that David was the author, 
 they still insist that his reference was to one of his own 
 princely sons. But which of them could meet the 
 manifesto? Absalom, the scapegrace? Solomon, " the 
 wise fool " ? Was there one of David's immediate or 
 remoter lineage who ever became a priest, and a per- 
 petual priest? Was ever one of them placed in Je- 
 hovah's throne and at his right hand, the place of 
 equality with him? Did ever one of them rally an 
 army like the dewdrops of morning and go forth to 
 universal conquest? Nay; surely the meaning lies 
 deeper. The question is not answered yet. 
 
 Others, still, of this select coterie of scholars, if 
 forced to admit the Davidic and Messianic character 
 of the Psalm, will deny its reference to Jesus. Never- 
 theless they profess to believe in him who said, as 
 plainly as words could express it, " I am that One ! " 
 It was of precisely such men, the religious leaders of 
 his time who professed to believe in the Messiah and 
 to be looking for him, that he said in words as scath- 
 ingly denunciatory as they were pathetically tender, 
 " Ye search * the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye 
 have eternal life, and these are they which testify of 
 me ; and ye will not come unto me that ye might have 
 life ! " Blind, blind under the noonday sun ! 
 
 1 The word 'epeuvare is alike in the indicative and impera- 
 tive, and may be rendered either " Search " or " Ye do 
 Search" (John v, 39). 
 
THE CREDENTIALS OF CHRIST 71 
 
 Let us turn now to the Highest Critics and put the 
 question to them. But are there any higher than the 
 Higher Critics? Aye; and of such a character that 
 not even the Higher Critics themselves will hesitate 
 to admit their superior claim ; to wit, the three Per- 
 sons of the ineffable Godhead. It is a matter of sur- 
 passing moment that each of these has uttered his 
 voice in authoritative exposition of this Psalm. On 
 the day of our Lord's baptism, the initiatory service 
 by which he was formally inaugurated into the work 
 of his ministry, while he stood in the verge of Jordan 
 the heavens were opened above him and the Father 
 spoke : " This is my beloved Son ; hear ye him ! " 
 
 The testimony of the Son with respect to his own 
 claims as both David's son and divine Lord is equally 
 clear. At the outset of his ministry he entered the 
 home church at Nazareth and opened the Scriptures at 
 the lesson of the day, one of the Messianic prophecies 
 of Isaiah ; and having read it, he turned his eyes upon 
 the congregation, saying, " This day is this Scripture 
 fulfilled in your ears." A little later he said to a 
 woman who had expressed a desire for the coming of 
 the Messiah, who should relieve her doubts and heal 
 her transgressions, " I that speak unto thee am he ! " 
 To the Jews who boasted of their Abrahamic descent, 
 he said " Before Abraham was I AM " ; appropriating 
 to himself the mysterious name of Deity which had 
 been announced from the burning bush, " I AM hath 
 sent you." At the close of his ministry when on trial 
 for his life, the High Priest said to him, " I adjure 
 thee by the living God, that thou tell us plainly 
 whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God " ; and 
 Jesus answered, in the strongest form of affirmation 
 
72 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 which was possible, " Thou hast said " ; adding, " I 
 say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man 
 sitting on the right hand of power and coming in 
 the clouds of heaven ! " That the High Priest under- 
 stood what he meant is evident from the fact that he 
 straightway rent his clothes, saying, " He hath spoken 
 blasphemy! What further need have we of witnesses? 
 What think ye? " And his associates answered, " He 
 is guilty of death ! " Had Jesus been willing then or 
 subsequently to swerve a hair's breadth from the claim 
 that he was not only David's son, but David's Lord, 
 he might have escaped the penalty ; but he died for 
 " making himself equal with God." 
 
 The testimony of the Holy Spirit, which was set 
 forth in his baptism by the dove descending upon him, 
 is equally conclusive. As the Executive of the New 
 Economy it has been and is the special and particular 
 function of the Holy Spirit to declare and establish the 
 claims of Jesus as the only-begotten Son of God. He 
 makes himself heard in unmistakable tones in the pro- 
 gressive and cumulative events of history. The lines 
 are ever converging toward the Golden Age in which 
 he, with the rod of power in his hand, shall rule from 
 the river unto the ends of the earth. It was Disraeli, 
 himself of the ancient race of Israel, who reproved his 
 countrymen for their blindness in these words : " The 
 wildest dreams of the Jews as to their Messiah have 
 been realized in the triumphs of Jesus as represented 
 in the realms of Christendom." We say, therefore, 
 that to deny the Spirit's interpretations of this Mes- 
 sianic Psalm, at this period of the world's progress, is 
 to be oblivious of the logic of events and to dispute 
 the sight of one's eyes and the hearing of one's ears. 
 
THE CREDENTIALS OF CHRIST 73 
 
 It remains only to put the question to the great 
 multitude of penitent sinners who believe that they 
 have felt the pardoning grace of the Messiah in their 
 own experience. " How then doth David say, My son 
 is my Lord ? " And with united voice they answer 
 on this wise : " I have need of a Prophet who shall be 
 more to me than David's son, since he must instruct 
 me with omniscience and divine authority in the sav- 
 ing truths of the eternal life. I have need of a Priest 
 who shall be more to me than David's son, since he 
 must not only offer a sufficient sacrifice for my sins, 
 but stand in the perpetual exercise of his holy office, 
 interceding at the throne of the heavenly grace. T 
 have need of a King who shall be more to me than 
 David's son, since he must rule with indisputable 
 authority and control my life. I find such a One in 
 Jesus the Christ, who is not only of the lineage of 
 David, but his Lord and mine ; my Prophet, Priest and 
 King. O strong Son of God ! Omniscient, omnipres- 
 ent, omnipotent ! Mighty to save ! The kings of the 
 nations cast their crowns before thee! Kings in the 
 province of science, kings of scholarship, kings in 
 the world of spirits, principalities and powers; all 
 cast their crowns before thee, saying, " Thou are 
 worthy to receive honor and glory, dominion and 
 power forever and ever ! " Here is no son of David 
 wearing a tinsel crown; but One able to save even to 
 the uttermost all that come unto him. He is both Son 
 of Man and Son of God. He is Son of David and 
 Lord of David and of all who, like David, have sinned 
 against God ; as it is written, " He was made of the seed 
 of David according to the flesh and declared to be the 
 Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of 
 
74 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 Holiness, by his resurrection from the dead" (Romans 
 
 I, 4). 
 
 To reject him as the God-Man, flesh of our flesh, 
 yet very God of very God, is to sin against both Revela- 
 tion and the increasing light of the ages. To reject 
 him, in view of the clear testimony of the oracles as 
 well as of the philosophy of history, is to commit the 
 unpardonable sin; since in so doing we reject the only 
 proffer of pardon that has ever been made to sinful 
 men. To reject him is to be guilty of the crime of the 
 husbandmen who slew the Heir Apparent when he 
 came to the vineyard to collect his own. 
 
 We conclude, then, that it is not enough to receive 
 Christ as a son of David ; that is, to affirm that he is 
 a good man or even the best of men, while rejecting 
 his divine claim. This is to fall short, infinitely and 
 fatally, of the saving truth. The young man who pros- 
 trated himself before Jesus, saying, "Good Rabbi, what 
 shall I do that I might inherit eternal life?" was re- 
 proved in these significant terms, " Why callest thou 
 me good? There is none good but one, that is God." 
 If this means anything, it means that Jesus rejects, 
 utterly and unreservedly, the adulation of those who 
 regard him as merely the best of men. He is either 
 what he claims to be or else he is obviously far from 
 being the best of men. He will not be " Good Rabbi." 
 Call him God ; or rise from thy knees ! The only con- 
 fession of faith which he accepts is that of Peter, who, 
 in answer to the question " Who say ye that I am ? " 
 replied, " Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living 
 God!" 
 
 A leading Unitarian has said, " Jesus has no divine 
 birth-marks." What, then, are these wounds in his 
 
THE CREDENTIALS OF CHRIST 75 
 
 hands and side? Are they not the fulfilment of all 
 the crimson prophecies of Messiah which run through 
 Scripture from the protevangel to the cross? Are 
 they not the divine sanction of Salvation to the multi- 
 tude in heaven and on earth who hail him thus, " Thou 
 art worthy to receive honor and dominion and power 
 and glory, because thou was slain for us " ? Touch 
 those wounds, friend, as Thomas did, and finding in 
 them the birth-marks of David's Lord, fall before him 
 with the confession, " My Lord and my God ! " 
 
VII 
 
 THE EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF MIRACLES 
 
 In which certain of the Jews inquiring as to his credentials 
 are referred to his wonderful works. 
 
 The Jews, in Solomon's Porch: "How long dost thou 
 hold us in suspense? If thou art the Christ, tell us 
 plainly." 
 
 Jesus: "I told you, and ye believe not: the works 
 that I do in my Father's name, these bear witness of 
 me." — John x, 22-25. 
 
 It does not seem to have occurred to the cavilers of 
 his time to deny the Miracles of Jesus. The witnesses 
 were so numerous and the evidences so overwhelming 
 that there was no alternative but to admit the fact ; the 
 only question being as to what should be done about it. 
 
 It was left to people at a remove of some centuries 
 from the scene of action to exploit a different view. 
 This is one of the queer developments of our progres- 
 sive age ; not only a denial of these Miracles as matter 
 of fact, but of their evidential value, Christ to the con- 
 trary notwithstanding. 
 
 He came into the world to redeem it. To this end 
 he must not only be, but show himself to be, the veri- 
 table Son of God. The evidence which he offered was 
 threefold ; namely, his character, his preaching and his 
 Miracles. 
 
 He affirmed once and again that his Miracles were 
 intended to verify his divine claim. At the beginning 
 of his ministry he went into the synagogue at Naza- 
 
 76 
 
EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF MIRACLES 77 
 
 reth and opened the Book of Isaiah where it is written, 
 " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he 
 hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor ; he 
 hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach 
 deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to 
 the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to 
 preach the acceptable year of the Lord." And having 
 read this clear prophecy of the Miracle-working Christ 
 to the waiting congregation, he added, " This day is 
 this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." 
 
 On a later occasion, when John the Baptist, a pris- 
 oner in the castle of Machasrus, sent some of his fol- 
 lowers to inquire of Jesus, " Art thou he that should 
 come, or look we for another ? " the answer was de- 
 ferred while he wrought certain Miracles of healing; 
 then he said, " Go tell John what things which ye have 
 seen and heard: the blind see, the lame walk, the 
 lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, 
 to the poor the gospel is preached." 
 
 It is thus manifest that Christ himself put a high 
 estimate on the evidential value of his Miracles. " Be- 
 lieve me," he said, " that I am in the Father and the 
 Father in me; or else believe me for the very works' 
 sake " ; and again, " The works that I do bear witness 
 of me." 
 
 It is not, however, to the Miracles of Christ, ex- 
 clusively, that we address ourselves now, but rather 
 to a consideration of Miracles in general. The man 
 who says, " I do not believe in Miracles," is 
 hasty in his speech. His remark is due to a mis- 
 apprehension of the question at issue, or rather to a 
 series of misapprehensions, which it is our present 
 purpose to point out. 
 
78 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 1. There is a misunderstanding at the outset as to 
 the Definition of a Miracle; the supposition being that 
 it it something opposed to nature and in contravention 
 of law. It is nothing of the sort. 
 
 The primitive meaning of the word " Miracle " is 
 simply a wonderful thing; the root being miror, that 
 is, " I wonder." In this sense the world is full of 
 Miracles ; there is no end of " things which cannot be 
 found out." 
 
 The reason why we wonder at anything is because 
 it is unfamiliar. Ice on the Congo River would be a 
 Miracle to the natives, because they have never seen 
 it. The budding of a tree in one's dooryard would be 
 as wonderful as the budding of Aaron's rod, if the 
 good man of the house had never before witnessed it. 
 
 In the technical sense, a Miracle is anything which 
 bears the mark of the supernatural. The part of the 
 hand that wrote on the wall of Belshazzar's palace was 
 the visible token of a Miracle, since it was so far out of 
 the ordinary that it could not be explained by reference 
 to any known law. 
 
 2. The denial of Miracles is due also in a measure to 
 a wrong theory of the world, to wit, that it is a self- 
 evolved ball rolling automatically in space. 
 
 If God and the supernatural and everything but the 
 world itself could be ruled out in this manner, a Mir- 
 acle would of course be impossible in the nature of 
 the case. But this is not so. 
 
 The old Colonial clock in your hallway is in evi- 
 dence at this point. Let us stand before it and ob- 
 serve how Miracles thrust themselves upon us. Sup- 
 pose I ask, " Who made the clock ? " Do you answer, 
 " It never was made ; it was evolved from a sun-dial ? " 
 
EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF MIRACLES 79 
 
 The mere suggestion provokes a smile. Is it less im- 
 possible that our world came into being that way? 
 The only alternative is the Miracle of Creation. 
 Suppose I ask, again, " What makes the clock go ? " 
 You answer, " I wound it up, and it runs of itself for a 
 certain time." Here the analogy fails, since the Maker 
 of the world claims to uphold all things by the word 
 of his power. In this upholding you have the per- 
 petual Miracle of Providence. But suppose again 
 that, seeing your clock is gaining time, I ask, " What 
 will you do with it?" You answer, as you turn the 
 hands backward " I regulate it in this way." There 
 is the ever-recurring Miracle of Divine Interposition. 
 The normal procession of the hands is from left to right, 
 and behold, you have turned them the other way ! This 
 is apparently a violation of the law of the clock ; really 
 it is the interposition of a higher law, that is, of the 
 human will. The clock was constructed with this 
 possibility in view. Now God is said to have done 
 this very thing on one occasion, when the sun stood 
 still upon Gibeon. You say, " That is a mere fable." 
 Do you mean to intimate, then, that you can do with 
 your chronometer what God cannot do with his? In 
 that case we are reminded of what Jesus said to the 
 cavilers who called in question the miracle of the 
 resurrection, " Ye do err, not knowing the power of 
 God." 
 
 3. A further mistake is made in assuming that 
 Natural Science covers the whole realm of knozvable 
 things. 
 
 In fact science has to do only with the operation of 
 certain laws within the province of nature, as evidenced 
 by the physical senses. It can neither deny nor affirm 
 
80 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 aught as to supernatural ; since it takes cognizance 
 of only visible and tangible things. It can guess, but 
 guesses do not count. Science is from Scire, meaning, 
 " To know." An argument ceases to be scientific when 
 it deals with anything but facts. 
 
 There are two spheres of research, nature and the 
 supernatural. For the investigation of facts within 
 the realm of the supernatural we are endowed with a 
 sixth sense, that is, faith. This is defined to be " the 
 substance of things hoped for and the evidence of 
 things not seen." Here is where the problem of the 
 Miracle enters ; and natural science is, in the nature 
 of the case, unable to solve it. A believer in the super- 
 natural is guided by faith, which is the evidence of 
 things not seen. The processes here are not verifiable 
 by the physical senses, though their conclusions may be. 
 The hand that was seen writing on the banquet hall of 
 Belshazzar was a fact beyond question, a visible fact 
 of which natural science could take cognizance, though 
 it could not account for it. At this juncture faith 
 comes in. It follows the hand up to the invisible arm, 
 and the arm to the unseen but real personality which 
 it calls God ; and from God, as a postulate, it proceeds 
 to affirm all the great spiritual verities which center 
 in him. 
 
 The facts thus revealed are as real as those which 
 rest on the testimony of the physical senses, though in 
 a different and larger sphere. It is wholly unreasonable 
 to deny a supernatural thing because we cannot see or 
 touch it. We do not require one of the physical senses 
 to do the work which is properly assigned to another 
 one. We do not insist on seeing a musical chord, or 
 hearing an apple, or tasting a landscape. It is equally 
 
EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF MIRACLES 81 
 
 unreasonable to expect the five physical senses to do 
 the work of the sixth sense, which is specially designed 
 to apprehend spiritual things. The truths of the un- 
 seen world are as veritable and as verifiable as those 
 of nature. God is as real as a mountain, though " no 
 man hath ever seen God." Conversion is as real as 
 the tacking of a ship, though no man can say of it, 
 " Lo, here ! " or " Lo, there ! " And the evidence in 
 one case is as real as in the other, and just as convinc- 
 ing to a thoughtful man. 
 
 4. The next mistake is in the assumption that " Mir- 
 acles arc impossible." How can that be proven? The 
 The objector's say-so does not make it so. The famil- 
 iar fling at ministers for their habit of dogmatizing 
 may well be shifted to those who make this assertion 
 with the gravity of Sir Oracle. 
 
 This is the tone of Hume's argument against mir- 
 acles on the ground that they lie without the sphere of 
 human experience. Huxley admits that this mode of 
 reasoning collapsed long ago. Allowing that it proves 
 anything, it proves too much. If nothing can be true 
 which does not fall within the sphere of experience, 
 then there can be nothing new, no invention and no 
 discovery. A hundred years ago, when it was pro- 
 posed to introduce illuminating gas into London, Sir 
 Walter Scott said, " There is a fool in London who 
 proposes to light the city with smoke ! " He was 
 simply repeating the argument of Hume, that the 
 thing which has not been, cannot be. At about the 
 same time Dr. Lardner in the House of Commons 
 " proved," in like manner, that a steamship could not 
 cross the Atlantic; and behold, he had scarcely taken 
 his seat before " The Savannah " came steaming into 
 
82 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 the port of Liverpool. It is thus that the argument 
 from experience breaks down. The story of the Swim- 
 ming Axe in the Second Book of Kings used to pro- 
 voke a smile in some quarters ; but iron steamships are 
 now floating over all the seas. Time was when a man 
 would have been laughed at for claiming that he could 
 throw his voice a mile, yet only yesterday I took down 
 the receiver of my telephone and held conversation 
 with a friend in Indiana. Why should it be thought 
 preposterous for a man of Macedonia to call to Paul 
 across the Hellespont, " Come over and help us ! " when 
 to-day you can stand at Cape Cod and shout an arrest 
 to a vessel in mid-ocean? It is obvious, therefore, 
 that the height of folly is reached when one denies the 
 possibility of anything on the mere ground that neither 
 he nor any other has ever seen it. 
 
 5. We note a further mistake in the assertion that 
 Miracles do not rest on Evidence. 
 
 It is true, as already intimated, that they do not 
 rest on the evidence of the physical senses, except as to 
 their visible results. But they rest on faith ; and faith 
 is both " substance " and " evidence." If a man re- 
 fuses to exercise his sixth sense, of course he cannot 
 expect to apprehend the things which lie beyond the 
 province of his finger tips. 
 
 On the shore of Lake Gennesareth in the early 
 morning a group of fishermen were engaged in earnest 
 conversation as to a singular event which had occurred 
 in the night. A storm, such as had rarely been known 
 even on that boisterous lake, had been raging furiously, 
 when, on a sudden, it subsided and there was a great 
 calm. They had never seen the like before and could 
 not account for it. Just then a little boat pushed 
 
EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF MIRACLES 83 
 
 ashore and a company of fishermen disembarked, who 
 had been out in the storm. They joined the others, 
 and, hearing the discussion, said, " We were there and 
 know precisely how the thing occurred. At the very 
 climax of the storm, when we were in mortal terror, 
 our Master stretched out his hands and said, ' Peace, 
 be still ! ' and instantly the waves obeyed him ! " The 
 other fishermen might refuse to believe this; but they 
 were scarcely in a position to enter a dogmatic denial, 
 inasmuch as they were not on the premises, while 
 James and Peter and John were there and saw it. The 
 fact itself was indisputable; the only question being 
 as to the relation of Jesus to it. If facts are to be 
 verified by testimony, is it not obvious that the wit- 
 nesses in this particular case had the best of the argu- 
 ment? If their testimony is to be invalidated, it de- 
 volves upon the deniers to account for the phenomenon 
 in some other way. It is not enough to say, " We do 
 not know ; " nor is it satisfactory merely to say, " We 
 have seen strange things to-day." 
 
 The same is true of the greatest Miracle of all, that 
 is, the resurrection of Christ. Here is a simple ques- 
 tion of evidence. There were hundreds of witnesses 
 who testified that they saw Jesus after he had arisen 
 from the dead. There were more than five hundred 
 who saw him at once. The character of these wit- 
 nesses was not, and never has been, impugned. They 
 were reputable people, many of them so deeply con- 
 vinced of the truth of their testimony that they sealed 
 their confession with their blood. The fact that Christ 
 appeared repeatedly after his Resurrection was one 
 which they had verified with their eyes ; but the Mir- 
 acle itself, his power over death, must be received by 
 
84 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 faith. The evidence is so overwhelming that Black- 
 stone, the greatest of authorities on the validity of 
 evidence, affirmed that the Resurrection of Christ is 
 as incontrovertibly demonstrated as any fact that ever 
 occurred in the history of the world. If the case were 
 called in court and these witnesses, by hundreds, were 
 to file in and bear individual testimony as to what their 
 eyes had seen, no living man would presume to stand 
 in the court room and in the total absence of rebutting 
 evidence, affirm " It is not so," or " It cannot be so," 
 or even, " I do not believe it." 
 
 6. And again it is a grave mistake to charge those 
 who believe in miracles with Credulity. 
 
 Faith is not credulity ; it is belief on evidence as to 
 spiritual things. If there is any credulity it is on the 
 part of those who, despite the evidence, refuse to 
 accept the facts. It is conceded that it is not so easy 
 for men in a physical environment to accept the facts 
 of the unseen world as it is to accept those which can 
 be seen with fleshly eyes; on the other hand, it is 
 claimed that it is easier to accept than to reject them. 
 Think for a moment of the stupendous credulity of 
 one who refuses to accept the testimony of faith. He 
 must believe in a world without a Creator to account 
 for it, or a Providence to preside over it! He must 
 believe in law without a Lawgiver, design without a 
 Designer, a machine without a Mechanic, effects with- 
 out a Cause, mysteries innumerable without a solution, 
 and in the utter untrustworthiness of some hundreds 
 of millions of living and respectable witnesses who 
 say, " That which we have seen and heard declare we 
 unto you ! " And the only excuse which can be of- 
 fered by those who take this position is, that they have 
 
EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF MIRACLES 85 
 
 never seen or touched these otherwise indubitable 
 things ! 
 
 If we stood together at the foot of Mount Washing- 
 ton and heard some one say, " Time was when the sea 
 rolled over yon towering height," our impulse would 
 be to answer, " Impossible ! " But going up the 
 mountain we should find evidence enough; the sea- 
 shells at our feet would make the fact perfectly clear. 
 And we should find it harder then to reject the state- 
 ment than it was previously to accept it. So we say 
 to those who refuse to believe in Miracles, " Come up 
 with us into the spiritual province where the evidence 
 can be seen and you will be convinced." To remain 
 at the foot of the mountain, a bondslave of the phys- 
 ical senses, with the facts of the spiritual world just 
 beyond and within easy reach by the exercise of faith, 
 is not the part of wisdom or of common sense. 
 
 7. It remains to speak of one other mistake, that is, 
 the assumption that Miracles are to be found only in 
 the Bible. 
 
 There are miracles in the Old Testament, and they 
 are there for a definite purpose ; namely, the verifica- 
 tion of spiritual truth. In the New Testament you 
 will find the miracles of Jesus, intended to corroborate 
 his divine claims : and the miracles of the Apostles, 
 which were wrought by the special enduement of the 
 Spirit to meet the demands of the infant Church. 
 These miracles ceased when they had accomplished 
 their temporary purpose : as the scaffolding is removed 
 when the walls of the building have gone up. 
 
 But there are other Miracles, just as supernatural, 
 physically unaccountable and spiritually helpful in 
 these days. Every answer to prayer is a Miracle ; and 
 
86 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 is so regarded by those who deny the efficacy of prayer 
 on the ground that it presupposes the supernatural. 
 Every conversion is a Miracle, because it marks the 
 interposition of a law higher than nature. If I toss a 
 ball into the air it descends by the force of gravity; 
 but if I catch it in my hand, I arrest the operation of 
 that law. Have I wronged gravitation by introducing 
 the superior influence of the human will? It is pre- 
 cisely so when God saves a man. And also when, by 
 the influence of the Holy Spirit, he sanctifies him. The 
 law of earthly things is decay. A man left to himself 
 hastens on to spiritual death. We use salt, in common 
 life, to arrest decay ; and in this we simply supplant the 
 operation of one law by the greater power of another 
 one. So is moral decay arrested by the power of the 
 Spirit of God. The relation of the two laws is in- 
 dicated by Paul, where he says, " The law of the Spirit 
 of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law 
 of sin and death." The law of the spirit is higher 
 than the law of the flesh ; it arrests and supplants it. 
 
 It is not denied that Miracles are stumbling-blocks 
 in the way of those who might otherwise accept Christ. 
 But " it must needs be that offences come." The real 
 difficulty is not with Miracles; it lies back of that, in 
 the rejection of God himself. " He that cometh to 
 God must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder 
 of them that diligently seek him." He who once ac- 
 cepts God must inevitably accept the whole system of 
 truth which centres in him. The moment he con- 
 sents to use faith in the contemplation of spiritual 
 things, he is bound to perceive not only God, but God 
 manifest in Christ, with the atonement and all truths 
 radiating from it. 
 
EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF MIRACLES 87 
 
 The Children of Israel are said to have been unable 
 to enter the land of promise " because of their unbe- 
 lief." The whole world of the supernatural awaits 
 the man who is willing to exercise faith ; but without 
 faith he is excluded from it. He lives like an eagle 
 tethered to a stake : he is a bondman in the narrow 
 confines of the five physical senses. He denies the 
 Bible only because he is compelled by his position to 
 deny the truth of all spiritual things. He denies Christ 
 and holds immortality with a slight tenure and doubts 
 his own birthright for the same reason. What does he 
 need? He needs the vision that Luther caught half- 
 way up Sancta Scala when the light burst upon him, 
 and he cried, " The just shall live by faith ! " Aye ; 
 faith is the supreme function of the spiritual man. By 
 faith he enters the land of promise. And without 
 faith it is impossible for any man to please God. 
 
VIII 
 INTOLERANCE 
 
 In which a devoted but narrow-minded friend of Jesus is 
 taught the lesson of true liberalism. 
 
 John: " Teacher, we saw one casting out demons in 
 thy name; and we forbade him, because he followed not 
 us." 
 
 Jesus: "Forbid him not: for there is no man who 
 shall do a mighty work in my name, and be able quickly 
 to speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is for 
 us." — Mark ix, 38-40. 
 
 The American Federation of Labor has, after long 
 and careful consideration, issued a formal condemna- 
 tion of the " Open Shop." This action was induced 
 by the fact that the authorities at Washington re- 
 tained in their employ a journeyman printer who 
 decline*! to join the Union. We rejoice that the con- 
 troversy has been brought to a head in this manner, 
 since the situation was getting to be utterly tiresome 
 and intolerable. It is a distinct gain to know precisely 
 where we stand. As to the right of workmen to or- 
 ganize for mutual support there is no difference of 
 opinion ; but when the Organization sets out deliber- 
 ately to wrong the weak and defenceless, the soul of 
 every self-respecting man revolts at it. The position 
 taken by the American Federation is an interference 
 with everybody's rights. It is an interference with 
 the rights of the Public, who are not to be permitted 
 
 88 
 
INTOLERANCE 89 
 
 henceforth to say what kind of service it wants or 
 whom it will have to perform it. It is an interference 
 with the rights of Union workmen, whom it reduces to 
 such abject servitude that they are no longer able to 
 claim their souls as their own. It is an interference 
 with the rights of Non-union workmen, to whom it 
 says that, except under certain tyrannical conditions, 
 they shall not work at all. This is the reductio ad 
 absurdum of Trades-unionism ; and, whatever the duly 
 constituted courts may say about it, the people, who are 
 the Court of Final Appeal, will spew it out of their 
 mouths. 
 
 But the incident referred to is especially significant 
 as furnishing an illustration of a spirit of intolerance 
 which, in one form or another, seems to be woven into 
 the very warp and woof of human nature. The truth 
 set forth in the fable of the Dog in the Manger is as 
 old as the history of man, or more properly as the his- 
 tory of sin; for the essence of sin is selfishness. Its 
 ever-recurring question is, " Am I my brother's 
 keeper ? " the true answer to which is found in the 
 vernacular form of the Golden Rule, " Live and let 
 live." 
 
 It was a memorable day in the history of Israel 
 when seventy Elders were set apart to assist Moses in 
 the government. The ceremony of ordination oc- 
 curred at the Tabernacle, whither they had been sum- 
 moned to receive the enduement of the Spirit. At the 
 supreme moment, when " the Spirit rested upon them 
 and they prophesied," a young man came running to 
 say that two of the chosen number, Eldad and Medad, 
 who had for some reason been unable to reach the 
 Tabernacle, were engaged in prophesying in a remote 
 
90 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 part of the camp. " My lord Moses," cried Joshua, 
 "forbid them!." What right, indeed, had these men 
 to be holding a conventicle of their own? But Moses 
 thought differently: "Are ye jealous for me?" he 
 answered. " Would God that all his people were 
 prophets and that he would put his spirit upon them 
 all ! " It was the pronouncement of a magnanimous, 
 far-seeing, just and godly man. He had no sympa- 
 thy with the self-opinionated exclusiveness of Trades- 
 unionism in the service of God. 
 
 If there is any country on earth in which this in- 
 tolerant spirit should be under the ban, it is ours. The 
 fundamental principle of the Republic is laid down in 
 the Preamble of our Declaration of Independence, 
 where it is affirmed that all men are created free and 
 equal and with certain inalienable rights, among 
 which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 
 There is not a " ring " or " combine " in existing 
 politics which is not a distinct violation of that mani- 
 festo of civil equality. And the same is true of every 
 movement favoring the centralization of power in the 
 hands of any favored class. 
 
 It is proposed, for example, to arrest the tide of 
 immigration which flows so multitudinously toward 
 our shores; and so far as this may be necessary to 
 prevent our country from becoming the dumping- 
 ground of nations beyond the sea, well and good. But 
 no restrictions must be made which could affect our 
 historic position as a refuge for the oppressed of the 
 whole earth, or which would have excluded our own 
 penniless and persecuted forefathers. 
 
 It is proposed, also, to place restrictions upon the 
 suffrage ; and this too is necessary so far forth as to 
 
INTOLERANCE 91 
 
 close our doors against any and all who by reason of 
 crime, political heresy or incurable dependency would 
 be burdensome or inimical to our national life. But 
 our fundamental principle of equality involves the 
 corollary of universal suffrage, or, to use Gladstone's 
 phrase, " manhood stiff rage " ; by which is meant, not 
 " one man, one vote," but that the franchise shall be 
 accessible to all. Let any number of restrictions be 
 placed upon it ; a property qualification, an educational 
 qualification, a moral qualification ; the ballot must still 
 remain within the reach of all. The citizenship of 
 this Commonwealth is worth climbing for ; but it must 
 not be put so high that the humblest may not attain 
 to it. 
 
 The most startling proposition, however, in behalf 
 of national exclusion, has recently been made by the 
 Governor of Mississippi, who in his Annual Message 
 declares for the closing of the public schools against 
 the black people who constitute a majority of the pop- 
 ulation of that state, on the ground that they belong to 
 " an inferior race." This is obviously at odds with 
 our constitutional provision that no discrimination 
 shall be made against any class on account of race, 
 color or previous condition of servitude. It is irrec- 
 oncilably and fatally at odds with the genius of our 
 government in its championship of human equality 
 and the rights of man. 
 
 An outcropping of the same intolerant spirit is seen 
 in the distinctions which prevail in social life. There 
 ought to be, and is of necessity, an " aristocracy " 
 among us: but certainly it is not an aristocracy of 
 parvenus, and still more certainly not of tuft-hunters. 
 It is based on no adventitious conditions whatsoever, 
 
92 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 but absolutely and only on personal merit. It is an 
 aristocracy of character; and character is never ex- 
 clusive, but splendidly tolerant. Character keeps open 
 house ; its latchstring is always out. Character never 
 says " Keep thy place," but, " Come in and sup with 
 me." Our friends beyond the sea are fond of saying 
 of Americans that they " dearly love a lord " ; but this 
 is true only of a limited and by no means the most 
 respected class of our people. The social philosophy 
 of Robert Burns is good enough for all true Amer- 
 icans : 
 
 Is there for honesty poverty 
 
 Wha hangs his head, and a* that? 
 The coward slave, we pass him by; 
 
 We dare be poor for a' that. 
 For a' that and a' that, 
 
 Our toils obscure, and a' that; 
 The rank is but the guinea's stamp, 
 
 The man's the gowd for a' that. 
 
 What though on hamely fare we dine, 
 
 Wear hoddin gray, and a' that; 
 Gie fools their silks and knaves their wine; 
 
 A man's a man for a' that. 
 For a' that and a' that, 
 
 Their tinsel show, and a' that; 
 The honest man, though e'er sae poor. 
 
 Is king o' men for a' that. 
 
 A prince can mak a belted knight, 
 
 A marquis, duke and a' that; 
 But an honest man's aboon his might — 
 
 Guid faith, he maunna fa' that! 
 For a 'that and a' that, 
 
 Their dignities, and a' that; 
 The pith o' sense, and pride o' worth, 
 
 Are higher ranks than a' that. 
 
INTOLERANCE 93 
 
 Then let us pray that come it may — 
 
 As come it will for a' that — 
 That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, 
 
 May bear the gree, and a' that. 
 For a' that, and a' that, 
 
 It's coming yet for a' that — 
 When man to man, the warld o'er, 
 
 Shall brothers be for a' that! 
 
 It is our present purpose, however, to lay special 
 emphasis on certain manifestations of the exclusive 
 spirit in our religious life. The Church is a divine 
 ordinance, having been instituted by Christ. Its name, 
 ekklesia, is suggestive of exclusion ; but it must be 
 observed that the Church is distinctly a voluntary 
 body and its boundary lines are such as to exclude 
 none who choose to enter in. It is an association of 
 people " called out " of the world and " separated " 
 from it; but the line of separation is that of a simple 
 faith which is possible to all. All who are arrayed 
 with Christ are counted in ; all who are arrayed with 
 Anti-Christ are, by their own motion, counted out. 
 There is no disposition on the part of Christ, and 
 there should be no disposition on the part of those who 
 officially represent him, to exclude any from the bene- 
 fits of the gospel or from the high privileges of the 
 Church of God. 
 
 The supreme violation of this hospitable spirit is 
 represented by " The Establishment." 
 
 You will find intolerance in its glory wherever a 
 particular denomination is under the patronage of the 
 State. In conversation with a Presbyterian minister 
 in a small hamlet in Scotland, my casual reference to 
 a ministerial brother in the next town was met byj the 
 
94 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 remark, " Aye ; he's well enough ; but the ministers of 
 the Establishment have small dealing with those of the 
 Free Kirk." So hard dies the antipathy of the Jew 
 to the Samaritan ! This Trades-union man was, for- 
 sooth, the only Churchman; and those who were of 
 another way of thinking, however Christian they 
 might be, were " dissenters " or "nonconformists " ; 
 and their places of assemblage were " chapels " or 
 " meeting houses." This is not to say that all members 
 of a State Church are so unfraternal, only that the 
 system naturally fosters exclusiveness. 
 
 If we congratulate ourselves that this particular 
 form of intolerance is alien to our American life, we 
 are bound to confess ourselves blameworthy in other 
 ways. Here, for example, is a scholastic coterie which 
 arrogates to itself the privilege of passing judgment 
 on the validity and integrity of the Scriptures. It is 
 made up chiefly of theological professors, who, for- 
 getful of the fact that " no Scripture is of private in- 
 terpretation," insist that the people shall keep hands 
 off until they shall have determined what portion is 
 true and what not. The protest against this arrogant 
 " hold-up " is not on the part of the people only (John 
 vii, 49), but on the part of a multitude of eminent 
 scholars who with all the force of sound logic and 
 learning dissent from it. And their dissent is rein- 
 forced by the word of Christ himself, who said, 
 " Search the Scriptures " ; or, " Ye search the Scrip- 
 tures ; for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and 
 these are they which testify of me." 
 
 Sacerdotalism is another form of the same narrow- 
 mindedness. 
 
 Doubtless there is a divine call to the ministry. 
 
INTOLERANCE 95 
 
 Christ set apart twelve men whom he designated as 
 "Apostles," and whom he endowed with singular 
 spiritual gifts. But it is difficult to think and impos- 
 sible to prove that those singular gifts and endow- 
 ments have been in any wise transmitted through the 
 ages. The ministry is set apart now, as ever, for the 
 preservation of due order and the administration of 
 the sacraments and discipline in the Church ; but so 
 far as service goes, that is free for all. The clergy 
 do not constitute a Fishermen's Union; or, if so, this 
 Union utters no caveat against those who are outside 
 of it. The right of Christ himself to preach was 
 challenged by the ministers of his time who sent a 
 " walking delegate " to say to him, as he was speak- 
 ing in the Temple Porch, " By what authority doest 
 thou these things ? " In other words, they wanted to 
 see his diploma, his certificate of licensure, his ordi- 
 nation papers. No man who has caught the true spirit 
 of Jesus can ever speak in that way. His attitude will 
 rather be that of Paul, who said, " Some indeed preach 
 Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of good 
 will. The one preach Christ of contention, not sin- 
 cerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds; but 
 the other of love, knowing that I am set for the de- 
 fence of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding 
 every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is 
 preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will re- 
 joice" (Phil, i, 15-18). 
 
 It remains to say that Sectarianism in every form 
 whatsoever is intolerance. 
 
 I do not say denominationalism ; for it is a true 
 proverb, " Fences make good neighbors." But sec- 
 tarianism speaks on this wise : " The Temple of the 
 
96 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 Lord are we " ; and, as a rule, the more insignificant 
 the sect, the more exclusive is its spirit. There are 
 small bodies of Calvinists and " True-Seed Baptists " 
 in the mountains of Tennessee and the Carolinas who 
 hold that they monopolize the benefits of grace. A 
 gentleman said to a Highland woman of this way of 
 thinking, " I fear, Janet, you are of the opinion that 
 nobody will be saved but you and your minister." 
 She answered, " Aye ; an' whiles I hae my doots of the 
 minister." 
 
 The teaching of Jesus Christ is the very opposite 
 of this. He said to the religious leaders of his time, 
 " Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees ; for ye shut 
 up the kingdom of heaven against men; ye neither go 
 in yourselves, nor suffer them that are entering to go 
 in" (Matt, xxiii, 13). It was a rebuke to the spirit of 
 Trades-unionism in religion. The picture is that of 
 a " strike " at the gateway of heaven, the Pharisees 
 saying, " We will not, and you shall not." 
 
 And Christ found it necessary to administer a like 
 rebuke to his own disciples. John, the Apostle of 
 Love, the last in whom we should expect to see such 
 narrowness, came to him, saying, " Master, we saw 
 one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth 
 not us: and we forbade him, because he followeth not 
 us." And Jesus said, " Forbid him not : for there is 
 no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that 
 can lightly speak evil of me " (Mark ix, 38, 39). Now 
 this is not to say that there is no line of demarcation 
 to be drawn between those who accept Christ and those 
 who reject him. On the other hand there is a pro- 
 found emphasis on those words, " In my name." But 
 the reproof is addressed to the suggestion that any 
 
INTOLERANCE 97 
 
 are to be excluded from service because " they follow 
 not us." Blessed be God, there are multitudes who do 
 not call themselves by our denominational names who 
 love Christ in sincerity and are casting out devils " in 
 his name " ; there are Greek Christians, Catholic 
 Christians, Protestant Christians, all alike of the 
 family of Christ. Let them gang their ain gait; and 
 may the heavenly benediction be upon them all ! 
 
 The whole tenor of the teaching of Christ, intended 
 for his people through all time, is against the ex- 
 clusive spirit. His word " Come " is addressed to all 
 sorts and conditions of men ; and his other great word 
 " Go " is addressed to all who follow him. " Go ye 
 into all the world and preach the Gospel to every 
 creature! Go out into the highways and hedges! Go 
 to the uttermost parts of the earth; and constrain 
 others to come in ! " 
 
 How difficult it was for him to persuade his dis- 
 ciples that he meant this. They were offended with 
 him for talking with a woman of Samaria. They were 
 offended with him for receiving the kind offices of " a 
 woman who was a sinner." They were offended with 
 him when he went up into the coasts of Tyre and 
 Sidon to minister to those who were not of the house- 
 hold of Israel. 
 
 He led the way when he said, " Go," but, even after 
 his crucifixion, his disciples failed to grasp his mean- 
 ing: they tarried in Jerusalem until Stephen's death 
 drove them out. Then " they were all scattered abroad 
 throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except 
 the Apostles ; and went everywhere preaching the 
 Word." The apostles still remained in the Holy City, 
 not ready yet to welcome the Gentiles. A little later 
 
98 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 we find Peter at Joppa, the seaport of Jerusalem, 
 where a vision came to him of a sheet let down from 
 heaven, wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts 
 and creeping things and fowls of the air. And a voice 
 said, " Arise, Peter, slay and eat." He answered, 
 " Not so, Lord ; for I have never eaten anything that 
 is common or unclean." The Voice said, " What God 
 hath cleansed, that call thou not common." At that 
 moment a knocking at the door below gave a clew to 
 the vision ; for a Gentile Centurion stood there, in- 
 quiring after " Simon, which is surnamed Peter," and 
 summoning him to a world-wide ministry. " Of a 
 truth," said Peter, " I now perceive that God is no 
 respecter of persons ; but in every nation he that fear- 
 eth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with 
 him." 
 
 Our religion is, by these tokens, the broadest, most 
 inclusive, comprehensive, far-reaching, magnanimous 
 religion that ever was known or dreamed of. It is 
 the very antithesis of class prejudice and bigotry. It 
 requires one thing and one thing only of the penitent 
 sinner, to wit, a frank, honest, unreserved acceptance 
 of Christ ; that given, all the rest is " Go, bring others 
 in ! " There is room in the Christian Church for all 
 sorts of Christians, and all such are one in Christ. 
 There is room for all sorts of workers; and all are 
 expected to co-operate for him. There are more be- 
 lievers in the world than we think. Many hypocrites 
 and heretics, no doubt, but a great multitude of true 
 followers of Christ. What is this that he says, 
 " Other sheep I have which are not of this fold ; them 
 also I must bring, that there may be one flock, one 
 shepherd " ? 
 
INTOLERANCE 99 
 
 It is a wide world that we are living in, and there 
 is room for all to walk without jostling and to work 
 without let or hindrance. The harvest truly is great 
 and the laborers so few! Pray ye therefore the Lord 
 of the harvest, not that he would exclude any from the 
 field, but that he would bring multitudes into it. Not 
 that he would multiply the number of those that " fol- 
 low us," but the number of those that cast out devils 
 " in his name." The right to serve is the supreme 
 privilege of the Christian life. Ich dicn is a princely 
 motto; and all true followers of Christ may bear it 
 embossed upon their shields whether they speak our 
 shibboleths or not. There are those among the Israel 
 of God who to this day " have no dealings with the 
 Samaritans " ; but the Good Samaritan nevertheless 
 goes on with his gracious work on The Bloody Way. 
 
 There is no place in the economy of the Gospel for 
 envy and jealousy, bigotry and exclusiveness. The 
 elder brother of the Prodigal, contemplating with 
 black looks the unconventional merry-making in the 
 Father's house, cuts but a poor figure in the domestic 
 annals of the Church. Let him find his seat at the 
 table and join in the general rejoicing over the return 
 of every sinner from the far country. 
 
IX 
 
 THE LARGER CHRIST 
 
 In which a fond mother is strangely used to teach the 
 doctrine that Salvation is for all. 
 
 A Woman of Syro-Phccnicia: "Have mercy on me, O 
 Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously 
 vexed with a demon." 
 
 Jesus makes no answer. 
 
 The Disciples: "Send her away; for she crieth after 
 us." 
 
 Jesus: "J was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the 
 house of Israel." 
 
 The Woman: "Lord, help me." 
 
 Jesus: "It is not meet to take the children's bread 
 and cast it to the dogs." 
 
 The Woman: " Yea, Lord: for even the dogs eat of 
 the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." 
 
 Jesus: " O woman, great is thy faith: be it done unto 
 thee even as thou wilt." — Matt, xv, 21-28. 
 
 In the north country, among the hills of Syria, 
 dwelt a woman in the school of sorrow. She was a 
 lone woman, it would seem, with but one fledgling in 
 her nest. Her only child was an invalid, " possessed 
 of an unclean spirit." The mother's love — a love that 
 many waters could not quench — was betrayed in the 
 fond title, " my little daughter." But love kept com- 
 pany with shame in solitude ; for hers was a nameless 
 sorrow. 
 
 A picture by a famous artist represents a woman 
 sitting on a ledge of rocks beside the sea, in an atti- 
 
 100 
 
THE LARGER CHRIST 101 
 
 tude of hopelessness, staring into the distance with 
 eyes of stony grief. Beside her hovers the Angel of 
 Hope, touching the strings of a lute ; but the woman 
 sees not, hears not. So was it with this Syro-Pheni- 
 cian mother ; the music of consolation was not for her. 
 
 Her heart was breaking; and there was none to 
 help. The physicians whom she consulted pronounced 
 the case incurable. There was no relief in prayer ; 
 for her god was Baal, the god of the Phenicians, the 
 god of the Cold Eyes. In vain would she lay her sor- 
 row before him ; " there was no voice nor answer nor 
 any that regarded." 
 
 It was rumored that down in Galilee a prophet 
 was going to and fro among the villages healing all 
 manner of diseases. There were commercial travel- 
 ers — for at this time Phenicia was the most wealthy 
 and enterprising of commercial nations — who had 
 met him in Galilee ; and wonderful were the tales they 
 told of his miraculous cures, the opening of blind 
 eyes, cleansing of lepers, casting out of evil spirits. 
 But so far as this woman could learn, his benefactions 
 were confined to the people of Israel, whose Messiah 
 he claimed to be. 
 
 It happened just then that Jesus, wearied by the 
 work of his Galilean ministry and persecuted by the 
 ruling faction whom he had mortally offended, came 
 up into Syria and sought retirement in the obscure 
 town where this afflicted mother dwelt. She heard of 
 his presence and straightway sought him out. It was 
 a forlorn hope. She knew that, as an alien from the 
 commonwealth of Israel, she was without claim; but 
 her great love constrained her. " O Lord, thou Son 
 of David," she cried, " have mercy on me and heal my 
 
102 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 little daughter ! " It was the appeal of quenchless 
 love and baffled hope. What could " the Son of 
 David " be to her? It was as when a sailor in mid- 
 ocean waves a signal of distress and calls to a ship 
 passing afar off. 
 
 I. " And he answered her not a word." 
 Why? Was it by reason of indifference? Oh, no; 
 he always heeded the cry of the suffering ; his was the 
 gentlest heart that ever beat. He was surely not in- 
 different to that " me " of her appeal, in which she 
 so pathetically identified herself with her ailing child. 
 Was it then because of inability to help? Not so. 
 There was no limit to his power; he was fond of 
 applying his divine skill to the most desperate cases. 
 It is recorded that when he passed through the vil- 
 lages the people brought out their sick and laid them 
 in couches along the way ; and " he healed them all." 
 No, these were not the grounds of his strange silence. 
 He had an ulterior purpose. The healing of this wo- 
 man's daughter was not a matter of supreme moment ; 
 he fully intended to grant the request, but merely as 
 a relatively unimportant thing; an incident in the 
 pathway of his kindness toward her. 
 
 The woman's faith, as manifest in her appeal, was 
 but a feeble, rudimental, nascent thing. It was " faith 
 like a grain of mustard seed " ; that is, small but with 
 large possibilities in it. He would correct and foster 
 it. In calling him " Son of David " she disclosed the 
 fact that she wholly misconceived the scope of his 
 ministry of mercy. Her utmost hope, as an outsider, 
 was that some of the droppings of his gracious minis- 
 try might fall on her. He would teach her that he 
 was no provincial Christ, that his mission was not 
 
THE LARGER CHRIST 103 
 
 restricted to an insignificant tribe of people dwelling 
 in a small Province in a remote corner of the earth. 
 No such " pent-up Utica " confined his powers. He 
 desired to be known as the Friend and Saviour of all 
 nations and all sorts and conditions of men. He per- 
 ceived that her mind was open, as fruitful soil, to 
 receive the truth. He would not only gladden her 
 soul by granting her immediate desire, but would 
 reveal himself aright and thus kindle in her a saving 
 faith which would open all heaven to her view and 
 make her a true child of God. 
 
 The disciples, however, had no conception of this 
 purpose. As she continued her frantic appeals, they 
 said, " Send her away ; she crieth after us ; " that is, 
 heal her and let her go. It would be an easy matter, 
 they knew, for him to cast the evil spirit out of her 
 daughter, and thus be rid of her importunity. Many 
 of the humanitarians of our time reason in the same 
 way. " The poor and the suffering are all about us. 
 Let us give them prescriptions from the free dispen- 
 sary, and let them go ; give them bread to satisfy their 
 hunger, and let them go; give them physical comfort, 
 manual training, secular help and encouragement, and 
 let them go." 
 
 But this is not the philosophy of Christ. He knows 
 that deep down in the soul of the average man there is 
 a spiritual cry that food and raiment can never sat- 
 isfy. To feed the hungry and clothe the naked and 
 allow them to pass out into eternity ignorant of their 
 divine birth and noble destiny and unaware of the pro- 
 vision divinely made for their deliverance from sin 
 and the just penalties that follow it, is but a grim 
 travesty of kindness and a mockery of human need. 
 
104. CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 Nay, not " Heal them and let them go," but, Hold 
 them in the healing until their sin-stricken souls shall 
 be made whole and gladdened by the message of life. 
 
 Jesus was silent not because he was indifferent to 
 the appeal of this woman or unwilling to answer it, 
 but because he intended to do a hundredfold more 
 than she had dreamed of receiving from him. 
 
 II. In answer to the suggestion of his disciples, 
 he said, " I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the 
 house of Israel." 
 
 Now, this was precisely according to their way of 
 thinking. I imagine John saying quietly to Peter, 
 " We should have known it. Of course he could not 
 extend his benefactions to this Gentile woman ; since 
 he is exclusively the Messiah of the Jews." 
 
 This was the prevailing view. Jesus himself had 
 said, " Salvation is of the Jews." Were they not " the 
 chosen people " ? Had not the Oracles been committed 
 to them — the Oracles in which were enshrined the 
 age-old prophecies of his coming? Was he not known 
 distinctively as the " Hope of Israel " ? They looked 
 for him to rebuild their shattered fortunes and restore 
 their political glory. Why should the Gentiles think 
 of sharing the privileges which were thus intended to 
 be the exclusive right of the Jews? 
 
 Now, while our Lord is engaged in teaching the 
 Syro-Phenician woman, he will rid his disciples, also, 
 of this false conception of his mission. He will show 
 them that the privilege of Israel did not consist in any 
 exclusive monopoly of the evangel, but in the respon- 
 sibility of passing the great prophecy along the ages 
 until the Messiah should come to be a Saviour for all 
 the children of men. 
 
THE LARGER CHRIST 105 
 
 The words, " I am not sent but unto the lost sheep 
 of the house of Israel," were not an expression of the 
 mind of Jesus, but of the opinions entertained by his 
 disciples. They were spoken in irony ; and the woman 
 overhearing them apparently detected the ironic 
 note. The tone of his voice, the kindly light in his 
 eyes, betrayed him. She continues her appeal, but the 
 light is beginning to break upon her. No longer does 
 she address him as the Son of David ; but, " O Lord, 
 have mercy upon me ! " she cries ; and falls down and 
 worships him. Here is a step in advance. Her heart 
 is teaching her. The process is indeed a severe one, 
 this education of her simple faith ; not unlike an oper- 
 ation for cataract of the eyes. The film is not yet 
 removed, but there is a little light. The operation is 
 not over ; there is further need of the scalpel, and, ah, 
 the pain of it! 
 
 III. Hear him : " It is not meet," he says to her, 
 " to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs." 
 
 Here is a distinct blow. I imagine Peter at this 
 point turning to John with the remark, " It is just as 
 I supposed ; as the ' minister of the circumcision ' he 
 can have nothing to do with her. Were she a Jew, 
 he would heal her daughter as a matter of course ; but 
 she is an outsider and an alien. He belongs to us." 
 
 What then ? Woman's wit to the rescue ! Mother's 
 love to the rescue ! Dawning hope to the rescue ! 
 A great dialectician does this woman prove herself 
 to be. " Aye, Lord, but even the dogs have the 
 crumbs that fall from the children's table." What 
 but love immeasurable could thus have moved a 
 humble woman to measure swords with the Mighty 
 One? 
 
10f> CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 And love conquers He gives her the freedom of 
 his treasure city. Hear his answer, " O woman, great 
 is thy faith ; be it unto thee even as thou wilt." And 
 her daughter was made whole from that very hour. 
 
 Here the curtain falls. She went away laden with 
 the blessings of grace. Her feet were winged with 
 hope as she sped to her home, where she found her 
 daughter " healed of her infirmity and laid upon the 
 bed." It needs no effort of the imagination to hear 
 her saying, as she bends over the convalescent, " Little 
 daughter, Jesus hath healed thee! He spake sternly, 
 indeed ; but his eyes were the kindest and his voice the 
 sweetest on earth. Never was such a friend and 
 helper. What shall we render unto him ? " 
 
 But this was not the only or largest of her bless- 
 ings. She took with her a new thought of prayer, 
 which was quite in line with the Master's teaching, 
 " Men ought always to pray and not to faint." It is 
 a lesson for all parents who have been pleading, years 
 and years, for wayward sons and daughters. Pray 
 on, pray on! In due season ye shall reap if ye faint 
 not. The Lord may tarry in his answering ; but his 
 promise is sure, " Ask, and ye shall receive ; seek, and 
 ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." 
 The times and the seasons are indeed with him. He 
 may put our faith to a sore trial ; but he will not fail 
 us. His orchard is full of trees, and all of them are 
 fruit trees. We plead for apples, but we must wait 
 until his apples are ripe. Our prayers are instant; 
 " Now ! Now ! " we cry ; but his answers are all dated 
 with the fulness of time. Therefore, wait on the 
 Lord ; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen 
 thy heart. 
 
THE LARGER CHRIST 107 
 
 " My soul, ask what thou wilt, 
 Thou canst not be too bold." 
 
 But the crowning blessing which this woman re- 
 ceived with her was a new conception of Christ. She 
 had learned, at length, how the Vine grows over the 
 wall. No longer could she think of Jesus as merely 
 the Messiah of the Jews. No more could she appeal 
 to him as one afar off. She had made the acquaintance 
 of " the larger Christ " ; and so must we. 
 
 Let us not suppose that the church has an ex- 
 clusive right in him ; since the incidental blessings of 
 his grace fall even upon those who reject him. He is 
 not a Christ for the wise or the respectable alone ; nay, 
 behold him " eating with publicans and sinners." The 
 drunkard and the drab are included in his mighty plan 
 and purpose of salvation ; and the same promise which 
 comes to us is extended to them : " He that believeth 
 hath everlasting life." He is not the Christ of 
 Christendom exclusively, but of the regions beyond, 
 as well ; the regions that lie in darkness and the shadow 
 of death. And woe be to us, to whom the oracles are 
 entrusted, if we carry not his message, " Look unto me 
 all ye ends of the earth and be ye saved ! " 
 
 It is written that after this interview with this 
 Syro-Phenician woman, Jesus " departed from thence 
 and came nigh to the Sea of Galilee, and went up into 
 a mountain and sat down ; and great multitudes came 
 unto him, having with them the lame and blind, the 
 dumb and maimed, and cast them down at Jesus' feet ; 
 and he healed them all ; insomuch that they glorified 
 God." So does he sit upon his throne in heaven, while 
 vast processions of the redeemed throng through the 
 gates. They come from the east and west, from the 
 
108 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 north and the south, and sit down with him in the 
 kingdom of God. There are Jews and Greeks, Bar- 
 barians, Scythians, bond and free. Oh, this universal 
 salvation ! This cosmopolitan Christ ! Would that we 
 might apprehend him as he is : a Christ without 
 bounds or limitations. His love is like the sea which 
 rolls upon all shores, creeping up into all their bays 
 and estuaries. There is no saying to him, " Thus far 
 and no further " ! He is able to save unto the utter- 
 most; and willing as he is able. This is the love that 
 passeth knowledge. Oh, the length and breadth and 
 depth and height of it! 
 
 Go ye, therefore, and evangelize all nations. There 
 are numberless souls in " the regions beyond " waiting 
 for the blessings that have made Christendom what it 
 is. Why tarry we in the sheepfolds listening to the 
 bleating of our flocks, when the lost sheep of pagan- 
 dom are out on the dark mountains? Go ye into the 
 city slums and out into the highways and hedges; 
 follow the footsteps of the Master up into the coasts 
 of Tyre and Sidon ; seek the wandering to the utter- 
 most parts of the earth! These are the marching 
 orders of our Lord. He came from heaven to seek 
 and save the lost, and to us he said, " As the Father 
 hath sent me into the world, so send I you." Oh, for 
 an enlargement of heart to grasp the glorious gospel 
 of the larger Christ ! His blood flowed most freely in 
 streams of salvation. There is blood enough in the 
 fountain to wash away the whole world's sin. Tell 
 it out, O follower of Christ! 
 
 'There's a wideness in his mercy 
 Like the wideness of the sea." 
 
X 
 
 "BLESSED BE DRUDGERY" 
 
 In which a cumbered housewife is rebuked for worrying and 
 advised as to the better part. 
 
 Martha: "Lord, dost thou not care that my sister 
 did leave me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she 
 help me." 
 
 Jesus: "Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and 
 troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: 
 for Mary hath chosen the good part, which shall not be 
 taken away from her." — Luke x, 38-42. 
 
 In the village of Bethany on the slope of Mount 
 Olivet, a mile or two from Jerusalem, was one of the 
 homes where Jesus, himself a homeless man, was 
 made a welcome guest. It was his custom, when in 
 attendance on the great festivals, to sojourn here; 
 going into the city in the morning to preach and re- 
 turning at the close of day. 
 
 The inmates of this home were Simon and Martha, 
 probably his wife, with her brother and younger sister. 
 The head of the household was known as " Simon the 
 Leper," possibly because he had been thus afflicted 
 and Jesus had healed him. As to Lazarus, it will be 
 observed that his name is not mentioned here, while 
 Bethany itself is referred to as " a certain village." 
 No doubt this was due to the hostility which had been 
 provoked by the raising of Lazarus. In John's Gos- 
 pel, however, the names of the village and of all parties 
 concerned are given. The reason is obvious: John 
 wrote at the close of the first century, when all the 
 
 109 
 
110 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 facts might be stated with impunity, since Jerusalem 
 had been destroyed and Bethany itself was in ruins. 
 
 It appears that Christ on his round of duties had 
 come to Bethany and was entertained as usual in this 
 favored home. His disciples were with him ; some of 
 the townspeople dropped in. He gathered them about 
 him, very likely in the open court of the house, and 
 taught them the things of the kingdom of God. 
 
 While this service was going on, the sound of rat- 
 tling pans and kettles and dishes could be heard from 
 the kitchen near by. Martha, the housewife, was there 
 preparing the dinner ; and she was much annoyed by 
 the fact that her sister Mary, having gone in with the 
 congregation, was taking no part with her. 
 
 The more she thought about this matter, the more 
 unfair it seemed. She was flushed and excited by the 
 demands of the occasion. The house was full of com- 
 pany, a distinguished guest was being entertained, a 
 dozen things were clamoring to be done at once; and 
 there sat her sister all unconcerned, listening to Christ. 
 She kept her rising anger to herself as long as possible 
 and then ran to Jesus with it. The word rendered 
 " came " is the same which is used of the sudden com- 
 ing of the Great Day. It suggests that she came hur- 
 riedly, briskly, impetuously. It would appear that she 
 broke in upon the service with her complaint, " Lord, 
 dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve 
 alone? Bid her therefore that she help me." The 
 reply was full of tender reproof, " Martha, Martha, 
 thou art careful and troubled about many things; but 
 one thing is needful : and Mary hath chosen that good 
 part, which shall not be taken away from her." 
 
 Let it not be supposed that Martha was a wholly 
 
"BLESSED BE DRUDGERY" 111 
 
 worldly-minded woman. On the contrary, there is 
 every reason to believe that she was a true follower of 
 Christ. The fact that she called him " Lord " would 
 seem to indicate that she sincerely desired to obey and 
 serve him. Her Christian character is evidenced, also, 
 by her cordial hospitality. It must be remembered that 
 at this time Jesus was an outlawed man. By his teach- 
 ing and miracles he had so provoked the hostility of 
 the religious leaders that practically there was a price 
 upon his head. But Martha believed in him and loved 
 him so earnestly that the danger did not appall her. 
 Had he not healed her husband of leprosy? Had he 
 not given her assurance of the pardon of sins? The 
 freedom of her home was, indeed, but a slight return 
 for his kindness. 
 
 She showed her devotion to Jesus by her strenuous 
 desire to set the very best before him. He had done 
 so much for the members of her household that noth- 
 ing was too good for him. In the journal of Queen 
 Victoria it is related that, as she was going through 
 the Highlands, she stopped at a crofter's cottage to 
 rest. The housewife, naturally overwhelmed by the 
 sense of the high honor, pressed all manner of atten- 
 tions upon her royal guest, and when the brief visit 
 was over, she turned the chair which had been occu- 
 pied by the Queen to the wall, saying, " Your Majesty, 
 no one shall ever sit in this again, since you have 
 occupied it." No doubt some such feeling as this 
 was in the heart of Martha as she bussed herself in 
 preparing the meal for her beloved guest. 
 
 And apart from the fact that she was manifestly a 
 Christian, it should be remarked that she was a repre- 
 sentative of a most useful class of women. Die hans- 
 
112 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 fraucn; the busy housewives. How should we get on 
 without them? The tidy, industrious, bountiful pro- 
 viders who make our homes the happiest places on 
 earth for us ! 
 
 You will find the picture of one of them in the 
 words of King Lemuel, in the last chapter of the 
 Book of Proverbs : " Who shall find a worthy woman ? 
 Her price is far above rubies ! She riseth before the 
 break of day to give meat to her household. She 
 girdeth her loins with strength and worketh willingly 
 with her hands. She maketh linen and girdles. She 
 looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth 
 not the bread of idleness. The heart of her husband 
 doth safely trust in her. Her children rise up and call 
 her blessed. Her neighbors say, ' Many daughters 
 have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all." 
 
 We need not, however, go back through the cen- 
 turies. The world is full of brave home-keepers ; 
 some of them in charge of splendid mansions, others 
 in humbler life, devoting themselves with heroic self- 
 sacrifice to the keeping of the wolf from the door. 
 They live their earnest life without the blare of 
 trumpets. They are content to toil like Browning's 
 Angel who took the place of an apprentice at his 
 bench, 
 
 " He did God's will ; to him all one, 
 If in the earth or in the sun." 
 
 It may be that your mother was such a woman ; 
 her face comes up before you now. She is " tidying 
 up " the old home. Perhaps the minister is coming on 
 his " circuit " next Lord's day. She is in the kitchen, 
 making bread, the flour dust on her arms. So busy ! 
 
"BLESSED BE DRUDGERY" 113 
 
 And possibly a little impatient of your presence there. 
 All honor to the diligent housewife ! " Give her of the 
 fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in 
 the gates." 
 
 But as to Martha, there is something to be said on 
 the other side. To begin with, her housework was 
 ill-timed. She should have waited. She should have 
 known that, however important the preparation of this 
 repast might be, it was still more important just then 
 that she should be at the service listening to what Jesus 
 might say. Had she been reminded of this she would 
 probably have replied, " I haven't time." How many 
 there are who excuse themselves from religious obliga- 
 tion in the same way. Oh, these busy people who 
 never have time! No time to go to church; no time 
 for the prayer meeting; no time to read their Bibles; 
 no time for closet devotions ; no time for missionary 
 work; no time to sit at Jesus' feet; no time for any- 
 thing but grinding like Samson at the mill. 
 
 And, further, Martha was " cumbered " by her 
 work. She was anxious and distracted. Wrinkles 
 of care were on her forehead and crow's feet about 
 her eyes. She should have remembered what Jesus 
 said, " Take no anxious thought, saying, What shall 
 we eat? Consider the fowls of the air, and the lilies 
 of the field ; they fret not, worry not, yet your Father 
 careth for them. Are ye not of much more value than 
 they?" 
 
 " Ah, but," she would have said, " some one must 
 be doing these things." No; nobody must be doing 
 them. Work is necessary; but worry never. There 
 is no room on earth for a frown, certainly not for a 
 Christian's frown. Worry never helps, it only hin- 
 
114 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 ders. One has but to observe the faces of those who 
 pass along the streets to learn how the world is bur- 
 dened with over-solicitude. A Frenchman who re- 
 cently visited New York said, " Every man I meet 
 looks as if he had gone out to borrow trouble." We 
 grow stronger by toil, but fret bows our shoulders 
 and turns us prematurely gray. To work is a duty ; to 
 worry is a sin. 
 
 It appears, moreover, that Martha was a censorious 
 woman. She bore her burden in the kitchen as long 
 as she could and then bustled away to Jesus with it. 
 She was not merely a fault-finder, but something of a 
 scold withal. It is not going too far to say that prob- 
 ably the younger sister had some reasonable ground 
 of complaint against her. The habit of scolding has 
 darkened the atmosphere of many an otherwise happy 
 home. A fortnight ago a girl of fourteen committed 
 suicide in New York and left a note saying, " When 
 I awoke this morning, father scolded me ; and when I 
 went to school, mother scolded me ; and because I 
 didn't have my lessons, the teacher scolded me; and 
 there's no use of living, anyway." 
 
 The habit of fault-finding had so grown on Martha 
 that, not content with criticising her sister, she must 
 needs speak petulantly to Jesus himself. " Carest thou 
 not," she cried, " that my sister hath left me to serve 
 alone ? " And this is the rule ; one who allows him- 
 self to be habitually critical toward his fellows will 
 be very sure to end by finding fault with Providence. 
 I wonder what such people will do when they get to 
 heaven and find everything just right; the temperature 
 comfortable, the sunlight properly adjusted, their 
 harps in tune, and their halos a perfect fit. 
 
"BLESSED BE DRUDGERY" 115 
 
 What did Martha need? One thing only. She 
 needed to drop her cares and rest awhile at Jesus' feet. 
 He said, " One thing is needful : and Mary hath 
 chosen the good part." What did he mean by " the 
 good part " ? The word meris is the same which is 
 used in the incident of the foot washing, where Jesus 
 said to Peter, " If I wash thee not, thou hast no part 
 with me " ; and in the division of the seamless robe, 
 where it is said, " The soldiers divided it into four 
 parts, to every one a part " ; and again in the last chap- 
 ter of the Bible : " If any man shall take away from 
 the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take 
 away his part out of the Book of Life." It means a 
 " part and lot " in Christ, a share in the division of his 
 love, a vital interest with him. 
 
 In saying that Mary had this " good part," the Lord 
 does not suggest that Martha was without it, only that 
 she did not give it the pre-eminent place. It must so 
 overshadow all that nothing else can be compared 
 with it. 
 
 Now this is not to say that meditative piety is the 
 only sort. On the contrary, it is quite possible to 
 err in this direction. There are those who would build 
 tabernacles on the Mount of Vision and abide there, 
 deaf to the cry of the demoniac at the foot of the 
 mountain and blind to fields yellow for the harvest. 
 We sing, 
 
 " Oh, that I could forever sit 
 Like Mary at the Master's feet; 
 Be this my constant choice, 
 My only care, delight and bliss, 
 My joy on earth and heaven be this 
 To hear the Bridegroom's voice." 
 
116 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 But the voice of the Bridegroom is also the voice 
 of the Master, calling us away from dreams and 
 visions, " Go ye into the highways and hedges and 
 constrain them to come in ! " There is work to be 
 done and work is the great matter in the Christian 
 life. Dreams and visions are helpful to self-culture, 
 but service is in the behalf of others, wherefore, Jesus 
 said, " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his 
 righteousness." It is well to pray, to read our Bibles 
 and go to church ; but these are means to an end, and 
 the end is the conquest of the world for Christ. 
 
 The ideal Christian is the Mystic at Work. It is 
 safe to say that, when the Master's teaching at the 
 Bethany home was over, Mary went straightway into 
 the kitchen. And the two sisters, toiling together, 
 must have afforded a striking contrast : One of them 
 flushed and querulous; the other equally busy, but 
 singing in her heart because she had taken " the good 
 part " into the kitchen with her. And her work was 
 all the more thoroughly done because she knew that 
 she loved Christ and she knew that he loved her. 
 
 "A servant with this clause 
 Makes drudgery divine; 
 Who sweeps a room as to God's laws 
 Makes that and the action fine." 
 
 It was four months afterward that, in the same house 
 at Bethany, an incident occurred which put the devo- 
 tion of Mary to the test. It seems she had a cherished 
 treasure, an alabaster box of precious spikenard ; and, 
 as Jesus was teaching, she brought this box of oint- 
 ment and broke it (as if to indicate that, having 
 served its high purpose, it should thenceforth find no 
 
"BLESSED BE DRUDGERY" 117 
 
 further use), and anointed his head and feet. The 
 disciples murmured, saying, " What a waste ! This 
 ointment might have been sold for two hundred pence 
 (a large amount of money in those days) and given 
 to the poor." But Jesus said, " Let her alone ; she 
 hath wrought a good work on me." So the " good 
 part " finds its fruitage in the " good work " ; and the 
 good work finds its end upon him. 
 
 The lesson here is particularly for earnest women- 
 folk. In these days all doors of usefulness are open. 
 Let them enter where they will ; but, whether their 
 energies be given to the home life or handicraft or 
 professional work, they are bound under all circum- 
 stances, by all considerations of gratitude, to serve 
 Christ every way. It is inconceivable how any woman 
 can withhold her love and service from him. A non- 
 Christian woman is a living incongruity. Think what 
 Christ has done for womanhood! Reflect on the ha- 
 rems of India and the poor women of China and other 
 pagan countries. If the doors of honor and usefulness 
 are open to the women of Christendom, it is because 
 " the Lord of all good Christians was of a woman 
 born " and because the result of his Gospel has been 
 to uplift them into the glorious liberty of the children 
 of God." It is therefore, pre-eminently, the " good 
 part " of all right-thinking women to take Christ as 
 their Saviour and friend and pay their meed of grati- 
 tude to him. This is the enduring " part " of life. 
 All else will vanish — personal charms, wealth, gifts 
 and accomplishments ; but of this Jesus said, " It shall 
 never be taken away from her." 
 
XI 
 
 HOME MINISTRIES 
 
 In which a husband, ambitious to serve Christ, is advised 
 to go down to his own house and show what great 
 things the Lord has done for him. 
 
 And as he was entering into the boat, he that had been 
 possessed with demons besought him that he might be 
 with him. 
 
 Jesus: " Go to thy house unto thy friends, and tell 
 them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and 
 how he had mercy on thee." 
 
 And he went his zvay, and began to publish in Decapo- 
 lis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all 
 men marvelled. — Mark v, 18-20. 
 
 The central figure in the miracle of Gadara is a 
 mere silhouette ; but the important facts are so clearly 
 stated that we have no difficulty in completing it. 
 We know, to begin with, that this man had a home; 
 though, under present circumstances, it was little or 
 nothing to him. He had begun life in the usual way, 
 leading his true love from the altar to a modest fire- 
 side. How bright the outlook, then ! How proud and 
 happy the young parents in the midst of their increas- 
 ing household. 
 
 " His wee bit ingle, blinking bonnily, 
 
 His clean hearthstane, his thriftie wifie's smile, 
 The lisping infant prattling on his knee, 
 Does a' his weary carking cares beguile, 
 And makes him quite forget his labor and his toil." 
 
 118 
 
HOME MINISTRIES 119 
 
 But why should a man with a home be dwelling 
 here among the tombs ? How came he to this desolate 
 place? It is the old story. Facilis descensus Averni! 
 He had sinned away his birthright. His downward 
 course began, no doubt, with the intoxicating cup. 
 One vice followed another until the force of habit 
 controlled him. Bad company, nights away from 
 home, sensuality ; thus he went from bad to worse 
 until the happy home was desolate, his wife's heart 
 broken, his children afraid of him. At length reason 
 was unseated. " Be not deceived, God is not mocked ; 
 whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." 
 His heart being open, a troop of evil spirits came in 
 and took possession. The law was invoked in vain ; 
 he broke his chains and fled. And here he is among 
 the tombs, a raving maniac, muttering to himself and 
 making night hideous with his cries. He has lost 
 everything; home, social standing, self-respect. His 
 is, indeed, a desperate case. 
 
 One day the Lord came over the lake in a little 
 boat with his disciples. On the way he quieted the 
 stormy sea. As they were landing, the demoniac came 
 running toward them, his hair flying, his clothes in 
 tatters, his face distorted, foam issuing from his lips. 
 Oh, monstrous power of sin ! 
 
 And Jesus said, " Thou unclean spirit, come out of 
 him." At that word of command the furies fled and 
 the man lay sobbing before his feet. 
 
 It was a mighty miracle, mightier than the stilling 
 of the tempest. No other marvel is comparable with 
 the transformation of character. " 'Twas great to call 
 a world from naught, 'tis greater to redeem." This 
 man is a new creature in Christ Jesus ; new will, new 
 
120 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 heart, new conscience, new life. Old things are 
 passed away ; behold, all things are become new. It 
 is a moral revolution, wrought in a moment by the 
 power of God. 
 
 How do we know that the demoniac was thus re- 
 newed? By the fact that we see him presently 
 " clothed and in his right mind." This means that he 
 has regained his self-respect. Yesterday he would 
 have boasted of his personal liberty, his right to be 
 clothed or unclothed as he pleased ; now he is thinking 
 not of himself only, but of his fellow-men. 
 
 He is " in his right mind." Previously he had been 
 wrong-minded as to all most-important things ; but 
 now, like the prodigal, he has " come to himself " 
 and sees Christ and religion and morality in their 
 proper light. 
 
 And observe his frank confession of Christ. He 
 attaches himself to this despised Nazarene and cares 
 not who knows it. The desire to keep one's religion 
 under cover is always a suspicious circumstance. 
 Viola, in " Twelfth Night," says of her diffident sis- 
 ter, " She never told her love, but let concealment, 
 like a worm i' the bud, feed on her damask cheek." 
 A shrinking girl under such conditions might act in 
 this manner: but it is inconceivable that a man under 
 conviction of sin, looking to Christ for salvation, 
 should be unwilling to avow it. 
 
 Let it be noted, also, that he wanted to do some- 
 thing to show his gratitude. This is the first impulse 
 of a truly regenerate life. A surrender to Christ is 
 not the sum total of the Christian life, but only the 
 beginning of it. In the hour when Paul heard the 
 voice saying, " I am Jesus ! " he straightway answered, 
 
HOME MINISTRIES 121 
 
 " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " And his 
 subsequent life was all doing. " If any man will come 
 after me," said Jesus, " let him deny himself, take up 
 his cross and follow me." There is no discharge in 
 this war. 
 
 Still further, the man of Gadara is ambitious to do 
 some great thing. " Let me be with thee," he cries. 
 " Let me sit at thy feet as a disciple. Let me follow 
 thee. Let me join in proclaiming thy glory as the 
 Saviour of men." So far as personal experience went 
 he was thoroughly qualified to be a preacher like 
 James or Peter or John ; but otherwise he had scant 
 qualifications. Every man to his place. " The body is 
 not one member, but many. Shall the foot say, Be- 
 cause I am not the hand, I am not of the body? Or 
 the ear, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the 
 body? Are all apostles, all prophets, all teachers? 
 There are diversities of gifts and of operation; but 
 it is the same God which worketh all in all." 
 
 The supreme evidence of this man's conversion, 
 however, was his acquiescence in the Master's will, 
 " Go home to thy friends," said Jesus, " and tell what 
 great things the Lord hath done for thee." 
 
 I wish we might have seen his home-coming. It 
 may be that an old mother had for years been praying 
 for his return and hoping against hope. God bless 
 the faithful mothers, who pray and never faint ! There 
 she sat, her withered hands folded in her lap, as he 
 stood in the doorway. Who shall tell the gladness in 
 her heart? Who shall paint the brightness in her 
 dimmed eyes? 
 
 It would appear that a wife also awaited him. Time 
 was when she passed with him under an arch of flow- 
 
122 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 ers into the joys and cares of wedded life. He had 
 promised to love, honor and protect her. But in the 
 course of the years there came a cooling of love, neg- 
 lect, absence far into the night, a returning with red 
 eyes and angry words, and oh, the horrible breath of 
 the wine-cup. Then, one night, he did not return at 
 all. Where had he gone ? Some of the neighbors had 
 seen him wandering among the tombs, gashed and 
 bleeding, muttering to himself. And there he abode, 
 self-exiled. On stormy nights she lay awake and 
 thought of him. — God be praised for conjugal love; 
 the love of the faithful wife that weathers all gales; 
 the patience that holds fast to early vows and the 
 memory of former joys and the hope of a better time 
 coming. — He sees her standing yonder by the door. 
 " Wife, I've come back," he cries. " I've come back to 
 begin again. I've seen Jesus of Nazareth and he has 
 cast out the demons. I want to return to you and the 
 children; to life and God." 
 
 And his children, how they had dreaded his ap- 
 proach ! They knew his savage ways. They had 
 been accustomed to run and hide when foe drew near, 
 waving his arms and uttering blasphemies. Now they 
 stood at a distance, awe-struck and wondering; they 
 had never seen it on this fashion. " Come here," he 
 says, " little daughter, I will not hurt you " ; and the 
 eldest reluctantly approaches. He parts her hair from 
 her forehead and with sad, loving words makes his 
 confession, " I've been a bad father, dear ; but I've met 
 Jesus of Nazareth and the demons are gone." His 
 other children sidle near, wondering. At what? At 
 the same mystery of regeneration which puzzles the 
 older people. And they allow themselves to be taken 
 
HOME MINISTRIES 123 
 
 upon his knees. He kisses them one by one, and the 
 past is gone ! 
 
 Yonder on the wall is a chain hanging. " Let us 
 take it down, good wife. Please God, you shall never 
 call in the neighbors to bind me again." And as he 
 looks this way there is something glistening on his 
 cheek, — a strong man's tear. Aye; and there is a 
 rainbow of promise in it. " The sacrifices of God are 
 a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, 
 thou wilt not despise." So the new life begins. There 
 are scars on the man's face; his cheeks are still white 
 and thin, and he will long carry about with him the 
 marks of that awful nightmare in the tombs. But here 
 with wife and children about him, ah, this is heaven 
 on earth ! 
 
 Is that all? Oh, no. On the evening of that day 
 he gathers his wife and children about him and tells 
 them the story, how it all happened; how he saw the 
 little boat upon the lake and ran down with curses to 
 meet it; how the strong Man looked who, standing 
 in the bow of the boat, boldly faced him ; how, with a 
 ring of conscious power in his voice, He uttered those 
 words, " Come out of him ! " And then the awful 
 struggle for a moment, when life and death tugged 
 for the mastery within him ; and how life won. " The 
 Lord bade me," he continues, " return to the old home, 
 live down the past and do good as I may have oppor- 
 tunity, by a holy and helpful life. But I can't do that 
 without prayer. I am helpless and hopeless except as 
 I have strength from above. Let us kneel down, 
 therefore, and pray." Hear him now : " Have mercy 
 upon me, O God, according unto thy lovingkindness 
 and according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies 
 
124 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 blot out my transgressions ! Purge me with hyssop 
 and I shall be clean ; wash me, and I shall be whiter 
 than snow ! Open thou my lips that my mouth shall 
 show forth thy praise ! " A long pause, and then : 
 " Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within 
 me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, 
 and forget not all his benefits ; who forgiveth all thine 
 iniquities, who redeemeth thy life from destruction. 
 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and 
 plenteous in mercy. As far as the east is from the 
 west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from 
 us. Bless the Lord, ye his angels that excel in 
 strength ; that do his commandments, hearkening 
 to his voice ! Bless the Lord, all his works, in all 
 places of his dominion! Bless the Lord, O my 
 soul ! " 
 
 And thus the changed man has changed his poverty- 
 stricken home into the very gate of heaven. There 
 may have been no tapestries or pictures there ; little 
 meal in the barrel, or oil in the cruse; but there was 
 love, and there was the family altar. It was like the 
 house of Obed-edom with the Ark of the Covenant in 
 the midst of it. 
 
 Was that all? No. The next morning his neigh- 
 bors dropped in, old friends who had known him in 
 earlier and better days ; some perhaps who had joined 
 in his revels and tarried with him long at the wine. 
 And they marvelled at what they saw. His earnest 
 face, his evident sincerity, his interest in their wel- 
 fare, these won for him a hearing. There was no gain- 
 saying his word. He told his simple story, keeping 
 Jesus always at the centre of it. He was never weary 
 of sounding the praises of his Friend. " He published 
 
HOME MINISTRIES 125 
 
 throughout the whole city what Jesus had done for 
 him." 
 
 Here the curtain falls. We know, however, that 
 when the townspeople of Gadara besought Jesus to 
 depart out of their coasts, this man remained, as his 
 deputy, to represent his gracious purposes toward 
 them. He preached .the gospel in his humble way, 
 until, in the passing of the years, he fell asleep. Then 
 the great home-coming! Perhaps some of those who 
 had been converted through his ministrations were 
 awaiting him at heaven's gate. As he entered he 
 lifted up his eyes and behold, his Saviour sat yonder 
 enthroned in glory. " O Jesus," he cried, " let all 
 heaven hear ! I am the demoniac of Gadara ! I am 
 he that dwelt among the tombs ! Thou didst restore 
 me to hope and manhood and life. Thou art worthy to 
 receive honor and glory and power and dominion 
 forever and ever." 
 
 Is there a lesson here for us? Go home to thy 
 friends, if thou art a Christian, and tell what great 
 things the Lord hath done for thee. 
 
 Home is the smallest, hardest, most trying, largest 
 of parishes. It is the smallest, because it is apparently 
 hemmed in by four walls. It is the hardest, since, as 
 every one knows, it is easier to preach the Gospel to 
 a great congregation than to speak tenderly and tact- 
 fully to one's kinsmen. It is the most trying, because 
 it turns the searchlight of closest scrutiny on one's 
 walk and conversation. And it is the largest, because 
 out of this circle are the issues of life. 
 
 Who shall estimate the influence of godly fathers? 
 One of the clearest days in my memory is that when 
 my aged father, renewing the Covenant of his youth, 
 
126 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 took down the old ha' Bible and lifted his voice in 
 prayer. Blessed are the men who leave such memories 
 to their children. 
 
 And what shall be said of the dear mothers in 
 Israel ? A stone in a village cemetery bears the touch- 
 ing legend, "Our Mother. She made home happy for 
 us." Of all the rights and privileges of womanhood 
 there is none comparable with this, to live so lovingly 
 and consistently as to be able to come up at last to 
 heaven, saying, " Lord, here am I and the children 
 whom thou hast given me ! " 
 
 Let us pay tribute also to the influence of sons and 
 daughters. I mean old-fashioned sons and daughters 
 who are not ashamed of such homely graces as filial 
 love and reverence. No advocate of the temperance 
 reform is better loved than Francis Murphy. It is 
 not generally known, however, that forty years ago 
 he was a drunkard and a criminal in one of the villages 
 of Maine. Preachers had preached at him in vain. 
 The law merely maddened him. One day his little 
 daughter came to his cell and said with broken voice, 
 " Papa, we're homesick without you." That was the 
 turning point in his life; and we are not surprised to 
 hear him saying, " Man is lost beyond the possibility 
 of redemption if the divinity in his nature does not 
 listen when his children whisper ' Home ' in his ear." 
 
 And great is the power of brotherly affection and 
 loyalty. It is my good fortune to preach to a con- 
 gregation made up largely of young men. I know 
 some among them who are bread-winners for the whole 
 household. It may be that at times they feel impatient 
 of being thus handicapped by caring for the dependent 
 ones. Let them rather thank God and take courage. 
 
HOME MINISTRIES 127 
 
 Great is their privilege and they shall by no means lose 
 their reward. Poets sing of knights of the olden time 
 whose " swords are rust, whose steeds are dust, whose 
 souls are with their God we trust " ; but truer a thou- 
 sand fold is the chivalry of these self-denying youth 
 than that which spent itself in the tourney or on the 
 battlefield. 
 
 A word for the sisters, also: ministering angels in 
 many a home, not dreaming how their kindly, loving 
 service is to be remembered in the future days. The 
 world is full of Miriams who hold themselves ready 
 to watch the cradle or strike the cymbals of encourage- 
 ment as occasion may demand. " I lament," wrote 
 Washington Irving, " that Providence denied me the 
 companionship of sisters. Had it been otherwise, I 
 should have been a better man." 
 
 So let us heed the Master's word, " Go home to thy 
 friends and tell what great things the Lord hath done 
 for thee." Use your Christian influence to such ef- 
 fect that all in your family circle shall be brought to 
 the saving knowledge of Christ. This is the great par- 
 ish. You may preach there with seasonable words, 
 which are like apples of gold shining through the 
 meshes of a silver basket, or better than all, by force 
 of example. The eyes of the home circle are con- 
 stantly upon you. If there is any place where the 
 Christian is " off duty," it is certainly not at home. 
 Someone has said that religion is " not a coat, but a 
 cuticle." It is more than either. It is not a coat to 
 be put on and taken off at pleasure ; no more is it a 
 cuticle, that is, a superficial thing. It is a life that 
 pervades the whole being, going into and through the 
 bone and sinew and blood. This being so, a Christian 
 
128 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 is bound to make his religion known and felt every- 
 where, always, under all circumstances, and most of 
 all in his fellowship with those who are nearest and 
 dearest to him. 
 
 Flashes the lovelight, increasing the glory, 
 
 Beaming from bright eyes with warmth of the soul, 
 
 Telling of trust and content the sweet story, 
 
 Lifting the shadows that over us roll; 
 
 King, king, crown me the king; 
 
 Home is the Kingdom and Love is the Kingl 
 
XII 
 
 COVETOUSNESS 
 
 In which Jesus declines to commit himself in the matter of 
 a contested will. 
 
 One of the Multitude: "Teacher, bid my brother 
 divide the inheritance with me." 
 
 Jesus: " Man, who made me a judge or a divider over 
 you?" And he said unto them, "Take heed, and keep your- 
 selves from all covetousness: for a man's life consisteth 
 not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." 
 — Luke xii, 13-21. 
 
 The world is full of little people. We are all little 
 people in a way, spending our energy in quest of in- 
 finitesimals and prone to take inadequate views of 
 things. What a birthright is ours, and what possi- 
 bilities are before us ! Yet how many are royal triflers, 
 like Louis XV., who spent his time tinkering the clocks 
 of the Louvre to the neglect of his affairs of state. 
 While we live thus our world grows smaller and 
 smaller and we with it. We go round in our narrow 
 circle like an eagle born to cleave the heavens, but 
 tethered to a stake. 
 
 But once there lived a great Man. He was the 
 only great Man the world ever saw. He knew him- 
 self, his birth, capacities, high destiny. He knew God, 
 knew him so well and intimately that he could say 
 " I and my Father are One." He knew his life-work 
 and concentrated all his energies upon it. His 
 
 129 
 
130 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 thoughts and prayers, his sermons and miracles, all 
 were subsidiary to the matter in hand. As for wealth, 
 sordid pleasure and golden crowns, he appraised them 
 at their exact value and waived them aside. Inspcxit 
 et despexit! He could not be diverted from his task. 
 " I have a baptism to be baptized with ; and how is my 
 soul straitened until I shall accomplish it ! " So he 
 pursued his purpose, until, dying on the cross, he 
 cried, " It is finished ! " and went his way. 
 
 And the little people were always annoying this 
 Man. Absorbed in their own insignificant pursuits, 
 they sought persistently to draw him down to their 
 level. He was like Gulliver bound in Lilliput with 
 slender cords. His disciples wished him to determine 
 for them the stupendous question of precedence at 
 table ! The Pharisees sought to entangle him in their 
 disputations as to fasts and hand-washings and tith- 
 ing of garden herbs. The Sadducees bore down upon 
 him with the portentous problem of the seven-fold 
 widow. The politicians demanded of him whether it 
 was lawful to pay tribute to Caesar or not. Quibblers, 
 wire-drawers, hair-splitters, little people all ! Here 
 was a man who was ever preaching, " Up with your 
 hearts ! " while they were calling, " Come down ! Come 
 down to us ! " 
 
 It chanced that once when Jesus was setting forth 
 the great truths of the eternal life, a man of this paltry 
 sort piped up with his grievance : " Master, speak to 
 my brother that he divide the inheritance with me." 
 It was the oft-repeated story of a contested will. A 
 father had two sons ; the one thrifty and industrious, 
 the other an indolent ne'er-do-weel. To Jacob he be- 
 queathed his broad acres, vested interests, bonds and 
 
COVETOUSNESS 131 
 
 mortgages, everything; while poor Esau was cut off 
 with a shilling. Was it strange that the sense of wrong 
 rankled in his breast? He thought upon this until 
 the inheritance shut out all larger and more impor- 
 tant considerations. He brooded on his wrongs by 
 day and dreamed of them at night. The inheritance! 
 The inheritance! His soul clamored for his just por- 
 tion of it. Truth, virtue, immortality were crowded 
 out of mind. His unadjusted claim was like a coin 
 held close before the eyes and hiding the glory of the 
 sun. He heard the weighty words of Jesus, but they 
 were naught to him. What cared he for life and im- 
 mortality ? " Lord, speak to my brother that he divide 
 the inheritance with me ! " 
 
 The answer of Jesus was brief and to the point. 
 The case was one which lay within the purview of the 
 Probate Court. " Man, who made me a judge or a di- 
 vider over you ? " 
 
 But the occasion was improved by the Master for 
 the pressing home of an important caveat. Turning 
 from the inheritance-seeker to the people, he said, 
 " Take heed and beware of covetousness ! " 
 
 Let it not be supposed that Jesus was denouncing 
 wealth. He knew, as all wise people know, that money 
 is intrinsically neither good nor bad. A penny is mor- 
 ally as neutral as a horn button; whether it be 
 " tainted " or not depends on the way it is gotten and 
 used. There are times when a bushel of gold is not 
 comparable in value with an ear of corn. But " the 
 love of money is the root of all evil." Auri sacra 
 fames. Oh, the frightful hunger of it ! 
 
 The word covetousness is from an intensive verb 
 meaning: " to desire with an inordinate desire." It is 
 
132 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 personified by Solomon on this wise : " The horse-leech 
 hath two daughters, crying, ' Give, give ! ' In our 
 time the horse-leech has three daughters, to wit, 
 "Nothing," "Enough" and "Opulence." "Noth- 
 ing " wants something ; " Enough " wants more ; 
 " Opulence " wants the earth. " Nothing " sits at the 
 corner of the street with outstretched hands, crying 
 " Misericordia ! A penny for the love of God ! " — 
 " Enough " is a handicraftsman, an eight-hour man, 
 who, blind to the splendor of skill and fidelity, de- 
 mands a maximum of wages for a minimum of work. 
 — " Opulence," the millionaire, stretches out his hands 
 for a million more. Time was when a hundred-thou- 
 sand would have satisfied him ; now if he would shine 
 in the Milky Way of stellar aristocracy he must own 
 a yacht, an automobile, an equine establishment, a 
 mansion in the city, a group of summer-homes by the 
 shore and in the mountains, and, mayhap, a baronial 
 castle beyond the seas. But all alike cry, " Give ! 
 Give ! " And alike they are blind to the fact that 
 presently they must surrender all. 
 
 A few days ago a child was run over by a Broad- 
 way car and mortally hurt. To quiet her wailing a 
 benevolent gentleman put a silver quarter in her hand, 
 saying, " Hold it fast, and be brave ! " She died on 
 the way to the hospital, with her little fingers clenched 
 upon the coin. She had gone on without it! Ah, 
 they all do. 
 
 The Lord followed up his caveat with a general 
 proposition, namely, " A man's life consisteth not in 
 the abundance of the things which he possesseth." 
 You say this is a truism ; nay, not unless immortality 
 be assumed as its postulate. Nothing is more com- 
 
COVETOUSNESS 133 
 
 monly or practically denied than the proposition be- 
 fore us. 
 
 But what is the "life" which Jesus here speaks of? 
 In general terms it is the breath which was breathed 
 into the nostrils of man when God made him a living 
 soul. Life is a line beginning at birth and reaching 
 on forever. It is divided into two parts ; the life here 
 and the life beyond. The life here is brief as an 
 eagle's flight; it is likened to foam on the waters, a 
 dream, the flying of a weaver's shuttle, a tale that is 
 told. To-day, to-morrow and the day after; and, be- 
 hold, it is gone ! " Out, out, brief candle ; life's but 
 a walking shadow." 
 
 Let us take heed, however, that we do not belittle 
 the importance of the life here and now ; for, not- 
 withstanding its brevity, the issues of eternity are 
 wrapped up in it. 
 
 As for the life beyond ; it is forever and ever. 
 Eternity, how long art thou ! We are to live through 
 the interminable seons. And by this token it is of 
 supreme importance that we should know the right 
 ratio, thatwe should form a just estimate of the relative 
 length of the two portions of the endless line. The 
 life here is to the life hereafter as a mote in a sun- 
 beam to the great circle which the sun pursues in in- 
 finite space; as a grain of sand to all the sands upon 
 the sea shores of the earth ; as the swinging of a pen- 
 dulum to the sum total of chronology ; as the phos- 
 phorescent gleam of a firefly to the effulgence that 
 fills the inter-stellar spaces ; as a drop of water to the 
 immeasurable volume of the deeps. Nay, these are 
 all infinitely inadequate, but it is only by such com- 
 parisons that we can form the slightest conception of 
 
134 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 the disparity of terms or grasp in any measure the 
 significance of the Lord's insoluble problem, " What 
 shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and 
 lose his life? " 
 
 And then, from these premises, our Lord frames this 
 deduction : The man who lives for time and ignores 
 eternity is a fool. He presents it in the form of a 
 parable, thus : " The ground of a certain rich man 
 brought forth plentifully. And he said to himself, 
 ' What shall I do, because I have no room where to be- 
 stow my harvests ? ' And he said, ' This will I do ; I 
 will tear down my storehouses and build greater; and 
 there will I bestow my fruits and my goods. And I 
 will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid 
 up for many years ; take thine ease, eat, drink and be 
 merry.' (At this point, however, his soliloquy was 
 broken in upon by a Voice which he had not reckoned 
 on.) But God said to him, 'Thou fool! this night 
 shall thy soul be required of thee ; then whose shall 
 those things be which thou hast provided ? ' So is he 
 that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich 
 toward God." 
 
 At dead of night there was a cry of pain in the 
 home of the rich man. His wife awoke, kindled the 
 lamp and, seeing an ominous pallor on her husband's 
 face, bade one of the household run for the doctor. 
 He came, felt of the patient's pulse and shook his 
 head. 
 
 " If anything remains to be done," he said, " you 
 have no time to lose." The lawyer was straight- 
 way called to make the will. " I give and bequeath 
 thus and so to my beloved wife; thus and so to my 
 children ; thus and so to schools and hospitals." But 
 
COVETOUSNESS 135 
 
 how much will he reserve for himself? Nothing. 
 How much will he take with him? Not a farthing. 
 There will be no pocket in his shroud. The King of 
 Terrors comes like a highwayman, crying, " Hands 
 up!" This man was going on a long journey and 
 had made no preparation. Fool, indeed ! He had 
 squandered his great opportunity. Life was before 
 him, a journey in the dark, and he stumbled forth 
 into it. So is he that hath laid up treasure for himself 
 and is not rich toward God. 
 
 On that same night there was, perhaps, another 
 death in the same city. The summons came to one, 
 rich or poor it mattered not, enough that he was a 
 prudent man. For he had pondered time and eternity 
 and weighed things well. The pallor was on his face ; 
 but there was no tremor in his heart. He had devoted 
 his years to the calm consideration of right and benef- 
 icence; and there was a crown laid up for him. So 
 is he that is rich toward God. 
 
 Thus ends the lesson of the Master. It is possible, 
 then, to be " rich toward God." But what is that ? 
 In a little while we shall be making our inventory at 
 the border line. What shall we leave? We shall 
 leave, perforce, all sordid things behind us. We 
 shall leave our influence, moreover, for better or for 
 worse, as a bequest to those who survive us. " I am 
 called away," said Sheridan, " to meet an imperative 
 engagement ; but I will leave my influence with you." 
 It is said that if one of the distant stars were extin- 
 guished, its light would linger for a thousand years. 
 So is it with the memory of a holy man. 
 
 But what are our eternal assets ; the things that fire 
 cannot consume, that death cannot take from us? In 
 
13G CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 other words, what is a man " worth " as he passes 
 into eternity? 
 
 The first item in the inventory is a clean character. 
 This means freedom from sin ; for " without holiness 
 no man shall see the Lord." And freedom from sin 
 comes only by the cleansing of the blood ; as it is writ- 
 ten, " The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all 
 sin," and " Without the shedding of blood there is no 
 remission of sin." 
 
 The second item is a philanthropic record. Have 
 you been serving your fellow-men ? Have you visited 
 the sick, ministered to the poor, lightened the burdens 
 of the weary? If so, this shall be reckoned to your 
 credit. " For whosoever shall give a cup of cold 
 water," said Jesus, " to the least of these my little 
 ones in the name of a disciple, shall not lose his re- 
 ward." 
 
 And the third item is service rendered to God. The 
 man who leaves God out of the reckoning dooms him- 
 self to eternal beggary. " The longer I live," said Car- 
 lyle, " and the nearer I approach eternity, the more do 
 I realize the tremendous truth of the statement ' The 
 chief end of man is to glorify God.' " 
 
 The substance of the Master's teaching, therefore, 
 is, " Be rich ; get riches that endure." Have an inde- 
 pendent fortune " proof against the tooth of time and 
 rasure of oblivion." Lay up for yourself millions of 
 treasure, the more the better, in bags that wax not 
 old. 
 
 Lay up for yourself treasure in the heavens that 
 faileth not! Be covetous Godward, and right-minded 
 earthward. Estimate things at their right relative 
 value. Prepare for the endless life. So live that you 
 
COVETOUSNESS 137 
 
 shall not leave all. To that end count your assets 
 now. Count in nothing that cannot be carried through 
 the little wicket gate. Count in everything that can 
 be taken with you: truth, character, usefulness, hu- 
 manity and true piety. Be rich, be rich toward God! 
 
XIII 
 PRACTICAL RELIGION 
 
 In which he shows how a business man can do business to 
 the glory of God. 
 
 And he entered and was passing through Jericho. And 
 behold, a man called by name Zacchceus; and he was a 
 chief publican, and he was rich. And he sought to see 
 Jesus who he was; and could not for the crowd, because 
 he was little of stature. And he ran on before, and 
 climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him: for he was 
 to pass that way. 
 
 Jesus: "Zacchceus, make haste, and come down; for 
 to-day I must abide at thy house." 
 
 The People: "He is gone in to lodge with a man 
 that is a sinner." 
 
 Zacchceus, at his home: "Behold, Lord, the half of 
 my goods J give to the poor; and if J have wrongfully 
 exacted aught of any man, J restore fourfold." 
 
 Jesus: " To-day is salvation come to this house; for- 
 asmuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of 
 Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." — 
 Luke xix, i-io. 
 
 We require two things of Religion. One is that it 
 shall be up-to-date; the other, that it shall be prac- 
 tical. 
 
 The Gospel of Christ meets both of these require- 
 ments. Its three essential factors are abreast of the 
 age. One of these is God ; " with whom there is no 
 variableness, neither shadow of turning." Another 
 is man ; who likewise changes not ; he has always been 
 
 138 
 
PRACTICAL RELIGION 139 
 
 conscious of his divine birth and of the loss of his 
 birthright and of the vital importance of finding his 
 way back to the favor of God. The remaining factor 
 is Christ, the God-man, standing between God and 
 man, placing the hand of the sinner in that of his 
 justly offended Father and bringing them into at- 
 one-ment. And Christ is also the unchangeable One. 
 We sing, " Ring in the Christ that is to be " ; but 
 there is no Christ coming who has not been from the 
 foundation of the world. The true religion was ad- 
 justed, at the outset, to all the possible vicissitudes 
 of time. It is always abreast of the age. 
 
 As to the other requirement, namely, that religion 
 shall be practical ; the gospel is precisely responsive to 
 it. There are two supreme longings in the soul of 
 man: On the one hand, he wants to escape from the 
 justly incurred penalty of sin; and there the Gospel 
 meets him with the gracious announcement that the 
 handwriting of ordinances which was against him 
 has been nailed to Christ's cross and taken out of the 
 way. On the other hand, he wants to know how to 
 live righteously every day; and to this, also, the 
 Gospel makes definite answer, in detail and particular. 
 It touches the entire circumference of his life at every 
 point. It shows him how to deport himself at home 
 and in society, in politics, in business and in all pos- 
 sible relations with his fellow-men. 
 
 It is true that the Gospel is not always preached in 
 this way. The man in the pulpit is tempted to turn 
 aside to dreams and speculations ; to lose himself and 
 his audience in the bewildering mazes of " free will, 
 fixed fate, foreknowledge absolute " ; or to preach 
 smooth things in fine rhetoric, " faultily faultless, 
 
140 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 icily regular, splendidly null." But this is not the 
 fault of the Gospel. The Christianity of Christ was 
 intensely practical. It bore upon the necessities of 
 the soul as constantly and equably as the atmosphere 
 does on every square inch of the body. It was fitted 
 not only to all circumstances in human life but to all 
 sorts and conditions of men. The standpoint of the 
 great Preacher was always the same, whether he 
 spoke to the Rabbis of the Sanhedrin or to fisher- 
 men beside the lake, to invalids in the porches of 
 Bethesda or to little children who flocked about him, 
 to Martha the housewife cumbered with much-serv- 
 ing, or to men engaged, like Zaccheus, in the affairs 
 of business life. 
 
 It is probable that no class of persons take a less 
 interest in the great problems of religion than business 
 men. This is partly due to the absorbing character of 
 their pursuits ; but the impression that religion is a 
 fabric of dreams and speculations and sentimental 
 transcendentalism has also much to do with it. It 
 may be that a consideration of the interview of Jesus 
 with Zaccheus will convince us that the opposite is 
 true. 
 
 Observe, Zaccheus was a Business Man. 
 
 He held a government appointment as head of the 
 customs department at Jericho. It was one of the 
 two most important tolbooths in the Jewish portion 
 of the Empire ; the other being at Capernaum, where 
 Matthew, probably a friend of Zaccheus, held the cor- 
 responding office. But, unfortunately for Zaccheus, 
 the Jews as a subjugated people looked with the ut- 
 most disfavor on any of their countrymen who ac- 
 
PRACTICAL RELIGION 141 
 
 cepted an appointment under the Roman government; 
 so that his vocation was tinder the ban. There was 
 nothing intrinsically dishonorable in it, however; and 
 Christ, who throughout his ministry had much to say 
 about the publicans, in no wise discredited it. He 
 taught, on the contrary, that any trade or profession 
 is lawful provided it be carried on in a lawful way. 
 In his eyes an honest trade was quite as honorable 
 as any of the learned professions. The question is 
 whether a man is making the most of his opportunity. 
 No doubt there are some who " miss their calling." 
 There are cobblers in Congress as there are statesmen 
 cobbling shoes ; but no one really misses his calling 
 who does his best where circumstances have placed 
 him. Any business is right and proper which adds 
 to the exchequer of self and society without violating 
 any of the divine laws. 
 
 " Honor and shame from no condition rise ; 
 Act well your part, there all the honor lies." 
 
 Observe, again, that Zaccheus was a Successful 
 Man. 
 
 It would appear that the wealth which he had 
 amassed was due not only to the salary but much 
 more to the perquisites of his office. The thing that 
 we call " graft " in public service is not peculiar to 
 our time or country. In the Orient the three degrees 
 of comparison in the public service are, " Get on, get 
 honor, get honest." The collector of taxes at the 
 Jericho tolbooth was simply in fashion in placing 
 honesty last of all. But for that fact his riches would 
 have been in no wise against him. 
 
 In Sir Thomas More's picture of Utopia he makes 
 
142 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 wealth contemptible ; but this is not so in common 
 life nor to the minds of right-thinking men. There 
 are three things which gold will do: First, it qualifies 
 a man to make the most of himself in securing the 
 conveniences as well as the necessities of life. Second, 
 it gives him an opportunity of alleviating the dis- 
 tresses of his less fortunate friends and neighbors ; 
 as witness the schools, hospitals and other benevolent 
 institutions which have been made possible through 
 the benevolence of rich men. And, third, it enables 
 its possessor to man and equip the great enterprises 
 of the kingdom of God ; it builds churches, prints 
 Bibles and sends missionaries to preach the gospel in 
 the regions beyond. There is reason therefore for 
 saying that gold will do almost everything. Almost ! 
 The one thing, however, which it cannot do is su- 
 premely important ; it cannot purchase the inheritance 
 of life. A man knocks at heaven's gate, saying, 
 " Lord, Lord, open unto me." The voice of the 
 warder from within answers, "Who art thou?" "I 
 am Rothschild." "Who?" "Rothschild; the Baron 
 Rothschild." " And who is the Baron Rothschild, 
 pray?" "The Banker of Frankfort, who negotiated 
 the government loan of Denmark and has replenished 
 the exchequer of the nations in critical times." " Have 
 you nothing more to say for yourself?" "Is not 
 that enough ? " " Nay, if that be all, I never knew 
 you!" 
 
 Observe, furthermore, that Zaccheus had " a soul 
 above buttons." 
 
 He thought of other things than business. There 
 are men who live in their shops and offices like the 
 
PRACTICAL RELIGION 143 
 
 fabled prisoner in his contracting cell, the walls clos- 
 ing in upon them, more and more, until they are 
 crushed to death. But this tax collector was larger 
 than his tolbooth. He had an interest in things going 
 on about him. He heard that Jesus was coming to 
 the city and resolved to see him. In order to secure 
 a coign of vantage, as he was small of stature, he 
 climbed up into the boughs of a sycamore tree. No 
 doubt the people smiled, possibly derided him ; but 
 dignity to the winds ! He must see Jesus. What 
 was his motive? Mere curiosity? So far, so good. 
 No less an authority than Lord Bacon has said, " If 
 you never ask questions, you will never find out." 
 But, perhaps, his motive lay deeper. He may have 
 felt a real interest in Christ. It is not at all improb- 
 able that a letter had come from his friend Matthew, 
 the tax collector at Capernaum, on this wise: 
 
 Friend Beloved: 
 
 A marvellous thing has happened to me since I last wrote you. 
 Jesus of Nazareth has entered into my life and transformed 
 it. He is a great Preacher, a doer of wonderful works; I 
 believe him to be the long-looked-for Messiah, the very 
 Son of God. He has saved me from my sins. I have con- 
 secrated my life to him. A few days ago he left Capernaum 
 and is now journeying along the caravan route through 
 Caesarea-Philippi, to Jerusalem. On the way he must pass 
 through Jericho. I beseech you by no means fail to see and 
 hear him. My hope is that he may do for you what he has 
 so graciously done for me. 
 
 So the ground of his eagerness to see Jesus may have 
 been a deep concern for the salvation of his soul. 
 For, indeed, at the centre of the heart of every living 
 man is this longing to be relieved of sin and of the 
 
1U CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 " certain looking-for of judgment " which follows it. 
 And it behooves every earnest man to exhaust the 
 last atom of his energy in solving this problem ; nor 
 must he rest until, like Zaccheus, he has put to the 
 vital test the rumor that Jesus " has power on earth 
 to forgive sin." 
 
 Observe, still further, that the soul of Zaccheus was 
 open to conviction. 
 
 This is shown by his readiness to meet Christ half- 
 way. " As they came to the place, Jesus looked up 
 and saw him, and said, Zaccheus, make haste and 
 come down; for to-day I must abide at thy house. 
 And he made haste, and came down, and received 
 him joyfully." It was not strange that, as they walked 
 along the street, the people murmured that Jesus had 
 consented to be the guest of a publican. Jericho was 
 a city of priests, any one of whom would doubtless 
 have felt honored to entertain him, but he had chosen 
 to press himself upon the hospitality of a sinful man. 
 
 We are told briefly of what happened as they sat 
 at dinner in the house of Zaccheus. The table-talk 
 of Jesus was always interesting and profitable. He 
 dwelt upon the fact that he had come " to seek and 
 to save the lost " ; and in doing so he doubtless 
 urged his host to believe in himself as the Redeemer 
 of men. Then followed the impressive Parable of 
 the Pounds, in which he set forth the right use of 
 energy and possession, as a solemn trust from God. 
 
 And, observe, finally, that Zaccheus was an Oppor- 
 tunist, in the best possible sense. 
 
 He then and there became a Christian. How do 
 
PRACTICAL RELIGION 145 
 
 we know this? By the testimony of Christ, who said, 
 " This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch 
 as he also is a son of Abraham." No man is a true 
 son of Abraham who does not believe in Christ; for 
 Jesus himself said, " Abraham rejoiced to see my day, 
 and he saw it and was glad." To be a Christian is to 
 belong to the true Israel of God. But the Christianity 
 of Zaccheus does not rest solely on the testimony of 
 Christ. It is said, " By their fruits ye shall know 
 them " ; and the test was rigidly and successfully 
 applied in this case. It is written, " And Zaccheus 
 stood, and said." Those are noble words. They 
 mean that he had the courage of his convictions. He 
 did not reserve his confession until a more convenient 
 time, but at once came out into the open. In the 
 presence of his guests he made his confession of 
 faith. It is brief, but contains three important items: 
 
 To begin with, he says, " The half of my goods I 
 give to the poor." He had lived thus far for himself ; 
 he now proposes to do for others. The first step 
 toward Christ is out of self; and Zaccheus takes it. 
 
 Then he says, " If I have taken anything from any 
 man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold." 
 Here is no proposition to compromise with his credi- 
 tors at twenty-five per cent., but a magnificent re- 
 quital. Doubtless those of his friends and acquaint- 
 ances who were present said, " This appears to be 
 the genuine sort of religion. If Zaccheus means that, 
 he is a changed man." 
 
 And the third thing which he says is by implication, 
 but none the less positive on that account: He inti- 
 mates that having enriched himself by fraud he will 
 defraud no more. He proposes to live henceforth as 
 
146 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 becomes a true follower of Christ. He will make his 
 light shine among men. 
 
 We hear no more of Zaccheus, but are left to sup- 
 pose that he went back to the tolbooth and continued 
 to collect the taxes there. If so, we may be assured of 
 this : he was sensible of the presence of Christ in 
 the affairs of his business life. He knew as he col- 
 lected the taxes from those who crossed the border 
 that his Lord was beside him, saying, " Render unto 
 Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the 
 things that are God's." 
 
 The practical application is brief and manifest; go 
 thou and do likewise. Christ asks to be received as 
 a welcome guest. He comes to us as really as he came 
 to Zaccheus in Jericho that day, saying, " Behold I 
 stand at the door and knock ; if any man will open 
 unto me, I will come in and sup with him and he with 
 me." Shall we admit him? This is practical religion. 
 Shall we let him into our hearts and into our homes, 
 into our shops and offices? If so, be assured his 
 presence and benediction will enrich and gladden all. 
 
XIV 
 
 THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY 
 
 In which he instructs his disciples how to minister to the 
 bodies as well as to the souls of men. 
 
 The Disciples to Jesus: " The place is desert, and the 
 time is already past; send the multitudes away, that they 
 may go into the villages, and buy themselves food." 
 
 Jesus: " They have no need to go away; give ye them 
 to eat" 
 
 The Disciples: " We have here but five loaves, and 
 two tishes." 
 
 Jesus: "Bring them hither to me." 
 
 And he commanded the multitudes to sit down on the 
 grass; and he took the five loaves, and the two tishes, and 
 looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake and gave the 
 loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes. 
 — Matt, xiv, 15-20. 
 
 We are living in a time of almost unexampled 
 prosperity. Were there ever such harvests? Trade, 
 commerce and manufactures are at flood tide. But 
 there is never a lack of poverty. Good times or bad 
 times, the poor we have always with us. 
 
 Behold the threadbare army as it files past. God's 
 poor and the devil's poor, the deserving and the 
 ne'er-do-weels. In the van come the tramps ; sturdy 
 beggars who refuse to work because " the world owes 
 them a living." That is the sum total of their philoso- 
 phy. In fact, however, the world owes no man a 
 living; so far as there is any debt, it is all the other 
 way. My brain and sturdy limbs owe me a living; 
 
 147 
 
148 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 God help me to exact it! What have we for these 
 tramps? Nothing; not a farthing. The rule of the 
 Scriptures is the right one, " If a man will not work, 
 neither let him eat." 
 
 Still they come. Here are the professionals. Pov- 
 erty is their business ; rags and tatters are their stock 
 in trade. They fatten on the sentiment of thought- 
 less givers. Not long ago an old man died in the 
 Borough of The Bronx who had spent his entire life 
 as a street beggar, and money was found in his mat- 
 tress, under the floor, behind the plaster of the walls, 
 in every nook and cranny of his abject home. He 
 had grown rich on the gullibility of the public. What 
 have we for such professionals? Nothing. To feed 
 them is to encourage them in their evil ways. 
 
 And still they come. Thousands on thousands 
 with red eyes and sodden flesh go reeling, hiccough- 
 ing, staggering past. These are victims of drink. 
 They may be starving, but they drink right on. In 
 the year of the Irish famine, when we were sending 
 shiploads of wheat and potatoes to save the people of 
 the Emerald Isle from starvation, they consumed 
 four million bushels of grain in malt liquors ! Aye, 
 gaunt and famishing though such men be, they would 
 rather drink than eat. What shall we give them? 
 Nothing. It surely is no kindness to place money in 
 their hands. This is but to help them on toward that 
 darkness from which returns a voice, " No drunkard 
 shall inherit the kingdom of God ! " 
 
 And still they come. Here are the deserving poor; 
 creatures of circumstance, beaten down by " disaster, 
 following fast and following faster." Among them 
 are many wives and mothers, blue-lipped and hollow- 
 
THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY 149 
 
 cheeked, with little children, wan and sorrowful, 
 clinging to their skirts. They are as innocent of 
 blame as the sparrows chirping in our streets. Vic- 
 tims of heredity, victims of misfortune, victims of 
 disease; doing their best — and doing it vainly — to 
 keep the wolf from the door. They are wards of 
 society and must be provided for. The injunction of 
 the Master is, " Give ye them to eat." 
 
 I. Let it be observed that this ministry of Charity 
 is a part of the business of the Christian Church. 
 
 There are sentimentalists who affirm that the sum 
 total of Christianity is charity. That, however, is not 
 so. Its purpose is summed up in a single word, 
 Salvation. But let there be no mistake ; by salvation 
 is meant not merely deliverance from spiritual death, 
 but the uplifting of the whole man. Is the soul im- 
 mortal? So is the body; since it furnishes the germ 
 of the spiritual tabernacle in which we are destined 
 to dwell through the eternal ages. The mission of 
 Christ was to save body and soul, the whole man. 
 We are bound to say, therefore, that kindness is an 
 essential factor of practical Christianity ; a kindness 
 that covers the entire circumference of human life. 
 The best definition that has ever been given of re- 
 ligion is that of the Apostle James, to wit, " Pure 
 religion and undefiled before God the Father, is this, 
 To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, 
 and to keep himself unspotted from the world." More 
 briefly, it is to be good and to do good as we have 
 opportunity unto all men. More briefly still, it is 
 character plus beneficence ; a beneficence which has 
 to do as well with the brief handbreadth of our pres- 
 ent life as with that which lies further on. 
 
150 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 II. The church has been attending to this business 
 more or less faithfully ever since the beginning of 
 the Christian Era. 
 
 To hear the criticisms of a certain class of censori- 
 ous people, one would suppose that the church had 
 been doing nothing but praying and singing hymns, 
 dreaming of heaven and sending flannel garments to 
 Borria Boola Gha. A brief excursus into history will 
 correct that impression. 
 
 At the time of the advent of Christ the world, so 
 far as known, consisted of a narrow fringe of nations 
 around the Mediterranean Sea, all of which had been 
 subjected to the domination of Rome. The world 
 outside was still in the darkness of barbarism. As 
 to the condition of those who were embraced in the 
 Roman Empire it is summed up in a sentence of 
 Uhlhorn's : " It was a world without love." 
 
 In the Empire there were three classes of people : 
 First, the Patricians. Of these there were about ten 
 thousand in the Imperial City and they constituted the 
 ruling order. They lived in luxury, dwelt in palaces, 
 arrayed themselves in purple and fine linen and fared 
 sumptuously every day. Second, the Plebeians. There 
 were three hundred and twenty thousand of these in 
 Rome. They were too proud to work, holding that 
 to be the business of slaves. How did they live? On 
 the bounty of the Patricians. At the beginning of 
 every month they received tickets called tessarce, which 
 entitled them to draw five bushels of wheat per 
 capita, besides giving them admission to the public 
 games. Third, Slaves; who constituted the bulk of 
 the population. For the most part they were captives 
 of war. Of these there were above a million in the 
 
THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY 151 
 
 city. All labor was performed by them ; they built 
 the walls, roads, palaces, aqueducts and other public 
 works. They lived in ergastula, which were abject 
 tenements divided into stalls. They were treated with 
 less consideration than beasts of burden. 
 
 Into that " world without love " came Jesus. His 
 purpose was to reform it. His enemies said, " He 
 turneth the world upside down." This indeed he 
 meant to do, since only so could it be turned right 
 side up. At the outset of his ministry, in his sermon 
 at Nazareth, he announced his mission on this wise : 
 " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath 
 anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath 
 sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliver- 
 ance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, 
 and to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach 
 the acceptable year of the Lord." He went every- 
 where ministering to all sorts and conditions of men. 
 He gathered about him a company of fishermen and 
 other humble folk, who were destined to be the 
 nucleus of the church, and sent them out to preach 
 and minister in the same way. He came at length 
 to Calvary, where he was crucified, on a hilltop, by 
 the wayside, with his hands stretched out. 
 
 It is thus evident that his purpose was to uplift the 
 masses, to bring about such a betterment of temporal 
 and spiritual conditions as would ultimately establish 
 his kingdom of truth and righteousness on earth. 
 This was not to be accomplished in a day, or a year, 
 or a century; but forces were set in operation which 
 were destined finally to right all wrongs, equalize all 
 classes and bring in the Golden Age. 
 
 As we look back over the centuries which have 
 
152 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 passed, we may easily see what the Gospel has been 
 doing - to this end. The leaven has been gradually but 
 surely leavening the lump. Let us inquire more spe- 
 cifically what Jesus has been doing through his church 
 during these eighteen hundred years. 
 
 (i) He has taught and emphasized the equality of 
 man. 
 
 This was practically a new doctrine when he an- 
 nounced it. He was himself a man of the people. 
 One of his distinctive titles was The Son of Man. 
 His ministry was among the multitudes. In the 
 organization of his church " not many mighty, not 
 many noble were called." The genius of his ministry 
 was formulated by the Apostle Paul in a manifesto 
 which was destined to be the source of all the historic 
 symbols of civil and ecclesiastical freedom ; namely, 
 " God hath created of one blood all nations of men." 
 And whatever may be said against the Church — which 
 is by no means perfect — this must be conceded, that 
 it is the one place where the rich and poor meet to- 
 gether, acknowledging that the Lord is the Maker 
 of them all. In the philosophy of Jesus there is no 
 caste. Jew and Greek, barbarian, Scythian, bond and 
 free, are all one in him ; because there is " one Lord, 
 one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all." 
 
 (2) He has taught and enforced the dignity of 
 labor. 
 
 A divine wisdom is manifest in the fact that Jesus, 
 coming from heaven under a commission to exalt the 
 multitude, took part with them in the fellowship of 
 toil. He was himself a carpenter. He knew what 
 it was to grow weary in a workshop ; and all honest 
 workmen are dignified by this association with him. 
 
THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY 153 
 
 Indolence is dishonorable. The plebeians of Rome 
 would not work because they were free men. Christ 
 was a free man, but he was no plebeian. The founda- 
 tion of the Third Estate was laid in the shop of Naz- 
 areth where he made plows for the neighboring farm- 
 ers and mended the furniture of the village people. 
 He taught by both precept and example that an honest 
 man must be a producer, contributing by sweat of 
 brain and brawn to the public good. 
 
 (3) He introduced the wage system. 
 
 This is not to say that wages were not previously 
 paid for labor in individual or sporadic cases ; but 
 there was no such thing as a wage system until he 
 formulated it. This he did when he laid down the 
 proposition, " The laborer is worthy of his hire." Up 
 to that time work was under compulsion of the lash, 
 and whatever the toiler received was not in the nature 
 of desert, but gratuity. The custom of giving " tips " 
 for service in our time is a return to pre-Christian 
 barbarism. The self-respect of an honest laborer 
 should lead him to accept only that which he earns. 
 He takes his pay because he is entitled to it. 
 
 (4) The Gospel has brought about, by its operation 
 through the centuries, a more equable distribution 
 of wealth. 
 
 It is sometimes said by thoughtless people " The 
 rich are growing richer and the poor are growing 
 poorer." This is distinctly not true. The rich are 
 growing richer, but the poor are growing richer too. 
 This will appear from a momentary survey of facts. 
 The Borough of Manhattan has a population of about 
 two millions, which is almost precisely that of the 
 ancient city of Rome. In Rome the wealth was ex- 
 
154 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 clnsively in the hands of a favored few, certainly less 
 than ten thousand patricians ; the remainder — nineteen 
 hundred and ninety thousand, in round numbers — con- 
 sisted of penniless plebeians and slaves without a 
 denarius to their name. These were the proletariat. 
 Who will undertake to say that conditions are no 
 better in the city of New York? Things are not ideal 
 by any means, but by contrast they are as noon to mid- 
 night. We sometimes speak of " the submerged 
 tenth " ; in Rome it was the submerged one-hundred- 
 and-ninety-nine two-hundredths ! It is so far from 
 being true that all money is in the hands of ten thou- 
 sand of our population that one may venture to say 
 that there are not ten thousand without it. He is a 
 rare man, nowadays, who does not know the crisp 
 rustle of paper money or the clink of coin. It is true 
 we have many millionaires, not a few of whom, how- 
 ever, have come up from the ranks ; it is equally true 
 that the great majority of the people belong to the 
 self-supporting class, who, so far from soliciting 
 charity, ask no odds of any man. 
 
 (5) The Church of Christ has ameliorated the 
 condition of the masses by providing institutions for 
 the relief of the poor and suffering. 
 
 The world is no longer " a world without love." 
 The genius of the gospel has come down through the 
 centuries like Milton's angel of the morning; and 
 along its pathway have sprung up asylums, hospitals, 
 protectories, reformatories, beneficences of every 
 sort. If those who are disposed to find fault with the 
 Church in this particular will take the trouble to look 
 over the Directory of the Associated Charities of New 
 York, they will discover that the work done by purely 
 
THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY 155 
 
 secular agencies is wholly inconsiderable when com- 
 pared with that of the various religious organizations. 
 It is no exaggeration to say, in the light of statistics, 
 that there is more of practical charity in the little 
 finger of the Church than in the loins of the godless 
 world. No longer must Lazarus sit at the gate of 
 Dives waiting for crumbs. No longer need the lame 
 and withered and halt lie in the porches of Bethesda 
 waiting for the moving of the waters. Thanks to 
 the compassionate Christ, the poor and suffering of 
 Christendom are cared for. Thus through his church 
 our Lord has been bettering the condition of the 
 masses. The cry of Socialism is, " Down with the 
 rich ! Down with the aristocracy ! " Not so does 
 Christ meet the problem. The philosophy of his gos- 
 pel is one that proposes to regenerate society not by 
 impoverishing the Avenues, but by improving the 
 slums. It aims to reform not by leveling down, but 
 by leveling up. 
 
 III. But the business of the church is not finished 
 yet. 
 
 We have the remnant of the poor still with us ; and 
 the question is, What are we to do for those who are 
 unable to provide for themselves? There is a right 
 way and there is a wrong way of helping them. 
 " Blessed is he that considereth the poor." The word 
 " consider " suggests the need of careful thought. 
 The usual way of giving is by impulse ; sentimentally, 
 indiscriminately and often ostentatiously. It is to feed 
 the hungry as if bodily hunger were all. It is to 
 clothe the naked as if the soul needed no " fine linen 
 clean and white." It is to care for the physical with 
 little or no regard for the immortal man. 
 
156 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 The better way is to give in the spirit of Christ. 
 He fed the five thousand and, at the same time, de- 
 clared unto them the unsearchable riches of his grace. 
 He ministered to the whole man. He was not deaf to 
 the appeal for bread, but was mindful that, after all, 
 the matter of supreme importance was the welfare of 
 the soul. We are not infrequently criticised for giv- 
 ing " a loaf wrapped up in a tract." It is said that 
 we forget the importance of things here and now in 
 our passion for " other-worldliness." It was in this 
 spirit that the man of Cherioth found fault with the 
 woman who anointed the feet of Jesus, saying, 
 " What a waste of ointment ! It might have been sold 
 for three hundred pence and given to the poor." The 
 religious factor is thus ruled out of beneficence. 
 Everything for the body, nothing for the soul. Every- 
 thing for time, nothing for eternity ! The other way 
 is the better, if it be true that the mendicant is a 
 man made in God's likeness and destined to live for- 
 ever. In a little while the body will return to dust ; 
 but the soul will live through endless seons. It is 
 relatively of slight importance whether the body, 
 when it is presently carried into the graveyard, is 
 sleek and comely and wrapped in a satin winding- 
 sheet, or, worn and shrunken, in a cotton shroud ; 
 since the real man will have passed beyond the reach 
 of all mere problems of food and raiment. The ques- 
 tion of highest importance then will be, Was he rich 
 toward God? It is a poor makeshift for charity that 
 puts a roof over a beggar's head and sends him out 
 homeless into eternity. Such one-sided charity does 
 not pay deference to the true dignity of man. 
 
 We are bound to follow Jesus in our endeavor to 
 
THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY 157 
 
 solve this problem. It is sound logic to convert the 
 soul while we relieve the necessities of the body, since 
 in so doing we set a man upon his feet and enable 
 him to care for himself. Sin is the bitter root of pov- 
 erty. To bring a man to Christ is to take him out of 
 the ranks of the beggars; inasmuch as there is no 
 Christianity without self-respect, and self-respect in- 
 volves the duty of earning an honest livelihood. So 
 then to say, " Come to Jesus," as we give the crust, 
 is to lend ourselves both to the regeneration of the 
 individual and the reformation of society. 
 
 This is, moreover, to help the needy not for a brief 
 moment, but forever. Such was the spirit of Christ; 
 the Christ who cared for body and soul alike ; who had 
 compassion on the multitude crying for perishable 
 bread but needing more the bread " of which if a man 
 eat he shall never hunger " ; who stood at the crossing 
 of the ways, offering his precious wares to the passer- 
 by : " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
 waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy, and 
 eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and 
 without price! Wherefore do ye spend your money 
 for that which is not bread, and your labor for that 
 which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, 
 and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul de- 
 light itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come 
 unto me ; hear, and your soul shall live ! " 
 
XV 
 
 A FRIEND IN NEED 
 
 In which he finds a lonely man in a sorrowful predicament 
 and lends a helping hand. 
 
 Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, 
 which is called in Hebrew Bethcsda, having five porches. 
 In these lay a multitude of them that were sick, blind, 
 halt, withered. And a certain man was there, who had 
 been thirty and eight years in his infirmity. 
 
 Jesus to the Paralytic: " Wouldcst thou be made 
 whole?" 
 
 The Paralytic: "Sir, I have no man, when the water is 
 troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, 
 another steppeth down before me." 
 
 Jesus: "Arise, take up thy bed, and walk." 
 
 And straightway the man was made whole, and took 
 up his bed and zvalkcd. — John v, 2-9. 
 
 The limit of castigation under the Roman law was 
 " forty stripes save one." The man at Bethesda 
 should therefore have been near the end of his tether, 
 since he had suffered under a whip of scorpions for 
 thirty-eight years; so long that the heart had almost 
 gone out of him. He had company enough, such as 
 it was ; since the porches were full of " lame, halt and 
 withered " ; but there was not one among them who 
 was not looking out for himself. At times, when the 
 surface of the intermittent spring began to be agi- 
 tated, the cry was raised, " The waters move ! " and 
 while all were struggling toward the pool, this help- 
 
 158 
 
A FRIEND IN NEED 159 
 
 less cripple strove desperately, but in vain. He was 
 jostled aside. Too late ! His oft-repeated disappoint- 
 ments had dulled and hardened him. The voice of 
 Jesus, walking- through the porches, was calculated 
 to stimulate his sensibilities. " Wouldest thou be 
 made whole ? " Would he ! The answer was in a 
 tone of utter helplessness, the lament of one aban- 
 doned to his fate : " Sir, I have no man, when the 
 waters are moved, to help me in ! " 
 
 It is the law of life : the survival of the fittest. In 
 the scramble for fame and fortune the best must 
 win. There are voices on every side, applause and 
 laughter; but alas, many are alone in the crowd. 
 There is no wilderness like a thronged city. It is 
 the home of the solitary. In and out, threading their 
 way among the multitude, go men and women bear- 
 ing their burdens without a word of sympathy, with- 
 out a hand stretched forth to relieve them. The 
 waters ever moving, and not a friend to put them in. 
 
 Alone, alone ! All, all alone ! 
 
 Alone on a wide, wide sea; 
 So lonely 'twas that God himself 
 
 Scarce seemed there to be. 
 
 It is to the man alone in the crowd that Jesus 
 comes, as he came to Bethesda, with his proffer of 
 friendship. His heart is moved with infinite compas- 
 sion; since he himself was ever a lonely man. He 
 carried with him from his boyhood a great secret 
 which separated him from all about him. He had the 
 kindest heart that ever beat in a human breast, yet 
 his nearest friends and neighbors hid as it were their 
 
160 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 faces from him. He carried his burden alone. As 
 he passed under the shadow of the olive trees in Geth- 
 semane he left three companions to watch while he 
 went on into the deeper darkness to drink the bitter 
 cup of death ; and presently, finding them asleep, he 
 said with infinite tenderness of reproach, " Could ye 
 not watch with me one hour?" He trod the wine- 
 press alone and of the people there was none with 
 him. On the cross he went down, deeper still, into 
 the night of solitude until the awful cry was wrung 
 from him, Eloi, Eloi lama sabacthani! 
 
 So lonely 'twas that God himself 
 Scarce seemed there to be. 
 
 Yes, he can be " touched with a feeling of our in- 
 firmities." He knows what it is to be alone in the 
 crowd ; and it means much when he offers to befriend 
 us. 
 
 I. The hour when a man clasps hands with Jesus, 
 in token of friendship, is the crucial hour of life ; for 
 this compact is nothing less than Conversion. 
 
 It is a revolution in the soul. It is a turning " right 
 about face." The hand which a man clasps in that 
 tremendous hour is a strong hand ; the same that 
 framed the world and spun it out upon its orbit in 
 infinite space. It is a loving hand, warm with all the 
 sympathy of divine grace. It is a pierced hand ; no 
 one can feel its touch for an instant without appre- 
 hending the fact that he was " wounded for our trans- 
 gressions and bruised for our iniquities, that by his 
 stripes we might be healed." To grasp that hand is 
 to part company with the " certain fearful-looking-for 
 
A FRIEND IN NEED 161 
 
 of judgment " and enter into an assurance that sin is 
 blotted out. 
 
 II. But the friendship of Jesus means more than 
 salvation from the penalty of sin ; it means that he 
 stands ready now to assist us in the formulation of 
 our Creed. 
 
 No sooner is a man converted to Christ than he 
 perforce begins to inquire " What shall I believe con- 
 cerning the great verities that centre in him ? " And 
 thenceforth the word of the Master is his Court of 
 Last Appeal. This is not the way of the world. The 
 average man gets his creed by heredity or environ- 
 ment; he borrows it from those around him. Here 
 is the way Shakespeare puts it: 
 
 Hamlet: Do you see that cloud that's in shape almost like 
 a camel? 
 
 Polonius : By the mass, 'tis a camel indeed. 
 Hamlet: Methinks 'tis a weasel. 
 Polonius : 'Tis backed like a weasel. 
 Hamlet: Or like a whale. 
 Polonius: Very like a whale. 
 
 So a man is likely to get from the next man his opin- 
 ions as to the problems of life. But he who has 
 clasped hands with Jesus is bound to believe what he 
 says. 
 
 The Christian is a " disciple " of Christ ; that is, a 
 pupil sitting at his feet. If he inquire, " What shall I 
 believe about God?" the answer is, "When ye pray, 
 say Our Father " ; and, so far as the Christian is con- 
 cerned, that ends it. If he ask, " What shall I be- 
 lieve about the Bible?" the answer is, "Search the 
 Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life 
 
162 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 and these are they which testify of me " ; and if he is 
 a true Christian, though he dwell in a very cyclone 
 of controversy as to the authority of Holy Writ, he 
 takes his Master's word for it. So, also, as to the 
 problems of immortality and heaven and hell. He 
 has made a covenant of friendship with One whose 
 wisdom and authority are final for him. " To whom 
 shall we go, O Lord, but unto thee? Thou only hast 
 the words of eternal life." 
 
 III. The friendship of Jesus means, also, that he 
 marks out the Conduct of our Life. 
 
 We are bound not to be taken up in the lips of talk- 
 ers, and not to go with the multitude to do evil. The 
 way of the world, in questions of right and wrong, is 
 to follow the fashion. A few days ago at Sunshine 
 Mission the members of the Boys' Club, taking um- 
 brage at some ruling of their teacher, raised the cry, 
 " One out ; all out ! " and away they went. The 
 masons and bricklayers are just now doing the same 
 thing in a larger way. " Follow the leader." We go 
 like sheep after the bell-wether: 
 
 Crooked or straight, through quags and thorny dells 
 True to the jingling of the leader's bells. 
 
 But the man who has accepted Christ is bound to 
 consult him in all questions of conscience and to ac- 
 cept his decision as final and conclusive. He must 
 stand like the three youths in Babylon, unmoved by 
 the sound of cornet and flute and sackbut and psal- 
 tery, while, amid the adulations of the multitude, the 
 great image goes by. The command is, " Bow low ! " 
 He answers, " Be it known unto thee, O king, that 
 
A FRIEND IN NEED 163 
 
 I will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden 
 image which thou hast set up." He may be thrown 
 into the fiery furnace for his devotion to his Master's 
 will ; but in that furnace he has the company of One 
 like unto the Son of God, and out of it he emerges 
 without the smell of fire upon him. If much is sacri- 
 ficed by turning aside, in this manner, from the 
 world's dictum to follow our Lord alone, there is 
 great compensation in knowing that he will stand 
 by us. 
 
 IV. To clasp hands with Jesus in a compact of 
 friendship means, still further, that we enter upon 
 his Service and take the place which he assigns us. 
 
 It is a mistake to suppose that being a Christian is 
 merely receiving Christ as our Saviour from sin ; it 
 is living a new sort of life ; it is yielding ourselves, 
 body and soul, to the service of Christ's kingdom ; it 
 is to call him Lord and Master. We are thenceforth 
 not our own, but his, " bought with a price, the pre- 
 cious blood of Jesus as of a lamb without blemish 
 and without spot." The love of Christ now constrains 
 us. He has work for us to do. " Say not it is yet 
 four months and then cometh the harvest; lift up 
 your eyes and see! The fields are already white unto 
 the harvest ! " We can no longer stand idle in the 
 market place as those who take no interest in the 
 salvation of the world. He puts the sickle in our 
 hands and says, " Go, reap for me ! " Nay, better 
 than that ; he says, " Come, reap with me." I am a 
 " laborer together with him." I do not toil alone ; 
 he toils with me. Oh, the infinite strength there is 
 in realizing it. 
 
164 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 One more day's work for Jesus; 
 One less of life for me! 
 
 But heaven is nearer, 
 
 And Christ is dearer, 
 Than yesterday to me; 
 
 His love' and light 
 
 Fill all my soul to-night 
 
 O blessed work for Jesus! 
 O rest at Jesus' feet! 
 
 There toil seems pleasure. 
 My wants are treasure. 
 And pain for him is sweet, 
 Lord, if I may, 
 I'll serve another day. 
 
 V. It means, moreover, that Christ as our loyal 
 Friend will share our Sorrows. 
 
 The deepest loneliness that ever comes to a mortal 
 man is in the Vale of Baca. It was there that the 
 Psalmist wrote, " I watch and am alone, like a spar- 
 row on the housetop." He was not thinking of the 
 gregarious, loquacious sparrow with which we are so 
 familiar, that holds noisy parliament in our streets, 
 and chirps his optimism to every passerby ; but of the 
 lone and solitary blue-breast of the Orient that is never 
 seen in company but pipes a monotonous and melan- 
 choly note moving the hearer to tears, as if some recent 
 sorrow were pressing a thorn to the singer's breast. 
 Ah, how many a man is thus alone ! But never the 
 friend of Jesus : he cannot be alone in adversity. His 
 yoke is always a yoke for two; and the strong Friend 
 is beside him. The sympathy of that Friend is infi- 
 nitely strong and helpful. 
 
 We can only say to one another at best, " I am sorry 
 for you." And our words are oftentimes as vinegar 
 
A FRIEND IN NEED 165 
 
 on nitre. But his is the sympathy of omnipotence and 
 his words give " beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for 
 mourning ! " He stands beside us at the open grave, as 
 he did at Bethany, pointing us away from its darkness 
 to the light of the open heavens, saying, " He that liv- 
 eth and believeth in me shall never die." 
 
 VI. And the friendship of Jesus means that we 
 shall not be left alone in the swellings of the Jordan. 
 
 We make the last voyage alone, our weeping kins- 
 folk standing on the shore and giving us farewell. Oh, 
 if they could but go a little further with us ! We go 
 alone, did I say ? Nay ; " thy rod and thy staff, they 
 comfort me." I have stood by deathbeds again and 
 again when Christians were passing out of human 
 sight, and never once have I known one to die other- 
 wise than peacefully or triumphantly. In the hour 
 when other friends and kinsfolk are impotent, he girds 
 himself to sustain us. " The best of all," said Wesley 
 in his last hour, " is Immanuel, God with us ! " 
 
 And after death, the judgment; where each for 
 himself must answer before God. One man alone, at 
 the Great Assize ! Is there none to stand beside him ? 
 
 Arise, my soul, arise, 
 
 Shake off thy guilty fears; 
 
 The bleeding Sacrifice 
 
 In my behalf appears; 
 
 Before the throne my Surety stands, 
 
 My name is written on His hands. 
 
 Five bleeding wounds He bears, 
 Received on Calvary ; 
 They pour effectual prayers, 
 They strongly plead for me: — 
 Forgive him, O forgive, they cry, 
 Nor let that ransom'd sinner die. 
 
166 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 And then? The Father's house! Forth from the 
 great tribunal the friend of Jesus passes into the 
 Communion of Saints and general assembly of the 
 first-born. He shall be lonely no more forever. Oh, 
 glorious fellowship ! The Father's house ! Lights, 
 laughter and merry-making ! No more selfishness, 
 no misunderstandings, no alienations, no friendless- 
 ness forever and ever. Home, sweet home ! 
 
 And this friendship of Jesus, so strong, helpful, 
 eternal, is to be had for the taking. His hand is 
 stretched out. He comes to every lonely man, as he 
 came to the cripple at Bethesda, with a kindly proffer 
 of help. Shall we seal the compact? We have can- 
 vassed the high privileges and grave responsibilities 
 which are involved in it. Are we ready to clasp hands 
 with him ? 
 
 In the year 1808 the audience-hall of the Palace of 
 Erfurt was crowded with a throng of kings and 
 princes who had assembled to witness the sealing of an 
 imperial alliance. Up over the throne was the legend, 
 " The friendship of a great man is a gift from the 
 gods." Alexander, the Czar of Russia, advanced to 
 meet Napoleon, saying, " I experience the truth of 
 that sentiment to-day." And Napoleon, who shared 
 with him the honors of the world's arena at that time, 
 answered, " I reciprocate your felicitations and clasp 
 hands with you." The compact was greeted with a 
 burst of applause. Alas, it was mere pantomime, a 
 hollow mockery. A little later the armies of Alex- 
 ander and Napoleon were marching against each other 
 with fire in their eyes. 
 
 It is not thus that we begin our friendship with 
 Christ. This clasping of hands is no empty show. If 
 
A FRIEND IN NEED 167 
 
 we receive him at all, it must be as our friend for 
 better or worse, through evil and good report. We 
 take him to be our Prophet, Priest and King. We 
 promise an unceasing loyalty, in return for his un- 
 speakable gifts. We walk henceforth hand in hand 
 with him through all the experiences of life and on 
 into eternity. Friends once; friends forever. 
 
XVI 
 
 "ROOM FOR THE LEPER!" 
 
 In which he discovers faith in an unexpected quarter and 
 singularly honors it. 
 
 And when he was come down from the mountain, great 
 multitudes follozved him. And behold, there came to him 
 a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, 
 thou canst make me clean. 
 
 Jesus, touching him: "I will; be thou made clean." 
 
 And straightway his leprosy was cleansed. 
 
 Jesus: "See thou tell no man; but go, show thyself 
 to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, 
 for a testimony unto them." — Matt, viii, 1-4 (cf. Mark 
 1-45- ) 
 
 The Sermon on the Mount was Christ's Inaugural on 
 entering upon the formal administration of his King- 
 dom. And it was delivered with a royal grace. The 
 scene was probably at the Horns of Hattin, a double 
 peak on the western shore of Gennesaret. A multi- 
 tude had gathered there from the villages of Galilee 
 and more distant parts ; and all were " amazed at his 
 wonderful words." 
 
 In the distance, far beyond the outskirts of the 
 crowd, stood a man with a mantle over his face. " The 
 finger of God " was upon him ; for so the leprosy was 
 characterized in those days. Time was when a fond 
 mother had held him in her arms and dreamed dreams 
 and seen visions of a bright future before him. But 
 as the years passed, perhaps in early manhood, there 
 
 168 
 
"ROOM FOR THE LEPER!" 169 
 
 came an ominous spot in his flesh. He presented him- 
 self to the priest, according to the prescript of the 
 law, and heard the sentence of doom. He issued from 
 the temple an outcast, life stretching before him as a 
 living death. 
 
 " ' Room for the leper ! Room ! ' And as he came 
 The cry passed on, ' Room for the leper, 
 Room for the leper ! ' And aside they stood, 
 Matron and child, and pitiless manhood, all 
 Who met him on his way, and let him pass. 
 And onward through the open gate he came, 
 A leper with the ashes on his brow. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 So he went forth alone ! Not one of all 
 The many whom he loved, nor she' whose name 
 Was woven in the fibres of the heart 
 Breaking within him now, to come and speak 
 Comfort unto him." 
 
 He thenceforth made his abode among the hills; 
 where he felt the deeper ravages of his disease from 
 day to day. It preyed upon him slowly, surely, until 
 he was " full of leprosy." And he dwelt alone ! Alone ! 
 At night when he looked toward the city and saw 
 lights kindling in happy homes, memories came crowd- 
 ing thick and fast upon him. And crying out against 
 fate, he sought his covert among the rocks. 
 
 He stood afar that day with his mantle drawn and 
 hand upon his lips. At the sound of any approach- 
 ing footfall, he cried with muffled voice and a strange 
 rattle in his throat, " Unclean ! unclean ! " He watched 
 the crowd gathering upon the opposite hill. In an at- 
 titude of eagerness he bent to listen ; from the distance 
 came the voice of the Teacher : " Blessed are the poor 
 
170 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 in spirit; for theirs is tlw kingdom of heaven. Blessed 
 are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted. 
 Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth. 
 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after 
 righteousness; for they shall be filled. Blessed are 
 the pure in heart; for they shall see God." 
 
 Then he saw a commotion among the people. They 
 were bringing- their sick to be healed; the lame and 
 halt and withered. He saw cripples at the touch 
 of Jesus throw away their crutches and the blind lift 
 up their faces to the blue sky! He could hear them 
 in the distance praising God ! 
 
 And with this came the suggestion of a wondrous 
 possibility : perhaps this great Physician might be able 
 to heal him ! It was a forlorn hope, but it would not 
 pass. It was like a day star of promise rising in the 
 midnight of his soul. 
 
 The assembly was breaking up. The Teacher was 
 going down the mountain path. Now was the leper's 
 opportunity. Now or never ! With the hope of 
 healing struggling in his breast, he began to run. 
 Necessity knows no law. He forgot to draw his 
 mantle over his face ; forgot to keep his finger on his 
 lip ; forgot to cry, " Unclean ! " forgot the statute of 
 limitation that should have restrained him; forgot all 
 but his tumultuous, transcendent, desperate hope. 
 And as he ran, he cried, " Lord ! Lord ! Lord " and 
 every word was like the gasp of a strangling swimmer 
 who clutches at a floating spar. 
 
 See how the people scatter right and left. Room 
 for the leper! He reaches Christ and falls before 
 him crying, " Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me 
 clean." 
 
"ROOM FOR THE LEPER!" 171 
 
 Observe that Confession of Faith. 
 
 His faith shows itself not only in the address, "Lord, 
 Lord ! " but in his attitude ; for he falls first upon his 
 knees and then upon his face. It is manifest also in 
 his saying, " If thou wilt." 
 
 Can faith express itself, then, with an "if"? Is 
 not " if " the very shibboleth of doubt ? Yes ; but 
 there are two kinds of doubt, as there are two twi- 
 lights. One is the doubt of the self-sufficient man 
 who loves and fondles his unbelief ; and it deepens 
 more and more into the gloom of hopeless night. But 
 the other is as the twilight of the morning, which grows 
 brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. This is 
 the doubt of the " honest doubter " who would fain 
 be rid of it. This is the " if " that does not turn its 
 back upon the Truth, but runs and kneels and throws 
 itself upon its face before Him. Let the man who 
 thinks himself an honest doubter lay this touchstone 
 to his sincerity, and prove himself by saying — 
 
 "Just as I am, though tossed about 
 With many a conflict, many a doubt, 
 By fears within and foes without, 
 O Lamb of God, I come ! " 
 
 Observe, also, how the faith of this leper came into 
 immediate, vital contact with the sympathy of Christ. 
 " And Jesus, moved with compassion, said, ' I will.' 
 Let it be noted that, however Jesus may have delayed 
 the cure of other patients, on occasion, he never hesi- 
 tated once, for a moment, to answer a leper's cry. 
 
 And as he spake to this man, he " put forth his 
 hand and touched him." The people from a distance 
 saw this and were amazed: Had he forgotten what 
 
172 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 was written in the law, that one who toucheth a leper 
 is unclean? Had he not just said, " I am come not to 
 destroy the law, but to fulfill it "? Yes; but here is a 
 new and higher law introduced by the Lawgiver him- 
 self ; as it is written, " Love is the fulfilling of the 
 law." 
 
 Here is the Law of Love at its highest and best; 
 that is, in the form of sympathy. " And, ltaving 
 compassion, he stretched forth his hand and touched 
 him." O blessed hand ! The earthly life of Jesus 
 was a continuous reaching forth of the divine hand. 
 The incarnation is God touching humanity and com- 
 ing into sympathetic union with it. The workshop, 
 the weary journeys, the hunger and thirst and perse- 
 cution, the holy passion; these are God's suffering 
 with us. And the culmination of that sympathy is at 
 the cross, where God makes bare his arm and touches 
 man so closely as to exchange personalities with him, 
 putting himself into man's place, and taking vicar- 
 iously into his own body the shame and penalty of 
 human sin. In our search for a true " theory of the 
 atonement," may we not pause here? The cross is 
 not violation of law, but fulfilment of it. The cross 
 is the life-giving touch of the Elder Brother laid in 
 compassion upon the children of men. It is written 
 that " Mercy and truth meet together, and Righteous- 
 ness and Peace kiss each other " at Calvary, because 
 the divine Code reaches its consummation in this 
 manifestation of love. 
 
 But how is it that Jesus was not polluted when he 
 touched the leper ? " Can a man touch pitch and not 
 be defiled?" Aye; this Man could. The sun can 
 shine upon a heap of offal with impunity, because it 
 
"ROOM FOR THE LEPER!" 173 
 
 has " healing in its beams." In this we have a flash- 
 light into the nature and character of Christ. Let no 
 man, who cannot heal leprosy, presume to touch a 
 leper! Let no priest in whose veins runs the life 
 current of hereditary and actual sin presume to say, 
 Absolvo te! He only, who by virtue of immaculate 
 personal purity can so emit virtue as to remit sin, 
 may venture to touch the defiled, since the leper is no 
 longer leprous when once he has touched him. The 
 hand is not polluted because the patient is cleansed 
 by it. O wonderful hand ! The only hand in the uni- 
 verse that could do it! And God in Christ is ever 
 drawing near, in this manner, to touch us. There is 
 no aloofness in him. At the approach of the drab or 
 the drunkard the crowd parts asunder and the saints 
 withdraw their garments, saying, " We are holier 
 than thou ! " But he, the Holy One, touches them 
 and speaks the word of power " Be thou cleansed ! " 
 
 This leads us to observe, again, how the faith of this 
 leper evoked an instant demonstration of power. 
 
 The word of Jesus was with authority ; and it was 
 an authority that appealed to no power above or be- 
 yond itself, but drew upon an inward Source. He 
 used no priestly formula, " In the name of God " ; but 
 spoke for himself, " I will ; be thou made clean ! " 
 
 But was there power behind it? Authority is not 
 power; nor is it valid except it be buttressed with it. 
 The people looking on were moved, no doubt, to say 
 within themselves, " It is easy to say Be thou cleansed, 
 but let us see whether the healing power is resident 
 in him." 
 
 And look! The man has leaped to his feet, a leper 
 no more! The ghastly hue of the living death has 
 
174 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 gone ; the scales have fallen from his face ; his flesh 
 has come again as the flesh of a little child. The 
 hand of Christ has healed the touch of " the finger of 
 God." 
 
 What does this mean? How did the people inter- 
 pret it ? Did they say, " By this we are given to un- 
 derstand that Jesus has power to heal all manner of 
 diseases, even this loathsome and ineradicable one " ? 
 If so, they came infinitely short of apprehending its 
 full significance. Here is the fallacy in Christian 
 Science and all the healing charlatanries. They are 
 utterly selfish, and physically selfish at that. They 
 proceed upon the assumption that religion is first and 
 foremost a therapeutic system. As if the chief end of 
 man were to rid himself of gout and rheumatism ! As 
 if the bodily comfort of this handbreath of three- 
 score years were worthy to be measured against the 
 spiritual life of unending aeons ! No, no ; the meaning 
 of the miracles lies further on. 
 
 The real point of them is to show that Jesus is the 
 great Forgiver. He did not come from heaven to 
 work miracles; his miracles were a mere incident 
 along the way. In a world full of sufferers it was a 
 matter of comparatively small moment that he should 
 be able to heal a few sick people in a little Province in 
 a remote corner of it. But if he could thereby demon- 
 strate his power to forgive sin, if he could make that 
 manifest to all the world and through all the gener- 
 ations to come, ah, that would be worth while! Mil- 
 lions of sinners were longing for it ; millions and mil- 
 lions yet unborn were destined to groan and travail 
 for it. And this was the true significance of his works 
 of healing. The opening of blind eyes meant, The 
 
"ROOM FOR THE LEPER!" 175 
 
 Son of Man hath power on earth to restore spiritual 
 sight. The healing of fever patients meant, The Son 
 of Man hath power on earth to quell the wildest pas- 
 sions of the heart. The healing of paralytics meant, 
 The Son of Man hath power on earth to restore 
 enfeebled souls. The cleansing of this leper meant, 
 The Son of Man hath power to wash away the scarlet 
 stain of sin. He is mighty to save ! He is able to 
 save to the uttermost all that will come by faith unto 
 him. 
 
 But now, observe the severe test which was put upon 
 the faith of this convalescent leper. 
 
 Jesus said unto him, " See thou tell no man ; but go, 
 show thyself unto the priest, and offer the gift that 
 Moses commanded for a testimony unto them." A 
 strange injunction surely. What was the purpose 
 of it? 
 
 The man was to say nothing of the work which 
 had been wrought upon him. Was this because Jesus 
 would save him from self-importance, such as 
 we sometimes witness in the testimony of those who 
 exploit their former accomplishments in vice? Or 
 was it that Jesus would avoid a throng of suppliants 
 for healing, such as would interrupt his great work 
 of preaching the things of the kingdom of God? Or 
 was it that he desired to stem the increasing tide of 
 his own popularity and thus prevent such a provoca- 
 tion of the religious leaders as would precipitate the 
 tragedy which he was to accomplish in the behalf of 
 men? In any case the reasons were sufficient to the 
 mind of Jesus himself; and his word should have been 
 ultimate to this man. 
 
 But the test was a severe one. Put yourself in the 
 
176 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 leper's place. He was required to hold his peace and 
 proceed at once to the temple. He must not go home 
 to tell his loved ones. No backward look to the lepers 
 still unhealed and dwelling among the rocks ! No 
 tarrying by the way. Straight to the temple ! 
 
 Now this involved a silence of a fortnight or more. 
 It would take a week or thereabouts for him to reach 
 Jerusalem ; and another week for the official examina- 
 tion at the gate, and then another for the offering of 
 the turtle doves and the oblation of thanks and the 
 priestly anointing, and the final pronouncement, 
 " Thou art clean ! " Not until then would the ban of 
 silence be lifted. " Open thou my lips and my mouth 
 shall show forth thy praise ! " Think what a burden 
 this put upon a heart that was bursting with eagerness 
 to proclaim its joy. 
 
 At this point the leper's case broke down. He 
 could not endure the test ; he " began to publish it 
 much and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that 
 Jesus could no more openly enter the city, but was 
 without in desert places." Let it not be supposed that 
 the intent of Christ's injunction was to prevent him 
 from making an open confession. He merely wished 
 him to go about it in the right way. He was to lose 
 no time in empty talk. There must be no impulsive 
 outcry, but a calm orderly procedure. 
 
 Who shall say what the result would have been had 
 he made his confession as Jesus prescribed it? "Go, 
 show thyself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses 
 commanded for a testimony unto them." See him in 
 the presence of the great congregation, standing at 
 the altar, with the sacrifice blazing beside him. So 
 should he have published his gratitude far and wide. 
 
"ROOM FOR THE LEPER!" 177 
 
 This would have been a suitable confession of Christ: 
 As when a Christian calmly and deliberately stands 
 forth, in the presence of the congregation, to take the 
 vows of the covenant upon him. 
 
 It would have served as a " testimony unto them " ; 
 that is against the rabbis who had cast Jesus out of the 
 temple and driven him from the Holy City. It would 
 have shown them that there was one who could ac- 
 complish what they could not. They might pro- 
 nounce the leper cleansed, but Jesus alone could 
 cleanse him. 
 
 And what a witness this would have been to the 
 claims of Jesus as the very Son of God! What a 
 protest against his rejection. To the Sadducees, who 
 denied the supernatural, it would certify that the Su- 
 pernatural was among them. To the Pharisees, who 
 affirmed the sole efficacy of ceremonial observance, it 
 would certify that there was One outside the temple 
 who could do wondrous things. Let them hide their 
 faces ! " He came unto his own, and his own re- 
 ceived him not." 
 
 The obvious lessons of this Miracle are three: 
 
 First; there is no salvation without a previous con- 
 viction of sin. 
 
 The living type of sin is leprosy, insidious, con- 
 tagious, malignant, uneradicable. Oh, that the sinner 
 might see his sin with God's eyes! Then would he 
 indeed abhor himself, and, like this leper, break 
 through all barriers to reach Him who alone has power 
 to heal it. 
 
 The second lesson is the sole Saviourship of Christ. 
 
 There is no deliverance save by coming into vital 
 touch with him. The sinner must put away all othef 
 
178 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 hopes, all confidence in other philosophies of salva- 
 tion, all trust in self-righteousness. If the scale of 
 leprosy be in the hand, will it help it to cut that off? 
 If it be eating out the eyesight, will it heal the malady 
 to pluck out the eyes? Nay; this leprosy is in the 
 blood ! Sin is through and through the nerve, sinew, 
 fibre, heart, conscience and soul of man ; and in all the 
 world there is no cleansing save at the " fountain filled 
 with blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins." " Come 
 now, saith the Lord, let us reason together; though 
 your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; 
 though they be red like crimson, they shall be as 
 wool." 
 
 The last lesson is Exact Obedience. 
 
 When a man has accepted Christ, all the rest is do- 
 ing what the Master bids him do. In a word, the 
 Christian life is Obedience. To obey is better than 
 sacrifice. It is not for us to ask our Lord's reasons, 
 but to trust him. " His commands," says Watson, 
 " ever carry meat in the mouth of them." Let us live, 
 therefore, according to his holy will; running in the 
 way of his commandments. " Whatsoever he saith 
 unto you, do it ! " 
 
XVII 
 OUR FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 
 
 In which he converses with two glorified saints who manifest 
 a deep interest in the affairs of men. 
 
 And it came to pass about eight days after these say- 
 ings, that he took with him Peter and John and James, 
 and went up into the mountain to pray. And as he was 
 praying, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and 
 his raiment became white and dazzling. And behold, 
 there talked with him two men, who were Moses and 
 Elijah; who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease 
 which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. — Luke 
 ix, 28-31. 
 
 A bereaved wife recently said to me, " I cannot help 
 feeling that my dear husband knows all about my cir- 
 cumstances and is near me. We lived together forty 
 years and our happiness was ideal. Do you suppose 
 that he can be alive anywhere in the universe and not 
 want to come to me? Tell me, is it right to believe 
 that way?" There are multitudes of people who ask 
 the same question ; if an affirmative answer could be 
 given, what consolation it would afford those who 
 are passing through the Valley of Tears. 
 
 We hear, at the outset, the Testimony of the Heart. 
 
 The Heart cries aloud and will not be silent, "Come 
 back, O loved and lost, come back and comfort me ! " 
 But this is not proof. We want something more 
 positive than the lonely cry and the outstretching of 
 
 179 
 
180 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 empty arms. One of our poets has expressed it on 
 this wise : 
 
 Beside the dead I knelt for prayer, 
 
 And felt a presence as I prayed, 
 Lo, it was Jesus standing there. 
 
 He smiled : " Be not afraid : " 
 
 " Lord, Thou hast conquered death, we know : 
 
 Restore again to life," I said, 
 " This one who died an hour ago." 
 
 He smiled : " She is not dead." 
 
 "Asleep then, as thyself didst say; 
 
 Yet thou canst lift the lids that keep 
 Her prisoned eyes from ours away." 
 
 He smiled : " She doth not sleep." 
 
 " Nay then, tho' haply she do wake, 
 
 And look upon some fairer dawn, 
 Restore her to our hearts that ache ; " 
 
 He smiled : " She is not gone." 
 
 " Alas : too well we know our loss, 
 
 Nor hope again our joy to touch 
 Until the stream of death we cross." 
 
 He smiled : " There is no such." 
 
 "Yet our beloved seem so far, 
 The while we yearn to feel them near, 
 
 Albeit with Thee we trust they are." 
 He smiled : " And I am here." 
 
 "Dear Lord: how shall we know that they 
 
 Still walk unseen with us and Thee, 
 Nor sleep, nor wander far away ? " 
 
 He smiled: "Abide in me." 
 
 We turn from the Testimony of the Heart to that of 
 
OUR FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 181 
 
 Reason. And here we are on dangerous ground; 
 since Reason, of itself alone, is ever an untrustworthy 
 guide in spiritual things. So long as it pursues a 
 straightforward argument from data furnished by the 
 five physical senses it can be trusted; but when it 
 crosses the borders into the province of Faith it be- 
 comes a blind leader of the blind. This will account 
 for the many lamentable and often grotesque errors 
 of irreligious men in dealing with the question be- 
 fore us. 
 
 There is the error of the Sadducees, those rationalists 
 of the olden time, who, recognizing no authority be- 
 yond that of Reason, argued themselves into a practi- 
 cal rejection of the supernatural. They held that life 
 beyond the grave is an empty dream. " Death ends 
 all." 
 
 And there is the error of the Pagan Mythologists, 
 who peopled the earth with supernatural beings. 
 Nymphs, Naiads, Oreads and Oceanides, Dryads and 
 Hamadryads, they swarmed through the fields and 
 forests, flitted along the shores of every stream, rode 
 in chariots of clouds and whispered in the winds. This 
 is the reductio ad absurdum of a sublime and helpful 
 truth. 
 
 The Romanists, also, by exceeding the bounds of 
 Scripture and following their own imagination, have 
 fallen into the lamentable error of paying divine 
 honors to Angels and " spirits of just men made per- 
 fect." This would never have happened had they 
 harkened to the voice of the Angel of the Apocalypse, 
 who, when John fell down to worship before his feet, 
 recoiled in horror, saying, " See thou do it not : for I 
 am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the proph- 
 
182 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 ets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: 
 worship God" (Rev. xxii, 9). 
 
 And scarcely less deplorable is the error into which 
 the Puritans fell, when in their repugnance to Mari- 
 olatry and saint-worship they swung to the other ex- 
 treme and wholly ignored, if not denied, the ministry 
 of saints and Angels. They put the spiritual world 
 afar off, making it a cold and dreary place. Here is 
 a sketch of it : 
 
 " Somewhere in desolate, wind-swept space 
 In Twilight Land, in No-man's Land, 
 Two hurrying shapes met face to face 
 And bade each other ' Stand ! ' 
 
 *And who are you ? ' cried one, agape, 
 
 Shuddering in the gloaming light; 
 *I do not know,' cried the other shape; 
 
 ' I only died last night ! ' " 
 
 But the worst error of all is that of the so-called 
 Spiritualists, who profess to call back the departed 
 and converse with them at will ; engaging them in 
 foolish and frivolous tricks, with the lights turned 
 down, such as ringing bells in closed cabinets and tip- 
 ping tables and knocking on hollow walls; inducing 
 them to peep and mutter nonsense beneath the level of 
 dull scholars in our grammar schools. This is not 
 only grotesque ; it is hideous and abhorrent to common 
 sense ; since, whatever change may have been wrought 
 in our beloved by their transition to the spiritual 
 world, they are certainly not greater fools than they 
 were when they dwelt among us. And whatever may 
 be the ministries on earth, we have no reason to believe 
 that they can be summoned at pleasure or conversed 
 
OUR FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 183 
 
 with at will. The purpose of their earthly visitation 
 is not to gratify curiosity or contribute to our enter- 
 tainment, but to serve our best interests with refer- 
 ence to the present and future life. 
 
 We shall avoid all such errors by keeping 1 close to 
 Scripture. To the Law and the Testimony, there- 
 fore; what saith the Lord? 
 
 At the outset attention is called to the frequent 
 reference made in the Scriptures to Angels. 
 
 Who are these Angels? It is often taught and 
 generally supposed that they are a distinct order of 
 beings, wholly apart from the human race. I do not 
 believe that; nor do I believe there is any Scriptural 
 ground for it. Objection has been made to the Sun- 
 day school hymn " I want to be an Angel " as ex- 
 pressing a desire after the unattainable : which would 
 be a valid criticism if Angels and saints triumphant 
 were different genera. In fact, however, the term 
 " Angels " is used to characterize all the inhabitants 
 of the spiritual world. So far as we are informed 
 there is only one race of spiritual beings in the uni- 
 verse, and it embraces all who have ever been created 
 in the likeness of God. 
 
 True, it is written of man " Thou hast made him 
 a little lower than the Angels " (Ps. 8, 5) ; but in this 
 instance the word is Elohim, and the passage is ren- 
 dered in the Revised Version, " Thou hast made him 
 a little lower than God/' the reference being to his 
 participation in the divine characteristics. It is true, 
 also, that man in his earthly life is lower than the in- 
 habitants of the celestial world; but Christ himself 
 affirms that this inferiority is removed by death where 
 he says, " They are equal unto the Angels and are the 
 
184. CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 children of God, being the children of the resurrec- 
 tion " (Luke xx, 36). 
 
 The host of heaven may consist, for aught we 
 know, of multitudes from other worlds as well as 
 from our own. Among them there are different 
 orders, indicated by such titles as angels and arch- 
 angels, cherubim and seraphim, authorities, thrones, 
 dominions, principalities, powers and saints trium- 
 phant ; but this fact does not prove any racial distinc- 
 tion any more than the existence of ranks and titled 
 orders among men. All are alike in having been 
 created as rational beings after the divine image. 
 Some have never been defiled with sin, having " kept 
 their first estate " ; others are sinners saved by grace. 
 " One family they dwell in him." 
 
 We turn now to a consideration of the Employment 
 of these heavenly beings. This is twofold. They are 
 represented as " before the throne of God, praising 
 him in his temple." This is their leitourgia, or devo- 
 tional service; and the Scriptures abound with refer- 
 ences to it. But their other form of employment is 
 the diakonia, or ministry. This brings us immediately 
 to the matter in hand. 
 
 The very name " Angel " is significant of ministry. 
 It means literally a messenger or one sent forth. It 
 was the belief of Cardinal Newman that our world is 
 everywhere pervaded by spirits, who are sent hither 
 as divine agents, not only in spiritual matters; not 
 only in the directing of social and political affairs, 
 but even in the control of the elements : as it is writ- 
 ten, " He maketh his angels winds, his ministers a 
 flaming fire." Without going so far, we are bound to 
 affirm, as the consistent teaching of Scripture, that 
 
OUR FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 185 
 
 they are sent out everywhere as willing servants to do 
 the divine will (Acts v, 19; xii, 27; etc.). 
 
 One of their special functions is to exercise a per- 
 sonal care for those who are living on earth. 
 
 This is the doctrine of " Guardian Angels." The 
 fact that it is so frequently carried to a grotesque 
 extreme must not frighten us away from the wonder- 
 ful and blessed truth. Jesus, holding a child upon 
 his knee, said " Take heed that ye despise not one of 
 these little ones ; for I say unto you that in heaven 
 their angels do always behold the face of my Father : " 
 on which Doctor Schaff, agreeing with most com- 
 mentators, remarks, " It would seem the proper in- 
 ference that every believer has his Guardian Angel." 
 But even this interpretation is too narrow : Why con- 
 fine it to " every believer "? If it suggests the doctrine 
 of Guardian Angels at all, it teaches that they watch 
 over the interests of all the " little ones " (see also 
 Psalm xci, 11, 12; Luke xv, 10). 
 
 But a still more particular care is exercised by 
 these Angelic ministrants over those who have allied 
 themselves with the service of Christ. The writer of 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews says they are " sent forth 
 to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." 
 And David says more specifically, " He shall give his 
 Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways; 
 they shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash 
 thy foot against a stone." 
 
 It is our purpose to avoid all speculation at this 
 point and to confine ourselves absolutely to the teach- 
 ing of the Scriptures. The Old Testament abounds 
 in reference to the ministry of Angels. They ap- 
 peared to Abraham (Genesis xxii, 11, etc.) ; to Jacob 
 
186 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 (Genesis xxviii, 12) ; to Hagar (Genesis xvi, 7, etc.) ; 
 to Balaam (Num. xxii, 23-35) I to Gideon (Judges 
 vi, 11); to Manoah's wife (Judges xiii, 3-20); to 
 Elijah (1 Kings xix, 5, etc.) ; to Zechariah (Zech. i, 
 4, etc) ; and to many more. An angel led the Children 
 of Israel out of Egypt " by the right way." An Angel 
 " shut up the mouths of the lions " and delivered 
 Daniel from his trouble. Once and again Angels 
 interposed to save Israel in battle against overwhelm- 
 ing odds. 
 
 The New Testament is no less explicit. Angels 
 foretold the Incarnation, heralded the wonderful event, 
 attended on the ministry of Jesus, succored him after 
 his temptation and in the Garden of Gethsemane, 
 hovered over his cross in legions, rolled away the 
 stone from his sepulchre and announced his resurrec- 
 tion. Angels appeared to Peter (Acts xii, 8) ; to 
 Paul (Acts xxvii, 23) ; to Philip (Acts i, 26) ; to Cor- 
 nelius (Acts x, 7) ; to John (Rev. i). 
 
 And the direct teaching of Jesus in this matter is 
 conclusive. He not only affirmed the guardianship 
 of Angels in the passage already referred to (Matt, 
 viii, 10), but repeatedly made mention of their min- 
 istry among men. 
 
 In the Parable of Dives and Lazarus he expressly 
 says that the soul of the devout beggar was carried 
 by Angels to the blessed land (Luke xvi, 22). 
 
 In his thrilling portrayal of the Judgment he says, 
 " The harvest is the end of the world and the reapers 
 are the Angels" (Matt, xiii, 39), and, still more ex- 
 plicitly, " So shall it be at the end of the world ; the 
 Angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from 
 among the just" (Matt, xiii, 49). 
 
OUR FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 187 
 
 He assigns to these spiritual beings a special place 
 in his ultimate triumph and universal reign on earth, 
 announcing that when he comes it will be " in the 
 glory of the Father with the holy Angels " (Mark 
 viii, 38). 
 
 In his conversation with Moses and Elijah on the 
 Mount of Transfiguration he gives us to understand 
 that the spirits of just men made perfect bear a closer 
 relation to mundane affairs than is generally sup- 
 posed. Here were two men who had lived five hun- 
 dred years apart and had been dead more than a 
 thousand years ; yet they knew each other and felt a 
 mutual interest in the earthly work of Jesus. They 
 came from heaven to minister to him when the 
 shadow of the cross fell over him as dark and cold as 
 a winter's night ; and " they spake with him concern- 
 ing the decease which he should accomplish at Jeru- 
 salem " (Luke ix, 31). The inference is inevitable 
 that they, while in heaven, knew what was occurring 
 and about to occur on earth, and, more, that they were 
 under commission to assist in some of its important 
 events. 
 
 One such visit is enough to demonstrate the fact 
 that the saints triumphant share in the blessed min- 
 istry. Our own loved ones in heaven are among 
 those who are " sent forth to minister for such as 
 shall be heirs of salvation." They are " sent " ; and, 
 unlike Christians on earth, when they are sent they 
 always go. And what could be more natural than 
 that they should be sent to those whom they know 
 and love and for whose welfare they are most pro- 
 foundly concerned ? " Wherefore comfort one an- 
 other with these words." 
 
188 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 "Which of the petty kings of earth 
 
 Can boast a guard like ours 
 Encircled from our second birth 
 
 By all the heavenly powers? 
 With them we march securely on, 
 
 Throughout Immanuel's ground; 
 And not an uncommissioned stone 
 
 Our sacred feet shall wound. 
 Ten thousand offices unseen 
 
 For us they gladly do, 
 Deliver in the lion's den 
 
 And safe escort us through. 
 And when our spirits we resign, 
 
 On outstretched wings they bear, 
 And lodge us in the arms divine 
 
 And leave us ever there." 
 
 To the testimony of Jesus might be added that of 
 his Apostles, who in all their writings recognize the 
 ministry of Angels. 
 
 The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews is quite 
 clear : " Are they not all ministering spirits, sent 
 forth to minister for them which shall be heirs of sal- 
 vation ? " And, later on — after an illustrious roll-call 
 of heroes, who through faith subdued kingdoms, 
 wrought righteousness, stopped the mouths of lions, 
 quenched the violence of fire, waxed valiant in fight 
 and turned to flight the armies of the aliens — he 
 utters this exhortation, " Wherefore, seeing we also 
 are compassed about with so great a cloud of wit- 
 nesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin 
 which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with 
 patience the race that is set before us, looking unto 
 Jesus the author and finisher of our faith ; who, for 
 the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, 
 despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand 
 
OUR FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 189 
 
 of the throne of God" (Heb. xii, 1-2). The Chris- 
 tian is standing as an athlete in the lists, waiting for 
 the signal to speed toward the golden milestone for 
 the Olympian wreath ; and the galleries are filled with 
 spectators — angels, saints triumphant, martyrs gone 
 to glory — cheering him on. Oh, we are living in a 
 larger world than we think! We are an object of 
 heavenly solicitude in all our earnest efforts to quit 
 ourselves as the children of God. 
 
 If these things are so, it follows that heaven is 
 not " far, far away." It is nearer than we think. A 
 veil of gossamer is all that separates us from the in- 
 visible. Death is but " a covered bridge, leading from 
 light to light through a brief darkness." There is no 
 interruption of the continuity of life. A line of 
 shadow falls across our path; we step across and go 
 living right on. The life beyond is merely the sequel 
 of the life we are living now. 
 
 It follows also that everything depends on the 
 way we spend these probationary years. This is 
 merely an apprenticeship for eternal service. Whoever 
 honors his commission, discharging every duty as it 
 comes and rejoicing to minister to others, will receive 
 the service-chevron. " He that is faithful in a few 
 things shall be made ruler over ten cities." If we 
 would find a congenial place in that world of which 
 it is written, " There his servants do serve him," we 
 must be faithful in this world. Ministry is our busi- 
 ness, as followers of Christ ; to " do good as we have 
 opportunity unto all men." Our promotion to the 
 ministry of Angels depends on our fidelity here and 
 now. 
 
 And it follows, finally, that if our friends in 
 
190 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 heaven are so deeply concerned in our spiritual wel- 
 fare, we ourselves should be no less concerned. One 
 passage, and perhaps the most important, in the 
 teaching of Jesus touching the matter in hand, has 
 been purposely deferred until this point: it is his 
 reference to the concern felt by the inhabitants of 
 heaven for the conversion of their friends on earth. 
 " There is joy," he said, " in the presence of the 
 Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth " 
 (Luke xv, 10). Are there mothers there, watching 
 and waiting, like Monica on the shores of Africa, to 
 hail the home-coming of their wayward sons? Do 
 ministering spirits come to guide the feet of the 
 prodigal out of dangerous paths? Is there a multi- 
 tude of expectant ones in glory, eager to raise the 
 song of thanksgiving when a sinner returns from the 
 error of his ways? Then surely it behooves the re- 
 cipients of all this care to shake off indifference and 
 turn to Christ. 
 
 But the matter of supreme moment, after all, is 
 not the interest felt by the Angels in our behalf, but 
 that of God himself, by whom they are sent to minis- 
 ter to us. This was the thought which most deeply 
 impressed Jacob after his vision of Angels at Bethel : 
 " Verily, the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not ! " 
 He was a lone wanderer, a fugitive from justice, a 
 sinner oppressed with a sense of retribution ; and, lo ! 
 God loved him, nevertheless, and sent his Angels to 
 comfort and encourage him. O gracious God, we 
 wander not beyond the tether of thy love ! Awake 
 us from indifference, break our stubborn hearts with 
 the conviction of thy loving care. O blessed Son of 
 God, who not only sendest thine angels to allure us 
 
OUR FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 191 
 
 from sin to salvation, but thyself standest at the 
 closed door of our hearts, knocking and waiting until 
 thy locks are wet with the drops of night, we sur- 
 render to thy love! We unbolt the door! Come in 
 and sup with us! 
 
XVIII 
 
 FAULT-FINDING 
 
 In which reference is made to one of the most delicate and 
 difficult of duties. 
 
 Jesus to his disciples: "If thy brother sin against thee, 
 go, show him his fault between thee and him alone; if 
 he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." — Matt. 
 xviii, 15. 
 
 Also, "If thy brother sin, rebuke him." — Luke xvii, 3. 
 
 The most difficult and delicate, the most neglected 
 and overdone, the most disagreeable and magnani- 
 mous of duties is fault-finding. 
 
 Jesus was the friendliest man that ever lived. He 
 came from heaven to do two things: first, to make 
 atonement for sin; so that all who are willing to re- 
 ceive him by faith should not perish, but have eternal 
 life. And second, to set an example of right-living, 
 so that all who are willing to follow in his steps may 
 attain to character in the full stature of a man. 
 
 We, then, who profess to believe in Christ as our 
 Saviour are to receive him as our Examplar in the 
 right discharge of the duties of life. 
 
 Jesus was a fault-finder, distinctly so. He spared 
 neither his foes nor his friends, on occasion. In the 
 interest of truth and righteousness he laid bare the 
 utter meanness and insincerity of the religious leaders 
 of his time, saying, " Woe unto you, scribes and 
 Pharisees, hypocrites, generation of vipers; how shall 
 
 192 
 
FAULT-FINDING 193 
 
 ye escape the damnation of hell ? " Nor did he spare 
 his disciples when reproof was in order; as when he 
 said to angry John and James, " Ye know not what 
 spirit ye are of " ; and to tempting Peter, " Get thee 
 behind me, Satan; thou savorest not the things that 
 be of God but those that be of men." We must be 
 fault-finders, therefore, if we propose to follow in his 
 steps. 
 
 The censorious man is ubiquitous: like the poor, ye 
 have him always with you. All sorts of colloquial 
 titles are applied to him ; but, call him what you 
 please, he is never agreeable. A scold at home, a 
 pessimist in society, a mugwump in politics, a mar- 
 tinet in the church ; he is everywhere a cumberer of 
 the ground. Nothing suits him ; nobody pleases him. 
 He is like Momus among the ancient Gods; who 
 ended his lifelong career of criticism by finding fault 
 with Vulcan's man because he had no windows in 
 his breast so that people might see what was going 
 on within ; with Neptune's bull, because his horns 
 were not beneath his eyes so that he might direct his 
 attack; and with Minerva's house, because it had no 
 wheels to enable her to move away from troublesome 
 neighbors. For this, Momus was cast out of Olym- 
 pus ; unfortunately we cannot get rid of the censo- 
 rious fault-finder in that way. 
 
 The man at the other extreme, however, is no less 
 insufferable. He sees the strong pursuing the weak 
 and has nothing to say. He hears the truth denied 
 and keeps silence. The times are out of joint; but 
 why should he trouble himself to correct them? Evil- 
 doers are abroad ; but who set him as watchman upon 
 the heights ? If he be a preacher, he preaches smooth 
 
194 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 things, flattering the infirmities of those who have 
 itching ears. His philosophy is briefly contained in 
 the proverb, " The crooked cannot be made straight." 
 He sees the wounded man on the Bloody Way and 
 placidly leaves him to the good Samaritan. He is a 
 cynic, serene as Diogenes, who asked nothing of the 
 passer-by but that he would stand out of his sunlight. 
 He has never heard the injunction, " Cry aloud and 
 spare not and show the people their sins ! " 
 
 Let it be understood that fault-finding is a duty. 
 True friendship dares to wound. As Seneca said, " I 
 love not my friend if I offend him not." Or as Moses 
 said, " Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, 
 and not suffer sin upon him." Or as Jesus said, " If 
 thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him." 
 
 But fault-finding is more than a duty; it is an art. 
 The thing must be done ; but the question is, How 
 to do it? And here is where the example of Jesus 
 helps us. This duty, like all others, must be inter- 
 preted in the light of his teaching and example. Our 
 present purpose is to discover how Jesus did it. 
 
 At the outset the motive must be looked at. 
 
 Jesus said he came into the world to seek and to 
 save. And whatsoever he did was in line with that 
 purpose. Our life as his followers must be formu- 
 lated along the same benevolent lines. In all our 
 criticism of friends and foes alike, we must be actu- 
 ated by a supreme desire to bring them back to truth 
 and righteousness. There is no room here for envy 
 or malice. The philosophy of the world is briefly 
 comprehended in the words of Cain, " Am I my 
 brother's keeper ?" with which the philosophy of 
 Christ is distinctly at odds. A man is discovered in 
 
FAULT-FINDING 195 
 
 the act of committing suicide. Christ says, " We 
 must save this man." Cain says, " It is his own affair ; 
 let him hang." Christ says, " No ; he is my brother 
 and I am his keeper; I cannot let him hang." Cain 
 says, " Is not his life his own ? Is not the rope his 
 own ? May he not do what he will with both ? " 
 Christ says, " No, it devolves upon us to see that he 
 does no harm to himself." Cain says, " He is a 
 cumberer of the ground and the world would be well 
 rid of him." Christ says, " No ; there are divine pos- 
 sibilities in him ; let us put him on his feet again." 
 And to all his people he cries, " Come, let us cut this 
 man down and make a better man of him ! " 
 
 We observe, further, that Jesus was always just in 
 his fault-finding, and in this we must be like him. 
 
 But there is the difficulty. We know little about 
 justice. We are so ignorant of the motives and the 
 singular trials and temptations of men. 
 
 "Who made the heart, 'tis he alone 
 Decidedly can try us; 
 He knows each string, its various tone, 
 Each chord, its various bias." 
 
 It was an easy matter for Jesus to be just, because 
 he knew what was in man. We are to exercise justice 
 only in cases where the moral quality of the act is 
 perfectly clear; in other cases we must needs condemn 
 the sin, but leave the sinner with God. And in no 
 case are we at liberty to pass hasty or ill-considered 
 judgment on any of our fellow-men. 
 
 It is said that when the Roman magistrates sen- 
 tenced a prisoner, they had a bundle of rods near by 
 tied with many knots, to the intent that, while the 
 
196 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 beadle was employed in untying them, the court might 
 have time for a sober second thought. Alas, we often- 
 times lay on the rod and do our thinking afterward! 
 The Scriptural rule is, " Be swift to hear, slow to 
 speak, slow to wrath." 
 
 And again, if we are to be like Jesus in the dis- 
 charge of this duty, we must be clothed with charity. 
 
 This does not mean that we are to be oblivious of 
 wrong or injustice. They say that love is blind. But 
 " Charity thinketh no evil " ; that is, it puts the best 
 construction upon the conduct of a man. It prefers 
 to see the good rather than the bad. It recognizes 
 the fact that there is a bright side to the character of 
 every one. There is a Russian fable which says that 
 the swine Kavron made its way through the gardens 
 of a lordly mansion into the barnyard, where it reveled 
 in filth. On its return the neighbors cried, " What 
 found you, Kavron? They do say that the garden is 
 full of flowers and the house of pearls and diamonds ! " 
 And Kavron answered, " I found naught but heaps of 
 offal." Thus the critic finds what he is looking for; 
 and our perverted nature not infrequently prefers to 
 find the evil rather than the good. The part of 
 charity is never to expose the evil for the sake of com- 
 ment or exposure, but always with the intent of cor- 
 recting it. 
 
 We have further light on the proper discharge of 
 this duty in the words of Jesus, " Why beholdest the 
 mote in thy brother's eye but considerest not the beam 
 that is in thine own eye?" 
 
 This is but another way of saying, " Those who live 
 in glass houses should not throw stones." The fact is 
 we are prone to criticise in others the faults to which 
 
FAULT-FINDING 197 
 
 we ourselves are most liable. " It takes a rogue to 
 catch a rogue." Spurgeon tells of a well-known luna- 
 tic who used to go up and down, muttering, " God 
 save the fool ! " So Shakespeare says, 
 
 "The jury, passing on the prisoner's life, 
 May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two, 
 Guiltier than him they try." 
 
 It does not follow, however, that we are to be 
 estopped from fault-finding by reason of the fact that 
 we are conscious of sin. But we are bound to be 
 assured that we are bravely resisting in ourselves that 
 which we condemn in others. A man with a flask in 
 his pocket is a poor preacher of temperance. It would 
 lend weight to the argument of the Army Officers 
 who are just now pleading for a restoration of the 
 beer canteen, if the public could be advised that they 
 themselves were temperate men. " Take heed to thy- 
 self; first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, 
 then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out 
 of thy brother's eye." 
 
 And it behooves us to be open and aboveboard in 
 our criticism of others. 
 
 The rule of Jesus is, " If thou hast aught against 
 thy brother; go tell him betwixt thee and him alone." 
 No gossip. No backbiting. Come out of your covert ! 
 Out into the open ! The meanest man in Scripture is 
 Shimei, who threw mud and stones at David from 
 behind a hedge. It is to the credit of Paul that he 
 " withstood Peter to the face " ; and history records 
 that they were the better friends for it. But this is 
 not the usual way. A tells B that C is no better than 
 he ought to be; their wives discuss it over the tea 
 
198 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 cups; and all the neighbors are by the ears. Dean 
 Swift says they 
 
 " Convey a libel with a frown 
 And wink a reputation down; 
 Or, by the tossing of a fan, 
 Describe the lady and the man! " 
 
 This is the part of cowardice and ill-becoming in 
 those who profess to follow Christ. 
 
 It must be added that fault-finding, after Christ's 
 method, requires the utmost tact. 
 
 Take care! A mote that has imbedded itself in 
 the tissues of the eye cannot be extracted with the 
 naked hand, much less with red-hot pincers. The 
 most insufferable man in the world is the one who 
 speaks of himself boastfully as " a blunt man." He 
 " calls a spade a spade," and delights in saying un- 
 pleasant things. His method is the very opposite of 
 Christ's. What tact and gentleness were displayed in 
 his rebuke of Peter, who had denied him thrice with 
 a bitter curse; he turned and looked at him, and 
 Peter " went out and wept bitterly." That look had 
 exposed the dark recesses of his soul. And what skill 
 was displayed in Christ's reproof of the woman at the 
 well. He saith unto her, " Give me to drink." She 
 answered, " How is it that thou being a Jew askest 
 drink of me who am a Samaritan ? " He saith, " If 
 thou knewest who it is that saith, Give me to drink, 
 thou wouldst have asked and he would have given 
 thee living water." She saith, " Sir, give me this 
 water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." 
 He answered, " Go call thy husband and come 
 hither ! " It was at this point that the iron entered 
 
FAULT-FINDING 199 
 
 her soul; and thus he drew the sinner to him. Or 
 where will you find such tact and tenderness as in 
 Christ's treatment of the poor creature taken in 
 adultery and dragged before him by the religious 
 leaders who clamored for the extreme penalty of the 
 law. He saw her contrition in the hiding of her 
 crimson face. He stooped and wrote his judgment on 
 the pavement : " Let him that is without sin cast the 
 first stone at her ! " He rose and, finding himself 
 alone with the woman, said, " Hath no man con- 
 demned thee? Neither do I condemn thee; go and 
 sin no more." 
 
 It remains to be said that those who would follow 
 Christ in the discharge of this duty must have in 
 mind the ultimate law of requital ; as he said, " Judge 
 not that ye be not judged; for with what judgment 
 ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure 
 ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." 
 
 In other words, the censorious critic will have to 
 change places with his victim one day. It is with this 
 fact in mind that we pray, " Forgive us our trespasses 
 as we forgive those who trespass against us." 
 
 "The mercy I to others show, 
 That mercy show to me." 
 
 Here is no reference to the lex talionis. God does not 
 judge in the spirit of vengeance; but, in the necessity 
 of the case, whatsoever a man soweth that shall he 
 also reap. The Law of Requital works automati- 
 cally. Haman is always hanged on his own gallows- 
 tree. " A man is his own dungeon " ; he treasures up 
 wrath against the day of wrath; he determines for 
 himself what sentence the Law shall pass upon him. 
 
200 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 If we want mercy in the Great Day, we must needs 
 grant mercy here and now. 
 
 Wherefore, let the mind that was in Christ Jesus 
 be also in us. He spared neither friend nor foe; but 
 his wounds were always the wounds of a friend. The 
 severest woes that ever fell from his lips were fol- 
 lowed by the kindest of invitations : " Come unto 
 me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will 
 give you rest." The tenderest rebuke that ever was 
 administered was from the Cross: 
 
 " I saw One hanging on a tree, 
 In agony and blood, 
 Who fixed his languid eyes on me 
 As near the cross I stood. 
 
 " Sure, never till my latest breath, 
 Can I forget that look; 
 It seemed to charge me with his death, 
 Though not a word he spoke. 
 
 "Alas! I knew not what I did, 
 But now my tears are vain ; 
 Where shall my trembling soul be hid, 
 For I the Lord have slain! 
 
 "A second look he gave, that said, 
 'I freely all forgive: 
 'This blood is for thy ransom paid; 
 ' I die that thou may'st live.' 
 
 "Thus while his death my sin displays 
 In all its blackest hue, 
 Such is the mystery of grace, 
 It seals my pardon, too ! " 
 
 He " knew what was in man " and " covered " his 
 
FAULT-FINDING 201 
 
 faults by expiating - them. He was aware of the im- 
 perfections of those to whom he had assumed the rela- 
 tion of an Elder Brother; and, while he exposed 
 them, he bore them also in his own body on the tree. 
 He led his friends through the rough places of Via 
 Dolorosa, because there was no other way to heaven's 
 gate. He laid bare, as with a scalpel, the secret sins 
 of men that he might heal them. It is written of him 
 that knowing his disciples, their faults and short- 
 comings, he nevertheless " loved them to the end." 
 In this we find the key-note of a Christian life : " God 
 commendeth his love toward us in that while we 
 were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 
 
XIX 
 FORGIVING 
 
 In which a Multiplex Emphasis is placed on a still more 
 difficult duty. 
 
 Peter: "Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against 
 me, and I forgive him? until seven times?" 
 
 Jesus: "I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, 
 Until seventy times seven." — Matt, xviii, 21-22 (cf. 
 23-25). 
 
 All the world loves Peter; brave, impulsive, head- 
 strong, blundering Peter; the apostle of the great 
 heart, open hand, hot temper and high ambition. 
 But there were times when Peter showed himself in 
 most unlovely ways. In some respects he was a very 
 little man. 
 
 It was so here. He had been greatly stirred up 
 by some things that Jesus had been saying about the 
 proper way of dealing with unruly church members. 
 In the Code of Discipline, as laid down by the Master, 
 there were four steps. The first was. " If thy brother 
 trespass against thee, go tell him his fault between 
 thee and him alone." If that failed, then, " Take with 
 thee one or two witnesses and seek to arbitrate the 
 difficulty." In case the offender were still ob- 
 durate, " Tell it unto the church," that he may be 
 formally cited for trial. And should this also prove 
 unavailing, " Let him be unto thee as an heathen man 
 and a publican " ; that is, Withdraw your fellowship 
 from him. 
 
 202 
 
FORGIVING 203 
 
 Now, Peter had a personal interest in this matter, 
 owing to certain grudges of his own. A self-willed, 
 self-confident, self-opinionated man is sure to provoke 
 animosities, and equally sure to resent criticism as a 
 personal affront. It was, doubtless, this cherished 
 sense of wrong which moved Peter to inquire, " Lord, 
 how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive 
 him ? Till seven times ? " The teaching of the Rab- 
 binical writings was, " If thy brother offend once and 
 ask pardon, forgive him ; if twice, forgive him ; if 
 thrice, forgive him; and that ends it." We may 
 assume, therefore, that Peter, in suggesting seven 
 times, supposed himself to be taking a most magnani- 
 mous view of the matter. But Jesus said, " Not till 
 seven times, but till seventy times seven " ; by which 
 he meant that our spirit of forgiveness must know 
 no limit at all. 
 
 And this he enforced by a parable ; one of his great 
 parables, involving a truth of supreme importance. 
 The scene is laid in an Oriental court. A certain king, 
 calling his satraps to a reckoning, finds that one of 
 them is a defaulter in the sum of ten thousand tal- 
 ents; that is, about ten millions of our money. The 
 man has no excuse to offer and he has nothing where- 
 with to pay. The decision of the king is that he shall 
 be sold, with his wife and children, into slavery, a 
 procedure which was in strict accordance with the 
 Roman law. He thereupon fell down and besought 
 him, " Lord, have patience with me and I will pay 
 thee all." And his Lord did better than he asked ; he 
 forgave him all. 
 
 Then comes the sequel, on which the emphasis 
 rests. The same servant went out and found one of 
 
204 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 his fellow-servants who owed him the paltry sum of 
 a hundred pence, equivalent to about seventeen dol- 
 lars in our money ; and he took him by the throat, say- 
 ing - , " Pay me what thou owest ! " His poor debtor 
 besought him, in the very words which the other had 
 previously used, " Have patience with me and I will 
 pay thee all ! " And he would not, but c-ast him into 
 prison until he should pay the debt. Now when this 
 came to the knowledge of the king he was indignant, 
 saying, " O thou wicked servant ! I forgave thee all, 
 because thou desiredst it ; shouldst not thou also have 
 had compassion on thy fellow-servants, even as I had 
 pity on thee ? " 
 
 And he delivered him over to the officers of the 
 law. 
 
 Then the lesson: "So likewise sliall my heavenly 
 Father do unto yon, if ye forgive not every one his 
 brother from your Iwarts." The same truth is re- 
 peated once and again in the teaching of Jesus on 
 other occasions ; as where he says, " Judge not that 
 ye be not judged; for with what judgment ye judge, 
 ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, 
 it shall be measured to you again." Also, in the 
 Lord's Prayer, " Forgive us our debts, as we also 
 have forgiven our debtors." And, in general terms, 
 in the Golden Rule, " Do as ye would be done by." 
 
 In the contrast presented in this parable we have an 
 emphatic presentation of the Doctrine of Grace, or 
 mercy to the undeserving. We sing, 
 
 "Grace, 'tis a charming sound, 
 Harmonious to mine ear; 
 Heav'n with the echo shall resound, 
 And all the earth shall hear." 
 
FORGIVING 205 
 
 The doctrine is emphasized and greatly clarified by 
 the side-light which this parable throws upon it. 
 
 On the one hand, we have in bold relief the Grace 
 of God, as illustrated in the King's magnanimous 
 treatment of his servant. This Grace is manifest in 
 the atonement of Christ, who said of Himself, " The 
 Son of Man is come not to be ministered unto, but 
 to minister and to give his life a ransom for many." 
 
 Sin is a debt incurred to the Law; and the Law is 
 a hard creditor. It records in a great ledger, called 
 " The Handwriting of Ordinances," all our transgres- 
 sions, item by item. The sinner who is thus indebted 
 to the Law is a defaulter, in that every item repre- 
 sents a wilful and inexcusable violation of known 
 duty. And the sum total of his indebtedness shows 
 him to be a hopeless bankrupt ; he owes " ten thousand 
 talents." The satrap was in default ten millions of 
 dollars, with absolutely no assets ; yet he had the 
 effrontery to say, " Have patience with me and I will 
 pay thee all ! " The revenues of a province would 
 have been but a bagatelle in meeting such a debt. 
 The sins of the sinner are as the sands of the seashore 
 for multitude; and what can he offer as an offset? 
 His penitence? Nay, there is no expiatory virtue in 
 tears. His resolution to meet the obligation? It is 
 a true saying, Hell is paved with good resolutions. 
 There is absolutely no hope. The man passes into 
 the debtor's jail and the door clangs behind him. 
 
 But as sin is debt, so pardon is remission. The 
 Handwriting of Ordinances is blotted out. This is 
 by reason of the " ransom " which Jesus paid ; as it 
 is written, " He nailed to his cross the Handwriting 
 of Ordinances which was against us, taking it out of 
 
206 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 the way." So that Mercy and Justice are reconciled 
 in the pardon of sin. 
 
 The grace thus manifested to sinners is absolutely 
 free. Grace and gratis are cognate terms. Now and 
 then we hear of a creditor giving a receipt on this 
 wise : " In consideration of the sum of one dollar, 
 thus and so " ; but not even such nominal remunera- 
 tion as this is exacted from the sinner who has ac- 
 cepted the grace of God. 
 
 " Long as I live I'll still be crying, 
 Mercy's free, mercy's free ! " 
 
 And thi§ grace is extended to all; as it is written, 
 " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ; 
 and he that hath no money, let him come and drink " ; 
 and again, " Him that cometh unto me I will in no 
 wise cast out." In no wise? Not if he be a thief or 
 a murderer? Nay, if only he "come unto me." 
 Heaven is full of such flagrant sinners saved by 
 grace. Christ is able, and as willing as he is able, to 
 save " unto the uttermost " all who thus come unto 
 him. 
 
 And the gracious pardon is complete; that is, it 
 covers the whole record of the misspent life. The sins 
 of the sinner are blotted out, remitted, sunk into the 
 depths of an unfathomable sea, cast behind God's 
 back, so that he remembers them no more against 
 him. 
 
 Is there no condition affixed to this proffer of 
 grace? One only, the same condition which is affixed 
 to every gift; to wit, that it shall be accepted. Faith 
 is the hand stretched forth to receive it. " He that 
 believeth shall be saved," that is, his debts are liqui- 
 
FORGIVING 207 
 
 dated ; " and he that believeth not " is still indebted 
 to the law ; therefore " the wrath of God abideth on 
 him." 
 
 God is a great forgiver ! " There's a wideness in 
 his mercy like the wideness of the sea." 
 
 But now we turn to the reverse of the picture. We 
 have contemplated the grace of God; it remains to 
 consider the Grace of Man, as brought out in the 
 attitude of the satrap toward his fellow-servant. 
 Observe the contrast, for here the emphasis lies. The 
 only possible return that we can make for the divine 
 goodness is to reflect it, as far as possible, in our con- 
 duct toward our fellow-men. 
 
 We have abundant opportunity for the exercise of 
 Grace, since we have all been wronged. " Man's in- 
 humanity to man makes countless thousands mourn." 
 How could it be otherwise, human nature being what 
 it is? But the servant is not greater than his Lord. 
 In all the universe there is no man who has suffered 
 such injustice as Christ. What " contradiction of sin- 
 ners " he endured ! He was misunderstood, forsaken, 
 scourged, rejected, spit upon, put to an ignominious 
 death. How small our wrongs appear in the light of 
 his! 
 
 Do we resent them? Do we propose to exact pay- 
 ment of the debts which are owed us? Do we take 
 our adversary by the throat? Alas, how persistently 
 we cherish the memory of injustice and unkindness. 
 Old grudges rankle within us. We have much to say 
 about domestic feuds in the South, and about the 
 Mafia that sends its agents across the ocean with 
 vengeance in their hearts. But in a smaller, meaner 
 and more cowardly way we often keep a memoran- 
 
208 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 dum of gossip and misrepresentation in the hope of 
 " evening up " some day. If a misfortune befall our 
 debtor, are we sorry? Back in the dark places of our 
 heart do we not somehow cherish the thought that, 
 however he may defraud us here, a just recompense 
 awaits him in the Great Day? Or if we consent to 
 forgive, how many questions like Peter's arise, " How 
 oft shall I forgive him ? " or, " Suppose he is not 
 sorry ? " or, " Who shall take the initiative ? " Thus 
 we sweep the room and leave the dust behind the 
 door. Oh, little people that we are ! Far, far, indeed, 
 is our spirit from the mind of God. 
 
 What is the right attitude, then? Grace. Pardon 
 to the undeserving. God's Grace in our hearts pour- 
 ing itself out again without stint. Love to the utter- 
 most. Charity not to God's poor only, but to the 
 devil's poor. Forgetfulness of grudges ; " let bygones 
 be bygones "; " let the dead bury their dead." Why? 
 Because " to err is human, to forgive divine." The 
 right spirit was exhibited by Sir Thomas More when, 
 on being sentenced to death, he said to his unjust 
 judge, " Sir, I am wronged; but I cherish no enmity 
 against thee. As Paul held the clothes of those who 
 stoned Stephen and afterwards met him in heaven, 
 so do I entertain the hope that by the mercy of Christ 
 we may meet in the kingdom of God." 
 
 Now this is the very heart of the Gospel of Recon- 
 ciliation. God by his Grace comes down to meet us, 
 and we by the exercise of a similar Grace go out to 
 meet those about us. This is " the truce of God," of 
 which the angels sang, " Glory to God in the highest, 
 peace on earth and good will toward men." Christ 
 came to bring peace of a three-fold sort; peace with 
 
FORGIVING 209 
 
 God, peace with ourselves and peace with our fellow- 
 men. And in this interchange of Grace betwixt 
 heaven and earth lies the hope of that ultimate Utopia 
 in which " Man to man, the whole world o'er, shall 
 brothers be." 
 
 But how shall we attain unto it? First, by get- 
 ting into vital communion with Christ ; that is, by ac- 
 cepting him as the personal manifestation of the 
 Grace of God. Second, by contemplating the divine 
 grace, as exhibited on Calvary, until " the eye affect- 
 eth the heart." If the debtor in the parable had not 
 forgotten what the king had done for him, he never 
 would have dealt so hardly with his fellow-servant. 
 If he had remembered the ten millions of dollars, he 
 would not have been so particular about the seventeen 
 dollars. So then, let us take our place on Calvary 
 and, looking toward the cross, get some conception 
 of what God has done in our behalf. An Oriental 
 poet puts it on this wise: 
 
 Once staggering blind with folly on the brink of hell, 
 Above the everlasting fire-flood's frightful roar, 
 God threw his heart before my feet; and, stumbling o'er 
 That obstacle divine, I into heaven fell! 
 
 Third, we shall assist ourselves into this attitude of 
 Grace by forming a just conception of the Canon of 
 Judgment which is to obtain on the Great Day ; " For 
 with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to 
 you again." 
 
 I have read somewhere of an old-time baron who, 
 on hearing that an enemy who had grievously 
 wronged him was about to pass his castle, put his 
 retainers in martial array and said to his chaplain, 
 
210 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 " Ere we go forth to our revenge, lead us in prayer." 
 The chaplain said, " Let us go apart, thou and I, and 
 say the Lord's Prayer." They repeated it together 
 until they came to the petition, " Forgive us our 
 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against 
 us," where the baron dropped out. " My lord," asked 
 the chaplain, "why art thou silent?" " I cannot say 
 this." " Then arise and go forth armed to meet thine 
 enemy ; but so will God meet thee on the Great Day." 
 
 Is this hard doctrine? It is the teaching of Christ; 
 and as followers of Christ we should understand it; 
 since we profess to follow in his steps. He preached 
 the doctrine of forgiveness, and he exemplified it. 
 Was ever greater magnanimity than in his last prayer 
 on the cross, " Father, forgive them for they know 
 not what they do " ? Let the mind that was in Christ 
 Jesus be also in us. If we are smitten, let us turn the 
 other cheek rather than resent it. If we are wronged, 
 let us not avenge it. A philosophy like this may entail 
 a measure of suffering; but we shall enter into sym- 
 pathy with our Lord in pursuing it. 
 
 " What can Jesus Christ do for you now ? " said a 
 master who had bound his slave to the whipping post. 
 " He can teach me how to forgive you, Massa," was 
 the answer. Aye, this our Lord can do: and in so 
 doing he will make us " partakers of the divine na- 
 ture." In Jesus we behold the vital union of God with 
 humanity ; here is man at his best, in touch with God. 
 Emerson says, " His heart was as large as the uni- 
 verse, but there was no room in it for the memory of 
 a wrong." Our imitation of Christ is the measure 
 of our approach to the full stature of manhood. And 
 as Christians we are bound to imitate him in all things. 
 
FORGIVING 211 
 
 At whatever cost, we must be Christlike, for a true 
 Christian speaks on this wise : " I am crucified with 
 Christ ; nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth 
 in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I 
 live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and 
 gave himself for me." 
 
XX 
 
 THE IMPLACABLE LAW 
 
 In which he exposes a number of Common Mistakes about 
 sin and retribution. 
 
 Jesus, to certain who told him of the Galileans, whose 
 blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices: 
 
 " Think ye that these Galileans were sinners above all 
 the Galileans, because they have suffered these things? 
 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all in like 
 manner perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower 
 in Siloam fell, and killed them, think ye that they were 
 offenders above all the men that dwell in Jerusalem?" 
 — Luke xiii, 1-5. 
 
 The Lord had been speaking of signs and omens. 
 He knew that in less than forty years the City of 
 Jerusalem was destined to go down in fire and blood ; 
 and he reproached the religious leaders for their blind- 
 ness and indifference : " Ye are weather-wise," he 
 said, " but deaf to the mutterings of the offended 
 law. O mask-wearers, ye can interpret the lurid 
 skies; how is it that ye discern not the signs of the 
 times?" 
 
 Now there were among his hearers some who had 
 been present at a bloody fray which had recently oc- 
 curred within the precincts of the Temple. A group 
 of Galileans were engaged in offering sacrifices there, 
 when a detachment of troops from the Castle of An- 
 tonia fell upon and slew them, derisively sprinkling 
 their blood upon the altar. It was the fashion then, 
 
 212 
 
THE IMPLACABLE LAW 213 
 
 as it is now in some quarters, to attribute such calami- 
 ties to the retributive justice of God. So this massa- 
 cre was interpreted by those who mentioned it on this 
 occasion as a token of the divine displeasure on ac- 
 count, probably, of the departure of these Galileans 
 from their ancestral faith. 
 
 But Jesus detected the false note ; " Suppose ye," 
 he asked, " that the victims of this calamity were sin- 
 ners above the other Galileans, because they suffered 
 such things? I tell you, Nay; but except ye repent, 
 ye shall all likewise perish ! " And he went on im- 
 mediately to refer to another occurrence of similar im- 
 port: "As to those eighteen on whom the tower of 
 Siloam recently fell ; think ye that they were sinners 
 above all that were in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay; 
 but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish ! " 
 The event to which he here referred was one of a 
 class, such as the recent disaster in the mining 
 regions of Pennsylvania or the burning of the Iro- 
 quois Theatre in Chicago, which invariably give rise 
 to vexing questions as to God's hand in the matter. 
 The falling of this Tower of Siloam is referred to by 
 Josephus, the Jewish historian, who attributes the 
 lamentable death of the eighteen workmen to the fact 
 that they allowed Pilate to pay them their wages out 
 of the sacred treasury. For this they died the death ! 
 
 Christ took issue with this view. And in the light 
 of his teaching we are enabled to correct a consider- 
 able number of misapprehensions as to the relation of 
 sin and punishment which were not only in the minds 
 of his hearers then, but are widely entertained even at 
 this day. 
 
 I. There is, to begin with, the idea that God is a 
 
214 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 Martinet, with whip of scorpions in hand, ever on 
 the watch for sin and eager to inflict the penalty 
 of it. 
 
 Nothing could be further from the truth. We 
 are bound to affirm, of course, that nothing happens 
 without God. " Doth trouble spring out of the 
 ground?" (Job v, 6.) The lot is cast into the lap; 
 but the disposing thereof is with the Lord. No theory 
 of Providence can be correct which removes any event 
 whatsoever from the divine purview. The universe 
 is under law ; and God is Dens ex machina. In the 
 operation of this machinery of the universe it is in- 
 evitable that sin should produce its normal results. 
 " Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap," 
 is written not more clearly in Scripture than in the 
 nerves and sinews, the mind and conscience, of man. 
 If God interferes with the calm operation of that law, 
 it is only through the interposition of some higher 
 law. All things are under law. There is no chance, 
 no haphazard. The sowing and the harvesting are 
 yoked together as cause and effect. And God thanks 
 no man for an apology for his management of 
 affairs; the end of controversy being in his words, 
 " Be still and know that I am God ! " 
 
 Were it not for this control the universe would be 
 confusion worse confounded. God's domain is not 
 chaos, but cosmos. Order is the first law of earth as 
 of heaven, of mind as of matter. As in the " Com- 
 bined Harvester " which reaps and threshes while 
 rolling through the yellow field, so natural law and 
 Moral Law unite to carry out the divine behest. And 
 the saving factor in the otherwise bewildering prob- 
 lem is our confident assurance that the great Hus- 
 
THE IMPLACABLE LAW 215 
 
 bandman, whose name is Love, has his eyes and hand 
 upon all. 
 
 II. It is a mistake also to suppose that all Suffer- 
 ing is the Immediate Penalty of Sin. 
 
 Here is where Job's comforters erred. " Who ever 
 perished," they asked, " being innocent ; or where 
 were the righteous cut off? " This idea is easily con- 
 futed by the manifest inequality of rewards and 
 punishments among men. The innocent suffer on 
 every hand, and the wicked man is not infrequently 
 exalted so that he flourishes like a green bay tree. 
 The bad boy who robs an orchard does not always 
 fall from the tree; the lad who goes skating on Sun- 
 day does not always break through and drown. This 
 is a juvenile way of looking at things and does not 
 represent the divine method of administering justice. 
 The merchant who loses his wealth is not warranted 
 in concluding that his calamity was necessarily due 
 to dishonesty in the management of his business. The 
 bereaved husband who recently met me at the door- 
 way of his desolated home with the exclamation, " Oh, 
 what I have done that God should so afflict me ? " 
 was a poor philosopher. It is true, indeed, that all 
 suffering is directly or indirectly due to sin ; but much 
 of it is the result of a long train of circumstances. 
 The twinges of rheumatism which I feel occasionally 
 may not be traceable to any offence of mine against 
 natural law, but to the fact perhaps that my great 
 great grandfather once sat in a draught and, con- 
 tracting the malady, has passed it on. Nevertheless, 
 there is enough of truth in the immediate conse- 
 quences of such sin to admonish us against the dan- 
 ger of trifling with the laws of health. " Sin no 
 
216 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 more," said Christ to the man of Bethesda, " lest 
 a worse thing come upon thee." 
 
 It should be remembered, moreover, that some of 
 our sufferings are not consequential but corrective. 
 Does God send trouble, then? Sometimes; else he 
 would be less kind and considerate than earthly pa- 
 rents are towards their children. So it is written, 
 " Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor 
 faint when thou are rebuked of him; for whom the 
 Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son 
 whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God 
 dealeth with you as with sons ; for what son is he 
 whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be with- 
 out chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are 
 ye bastards and not sons. Moreover, we have had 
 fathers of our flesh that corrected us, and we gave 
 them reverence: shall we not much rather be in sub- 
 jection to the Father of spirits, and live? For they 
 verily for a few days chastened us after their own 
 pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be 
 partakers of his holiness" (Heb. xii, 6-10). 
 
 III. It is a further mistake to think that the 
 Punishment due to Sin is always administered Here 
 and Now. 
 
 The reaping of life's sowing is inevitable; but it 
 may not come in this present life. We think of man 
 as going about in a little circle of three score years 
 and ten ; but God sees him moving around the great 
 circle of eternity ; and at the centre of that great circle 
 is the Judgment Throne. Justice is a sure paymas- 
 ter; but it does not settle with us every thirty days. 
 God can afford to wait patiently for men to repent, 
 since " the eternal years are his." This accounts for 
 
THE IMPLACABLE LAW 217 
 
 the fact that oftentimes the wicked go through life 
 unscathed. " The Lord is not slack concerning his 
 promise, as some men count slackness ; but is long 
 suffering to usward, not willing that any should per- 
 ish, but that all should come to repentance " (2 Pet. 
 iii, 9). "The mills of God grind slowly, but they 
 grind exceeding small ; though with patience he 
 stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all." 
 
 When the balance is finally struck, criticism will 
 cease; all will then confess that the "judgments of 
 the Lord are true and righteous altogether." In the 
 meantime we trust in Providence and calmly await 
 the final adjustment. And a moment's thought will 
 convince us of the reasonableness of the present 
 order ; since, as Augustine wisely said, " If no sin 
 were punished in this life, men would refuse to be- 
 lieve in Providence ; but if all sins were punished 
 here, they would refuse to believe in a final Judg- 
 ment." 
 
 IV. It is a mistake, also, to think that Vulgar and 
 Conspicuous Sins are more Culpable than others or 
 more Offensive in the sight of God. 
 
 This was the view entertained by those who spoke 
 to Jesus of the lapientable death of the Galileans in 
 the Temple Court, and of the workmen who had ac- 
 cepted their wages from Corban. " Well might the 
 sword drink their sacrilegious blood ; well might the 
 tower fall upon them ! " The reply of Jesus was to 
 this effect, " Although your sins may be less apparent, 
 unless ye repent ye also shall die." 
 
 It is the fashion in our time to cry out against cer- 
 tain flagitious crimes and vices. What is to become 
 of the drunkard who goes reeling through our streets ; 
 
218 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 of the cyprian who flaunts her shame before the pub- 
 lic's eyes; of the thieves caught redhanded in the act? 
 Let it be remembered, however, that all sin is vulgar 
 and debasing in the divine sight. All sin is subversive 
 of social order and in the nature of rebellion against 
 God. 
 
 The drunkard and the drab shall meet their doom ; 
 but what of other and more respectable sinners ? What 
 of the mean man whose soul is shot through and 
 through with avarice, whose life is full of self-seeking 
 and oppression? Shall he escape, think you? True, 
 he may not go to Sing Sing ; but there are more cells 
 in God's Sing Sing than in ours. A man may steal 
 a loaf of bread and get thirty days for it, while he 
 who steals a railroad gets a splendid mansion, lives in 
 luxury, dies lamented and has a Latin epitaph on his 
 gravestone. 
 
 But what of that? God's ways are not our ways; 
 he sees with other eyes. Those who wear their 
 faults " upon their sleeves for daws to peck at " are 
 not necessarily sinners above all the Galileans; nor 
 must we hastily conclude that the culprits who are 
 summoned before our Police Courts are more to 
 blame in the larger view than many who sit comfort- 
 ably at home arrayed in purple and fine linen. The 
 tower of Siloam does not fall on all evil doers. 
 
 In one of Paul's letters to Timothy he says, " Some 
 men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judg- 
 ment; and some they follow after." Do you see the 
 startling figure? It is of two men on their journey 
 to the Great Assize. One of them is preceded by his 
 sins; great, loud-mouthed, boastful sins, going be- 
 fore him like heralds with trumpets at their lips, call- 
 
THE IMPLACABLE LAW 219 
 
 ing, " Behold this man ! A great criminal, a thief, a 
 murderer, an habitual drunkard! See the brand on 
 his forehead ! The works of the flesh are manifest 
 upon him ; behold his red eyes, his bloated coun- 
 tenance ! He has disgraced himself, his neighbors and 
 his friends. Make way for him as he hastens to his 
 doom ! " The other walks erect as one accustomed to 
 adulation and obeisance. No accusers go before ; but 
 they follow him stealthily ; hiding, slinking, ghostly 
 pursuers hovering on his steps. These are gentle sins, 
 respectable sins, such as meanness, penuriousness, 
 worldliness, selfishness, impiety, sins of omission, sins 
 done in a corner, secret sins, sneaking sins. They 
 follow like the fabled Furies on wool-shod feet, in 
 silent swift pursuit, making no outcry, but leering, 
 whispering, knowing how sure they are to overtake 
 him at the judgment bar of God. 
 
 V. Another of the mistakes which Christ corrects 
 is the supposition that Proficiency in the art of De- 
 tecting Sin in other people is an Evidence of Personal 
 Righteousness. 
 
 He straightway turns the thought of his hearers 
 from the Galileans to themselves : " Let those un- 
 fortunates alone," he says, " and look to your own 
 sins ! " A detective is not necessarily the best of men. 
 On the contrary, " it takes a rogue to catch a rogue." 
 Had David not erred so grievously in the matter of 
 Uriah's wife, he would probably not have been so 
 quick to denounce the theft of the little ewe lamb. 
 
 O ye wha are sae guid yoursel' 
 
 Sae pious and sae holy, 
 Ye've nought to do but mark and tell. 
 
 Your neebor's fauts and folly: — 
 
220 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 Ye see your state \vi' theirs compared, 
 
 And shudder at the niffer; 
 But cast a moment's fair regard, 
 
 What makes the mighty differ? 
 Discount what scant occasion gave 
 
 That purity ye pride in, 
 And (what's aft mair than a' the lave) 
 
 Your better art o' hidin' ! 
 
 No sin is more severely dealt with in the teaching 
 of Jesus than habitual censoriousness. Of the two 
 men who went up to the temple to pray, — the Phari- 
 see who proudly said, " I thank thee, God, that I am 
 not as the rest of men ; unjust, adulterers, extor- 
 tioners, or even as this publican ! " and the publican, 
 beating on his breast and crying, " God be merciful ; 
 I have nothing to plead but my unworthiness," — he 
 said, " I tell you this man went down to his house 
 justified rather than the other." 
 
 And on another occasion, when the self-righteous 
 Pharisees brought to him a woman taken in adultery, 
 saying, " Moses in the Law said that such as she shall 
 be stoned ; but what sayest thou ? " he stooped and 
 wrote on the dust of the temple floor — his only written 
 sermon — and when they read, " Let him that is with- 
 out sin cast the first stone at her," they went out, one 
 by one, beginning at the eldest. See them, the cow- 
 ardly censors, so hard on open sin while their own 
 characters are honeycombed with secret sin, see them 
 slinking out of his presence for very shame and self- 
 contempt ! 
 
 VI. And another mistake, one that is extremely 
 prevalent in our time, is the supposition that the God 
 of the New Testament is a Milder Magistrate than 
 the God of the Old Testament. 
 
THE IMPLACABLE LAW 221 
 
 In fact the God of the New Testament and the God 
 of the Old Testament are one ; since Christ is the ful- 
 ness of the Godhead bodily. He is the same yesterday, 
 to-day and forever. With him is no variableness, 
 neither shadow of turning. He introduced no new 
 philosophy of sin when, in the fulness of time, he 
 came into the world to deliver sinners from the penalty 
 of it. 
 
 Let those who insist that Jesus in his teaching an- 
 tagonized the stern philosophy of the Law and the 
 Prophets, find if they can anywhere in the Old Testa- 
 ment such denunciations of sin and forewarnings of 
 retribution as fell from his loving lips. 
 
 Who was it that spoke of the fire that is never 
 quenched, of the worm that dieth not, of the outer 
 darkness and the bottomless pit? 
 
 Who was it that said, " If thine eye offend thee, 
 pluck it out and cast it from thee ; it is better for thee 
 to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two 
 eyes to be cast into hell fire " ; and, " If thy hand 
 offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee ; it is bet- 
 ter for thee to enter into life with one hand, rather 
 than having two hands to be cast into the everlasting 
 fire"? 
 
 It goes without saying that the punishments to 
 which he referred are not physical, since flesh and 
 blood shall have no part in the future life ; but, surely, 
 he would never have used figures of such frightful 
 import were it not that he intended to convey an im- 
 pression of suffering beyond the possibility of words. 
 
 VII. One more mistake is corrected by implica- 
 cation in the teaching of Jesus ; namely, that there is 
 any more moderate or more reasonable View of the 
 
222 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 Relation of Sin and Penalty than that which he pre- 
 sents. 
 
 It is obvious that the suggestion of a world con- 
 trolled by chance furnishes no clue to the mystery. 
 No more does the philosophy which supplants a per- 
 sonal God by the operation of insensate law. In this 
 case all is rigid, merciless, implacable. If God be 
 eliminated from the control of human affairs, then, 
 as someone has said, " Nothing remains but teeth 
 and claws." This is Karma, " the Law of Conse- 
 quences," an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. 
 In Huxley's exposition of Nature's laws, he says "We 
 have here not a word and a blow, but more often a 
 blow without a word; and we find out that our ears 
 are boxed." This is too Draconian for us. This is 
 too hard and implacable and hopeless for us. What 
 shall we do to be saved from the horror of inexorable 
 philosophies that have nothing to propose but exact 
 retribution? 
 
 " To whom, Lord, shall we come but unto thee ? 
 thou only hast the word of eternal life." Jesus said, 
 " Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." The 
 great manifesto of the Gospel is in those words, " Ex- 
 cept ye repent." You will search for it through all 
 the false religions and philosophies in vain. Repent 
 and live! The word flames like a beacon on the 
 heights. It glows like morning light from the cross. 
 Repent and live ! And except ye repent, ye shall per- 
 ish. All ! Likewise ! For there is no difference ; since 
 all are concluded under sin. 
 
 Repentance means sorrow for sin ; not only for the 
 punishment that ensues, but for the sin itself, because 
 it is essentially hateful and abhorrent to God. 
 
THE IMPLACABLE LAW 223 
 
 Repentance means, also, acceptance of proffered 
 pardon in the divinely appointed way. No man is 
 truly penitent who refuses to believe in Christ. This 
 is the only door that has ever been opened out of the 
 prison house; and to refuse to pass through it is to 
 doom one's self to a life-sentence, which is spiritual 
 and eternal death. Wherefore, look and live ! " The 
 blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin." 
 
 And repentance means also avoidance of sin. No 
 man is a true penitent who continues in any known 
 sin. He who has accepted Christ and so passed from 
 darkness into light, looks on sin with somewhat of the 
 horror with which God regards it. He hates it with 
 the loathing felt by Eleazar in the time of the Macca- 
 bees, who, when his teeth had been pried open and 
 swine's flesh thrust between them, spat it out, crying, 
 " Nay, rather let me die ; I will have none of it ! " 
 
 This is the philosophy of the gracious Christ. The 
 same lips that uttered the fierce denunciation, " Woe 
 unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, generation 
 of vipers, how shall ye escape the damnation of hell ?" 
 a moment later said, as gently as a mother to an ailing 
 child, " Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy 
 laden, and I will give you rest." 
 
 There is no clue to the mystery of the divine hand 
 in human affairs save in the teaching of this Christ. 
 There is no way of escape from the implacable Law 
 of Exact Justice save in his redeeming grace. " If 
 any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, 
 even Jesus Christ the righteous." He lifts his 
 wounded hands in perpetual intercession for us. 
 Wherefore, if our sins weigh heavy on our souls and 
 we sincerely long to be free, let us run to him. 
 
XXI 
 
 PROFESSION AND PRACTICE 
 
 In which he lays bare the inconsistency of those who profess 
 to be Christians while not closely following him. 
 
 Jesus, to his disciples and others who followed him: 
 "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things 
 which I say? Every one that cometh unto me, and 
 heareth my words, and doeth them, I will show you to 
 whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who 
 digged and went deep, and laid a foundation upon the 
 rock: and when a flood arose, the stream brake against 
 that house, and could not shake it: because it had been 
 well builded. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like 
 a man that built a house upon the earth without a founda- 
 tion; against which the stream brake, and straightway it 
 fell in; and the ruin of that house was great." — Luke 
 vi, 46-49- 
 
 " I would be a member of the church if it were not 
 for the inconsistencies of those who profess to follow 
 Christ. It seems to me there are a good many peo- 
 ple outside of the church who live better lives than 
 others who are in it." 
 
 Who said that? The reader, very possibly. There 
 are many people who, not professing to be Christians 
 themselves, are more or less accustomed to call atten- 
 tion to the shortcomings of members of the church. 
 And they are quite correct as to their facts. More- 
 over, Christ agrees with them. The touchstone which 
 they are wont to use in these premises is one which he 
 
PROFESSION AND PRACTICE 225 
 
 himself has placed in their hands ; to wit, " By their 
 fruits ye shall know them." 
 
 The two facts in religion, as the Master presented 
 it, are Profession and Practice. 
 
 Profession is defined in the terms " Lord ! Lord ! " — 
 a form of address which he approved, on this wise, 
 " Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so 
 I am " — and the Practice is defined in the terms 
 " doing the things which I say." On these facts re- 
 ligion goes pari passu, " at an even gait " ; and the 
 religion in which they do not go together has a la- 
 mentable limp in it. 
 
 So I say to these people, you are quite right in af- 
 firming that many Christians are not what they ought 
 to be. It is my purpose for the moment to stand with 
 you and make a frank statement of the matter as it 
 appears to you. In the church you see three kinds 
 of people: good, bad and indifferent. And this must 
 needs be, as Christ said, " The wheat and the tares 
 grow together until the harvest." The three classes 
 are clearly divided, by their various attitudes toward 
 this question of Profession and Practice, as follows: 
 
 I. Minimum Christians; that is, such as make a 
 profession, but do not practice it. 
 
 Their names are on the church-roll as " members in 
 good and regular standing " ; and this constitutes the 
 sum and substance of their religion. They have 
 no creed to speak of. As a rule they know little 
 about doctrine and will frankly tell you that they care 
 less. 
 
 They have no rigid rules of conduct ; or, if so, they 
 are not perceptibly influenced by them. Their joining 
 the church has made no visible difference in their 
 
226 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 manner of life. They cherish the same old habits and 
 indulge in the same old sins. 
 
 And as for the service of the kingdom of Christ, 
 they take no apparent interest in it. They stand idle 
 in the market-place while the harvest goes on. All 
 missions are alike " foreign " to them. In short, 
 there is no difference whatever between these " Chris- 
 tians " and the world's people, so far as anybody can 
 see. 
 
 Are they to be saved ? They profess to entertain a 
 hope of salvation ; but their hope is like the railway 
 ticket which a sleeping traveller wears in his hat- 
 band so that the conductor may not disturb him. The 
 danger is that they may presently wake up with a 
 start to find that they have passed their destination 
 without knowing it. For these are the ones to whom 
 Jesus referred when he said, " Why call ye me Lord, 
 Lord, and do not the things which I say." 
 
 The outcome of such an empty profession is illus- 
 trated by an incident in the life of Sir Isaac Newton. 
 Being a very absent-minded man, he once caused his 
 horse to be saddled for a journey, but, neglecting to 
 mount, trudged on with the halter in his hand, deeply 
 lost in meditation. The horse presently slipped his 
 head through the bridle and ran away ; but the philoso- 
 pher, heeding it not, kept on to the toll-gate, where 
 he awoke from his reverie to find that he was drag- 
 ging the empty bridle after him. 
 
 The view of Christ himself as to such persons is 
 presented in his parable of the Ten Virgins : " And 
 while the foolish went to buy oil for their lamps, the 
 bridegroom came ; and they that were ready went in 
 with him to the marriage: and the door was 
 
PROFESSION AND PRACTICE 227 
 
 shut. Then came also the others, saying, Lord, Lord, 
 open unto us! But he answered and said, Verily I 
 say unto you, I know you not." 
 
 So when you are disposed to criticise this sort of 
 church members you may be sure that the Lord 
 agrees with you. It is probable that in living thus 
 inconsistently they imagine they are pursuing a popu- 
 lar course and gaining the friendship of the world. 
 You yourselves have probably given them a hail-fel- 
 low greeting at times ; but in your inmost heart, re- 
 garding them as maskwearers, you entertain a very 
 proper and profound contempt for them. You know 
 they are salt that has " lost its savor and is good for 
 nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of 
 men." 
 
 II. Then there are the Medium Christians, who 
 make a profession, but compromise their practice 
 of it. 
 
 These give the impression that they are trying to 
 get to heaven with as little outlay of energy as pos- 
 sible. They are not " out-and-outers " in anything ; 
 but, like Redwald, the Saxon, whose motto was In 
 utramque paratus, they face both ways. 
 
 If you ask them what they believe, they will offer 
 you a creed which is made up of personal opinions. 
 They read the last book on Theology, and accept its 
 conclusions, if agreeable to their own prejudgments, 
 without a thought apparently of what Christ would 
 have to say in the premises. Of course you under- 
 stand this is quite inconsistent with a true profession 
 of Christ, since those who follow him as his disciples 
 are bound to learn from him. 
 
 And their conduct is regulated by public opinion 
 
228 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 rather than by any prescript of Christ. In order to 
 determine any question of duty they go not to the 
 Law and the Testimony, but to the prevailing fashion ; 
 and the determining factor in the problem is " Every- 
 body does it." This also is manifestly inconsistent 
 with the profession of a Christian life ; since one who 
 follows Christ as his King must pursue the line of 
 conduct marked out for him, without any reference 
 to what others think about it. 
 
 And the part taken by this class of Christians in 
 the service of the kingdom is wholly a perfunctory 
 one. It consists in attending church, partaking of 
 the sacrament and going through with the conven- 
 tional routine in the usual way. As for being co- 
 laborers with Christ in the saving of the world, that 
 does not seem to occur to them. They take no ap- 
 parent interest in the welfare of souls. They sing, 
 " Go Forward, Christian Soldiers ! " and " Must 
 Jesus bear the Cross alone ? " with great gusto, but 
 there is practically nothing in it. 
 
 Are they to be saved? Well, it is not for us to set 
 bounds and limits to the divine mercy. We can say, 
 however, that they are skating on thin ice and the 
 danger signal is up. If they are saved, it will be as 
 Lot was saved when he escaped from burning Sodom 
 to the little village of Zoar. They will enter heaven 
 " so as by fire." And heaven will not be to them what 
 it will be to others who, by serving their apprentice- 
 ship here, have prepared themselves for promotion to 
 higher service there. 
 
 It is a mistake to think that heaven is the same to 
 all. A penny is one thing to a multimillionaire 
 and quite another to his bootblack. So heaven will be, 
 
PROFESSION AND PRACTICE 229 
 
 to those who have put out their talents at usury, an 
 opportunity of " ruling over ten cities " ; while to 
 others it will bring - little or no promotion, because 
 they have neither deserved nor qualified themselves 
 for it. 
 
 The entrance to heaven is by divine grace, but 
 the measure of its joy depends on what we make 
 of ourselves here and now. I read the other day of 
 an old man dying at seventy-five who had been an 
 errand boy in one of our mercantile establishments 
 for a period of sixty-four years. Alas for the man 
 who is satisfied to live an ambitionless life, or con- 
 tent to look forward to a low place of service in the 
 kingdom of God ! 
 
 III. It still remains to speak of the third class, the 
 Maximum Christians. 
 
 You know there are such Christians, for you have 
 seen them. Your mother, perhaps, was one. And, 
 thank God, there are many; enough to illustrate the 
 power of the gospel to make character. You respect 
 them ; and you reverence the gospel because they 
 show what it can do. 
 
 They take their belief from the teachings of Christ. 
 Their creed is just as liberal as his was, no less, no 
 more. They see him drawing lines between God and 
 Mammon, between " the sheep and the goats," be- 
 tween Dives and Lazarus, between the world and the 
 Church, between his followers and those who reject 
 him, between the saved and the lost; and they are 
 obliged to draw the same lines whether they like them 
 or not. They want to be liberal and tolerant, and all 
 that: but they cannot be any more tolerant or liberal 
 than their Master was. And in thus living up to their 
 
230 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 name, they commend themselves to your moral sense; 
 you know it is the honest thing to do. 
 
 In their manner of life they adhere as closely as 
 possible to the requirements of the Ten Command- 
 ments and the Golden Rule. The things which would 
 be offensive to Christ they put off; and they put on 
 the graces of his character. Their rule is that of 
 exact obedience. This is not to say that they do not 
 often offend and come short ; they themselves would 
 be the very last to profess perfection. But one thing 
 they do, they put up a brave fight for what they be- 
 lieve to be true and right. They go out full panoplied 
 and resolute against their besetting sins. Now and 
 then you have seen a man, like Jerry McAuley, who 
 has come up out of the slums and set himself to the 
 task of getting the better of his meaner self and his 
 old way of living. Down he went once and again, 
 but never was vanquished. Up again and at it ! They 
 talk about the martyrs ; but what was their courage to 
 that of such men? A flash of the axe, the brief tor- 
 ture of the flames, and all was over. But these go 
 through a long campaign of battles and win out. 
 You reverence and envy such courage as theirs. You 
 cannot help it. 
 
 Still further, such Christians take an active part in 
 the service of Christ. It is not enough for them to 
 build character for themselves ; they do their utmost 
 to save the fallen and bring the wandering back to 
 God. They lend a hand to every Christian enterprise 
 and send up their prayers for all faithful servants 
 who thrust their sickles into God's great harvest. 
 And this they do because they have heard their Mas- 
 ter say three things : first, " The Son of Man is come 
 
PROFESSION AND PRACTICE 231 
 
 to seek and save the lost " ; second, " As the Father 
 hath sent me, so send I you " ; third, " Go." " Go 
 down to thy house and tell what great things the 
 Lord hath done for thee." Go to Bethesda and 
 minister to the cripples in the porches there. Go to 
 Gaza, which is desert. " Go out into the highways 
 and hedges." Go teach the children in the slums. 
 Go to church when the bell rings. Go to your house- 
 hold tasks with joy. " Go speak to that young man." 
 It is enough. His word of command is ultimate. 
 They obey, as Jeremy Taylor says, " without sciscita- 
 tion " ; that is, asking no questions and interposing 
 no objections. They rejoice to do his will. 
 
 What do you think of such church members? Are 
 they to be saved, or not? Ah, you know that if 
 heaven has any gates, they will fly open to these. If 
 God has any mercy, it will embrace them. You may 
 call them " bigots," because they believe precisely 
 what their Lord says. You may call them " Puri- 
 tans," because they live exactly as he requires them 
 to live. You may call them " fanatics," because they 
 run at his nod and beck. But you believe in them; 
 and you believe in the sort of religion which they 
 represent; and in your inmost hearts you know 
 that you would do wisely to possess yourselves 
 of it. 
 
 Now that I have preached a sermon for you who 
 are in the habit of criticising members of the church, 
 I am sure you will not resent it if I address a few 
 personal words to you. If I have fairly represented 
 your feeling in this matter, then you have gone so 
 far that, in all reasonableness and honest logic, you 
 are bound to go a little further with me. 
 
232 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 First, then, you have made it appear that you enter- 
 tain a high conception of the Christian life. 
 
 Alexander Pope said, " A Christian is the highest 
 style of man " ; Adoniram Judson, " A Christian is 
 Jesus Christ's man " ; Paul, " As many as are led by 
 the Spirit of God, these are sons of God " ; and Christ 
 himself, " Ye are my disciples, if ye do whatsoever 
 I command you." You accept these definitions and 
 know precisely what a Christian ought to be. 
 
 You know, secondly, that " other men's failures will 
 never save you." 
 
 For obvious reasons you may take comfort in the 
 fact that a considerable number of those who profess 
 to be Christians are not living as they ought to. But 
 in the Judgment that will be a matter of slight con- 
 sequence to you. The Lord will say, " I died for you, 
 made known to you the gospel of my grace, admon- 
 ished you that the one condition of eternal life was 
 faith in myself as your Saviour from sin, warned you 
 with all possible earnestness that life was probationary 
 and that death would crystallize your character for- 
 ever, and exhorted you again and again to repent, 
 believe and enter in life ; what now have you to say 
 for yourself?" I beg you to consider what sort of 
 an exhibition you would make if, in answer to that 
 question, you were to point your finger at John Doe 
 or Richard Roe and say, " Lord, look at him ! " 
 
 And, thirdly, you have paid tribute to Christ as the 
 Perfect One. 
 
 You agree with the judgment of Pilate and of all 
 history, " I find no fault in him at all." If there were 
 not a single consistent follower of Christ among the 
 hundreds of millions who profess his name, it would 
 
PROFESSION AND PRACTICE 233 
 
 not affect the fact that back of them stands this Per- 
 fect One, chiefest among ten thousand and altogether 
 lovely, able and willing to save unto the uttermost all 
 who will come unto him. 
 
 Fourthly, in view of this admission, your duty is 
 plain. 
 
 By your own acknowledgment the excuse which 
 you make for inaction is a mere subterfuge. You are 
 deceiving yourself; hiding yourself in what Isaiah 
 calls " a refuge of lies." 
 
 And, fifthly, if it is your duty to accept Christ as 
 your Saviour from sin, it is manifestly wrong not to 
 accept him here and now. 
 
 By successive steps you have come into the im- 
 mediate presence of Christ; and he stands before you 
 with his hands stretched out. He asks an immediate 
 decision. Not to decide, is to decide not. The end 
 of your own logic is absolute and immediate surrender 
 to him. 
 
 In the time of our Civil War there was much com- 
 plaint on the part of those who remained at home 
 because the progress of our armies was so slow. The 
 men at the front were spending weary weeks in the 
 Wilderness and in the trenches ; while the carpet- 
 knights were crying, " On to Richmond ! " There 
 was scarcely a civilian who did not indulge in sweep- 
 ing criticisms on the conduct of the war. But when 
 the troops returned, all that was changed. Many of 
 them never came back, their bodies resting in name- 
 less graves; but when the decimated regiments, thin 
 and haggard, tattered and torn, went marching 
 through the village streets, the Home Guards were 
 silent while the Boys in Blue were cheered to the echo. 
 
234 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 How will it be, think you, when the strugglers come 
 up to heaven's gate? What will the Civilians have 
 to say then? It were better to be a high private in 
 the rear rank, one arm in a sling, hobbling on a crutch, 
 wearing a torn and faded uniform, a thousand times 
 better than never to have been in the service at all. 
 
XXII 
 
 STUMBLING-BLOCKS 
 
 In which he has somewhat to say respecting a Stone in the 
 Path. 
 
 Jesus, to his disciples and others: " Woe unto the 
 world because of occasions of stumbling! for it must 
 needs be that the occasions come; but woe to that man 
 through whom the occasion cometh! And if thy hand 
 or thy foot causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it 
 from thee: it is good for thee to enter into life maimed 
 or halt, rather than having two hands or two feet to be 
 cast into the eternal tire. And if thine eye causeth thee 
 to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is good 
 for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than hav- 
 ing two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire. See that 
 ye despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you, 
 that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of 
 my Father who is in heaven." — Matt, xviii, 7-1 1. 
 
 The occasion of our Lord's admonition, " Woe unto 
 the world because of offences," was an act of intoler- 
 ance on the part of some of his disciples, who came 
 to him saying, " Master, we saw one casting out devils 
 in thy name, and he followeth not us; and we forbade 
 him, because he followeth not us." And Jesus said, 
 " Forbid him not : for there is no man which shall 
 do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil 
 of me." He then proceeded to emphasize the impor- 
 tance of helping and not hindering those who are 
 trying to do good. " For whosoever," he said, " shall 
 give you a cup of cold water to drink in my name, 
 
 235 
 
£36 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward ; 
 and whosoever shall offend one of these little ones, 
 it were better for him that a millstone were hanged 
 about his neck and he were cast into the depth of the 
 sea." 
 
 The word here rendered " offence " is skandalon, 
 which we have in our English words scandal and 
 scandalize. Its literal meaning is a stumbling-block. 
 Its significance, in this connection, is due to the fact 
 that life is an uphill journey. One of Christina Ros- 
 setti's poems begins in this way : " Does the road 
 wind up hill all the way ? Yes, to the very end ! " 
 If that be so, how important it is that we should help 
 and not hinder those who, worn and weary at the 
 best, pursue the journey of life. 
 
 " It must needs be that offences come." We often- 
 times do harm and impede the wayfarer without in- 
 tending it. Influence is an automatic thing; it does 
 not ask to be exerted, it exerts itself. No man liveth 
 to himself, and, alas ! no man dieth to himself. It is 
 a serious thing to live, because our lives are so inex- 
 tricably linked with other lives. We are like Alpine 
 climbers, bound to one another, ever helping up or 
 dragging down those who journey with us. 
 
 " But woe to him by whom the offence cometh ! " 
 Let us pause a moment here, lest the matter be pressed 
 too far. You may offend a man's vanity, his igno- 
 rance or his prejudice; which is not a bad thing to do. 
 Light is a stumbling-block to darkness. Truth is an 
 offence to error. It is written of Christ himself that 
 he was " a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence." 
 His preaching was so full of " hard sayings " that he 
 was moved to utter the caveat, " Blessed is he that is 
 
STUMBLING-BLOCKS 237 
 
 not offended in me." His manner of life gave con- 
 stant offence to the bigotry and self-righteousness of 
 his enemies. He made no apology for his disciples 
 when the Pharisees took umbrage at their plucking 
 the wheat as they walked through the fields on the 
 Holy Day. His cross is a perpetual occasion of 
 offence to the ungodly. It is written, " We preach 
 Christ crucified; to the Greeks foolishness and to the 
 Jews a stumbling-block; but to them that are saved, 
 both Jews and Greeks, the wisdom and power of 
 God." 
 
 We conclude that it is no sin, but rather a virtue, 
 to offend the evil propensities of human nature. The 
 sin lies in offending what is right and noble and divine 
 in every man. For no one is so abandoned that he 
 has not scruples and compunctions of conscience and 
 longings for that which is highest and best. See that 
 ye offend not those! It was with this moral sense of 
 humanity in mind that Paul said, with reference to 
 the meats which had been offered on the idol-altars 
 of Corinth, " If meat make my brother to offend, I 
 will eat no meat while the world standeth." Had 
 this abstinence involved the sacrifice of any moral 
 principle on the part of the apostle, it would have 
 been manifestly wrong in him to consent to it ; but 
 inasmuch as his own conscience was not pained by 
 the sacrifice, while the weak consciences of the Chris- 
 tians of Corinth would have been grievously offended 
 by his indulgence, he assumed an attitude of noble 
 self-denial in protesting thus that he was willing to 
 do all, suffer all, surrender all, in their behalf. To 
 persist in any procedure which is wrong in itself, or 
 which, while indifferent per se, gives offence to the 
 
238 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 weak consciences of others, is to antagonize the spirit 
 of Christ. Wilfully, deliberately, persistently to do 
 that which offends the sense of righteousness or hin- 
 ders the spiritual weal of any, is to part company with 
 him who " emptied himself " in the behalf of men. 
 It is the part of those who follow Him to lend a hand 
 to everyone that is toiling up the steep way. As for 
 him who deliberately gives occasion of stumbling, 
 " it were better for him that a millstone were hanged 
 about his neck and he were thrown into the depths 
 of the sea." 
 
 /. A Man may be an Offence to Himself; that is, 
 he may lay stumbling-blocks in his own path. 
 
 A quick temper, a prejudice against truth or sound 
 morals, an evil habit of any sort, may be the obstacle 
 in a man's progress toward the higher life. He may 
 thus " stand in his own light " and be " his own worst 
 enemy." It is such offences that the Lord had in 
 mind when he said, " If thine eye offend thee, pluck 
 it out." The eye of Eve offended her when she 
 looked upon the fruit of the tree and " saw that it was 
 good." The eye of Achan offended him when he 
 looked on the golden wedge and coveted it. The eye 
 of Lot offended him when, seeing that the Valley of 
 Jordan " was well-watered," he proceeded to pitch 
 his tent toward Sodom. If thou hast an envious eye, 
 a wandering eye, a lascivious eye, pluck it out and 
 cast it from thee ; it were better for thee to go blind 
 through life, than having two eyes to be cast into the 
 fire of hell. 
 
 And the Lord continued, " If thy right hand offend 
 thee, cut it off." The hand of Adam offended him 
 when he took of the forbidden fruit and ate it. The 
 
STUMBLING-BLOCKS 239 
 
 hand of Judas offended him when he clutched the 
 price of treachery. The hand of Cranmer offended 
 him when he signed the recantation of his faith. 
 " Burn, thou unworthy hand ! " he cried, as the flames 
 of martyrdom curled about him ; " burn thou un- 
 worthy hand that didst betray me ! " This was in 
 pursuance of the teaching of Jesus : " It is better for 
 thee to enter into life with one hand, than, having two 
 hands, to be cast into the fire of hell." Wherefore let 
 no man place stones of stumbling in his own path, 
 but rather " lay aside every weight and the sin which 
 doth so easily beset him, that he may run with pa- 
 tience the race that is set before him." 
 
 II. The Follozvers of Christ may Offend those who 
 are Without the Church. 
 
 Christians are a watched people. They are " com- 
 passed by a great cloud of witnesses." The galleries 
 are full of those who scrutinize their walk and con- 
 versation ; wherefore, it is of the utmost importance 
 that they should live circumspectly, lest they inad- 
 vertently mislead others. 
 
 They may do this by an assumption of overmuch 
 righteousness. 
 
 It is a serious mistake to give the impression that 
 the Christian life is a monotonous routine of cross- 
 bearing. To follow Christ is, indeed, a serious mat- 
 ter; but it is also the most delightsome thing in the 
 world. " At his right hand are pleasures forever- 
 more." To serve him consistently is to enter into the 
 peace which passeth all understanding. 
 
 Our Lord rebuked the Pharisees for " binding 
 heavy burdens and grievous to be borne," for making 
 the Sabbath intolerable by unnecessary exactions and 
 
240 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 for frowning upon innocent pleasure. A similar 
 charge is made against the Puritans by one of our 
 historians, who says, " The Puritans hated bear-bait- 
 ing, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because 
 it gave pleasure to the spectators." All this is con- 
 trary to the spirit of Christ, who, at the marriage in 
 Cana, turned the water into wine as if to indicate 
 the blessed transformation of duty into pleasure which 
 comes to all who rightly apprehend his interpretation 
 of life. If God is our Father, if Christ has suffered 
 for our salvation, if by faith we have entered into the 
 glorious liberty of the children of God, why should we 
 not make merry and rejoice in him? Tasks there are, 
 great duties and heavy responsibilities; nevertheless 
 his yoke is easy and his burden is light. 
 
 Christians not infrequently give Offence, also, by 
 their Inconsistency. 
 
 It is rumored that there are some whose names 
 are on the church-roll in good and regular standing 
 who do not pay their honest debts ; some who are not 
 strictly honest in business transactions; some whose 
 word is not above question ; some who obliterate the 
 deep-drawn lines which separate between the world 
 and the kingdom of Christ. My brethren, these things 
 ought not so to be. In the reproof which Nathan 
 addressed to David in the matter of Bathsheba he 
 said, " By this deed thou hast given great occasion to 
 the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme." In a like re- 
 proof which Paul addressed to the Roman Christians 
 he says, " Thou therefore which teachest another, 
 teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest that 
 a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that 
 sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou 
 
STUMBLING-BLOCKS 241 
 
 commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols, dost 
 thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast 
 of the law, through breaking of the law dishonorest 
 thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed 
 among the Gentiles through you." 
 
 And Christians offend, also, by their apparent In- 
 difference to the Danger of those who Continue in 
 Sin. 
 
 They profess to believe that the impenitent are un- 
 der the doom of spiritual and eternal death ; yet how 
 often they utter no word of warning and lift no hand 
 to rescue the perishing. The natural inference on the 
 part of their unconverted friends is that they do not 
 really believe in the teaching of their Master as to the 
 inevitable consequences of persistence in sin. It was 
 only yesterday that in this city a fireman climbed to 
 the roof of a burning building and let himself down 
 at peril of his life to save a woman who was clinging 
 to the cornice and crying for help. If Christians 
 mean what they say, such heroism as that should be 
 common among them. But when they refrain not 
 only from strenuous effort, but even from uttering 
 words of warning and entreaty, they place a stone of 
 stumbling in the path of the impenitent as really as 
 if they lifted up their voices to say, " Peace, peace ! " 
 when there is no peace. 
 
 Nevertheless, when all is said with reference to 
 Christian inconsistency, it remains that the impeni- 
 tent are wholly without excuse; since the true exam- 
 ple of godliness is to be found not in Christians, but 
 in Christ himself. We do not set ourselves up as 
 exemplars ; but only as strugglers, doing our best, 
 and quite imperfectly, to attain to a holy life. But 
 
242 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 back of the church and back of all fallible believers 
 stands the Perfect One. The reasonable course is not 
 to look askance at our broken lives, but rather to gaze 
 on him in whose life and character there was no 
 guile. So long as Titian copied the works of Bellini 
 and of Giorgione he was but an indifferent artist ; 
 but when he gave up the imitative method and went 
 out to study nature itself, the fields and mountains, 
 the sunsets and floating clouds, he made himself im- 
 mortal. Why should thinking people turn their eyes 
 on men whose breath is in their nostrils when the 
 Truth incarnate is before them? Ecce Homo! In 
 Christ are all the graces of character and of the 
 nobler life. Look to Jesus, chiefest among ten thou- 
 sand and altogether lovely! 
 
 777. Those who do Not Believe in Christ are in 
 constant danger of Offending his Little Ones. 
 
 So much is said about the inconsistencies of Chris- 
 tians that we are likely to overlook this side of the 
 matter. Yet here was the special reference of Christ: 
 " Woe unto the world because of offences," that is, the 
 stumbling-block which the world is ever placing be- 
 fore the feet of the weak and impressible, the un- 
 sophisticated and unsuspicious. How tenderly and 
 graciously he refers to them as his " little ones." He 
 is very jealous of them and will not suffer them to 
 be wronged with impunity. " Woe to him that 
 offendeth them! It were better for him that a mill- 
 stone were hanged about his neck and he were thrown 
 into the midst of the sea, than that he should offend 
 one of my little ones." 
 
 At the time when this admonition was given, the 
 infant Church was just beginning to suffer from 
 
STUMBLING-BLOCKS 243 
 
 grievous persecution. Thanks to the influence of 
 Christian civilization the era of sword and faggot has 
 passed by. But those who inquire the way to Bethle- 
 hem must still face the finger of derision. In the case 
 of many a man it requires more courage to stand 
 before a burst of laughter than to march to battle in 
 the face of an advancing foe. 
 
 The false teacher has much to answer for. It is 
 not necessary to say, " I do not believe in God " ; 
 simply live as if there were no God and your lesson 
 is taught. You need not say, " I have no faith in 
 prayer," or " I doubt the inspiration of the Scrip- 
 tures " ; refrain from prayer and from reading your 
 Bible, and others will take knowledge of it. You 
 need not join the multitude who lead Christ to Cal- 
 vary with shouts of " Crucify him ! Crucify him ! " 
 Hold yourself aloof from those who accept him as 
 their Lord and Saviour, and your attitude will be 
 perfectly clear. It is not necessary for one who 
 would destroy his neighbor's garden to break through 
 and tear up the fragrant plants; let him merely toss 
 a handful of thistle-seed aloft and the wind will do 
 the rest. 
 
 In any case, the force of silent example is a savor 
 of life unto life or of death unto death. A farmer on 
 his way from the house to the stable on a snowy 
 morning hears a voice behind him calling, " I'm com- 
 ing right along, Papa," and looking back he sees his 
 little son lifting his feet and carefully planting them 
 in his footprints. Thus, no man liveth unto himself. 
 Our children, our friends and neighbors, are coming 
 " right along after us." See, therefore, that ye offend 
 them not. A man may be willing to take his own 
 
244 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 chances in denying truth and living an unholy life, 
 but let him ponder well the fact that he is the centre 
 of a coterie ; that he is living or dying for others ; 
 that his children's children are coming after him. 
 
 But there is a positive side to all this. If by virtue 
 of the silent, tremendous, self-propagating power of 
 influence we are ever in danger of injuring others, by 
 the same token we may be constantly doing good. It 
 is for me to say whether my hand shall lay the stone 
 in the path or be stretched forth to help. Blessed be 
 God, there are multitudes of people who are uncon- 
 sciously making their lives a blessing to all. 
 
 In our Museum of Art there is a picture by Gabriel 
 Max called " The Last Token." A maiden stands in 
 the arena, awaiting death for her devotion to Christ. 
 On her left is a group of lions sated with flesh and 
 unconcerned; on her right a ravenous beast with eyes 
 aflame is just issuing from its cage. The galleries are 
 filled with eager spectators. At the feet of the young 
 martyr a rose has fallen from above. She stands with 
 her hand upon a pillar, and her eyes, soon to be closed 
 on earthly scenes, lifted to the balconies. They are 
 searching for the hand that has dropped this token of 
 kindness at her feet. Thank God, such simple deeds 
 are possible to all. 
 
 There are many about us whose temptations are 
 greater than they can bear and whose burdens are 
 breaking their hearts. Friends, lend a hand! Put 
 yourselves into a position where your influence will 
 tell. Come over on the Lord's side and follow him, of 
 whom it is written, " He went about doing good." 
 Bind up the wounds of the man who has fallen on the 
 Bloody Way ; put the cup of cold water to thirsty lips ; 
 
STUMBLING-BLOCKS 245 
 
 speak the word in due season, which is like apples of 
 gold in pitchers of silver. Live so well that you shall 
 be blessing others, oftentimes without knowing it. 
 
 O the world is full of sighs, 
 Full of sad and weepings eyes ; 
 Help your fallen brother rise, 
 While the days are going by! 
 
XXIII 
 
 THE MISTAKES OF A PHARISEE 
 
 In which he puts a Respectable Gentleman to shame in the 
 presence of a Woman of the Town. 
 
 And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would 
 eat with him. And he entered into the Pharisee's house, 
 and sat down to meat. And behold, a woman who was 
 in the city, a sinner; and when she knew that he was 
 sitting at meat in the Pharisee's house, she brought an 
 alabaster cruse of ointment, and standing behind at his 
 feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, 
 and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed 
 his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. 
 
 The Pharisee, within himself: " This man, if he were 
 a prophet, would have perceived who and what manner 
 of woman this is that toucheth him, that she is a sinner." 
 
 Jesus: "Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee." 
 
 The Pharisee: "Teacher, say on." 
 
 Jesus: "A certain lender had two debtors: the one 
 owed five hundred shillings, the other fifty. When they 
 had not wherewith to pay, he forgave them both. Which 
 of them, therefore, will love him most?" 
 
 The Pharisee: "He, I suppose, to whom he forgave 
 the most." 
 
 Jesus: " Thou hast rightly judged." — Luke vii, 36-50. 
 
 The scene is in the home of a Jewish gentleman at 
 Nain. He is entertaining a company of friends at 
 dinner ; and Jesus is among them. His invitation was 
 due, in all likelihood, to the prevailing interest in his 
 Messianic claims. The host, as a loyal Jew, shared in 
 the general expectancy of the coming of One " whom 
 
 246 
 
THE MISTAKES OF A PHARISEE 247 
 
 kings and prophets longed to see, and died without 
 the sight." Jesus had been heralded as the Messiah, 
 and his own averment was positive and unequivocal: 
 " I that speak unto thee am he." Nor was this claim 
 without distinctive and singular proofs. On the one 
 hand, he displayed a pre-eminent insight into the 
 spiritual mysteries and a supreme mastery in the art 
 of presenting them to the average man. During his 
 itinerary among the towns and villages of Galilee the 
 people had flocked in multitudes to hear him ; and they 
 were agreed in their judgment that never man spake 
 like this man. On the other hand he had buttressed 
 his position as an aspirant to Messianic honors by 
 many wonderful works of healing. 
 
 It was but yesterday that he came to Nain, though 
 his fame had preceded him. At the entrance of the 
 town he wrought a miracle which was the current 
 theme of conversation. A young man was being car- 
 ried to his burial, of whom it is written, " He was 
 the only son of his mother, and she was a widow." 
 Life and death met face to face in the gateway. Jesus, 
 seeing the woman bowed under the burden of her 
 grief, had compassion upon her. He approached the 
 bier and said with quiet authority, " Young man, I say 
 unto thee, Arise 1 " whereupon the dead returned to 
 life. And Jesus " delivered him to his mother." It 
 was a miracle so manifest, so stupendous, that all who 
 saw it glorified God, saying, " A great prophet is risen 
 among us ! " 
 
 Simon the Pharisee must have heard of this occur- 
 rence, and had been impressed no doubt by the 
 supernatural wisdom and power which it evinced; 
 but he belonged to a class of Jews who, as yet, were 
 
248 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 holding their decision in abeyance concerning- Jesus. 
 He cherished " the Hope of Israel " ; his mind, as he 
 supposed, was open to conviction; and it was prob- 
 ably for the purpose of resolving his uncertainty that 
 he had invited the Nazarene Prophet to his hospitable 
 board. 
 
 In the course of the dinner an incident occurred 
 which precipitated his decision. The guests were re- 
 clining on couches about the table, according to cus- 
 tom, and their eyes were fastened on Jesus while he 
 discoursed on things pertaining to the spiritual life. 
 The contrast between the Pharisee and his plebeian 
 guest must have been striking : the former was arrayed 
 in a long robe with wide fringes, phylacteries on his 
 forearm and a frontlet between his eyes on which was 
 written, " Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one 
 Lord ! " while the latter wore homespun, quite out of 
 keeping with the sumptuous surroundings of this ele- 
 gant home. Yet he was the observed of all observers, 
 as in simple words he opened up the mysteries of 
 truth. 
 
 In the midst of his discourse a woman entered the 
 open courtyard and slowly climbed the veranda steps, 
 as if under the burden of some heavy grief. She 
 passed through the open doors into the triclinium, 
 and making her way to the couch on which Jesus re- 
 clined, drew from her bosom an alabaster box of oint- 
 ment, with which she anointed his feet, weeping mean- 
 while, and wiping his feet with her loosened hair. 
 
 It was little wonder that Simon and his guests were 
 shocked at this proceeding, not only because all pub- 
 lic intercourse between the sexes was proscribed under 
 Jewish custom, but because the woman was notorious. 
 
THE MISTAKES OF A PHARISEE 249 
 
 Such effrontery as this — in broad daylight — at a ban- 
 quet — the like was never seen ! Simon was amazed 
 that Jesus apparently did not know the character of 
 this woman, did not know that her very name was a 
 hissing and a byword. He was indignant that such a 
 violation of the proprieties should have occurred in his 
 respectable home; and was shocked beyond measure 
 that one reputed to be a prophet should accept in si- 
 lence the touch of her polluted hands and the blister- 
 ing baptism of her guilty tears. The question of the 
 Messiahship of Jesus was, to his mind, settled then 
 and there. " It could not be," said Simon within him- 
 self, " that one who fellowshipped with sinners in 
 this manner was the Christ of God." 
 
 And Jesus, knowing his thought, answered it on 
 this wise : " Simon, I have somewhat to say unto 
 thee." — " Rabbi, say on." — " There was a certain 
 creditor which had two debtors; the one owed five 
 hundred pence, the other fifty; and when they had 
 nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell 
 me, therefore, which of them will love him most ? " — 
 In a tone of mingled contempt and indifference, 
 Simon said, " I suppose he to whom he forgave most." 
 To which Jesus answered, " Thou hast rightly 
 judged." Then, turning to the woman, he continued, 
 " Simon, sees't thou this woman ? I entered into thy 
 house; thou gavest me no water for my feet (the 
 ordinary courtesy of hospitality), but she hath washed 
 my feet with tears and wiped them with her hair. 
 Thou gavest me no kiss (the customary salutation of 
 a host) ; but this woman has not ceased to kiss my 
 feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint ; but she 
 hath anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I 
 
250 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 say unto thee, Her sins which are many are forgiven ; 
 for she hath loved much." Then to the woman he 
 said, " Thy sins be forgiven thee." Whereupon the 
 guests began to murmur within themselves, saying, 
 " Who is this that forgiveth sins, also ? " But giving 
 no heed, he said to the woman, " Thy faith hath 
 saved thee; go in peace." 
 
 A strong light is here thrown upon the inner life 
 and character of Simon. He was a wise man in his 
 generation, no doubt; but he was so moved by preju- 
 dice as to be quite disabled for a just consideration 
 and determination of the matter in hand. 
 
 In the first place, Simon was totally Mistaken as to 
 Christ. 
 
 At the moment when he was saying within himself, 
 " This so-called prophet is an impostor, else he would 
 know the character of this woman," the eyes of Jesus 
 were searching him through and through. 
 
 " Shall he who with transcendent skill 
 Fashioned the eye and formed the ear, 
 Who moulded nature to His will, 
 Shall he not see, shall he not hear?" 
 
 Oh, those eyes of the Lord ! They " run to and fro 
 throughout the whole earth, beholding the evil and 
 the good." All things are naked and open before 
 them. A man once undertook to escape from those 
 eyes and left his experience on record thus : " O Lord, 
 thou hast searched me and known me ! Thou knowest 
 my downsitting and mine uprising; thou understand- 
 est my thought afar off! Thou compassest my path 
 and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my 
 ways! Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or 
 
THE MISTAKES OF A PHARISEE 251 
 
 whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend 
 up into heaven, thou art there ; if I make my bed in 
 hell, behold, thou art there ! If I take the wings of 
 the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the 
 sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right 
 hand shall hold me ! If I say, Surely the darkness 
 shall cover me; even the night shall be light about 
 me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the 
 night shineth as the day; the darkness and the light 
 are both alike to thee" (Psalm cxxxix). 
 
 The reason why Simon supposed that Christ did 
 not know the true character of this woman was 
 because no discrimination was made against her on 
 account of her flagrant sins. His thought was pre- 
 cisely that of those Pharisees who, on another occa- 
 sion, brought a woman of like repute to Jesus, saying, 
 " Moses in the law requireth that such as she shall 
 be stoned ; but what sayest thou ? " And what did he 
 say ? " Go and sin no more ! " 
 
 In his heart Simon was saying, " This is a strange 
 perversion of justice." He was right, so far forth as 
 wisdom is the basis of justice. But it was because 
 Christ discriminated so wisely that he pardoned so 
 utterly, in this case. We personify Justice as a 
 woman wearing a hoodwink over her eyes, with 
 scales in one hand and a sword in the other. Both 
 the scales and the sword are in the hands of Jesus. 
 He weighs the thoughts and actions of men, but, on 
 occasion, arrests the uplifted sword. He can do this 
 consistently with justice, because Justice is satisfied 
 by his vicarious expiation of the sinner's sin. It is 
 as if he said to this woman, " Be of good cheer ! I 
 know the horror of thy past life; but, behold, I bare 
 
252 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 my shoulders to the scourge that thou mayest be 
 healed by my stripes. Wherefore, thy sins, which are 
 many, are forgiven thee." 
 
 In the second place Simon was greatly Mistaken as 
 to this Woman. 
 
 He was right in thinking her to be a great sinner. 
 This was matter of common fame. Was she not " a 
 woman of the town " ? Nevertheless, the difference 
 between her and her respectable censor was not a vital 
 one, since " all have sinned and come short of the 
 glory of God." Sin is a question not of quality nor 
 of quantity, but of simple fact. It is true there are 
 great and little sins. A pirate swinging from the 
 yard-arm is a greater malefactor than a pickpocket 
 in the Tombs ; but both are alike in their alienation 
 from God. And that is the matter of vital importance 
 after all. Sin is " trespass " or " transgression." 
 When a trespasser has once leaped God's fence it 
 matters little, so far as the law and its consequences 
 are concerned, how far he goes afield. The essence 
 of sin is lese-majeste, whether the sinner be captain 
 in command of the rebel troop or a mere private in 
 the ranks. Nor is there any material difference, in 
 the last reduction, between vulgar and respectable 
 sinners, or between those who are in Sing Sing and 
 those who are out of it. The thing to be emphasized 
 is that sin means separation from God. The Hudson 
 River is to all intents and purposes as wide as the 
 Atlantic when a mother is on one side and her child 
 on the other and there is neither bridge nor boat 
 wherewith to cross it. 
 
 In the problem as it presented itself to the mind of 
 Simon there was one factor of which he took no 
 
THE MISTAKES OF A PHARISEE 253 
 
 cognizance ; namely, the woman's penitence ; while 
 this, to the mind of Jesus, was the determining factor. 
 It is placed in alto relievo in one of his parables : 
 
 "Two went to pray: or rather say, 
 One went to brag, the other went to pray. 
 
 "One stands up close and treads on high, 
 Where the other dare not lift his eye. 
 
 " One nearer to God's altar trod, 
 The other to the altar's God." 
 
 At the gateway of the Parthenon in Athens was an 
 altar dedicated to Tears. No sacrifices were con- 
 sumed nor votive offerings placed upon it ; but the 
 sorrowing bowed there and wept out their sorrows. 
 It was the shadowing forth of a great truth ; to wit, 
 " The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit ; a broken 
 and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise " 
 (Psalm li, 17). Dearer to God than all the misereres 
 of the chanting Pharisees is the cry of the returning 
 prodigal. He sees him bowed with penitence and 
 goes out to meet him while he is yet a great way off. 
 
 At the close of the twelfth century Richard, son of 
 Henry II, conspired against his father and took refuge 
 in a walled city, to which the king laid siege. In the 
 course of the campaign Richard was wounded unto 
 death ; and, being overwhelmed with contrition, sent a 
 messenger to his father asking that he might be per- 
 mitted to see his face. His request was refused. Once 
 and again he sent his humble appeal in vain. At 
 length a procession passed through the gateway of 
 the city under a flag of truce bearing the dying prince 
 upon a stretcher ; but ere it reached the royal pavilion 
 
254 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 he had breathed his last. As the bearers waited there, 
 they heard from within a strong cry like that of 
 David, " O Richard, my son, my son ; would God I 
 had died for thee ! " The Lord with whom we have 
 to do makes no such mistakes. He knows the deep 
 secrets of the heart ; and where there is true peni- 
 tence he has sworn by himself that he will not re- 
 ject it. 
 
 In the third place Simon was Mistaken in his Judg- 
 ment as to Himself. 
 
 He believed himself to be a righteous man. He 
 was, in truth, an adherent of the most orthodox school 
 of believers of his time; was no doubt scrupulous to 
 the last degree in his observance of the Ceremonial 
 Law; fasted, placed his sacrifices on the altar, paid 
 tithes of mint, anise and cummin. But lip service does 
 not avail with God. It was to men of this school that 
 Jesus said, " Woe unto you, hypocrites ! Ye are as 
 whited sepulchres; fair without, but within full of 
 dead men's bones and all uncleanness ! " 
 
 No sin is more offensive to Christ than self-right- 
 eousness. It is noticeable that in his teachings he was 
 ever more considerate of great sinners than of those 
 who, leaning on their own righteousness, thought 
 themselves to be accepted before God. The man who 
 beats upon his breast, crying, " God, be merciful ! " 
 goes down to his house justified rather than he who 
 parades his own worthiness. 
 
 There are two kinds of righteousness; and the line 
 is drawn clearly between them. " I bear them record," 
 says Paul, speaking of men like Simon, " that they 
 have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 
 For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and 
 
THE MISTAKES OF A PHARISEE 255 
 
 going about to establish their own righteousness, have 
 not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. 
 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to 
 every one that believeth " (Rom. x, 1-4). The only 
 merit which makes us presentable before God is that 
 which is imputed to us in Christ. This is the wedding 
 garment which has been provided gratis for all who 
 come to the marriage of the King's Son ; it is of " fine 
 linen, clean and white ; which is the righteousness of 
 saints." But there are those who, like this Pharisee, 
 prefer to come in their own tinsel robes of personal 
 desert; and a great disappointment awaits them, since 
 it is a true saying, " All our righteousnesses are as 
 filthy rags" (Matt, xxii, 1-13). 
 
 By combining the foregoing Mistakes of Simon, we 
 find that his great, comprehensive Mistake was as to 
 the Divine Plan of Salvation. 
 
 This salvation is indeed based on merit; but it is 
 the merit of Christ imputed to the sinner by faith and 
 covering all his sins. The wages of sin is death, in 
 every instance ; the errand of Jesus was to avert this 
 doom by lifting the ban for all who should believe in 
 him. 
 
 The sole condition is faith. Jesus said to this 
 woman, " Thy faith hath saved "thee." It is important 
 that we should understand precisely what faith is, 
 when reduced to its simplest terms. It is nothing 
 more nor less than acceptance of Christ. No intellec- 
 tual belief or outward observance of rites and cere- 
 monies can save us. A tunic on a nail never kept 
 anybody warm ; it must be put on. So is it with the 
 righteousness of Christ; we receive it by receiving 
 him. 
 
CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 And all the rest is love. " Her sins which are 
 many are forgiven her; for she hath loved much." 
 The " for " in this case is not causative, but illative ; 
 it might have been rendered " wherefore," but the 
 distinction is of slight moment, since faith and love go 
 arm in arm. They are born at the same moment, 
 quickened by the same breath of life and almost indis- 
 tinguishable in form and feature. Faith looks into 
 the face of Jesus ; love reposes on his breast. Faith 
 kisses his feet; love goes following in his steps. But 
 both are one in bringing the soul into oneness with 
 God. A loving faith is what saves us. 
 
 It was on this very day, probably, that Jesus had 
 said, while preaching in Nain, " Come unto me all ye 
 that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
 rest." And this woman, in all likelihood, had heard 
 it. What an evangel was this to her burdened soul ! 
 She looked on Jesus, and two things happened then 
 and there ; she believed on him, and she loved him. 
 Faith saved her on the instant; and ever after love 
 constrained her. The anointing, the tears, the bleed- 
 ing heart, the joy of pardon, were the expression of a 
 loving faith in him. 
 
 Then the benediction : " Go in peace ! " The prepo- 
 sition is rather " into " than " in " ; as if to indicate 
 that she was crossing the border from one country into 
 another. Out of the old life into the new. She had 
 known what guilty pleasure was ; henceforth she 
 should know the peace of God. And this is the great 
 bequest of Christ. It was not long ere this Preacher 
 of Nain went through the little wicket gate through 
 which we all must pass; and what did he leave? A 
 million? Nay; nothing but a homespun suit, well 
 
THE MISTAKES OF A PHARISEE 257 
 
 worn, a saw and hammer long disused in his carpenter 
 shop, and an empty wallet. Nothing more? Ah, yes; 
 infinitely more ! " Peace I leave with you ; my peace 
 give I unto you, not as the world maketh its bequests ; 
 let not your heart be troubled ! " Blessed inheritance ! 
 Secured for us at what a cost ! And of what immeas- 
 urable and eternal worth ! Have we entered into that 
 inheritance? The peace of God that passeth all under- 
 standing be ours ; peace, " eternal, sacred, sure ! " 
 
XXIV 
 
 FREEDOM 
 
 In which he brings an unexpected Bar-sinister to the Atten- 
 tion of certain well-born Jews. 
 
 Jesus, to certain Jews: "If ye abide in my word, then 
 are ye truly my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, 
 and the truth shall make you free." 
 
 Jews: " We are Abraham's seed, and have never yet 
 been in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be 
 made free?" 
 
 Jesus: " Verily, verily, I say unto you, Every one that 
 committeth sin is the bondservant of sin. And the bond- 
 servant abideth not in the house for ever: the son abideth 
 for ever. If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye 
 shall be free indeed." — John viii, 31-36. 
 
 Dryden says, " The love of liberty with life is 
 given." So common is this sentiment that it would 
 seem to be a divine keepsake or remembrancer of the 
 sovereign will with which we were endowed when cre- 
 ated in the likeness of God. It matters little how far 
 a man may have fallen from his original estate, he is 
 still, to use a paradoxical phrase, bound to be free. 
 The poet Moore says, 
 
 I'd rather dwell in Freedom's Hall 
 
 With a cold, damp floor and a mouldering wall, 
 
 Than to bow the head and bend the knee 
 
 In the proudest palace of slavery. 
 
 But why, then, do we love sin? There is a singu- 
 
 258 
 
FREEDOM 259 
 
 lar incongruity between the love of freedom and the 
 love of sin. For sin is bondage ; as Christ says, 
 " Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of 
 sin." This is not a figure of speech, but the statement 
 of a fact which should be obvious to all. In the whole 
 world there is not a living man in his right mind who 
 does not have the witness of personal experience to 
 the fact that he himself is a sinner, and the testimony 
 of observation that his fellow-men are all in the same 
 category. Paul says, " There is no difference ; all 
 have sinned and come short of the glory of God." And 
 God says, " There is none that doeth good, no, not 
 one." 
 
 The sinner is bound with a chain of five links. The 
 first of these is Tendency. 
 
 This used to be called " original sin " ; but, owing to 
 a new fashion in terminology, it is now referred to as 
 " heredity." Call it whatever you please, the fact 
 stands thus, " The fathers have eaten sour grapes and 
 the children's teeth are set on edge." And, singu- 
 larly enough, this proverb, once so stoutly antagon- 
 ized as a theological dogma, is universally accepted 
 as a scientific proposition in these days. 
 
 The second link of the chain is Indulgence. 
 
 We suffer retribution not because of original but 
 of actual sin (Ezekiel xviii, 1-4). If a man were to 
 commit one sin and quit, that of itself would be suffi- 
 cient to alienate him from God; since sin is Use- 
 majeste and " whosoever shall keep the whole law and 
 yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all." 
 In the early annals of our country there was no braver 
 soldier than Benedict Arnold, who distinguished him- 
 self under the walls of Quebec and in many of the 
 
260 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 battles of our Revolutionary War; but a single act of 
 treason at length so wholly obliterated his patriotic 
 record that his portrait in the Military Academy at 
 West Point has its face turned toward the wall. 
 
 The third link is Habit. 
 
 " Sin doth breed habit in a man." An eagle that 
 had for years been tethered to a stake became so ac- 
 customed to its restraint that, after its chain was 
 broken, it still kept going round and round in its for- 
 mer circle; so that it was found necessary to push it 
 beyond the length of its tether before it would spread 
 its wings and soar into the air. It has been wisely 
 said that men are " kings in the liberty of choice, but 
 slaves as to the consequence of it." And again, 
 
 " Habits are soon acquired ; 
 But when we strive to strip them off 'tis being flayed alive." 
 
 The fourth link is Character. 
 
 Character is a mere bundle of habits. A man's 
 moral value is the sum total of his thoughts and acts. 
 In the philosophy of Peter the problem of Morality is 
 solved by a simple process in addition (II. Pet. i, 5-8). 
 And, conversely, an evil character is made by adding 
 one sin to another; so that by continuance in trans- 
 gression we constantly increase the hopelessness of 
 our condition. This fixity of character is set forth in 
 a picture in the Louvre representing Bacchus riding 
 on a panther at a furious pace. You will find this, in 
 concrete form, in the story of any person who has per- 
 sistently given way to one or more besetting sins. A 
 boy who stood in the doorway of Tarn O'Shanter's 
 inn at Ayr, a hundred years ago, listening to the merry 
 jests of " Souter Johnny," consented to take a social 
 
FREEDOM 261 
 
 glass with him. He little thought what the outcome 
 would be. As time passed he repeated the glass, 
 until, not infrequently, he went reeling back from Ayr 
 to the little cottage at Alloway. Had you remon- 
 strated with him, he would doubtless have answered, 
 " Pooh, pooh ! I can take it or let it alone." But 
 before he had passed the meridian of manhood he 
 found himself so bound that he was constrained to 
 say, " Were a barrel of rum in yonder corner of the 
 room with a loaded cannon guarding it, and if I knew 
 that I should be blown to atoms in the attempt, I 
 would go to that barrel of rum." Poor Robert Burns ! 
 Is there anything sadder than the words in the dedi- 
 cation of his last book? 
 
 " Reader, attend ; whether thy soul 
 Soar Fancy's flight beyond the Pole, 
 Or darkling grub this narrow hole 
 In low pursuit; 
 
 Know prudent, cautious self-control 
 Is wisdom's root ! " 
 
 Let it not be supposed, however, that inebriety is 
 the chiefest or most enthralling of sins. It is most 
 likely to be shunned by self-respecting people because 
 it stands forth to the public view naked in its shame. 
 But there are many who congratulate themselves on 
 their utter abhorrence and avoidance of such vulgar 
 vices as drunkenness and open sensuality who yet 
 yield themselves as willing servitors to pride, envy, 
 avarice, worldliness, secret impurity, unbelief, malevo- 
 lence or selfishness in some of its various forms. They 
 may never make the acquaintance of the jail or the 
 gutter, may clothe themselves in purple and fine linen, 
 
262 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 provoke envy among' their fellows and sleep finally 
 under a monument with a Latin epitaph upon it ; they 
 are bound hand and foot, nevertheless, as bondslaves 
 of sin. It is true that all sins are not equally heinous ; 
 but all alike are hateful to God; and the most polite 
 and respectable are oftentimes most specious in their 
 approach, most enslaving in their cumulative influence 
 and most disastrous in their latter end. 
 
 The last link of the chain is Destiny. 
 
 The story runs on this wise: Tendency breeds In- 
 dulgence, Indulgence breeds Habit, Habit breeds 
 Character, Character breeds Destiny. " The wages of 
 sin is death," spiritual and eternal death. 
 
 And here is another marvel, a strange moral incon- 
 gruity : that men should be afraid of hell and yet per- 
 sist in sin. It can only be accounted for by the fact 
 that sin carries an atmosphere of delusion with it. Sin 
 blinds as it binds, so that its most hopeless victims 
 are those who think themselves most free. The Jews 
 to whom Jesus said " The truth shall make you free," 
 retorted with some heat, " We be Abraham's seed, 
 and were never in bondage to any man; how sayest 
 thou then, Ye shall be made free ? " They wholly mis- 
 apprehended his meaning; but taking their own view 
 of the matter, they were mistaken and should have 
 known it. In the vicissitudes of their national life the 
 Jews had been subjugated again and again. Had they 
 forgotten Egypt, with its tale of bricks and whip of 
 scorpions? Had they forgotten Babylon, where they 
 " hung their harps on the willows and wept when they 
 remembered Zion " ? Or were they oblivious of the 
 fact that at this very time they were groaning under 
 the tyranny of Rome? But this was not what Jesus 
 
FREEDOM 263 
 
 referred to: he had in mind the far more cruel and 
 hopeless bondage of sin. 
 
 The probability is, however, that had they known 
 his real meaning they would have answered in the 
 same way. The delusion is due primarily to a mis- 
 understanding of the definition of freedom. The com- 
 mon view is that it means exemption from restraint; 
 as Milton says, 
 
 "License they mean when they cry Liberty: 
 They bawl for freedom in their senseless mood, 
 And still revolt when Truth would set them free." 
 
 Which is freer, the comet that whizzes aimlessly 
 through space or the planet that wheels in its normal 
 orbit, never deviating a hair's breath through countless 
 ages? 
 
 Which is freer, the locomotive that leaps the track 
 and ditches itself, or the one that honors the law of 
 its being by proceeding on the rails provided for it? 
 
 So, then, freedom is not the absence of restraint, 
 but " perfect obedience to perfect law." This is true 
 in society as in nature. " There is nothing situate 
 under heaven's eye but hath its bounds in earth, in sea, 
 in sky." 
 
 The " Free-lances " of the olden time were men who 
 marched and fought with no rules of service or leader 
 in commission, thinking themselves to be " free " be- 
 cause they pursued their own sweet will. 
 
 The freebooters or " filibusters " of the seventeenth 
 century were sailors who had no regard for marine 
 regulations ; " sea wolves preying on the commerce 
 of the world." Byron's Corsair sings, 
 
264 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 " O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea, 
 Our thoughts are boundless and our souls are free ! " 
 
 In like manner there are so-called " free-thinkers " 
 in our time who disregard all the rules that should 
 control the processes of thought, cast away their 
 Bibles, plunge into all manner of intellectual absurdi- 
 ties and boast of liberty; as did Theodore Parker 
 when he said, " I will not receive this proposition on 
 the authority of any such person as God." 
 
 And there are free-livers, too, many and every- 
 where. You may find them in their last estate in our 
 slums and " Tenderloins," doing as .they please. They 
 are not restrained by any trammels of social life, by 
 marital bonds, by statutes and ordinances. They are 
 self-pleasers. " I care for nobody ; no, not I : and no- 
 body cares for me." They are alike indifferent to the 
 laws of society, the laws of the State and the laws of 
 God. 
 
 Is this freedom? God save the mark! This is 
 license, " the full corn in the ear." This is sin ripened 
 into Character. In all the world there is nothing 
 more pitiable than the sight of such bondage. It is 
 worse than to be a galley slave, scourged to his dun- 
 geon. It is worse than to be a " plantation hand," tied 
 to the stake and shrinking under the cat-o'-nine-tails. 
 It is worse, unspeakably, because it is so hopelessly 
 voluntary. Let " Ichabod " be written upon the fore- 
 head of a man when he no longer cares to be free. 
 
 But Christ the Emancipator comes this way. At 
 the very outset of his ministry he enters the synagogue 
 at Nazareth and opens the book where it is written, 
 " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me ; because he 
 
FREEDOM 265 
 
 hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, to 
 heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the 
 captives, to set at liberty them that are bruised." And 
 he adds, " To-day is this Scripture fulfilled in your 
 ears!" 
 
 Christus Liberator! He comes to break every chain 
 and bid the oppressed go free. He does this, to begin 
 with, by pardoning the mislived past. " There is, 
 therefore, no more condemnation to them that are in 
 Christ Jesus." No more of the " certain fearful- 
 looking-for of judgment." Is it nothing to be deliv- 
 ered, thus, from memories that pursue us like wraiths 
 and hinder us in the pursuit of better things? No 
 man can call himself free who drags behind him an 
 ever-lengthening chain. Life is a " race set before 
 us," and the way to begin it is to disencumber one's 
 self. No one can venture hopefully on the work of 
 character-building who does not, at the outset, take 
 advantage of the overtures of divine mercy for the 
 cleansing from sin. 
 
 But this is not all. Christ not only pardons; he 
 enfranchises. Pardon is merely a laying aside ; but 
 the divine enfranchisement is a girdle about the loins. 
 The younger son in the Parable, who chafed under the 
 parental authority at home, was of the opinion that 
 if he could get away into the country he would be 
 free. He crossed the hills, accordingly, and for a 
 time did as he pleased ; wasting his substance in riot- 
 ous living, until his false conception of liberty bore its 
 normal fruit and he " went into the fields to feed 
 swine." Here he discovered the fact that there is a 
 tremendous difference between license and liberty; 
 and, coming to himself, he said, " I will arise and go 
 
266 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 to my father's house." On the way he composed an 
 address : " I will say to my father, I am no more 
 worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy 
 hired servants." But servitude at home was out of 
 the question. His father came out, while he was yet 
 a great way off, to meet him and interrupted his pre- 
 pared speech with a call to his servants, " Bring forth 
 the best robe, and put it on him ; and put a ring on 
 his hand, and shoes on his feet ! " The robe was a 
 token of restoration to the privileges of the home ; as 
 it is written, " I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, for 
 he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation." 
 The signet ring was a token of restoration to the heir- 
 ship ; as it is written, " If a son, then an heir ; an heir 
 of God and a joint heir with Christ." But the shoes 
 were the token of enfranchisement: for the slaves of 
 those times went barefoot. The son was now entitled 
 to all the privileges of the father's house. Free at 
 last ! Free to make for himself a new record of char- 
 acter, since the story of the past was blotted out. 
 
 But, alas ! we are not there yet. We are still strug- 
 gling against our fetters. No one knows this better 
 than our critics, the " children in the market place," 
 who, to our discomfiture, constantly observe and not 
 infrequently remark upon the remnants of sin abiding 
 in us. 
 
 But we have started out. We are on the way. And 
 there is a vast difference between a man who rests con- 
 tent in his bondage and one who is a fugitive from 
 bonds. The slave who fled from his Southern master, 
 in slavery days, had to make his way through the Dis- 
 mal Swamp, with the bloodhounds baying on his 
 track. If at length, travelling by night and hiding all 
 
FREEDOM 267 
 
 day, he succeeded in crossing Mason and Dixon's line, 
 he was not yet free ; since the decision of Justice Taney 
 made it imperative that the people of the Northern 
 States should restore the runaway. But on he went, 
 following the North Star, till at length he crossed the 
 Canada line ; then, thank God, he was free ! You 
 will find the counterpart of this in Paul's experience 
 where he says, " I see a law in my members warring 
 against the law of my mind, and bringing me into 
 captivity to the law of sin. O wretched man that I 
 am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this 
 death?" But the next word is a word of triumph: 
 " I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord ! " 
 
 Aye, the full deliverance will come at last through 
 him. In our translation to the Better Country it 
 shall be said of our sins as Moses said of the Egyp- 
 tians at the crossing of the Red Sea, " Stand still and 
 see the salvation of the Lord! For as to these Egyp- 
 tians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them no 
 more forever ! " The long struggle will be over ; and 
 the reward promised to the overcomer shall be ours: 
 " I will write upon him the name of the City of my 
 God." The freedom of the heavenly city ! 
 
 What a day that will be when we shall sing like 
 Israel, " Thou hast brought forth the people whom 
 thou hast redeemed ! " No more sin, no more short- 
 coming, no more chafing of the weary chain. Our 
 joy will be like that of the people of San Domingo, 
 who, waiting long to hear the result of the Abolition 
 Bill in the House of Commons, saw at length a signal 
 waving from the masthead of an approaching vessel, 
 and sent the shout echoing over the island, " Free, 
 free, all free ! " 
 
268 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 But do we want it? Or do we prefer to remain in 
 bondage? Alas, the misery of the situation is, that 
 the sinner is wedded to his sin, like the prisoner of 
 Chillon, who dwelt so long in his dungeon that he 
 conceived an affection for it : 
 
 "And when they came to set me free, 
 I asked not why and recked not where; 
 It was at length the same to me, 
 Fettered or fetterless to be; 
 I learned to love despair! 
 
 • » 
 
 With spiders I had friendship made 
 And watched them in their solemn trade 
 
 My very chains and I grew friends— 
 So much a long communion tends 
 To make us what we are — even I 
 Regained my freedom with a sigh ! " 
 
 But freedom is offered by divine grace to every 
 man who really cares for it. The Liberator comes to 
 the prison-house with key in hand. This is the key, 
 " He that believeth shall enter into life." There is a 
 little window in the door of the dungeon called " Op- 
 portunity," through which the prisoner may take this 
 key and open the door if he will. Is not that enough ? 
 Nay, then the Liberator will do more : he will himself 
 turn the key and throw wide the door. Come forth ! 
 Is not that enough? Nay, then, the prisoner shall be 
 without excuse. The Liberator offers his hand, a 
 helping hand. Will the bondman take it? Let the 
 sinner clasp hands with Christ, and he shall straight- 
 way be led forth out of the bondage of sin into the 
 glorious liberty of the children of God. 
 
XXV 
 IN SIGHT OF HEAVEN 
 
 In which a Man who has reached the Threshold of the 
 Kingdom is urged to take one more Step. 
 
 One of the Scribes: "What commandment is the first 
 of all? " 
 
 Jesus: " The first is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our 
 God, the Lord is one: and thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
 all thy mind, and with all thy strength. The second is 
 this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is 
 none other commandment greater than these." 
 
 The Scribe: "Of a truth, Teacher, thou hast well said 
 that he is one; and there is none other but he: and to 
 love him with all the heart, and with all the understand- 
 ing, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor 
 as himself, is much more than all whole burnt-offerings 
 and sacrifices." 
 
 Jesus: " Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." 
 — Mark xii, 28-34. 
 
 The general impression as to the scribe or " lawyer " 
 who came asking " Which is the greatest command- 
 ment?" is that he was unfriendly to Christ. I think 
 this a misapprehension. He was, indeed, the repre- 
 sentative of a wicked cabal in this instance ; but many 
 an honest sailor has trod the deck of a privateer. It 
 is said that his purpose was to " tempt " Jesus ; but 
 the word appears not to be used in its sinister sense, 
 meaning only that he wished to put the reputed wis- 
 dom of this much heralded teacher to the test. He was 
 
 269 
 
270 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 not a scoffer nor a mere casuist ; but, as the issue 
 shows, an honest and earnest seeker after truth. 
 
 It was Tuesday, April 4th ; the last day of the pub- 
 lic ministry of Jesus. The Feast of the Passover was 
 drawing near and the city was already thronged with 
 strangers from every part of Jewry. The coming of 
 Jesus to this festival was most disconcerting to the 
 religious leaders who had warned him again and again 
 to refrain from " disturbing the peace." He was now 
 teaching in Solomon's Porch, and the multitudes were 
 thronging to hear him. If possible, he must be dis- 
 posed of before the Passover; but, in order to prevent 
 disturbance, it must be done under cover of the law. 
 There must be a valid charge against him. At a called 
 session of the Sanhedrin it was accordingly deter- 
 mined that emissaries should be sent to entrap him. 
 
 At this time there were three parties in the Sanhe- 
 drin. The Herodians, or Romanized Jews, held that 
 it was wise policy to acquiesce in Roman laws and 
 customs with the best possible grace. The Sadducees 
 were rationalists, or free-thinkers, denying the resur- 
 rection in particular, and assuming an agnostic atti- 
 tude toward the future life. The Pharisees, or ortho- 
 dox Jews, held firmly to the inspiration of the 
 Scriptures and insisted on the rigid observance of the 
 elaborate ceremonial of the Mosaic law. The plan 
 was to send a delegation representing each of these 
 parties to take part in the proposed inquisition of 
 Jesus. 
 
 The Herodian delegate propounded a politico-reli- 
 gious question which had provoked much discussion: 
 " Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not?" The 
 trap was cleverly set, its purpose being to place Jesus 
 
IN SIGHT OF HEAVEN 271 
 
 in a dilemma ; since if he answered yes he would an- 
 tagonize the loyal Jews and if no the Roman authori- 
 ties. Matthew Henry says, " It was proposed thus to 
 catch him in a premunire." But he was quite equal 
 to the occasion. " Show me the tribute money," he 
 said; whereupon a penny was placed in his hands. — 
 " Whose image and superscription is this ? " — 
 " Caesar's." — " Render unto Caesar the things that are 
 Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." 
 
 It was now the turn of the Sadducean delegate. 
 His question was one of the thumb-worn subtleties of 
 his school, known as the Question of the Seven-fold 
 Widow ; to wit, " A certain woman had seven hus- 
 bands, all of whom died without issue : now if there 
 is to be a Resurrection, whose wife shall she be ? " 
 The answer of Jesus covered the case, being a denial 
 in toto of the sensual conception of Paradise and a 
 general statement of the fact that " flesh and blood 
 cannot inherit the kingdom of God." 
 
 Then came this lawyer as the mouth-piece of the 
 Pharisee or orthodox party. His question was a fair 
 one : " Master, which is the first commandment of 
 all ? " In the rabbinical teaching there were six hun- 
 dred and thirteen precepts, of which three hundred 
 and sixty-five were negative and two hundred and 
 forty-eight affirmative; and these were graded from 
 greatest to least. By common consent the least com- 
 mandment was that which referred to the robbing of 
 a bird's nest (Deut. xxii, 6-7). But there was a vari- 
 ety of opinions as to the greatest. Some held that it 
 was the law touching fringes and phylacteries ; others 
 contended that it was the requirement as to ablutions : 
 and still others that it was the injunction against the 
 
272 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 profane use of the divine name. But Jesus went to 
 the root of the matter with a word. Pointing to the 
 shcma which was inscribed upon the frontlet worn by 
 the lawyer between his eyes, he quoted, " Hear, O 
 Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord ! " and added 
 " The first of all the commandments is, Thou shalt 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all 
 thy mind, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
 strength. And the second is like unto it, namely, 
 Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these 
 two commandments hang all the law and the proph- 
 ets." The real testing was thus shifted from Jesus to 
 the lawyer himself, who answered in all frankness, 
 " Master, thou hast spoken truly ; there is one God 
 and there is none other but he ; and to love him su- 
 premely and to love one's neighbor as one's self is 
 more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." 
 Whereupon Jesus, seeing that he answered discreetly, 
 said, " Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." 
 
 It is our purpose to inquire as to the meaning of 
 these words. And, to begin with, what are we to 
 understand by " the kingdom of God " ? 
 
 One of the notable books of recent years is entitled, 
 " The Republic of God." But this is a misnomer. 
 The government of God is an absolute monarchy. It 
 may be called a " commonwealth," inasmuch as its 
 immeasurable riches are shared by all ; but not a re- 
 public, because the word of its Magistrate is supreme, 
 exclusive and ultimate law. All things in the universe 
 are bound to obey God. A grain of sand is con- 
 strained by the laws of its being ; so is every planet 
 that sweeps around its orbit in infinite space. A drop 
 of water holds itself in perfect accord with the law of 
 
IN SIGHT OF HEAVEN 273 
 
 its being; so does the ocean, which hears and obeys 
 the word, " Thus far, and no farther ; here let thy 
 proud waves be stayed ! " The birds of the air, the 
 beasts of the field, the fishes of the sea, are under a 
 like restraint ; and when we speak of " the laws of 
 their being " we are using a term synonymous and 
 interchangeable with the divine will. 
 
 "The Lord is King! Lift up thy voice 
 O earth, and all ye heavens rejoice. 
 From world to world the cry shall ring, 
 The Lord Omnipotent is King ! " 
 
 But there is one order of creation which is outside 
 of this kingdom ; that is, the human race. Man was 
 created in God's likeness and therefore with a sover- 
 eign will. Of himself, in pure wilfulness, he has 
 turned aside and gone into his own way. And this is 
 true of all ; as it is written, " There is no difference, 
 all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." 
 Now, sin is high treason. It is defined to be " any 
 transgression of the divine law." The old word 
 " anomy," now obsolete, expresses it. Sin is rebellion. 
 It outlaws a man; that is, places him in a state of 
 enmity against God. The penalty is, " The soul that 
 sinneth, it shall die." And this death is eternal alien- 
 ation from God. 
 
 It has pleased God, however, to make provision for 
 the restoration of the sinful race. It is with this pur- 
 pose in view that he sends his only begotten Son into 
 the world. His coming is announced by a royal her- 
 ald, crying, " Repent ye ! for the kingdom of heaven is 
 at hand ! " At the outset of his ministry our Lord 
 announces to Nicodemus the prerequisite for admis- 
 
274 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 sion to the kingdom in these words, " Verily, verily, 
 I say unto you ; Except a man be born again, he can- 
 not enter into the kingdom of God " ; that is, regenera- 
 tion is necessary to the recovery of the divine 
 franchise. And when Nicodemus expressed his be- 
 wilderment, saying, "How can these things be?" 
 Jesus laid down the doctrine of Justification by Faith 
 on this wise, " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
 wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up ; 
 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
 but have eternal life." Here then is the condition of 
 restoration ; a man must believe in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. The moment a man thus believes or accepts 
 Christ as his Saviour from sin, he enters into the 
 kingdom ; which is not located in some remote planet 
 or postponed to any Golden Age, but is here and now ; 
 so that multitudes, accepting Christ and regenerated 
 by his Spirit, are " pressing into it." And all are in- 
 vited and urged to enter it. 
 
 Now to return to the lawyer; let us inquire what 
 Jesus meant by saying to him " Thou are not far from 
 the kingdom of God." There is a sense in which all 
 sinners are far from the kingdom, since all alike are 
 " dead " in trespasses and sins. If there were some- 
 where a man who had never committed but a single 
 sin in his whole life, he would nevertheless have 
 placed himself thereby in a state of rebellion against 
 God. But it is obvious that all sins are not equally 
 heinous, and that all sinners are not to be beaten with 
 equal stripes. Some have sinned against clearer light 
 than others. Some have run boldly and defiantly on 
 the bosses of God's shield. Did not Christ say to 
 Pilate, " He that delivereth me unto thee hath the 
 
IN SIGHT OF HEAVEN 275 
 
 greater sin " ? Leprosy is always leprosy ; but the 
 man whose joints are falling asunder is a greater leper 
 than one who has but a single scale on his forehead. 
 So some are at a vast distance from the kingdom by 
 reason of long and flagrant indulgence in known sin. 
 It makes a difference whether a man, on leaving home, 
 goes into the next county or into the jungles of 
 Africa; and on his return it makes a difference 
 whether he is taking ship from Liverpool or standing 
 at the threshold of his father's house. 
 
 One reason why this lawyer would appear to have 
 been drawing nigh to the kingdom is the fact that he 
 believed something. His creed was expressed in the 
 formulary of the shema, " There is one God ; and there 
 is none other but he." As a scribe, he was familiar 
 with the Scriptures, and he received their teaching as 
 authoritative on that point. It is a favorable sign 
 when a man can lay his hand upon any great funda- 
 mental truth and say, " This I believe because the 
 Lord hath said it." 
 
 We note another reason for our Lord's approval 
 in the fact that this lawyer had a Code of Morals, 
 founded on his belief in the true God. He assented 
 without a moment's hesitation to Christ's summary 
 of the law, namely, that all its precepts were briefly 
 comprehended in love toward God and men. If he 
 was sincere in this, and there is no reason to think 
 otherwise, he was a man of principle ; endeavoring to 
 conform his conduct to his creed, or, as the Nonsuch 
 Professor says, " to bring the bottom of his life up to 
 the top of his light." Now while it is true that no 
 man is justified by the deeds of the law, it is true also 
 that one who sincerely tries to live an upright life is 
 
276 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 nearer to the kingdom than one who lives in known 
 and flagrant sin. It is necessary to say this, because 
 now and then one hears, particularly in " Rescue Mis- 
 sions," appeals which seem to bear a contrary con- 
 struction. God stretches out his hands to the vilest 
 sinner, to the drunkard and libertine, but never with 
 an intimation that they are near to the kingdom. Nay, 
 they are afar off ; though their case is by no means 
 hopeless, since " while the lamp holds out to burn, the 
 vilest sinner may return." The promise is to those 
 that are afar off as well as to those who are near: 
 " Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." 
 And another favorable sign in the case of this law- 
 yer was his dissatisfaction with himself and with his 
 formal religion. This was expressed in his words, 
 " Master, thou hast said truly ; to love God and to love 
 one's neighbor is more than all whole burnt offerings 
 and sacrifices." He was living under an economy of 
 burnt offerings and sacrifices ; he paid tithes, gave 
 attention to ablutions, wore phylacteries, laid his 
 offerings upon the altar as duly prescribed in the 
 Mosaic law. But this sort of conventional observance 
 did not satisfy him. He felt somehow that he had not 
 reached the root of the matter. His heart was say- 
 ing, 
 
 "Not all blood of beasts 
 On Jewish altars slain, 
 Can give the guilty conscience peace, 
 Or take away its stain." 
 
 And still further, this man was not far from the 
 kingdom because his mind was open to conviction. 
 We infer this from what the Lord said, " Thou hast 
 
IN SIGHT OF HEAVEN 277 
 
 answered discreetly." The word might have been 
 rendered " frankly " or " without prejudice." Now 
 prejudice is the great obstacle in the way of salvation 
 of the average man. He comes to the Bible, not to 
 discover truth, but to find out whether the Bible will 
 not strengthen him in his prejudgments. It is re- 
 lated of Sir Isaac Newton, a most absent-minded man, 
 that he was found trying to light a candle which had 
 an extinguisher on it. But this was not more pre- 
 posterous than to come to Jesus with a mind closed 
 by prejudice against him. The attitude of this lawyer 
 was frank and ingenuous. He wanted to know ; he 
 was eager to learn. He addressed Jesus in respectful 
 terms and appears to have been ready to be convinced. 
 He was following up his light, was feeling his way. 
 
 And now he stands at the very door of the King- 
 dom. Did not Jesus say, " I am the door," and, " I 
 am the Way, the Truth and the Life ; no man cometh 
 unto the Father but by me " ? The man is at the 
 threshold, therefore, of the kingdom. What remains? 
 Nothing but to cross it; to accept Christ. One step 
 and he is there ! His attitude is precisely that of the 
 young ruler to whom Jesus said, " One thing thou 
 lackest; part with everything that separates between 
 thee and me, and come and follow me." 
 
 Here ends the story. We have no means of know- 
 ing what ultimately became of this man ; but there is 
 every reason to think that, standing where he did and 
 being such as he was, he took the fateful step and en- 
 tered the kingdom of God. 
 
 The practical application is for us. The one who 
 reads these words was probably never nearer the king- 
 dom than he is just now. This may be one of 
 
278 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 the crucial moments of his life. What will he do 
 about it? 
 
 Let us hear a parable. Two men were journeying 
 in the Valley of the Colorado. They were strangers 
 to each other. They walked so near that they might 
 easily have spoken or clasped hands ; but they did not. 
 Ere long they parted and went their several ways. 
 Each climbed the steep diverging paths and presently 
 saw each other again ; but they were now on opposite 
 sides of the Great Canon of the Colorado. They 
 seemed not far apart ; but between them lay a bridge- 
 less chasm. So shall it be when this probationary life 
 is over. Here a man walks in the Vale of Mercy, side 
 by side with Christ. He may at any moment grasp 
 his outstretched hand and enter into an eternal friend- 
 ship with him. But death is the great separator. It 
 ends probation ; it fixes, formulates, crystallizes char- 
 acter; it decrees " He that is unjust let him be unjust 
 still, and he that is holy let him be holy still." Thus 
 there is to be " a great gulf fixed," separating those 
 who are in the kingdom from those who are forever 
 afar off. 
 
 It may be that someone is saying, " So far as I 
 know I am ready to meet any requirement in order 
 to salvation. I feel that, while not far from the king- 
 dom, I am not in it. What must I do ? " There is 
 only one answer, and a very simple one : Accept Christ. 
 You have informed yourself of the truth of the Gos- 
 pel ; and you are satisfied as to the right thing to do. 
 Your mind is convinced, your conscience convicted; 
 your will alone is at fault. There is nothing between 
 you and the kingdom but your refusal of Christ. Take 
 him, and with him the assurance of pardon, " Thy 
 
IN SIGHT OF HEAVEN 279 
 
 sins be forgiven thee." Take him, and with him the 
 inspiration to an earnest life. Take him and with him 
 the strength of his friendship, which is as a strong 
 staff to lean on. Take him and with him the invalu- 
 able franchise of citizenship in the kingdom of God. 
 
 The word " opportunity " is from ob-portus, that 
 is, opposite the bay. A few years ago the Oregon 
 was wrecked just outside the harbor of New York. 
 You are, my friend, within sight of heaven just now. 
 All that remains is to cross the line ; to say, " I will ! 
 By the grace of God, I do ! " 
 
XXVI 
 
 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 
 
 In which Jesus announces his glorious Return to reign from 
 the River unto the Ends of the Earth. 
 
 Jesus: " Yea, I come quickly." 
 
 John: "Amen; Come, Lord Jesus." — Rev. xxii, 20. 
 
 The doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ is not 
 deeply emphasized in our time, but the early disciples 
 made much of it. You will find it in the last words of 
 Paul : " I am now ready to be offered, and the time 
 of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good 
 fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. 
 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of 
 righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, 
 shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but 
 unto all them also that love his appearing." — It is in 
 the last words of Peter : " There shall come in the 
 last days scoffers saying, Where is the promise of his 
 coming? But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one 
 thing: that one day is with the Lord as a thousand 
 years and a thousand years as one day ; and he is not 
 slack concerning his promise, as some men count 
 slackness, but is long suffering to usward, not willing 
 that any should perish. But the Day of the Lord 
 will come ! " — It is in the last words of James : " Be 
 ye patient, therefore, unto the coming of the Lord, 
 as the husbandman waiteth for his fruits. Be patient ; 
 establish your hearts : for the coming of the Lord 
 
 280 
 
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 281 
 
 draweth nigh ! " — And it is in the last words of John, 
 sole survivor of the Old Guard of Apostles, who from 
 his desert home in Patmos heard his Lord calling 
 " Behold, I come quickly ! " and answered " Amen ! 
 Even so come, Lord Jesus ! " Thus the early Chris- 
 tians strengthened themselves in " the glorious hope." 
 Their morning greeting was Maranatha, " He 
 cometh ! " 
 
 I want to make a clear statement of the things 
 which we know definitely concerning the great doc- 
 trine. Let me begin by frankly saying that there are 
 many things we do not know about it. We want to 
 stand on terra firma, and receive only so much as is 
 authoritatively revealed in the Word of God. 
 
 First, He will Surely Come. 
 
 At this point our information is without if or per- 
 adventure. Jesus said, " When the Son of Man 
 cometh, shall he find faith on the earth ? " He will 
 surely come. Our faith may tremble, but his word 
 abides. His second advent was announced at the 
 time when he was received up from among us. The 
 disciples had come to Olivet by appointment to meet 
 him. The Great Tragedy was over; and he had risen 
 from the dead. He had announced beforehand that 
 he would meet them at this mountain, and they were 
 there awaiting him. No doubt they conversed in low 
 murmurs as to the sacred memories of the past: for, 
 whichever way they looked there were his footprints. 
 They wondered among themselves whether he was 
 now about to establish his sovereignty on earth ; when, 
 on a sudden, he stood among them, and, lifting his 
 hands, uttered his usual greeting, " Peace be unto 
 you." He then spoke to them at length of the coming 
 
282 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 of his kingdom, and renewed his great commission: 
 " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to 
 every creature." This done, he ascended from their 
 midst ; the earth could no longer keep him, the 
 stronger attraction of heaven drew him. With hands 
 stretched out in a final benediction, he passed out of 
 sight; and they stood gazing and wondering. 
 
 It may be there was a golden glow, like a chariot 
 of fire in the skies ; vibrations in the air like waving 
 banner ; a crimson splendor, as if the celestial gates 
 were thrown open. Oh, if they could have heard and 
 seen the things that were happening beyond those 
 clouds ; where he whose head had been crowned with 
 thorns but was now crowned with glory, passed in 
 among the adoring throngs to the imperial majesty 
 " which he had with the Father before the world was." 
 Was there ever such a triumphal entry? "Lift up 
 your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye ever- 
 lasting doors, and let the King of glory enter in." 
 
 " Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into 
 heaven? This same Jesus whom ye have seen ascend 
 into the heavens shall come again as ye have seen him 
 go ! " Two men in shining apparel stood by, and that 
 was- their message : " Why do ye contemplate the 
 voiceless skies? This is no time for reveries. The 
 harvest field is yellow and awaits you. To your tasks ! 
 He shall come again, as ye have seen him go ! " 
 
 Secondly, He shall Come Unexpectedly. 
 
 He himself says that his coming will be " as a thief 
 in the night " ; " as the lightning shineth out of the 
 skies " ; and, again, " as it was in the days of Noah, 
 so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be." How 
 was it in the days of Noah ? An old man was building 
 
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 283 
 
 a boat five hundred miles from the nearest navigable 
 water. The people passed by and wagged their heads 
 and tapped their foreheads, thinking him demented; 
 they made sport of him, saying, " It seems clear 
 weather, though you speak of a deluge. A fine boat, 
 that upon the ways. When will the launch be ? " 
 And in an hour when they thought not, the flood 
 came and swept them all away. " So," said Jesus, 
 " shall my coming be." 
 
 Thirdly, It will be a Personal Coming. 
 
 The Coming of Christ is in various ways. He came 
 to you graciously once, saying, " Behold I stand at the 
 door and knock. If thou wilt open to me, I will come 
 in and sup with thee." And your Christian life began 
 when you opened to him. — He -comes to a man sympa- 
 thetically, in time of sorrow, as he promised, " I will 
 not leave you comfortless, I will come to you." — He 
 comes dynamically to the world every hour of every 
 day, as he said, " All power is given unto me in 
 heaven and on earth. And lo, I am with you alway, 
 even unto the end of the present order of things." — 
 He comes to us at death ; " Yea, though I walk 
 through the valley of the shadow of death, I will 
 fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy 
 staff, they comfort me." 
 
 But there is something more. All these interpreta- 
 tions fall short of exhausting the promise of Christ. 
 He is to come in propia persona. And that leads me 
 to say, — 
 
 Fourthly, It will be a Visible Coming. 
 
 Ye shall see him come as ye have seen him go. 
 Hisce cum oculis, " With these very eyes." It may be 
 from this side or from the other; it matters not; we 
 
284 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 shall see him at his coming. And we shall know him, 
 for he is the very same. He will be recognizable, at 
 his triumphal advent, as the very Christ who lived 
 and suffered among men. His hands will be the same 
 that ministered to their needs, his feet the same that 
 walked along the paths of Palestine ; his heart will be 
 the same heart that throbbed responsive to human 
 want, and broke at last under the burden of human sin. 
 The marks will be in his hands and in his side, — the 
 stigmata by which the world will know its crucified 
 and triumphant Lord. He did not become incarnate 
 simply as a temporary expedient or to accomplish a 
 transient purpose ; he remains forevermore the incar- 
 nate Son of God. Thus John the Evangelist saw 
 him, seated upon his throne, " as a lamb that had 
 been slain." 
 
 Fifthly, His Coming is to be Glorious. 
 
 Not as it was at Bethlehem : a mother looking 
 fondly down into her baby's face, a group of rustics 
 at the door-way of the cave, standing on tip-toe peer- 
 ing in ; a few shepherds on their knees about the child ; 
 a company of wise men on camels approaching, to 
 lay their gold and myrrh and frankincense at his feet ; 
 — that was all. Not so will be our Lord's final ad- 
 vent. The tokens of attendant majesty are definitely 
 given us. 
 
 The trumpet shall sound, the trumpet of a great 
 angel going as a herald before the King. He will 
 then appear in a pavilion of cloud ; — not the dust 
 cloud that rises before the outriders of a king draw- 
 ing nigh in the highway ; but the shcchinah, the " most 
 excellent glory " in which the Lord has manifested 
 himself again and again ; the Cloud that was over the 
 
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 285 
 
 Tabernacle, that led the Children of Israel in their 
 journey through the wilderness, that enfolded the 
 disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration. And he 
 will be attended by a multitude of angels. The shin- 
 ing seats of heaven will be emptied to furnish his 
 retinue on that great " Palm Sunday " when hosannas 
 will fill the earth as they fill the heavens now. " The 
 mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing, 
 and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands 
 before him. Instead of the thorn shall come up the 
 fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the 
 myrtle tree ; and it shall be to the Lord for a name, 
 for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." 
 
 Finally, He will Come Beneficently. 
 
 He lifted his hands in blessing as he vanished 
 through the skies. He shall so come, lifting his 
 hands again and saying " Peace be unto you." His 
 fan will be in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge 
 his floor. One thing shall be swept utterly from the 
 face of the earth, to wit, sin. No more trail of the 
 serpent, no more shame and remorse, no more wrong 
 and oppression, no more war and desolation, no more 
 envy and hypocrisy, no more sin ! The Tabernacle of 
 God shall be among men and he will dwell with them ; 
 and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be 
 their God. 
 
 But when shall these things be? Here we have 
 definite information, but not such as enables us to de- 
 termine the precise date. To the disciples at Olivet 
 who asked, " Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the 
 Kingdom to Israel ? " his answer was, " It is not for 
 you to know the times and the seasons, which the 
 Father hath put in his own power." And on another 
 
286 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 occasion he had said : " Let no man deceive you. For 
 many shall come, saying, ' Lo, here ! or Lo, there ! ' 
 Believe them not. For of that day and that hour 
 knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in 
 heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. The Son 
 of Man shall come at an hour when ye think not." 
 
 But there is one sign that definitely fixes the nearest 
 point at which our Lord can possibly appear, and he 
 himself has given it : " This gospel of the kingdom 
 shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto 
 all nations ; and then shall the end come." We thus 
 perceive why the weary years and centuries have 
 dragged their slow length along. The Lord is waiting 
 until his people shall have fulfilled their great commis- 
 sion. He did not say that the world must be converted 
 before he would come: he did say that the gospel 
 must be proclaimed to the uttermost parts of the earth. 
 And he left that injunction upon his Church, laying 
 the responsibility upon you and me. He is waiting, 
 then, upon his people. He will not come until the 
 gospel of the kingdom has been " preached as a wit- 
 ness unto all nations." And oh, how that word of his 
 rings out : " Go ye ! " Has it touched your heart ? 
 Has it pierced your conscience, yet? Go ye! Go ye, 
 preach the gospel of the kingdom to the last man ! 
 " Then shall the end come." 
 
 Meanwhile, watch. The word occurs again and 
 again in the teachings of Jesus. How are we to 
 watch? Like those that look out of the windows? 
 Nay, he has told us how : " Let your loins be girt 
 about, and your lights burning." A man lights his 
 lamp for an expected guest, and girds his loins when 
 he addresses himself to an important task. Watch, 
 
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 287 
 
 therefore, at your work, for the coming of the Son of 
 Man! 
 
 At the close of the tenth century the Christian 
 world thought that the end was drawing nigh, since 
 this was the close of the cycle of a thousand years. 
 
 The signs were all favorable. The social deeps were 
 broken up, there were wars, famines, pestilences, nat- 
 ural convulsions, confusion everywhere, " Signs in 
 heaven above and in the earth beneath." The Lord 
 surely was drawing near. In the last year of the cen- 
 tury the impending event was proclaimed from Chris- 
 tian pulpits. Industry was everywhere suspended. 
 The Emperor of Germany announced the Truce of 
 God, and went about, in a garb of penitence, preach- 
 ing the Coming of Christ. On the last day of the year 
 the people clothed themselves in ascension robes ; and 
 at sunset betook themselves to the roofs of the houses, 
 the porches of cathedrals and the open fields, where 
 they stood expectant. The hours passed until mid- 
 night. Midnight passed ; the stars began to fade. The 
 first gleam of morning came ; and the Christian world, 
 heaving a sigh of relief as of one coming out of a 
 paralysis of mingled fear and hope, went back to its 
 work. 
 
 Then came the Crusades, the greatest movement in 
 history prior to the Reformation. The monks, led by 
 Peter the Hermit, with kings and courtiers, went 
 everywhere proclaiming the Conquest of the Holy 
 Sepulchre. Dens vult! " It is the will of God ! " We 
 must do something toward the coming of the Son of 
 Man. We must be waiting, but waiting at our 
 tasks. Thus Christ is ever saying to his people 
 " Watch ! " Watch and be sober, watch with your 
 
288 CHRIST AND MEN 
 
 loins girt. Let your door be on the latch! It may- 
 be at evening, or at midnight, or in the morning that 
 he will come, but watch ! " Blessed is that servant 
 whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing." 
 
 Who would sit down and sigh for a lost Age of Gold 
 When the Lord of all ages is nigh? — 
 For each old Age of Gold was an Iron Age too, 
 And the meekest of saints shall find something to do 
 In the Day of the Lord at hand ! 
 
 Wherefore, let us busy ourselves in faithful service 
 and be ready. " Blessed is that servant whom his 
 Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing " ; and 
 blessed are " all they that love his appearing." I greet 
 you in the glorious hope: " Maranatha"! Amen. 
 Even so come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ be with you all. 
 
 Prayer. 
 
 O God, we love the Appearing of thy Son, in whose 
 death are the issues of our life ; and we pray that the 
 time may speedily arrive when thou, working through 
 thy people in thy Church, shalt have prepared the way 
 for the Great Coming. Meanwhile make us faithful, 
 every one in his own place, watching, with loins girt 
 and arms bared for labor, that we may be ready to 
 give him welcome. Hear us for his name's sake. 
 Amen. 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 
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 HIGHSMITH # -45220