p: 1 .: ' ! ■ ■ liiilli iilll; '! < 1 1 I '•'if* iiiliii! liiiliii S; iliilililli Section i | I [ I C^ I JESUS AND THE YOUNG MAN OF TO-DAY •The7^een tempted to break a stick of wood over the head of Jojies. Instead of angrily retorting, Smith looked at Jones with an expression of pity, and, without saying a word, went to the store and bought the kind of wood needed. That was meekness. The word ** meekness " may be translated " good manners " as illustrated above. Perhaps one of the meekest men In American public life was Abraham Lincoln. Soon after he became president, 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. The Sermon on the Mount y) Secretary Seward wrote him a long letter telling him how to conduct himself as president. Secretary Chase showed his disgust and disdain of the uncouth ways of the President. Secretary Stanton told a delegation which presented a peti- tion to him adding that it had the indorsement of the Presi- dent, that then the President was a d fool. Instead of sending for General McClellan to come to the White House, Lincoln frequently called at the headquarters of Mc- Clellan, only to be kept waiting as an ordinary caller before McClellan would see him. Calling one evening when the General was out, Lincoln waited an hour for him. When Mc- Clellan returned and was told that the President wished to see him, he went directly upstairs and retired for the night. To all these insults and indignities, Lincoln paid no atten- tion, and harbored no resentment. " Never mind," he said, " I will hold McClellan's horse, if he will only bring us success." The advice of Lincoln to a young officer who had been court-martialed for quarreling was, " No man, re- solved to make the most of himself, can spare time for per- sonal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right ; and yield lesser ones, though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog than be bitten- by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite." " Meekness is, thus, self-control at its highest power. . . . It is no milk and water virtue, and still less a superfluous virtue. It is a root-virtue, and essential to the strong man. The meek are set over against those who are perpetually jealous of their rights, and as persistently claiming every- thing for themselves, — those of brazen assurance. As con- trasted with these, the meek do not press even their plain rights ; but under the provocation of the invasion of their rights, maintain their self-control, and bear and forbear, ' en- during all things.' " ^ These people, said Jesus, " shall inherit the earth," because the meek man "escaping the feeling of being constantly slighted and offended, does not feel that everything is due him, so he is content and cheerful, where 1 The Ethics of Jesus. H. C. King. Copyrighted 1910. Used by permission of the Macmillan Company. New York. 40 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day pride and assumption would be only miserable. . . . These people are able also to enter into the joy of others, and so to share in a very real sense in all joy. They own the world, as only such spirits can." f Read Matthew 5 : 6. Most of us do not really want to be clean, true, and loving. Our expressed wishes are high- sounding and our prayers would indicate lofty aspirations, but our inmost desires are not actually in accord with our outward expressions. We desire the rewards of righteous- ness without paying the price of incorporating righteousness in our lives. But happy are those, said Jesus, " who hunger and thirst after righteousness : for they shall be filled." This implies, then, a persistent eagerness and an earnest fight for the highest character. Study IV. Fourth Day The Sermon on the Mount (continued). Matt. 5: 7-12; Luke 6:20-26. The Beatitudes. 5. Sympathy. 6. Purity. 7. Promoting Love Among Men. 8. Sacrificing for Men Read Matthew 5:7. Mercy is not a soft, efifeminate. virtue but a trait of the strong. Mercy means sympathy, courtesy, and kindness. Only those who have been severely tempted and have triumphed can really sympathize with tempted men. Only those who have drunk the cup of sorrow to the dregs, and have had their natures deepened thereby, can truly sym- pathize with the sorrow-laden. Sympathy or mercy implies understanding. It is the strong character who has struggled with the problems and tempta- tions of life and has overcome them that can truly show sym- pathy to those who fall by the wayside. " Happy," then, said Jesus, " are the hard, domineering, tyrannical people?" No. But the merciful, for they shall receive mercy as they have given it. 1 The Ethics of Jesus. H. C. King. Copyrighted 1910, Used by permission of the. Macmillan Company. New York, The Sermon on the Mount 41 Read Matthew 5 : 8. The man who indulges in or broods over impurity, said Jesus, loses his vision of God. For in just the proportion as our inward lives are pure will our vision of God be clarified. But purity is not only personal, it im- plies a reverence for the sacredness of others. " No love is a pure love that lacks some real reverence — to which the one loved is not really sacred. And a pure love becomes, for this very reason, the strongest of all human motives to self-con- trol. The pure in heart recognize the child of God in every soul, and treat him, accordingly, not as a thing but as a holy person." 1 Read Matthew 5:9. " The peacemaker is more than a peace-keeper. He belongs to that high order of men who are able to be reconcilers of their fellowmen, who actively promote peace among men, who enter into God's own work of bringing men into unity. They are set over against those who stir up strife and promote war, whether in large or small ways. They have no part in the activity of those of whom the Proverbs speak so contemptuously, — the whisperer, the meddler, the tale-bearer, the busybody, the tattler, and the mischief-maker. The peacemaker not only withstands hate, but positively promotes the reign of love among men." ^ He does not catch at every piece of dirty gossip and continually repeat it. He tries to correct the evil and reconcile the dif- ferences between men. Read Matthew 5 : 10-12. Happy, did Jesus say, are the men who inherit wealth, who have an easy life, who can walk a fence between good and evil and maintain friendship with both sides, who never face unpopularity for doing right, who have never had to take up arms in a righteous cause? Not so, but happy are those who really sacrifice for the sake of promoting the principles of the Kingdom. Be sad? Not at all, rejoice, when men call you a crank, a fanatic, a fool, treat you with contempt, or unjustly persecute you for doing right. This, then, is a call to heroic service and supreme joy. We have now completed the Beatitudes according to Mat- thew. Read Luke 6 : 20-26. Allen, Votaw, King, and Har- 1 The Ethics of Jesus. H. C. King. Copyrighted 1910. Used by permission of the Macmillan Company. New York, 42 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day nack think the account of Matthew is the more accurate and prefer it. Wendt. Bacon, and others prefer the account of Luke, asserting that the account of Matthew, in accordance with the ideas of the early church, softened down the harsh- ness of Luke 6:20-26. If the account of Luke be accepted, then Jesus emphasized, says Bacon, " That true blessedness is not with the outwardly enviable, but the inwardly, however wretched in men's eyes. As usual, in such cases, the nearer we come to the original the greater is the simplicity and self- consistency of the thought. It answers the question. Wherein lies the blessedness of the kingdom? not, What must be done to attain it?"i Choose either account as the more accurate, but get the principles underlying both, since the central thought in each evidently came from Jesus. Study IV. Fifth Day The Sermon on the Mount (continued). The Beatitudes Summarized Review to-day the Beatitudes and think of the derision and laughter with which these sayings of Jesus must have been received by the officials and religious leaders of His day. He opposed a worldly code which ran thus : Happy is the man who " knows-it-all." He is not bothered with seeking for light, Happy is the man whose conscience permits him to do any- thing. He suffers no remorse. Happy is the man who fights for his rights and claims a little more than his share. He'll be sure to get it. Happy is the man who doesn't care if his character is a little off-color, if he can profit by it. Happy are the tyrant and the master, for they need no mercy. 1 The Sermon on the Mount. B. W. Bacon. Copyrighted 1902. Used by permission of the Macmillan Company. New York, The Ser?no?i ofi the Alount 43 Happy is the impure man who gratifies his passion unhin- dered, for he shall have much pleasure. Happy is he who can carry news which will stir up strife, for he can profit by the quarrel. Happy is he who can lead an easy, indifferent life, for he'll not have to bother with questions of sacrifice.^ But this code, said Jesus, only brought sorrow, bitterness, and ruin. Review the qualities which He emphasized : Personal. 1. A teachable humility, v. 3. 2. Genuine penitence, v. 4. 3. Self-control at its highest power, v. 5. 4. A persistent eagerness for the highest character, v. 6. Social. 5. Sympath}' with men, v. 7. 6. Deepest reverence toward men. v. 8. 7. Promoting love among men. v. 9. 8. Sacrificing for men. vv. 10-12. "Character, happiness, influence — these make life. And their prime conditions Jesus has named in the Beatitudes. Here, then, indeed, are our map of life, our chart, our sailing orders, even in the purely ethical sphere. " In the Beatitudes, therefore, Jesus is virtually saying to the ' disciple multitude ' before him : I wish you, first and most of all, character. These qualities which I have named are the really basic qualities of character. . . . "And I wish you joy. Not carelessly, as those who know not what they wish ! But fully, knowing what it costs, I wish you joy — the best, the largest, the richest, the deepest joy that life can give. . . . " And I wish you influence, that you may count. The steady oncoming of the civilization of brotherly men demands in its leaders just these qualities of which I have spoken. . . ." 1 1 The Ethics of Jesus. H. C. King. Copyrighted 1910. Used by permission of the Macmillan Company. New York. 44 Jesus and ihc Young Man of To-day Study IV. Sixth Day The Sermon on the Mount (continued). Matt. 5: 13-20. The Influence of Members of the Kingdom in Everyday Life Read Matthew 5: 13-16. After describing the ideal life in vv. 3-12, Jesus next told of its mission. It was to be a pre- servative. As salt preserved the fish that were cured in the packing houses of Capernaum, so would the members of the Kingdom keep society from decay. " Would you do away with the church, then?" was asked of a man who ridiculed religion. " Oh, no," he said, " the church is a good thing to keep us from slipping back into hoggishness." Secondly, the members of the Kingdom were to be as light to scatter the darkness of evil and sin, and show men the way of life. Not only were they to be a preservative, but they were to Ije an active force for good. And, said Jesus, men seeing your good works will also follow the guidance of your Father. We talk of having or using our influence as if it were an external attachment to our natures to be used in our hands as a knife is used in whittling a stick. We are an influence, whether we will or not, permeating our environment for good or evil, for a city set on a hill cannot be hid. Goodness, however, is as con- tagious as evil, and a Christlike life will draw other men to glorify and serve the same Master we serve. Read again Matthew 5 : 13-16. Just here, perhaps, some priest interrupted Jesus with the question, " Are you not undermining and destroying the Mo- saic law?" "No," said Jesus, "I came not to destroy but to fulfill. The man who follows me will not only fulfill the re- quirements of the law, but will do much more than the law requires. The trouble with you Pharisees is not that you go too far but that you do not go far enough." Then turning to His disciples He said, " If your righteousness does not exceed the righteousness of these scribes whose life consists in obeying external rules, you cannot even enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." Read Matthew 5 : 17-20. Vv. 18-19 Review 45 are probably not a part of the original sermon, for they rep- resent Jesus as speaking in accord with the rabbinical view of the law, which is inconsistent with the rest of the sermon as expressed in vv. 21-48. These words may have been spoken by Jesns on other occasions to express His respect for the authority of the moral intent of the law, but the writer be- lieves they have been incorrectly inserted here. We will omit them and let v. 20 follow directly after v. 17. For detailed discussion of this point see references 13 and 21. Imagine a man addressing a group of laymen and ministers to-day and telling the laymen that unless they lived better lives than the clergymen that they could not enter the King- dom of Heaven! Yet Jesus did just that. Study IV. Seventh Day Review Look back to-day over the ground covered this past week. The man who appeared in Galilee years ago believing He was chosen by God to establish the Kingdom of God on earth outlined to His followers the basic principles of real life. Our knowledge has increased, our inventions have multiplied, our civilization is far in advance of that of a. d. 30 but the ideals which the Carpenter of Nazareth placed before the multi- tudes of His day are still very imperfectly realized in our lives, and they are the distant ethical goal toward which civili- zation is striving. 1. The first principle outlined is open-mindedness. Before proceeding further, determine honestly whether you are fac- ing Christ with an open mind? Are you following this course at the urgent request of some interested friend, intending to accept only that truth which agrees with certain precon- ceived ideas of yours? Will you make this prayer to-day? " O Father, with Thy help I promise to face the truth honestly, and when I see it, to follow it, cost what it may." V. 3- 2. We notice that Jesus also expresses character in terms of aspiration. Not what we accomplish but what we endeavor 46 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day to accomplish is acceptable in the sight of God. The sacri- fice of a soldier who died in a training camp, if he were animated by the same courageous purpose, was as acceptable in the sight of God as the deeds of a man who won a medal of honor on the field of battle. Both were heroes. 3. Do you listen to and repeat indecent stories? v. 8. 4. Would you suffer unpopularity for the sake of Christ? Would you throw away your chances of being elected presi- dent of your class by fighting for a clean banquet? A friend of " Bill " Borden said of him, " We all admired the way he stood up for what he beHeved, in the face of no end of ridi- cule from the rest of the class. Bill was willing to be a ' fool for Christ's sake.' " 1 Are you? Christ is not asking you to throw your life away but to save it. Not self-effacement but self-realization is placed before you. This, said Jesus, comes through self-sacrifice, vv. ia-12. 5. Is your light so shining that your fellow students are being unconsciously drawn toward Christ? Are you incor- porating the principles of Jesus in your conduct? v. 16. 6. Is your idea of religion obedience to a set of rules or a life dominated by the purposes of Almighty God? v. 20. 1 Christian Standards in Life. Murray-Harris. The Association Press. New York. STUDY V. FIRST DAY The Sermon on the Mount (continued). Matt. 5: 21-32. A Man Lives Within. Thoughts and Motives Determine His Character After having stated that He came not to destroy but to fulfill the law, Jesus then illustrated the way in which His principles demanded, not only an external observance of the law but also an internal purpose in accord with the spirit of the law. The scribes judged men by their outward acts. Jesus judged men by their thoughts and motives. Read vv. 21-25. Vv. 25-26, the writer believes, are incorrectly inserted here as they were spoken as a warning to the unrepentant nation as in Luke 12:54-59. If applied in a personal sense as here, Jesus would be urging men to do right for fear of suffering the consequences of sin, which would be a con- tradiction of His other teachings and inconsistent with the tenor of His life. (See references 13 and 21 for complete dis- cussion.) For instance, said Jesus in support of His declara- tion regarding the law, " Ye have heard that it was said to the ancients. Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever killeth he shall be amenable to judgment. But I say unto you. Whoso- ever is angry with his brother shall be amenable to judgment. (Moreover it was said), Whosoever shall call his brother Scoundrel shall be amenable to the court. But I say unto you, Whosoever calleth him Simpleton shall be amenable to the hell of fire." ^ Not only are we not to kill men, but we are not to hate men. If your hatred is so intense that you desire to kill a man, you are just as much of a murderer as if you had killed him. The eft'ect on the man is not the same, but the effect on you is probably worse, for you are 1 The Sermon on the Mount. B. W. Bacon. Copyrighted 1902. Used by permission of the Macmillan Company. New York. 47 48 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day not only a murderer at heart but probably a coward also. "If therefore," said Jesus, "you are about to kneel ni prayer or attend devotional service and remember, not that you have a grudge in your heart, but that your fellow student has aught against you, leave your knees, tirst be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your petition to God." Every other duty must yield to the absolute obligation of cherishing a forgiving spirit. The hell of fire which Jesus here refers to, is not the hell usually pictured in Christian theology. There are two words in the New Testament translated in the King James Version as "hell." One is "hades" or in the Old Testament, " sheol," which is the dwelling place of departed spirits. The other re- fers to the valley of Gehenna outside of Jerusalem in which the garbage and refuse of the city was thrown. Here the con- stantly smoldering fires, the maggots, and the stench, gave Jesus an illustration which He used in contrasting the inevi- table environment of sin with the surroundings of the right- eous. He who harbors ill will, hatred, or a grudge against his neighbor will not only not enter the Kingdom but is mor- ally like decayed garbage cast into the Gehenna of fire. Read Matthew 5 : 2y-2>2. In another instance of His rela- tion to the law, Jesus said, " Ye have heard that it was said. Thou shalt not commit adultery : but I say unto you, every one that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath com- mitted adultery with her already in his heart." Not only no outward sin, but no impure look or immoral brooding is allowed by the principles of the Kingdom. Many men have been haunted by horrible, fiendish thoughts which they thought to be sin. A thought is not a sin unless it is in- vited and then entertained. We cannot keep birds from fly- ing over our heads, but we can keep them from building their nests in our hair. Sin is not in the entrance of the thought into our mind but in our attitude toward the thought after it flashes before us. When a man delights in tempta- tion, then temptation becomes sin. " Again, it was said. Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a letter of divorce." "But I say. unto you," said Jesus, " Every one that putteth away his wife comrnitteth adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced com- The Sermon on the Mount 49 mitteth adultery." " Saving for the cause of fornication," the writer believes, is an unv^arranted insertion (see Mark 10:2-12), inconsistent w^ith the uncompromising attitude of Jesus toward evil. The foundation of society is the home. In it the character of the child is nurtured. In the love and devotion of father and mother, the boy gets his first under- standing of the love and care for us of our Heavenly Father. The home, then, is sacred, and whatever tends to under- mine it is not to be tolerated or compromised with. It is bet- ter that some should suffer unjustly than that the sacredness of the home should be destroyed. Prohibition of divorce is not too strict; our marriage laws are lax. Parents allow their children to enter into marriage uninstructed and unprepared for the responsibilities and readjustments which they must face in this new era of their lives. When the inevitable dis- appointment follows, they seek relief for them by divorce. Read now Matthew 5 : 29-30. " Whatever," then, said Je- sus, " is retarding your spiritual development, cast it out of your life." Remember, operations are not performed on healthy organs ; it is the diseased appendix or the can- cerous growth which must be removed. Nothing wholesome has to be eliminated, but only that which breeds immoral dis- ease or saps the spiritual vitality. Study V. Second Day The Sermon on the Mount (continued). Matt. 5: 33-42. Men of the Kingdom Are Trustworthy and Forgiving Read Matthew 5 : 33-37. You have heard the expression applied to certain men, " his word is as good as his bond," or " I would rather have his word for a thing than his signed contract." The Jews had many kinds of oaths, some binding, and others not binding. They would seemingly obligate them- selves in a contract and then by a technicality in the oath would repudiate the obligation at their convenience. In the Kingdom, said Jesus, men are to be so thoroughly honest that the simple " Yes," or " No," will carry with it the author- 50 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day ity of truthfulness without the necessity of adding the artificial formula of an oath, in order to make it binding. Truthful- ness consists not in meeting binding, external obligations but in the honest purposes of the heart. Read Matthew 5 : 38-42. Smith travelled a rural district in Virginia as a salesman for the Hill Commission Company of Baltimore. He not only bought and sold goods but also col- lected money and receipted bills. In the course of time, however, the bookkeeper of the firm discovered that Smith had "juggled" his accounts, and that he was short a large sum of money. Mr. Hill sent for the salesman and in the quiet of the private office, said, " Smith, in auditing your accounts, we have discovered a large shortage of money. I suppose you realize we can put you ' behind the bars ' for this. But I'll not do that. We are going to give you another chance. You go back to your route, continue working for us as usual, and every month send me fifty dollars put of your commissions until you have paid back the amount you have stolen." Hill did wrong, you say? "There are too many crooks in the world who live on the money some honest man has earned. The thieves ought to be punished. Let 'em take their medicine like the rest of us. This mercy merely en- courages men to steal," So argue some and perhaps with seeming reason. Almost dazed by the unmerited kindness of his employer, Smith went back to work and regularly sent fifty dollars every month to the firm to make good his defalcation. When the last payment was due, he went to Baltimore to deliver the amount in person and to close the account. The busi- ness was settled on Saturday. Sunday morning, Smith and Hill attended church together. The minister, incidentally or providentially, just as you please, preached on the text, " He that smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." Little did the preacher realize that an ex- cellent illustration of the text was sitting in the congre- gation before him. Later in the day, in the parlor of the home of Mr. Hill, Smith broke down and wept like a child. Both men realized as never before the real meaning of the words of Jesus in vv. 39-42. Jesus does not mean hei'e that The SerTiion on the Alount 51 30U are to satisfy the whims of people who want you to walk a mile with them, or to lend your money to every unthrifty borrower, or to encourage idleness by giving away your clothes to those who refuse to work, or to let a man pommel you in the street without defending yourself. He is not advocating that we allow dishonest business men to go unpunished. It lowers the moral tone of a community to allow a man to main- tain a respectable social and religious standing while profiting from dishonest or corrupt practices. Neither is this a doc- trine of the passive non-resistance of evil. A man whose blood does not boil at the sight of injustice or oppression and who is not willing to give his life to crush it, is not half a man. " Some men," said an old Southern minister, *' can be knocked down to the glory of God." Jesus is here at- tacking the spirit of revenge and hatred which embitters us on account of wrong done us. Instead of harboring personal grievances, insults, or injuries, no matter how unjust, and waiting for an opportunity to " get even " we ought, said Jesus, to turn the other cheek and return good for evil. The man who hates is always more injured than the man who is hated. Revenge is like poison to our spiritual lives. It em- bitters and hardens us, when we brood over it, and eventually destroys our likeness to Christ. Some of these sayings of Jesus may seem harsh and severe. Jesus never tried to make it easy for men to fol- low Him. It was a self-sacrificing, heroic task to which He called men, and He expressed His teachings in a clear, concise form without any qualifications which could be used as ex- cuses for disobedience in so-called exceptional instances. Neither did He use illustrations which, although not limiting the meaning, would in any way obscure the principle He wished to teach. Study V. Third Day The Sermon on the Mount (continued). Matt. 5: 43-6 : 4. The Law Is Summarized in Love Read now Matthew 5 : 43-48 and try to realize the import of what you are reading. How easy it is to repeat the words, 52 Ji'sus and the Young Man of To-day "Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you," but how difficult to practice. Do you love and pray for the fellow who by misrepresentation kept you from being elected captain of the football team, or kept you out of a certain fraternity on account of a personal grudge against you, or for the fellow who was reared with you as a boy but by political influence secured a commission and now hardly deigns to notice you, or for the man who went into business with you and cheated you out of every cent you had ? Do you harbor any resentment against any of these men? If they were destitute would you do them a service if you had an opportunity? If you. as soon as you are injured, look for revenge, you are no better than, if as good as, the man who injured you. If you are kind only to those who are kind to you, you do not deserve any credit for that, the taxgatherers, the thieves, the excommunicate, even dogs, are kind to their friends. " But you," said Jesus, " are to love your enemies and to requite ill will by kindness; injury by loving service. For so your Heavenly Father treats you and all mankind. He makes the sun to shine on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." This spirit of for- giveness is not an element of character to which we force our- selves to assent, producing such remarks as, " Well, I forgive him, but I'll never forget it." It is not a virtue we practice in order to feel that we have satisfied the requirements of Je- sus for membership in the Kingdom. Neither should it be practiced in order to make our enemy ashamed of himself by heaping coals of fire on his head. It should be a spontaneous, unconditional, forgiving love which springs from our sense of the Fatherhood of God and of His unmerited, forgiving love to ourselves as well as to others. ^ Let us therefore strive to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect, for we cannot share His life' or ask for His blessings as long as our hearts are tainted with hate. Refer to the outline in Study IV, Second Day, and see how far we have progressed in this great discourse. We now take up C-b, the outworkings of the ideal life in real religious wor- 1 The Teaching of Jesus. H. H. Wendt. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. The Sermon on the Alount 53 ship. Matthew 6 : i is the general theme, the ilkistrations of which follow. Read Matthew 6 : 1-4. Jesus is here emphasiz- ing that giving which springs from love of people and does not expect commendation. He is condemning the selfish giver who is not interested in helping others but only in secur- ing personal glory and a reputation for benevolence. Samuel J. Mills did as much, perhaps, as any one man to bring into existence the American Bible Society. When it was organized, he sat in the gallery unknown and unrecog- nized, yet his heart was overflowing with joy and thanksgiv- ing that one of his cherished dreams had been realized. A soldier in France requested that no mention be made of a very heroic deed he performed. Is your life dominated l)y a genuine, unselfish interest in the promotion of the Kingdom of God? Study V. Fourth Day The Sermon on the Mount (continued). Matt. 6: 5-18. The Lord's Prayer Do not hasten through it because it is familiar, but read thoughtfully Matthew 6:5-15. Refer to Luke 11 : i for the circumstances which led Jesus to teach His disciples this prayer. The condition of effective prayer is not in the length of the petition, or the place in which it is said, or even in the actual words uttered. Prayer is effective when the desires of the believer are in accord with the will of God. Many of the most effective prayers are those in which not a word is spoken, but the heart is awed by the presence of the spirit of the Father. First, realize the simplicity of " The Lord's Prayer." Tt opens with " Our Father who art in heaven," not, " Almighty God, Creator and Ruler of all Mankind, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Eternal in the Heavens," but just simply, "Our Father." How that changes our attitude in prayer! We are not praying to a God as a theological abstraction, or as a mechanical First Cause, but as a personal Father who is far more interested in us than a human father can pos- sibly be. 54 Jesus and the Young Ma7i of To-day But let us not assume familiarity in this conception of God. We must realize that His Fatherly love intensifies and magnifies His Glorious Majesty.^ Then naturally fol- low the words, " Hallowed be thy name." Next is a petition not only that the purposes of God may be accomplished, but that the highest good may come to man- kind in having the will of the Father done on earth as in heaven. Next is a petition for daily sustenance. Not great amass- ing of wealth and goods, should we desire, but sufficient needs for the body in order that we may effectively do His will. " Forgive us our sins," is the next petition, which is a vain request unless we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. Last of all, we do not ask to avoid the conflict but to be kept from temptations too severe for our weak natures, and to be delivered from the evil. Read again 6:14-15. The unforgiving spirit separates us from God and makes it impossible for Him to work His will through us. Read Matthew 6: 16-18. Jesus now gives His last illustra- tion of the outworkings of the ideal life in real religious wor- ship. It is as if Jesus were saying, " Don't pretend to be bet- ter than you are, don't assume a sanctimonious attitude in order to win the approval of others, don't join a particular church in order to ' get in ' with a select social set, don't take an active interest in the Christian Association in order to make a senior society, don't picture righteousness as a melan- choly attitude toward life." Jesus loathed hypocrisy and unwholesomeness. Perhaps nowhere do we find any sharper invective against sham or hypocrisy than in the words of Jesus. He emphasized also the happy and positive side of life. Compare the occasional idea of a missionary as a melancholy, sanctimonious, tract distributor with the life of Arthur Frame Jackson. 2 Every wholesome activity of life comes within the sphere of the Christian. The only point a man has to determine is that 1 The Teaching of Jesus. H. H. Wendt. Used by pv"rn:'ss'cn of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. 2 Christian Standards in Life. Murray-Harris. The Assoc»:\*;im Press. New York. The Sermon on the Mount 55 every activity of his life be in accord with and subordinated to the will of God as expressed in the life and teachings of Jesus. Study V. Fifth Day The Sermon on the Mount (continued). Matt. 6: 19-7 : 14. Jesus Illustrates the Tender Care of the Father over His Children. Judge Not Most of the teachings of Jesus are so clear that comment is often superfluous and sometimes detracts from the grandeur of His words. Such is Matthew 6 : 19-34. Vv. 19-24 were addressed to the wealthy and contented rich, whose dominant desire in life was the acquisition of property. Oriental wealth consisted chiefly in fine cloths and metals, which moths and rust would destroy. Do not, said Jesus, place the chief em- phasis of your life on these transient things. If you do, it will cloud your spiritual sight so that moral blindness will result. You can have only one master passion in your life. You cannot serve God and riches. You must serve the one or the other. There is nothing wrong in honestly acquiring wealth, in fact, we believe it is beneficial, if such efforts are subordinated to the will of God. " What business are you in ? " was asked of a marketman. " I am in the King's busi- ness," he said, " and run a butcher shop to pay expenses." And it ma}' have been a very profitable butcher shop which he conducted, too. Vv. 25-32 were addressed to the anxious poor. How won- derfully Jesus pictures the tender care of the Father over His children. This passage does not mean that a man should not save money for .a " rainy day." It means that if he is seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness he should not worry over material circumstances. Jesus now explains the ideal life in regard to the treatment of others. He first points out, Matthew 7:1-5, a fault that is common to us all. Nevertheless we should distinguish between condemnation of wrong and condemnation of the vrongdoer. We are to hate sin but to love the sinner, to 5b Jesus and the Young Man of To-day fight evil but to endeavor to win the evildoer. Jesus is here condemning that harsh, unforgiving spirit which, ignorant of the circumstances and the motives which prompted the act of the guilty man, condemns him without mercy. The very fact that we are so ready to judge others shows that we have not love and kindness m our hearts. We are probably harboring instead the vice, selfish bitterness. In unkindly judging or imputing evil motives to others we, by that very act, reveal a beam of evil in our own lives which is far worse than the mote which we have condemned in others. In Matthew 7:6, Jesus is saying in an ironical, yet half-humorous way, use tact. H*e implies that to reason with a self-righteous, prejudiced Pharisee was like throwing pearls before pigs. It is a waste of time to reason with a self-satisfied, self- righteous man. Read Matthew 7:7-12. Here Jesus reverses our usual idea of prayer in which we think of God as withholding blessings from us which by importunity in prayer, He may be induced reluctantly to give. God is our Father, said Jesus, and is anxiously waiting with infinite blessings to bestow upon us as soon as we are able to receive them. The difficulty is not with God but with us. We are not really seeking to receive the best from Him but want our own selfish desires gratified. Consider your habits of prayer at this time and estimate how much of your prayer is taken up in asking God to do that which you want done and how little is devoted to asking God to help you do what He wants done. He who really seeks the best, will find it. To him who knocks the door shall be opened. The reservoir of goodness is full to overflowing but the inlet of our will is choked by selfishness and sin. As you would that God should do for you, so do you for others. Read slowly Matthew 7:12 commonly known as " The Golden Rule." Confucius has expressed the same thought in a negative way but Jesus emphasizes the positive activity of doing good to others. " It is not an easy task to live such a life as I have pic- tured," said Jesus, " for the gate is narrow and the way strait, and few there be that find it." There is no elbow room for our lusts, said Matthew Henry. The Sermon on the Mount 57 Study V. Sixth Day The Sermon on the Mount (concluded). Matt. 7: 15-29. The Test of a Tree Is the Fruit. The Test of a Religious Belief Is Its Value in Life Read Matthew 7: 15-23. After the warning in v. 15, Jesus states a very simple formula by which we can test our re- ligious beliefs, religious organizations, or personal lives. They are to be tested by their fruits. Whatever there is, then, in your life that does not function, or enrich it, that does not satisfy some need of your soul, you may discard. But whatever is necessary for the satisfaction of the deepest needs of your life, whatever enables you to live better, what- ever enriches your soul, to that hold on. For instance, no absolute proof can be given of the immortality of the soul. Some may produce arguments to show its reasonableness, others may prove it highly improbable, for one can prove almost any premise by seemingly logical arguments. What we should do is to test it out in life. Suppose some one tells you that if you mix sodium and chlorine you will get salt. You could argue indefinitely try- ing to prove or disprove the statement. A more practical man interrupts your reasoning by saying, " While you were arguing, I went into the laboratory and made the experi- ment. Every time I mixed sodium and chlorine I got salt. You may come to any conclusion you please, but it's a fact." If you have within you then, a feeling that surely this life does not end the existence of personality, that there must be some place where the deep longings of the soul for per- fection in love and knowledge will be gratified ; a feeling that if this life is all, the Creator who put us here forged a cruel joke upon us; then take those feelings, mix them with a belief in the immortality of the soul, test them together in the laboratory of life and abide by the results. If you find your life richer, happier, and nobler by a belief in the immortality of the soul, then hold to such a belief regardless of the con- clusions or astute arguments of classroom philosophers. Again, if it is necessary in order to enable you to live a 58 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day clean, honest, truthful life, to believe in God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, then believe in His existence and infi- nite love and live your life accordingly, even though all the arguments attempting to prove the existence of God are to you inadequate and unconvincing. If, on the other hand, these beliefs do not enrich your life or improve your con- duct, then we just as frankly say, you may discard them. But remember they are to be tested not in the seminar, but on the athletic field, not in the meeting of the philosophical so- ciety, but on the busy highway of life where men are burdened with sorrow and where lives are being wrecked by sin, not in the training camp but on the battlefield where only realities count. In this passage, Jesus is rather emphasizing that if our re- ligious beliefs, our church affiliations, and our activity in the Christian Association are not producing a life of simple un- affected goodness, then our religion is worthless. It is failing to accomplish the end for which it was intended. In other words, if we cheat in examinations, if we cut third base when the umpire isn't looking, if we are dirty in football, if we do not pay our debts, if we sell fifteen ounces as a pound, if we fail to care for a rented house as well as if it were our own, if when we left the service we knowingly carried off a government blanket which did not belong to us, if we are unkind, if we are selfish, then our religion is vain. Read again in vv. 21-23, the words of Jesus about the last judgment. Not every one that saith unto Jesus, "Lord, Lord, I have been secretary of a Y. M. C. A. of more than five thousand members, I have taught Sunday school for years, I did not drink, or use profanity, I believed the Apostles' Creed, and the doctrines of the church, I was a regular attendant at divine worship, and regularly received the sacra- ments," shall enter the eternal Kingdom; for then will the Lord say, " Did all these beliefs and accomplishments pro- duce in you a better character, did their influence appear in your common conduct, were you more honest, and kind, and considerate? Did you grow each day more conscious of the presence of God ? " For " not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven." Review 59 This, then, is the supreme requirement of religion, that we do the will of God on earth, that we live a good life. The end of religion is character.^ Read now Matthew 7 : 24-29, which is an illustration nat- ural to a carpenter. Jesus is picturing the folly and ultimate wreck of those who hear with their ears but fail to practice with their hands, in contrast with the abiding power and joy of those who drawing on the unseen resources of the Father seek to incorporate His spirit in their lives and to live His principles in the home, in the school, and in the shop. Study V. Seventh Day Review Summarize to-day the principles of Jesus, studied thus far. This man Jesus, who lived and taught so many years ago, gave the most perfect ideal of life, as far as we know, the world has ever seen. 1. He based it all upon His consciousness of the Father- hood of God. Jesus did not reason with men about the ex- istence of God, any more than we would reason with a child the why and wherefore of the existence of his earthly father. He simply gave to men the fruits of His own religious experience, and by touching their lives sought to reproduce in them a similar experience. Whether we believe in a God or not, we must admit that the belief or con- sciousness of Jesus, that at the heart of the universe there is a loving Father, produced in Him the most perfect life, and brought from His lips the most perfect ideal of life that we can conceive of. li by living our life in the belief in God the Father we can improve our characters and enjoy to a small degree that deep certainty and inward calm of Jesus, surely it is worth the effort. 2. H God is our Father, then all men are brothers. The trifling negro cook, the elevator boy, the drunken sot, the King of England, the outcast woman, the bank president, the gen- 1 Everyman's Religion. George Hodges. Copyrighted 191 1. Used by permission of the Macmillan Company. New York. 6o Jesus and the Young Man of To-day eral, and the buck private are all equal in the sight of God, and if we despise or disdain the least of them, we are un- worthy to be called a child of God. 3. If every man is a child of God, then each one is of in- finite value. The emphasis upon this is one of the distinctive contributions of Christianity to the religions of the world. 4. If God is our Father and every man our brother, then we are to love God as we do our earthly father and love every man as we do our own brother. Love, therefore, is to be the inward motive which is to dominate our life, not a soft abstract sentimentalism, but a great inward joy over- flowing from our hearts in service, kindness, and righteous- ness toward others. 5. This idea of filial relationship changes religion from obedience to external rules to the giving of the heart to God for the indwelling and outflowing of His love. Our worship is not meant to be a task imposed on ourselves from a sense of duty. The man who acts from duty calculates how much should be done, and considering it somewhat of a hardship, is glad when it is finished. A soldier rescues a wounded comrade on the field of battle not from duty but from love. The man who acts from love is always looking for opportunities to serve, and is happiest when he is doing the most for those he loves. He can truly say, '* I give nothing as duties, What others give as duties I give as living impulses." Religion, then, becomes a joy when our hearts are filled with the love of God. Is it any wonder Jesus called on men to believe the "good news"? 6. The supreme requirement of religion, Jesus said, is liv- ing a good life. The test of religion is conduct, practical morality, and character. Who is it that loves God and his neighbor, and is acceptable as a member of the Kingdom? He who docs the will of God. As James Martineau ex- pressed it: "If I see a man living out of an inner spring of inflexible right and pliant pity; if he refuses the color of the low world around him ; if his eye flashes with scorn at mean and impure things which are a jest to others; if high exam- ples of honor and self-sacrifice bring the flush of sympathy Review 61 upon his cheek ; if in his sphere of rule he plainly obeys a trust instead of enforcing an arbitrary will, and in his sphere of service takes his yoke without a groan, and does his work with thought only that it be good ; I shall not pry into his closet or ask about his creed, but own him at once as the godly man. Godliness is the persistent living out an ideal preconception of the Right, the Beautiful, the Good." ^ " By their fruits ye shall know them." 7. The conception of Jesus of the Kingdom was conscious fellowship with God. He came not to give a collection of rules or a code for moral conduct, but came to unite our hearts in friendship with the Father. " If the Christian re- ligion were primarily doctrinal, it might have been taught by a book instead of a person, and have offered a system instead of a saviour ;..."- What the world needed was some one who was in vital relationship with the Father, and who by liv-. ing among men could express the will of God in the language of everyday life. It needed one who by touching the lives of men could unite them in friendship with God. Thus what Jesus was, not what He said, is of primary importance. His teachings are His character expressed in words. His dis- ciples understood and remembered so much of what He taught, because they had seen His teachings reflected to a perfect degree in His own life. 8. Jesus came, then, not as a reformer but as a revealer. He realized that men differed only in the externals, that funda- mentally men always were and always would be the same. He revealed the eternal principles of God which would meet the soul needs of men to the end of time; and by the vitalizing of their purposes through friendship with the Father, the Kingdom of God would be established upon the earth. 9. The problem we have to determine when we honestly face Jesus Christ is not an intellectual problem but a moral one. There are many men to-day who do not believe in 1 Hours of Thought (The Godly Man). James Martineau. Used by permission of the Longmans, Green, and Company. New York. 2 Jesus Christ and the Christian Character. F. G. Peabody. Copy- righted 1905. Used by permission of the Macmillan Company. New York. 62 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day Jesus as divine, or in God as the Father, not because it is mentally unsatisfactory, but because such a belief de- mands too much of them. They wish to indulge in some favorite sin, to compromise with wrong in order to profit in business, to live lives of selfish indulgence without any con- cern for the welfare of others. Some would like to teach a few hours a day, live at the University Club, attend the opera and symphonies as a guest in a society box, spend Sunday reading magazines, or playing golf at the country club, but they do not care to be bothered with the burdens of the down-trodden, the poor, the heathen, or the immigrant. " Let those who care for that kind of work, do it," they say. Should a righteous war arise they would look to their own ease and safety, avoiding sacrifice and danger. But we can never intellectually understand Jesus until our lives are surrendered to Him. The main question for every one to de- cide is, " Am I willing to place my life in the hands of Jesus Christ and to follow Him?" Never mind about the Atonement, the Apostles' Creed, the Immortality of the Soul, the Existence of God, or the Deity of Jesus, are you will- ing to live your life according to His principles, and die for them if necessary? When you have decided this question in the affirmative, you have opened the door to a proper in- tellectual understanding of the Master. " Verily, I say unto you, They have received their reward." Perhaps no words of Jesus have more tragedy packed into them than these. Most men can achieve any desired end within the range of possibility if they are willing to pay the price for it. Some men determine to gain wealth at any cost. Truly, they attain their desire, but the price is great. They find that in their mad determination to acquire wealth, they have warped their characters, they have cramped their souls, they have neglected their families, and they have lost their appreciation of the beautiful. Then their wealth palls upon them. Many college students, in their rush to achieve class positions, or athletic honors, neglect their spiritual life to such an extent that it dies. They receive their reward in transient honors, but the price they pay in spiritual realities is too high. STUDY VI. FIRST DAY The Friends and Family of Jesus Think He Is Men- tally Unbalanced. The Scribes Call Him the Prince of the Devils. The Eternal Sin. Mark 3:i9b-35; Matt. 12:22-50; Luke 8:19-21, 11: 14-36 Read Mark 3:i9b-2i, 31-35. True prophets, political, social, or religious, have always been considered fanatics, fools, or cranks. The family of Jesus hearing of His defiance of the priests and His authoritative attitude as a teacher, concluded that He was losing His mental balance. Feeling ashamed of the embarrassing situation in which the family was placed, they came to Capernaum to take Him home, hoping that the quiet of Nazareth would bring Him to His senses. How hard this must have been for Jesus when His own family thought Him crazy. Notice His quiet rebuke in vv. 34-35. Any man who determines to do the will of God without question may expect to be called a fanatic. A classmate of Weston Harding remarked, when Harding left America for the East, that any man who went to China as a missionary was a fool. This opinion was probably confirmed in the mind of the classmate when two years later, Harding died in China at the age of twenty-two. But the father of Harding remarked, with quivering lips, as he read the letters from the teachers and students at St. John's, " We did not realize until now the value of what we were giving up, but we are glad that we had him to give." The Pharisees, however, had a different explanation to m3ke to the crowd. "This man," they said, "cures these demoniacs and speaks so authoritatively because he is inspired by Beelze- bub, the prince of devils himself." Read Mark 3:22-27. 63 64 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day Notice the illustration of Jesns to show the fallacy of their statement and then read in vv. 28-30 the awful doom pro- nounced against such an attitude as the Pharisees had assumed. " Does the language indicate that a man might re- pent and fail of forgiveness? Or that he might never re- pent? Consider the force of the last clause in v. 29. " In looking at the impressive limitation to forgiveness, do not overlook the broad proclamation of forgiveness in v. 28. These rabbis had, through a process of development which it would be interesting to try to trace, come to the point where they could face what the world recognizes as the most pro- found manifestation of God in human history and call it a devil ! Jesus was devoutly conscious that the Spirit of God in Him enabled Him to do His beneficent works, but that Spirit they called Beelzebub ! They were in danger of set- tling down into eternal fixity in sin, all the more awful be- cause they felt no solicitude about themselves. If they had felt solicitude about themselves, or any regret for their action, it would have been clear that they had not com- mitted the so-called unpardonable sin. The thing to be dreaded is the beginning of the process by which this fixity in sin comes to be. " The great law of the spiritual world is that persistent fail- ure to accept truth or do duty results in the loss of the capacity to see that truth or duty. From him that has not the willingness to do truth, shall be taken away, by natural psychological processes, the power to apprehend the truth. It will become evident later that the fundamental difficulty with these rabbis was their selfishness. They were more or less consciously, but nevertheless really, unwilling to recog- nize the superiority of Jesus' conception of religion to their own because they saw that if His conception of the King- dom prevailed, their social and ecclesiastical prestige would be gone." 1 " Stand still, my soul, in the silent dark I would question thee, Alone in the shadow, drear and stark, With God and me ! 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. The Eti'rual Sin 65 "What, my soul, was thy errand here? Was it mirth or ease, Or heaping up dust from year to year? * Nay, none of these ! ' "Speak, soul, aright in His holy sight. Whose eye looks still And steadily on thee through the night : ' To do His will ! ' " What hast thou done, O soul of mine. That thou tremblest so? — Has thou wrought His task, kept the line He bade thee go? " Leaning on Him, make with reverent meekness His own thy will. And with strength from Him shall thy utter weakness Life's task fulfill." Whittier, " My Soul and I." Study VI. Second Day The Eternal Sin (concluded). Read Again Mark 3 ' 28-30 George Adam Smith said : " A man by decree of Almighty God has iit his own hand the power to make his life or to blast it; he may live on in indifference, in indulgence of open sin, in bitterness of heart, in denial of God, until his will loses the power to accept pardon. Yet God waits with yearning love for the prodigal to come home. There are, alas, prodi- gals innumerable who cannot return ; prodigals who have lost the power to take the first step on the homeward journey. The appeal to pride is of little avail, for there is hardly a spark of self-respecting pride left; the call to conscience only bores them, for their conscience is stone deaf; the love and anguish of the Father's heart evokes at best only a senti- mental tear; through the human world of unspeakable riches, they wander with empty souls." " The peril and terror of love," he continues, "is that it may be to a man either Heaven 66 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day or Hell. Believe then in hell, because you believe in the Love of God — not in a hell to which God condemns men of His will and pleasure, but a hell into which men cast them- selves from the very face of His love in Jesus Christ. The place has been painted as a place of fires. But when we con- template that men come to it with the holiest flames in their nature quenched, we shall justly feel that it is rather a dreary waste of ash and cinder, strewn with snow — some ribbed and frosted Arctic zone, silent in death, for there is no life there, and there is no life there because there is no Love, and no Love because men in rejecting or abusing her have slain their own power ever again to feel her presence." ^ The unpardonable sin has also been described, " as the attitude of self-centered indifference to the voice of God speaking evermore within us," " No word of doom may shut thee out. No wind of wrath may downward whirl, No swords of fire keep watch about The open gates of pearl; "A tenderer light than moon or sun, Than song of earth a sweeter hymn, May shine and sound forever on, And thou be deaf and dim. " Forever round the Mercy-seat The guiding lights of Love shall burn; But what if, habit-bound, thy feet Shall lack the will to turn? *' What if thine eye refuse to see. Thine ear of Heaven's free welcome fail, And thou a willing captive be, Thyself thy own dark jail? " O doom beyond the saddest guess, As the long years of God unroll To make thy dreary selfishness The prison of a soul ! " Whittier, " The Answer." 1 The Book of the Twelve Prophets. George Adam Smith. Copy- right. Used by permission of the George H. Doran Company. New York, Publishers. Jesus Begins to Teach in Parables bj Study VI. Third Day Jesus Begins to Teach in Parables. Mark 4: 1-2, 9-13; Matt. 13: 1-3, 10-17; Luke 8:9-10, 16-18 When Jesus found some people determined not to receive His message, He changed His method of teaching from the plain statement of fact as found in the Sermon on the Mount to the parabolic method. This method " presents truth in an exceedingly thought-provoking and effective way to one who cares for truth, but in a way which tells nothing to one who does not want to know truth and has forfeited his right to it." 1 Read Mark 4:1-2, 10-13, 21-25. 4: 12 reads as if Jesus did not want the people to under- stand. He is quoting from Isaiah 6:9-10 in which Isaiah, in writing the account of his call, gives the results of his message as he looks back to the beginning of his prophetic work. The effect of the message of Jesus upon men was the same as that of Isaiah. It will ever happen that men who' refuse to see or hear the truth will become spiritually blind and deaf, although still possessing mental eyes and ears. Lest the disciples should misunderstand the purpose of the parables, Jesus explains in vv. 21-25 that He would not try to conceal the truth any more than He would, in order to scatter the darkness, light a lamp and put it under a bushel. The truth will eventually triumph, said Jesus. If any one wishes to hear the truth, let him listen with an open mind and he will hear. It is the law of growth that whosoever sincerely follows the truth that he has, to him will be re- vealed more truth, but whosoever refuses to follow the truth will lose even the truth that he has and also his very power of apprehending truth.. " The soul that is loyal to the truth as far as he sees it, is the soul that has the power to see further." Are you full of intellectual difficulties and sometimes in despair, doubtful of everything? Then do the right, and not the wrong. Follow the light you have. In the humble path 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York, 08 Jvsus and the Young Man of To-day of rightdoing, many of your problems will solve themselves. Each step of your journey will open up wider vistas of truth as the road becomes firmer and more distinct. Study VI. Fourth Day The Parables of the Sower, the Growing Crop, and the Mustard Seed. Mark 4:3-9, 14-20, 26-32; Matt. i3-3-9> 18-23, 31-32; Luke 8:4-8, 11-15 Read Mark 4:3-9, 14-20. Remember in reading these parables that in each one, Jesus usually illustrated only one principal truth and did not intend to give a meaning to every detail. In the parable of the sower, Jesus makes a most pro- found classification of men. " He had seen persons stop on the edge of the crowd, attracted for the moment by some- thing He said, and then drift thoughtlessly on; He had seen people give assent to His teaching and be persecuted out of their interest in Him by the rabbis of their home communi- ties; He had seen anxious, careworn faces of men and women engrossed in other things than the truth about the Kingdom ; He had also seen those who took time for candid attention to the truth, and in them was His hope." ^ Read Mark 4:26-29. Jesus here indicated the gradual growth of the Kingdom in contrast with the spectacular in- auguration commonly expected by the Jews. Many earnest people seem to become impatient and discouraged when reac- tions arise after movements for reform, or when there is a lack of response to the call of higher things. Let us realize that the coming of the Kingdom is an evolutionary process, rising higher, like the tide, by slow degrees. Notice' in this parable " the confidence of Jesus, in spite of apparent comparative failure. He had not won the religious leaders at all, and it is more than probable that the crowds attracted to Him . . . would have fallen away had they realized how little their popular conception of the Kingdom of Heaven agreed with that of Jesus. He had not dared to declare His 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. Parables of tlie Kingdom 69 Messiahship to them, yet He appears here absolutely confident of the final outcome. Truth had been planted in men's minds, ideas had been lodged there, and He felt like a farmer who goes his way by day and sleeps soundly at night when once his crop is in." ^ Read Mark 4:30-32. Here Jesus is illustrating the rapid growth and marvelous development of the Kingdom in seem- ingly insignificant individual lives. " Although the mustard seed is the smallest of garden seeds, it grows about the Sea of Galilee to be almost a tree in which birds can build nests, and comes to be quite out of the class of garden herbs." ^ Many people still vaguely think that the Kingdom of God is to come and in some way associate it with a great proces- sion of waving banners and prancing horses. The Kingdom of God in the mind of Jesus is an inward, spiritual Kingdom which consists in the rule of God over the individual life. The Kingdom grows as men come into fellowship with the Father. The description of the motives and actions of the members of the Kingdom is found in the Sermon on the Mount and throughout the life and teachings of Jesus. Its ideal is Jesus Himself. Its ultimate and complete develop- ment will mean the transformation of society into a race of brotherly sons of God in whom the brotherhood of man through obedience to the will of God the Father will be com- pletely realized. Study VI, Fifth Day Parables of the Kingdom in the Thirteenth Chapter of Matthew. Matt. 13:24-30, 33, 36-50; Luke 17 : 20-21 Read Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43, 47-50. These parables illus- trate the same thought, one spoken probably among peasants and farmers, the other, to a group of fishermen. 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. 70 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day " Tares, or zizanium, resemble wheat in the early stages of growth, but are easily distinguishable at maturity. The zizanium is a poisonous narcotic which causes dizziness and nausea if it by mistake gets into the bread. . . . " The great drag-net usually was out all day, and at evening the fishermen drew it in and sat down on the beach to sort the fish," 1 Jesus here " deals with the problem of evil which so deeply stirred the soul of the author of Job." 2 The disciples also were probably becoming impatient at the slowness of Jesus in inaugurating the Messianic judgment. In the fulness of time, said Jesus, the judgment would come. Let evil and good grow side by side. To attempt to root out the evil by force would injure even the good. Jesus is here teaching that broad tolerance which so characterized His life. 2 Do not become impatient and irritated at those who ridicule re- ligion or block the path of the right. Be kind, stand for the right, and in time, God will bring it to pass. The explanation in Matthew 13:36-43 reflects, the writer believes, the later eschatological ideas of the early Christian church such as frequently occur in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus was concerned primarily with the present. The future world would take care of itself. 2 Read Matthew 13 : ZZ- Jesus is here illustrating " the per- vading and assimilating power of the kingdom of God." ^ The silent influence of a Christlike life slowly but surely permeates its environment. Read Matthew 13 : 44-46. Notice in the first parable, the treasure is found accidentally, and in the second, it is sought for purposely. In each case the man sold all that he had in order to attain the prize. Thus Jesus emphasizes that every- thing in life is of insignificant value in comparison with membership in the Kingdom. Read Luke 17:20-21 in which Jesus expresses the fact that 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. 2 The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. Copyrighted 1913. L^sed by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. 3 The Teaching of Jesus. H. H. Wendt. Used by permission of the Charles ■ Scribner's Sons. New York. 2 he Miracle of Stilling the Tempest 7 1 the Kingdom is not external and material, but inward and spiritual. It consists neither in ritual nor organization, nor profession, but in inward fellowship with God. Study VI. Sixth Day The Miracle of Stilling the Tempest, the Gerasene Demoniac, the Daughter of Jairus, and the Woman with the Issue of Blood. Mark 4 : 35- 5:43 Read Mark 4 : 35-5 : 43 and refer later to the discussion of the miracles in Study XV. Sending the devils into the swine is probably the only recorded miracle of Jesus which is, to the mind of the writer, quite inconsistent with His nature. Almost every miracle recorded was performed by Jesus for some moral purpose or arose from His compassion for the afflicted. It would be hard to believe, on the basis of any ex- planation we can think of, that Jesus would deliberately de- stroy two thousand swine, which were the means of livelihood of many people, who from their point of view were engaged in a legitimate business, even though such an occupation was repulsive to the Jews. Notice 5 : 34, 39 which will be referred to in a later chapter. Read again 5 : 18-20. Instead of permitting the demoniac whom He had cured to go with Him, Jesus sends him back to his native town to tell his family and friends what had been done for him. It is very difficult for us at times to talk with our own relatives and intimate friends about their personal religious life. Yet the world will never be won for Christ until every follower realizes that he is an evangelist for the Master. Many people will contribute largely to a professional evangelistic campaign in order to put upon the shoulders of the evangelist their own responsibility for winning their friends. Have you ever spoken to your brother, your sister, your laboratory partner, your business associate, your fra- ternity brother, or the fellow who plays guard on the football team beside you, about his personal religious life? 72 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day THE COMMAND " I said, ' Let us walk in the fields.' He said, * No, walk in the town.' I said, ' There are no flowers there.' He said, ' No flowers, but a crown.' " I said, ' Rut the skies are black ; There is nothing but noise and din'; And he wept as he sent me back ; ' There is more,' he said, ' there is sin.* " I said, ' But the air is thick. And fogs are veiling the sun.' He answered, ' Yet souls are sick, And souls in the dark undone.' " I said, ' I shall miss the light. And friends will miss me, they say.* He answered, ' Choose to-night If I am to miss you, or they.' " I pleaded for time to be given. He said, 'Is it hard to decide? It will not seem hard in Heaven To have followed the steps of your Guide.'" George MacDonald. Study VI. Seventh Day Review We have now reached the point in the life of Jesus when the opposition of the religious leaders has grown so bitter that they call Him Beelzebub incarnate, and His family th.-.k Him mentally unbalanced. On account of this bitter preju- dice, Jesus begins to teach in parables. In Mark 3:28-30, He utters a solemn warning about the peril of seeing the truth and failing to accept it. Coningsby Dawson wrote from France, February sixth, nineteen hundred and seventeen : " I reaa in to-day's paper that U. S. A. threatens to come over and help us. I wish she would. . . . Somewhere deep down in Review 73 my heart I've felt .a sadness ever since I've been out here, at America's lack of gallantry — it's so easy to find excuses for not climbing to Calvary ; sacrifice was always too noble to be sensible. I would like to see the countr}^ of our adoption become splendidly irrational even at this eleventh hour in the game ; it would redeem her in the world's eyes. She doesn't know what she's losing. From these carcass-strewn fields of khaki there's a cleansing wind blowing for the nations that have died. Though there was only one Englishman left to carry on the race when this war is victoriously ended, T would give more for the future of England than for the future of America with -her ninety millions whose sluggish blood was not stirred by the call of duty. It's bigness of soul that makes nations great and not population." ^ Tbe tragedy of student conferences and volunteer conventions is, that students, though catching a glimpse of true self-devotion from the mountain peaks of God, deliberately turn their backs to the view and ignore the voice of the Father speaking within their hearts for His children in need. It would have been better for these students never to have known the truth or to have seen the vision, than for them to know the truth and not to follow it, or to hear the call of God and not obc}^ it. 1. Notice in Mark 3 : 35 those who may claim relationship with Christ. So simple yet so profound is the statement, and so often repeated that it runs like a refrain through His whole life, " whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." Are you a relative of His? 2. Notice Mark 4 : 30-32. Humble lives when transformed by the power of God become great. David Livingstone, the weaver boy, is buried in Westminster Abbey. Moody, the uneducated country lad, once a clerk in a shoe store, perhaps more profoundly and permanently influenced the world than .^ii}' other man of his time. " The world has never seen." said Mr. Moody, "what God can do with a man whose life is completely surrendered to Him." Have we surrendered our lives? If the Kingdom of God is so great a transforming energy, have you ever considered its worth to you ? 3. Your valuation of Christ can be determined largely by 1 Carry On. Coningsby Dawson. Copyrighted 1917. Used by per- mission of the John Lane Company. New York. 74 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day your desire to share your religious life with others. Many Christian students and some student volunteers expect in time to become fervent evangelists. However, the first place to manifest such an interest is in their own home and among their intimate friends. 4. " And the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful." " Worldliness consists in forgetting the ends of life in ab- sorption in the means. The business man who gives his whole thought to making money without learning to use it well, the ambitious politician who spends his life in seeking office with- out thinking how through the office he may serve the people, the woman who devotes her days to dressmakers and milli- ners, all those whose minds are occupied with the mere in- struments and mechanism of life, are choked with the tares of worldliness. They may live on a higher plane than the idler or debauche; they may escape the worst pitfalls of life ; but they do not attain to its highest rewards. The unworldly man sees deeper into life, lays hold of the eternal things; if he seeks wealth or fame, or cultivates society, it is for the ideal ends he can attain there-through, for the better service of his fellows or of God." ^ 1 The Problems of Religion. Duratit Drake. Copyrighted 191 6. Used by permission of the Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston. STUDY VII. FIRST DAY Jesus Visits Nazareth. Mark 6 : i-6 ; Matt. 13 : 54- 58; Luke 4: 16-30 After a time, Jesus decided to visit His mother and His other relatives at Nazareth. Here, " He had worked at His trade for so many years [but now He returns], a famous prophet with disciples who look to Him as their rabbi. He arrives some time during the week, visits in the homes of His married sisters and brothers, passes here and there the houses He has built, and on the Sabbath goes into the old synagogue of His boyhood days. Read Mark 6 : 1-6 with active imagina- tion. "The word 'offended' in v. 3 means * caused to stumble.* That is, they found something in Jesus that tripped them like the trigger of a trap and so snared them that they did not proceed to accord Him the welcome which He received else- where. Why did not the villagers give the prophet a hearty welcome? . . . Notice the sad situation implied in the last words of V. 4." 1 Notice in v. 5 the words, " could not," which will be re- ferred to in the study on Miracles. This seems to imply that faith was necessary to the operation of the healing power of Jesus. " What a blessing to Nazareth, to its sick and discouraged, to its little children, the home-coming of Jesus might have been! li we are ever tempted to be jealous we need to re- member that the jealous man always does an injury to his own nature, and may in addition deprive himself of some great specific good." ^ It is sad that the real appreciation of many great men has 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. 75 76 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day first come from a people not their own. Thus it has been in art, science, and literature ; here we have the supreme example in religion. Study VII. Second Day Jesus Sends Out the Twelve. Mark 6: 7-13; Matt. 10 : 5-42 ; Luke 9 : 1-6 Jesus, at this point, sent out the disciples on a tour of preaching, very likely to develop them for future service. He was not particularly concerned, at this time, with the fur- ther extension of His message. He was more concerned in developing His disciples for leadership after His earthly life was ended. The tour was to be a short one and the principal theme of their message was probably the immediate approach of the Kingdom. They were to go meagerly equipped, probably because " it was a picturesque and symbolical way of saying, ' The King- dom of God is at hand ! ' It was as though a man without hat or coat or shoes should ride down the valley telling the vil- lagers that the reservoir in the hills had broken its banks. Do you see other reasons for their meager equipment? " They were not to go from house to house engaging in the protracted and time-consuming social functions of the oriental village, but were to stay with one family and be constantly about their business (v. 10) . . . " If any village did not receive their message regarding the nearness of the Kingdom, they were to employ the common symbolism of the east and shake off every particle of dust from their sandals. This would show that they regarded the village as doomed and wished no particle of it to adhere to their persons. Their action and dress were suggestive of the picturesque symbolism in manner and dress often employed by the prophets of old. Indeed, these men were very like prophets in their message and services." ^ 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copj-righted 1Q04. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. 77ze Instructions of Jesus to the Twelve 77 Study VIL Third Day The Instructions of Jesus to the Twelve. Matt. 10: 16-42 Matthew's habit of grouping discourses logically related, is seen again in the preliminary instructions of Jesus to the disciples in Matthew 10: 16-42. The whole discourse breathes the atmosphere of the early church, yet the central thoughts are probably those of Jesus. Vv. 16-23 are clearly a description of the conditions of the early church, and yet how often have vv. 21-22 been re- peated over and over again as the cross of Christ has stead- ily advanced in the world. Read vv. 24-25 and realize that Jesus did not ask His fol- lowers to do anything which He Himself did not do. He does not direct from the rear. His commands are not," Ad- vance to yonder point!" but always, "Follow J\le ! " Vv. Z~~2)Z have been often misconstrued by many sincere people. "To confess Christ" was to speak in the young peo- ples' meeting, or to lead in public prayer. To keep silence after the meeting was opened for testimony was " to be ashamed of or to deny Christ." We deny Christ not by our inaptitude or inability to speak in a public religious meet- ing; we deny Him by playing dirty football, by cheating in examinations, by living self-centered lives of easy indul- gence, by gambling, by wasting our money and our time, by compromising with evil, by failing to offer our li\es when duty clearly calls. " Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you : depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Read 10:34. Jesus here expresses membership in the King- dom in terms of active warfare. Try to abolish the vice dis- trict, or destroy the " pork-barrel " of corrupt politicians, and you will realize that Jesus came not to send peace but a sword. To live right means a struggle. To fight entrenched evil may even result in death. 78 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day Study VII. Fourth Day The Instructions of Jesus to the Twelve (con- cluded). Matt. 10 : 16-42 Read Matthew 10:35-39. The followers of Christ in non- Christian lands realize the truth of vv. 35-36. To us, it is those who are afraid to fight for civic reforms for fear of offending associates in business, those who set aside the call of foreign missions on account of the selfish opposition of parents and friends, who are not worthy of Christ. Read 10:37. Jesus does not tell any one to neglect his family, or, after assuming the obligations of married life, to neglect wife and children to do religious work. No one was more concerned with the proper care of the family than Jesus. The circumstance that the name of Joseph is not mentioned in any accounts except those of the early life of Jesus probably indicates that Joseph died when Jesus was very young. Until His brothers were grown, Jesus was, no doubt, the main support of His family. John says that, even on the cross. He did not forget to provide for the care of His mother. It is those who are turned aside from doing the will of God by selfish considerations of family that Jesus is here addressing. " He that doth not take his cross and follow after me, is not worthy of me." Jesus follows this statement with that in V. 39, one of those paradoxical utterances in which He expresses a great truth in few words. He who throws his life into some great cause with reckless abandon finds his inward life enriched and deepened. He who seeks the easy life, rather than the best, finds his soul clogged with fatty degeneration. Horace Tracy Pitkin threw away his life in China when he might have lived for years in a comfortable home in America. But in losing his life in China, he found that inward enrichment of life which comes only through do- ing the will of God. " Lao-man," he said, to the faithful Chinese as he realized that death was near, " tell the mother of little Horace to tell Horace that his father's last wish was that when he is twenty-five years of age, he should come to China as a missionary." The Instructions of Jesus to the Twelve 79 Coningsby Dawson wrote from the battlefield in France in nineteen hundred and sixteen, " Yet, for all the damnability of what I now witness, I was never quieter in my heart. To have surrendered to an imperative self-denial brings a peace which self-seeking ne\-er brought," and again in nineteen hun- dred and seventeen, " This war is a prolonged moment of exultation for most of us — we are redeeming ourselves in our own eyes. To lay down one's life for one's friend once seemed impossible. All that is altered. We lay down our lives that the future generations may be good and kind, and so we can contemplate oblivion with quiet eyes." ^ Jesus emphasizes again, in the foregoing verses, that doing the will of God should come first in the life of a man. Neither business, family considerations, social position, nor selfish desires should be allowed to iiiterfere. Read 10 : 40-42. In v. 42, Jesus glorifies the simple, every- day acts of kindness and courtesy. Many so-called Christian men are inconsiderate of their wives. They are liberal to the poor, they are courteous in public, they are good churchmen, they speak from the pulpit occasionally, but they fail to show that unselfish kindliness which should animate the everyday routine of domestic and public life. Many men quiet their consciences by giving to charitable organizations, homes for the outcast, and newsboys' clubs, while paying their employees less than a living wage, and tolerating corrupt practices, which aid in producing degraded conditions. The " little ones " of Jesus are not only the chil- dren but the underfed, the over-worked, the ignorant, and the handicapped, who bear more than their share of taxation, and carry the burdens of an unjust industrial system. ^ 1 Carry On. Coningsby Dawson. Copyrighted 19 17. Used by per- mission of the John Lane Company. New York. 2 The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. Copyrighted 1913. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. 8o Jesus and the Young Man of To-day . Study VII. Fifth Day The Execution of John the Baptist. Mark 6: 14- 29; Matt. 14:1-12; Luke 9:7-9 The fame of Jesus spread even to the court of Herod. The effect on Herod gave Mark an opportunity to insert an account of the beheading of John the Baptist which occurred perhaps soon after Jesus began His ministry. John, the fearless prophet of the wilderness, dared to de- nounce the sin of Herod even to his face. Herod had, living with him, the wife of his brother. The finger of the prophet had been pointed at the ruler in accusation. The sensual Herod had trembled before John with a smitten conscience. The effect on his unlawful wife was almost entirely the op- posite. Herodias, the crafty, voluptuous, ambitious woman was filled with relentless hatred toward the prophet and de- termined to kill him. Read Mark 6: 14-29. Picture the scene in the court at the time of the birthday feast. The sumptuous food, the flowing wine, the blazing lights, the gorgeous apparel gave an effect of magnificence. While flushed with wine, the sensual dancing of the daughter of his brother brings forth from Herod the extravagant promise in v. 22. This promise presented an opportunity for which Herodias had been looking. She told her daughter to ask for the head of John the Baptist. Perhaps the noblest and best types of human beings, and at the same time the lowest and most degraded, are to be found among women. It has been remarked that a woman can love, a woman can hate, a woman can be an angel, a woman can be a devil. While the drunken revelry fills the banquet hall, the creak- ing of a cell door is heard in another part of the castle ; then comes the sharp thud of the executioner's ax, and the Herald of the Kingdom of God is no more. " Imagine the spiteful woman and her daughter looking at the ghastly head and blood-clotted hair of the great prophet. What an end for the greatest of God's prophets ! A bad man is made over into a loyal son of God, and a bad world is made The Feeding of the Five Thousand 8 1 over into the Kingdom of God, only through suffering, and to each one who would give himself with abandon to the en- terprise some measure of the suffering will be meted out." ^ Study VII. Sixth Day The Feeding of the Five Thousand, Walking on the Water, and a Visit to Gennesaret. Mark 6:30-56; Matt. 14: 13-36; Luke 9: 10-17 Read Mark 6 : 30-44. The disciples returned and told Jesus of the work they had done on their tour of preaching. As people were continually interrupting, Jesus took His dis- ciples apart into a desert place. What an ideal program for our own lives this is. First, to receive instructions from Jesus ; then, to set about to do His bidding; lastly, to return to tell Him all we have done or tried to do and to receive strength by resting awhile in quiet with Him. Mark follows this with an account of the feeding of the great multitude. .It is no wonder that the heart of Jesus' over- flowed with compassion as He looked at the crowd. They were seeking they knew not what. How He longed for them to realize in their lives the highest ideals ; how He longed for them to be filled with real joy; how He longed to bring them into fellowship with the Father; but they would not. This miracle is discussed in Study XV. At this time note that it is evident from v. 37 that the previous miracles of Jesus had not so impressed the disciples that they thought He could actually feed five thousand people with little or no provision. Whatever our view of the miracles, let us not lose the spiritual value contained in them. In the feeding of the five thousand, notice " that Jesus made His apostles feel responsi- bility for feeding the crowd (v. 37) ; made them take ac- count of all their resources (v. 38) ; made them bring all their 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. 82 Jesus a?id the Young Man of To-day very meager resources to Him (v. 41) ; and then through His blessing made these resources more than adequate to the need (vv. 42-43). The five thin cakes of bread and the two little dried fish answered abundantly." ^ Read Mark 6:45-56. " ' He gave to the disciples to set before them.' The supreme values that we have to give our friends are the things that come to us from association with Jesus Christ. Whether we have much to ofi'er them day by day depends upon what we are getting of thought and inspiration day by day from Him. The more we give, the more we have. When the crowd was satisfied, each apostle found his own basket full (v. 43)." ^ Study VII. Seventh Day Review 1. Jesus was rejected at Nazareth because His own boy- hood friends and the older people who had known Him since infancy were jealous of His fame. Do you discount the suc- cess of your friends on account of jealousy by saying it was " pull," or " bootlicking," or " crookedness," which pushed them to the front? Would you do everything you could to get a man out for football if you knew he would beat you out for the team? Are you working as hard for the success of the team notwithstanding that, although deserving the cap- taincy, you were defeated by " college politics " ? 2. Jesus sent forth His disciples, although He could have done the work much better Himself. Let us realize in our Christian work that we are not to develop a program, we are to develop men. The ideal Christian worker is not the man w'ho can only do the work himself ; he is the man who can also get others to work. 3. Some students, it is true, fail to confess Christ because of cowardice. They have stood with the other crowd so long that they lack the courage to stand out openly before the world as a follower of Him. 4. Would you give up a life work as a missionary in China 1 S.tudies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. Review 83 or India if your father were to disinherit you for volunteer- ing? 5. The trouble with most men is that they do not undertake work sufficiently large. They are contented with an easy task, and cease to progress. Be sure the life work you have planned is large enough for you to lose yourself in it. Henry Martyn wrote in his diary, two days after beginning his ministry to the natives and Europeans of North India, " I have hitherto lived to little purpose, more like a clod than a servant of God ; now let me burn up for God." Those who burn up for God in business, law, preaching, teaching, plumbing, or printing, find themselves really living. " That low man seeks a little thing to do, Sees it and does it ; This high man, with a great thing to pursue, Dies ere he knows it." Browning. 6. Is it better to break a bad promise or to keep it? 7. Jesus goes to the mountain top to pray but descends quickly to aid His disciples in distress. Let us realize that our educational advantages are not to make us feel superior to others ; we should descend from everv mountain top of op- portunity for service in the valley of life. STUDY VIII. FIRST DAY Jesus Refutes the Casuistry of the Rabbis. Mark 7: 1-23; Matt. 15: 1-20 Read Mark 7 : 1-23. " The ' tradition ' was the inherited explanation of the law. The later view of its origin was that God gave it on Mt. Sinai, either in written or oral form, but that much of it was afterward lost and had to be restored by the rabbis. The older view was that God gave simply the law on Mt. Sinai, which involved the ' tradition,' or that He gave orally the leading principles of the tradition. Practically, the tradition was regarded as more important than Scripture, be- cause tradition contained all the precepts of the law in the form in which they had to be obeyed in order to secure salvation. An instance of the tradition was the requirement that persons coming from the market where they might have involuntarily touched persons or things connected with pagan worship, or other religiously defiling objects, must purify themselves. . . . It was [also] possible for a man to say that a piece of prop- erty was ' Korban ' or ' given to God ' so far as a certain per- son was concerned, meaning by this not that the property would actually be given to the temple, but only that so far as the person mentioned was concerned, the property was to be considered as though given to the temple. The reference here is to a person who pronounces ' Korban ' over all his property so far as his father is concerned (v. 11), thus casting off all re- sponsibility for his father's support. Apparently he was then not allowed to reassume his father's support if he wished to do so (v. 12)." 1 These Pharisees, then, came to Jesus with the objection that His disciples were eating with hands ceremonially unclean. 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. 84 Jesus Refutes the Casuistry of the Rabbis 85 They did not accuse the disciples of dishonesty or fraud in securing the bread. The crime consisted in the manner in which the bread was eaten. It is not strange that Jesus became impatient with such quibbhng as this. The deep principles of the law were neg- kcted by these Pharisees. Read again the reply of Jesus in Mark 7 : 6-13. The trouble with the Pharisees was that they attempted to deceive themselves and others by living legally correct lives notwithstanding the fact that they continually violated the fundamental spirit of the law. Imagine a man parading before the community as righteous and honorable while neglecting his parents in need, and justifying such an action on the ground of some legal technicality. Yet to-day men lie and steal, and try to justify themselves with the ex- cuse that it is legal. How many men bargain with a man for one thing, and then trick him into signing a paper for something else. How many lawyers do everything legally in their power to defeat the ends of justice for a dishonest client. How many legislators who would not receive a bribe, accept a yearly retainer's fee from a corporation or indi- vidual, when they know it is only their legislative influence that is paid for. How many college students violate the spirit of eligibility rules by flimsy technicalities. Legality is not a justification for a wrong deed. Neither ritual, tradi- tion, custom, nor laws can make right a fraud. Read now Mark 7 : 14-23. The last clause of v. 19 is an in- sertion by Mark which gives a hint as to the date of the Gospel. See Acts 10: 14. Jesus, in these verses, again emphasizes the fact that the motives and thoughts of a man primarily determine his char- acter. " As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." The laws of society punish the act. Jesus went deeper and decided the penalty by the inward motive. Here Jesus again emphasizes that religious worship, church membership, orthodoxy of belief are not to be made into fetishes. They are worthless unless they produce within us kindness, justice, and honor. Last of all, Jesus emphasizes that He came not to teach us a collection of rules or a code of maxims which we are to ap- ply to the details of conduct. He came to make men pure 86 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day and true. " What he taught," said Robert Louis Stevenson, " was not a code of rules, but a loving spirit ; not truths, but a spirit of truth; not views, but a view." ^ He came to give us eternal principles of life and to relate us to God. If a man's life was inwardly right, Jesus did not concern Himself over the man's maxims of conduct. Let us not leave the commandments of God and hold fast the tradi- tion of men. "Jesus esteemed the great things of life to be the common- place things. No religious system, no matter how gorgeous its paraphernalia, how refined its metaphysical distinctions, or how minute its rules of righteousness, could stand before Him for a moment if it failed in the simple point of honor to parents. Religion and life were inseparable, and life was at its fullest in such elemental personal relationships as those between parent and child. Have you ever definitely reflected upon what is due the parent from the child, and carefully con- sidered whether you are really ' honoring ' your father and mother? What is it to 'honor' a person? "2 Study VIII. Second Day Jesus Leaves Galilee and Spends His Time with the Disciples in the Outside Provinces. Mark 7:24-30; Matt. 11:20-24 At this point, Jesus reached a crisis in His life. After a period of great popularity. His teachings became so offensive to the religious leaders that (Mark 3:6) they determined to kill Him. The opposition grew in intensity until the Pharisees proclaimed Him Beelzebub, in order to turn the masses against Him. Finally Herod himself became suspicious, and Jesus determined to leave Galilee in order that His work as well as Himself might not perish at this time. The woes in Matthew 1 Quoted from Jesus Christ and the Christian Character. F. G. Pea- body. The Macmillan Company. New York. 2 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. Jesus Leaves Galilee 87 I r : 20-24 were probably pronounced during these days. Read Matthew 11 : 20-24. " It was not a curse which Jesus pronounced upon these scenes of his activity ; it was rather a statement of fact put in the characteristic oriental form of a lament. A great op- portunity had come to their citizens, but most of them had rejected it. Jesus had longed and labored to lay in these favored centers the corner-stone of God's kingdom on earth. He had sought to banish from their streets all pain and igno- rance and sin. He had yearned to teach young and old alike how they might find that peace and joy and fullness of life which he knew would be theirs if they would but turn from their sins and follies and learn to love and serve their heav- enly Father with all their powers and their neighbors as them- selves. Here he had hoped to found a perfect community. Jesus' words reveal the intensity of his desire to realize this ideal and his tragic sense of failure. " Apparently only once, and possibly only for a few hours, did he return to Capernaum. His task from this time on was to perfect the training and the faith of the few who were loyal to him. In accomplishing this task, private conversation takes the place of public address. Deliberate choice, as well as necessity, led him to seek for this new work a quiet field beyond the authority of Herod Antipas where the leaven of the Pharisees could not permeate. This place of temporary refuge was found among the lofty hills of upper Galilee, in closest touch with the land and people whom Jesus loved, but out of reach of his foes." ^ Study VIII. Third Day Jesus Cures a Deaf-Mute, Feeds the Four Thou- sand, and Warns the Disciples Against Insin- cerity. Mark 7:31-8:21; Matt. 15:29-16:12 Read Mark 7:31-8: 10. We shall not discuss these records of curing the deaf-mute and feeding the four thousand at this 1 The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. Copyrighted 1913. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. 88 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day time. Notice in passing, the method of Jesus in curing the mute, vv. 33-34- Read Mark 8:11-21. Jesus sighed deeply in spirit. Is it not marvelous that Jesus did not quit His work in despair? He had spoken the truth to men, He had lived a life of loving service among them, but men were so selfish and so blinded by greed that many could not comprehend His mission. Many scorned Him, and those whose possessions were endan- gered by His message were willing to attempt any expedient to crush Him. These Pharisees in vv. 11-13 did not openly antagonize Jesus but under the guise of a reasonable question tried to alienate His followers. " You have made many striking state- ments," they said, " and in order that we may know you are from God, give us a sign. Let a voice come from the clouds ; or, do you throw yourself from the housetop without injury." They would not have believed, if both events had taken place. It was not the truth, but the destruction of Jesus, that they were seeking. They pretended to ask a sincere question, but their motives were insincere. This pretense, this hypocrisy was probably what Jesus warned His disciples against in vv. 14-21. " The figure of leaven was well chosen. It was hidden, pervasive, contagious, and transforming. It suggests the shrug of the shoulder, the sarcastic question, the poison- ous libel whereby these now sworn foes of Jesus endeavored to destroy the effect of his work with the people." ^ Yet the disciples are spiritually dull. " Is it because we have no bread that He speaks about yeast?" they ask among themselves. There is a note of sad disappointment in vv. 17 and 21. "Do you not perceive either?" said Jesus. "Is there no one, no one, who understands?" Is it any wonder that Jesus spent an entire night with His Father in prayer? Mark 8:11-21 throws interesting light on the miracles. If all the miracles had occurred literally, as is commonly supposed, the writer does not believe that the Pharisees would have asked for a sign in order to alienate the followers of Jesus, when so many signs had already been given. It also seems that the feeding of the multitude did not so impress 1 The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. Copyrighted 1913. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York, Jesus Cures a Blind Man 89 the disciples but that they wondered if Jesus were condemn- ing them for not bringing bread for the trip when He men- tioned the leaven of the Pharisees. ^ These points are dis- cussed in detail in Study XV. Study VIII. Fourth Day Jesus Cures a Blind Man. The Confession of Peter. Mark 8: 22-30; Matt. 16: 13-20; Luke 9: 18-21 Read Mark 8 : 22-26. Notice in the cure recorded here the customary means used in healing the man. Jesus now takes His disciples on a journey to the secluded district of Caesarea Philippi. Here another crisis is reached. The popularity of Jesus had steadily declined. John the Baptist had expressed his doubt about the Messiahship of Jesus. The priests had determined to kill Him and the treachery of Judas was perhaps beginning to develop. Now that He was an unpopular fugitive, Jesus wished to know what the disciples thought of Him before proceeding with them further. Read Mark 8 : 27-30. " Thou art the Christ." Exactly what this meant to Peter, it is impossible to determine. The intense personality, the fearless manhood, the deep, tender, loving spirit of Jesus had drawn and held the disciples to Him. Much of what H'e said was incomprehensible. Some of His acts or sometimes His failure to act were inexplicable. But He Himself held them and they yet believed He would restore the Kingdom to Israel. The spiritual significance of His message was only partially understood by them and the rebuke of Peter in 8 : 32 and the request of James and John in Mark 10 : 35 show that they still looked for the material kingdom. Notwithstand- ing the seemingly inconsistent conduct of Jesus as a Messi- anic aspirant, they clung to Him as the fulfillment of the highest hopes of Israel and confidently believed Him to be the Messiah. The account of Matthew of the confession of Peter con- 1 The Gospel History and Its Transmission. F. C. Burkitt. T. and T. Clark. The Charles Scribner's Sons. New York, 90 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day tains an addition, Matthew 16:18-19, which, it seems to the writer, is clearly a reflection of the views and beliefs of the early church. (See references 6 and 21.) V. 30. " He charged them that they should tell no man of him." Why ? Study VIII. Fifth Day Jesus Tells the Disciples of the Inevitable End Awaiting Him. The Rebuke of Peter. Mark 8 : 31-9 : I ; Matt. 16 : 21-28 ; Luke 9 : 22-27 Assured of the loyalty of the disciples, Jesus began to tell them of the inevitable end of His earthly life. He had realized that " to continue his work in Galilee was impossible, for it meant the increased opposition of the Pharisees and probably imprisonment and death at the hands of Herod. To seek per- manent refuge in a foreign land meant inevitable failure and disgrace, for it was equivalent to abandoning his ideals and followers. ... To perform his mission he must face Israel's leaders, declare himself at Jerusalem, and, if need be, die for the truth which he proclaimed. . . . His lament over Chora- zin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, and, later, over Jerusalem, leave no doubt that he had ardently hoped that the outcome would be different. His prayer in Gethsemane shows beyond doubt that he at times prayed 'that he might not be obliged to drink the bitter cup of suffering and seeming failure ; but as a careful student of the H Isaiah and of the larger book of life, he recognized that the way in which the servant of Jehovah was to perform his task was the way of seeming shame and of patient suffering and of complete self-sacrifice." ^ Read Mark 8: 31-9: i- Yet how inconsistent was this with the popular Messianic idea. The Messiah was not to be put to death, he was to rule. Peter naively takes Jesus aside and remonstrates with Him that it is " poor politics " to talk about His death. Such statements will drive people from Him. No man wants to 1 The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. Copyrighted 19 13. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York, Jesus is Concerned About All of the Disciples 91 risk his life in an unsuccessful venture. In the sugges- tion of Peter, Jesus sees the awfulness of the third tempta- tion come before Him again — seek success by scheming and not by sacrifice. Is it any wonder He rebuked Peter so un- sparingly? The prediction about rising again in three days is probably an addition by the evangelist who wrote the gospel in the light of subsequent events. " Jesus never claimed to be a seer." 1 See Mark 13:32. Study VIII. Sixth Day Jesus Is Concerned About All of the Disciples. Mark 8 : 34-9 : i Read Mark 8:34-9: i. How strange and paradoxical these words of Jesus seemed. Instead of the triumphal procession of a great army with their prancing horses and flashing armor, "Jesus pictures Himself leading a procession of men out to execution, each with a cross on his shoulder." - And yet the discourse closed with a note of triumph in 9:1. It was diffi- cult for the disciples to reconcile this triumphant note with the previous allusion of Jesus to His death. Read again vv. 35-37- These verses have been discussed somewhat in a pre- vious study but it is well to recall them. It is only by losing our temporal life in service that we can find our inward life enriched to the uttermost. A tragedy in life is for a man to starve his soul for the profit of this world. In the view of Jesus, the goal for which we should sacrifice everything, is friendship with God. The man who for fame or money or influence turns a deaf ear to the voice of God within him, even though he attain his end, has paid too great a price for it. " If a man were gaining a legal title to all the real estate in the world and losing his capacity for friendship, ... he would be on the road to eternal pauperism." - The disciples had yet to learn that we tri- 1 The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kenjt. Copyrighted 1913. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. 2 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted, 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. 92 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day umph by sacrifice of self. In laying down our life for a prin- ciple, we thereby establish it. It was the fear that the disci- ples would not realize this, which concerned Jesus at this time. The original utterance of Jesus in v. 38 is found in Mat- thew 10:33. In Mark 8:38 the evangelist has transformed it in accordance with the apocalyptic beliefs of the early church. 1 Study VIII. Seventh Day Review Thus far we have tried to avoid the discussion of anything in these studies which cannot be accepted by an open-minded man. Jesus appears in Galilee preaching. He believes in God as our Father, and seeks to relate men in friendship with God, The grandeur of His teachings, which is also pictured in His life, pass comprehension. His teachings challenge us to heroic service. Although, in the opinion of His followers, He does not always take advantage of His opportunities, and seems to predict an end impossible for a Messiah, they stand by Him. 1. Do you look at the sayings of Jesus as a series of dis- connected maxims which are to be applied to the details of conduct, or are you trying to grasp the great principles that Jesus taught? 2. Would you vote to refuse membership in the church to a man who could not intellectually accept parts of the Apostles' Creed, yet who was a sincere follower of Jesus Christ, and living a Christlike life? 3. Are you neglecting father, mother, or sister on the ground that >0u have sufficiently done your duty by them? 4. Are you able to appreciate the worth or good qualities of an enemy? It is easier to criticize a church not your own than to sincerely appreciate its value. 5. "What think ye of Christ?" No man is ever the same 1 The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. The Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. Review 93 after studying the life of Jesus. We are either better or worse. He makes a decision imperative. We either accept or reject Him. The life of Jesus meets us with a challenge which must be obeyed or refused. There is no neutral ground. 6. Do you ever try to use " tact " or " diplomacy" in dealing with a definite moral question? 7. Do you dare to fight a losing battle for right regardless of personal consequence? 8. You have heard the expression " You merely throw your vote away when you cast it for so-and-so." No honest vote is ever thrown away. No life is ever wasted which is sacri- ficed in service. No righteous cause is ever lost when men will die for it. 9. What is your goal in life? "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? " STUDY IX. FIRST DAY The Transfiguration. Mark 9: 2-8; Matt. 17: 1-13; Luke 9 : 28-36 Six days intervene between the transfiguration and the " perplexity into which Jesus had pkinged His disciples," 1 discussed in the last study. It was an exceedingly critical week. Jesus was evidently preparing Himself to face the cross, and at the same time, "he was endeavoring to adjust his followers to the new situation and to give them a true appreciation of the real task of the Messiah and of the way in which that task must be accomplished." ^ He was in dan- ger now of having them leave Him altogether and abandon Him as so many others had done. " It may well be, as some one has suggested, that during this critical week Jesus told them the story of His own temptation that has come down to us in Matt. 4. He may also have told them of the dove and the heavenly voice at the baptism (Mark i : 9-11). " At the close of the week, Jesus took the three leaders of the inner circle up into a mountain for a night ... of prayer." 1 Read Mark 9 : 2-8. The story is told in the form of a parable as are the tempta- tion and baptism. The audible voice and the actual appear- ance of Moses and Elijah, the writer does not believe, are to be interpreted literally. Jesus evidently endeavored to explain to these three disciples that His ideas of the Kingdom were exactly in accord with the teachings of Moses and the ex- pectations of the prophets (v. 4). The intensity of His conviction, the grandeur of His life, the nobility of His char- acter seemed to glow with such radiance as He talked with them, that they were lifted out of themselves (v. 5). In spite 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. 2 The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. Copyrighted 1913- Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. 94 Cure of the Epileptic Boy 95 of His strange views, Peter, James, and John came down from the mountain convinced that Jesus was the Messiah (v. 7) and resolved to stand by Him to the end. " Although these leaders would not tell the other nine what they had experienced on the mountain (Mark 9:9), their own unwavering confidence henceforth in Jesus' Messiahship turned the scale, and from this time on the whole company anticipated for themselves the political honors of the coming Kingdom with entire confidence (Mark 9:33; 10:35-37)."! Study IX. Second Day Cure of the Epileptic Boy. A Short Visit to Gali- lee. The Dispute as to Who Was Greatest. Mark 9:9-37; Matt. 17:14-18:6; Luke 9:37- 48 Read Mark 9:9-13. Jesus again enjoins secrecy upon the disciples. If He had permitted the disciples to mention His Messiahship, they would probably have recruited followers and enlisted support in order to be prepared when the Mes- sianic demonstration occurred. Their activity would have brought matters to a crisis quickly. Jesus wished to let events take their own course and at the same time to prevent the disciples from securing follow;ers on a false basis. H He had permitted them to publish the fact of His Mes- siahship, the reaction occasioned by His death would have been even more disheartening to them than it was, and some of them would never have been reclaimed. Vv. 9-1 1 were written, the writer believes, in the light of subsequent events. Read Mark 9: 14-29. Notice vv. 24 and 29. Read Mark 9 : 30-32. Jesus pays a short visit to Galilee, and as He comes within the province again. He naturally thinks of the antagonism of the Pharisees and Herod. Once more. He warns His disciples of His approaching death. 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. 96 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day This time, remembering the manner in which Jesus had re- buked Peter, the twelve were afraid to ask Him for any further explanation or to remonstrate with Him in any way. Read Mark g:2)2)-2>7- Notwithstanding the unselfish life Jesus had lived, notwithstanding the ideas of service He had tried to teach the disciples, we find them at this late period arguing as to who was the greatest, and who would be prime minister when the Kingdom was established. " Let those of you," said Jesus, " who desire to be great, realize that great- ness comes by unselfish service. He who desires greatness by that very desire shows himself incapable of true greatness. But he who forgetting himself and caring not for fame, de- votes himself to others with no expectation of reward, al- ready possesses greatness. And those of you who are seek- ing favor of Peter, James, or John in order that you may profit by their influence, should rather begin to seek favor of those who, like little children, cannot reward you. In serving them, you will be serving me." Read Luke 14:12-14, as a further illustration of this last thought. " The extreme simplicity of life in the Kingdom of Heaven, as Jesus conceived it, is evident here. The Kingdom is an EMPIRE OF UNSELFISH GOOD-WILL exprcsscd ill the ordinary re- lationships of life. We need repeatedly to ask ourselves. Do I enjoy doing for those who can make no return in kind? For instance, do I feel an increasing degree of Jesus' interest in little children? "i Study IX, Third Day The Selfish Misconception of the Kingdom Held by the Twelve and Their Own Danger of Fail- ing to Enter the Kingdom. Mark 9:38-50; Matt. 18:7-14; Luke 9:49-50 Read Mark 9:38-40. The disciples found a man casting out devils by using the name of Jesus and immediately 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted 1904, Used by permission of the Association Prers. New York. The Selfish Misconceptioti of the Kingdom 97 stopped him. "What right has this man to do this?" they ask among themselves. " He is not one of us. But probably when the Kingdom is established he will want to claim his share of honor." The disciples had not yet realized the universality of the message of Jesus and their selfishness prevented them from appreciating the work and purpose of this man. How many of us are such followers of Him? H another movement takes a few members from our Sunday school, church, or Bible class, we frequently resent it. We rarely ask our- selves, Can this other organization develop Christlike char- acter in the members who have left us better than we could have done? H so, let us be thankful that the new move- ment started, or that the new church moved into our neigh- borhood. Let us send more members to them. The statistics in the year book or the conference minutes will indicate failure in our work but the Kingdom will be further ad- vanced. We are frequently so zealous of our own organization that we unconsciously place its development first, giving to the Kingdom of our Lord a secondary position. Jesus told the disciples that they had made a mistake. They should have appreciated that the purpose of the man was sincere. Regardless of the actual results, he was trying as sincerely to build up the Kingdom as the disciples them- selves. " Moreover," continued Jesus, " at a time of opposi- tion like this, no one would dare to commend my work or use my name who was not a sincere follower." Read Mark 9 : 41-42. " The most trivial service," continued Jesus, " rendered in an unselfish spirit marks a man just so far a follower of mine. As for any one who by ridicule, jest, sarcasm, or seeming superiority disheartens or alienates a follower of mine, it were better for him if a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the sea." Read Mark 9:43-50 in which Jesus again emphasizes the importance of sacrificing anything in our lives which would prevent us entering the Kingdom. The meaning of '* hell " or " Gehenna " was discussed in a previous study and need not be explained here. Jesus closes this warning to the disciples with the words, 98 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day " Be at peace one with another." Let each one be so filled with the spirit of self-sacrifice that there will be no further disputes about who is greatest. Study IX. Fourth Day The Reply of Jesus to the Question of Peter Con- cerning Forgiveness, and the Teaching Regard- ing Marriage. Mark 10:1-12; Matt. 18:21- 19: 12 Peter had probably been the leader in the discussion in Mark 9:33-34. His impetuous, authoritative manner must have antagonized some of the disciples who did not hesitate to make unkind remarks about him, Peter evidently felt as if he had been unjustly attacked and came to Jesus with the question in Matthew 18:21. Read Matthew 18:21-35. The point of the illustration is that the king released his servant from a debt of ten million but the servant in turn cast into prison a man who owed him less than twenty dollars. The little wrongs done us which we forgive are so trifling compared with our sin which God forgives, after our re- bellion against Him, that if we fail to forgive we are as un- grateful and detestable as the servant of the king. Imagine the astonishment of Peter when he grasped the meaning of the parable. The abuse he had suffered amounted to less than twenty dollars but God had forgiven him over ten mil- lion dollars. No matter how good we may be, we have in- finitely more for which we need to ask forgiveness than we shall ever be called on to forgive. We are to show the same forgiving spirit to others as our Father manifests toward us. Read Mark 10: 1-12. These verses were studied in connec- tion with the Sermon on the Mount. Let us think again of the sanctity of the home and ask ourselves if we are looking forward toward marriage as a spiritual and mental mating oi two persons in loving comradeship, in order that the little ones may be nurtured in love and led into friendship with the Father. Jesus Blesses Little Children 99 Study IX. Fifth Day Jesus Blesses Little Children. Mark 10: 13-16; Matt. 19:13-15; Luke 18:15-17 Read Mark 10:13-16. The disciples had failed to realize that Jesus was concerned for every human being. The in- finite value of every individual life had not yet become a basic principle with them. They did not rebuke the rich young ruler who came to Jesus but attempted to push aside the children, for Jesus was too busy, they thought, to be troubled with children. One can almost see the flash of indigna- tion in the eyes of Jesus as He rebukes them. He was never so busy with the plans or organization of the Kingdom that He did not have time to attend to the needs of the least member of the Kingdom. IVIany men become so absorbed in the organization of Christian forces that they neglect in their own home or among their own friends the people for whom the organization is intended. Moreover Jesus saw in the childlike mind the very quality \iecessary for entrance into the Kingdom. It is emphasized in the first Beatitude — the quality of open-mindedness. Re- ceptive as they are to the truth, easily detecting and detesting sham, unhampered by material considerations, it is to the children or those of childlike (not childish) spirit that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs. Men are frequently warped and biased by selfish considera- tions. Many, for instance, would enter the church — but then they would have to abandon certain questionable busi- ness methods; many would stand against wasteful public expenditures — but they receive their largest fees from dis- honest government contractors ; many would fight for social reforms — but they are afraid of losing their social position. A child is free from such influences and faces the truth with an open mind. Jesus " took them in his arms and blessed them." " Everything that Jesus touched He permanently dignified. The sick, who had before been neglected and abandoned, since He touched them are gathered into hospitals. The cross, which had before been the symbol of guilt, horror, and lOO Jesus and the Young Man of To-day shame, like the gallows, since He touched it has been the symbol of loving sacrifice to be gilded and lifted high on church spires or worn in miniature upon the person. Little children, who had before been slightingly thought of, since He touched them have become the objects of tender regard. The care of infants, the early education of little children, engage the attention of the most skillful physicians and the greatest educators. In the New Order it is persons that receive su- preme consideration — little persons, aged persons, sick per- sons, outcast persons, any kind of persons. Are you coming to feel a profound interest in all kind of persons? "^ Study IX. Sixth Day The Rich Young Man and the Warning of Jesus About the Peril of Riches. Mark lo: 17-31; Matt. 19: 16-30; Luke 18: 18-30 Read Mark 10: 17-22. The disciples were no doubt de- lighted when they saw this wealthy young man seeking an interview with Jesus, and they were greatly astonished when Jesus unnecessarily, as it seemed to them, sent him away by making such a severe demand of him. Jesus told the young man, first of all, that God alone was absolutely good. There is a difference between sinlessness and absolute goodness. We find no trace of Jesus ever hav- ing confessed sin. If He had been guilty of sin without con- fession, it would have shown itself in His conduct, and in such a case the disciples would have unconsciously recorded it. But we find Jesus moving forward to the cross, teaching, and living a life perfectly consistent with a disavowal of sin. To be absolutely good, however, means that a man must have absolute knowledge. He must know what is the final stand- ard of right and wrong even to the end of time. Jesus did not profess to have absolute knowledge. God alone, said Jesus, possesses such absolute knowledge and He alone is absolutely good. 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted, 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. 1 he Rich Young Man and the Warning of Jesus lOl It matters little, then, if Jesus were mistaken in His ideas of demoniac possession or in the apocalyptic dreams recorded in Mark 13. He enriched the world not so much by His knowledge as by His life. Jesus absolutely obeyed, as far as we know, every divine prompting within Him, He may have been mistaken regarding material facts and He may have even misinterpreted what He thought were divine promptings, but His purposes, and His obedience to the will of God, as He saw it, were, so far as we can see, absolutely perfect. It was not the enumeration of a few psychological or material facts which made Him unique, but it was His inner life, His motives. His spirit, by which He enriched the world and made Himself even to this day an object of adoration and worship, Jesus finds that this young man with all his wealth had lived a clean, honorable life. Young, physically strong, neatly clothed, upright in conduct, thoughtful of his parents, is it any wonder that Jesus loved him? But the young man fell short of the best. He needed to take his life and his possessions and use them in some great cause. Alas, he thought more of his wealth than of anything else. He was willing to follow Jesus to a certain extent. He was willing to deny himself to a certain point. But to give up his wealth was asking too much. Jesus did not regard riches as evil in themselves. But when anything except the will of God becomes the dominant purpose of the life of a man, it is to be cut away. It is not always money. It may be political position, social standing, ties of friendship which we are unwilling to break, even for the opportunity of greater service to God. In very many cases it is the lure or possession of money that enslaves men. " Jesus' teachings, therefore, are very clear : the acquisition and possession of wealth as an end in itself means slavery and moral blindness for the individual, injustice to society, and disloyalty to God. Regarded as a trust and used faith- fully for the service of God and man, riches have their im- portant place in the kingdom of God." ^ Read Mark 10: 23-31. The truth of the proverb in v. 25 was very evident in the 1 The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. Copyrighted 1913. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. I02 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day case of this young man who, though possessing great pos- sibilities for service to the Kingdom of God, could not sacri- fice his wealth. Thus it is to-day. The child-labor laws are fought by those who profit from the labor of children; honest civic adminis- tration is fought by those who reap the spoils of corrupt poli- tics ; and the hardships of mission work are usually avoided by the sons of the wealthy. Wealth, especially inherited wealth, is a curse to many and leads to indulgence in sin and disintegration of spiritual forces. Truly in many cases it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God. For those who make the material sacrifice, the inward enrichment of their lives will multiply a hundredfold. "This is the gospel of labor — ring it, ye bells of the kirk — The Lord of Love came down from above, to live with the men who work. This is the rose that He planted, here in the thorn-cursed soil — Heaven is blest with perfect rest, but the blessing of earth is toil." Henry Van Dyke. Study IX. Seventh Day Review T. Ought we not to show as much genuine courtesy to the newsboy as to the dean? 2. Would you go far out of your way to serve a dying charity patient? 3. Would you be willing to discontinue your Simday school and send the pupils to the school of another denomination if you sincerely thought that they could better train your children in Christian character than your school could? 4. Do you resent the intrusion of others into your field of service? H you have failed as a pastor or a secretary, would you genuinely rejoice to see your successor prosper? 5. Is your life suffused with the spirit of Christ? Does Review 103 3'our conversation with bootblack, waiter, car conductor, ele- vator boy, and clerk, radiate with the genuine love of Christ for men ? 6. Have you ever discouraged sincere people in work for the Kingdom by destructive criticism, or by jesting about reli- gion? Many students fall into the habit of placing them- selves upon a pedestal of superior knowledge (?), pointing out the faults and defects of the Sunday school, the church, the revival, and the whole program of religion, without mak- ing an effort to apply a constructive remedy. 7. Do you harbor ill will when unjustly attacked? 8. Many students become interested in people in the ab- stract and talk interestingly on modern methods of reli- gious work, but they have lost the individual touch. Jesus was interested in people as individuals and always set aside the organization when it was necessary for the good of the individual. Some men preach excellent sermons on love and forbearance but become exceedingly irritated and speak un- kindly to their wives if dinner is half an hour late. 9. Do you believe a child of wealth deserves more credit for nobility of life and faithfulness to duty than a child of poverty ? 10. Are you falling short of the best? Many students with great possibilities content themselves with an easy task which calls for only mediocre talent, instead of throwing their lives into some great cause which demands their all. 11. With all your advantages are you doing as much pro- portionately for Christ as the man with poorer equipment? 12. What is first in your life? What is the chief end of man? 13. Have you ever considered your " financial budget " from the religious standpoint? Do you think it as sinful to waste money as it is to hoard it? Has a man any more right to waste money than to debase his character? Does not the hon- est accumulation of wealth strengthen character? 14. Students often fail to give to the church, missions, or charity but deny themselves no personal indulgence. They never miss a football game or a cotillion but cannot spare even as small an amount as fifty cents for foreign missions. 15. Do you realize that the way you spend your money in- I04 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day dicates your character as much as the way you spend your time? i6. Regardless of his position every man has temptations commensurate with his nature. We must let neither poverty nor riches, education nor ignorance, hinder us from subor- dinating our all to the will of God. 17. How would Jesus deal with the idle rich? 18. Are the moral questions concerned with wealth de- pendent upon the amount of wealth? ig. If in a particular instance, honesty would lead to bank- ruptcy, what would be the instructions of Jesus? 20. Let us realize that growth in character comes not by having things but by doing things. " It is action, as a matter of fact, that measures the final zvorth of any life. We are in the world, not to look on, but to do. He lacks manhood who lives but to be amused by the passing show. Work be- stows meaning upon life, and brings unity to its scattered im- pulses. Work gives a man dignity and poise ; it shows forth the divinity that is within him. Not just to find out God's wisdom are we here, but to work for Him and with Him in the building of His kingdom." ^ 1 The Pui)il and the Teacher. L. A. Weigle. Copyrighted 191 1. Used by permission of the George H. Doran Company. New York. STUDY X. FIRST DAY The Peril of an Empty Life. Matt. 12:43-46 There are a number of sections in Luke and Matthew not contained in Mark which should be studied before taking np the last journey to Jerusalem. The first of these is the passage in Matthew 12 : 43-45. The trouble with the house spoken of in this parable was that it was empty. In the language of to-day, the paint. was fresh, the roof was good, the plumbing was modern, the floors were of hardwood, but no one lived in it. Jesus is teaching us in this parable that we must not only have a good life but a life good for something.i It is perilous to stay on the defensive in Christian work. We cannot expect to attain the Kingdom by merely refraining from evil. Either we do good or our good intentions become atrophied. Something must fill our lives : if it is not good, it will be evil. The danger of so many college men is not that they do so much evil, but that they do no good. Some day they will be surprised to find that their religious life is dead. This principle is well illustrated by a zealous Christian student who, upon graduation, went to the Philippines as a government teacher. He did not spend himself in religious service for others in the Philippines as he had done in Amer- ica. When he came home, he found that his religious zeal had died out and that he felt spiritually dead. " It was not that I did anything particularly wrong in the Philippines," he said in explanation, "but I just did nothing." His life was empty. How many students crowd their life with athletics, class politics, college publications, and social life, until prayer, 1 Jesus Christ and the Christian Character. F. G. Peabody, The Macmillan Company. New York. io5 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day Bible study, and service are crowded out and their religious life becomes atrophied. The reverse of this parable is equally true. By filling our lives with good and spending ourselves in Christian service, evil will be crowded out. The easiest way to live right, is not to spend so much time in the repression of the evil in us, but to spend all our time in the expression of the good. We are never so free from temptation as when helping another who is tempted. As long as our lives are dominated by some lofty purpose, we are not likely to fall. Let us make a budget of our time and thought and begin to exclude the damaging and non-essential by filling up with the Christlike. Study X. Second Day The Kingdom, the Highest Good. Luke g : 57-62 Read Luke 9:57-62. In these three illustrations, Jesus teaches that the Kingdom is of highest importance. To the first man who wished to follow Him, He pointed out that it might mean a complete sacrifice of material com- forts, but that it was worth the price. To the second man, who wished first to bury his father, Jesus said that his father was dead and nothing more could be done for him. The Kingdom was a matter of the great- est and most immediate importance to the living. To the third man, who wished to bid farewell to his rela- tives, Jesus advised the dispensing with such formalities. The Kingdom needed him. These sayings may seem harsh to some people. Jesus did not compromise. He stated principles outright, so that there could be no doubt of His meaning, and no place for exceptions. Jesus did not teach disrespect to the dead ; He was emphasizing the supreme importance of the Kingdom. The father was dead. The son could not help the father by attending to the funeral rites, which could be looked after by some one else, He could better show his respect for The Kingdom, the Highest Good 107 his father by attending to a matter of supreme importance to the Hving, than by neglecting the living in order to per- form the ceremonies due to the dead. In a charge, a soldier's comrades may fall by his side yet he must go forward. The objectives must be gained, the bat- tle must be w^on, the dead w^ill be buried later. Again, Jesus had no objection to one's saying good-by to his kinsfolk, but taught that such customs are not to stand in the way of the Kingdom. There is a lesson here for college men. Such expressions as these are frequently heard on the campus : " I'm sorry, but I can't attend Bible study to-day ; we have a class meeting." " I'm sorry, but you had better not count on me for your prayer group; the editors of the college paper frequently have their meeting at that hour." " I can't take the chair- manship of the Bible study committee next year; I'm trying for manager of the track team and I can't do both." " I have just all the work I can do this year; I'm interested in your mission work, but don't count on me." There are, however, a group of men who have caught the meaning of Luke 9:62. "Sorry," they say, "I'll have to drop the glee club, if you meet at that time; we have a Bible class then." " Sorry, but I have not time for football and the Christian Association too, so I'll have to drop foot- ball." Is your religious work set aside for secular college affairs or does it come first? What is of supreme importance in your daily life? Study X. Third Day The Parable of the Good Samaritan Luke 10: 25-37 The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the best known and most frequently quoted of the parables of Jesus. Therein. Jesus again declares that love is the sum of the law. "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Love God, and io8 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day love your neighbor. These two commandments cannot be separated. A man cannot love God without loving his neigh- bor and a man cannot love his neighbor without, either con- sciously or unconsciously, loving God. In reply to the ques- tion "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus draws, in a striking way, a picture of love and its work. Read Luke 10:25-37. The parable may perhaps be paraphrased thus. A man was journeying on horseback to a distant city. On the way, he was waylaid, robbed, and left to die by the roadside. A min- ister on his way, perhaps, to deliver the principal address at a great convention, on the subject, "The Creed, the Founda- tion of Our Faith," came along that way. He saw the wounded man, and his first impulse was to help him. But fearing the delay would make him late for his engagement, and put him in danger of being robbed himi-elf, the minister hurried on, leaving the dying man unattended. A secretary of the Christian Association passed by. He was on his way to address a great mass meeting on the subject, "The Church and Its Call to Men." He saw the wounded man and stopped for a moment to look at him. He could do little for the man anyway, and as the mass meeting was important, he too hur- ried on, leaving the wounded man unattended by the roadside. Then a negro came along that way. The negro had just finished work in a neighboring town and had a week's wages in his pocket. If the robbers caught him, all his money would be taken and there would be two dying men instead of one. The negro did not think of this. He dressed the wounds of the man; put him on his mule; took him to the next town; lodged him at a boarding house; sent for a doctor; and paid the bills. This paraphrase is not intended as a slur on ministers and Association secretaries, but is told to illustrate the idea of Jesus of the supreme requirement of religion. The minister in hurrying on to address the convention on the Creed, neg- lected to render the service for which the creed was formu- lated. The secretary, in his neglect of the man, failed in the very purpose for which the church, to which he was calling men, was organized. Ritual, orthodoxy, churchmanship are not ends in them- The Parable of the Good Samaritan 109 selves. They are merely the body in which the spirit of lov- ing service is nurtured. Do we wish to inherit eternal life? Then let us love God and love our neighbor, and let us express our love as this negro expressed his love for the wounded man. We have also in this parable a clear definition of love. It is not sentiment or emotion. It is joyful service. The minister and the secretary may have preached excellent ser- mons on love. They may have shed tears when a man " hit the trail." But they were blind to a most obvious case of human need. Love, then, is the strength of one man applied to the need of another ; it is thought! ulness ; it is genuine in- terest in human beings as such; it is courtesy; it is tender- ness; it is sacrifice; it is, in a word, the expression in life of the Christlike spirit.^ " To Jesus," some one has said, " the only orthodoxy is love, the only heresy is selfishness." The great world war demonstrated that individual or organ- ized selfishness cannot exist in a world with the ideals of Jesus and that war will never cease until individuals and na- tions cease to be selfish and are dominated by love, as the Good Samaritan was. "Who was neighbor to him that fell among the thieves?" The Jew detested the Samaritan so much that he would not even mention the name Samaritan. " He that showed mercy on him," was the reply. " And Jesus said unto him, Go, and do thou likewise." Study X. Fourth Day Martha and Mary. Luke 10:38-42 Luke next records a visit of Jesus to the home of Martha and Alary. Read Luke 10:38-42. When Jesus entered this home, Mary laid aside all house- hold cares in order to spend her time with the Master. She wished to enjoy His companionship. The household work could be done at another time when Jesus was not there. 1 Jesus Christ and the Christian Character. F. G. Peabody. The Macmillan Company. New York. 1 lO Jesus and the Young Man of To-day What were household duties compared with an hour spent in the presence of the Master? Martha, on the other hand, busied herself with the house- hold cares. The Teacher was here and the best linen must be spread. The guest room must be dusted and swept. The dinner must be well cooked and of a quality befitting an occasion like this. And Martha became irritated because Mary left all this work for her to do. Jesus was not so much concerned about food and spotless linen. It was an appreciation of Himself and a desire for His message that He wanted. It was her spirit of welcome and her sense of the real values in life that Jesus commended in Mary. A certain evangelist, who often spent months away from home, was walking down the street with his little girl on the morning of his return from one of his long trips. An old friend met him and requested him to look at the new insti- tutional church which was being erected close at hand. The evangelist looked at his little girl and taking a few coins from his pocket, said, " Here, girlie, run, buy yourself some candy. Daddy is going with Mr. for awhile." The little girl held the coins in her open hand and, looking up at her father, said, with quivering lips, " Daddy, you have been away nine months. I don't want your money. I want you." Jesus wants you — not so much your money, or 3'our time, or your influence, as your heart. Have you given yourself to Him? Jesus did not want food as much as He wanted that devo- tion of the heart which sought refreshment in His presence. Study X. Fifth Day The Prodigal Son. Luke 15:11-32 We come now to another well-known parable of Jesus, the parable of the Prodigal Son. Read Luke 15: 11-32. The first lesson that we learn from this parable is the love of the Father for us. No matter how low we fall, or how de- graded we may become, He stands ready to receive us to Him- self again. The pathetic thing about the wayward son was, The Prodigal Son I 1 1"^ that only by draining the cup of sin to the bottom could he learn how bitter were the dregs. Hundreds of boys and college men are to-day beiifg warned of the inevitable conse- quences of sin and of disobedience to the call of God, but they will never " come to themselves " until they have paid the penalty. Alas, then, -a majority of them either are dead, or lack the power to " arise and go to their Father." Yet the heart of the Father yearns for the return of His wayward children and is ever seeking to draw them to Himself with cords of love. There is another lesson that we may learn from this para- ble. It is from the attitude of the elder brother. It was the attitude of this son wKich disturbed Jesus. The elder brother was selfish. He was not as much concerned about the wel- fare of his brother as he was about the attention which he thought due to himself. If his heart had been full of love, when informed of the cause of the rejoicing in the house, he would have rushed in and wept on the neck of his brother as his father did, and would have contributed anything he owned to the occasion. But he was angry and would not go in. Think of the jealousy, ill temper, and selfishness dis- played here. Do you ever sulk because you do not receive your share of glory in the success of an enterprise? Do you feel bitter against the other half back because he gets so much applause and cheers for carrying the ball when his success is the re- sult of your interference? In this parable Jesus is again calling attention to love and unselfishness as the great essential of life. Study X. Sixth Day Jesus Faces Jerusalem. Mark lo : 32-34 ; Matt. 20:17-19; Luke 18:31-34 We now begin the study of the final period in the life of Jesus. He felt that His disciples were prepared to with- stand the shock of coming events, however dreadful these might be. At any rate, Peter, James, and John would keep 112 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day the others of the twelve faithful. Realizing the inevitable end awaiting Him, yet hoping to the last that the nation would accept His message, Jesu« traveled toward Jerusalem at the time of the celebration of the Passover. At this time, pilgrims from the surrounding provinces would be assembled in Jerusalem, and then, if ever, He could appeal to the entire nation. " There is no evidence in the gospel narratives," says Pro- fessor Kent, "that Jesus was conscious of following a pre- ordained programme. On the contrary, they testify that even to the last he cherished the hope that Jerusalem would not maintain its evil reputation of killing its prophets. Like a mother bird, he longed to gather he* children together and protect them from the fate that he saw was inevitable if his nation continued to follow its false ambition. But Jesus knew well the forces with which he had to deal, and the evidence is cumulative that he went up to Jerusalem in the spirit of a martyr, fully aware of the dangers which confronted him." ^ On the way, Jesus once more warned His followers of the inevitable consequences to Him of facing the nation with His uncompromising message. The evangelist again wrote the warning of Jesus in the light of later events. ^ Study X. Seventh Day Review We have now reached the final period in the life of Jesus. Thus far, we have avoided the discussion of the miracles, and of doctrines which are usually considered stumbling-blocks in the way of men who are trying to think their way through religious problems. As the studies have advanced, the depth and profundity of the teachings of Jesus have become more evident, and .the perfection of His character has gradually been revealed. We found that over and over again He placed the emphasis on what we to-day call Christlike love as the 1 The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. Copyrighted 191 3. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. Review 1 13 essence of religion. We found that His sense of union with the unseen Father was the dynamic of His life. During this week, some very impressive lessons have been studied. 1. Our lives must be filled with good or evil. We have twenty-four hours a day. Let us fill them with active good so that there will be no room for evil. 2. The religious work in a large university was ineffectual because the so-called Christian men placed track practice, publication meetings, glee club and class meetings first. Whenever there was a conflict between any of these and the weekly devotional meeting, the Bible class, or the mission study committee, the religious work was set aside. Gradu- ally, however, a group of men caught a vision of the supreme importance of the Kingdom and when there was a conflict between the religious work and the glee club or track team, the glee club or track team were set aside and the religious work attended to. The result was that the Christian work became effectual and other organizations, without any detri- ment, held their meetings at other times. 3. Does religion for us consist in church membership, wor- ship, monetary contributions, or abstinence from certain sins which are openly tabooed? Are we kind and considerate to others ? Do the members of our family respect our re- ligious belief on account of the thoughtfulness and affection it causes us to show them? Does our sympathy spontane- ously go out to a person in need without our thinking of his race, social standing, or religious convictions? Are we genuinely interested in human beings as human beings? 4. Do you complain of your hard lot because you have so many family burdens to carry? Ought you not rather to be thankful that you are able to be so helpful? 5. It is sad that most prodigal sons never return. Many occupy early graves. Others are powerless in the grip of sin. Is it better to keep ten boys from becoming prodigals than to rescue more than ten after they have become prod- igals? Are you an elder brother? Do you calculate how much your parents have given your brothers and sisters and then complain because your portion is somewhat less ? Or are you so interested in the welfare and happiness of others 114 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day that you never think of whether you receive your proper share of glory? Can you refrain from bitterness when favors are bestowed on an enemy? 6. Would you be willing to face unpopularity, ridicule, or danger for the sake of aggressively doing right? 7. Jesus went to Jerusalem. He did not wait for the reli- gious leaders to search Him out. The Christian life is not a passive, sanctimonious existence; it is a battle for the right. Are there evils in your college or community? Then fight them. It is as much your task as anybody's. STUDY XI. FIRST DAY The Political Ambition of James and John. Mark 10:35-45; Matt. 20:20-28 James and John came to Jesus at this time with a request for the principal places in the New Kingdom. Even at this late date in the life of Jesus, notwithstanding that He had shown no trace of political ambition, and had warned the dis- ciples of His approaching death, the twelve still held to the belief in the early establishment of a temporal kingdom. Jesus did not attempt to disabuse their minds but asked them if they could pay the price for such priority as they requested. Read Mark 10 : 35-45- When the other disciples heard the request of James and John, they became indignant — not at the selfish ambition of James and John, for the ten themselves were not less selfish — but they were provoked because the fiery-tempered brothers had been the first to place their request for chief honors. They were all equally at fault, and therefore Jesus called them to Him and told them that priority in His Kingdom would be based on unselfish service alone. Selfish ambition, desire for glory, or striving for material power were not only inconsistent with membership in the Kingdom, but would positively exclude one from it. " The logical and probably original conclusion of Jesus' reply to his disciples is found in the parallel passage in Luke 22 : 27b : ' And I am in your midst as one who serves.' For this Mark has a teaching which reflects the influence of Paul and of the age in which the evangelist wrote : ' For the son of man also came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.' It assumes that Jesus had already come and completed his mission. It is the result of that mature meditation on the deeper and broader mean- 115 Ii6 Jesus and the Young Mafi of To-day ing of his life-work which is presented still more fully in the Fourth Gospel." ^ Study XI. Second Day Jesus Passes Through Jericho on His Way to Jerusalem. Mark 10:46-52; Matt. 20:29- 34; Luke 18: 35-19- 27 Read Luke 18:35-43. This miracle also will be discussed in a later study. Notice in passing v. 42, Read Luke 19 : i-io. We find Jesus again violating the customs of His people by eating at the home of a tax collector. Jesus judged men by their aspirations and saw in each one great latent possibilities for good. Instead of turning away from Zaccheus on ac- count of his station in life, Jesus entered his home, where contact and conversation with the Master soon led Zaccheus to amend his life and desire to restore fourfold any wrong- ful exaction he had extorted. Jesus then told before the assembled group the parable of the talents. Read Luke 19 : 1 1-27. We are not held responsible for the use of talents which we do not possess ; but only for those that we have. The man who cannot sing is not condemned for neglecting opportuni- ties of thus using his voice in service to others. It is the man with a good voice who is held accountable for the use or neglect of his vocal talent. Again, we are not judged by the actual amount we produce but by the proportional amount. The great man in the eyes of the world may be a man using only three-fourths of his talents. The great man in the eyes of our Father is he who returns one hundredfold regardless of the size of the out- put. A sad feature of our life to-day is not that the man with one talent buries it in a napkin but that, in so many cases, the man with ten talents stands by and sneers at the church and 1 The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. Copyrighted 1913. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. The Entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem 117 the Christian Association because the man with one talent does not carry more gracefully a load heavier than he can bear. Study XL Third Day The Entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem. Mark 11:1-10; Matt. 21:1-11; Luke 19:29-44 We now enter upon the last week of the life of Jesus. As He neared Jerusalem, He was accompanied by His disciples and a large group of pilgrims, a majority of whom were probably bound to Jesus, like Bartimaeus, " by bonds of per- sonal obligation and gratitude," ^ and who made up a large informal procession. Read Mark i:i-ii. There is nothing miraculous about the method of Jesus in securing the colt. Jesus was known in the country around Jerusalem and had friends near the city. On the way, the crowds, and espe- cially the disciples, thinking perhaps the time of the Messi- anic demonstration was at hand, and stirred by their devotion to Jesus, burst forth in an enthusiastic demonstration which continued until He reached the city. This entrance into Jerusalem " illustrates Jesus' method during the last few days of his public activity. No longer does he enjoin silence upon his followers, but rather he courts publicity, for this was his chief safeguard in the perilous situation which he now faced. Hitherto he had borne the insults of the Jewish leaders al- most in silence, but now he proceeded to arraign them at the center of their power and in terms that are merciless in their severity. In the public way in which he entered Jeru- salem, Jesus proclaimed his presence to all and at the same time rallied his followers about him. It was the prelude to that challenge which he made to his nation to choose between him, the champion of the neglected masses, and their cor- rupt, self-seeking leaders. . . . His unassuming action, how- ever, on reaching the temple, while absolutely consistent with his own character, forever disproved the conclusion still held 1 The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. Copyrighted 1913. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. Ii8 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day by many that he hoped at this time to establish himself on the throne of David as Israel's long-awaited Messianic king. " Jesus' quiet withdrawal to Bethany, as evening came on, is one of the man^ indications, found in the records of this period, that he was fully aware of the danger that lurked everywhere in Jerusalem. This point is exceedingly important in understanding and estimating Jesns' character and pur- pose. For his followers and for his cause he deliberately faced what he knew to be the probability, almost the certainty, of ultimate death ; but he did not court it. Jerusalem, with its narrow streets and its narrower religious ideas, must have oppressed the Master Builder of Nazareth, accustomed as he was to the hill-tops, the open fields, the large vistas of nature, as well as of God's truth. It was as natural as it was sig- nificant that he should retire, whenever it was possible, to the Mount of Olives, with its larger outlook, and to Bethany, which was near Jerusalem and yet out of sight of the city with its clamor and its bickerings. At Bethany, amidst the fig trees and the olive orchards, he was again in touch with nature. There he was no longer shut in by the narrow, rocky Judean hills, but could look far out over the wilderness of Judea toward the Jordan Valley and heights of Gilead and Moab beyond."! Study XI. Fourth Day The Withering of the Fig Tree, and the Expulsion of the Bazaar Merchants from the Temple. Mark ii : 12-25 Read Mark 11 : 12-14, 20-25. We probably have, in the ac- count of the fig tree, a parable of Jesus referring to the want of productiveness in the nation, and interpreted, by later tra- dition, as a miracle. 1 1 The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. Copyrighted iqi3. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. The Withering of the Fig Tree 119 On the second day, Jesus enters the temple again and stands forth before the people as a champion of the rights of the poor. At the Passover season when the pilgrims came from many places to sacrifice, there was a great demand for doves, sheep, and cattle for the sacrifices, and a need for money brokers in order that the people from various places might exchange their money and trade in the currency of the temple. Seeing this opportunity for gain, the traders, with the con- sent and in some cases, perhaps, with the financial backing of the priests, opened a market in the temple courts, there to cheat the pilgrims and to enrich themselves by ill-gotten gain, under the cloak of religion. Instead of devout wor- shipers, the Gentiles found the court crowded with these rascals, and the prayer of the Jewish pilgrim was inter- rupted by the clinking of coins, the bleating of sheep, and the noise of barter. Jesus burned with indignation when He saw this sacrilege and corruption. Seizing a piece of cattle rope and knotting it into a scourge, He drove them from the place. Read "Mark II : 15-18. Jesus has been pictured so frequently as the " meek and lowly " Jesus, that to many He seems almost effeminate. Here we see the fearlessness and courage of the Man who would endure without resentment, any wrong or outrage committed upon Him, but whose wrath blazed forth at injustice or wrong done to others. Durant Drake ex- presses this view of Jesus when he says : " The historic Jesus that emerges to our view as the result of the modern historical study of the Gospels is a very different figure from the effeminate Christ of mediaeval art or the misty God-man of traditional dogma. It is rather a dominating and grip- pingly human personality — strong, fearless, stern, passionate in exhortation and rebuke ; and yet with a rare purity and sweetness, a penetrating faith in sinful men, and a boundless love." 1 Another point to notice is that " here Jesus approaches more closely to the role of the ancient Hebrew prophets than at any other time in his ministry. Suddenly the teacher became 1 Problems of Religion. Dviratit Drake. Copyrighted 1916. Use4 by permission of the Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston, I20 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day a social and national reformer. Most of his parables of this period deal not so much with private as with social and national questions. When Jesus for a brief moment as- sumed virtual control of the temple, he spoke thereby not to individuals or to a class, but to his race as a whole. His authority was the same as that of Jeremiah and the II Isaiah, whose words he significantly quotes (Jer. 7:11, Is. 56:7). He spoke in the name of justice and of Jehovah, whose tem- ple he was attempting to reclaim from the hands of the robbers who had seized it. For the moment even the rob- bers themselves bowed before that authority. He rose as the champion of the helpless people, who were a prey to the greed and rapacity of their high priests." ^ Study XL Fifth Day The Priests Question the Authority of Jesus. Mark 11:27-12:12; Matt. 21:23-46; Luke 20: 1-18 Angry at the expulsion of the traders, yet afraid of arous- ing popular feeling against themselves, the priests plan to alienate the crowd from Jesus and to convict Him, by forc- ing Him to declare Himself on certain important questions. Suppressing their wrath, they first ask Him by what au- thority He expelled the bazaar merchants. Read Mark 11:27-33. Instead of replying directly to their question, Jesus, by His question concerning the baptism of John, placed them in the same dilemma in which they had tried to place Him ; either to acknowledge the divine commission of John and thereby acknowledge His commission as divine, or to take the consequences of antagonizing popular belief. They were unwilling to answer. Jesus, then, refused to answer their question. The implication, however, was clear to them that Jesus considered the authority of John, and likewise His own authority, to be from God. 1 The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. Copyrighted 1913. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. The Question of Tribute to Ca-sar 121 Then, Jesus gave the cutting illustration in Mark 12:1- 12 which somewhat reflects later tradition but the original point of which was perfectly clear, namely, that Jesus was working under the sanction and by the authority of God. As the Jews of an earlier day had killed the prophets, so the present generation were seeking to destroy Him. Study XI. Sixth Day The Question of Tribute to Caesar. Mark 12: 13-17; Matt. 22:15-22; Luke 20:19-26 The next party who tried to trip Jesus with questions was composed of Pharisees and Herodians. They came with the well-considered, diabolical flattery found in v. 14. " Shall we pay tribute to Csesar?" they asked. If Jesus had an- swered. No, the Roman authorities would have disposed of Him. If He had answered. Yes, the people would have rejected Him, and would even have been tempted to stone Him as a traitorous Jew. Read Mark 12: 13-17. Jesus an- swered their question by reminding them that He came to set men right with God, not to settle questions of taxation. It was because these Pharisees and Herodians were so far from God that they were trying to kill Jesus. We see clearly in this incident the life purpose of Jesus. The outward forms and results of evil He rarely attacked. He did not believe in unjust taxation, yet He did not directly oppose it. He evidently did not believe in slavery, yet, to our knowledge. He did not raise a direct protest against it. The flagrant political and economic evils of His time were left untouched by Him. Except for a few instances during this closing week. He rarely appears as a national leader. Jesus came not as a reformer but as a revealer. He re- alized that if He could relate men in loving friendship to the Father unjust taxation would cease; that without the formation of this relationship it would not permanently cease, even though there were external laws to prevent it. Slavery, too, would cease only when men by communion with God 122 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day should realize that all men are children of one Heavenly Father, and hence brothers. Jesus sought to reform men in- wardly, that they might reform conditions around them. Study XI. Seventh Day Review I. Jesus based priority in His Kingdom on service. Do we really live as if we believe this, or are the principles of Jesus merely fine phrases on our lips with no resultant action in our lives? 2-, Is your life yielding returns adequate to the amount of opportunities you have had? Have you consecrated your education for use in the Kingdom? Have you refused to take Sunday school work in your town because there are too many old residents in the work to whom you feel your- self, and to whom you probably are, intellectually superior? 3. Jesus went to Jerusalem, although He knew He was waging a losing fight. The highest type of courage is not that which carries victory with it. The man who fights a losing fight, with determination and faithfulness to the last, he possesses the highest courage. 4. When a man is in the wrong, he is half whipped before he is even attacked. Jesus did not drive out the money brokers by mere brute force. Such a group could have overpowered Him even though He evidently was physically very strong. His blazing personality and their consciousness of guilt made the task comparatively easy. Remember in your fight for right that the man in the wrong is a coward if he realizes his guilt. 5. Do you ever become so much occupied with the or- ganization and the material side of Christian work that you lose sight of the fact that your organization will be per- manent only as men are united in friendship with God? We do not need so much of programs, methods, or machinery to-day. We need power. We need consecration. We need men in whose hearts dwells the presence of the living Review 123 Christ, inspiring them to action. Is this the conscious aim of your work ? 6. It may be advisable to mention again the phase of the character of Jesus discussed this week. It is so clearly ex- pressed in an article in the Atlantic Monthly, February, 1918, by Joseph H. Odell that we shall quote at length from him. "Did this prophet know whafhe was doing? No one better! From the beginning he saw the end — shame and pain and death — yet he never shortened his lash or softened the sting of his tongue. He set his face steadfastly, marched forward with eyes unafraid, and finally flung himself upon the munitions of his enemies in a great abandon of passion. Members of the Sanhedrin rage and strike him ; he treats Herod with incommunicable contempt ; he tells Pilate that all his fancied prefectorial power is only a myth, a name; then — on to the ghastliest death that man could suffer, an end which a trifling compromise might easily have avoided. All alone he struck the pride of his people roughly in the face, cut the underpinning from beneath the popular philosophy, grap- pled with the superstitions which were choking the life out of humanity, fought relentlessly the smug complacencies and the organized hypocrisies of his race, championed the poor and outcast, interpreted the misunderstood, healed the crippled and broken, protected the weak and set a check upon the cynical power of the strong, flouted the law of the Jews and the wisdom of the Greeks and the junkerism of the Romans. Calumny and hatred could not make him pause, cajolery and flattery could not make him swerve; with never a thought of himself, never a care for consequences, never a momentary eclipse of self-confidence, he went grimly for- ward with his work. No one has ever outranked him in manhood, heroism, fortitude." " It was a daring thing when George Fox and William Penn refused to doff their hats in church; but that was baby play by the side of Christ's insurgency when he called the Pharisees whited sepulchres and whipped the money-changers out of the sacrosanct tem- ple. To tell the venerated leaders of his nation that they were 'vipers,' and 'tenfold the children of hell,' and that it would be * well if a millstone were hanged about their neck and that they were cast into the midst of the sea,' was not a 124 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day diplomatic approach to approved thought, and Hkely to make the speaker's life easy and safe." " Of course, it may be said that this is only one aspect of Jesus. Let that be granted. Jesus had a habit of occasionally appearing ' in another form.' The only point to be settled is this : that when he was in the presence of hypocrisy or cruelty or in- justice or power set to an evil purpose, he was terrible in his sternness ; confronted with anything which destroyed human rights, the benignant smile died from his face and the cloud of an awful anger gathered on his brow and the lightnings of holy resentment flashed from his eyes." ^ 1 Joseph H. Odell, Atlantic Monthly. February, 191 8. Used by permission of the Atlantic Monthly Company. Boston. STUDY XII. FIRST DAY The Question of the Sadducees. Mark 12:18-27; Matt. 22 : 23-33 ; Luke 20 : 27-39 The Sadducees next came to Jesus with one of their quibbling questions about the resurrection. Jesus did not try to prove to men the existence of God, or of life after death. The fundamental realities which are necessary to satisfy the deepest needs of our lives, He took for granted. God is, because the soul of every man cries out for such an affirmation. Friendship with the Father is an experience of the soul, not a logical deduction. Jesus, however, goes back to the ancient law, which the Sadducees considered authoritative, and shows them that according to the law God was " not the God of the dead, but of the living." Read Mark 12: 18-27. The future life, Jesus also implies, is not a physical but a spiritual existence, " for when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage ; but are as angels in heaven." Immortality cannot be absolutely proved. Most men be- lieve in it because it is the only reasonable basis upon which they can live their lives. " What Professor Palmer of Har- vard wrote with fine restraint, when he recorded his wife's decease, we instinctively feel about the whole prospect of personality's annihilation : ' Though no regrets are proper for the manner of her death, who can contemplate the fact of it and not call the world irrational, if out of deference to a few particles of disordered matter it excludes so fair a spirit?'"^ Dean Bosworth expresses it: "He would be a cheap God whose friendship could be forever terminated by 1 The Assurance of Immortality. H. E. Fosdick. Copyrighted 1913. Used by permission of the Macmillan Company. New York. 125 126 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day a bullet crashing through the brain, or by a microbe in the system." i Study XII. Second Day The Great Commandment, the Question of Jesus Concerning the Descent of the Messiah, the Seven Woes. Mark 12:28-40; Matt. 23 Read Mark 12:28-34. The subject of the great command- ment was discussed in connection with the parable of the Good Samaritan and need not be studied in detail here. Jesus then asks the Pharisees a question which they are unable to answer. Read Mark 12:35-37. This passage is not considered by many scholars as an original utterance of Jesus, but, if it is authentic, Jesus is proving to the Pharisees their ignorance of the law and its meaning. Jesus probably did not wish to establish a Messianic truth by such a process of scriptural deduction. He was merely exposing the blind conceit of the selfish religious casuists. During this week, Jesus probably pronounced the " woes " found in Matthew 23:1-39 and in Luke 11:37-54. Mark gives a condensed summary of them in 12 : 38-40. Read Mark 12 : 38-40. We will turn to the account of Matthew for the detailed study of these denunciations. Remember that the Gospel of Matthew was the liturgical gospel of the early church and at times it reflects the conditions of the early apostolic days rather than the actual words of Jesus. 2 Read Matthew 23 : 1-12. What a picture of religious pretentiousness, joined to a corrupt life, Jesus gives us here. Caring not for human life but adding to the suffering of the poor, these men paraded as children of God. Read Matthew 23:13. They not only refused to receive the truth themselves but did all they could to prevent others from receiving it. 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. .2 The. Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. Copyrighted 1913. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. The Seve?i Woes 1 27 Do you, by sneering at or joking about the church or Christian Association, prevent others from standing forth for Christ and His Kingdom? Study XII. Third Day The Seven Woes (continued). Matt. 23:15-22 Read Matthew 23 : 15-22. V. 15 is probably a reflection of conditions in the early church. In vv. 16-22, Jesus condemns the hypocrisy of a life legally correct but inwardly dishonest. One could not say of these religious leaders that their word was as good as their signed contract. Read Matthew 23 : 23-24. How severely the Master con- demns the man who degraded religion into a set of rules and customs to the neglect of the great fundamental princi- ples of life. There are men to-day who think it wrong to use profanity, yet they do not hesitate to sell fifteen ounces of merchandise as a pound or nineteen hundred and fifty pounds as a ton. There are others who think it sinful to play cards, yet they do not pay their debts. There are college students who think it wicked to dance, yet they do not hesitate to cheat in examinations. There are men who think it wrong to play tennis on Sun- day, yet they do not hesitate to extort an exorbitant rate of interest from the poor. There are others who think it almost a sin not to attend church and prayer meeting regularly, yet they are selfish and disagreeable in their own homes, and fail to show affection or thoughtfulness for their wives. Against this division of the moral life, Jesus continually protested. Religion must not be confined to a separate com- partment, but must pervade the whole of life. The writer is not endorsing profanity, dancing, or Sunday recreation. There are moral questions involved in their ex- ercise, but God pity the man who places the supreme em- phasis of his life on anything except the great fundamentals such as love, mercy, courage, truth, purity, honesty, fidelity, 128 Jesus arid the Young Man of To-day willingness to die for the right. Jesus had a tender sympathy with the weak, but condemnation and wrath for the hard, mean, and selfish. Read again carefully vv. 23-24. Study XII. Fourth Day The Seven Woes (concluded). Matt. 23:25-39 Read Matthew 23 : 25-28. In these two woes, Jesus con- demns the hypocrisy of those who outwardly profess religion but inwardly are corrupt. Religion, to the mind of Jesus, was very simple. It is friendship with the Father expressing itself in the commonplace, everyday relationships of life. Kindness in the home, honesty in business, sympathy with the weak, fearless opposition to evil, love toward all mankind, are the ways in which religion should manifest it- self. The synagogue, the ritual, worship are valuable as aids to righteousness but are only so much sham when they be- come nothing but outward manifestations or mere profes- sions. Read Matthew 23 : 29-39. L^st of all, Jesus condemns these religious leaders because they honor the prophets whom their fathers killed but plot death for the living prophets as their fathers did. This address closes with the lament over Jerusalem, the last verse of which reflects the apocalyptic ideas of the early church. Read again Matthew 22, : 37-38. How impressively Jesus expresses in these verses the intense yearning of the heart of the Master to lift His nation toward God. But they would not. One of the most difficult tasks in life is to create a desire within people for the best. How many of us would dare to pray, " O God, give me what I actually de- sire"? Are the pictures which our desires paint on the canvas of our imagination such that we should be willing to have them placed on public exhibition ? Many of us are greatly concerned about going to heaven, but the question which should really concern us is whether we would be satisfied there. The Two Mites of the Widow 129 Study XII. Fifth Day The Two Mites of the Widow. The Apocalyptic Demonstration. Mark 12:41-13:37; Matt. 24 and 25; Luke 21: 1-36 After denouncing the religious leaders, Jesus sat down to rest and to watch the pilgrims file by, dropping their money into the box at the entrance to the temple. The wealthy and well-to-do dropped in sums which meant no sacrifice to them. A poor widow passed and dropped in two mites — a mere pittance, but it was a sacrifice for her to give even so small a sum. As Jesus had burned with indignation at the religious leaders who preyed upon the poor, He now praised unsparingly the spirit of sacrifice in the oppressed. Read Mark 12 : 41-44. It was not the amount the widow gave but the spirit with which she gave it that impressed Jesus. She had given pro- portionately more than any, when she should have given less. A man once remarked that he did not desire much money, for fear it would clog his soul. Some men, instead of own- ing their wealth, are owned by it. They cannot give it away. Their souls are cramped, their lives are mean, the joy of giving and serving with their money as well as with their lives is unknown to them. Jesus intended the words to be interpreted literally when He said : " It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Read the 13th chapter of Mark in preparation for the study of to-morrow. Read the 25th chapter of Matthew and dwell especially upon vv. 34-45. Study XII. Sixth Day The Time of the Apocalypse. Mark 13; Matt. 24; Luke 21 : 5-36 As the disciples left the temple, they expressed their wonder and admiration at the grandeur and vastness of the temple building. Jesus, realizing that the degeneracy of the 130 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day religion of His people would eventually sap the moral fiber of the nation and cause its overthrow, remarked that this great building would in time become a mass of ruins. Read Mark 13: 1-2. " The variants in certain Western texts add the words, ' But in three days another shall rise without hands.' These words are implied by the charges that are later brought against Jesus (Mark 14:58 and 15:29). ... In these para- doxical words Jesus drew the contrast between the temple of stone, with its empty ceremonialism, and the spiritual temple, not to be seen with the eyes, but eternal. The temple of Herod, with its elaborate rites and traditions and creeds, stood in the way of that divine temple, in which alone God could be truly worshipped. In the vivid, concrete language which Jesus used, three days represented a brief period. The words reveal his absolute conviction that ere long the true and spir- itual temple would take the place of that structure and type of worship which Israel's faith and needs had so long since outgrown.".! Some of the disciples then asked the Master when this was to be. To their minds it was a material fact of which He was speaking. Jesus no doubt replied, as in v. 32, that no one knew except God. Read Mark 13 : 3, 4, 32. Between v. 4 and v. z^ is inserted a long apocalyptic passage reflecting the ideas of the early church. As it stands, it is probably not the words of Jesus. ^ The question it raises is, Did Jesus give the disciples a basis for their expectation of His second coming? If so, "he never gave it the prominent place in his teachings that it has in the synoptic gospels. Fur- thermore, it seems to be contrary to his conception of the kingdom or rule of God. With him the kingdom of God was present, not merely future. Its growth was gradual, not sudden and catastrophic. It was to be instituted, not through a miracle, but through the voluntary cooperation of men." 1 On the other hand, many scholars maintain that "Jesus, in his conception of nature, in his apparent belief in a personal devil, and in his acceptance of the Jewish tradition regarding the origin and authorship of the Jewish scriptures, showed himself in many respects a son of his age and race. It 1 The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. Copyrighted 1913. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Song. New York. The Time of the Apocalypse 13 1 would not have been strange if, to a certain extent, he had also shared its apocalyptic hopes." ^ " The apocalyptic pre- dictions first appear among the utterances that come from the closing days of his work at Jerusalem, when he found himself abandoned by the masses and confronting martyr- dom at the hands of the leaders of his' nation. With the Jewish prophets who penned the later apocalypses he shared the undying conviction, even in the face of persecution and calamity and death, that God was in his world and that the right would surely triumph in the end. This is the great principle that underlies all the apocalyptic promises attributed to him. It is also noteworthy that in the parables and pass- ages, which come from the oldest teaching source (Q) and which imply the second coming of Jesus, the emphasis is not placed on the miraculous element involved in that coming, but on the personal responsibility of his disciples. ' Watch and be faithful ' is the distinctive note in the parable of the wise and foolish maidens and of the faithful and wise servant." ^ Personally, the writer does not believe that Jesus expressed to the apostles in detail the ideas as recorded in Mark 13, al- though He may have given them reason to believe in His early return in triumph. Read again in Study IX, Sixth Day, the discussion regarding the limitations of the knowledge of Jesus. Read thoughtfully the 25th chapter of Matthew. Study XII. Seventh Day Review We have now come to the closing scenes in the life of Jesus. Once more we wish to state that we have thus far tried to avoid discussing in these studies doctrines and be- liefs which are not reasonable and acceptable to an open- minded man. We have not discussed the miracles or the mysticism with which people usually surround the life of Jesus, but have tried to emphasize the principles which He taught and practiced. Some may say, " I do not believe that 1 The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. Copyrighted 1913. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. . 132 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day there is a God." We have not said that there is. We have onl}' said that Jesus beheved there is a God and that Jesus called God, Father. During this past w^eek, we have seen that Jesus was un- sparing in His condemnation of the hypocrite who outwardly professed religion but inwardly was selfish and corrupt ; the man who was scrupulous in observing the debatable moral questions yet violated the fundamental principles of love and honesty ; the man to whom religion consisted in attendance at church and in observance of ritual, and not primarily in living a good life ; the man who evaded moral obligations through legal technicalities ; the man who cast his vote for his own interests regardless of the interests of humanity involved in the contest. In contrast with this type of man, Jesus praised those who sacrificed themselves and their possessions because of a genuine interest in others ; those who tried to be right and to do right. Fear of hypocrisy has kept some men from active religious work. There is a difference between an honest sinner and a hypocrite. The hypocrite is the man who professes to be honest and inwardly plans dishonesty. An honest sinner is the man who is inwardly sincere in following the right. He may be weak. He may fall frequently but he always falls forward. The hypocrite may be in the judgment of men a better citizen than the honest sinner, but God judges differ- ently. The honest sinner may be a man in whom there is so much of the animal that he frequently yields to the lower im- pulses of his nature. The hypocrite, on the other hand, is the man who thoroughly able to control himself and his powers deliberately plans wrong or dishonesty, which he hides by parading before the community as religious. The honest sinner will try to atone for his mistakes, but the hypocrite will not pay an honest debt which he can evade. Hypocrisy is determined by a man's spirit and sincerity of purpose, not by his acts. Now, as the shadow of the cross begins to darken His pathway, we find Jesus firm in the conviction that right will ultimately triumph and that the foundation of the Kingdom of God has been permanently laid. STUDY XIII, FIRST DAY The Anointing of Jesus at the House of Simon. Mark 14: i-ii; Matt. 26: 1-16; Luke 22: 1-6 The priests determined to put Jesus to death as soon as they could do so without stirring up a riot. They did not wish to bring upon themselves the condemnation of the Roman authorities, as well as of their own people. Read Mark 14: 1-2. An incident occurred at a dinner party given to Jesus and the disciples in Bethany which led one of His intimate fol- lowers to betray the Master to the priests. A woman, per- haps an outcast, or a woman of wealth, we do not know, had received some benefit at the hands of Jesus. A deep sense of. gratitude which flooded her soul expressed itself in pur- chasing a costly cruse of ointment with which on this occa- sion she anointed Jesus. Read Mark 14:3-11. To some of the disciples, this was symbolic of the Messianic anointing soon to occur at which time Jesus would be made king. To Jesus, it was symbolic of the anointing for His burial. To those prejudiced against the Master, it was mere waste, but to Jesus, it was an expression of a heart over- flowing with gratitude. Jesus' reiteration of the statement about His death filled Judas with contempt. To him, Jesus probably appeared " as a sad sentimentalist unable to talk about anything but dying, . . . He lacked the sagacity and strength requisite for the ad- ministration of a great state. He let the crowds go un- organized. He would never be able to give the things for which Judas cared most. Caiaphas, Annas, and the rabbis were practical enough to know how to win ! " 1 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. 134 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day Therefore Judas quietly withdrew and made a bargain with the chief priests and " sought how he might conveniently de- liver him unto them," Study XIII. Second Day Jesus Eats the Passover with His Disciples. Mark 14:12-26; Matt. 26:17-30; Luke 22:7-38 With His deep insight into human nature, Jesus had realized for some time that Judas was drifting from Him. When, at the close of the dinner party at Bethany, Judas quietly went to the city, Jesus, no doubt, knew the reason for his departure. On this account, the Master maintained strict secrecy in regard to the place He had chosen in which to celebrate the Passover, There was nothing miraculous about securing the place any more than there was in securing the colt for the triumphal entry into the city a short time previous. Read Mark 14:12-16. One of the most remarkable characteristics of Jesus was His profound faith in humanity. He saw in every man great possibilities for good and believed that every one possessed capacity for moral growth. To the very last, He hoped that Judas of Kerioth would stand true. Instead of denounc- ing him before the other disciples, Jesus made a final appeal to Judas in such a way as not to expose him to the dis- pleasure of his fellow disciples. There was no anger, bit- terness, or complaint in the appeal of Jesus. It expressed the pity of Jesus for Judas. The Master was grieved, not be- cause He was to suffer by the treachery of Judas, but be- cause Judas had fallen so low. The heart of Jesus was full of love and compassion for all mankind and He desired each man to realize his best possibilities through friendship with God. Read Mark 14:17-21. During the course of the meal, Jesus distributed the bread and the wine, with the words that the bread was His body, and the wine, the covenant of His blood, which was shed for many. Read Mark 14:22-25, remembering v, 25 to be the reflection of the belief of tlie early church. Jesus Starts for Gcthscniane 135 To read into -these words of Jesus theological conceptions of His person or mission is, the writer believes, to do an injustice to the Master. The writer does not believe that Jesus went to the cross to appease the anger of God or to satisfy a sense of divine jus- tice, but that He shed His blood to establish the new cov- enant of friendship between God and man into which the followers of Jesus had been introduced by Him. Men had lost their way in seeking God. Jesus gave His life that He might direct men in the right path and lead them into friendship with the Father. He died to save us from sin by teaching and inspiring us to live lives of loving, self- sacrificing service. He died that right not might, truth not falsehood, love not selfishness might rule the world. Was He then the Son of God in the usual theological sense? We know not. For we cannot think of God in higher terms than those in which He is revealed by the life and death of Jesus. Study XIII. Third Day Jesus Starts for Gethsemane. Mark 14 : 26-42 ; Matt. 26:31-46; Luke 22:31-46 After singing a hymn, Jesus and the disciples left the upper room and started toward a garden called Gethsemane. On the way, Jesus for the last time tried to prepare them for the ordeal through which He was about to pass. He was not thinking so much of the present as of the future. He wanted the disciples so prepared that after the cruci- fixion and resurrection they could look back and say, " The Master understood and tried to explain it to us but we could not comprehend. Now we see the reason for, and under- stand what He meant by His frequent warnings concerning His death." Peter, however, was very emphatic in personally pro- testing against the statement of the Master that the disciples would forsake Him. Jesus replied in that memorable verse, Mark 14:30. Read Mark 14:27-31 remembering that v. 28 is probably a later reflection, 136 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day They had now reached the garden of Gethsemane where jesus often retired for quiet. Eight of the disciples were left at the entrance to the garden. Only Peter, James, and John accompanied the Master at this last awful spiritual ordeal through which He passed. Read Mark 14:32-42. With a heart almost broken with passionate yearning to bestow upon His people infinite blessing, Jesus faced the last great crisis of His life alone. The uncomprehending disciples, overcome with weariness, fell asleep. The Master was about to be crushed by the greed, hatred, and treachery of His enemies. Alone, misunderstood, hated, rejected, and about to be betrayed, our Lord felt Himself weaken ; despair surged over Him; He feared He could not endure the ordeal. In extreme agony of soul, He fell on His knees and prayed that, if it were possible, God might save Him from the cross ; " nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt." The agony in Gethsemane was not so much a shrinking from physical suffering as it was the heart-breaking strug- gle with the awful darkness and horror which seemed to be crushing the soul of the Master. Other men, in a less de- gree, have had similar experiences. Before meeting some great crisis in their lives, these men have felt a terrible darkness and despair settling upon them. They struggled frantically just as the men in the Black Hole of Calcutta struggled for air. It was as if all the fury of hell had been turned loose unhindered to stifle their souls. Then, silently, like the tide at flood, there came into their hearts a quiet peace and they faced the cross, the flame, the council, or the bitter taunt with a majestic calm. It was such an experience as this, as some think, that the Master passed through. It was Gethsemane which produced the poise and calm that made Pilate marvel. It was Geth- semane which gave the peace of soul which was undisturbed by the crown of thorns, the denial of Peter, or the jeers and buflfetings of the crowd. It was Gethsemane which gave to the world a picture of the depth of love in the heart of Jesus, the Christ. The Arrest of Jesus 137 Study XIII. Fourth Day The Arrest of Jesus. Mark 14:43-52; Matt. 26:47-56; Luke 22:47-53 Judas quietly left the upper room and notified the authorities that now was the time to arrest Jesus with the least disturbance. A motley crowd of servants and em- ployees in the temple were quickly armed with any weapons at hand. Following Judas they went first to the place where Jesus had eaten the Passover, said by tradition to have been the home of John Mark. Not finding Jesus there, Judas naturally thought of the place to which Jesus was accustomed to retire, the garden of Gethsemane. Thither he led the crowd. If tradition is correct in assigning the place of the Pass- over to the home of John Mark, then vv. 51-52 probably refer to Mark himself. He was perhaps asleep in a lower room when the noise of the crowd led by Judas awoke him. Quickly throwing a garment around himself, he followed the crowd toward Gethsemane, Judas rightly supposing that the Master had retired to this retreat for quiet. " Let your imagination produce for you the scene in the garden — the moonlight, the flaring torches, the tensely eager forms moving about among the lights and shadows under the trees." 1 The crowd reached the garden as Jesus was speaking, for the last time, to the three sleepy disciples. Judas approached Him and said, "Master, master; and kissed him." To read of the betrayal of Jesus bj'- Judas makes us shud- der and it calls for our admiration and reverence when we realize that the Master cherished no resentment or bit- terness, but was only grieved at the fall of Judas. The only protest of Jesus, on His arrest, was against the swords and staves with which the crowd was armed. He was willing to be tried by any just tribunal in the world. He had no intention of resisting, and He protested against one's supposing that He would shed blood to save His own life. Read Mark 14 : 43-52. 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. Copyrighted 1904. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. 138 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day Study XIII. Fifth Day The Trial of Jesus Before the Sanhedrin. Mark 14:53-65; Matt. 26:57-68; Luke 22:54, 63-71 According to Luke, Jesus was guarded until morning and then tried before the council, the buffetings and indignities committed by the servants of the high priest occurring before the trial. This is probably correct, but as we are not con- cerned with the chronological details, we will continue to follow the account of Mark. The Sanhedrin was not allowed to put a man to death. That authority rested with the Roman governor. This trial of Jesus, then, was not as much a trial as it was an examina- tion by which the priests hoped to secure sufficient evidence to go to Pilate with the statement that Jesus aspired to be king. That would be treason against Caesar. Read Mark 14 : 53-65- " Arrayed against Jesus on this awful night were the ec- clesiastical hate, the religious bigotry, the political unscrupu- lousness of one of the most intense races of the world." ^ At this trial, Jesus made the first public statement of His Messiahship, v. 62, and at the same time affirmed His belief in the ultimate triumph of His life and work. Mark has expressed this in the language of the apocalyptic hopes of the early church. Armed with this confession, the priests kept Jesus bound until they could carry Him to Pilate for trial. In the meantime the servants and others spat on Him and, covering His face, slapped Him. We have read these closing passages of the life of Jesus so often, that there is a danger of their becoming common- place. Think 'of a great, strong man. for Jesus must have been physically powerful, who blazed at injustice done to others, especially the weak and helpless, yet endured personal abuse with calmness and without resentment. 1 Studies in the Life of Jesus Chri'^t. E. I. P.osworth. Copyrighted 1904. Used by permission of the Asso-iation Press. New York. The Denial of Peter and the Trial Before Pilate 139 Study XIII. Sixth Day The Denial of Peter and the Trial Before Pilate. Mark 14:66-15:15; Matt. 26:69-27:26; Luke 22: 55-62, 23: 1-25 The prediction of Jesus regarding the desertion of the disciples came true. Peter alone had the courage to follow at a distance, and even he deserted Jesus at the last. Read Mark 14 : 66-72. The faith of Jesus in mankind was misplaced in the case of Judas. Yet in the case of Peter it was abundantly re- warded. This over-zealous, impetuous, emotional, unsteady, Galilean fisherman, Jesus made into a leader of the early church who fearlessly appeared before councils and even faced death, so tradition tells us, without quailing. In the early morning, as soon as Pilate would receive them, the Jews brought Jesus before the Roman governor. Luke classifies the charges they made against Jesus as (i) perverting the nation, (2) refusing tribute to Caesar, and (3) assuming to be king. It was the last charge which they pressed, and is the principal one given in Mark 15 : 1-3. Read Mark 15 : 1-5. Is it any wonder that Pilate marveled? He had seen men agitated in situations less trying than that in which Jesus was placed. He had seen prisoners tremble and heard them beg for their lives. Others had summoned witnesses for their side and argued their cause logically and fervently. Some had not hesitated to offer bribes. Here was a man calm, undisturbed, and seemingly indifferent to his fate. He did not offer a bribe, and did not even make a personal reply to the charges against him; Pilate marveled. Jesus knew what He was facing. The Jewish leaders had determined to kill Him. Whether right or wrong, nothing would satisfy them but His death. Jesus knew Pilate to be selfish, and hard, and cowardly in the face of danger to him- self. Justice and right did not concern him unless it was convenient. Therefore the Master answered nothing. It was as if He 140 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day had said to Pilate: ''Why waste words? These priests are determined to have my Hfe and you have not sufificient man- hood to face the personal consequences of antagonizing them, even though justice and right are at stake." As Jesus looked at Pilate, the Roman felt guilty. The prisoner became the judge and the judge became the prisoner. It was Pilate before Christ, not Christ before Pilate. Matthew says that Pilate took a basin of water and washed his hands of the affair. Responsibility cannot be so shifted. It was the task of Pilate to decide, and decide he must. Therefore he released unto them Barabbas. Read Mark 15:6-15. Study XIII. Seventh Day Review 1. Do we realize that Jesus desires from us the same over- flowing love and devotion which the woman showed by her gift of the ointment ? Christianity is not so much a system of thought or a theory of life as it is an attachment to a Person, It is love and friendship between the Master and us. 2. Let us think now of the profound faith of Jesus in man- kind. He sees possibilities in us that we do not realize. Re- gardless of our past. He stands ready to lead us into paths of great usefulness if we will follow Him. 3. Jesus looked upon His death as a sacrifice for men. He could have avoided the cross. If He had so decided, how wretched this world would have been. Are we willing to follow in His train? 4. Jesus prayed for the cup to pass, but this request was not granted. Instead God gave Him strength to drink the cup to the bitter dregs. Can we pray to-day, " Not as I will but as Thou wilt, O God " ? 5. Are we always fighting for our rights or can we bear personal injustice without resentment? 6. We have not the opportunity to deny our Lord as Peter did, but we do deny Him, by stating on the application for Review 141 admission that we have read six books of Virgil when we have read only four, by reporting sick when we cut class be- cause we were unprepared in our lessons, by sending home for money to buy books and spending the money for pleasure, by abusing college property, by wiring for an extension of furlough on account of illness when no one is sick, by not paying our debts, by being a coward in the face of an evil which threatens us, by unkindness, by selfishness, by wrong- doing of any kind. 7. Do you ever try to shift your responsibility upon the shoulders of others? If it is yours to decide what is right or wrong, no technical excuses can shift the responsibility. STUDY XIV. FIRST DAY The Crucifixion of Jesus. Mark 15: 16-41; Matt. 27:27-56; Luke 23:26-49 Jesus was led away from the hall of Pilate for execution. Before starting on their way to Golgotha, Jesus was sub- jected to the rough, cruel jests and mockings of the Roman soldiers. One cannot conceive, on human grounds, how Jesus maintained His self-control under such provocation. Previ- ous to this, He could have raised an army, if He had so de- sired, and crushed these soldiers, but that was not the way to ultimate triumph. Read Mark 15: 16-21. Let us follow the group to the place of execution. When the coarse play of the soldiers is over, the procession starts for the place of crucifixion. Jesus is worn out with the aw- ful tension of the past hours, and so another man, one Simon of Cyrene, is forced to bear His cross. . . . Golgotha is reached. The cross is laid on the ground and the Saviour is stretched upon it. Then fall the heavy blows of the huge hammer as the spikes are driven through the flesh, crushing the bones. The muscles, of the arm tighten and twitch. A wave of suffering seems to surge over the limbs. The title which the Jews falsely accused Him of seeking, " The King of the Jews," is tacked in derision at the top of the upright. By means of ropes the cross is righted and settles in the ground with a sickening thud. Then the Master speaks. What is it He says? Is it a curse on the priests, is it a bitter complaint against the cowardly disciples, is it a cry for re- venge, is it a tirade against Pilate? "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34.) Thus He requites His murderers. To the last. He loved men and gave His life for men that Lie might lead them into friendship with God. He is indeed oir Saviour and the Saviour of the world, for He saved us 142 2^ he Crucifixion of Jesus 143 from lives of sin and seliishness and led us into paths of love and fellowship with God. It was not unusual for men after crucifixion to hang on the cross two or three days before dying. The awful agony of soul, and the sad disappointment of rejected love, caused Jesus to die heartbroken in a few hours. Read Mark 15 : 22-41. " For the human race the death of Jesus was the trans- figuration of all that he was and taught. This fact is ex- pressed by the profound words, recorded in the Fourth Gospel: ' I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to me.' It was the challenge to his race, to his generation, to the whole world to halt and to heed. History presents many illustra- tions of this principle. The tragic death of Lincoln, at the height of his power and usefulness, transfigured and en^ nobled the simplicity and beauty of his character and the greatness of his service for humanity. Jesus' death was the supreme demonstration that the one unfailing way in which sinners may be saved is the way of love and complete self- sacrifice. His death was the final, incontrovertible proof of his love and willingness to give himself for them and for all who needed his help. " In an equally true and concrete sense it was the noblest expression of God's love for man. Thus Jesus' death trans- formed the friend of the disciples, and the shepherd of the lost sheep of Israel, into the Saviour of the world, and ex- pressed the purpose and meaning of his life in terms in- telligible to all ages and races." ^ Study XIV. Second Day The Burial and Resurrection of Jesus. Mark 15: 42-16:20; Matt. 27:57-28:20; Luke 23: 50-24:53 The disciples fled from the Master at the time of the crucifixion, but the tragic event brought forth friends who 1 The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. Copyrighted 1913. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. 144 Jesus and the Young Alan of To-day had quietly followed Jesus, and who were unknown before. Joseph of Arimathea was one of these. He asked for the dead body of Jesus and after preparations for burial laid it in his own tomb. Read Mark 15:42-47. What a pitiable ending to such a promising life ! A stranger, passing through Jerusalem at that time, saw the lonely burial procession and inquired about it. The Roman centurion told him : " This man," and he pointed to the cross, " had an idea that he was born to be king of the Jews. He was evidently not the kind of king they wanted therefore they got Pilate to kill him. But he was man enough to be king of any Jews I have ever seen. He faced Pilate with a poise and calm that made the procurator wonder. He en- dured the buffetings and jeers of the guard without wincing and was nailed to that cross without a murmur. It's strange how some people become obsessed with queer ideas at times. But it's all over now." And the centurion marshaled the guard for the return to the city. The stranger next inquired of a Jew, in the circle of the high priest, about this king. " What, this impostor ! " said the Jew. " He assuming to be our Messiah ! Nothing but a carpenter from Nazareth who drew together some publicans and sinners for his disciples and then, denouncing the re- ligious leaders, said he was the Christ. But that's the end of him and it'll be a good warning to any other such pre- tenders." And the Jew went toward the city. The stranger then approached Joseph of Arimathea as he was leaving the tomb and inquired of Joseph about the friend he had just buried. Joseph quietly said: "You know we have been looking for God to send His chosen one to re- store the Kingdom to Israel and to rule over our nation in righteousness. Many of us thought Jesus," and he nodded toward the tomb, " was the one. He taught as no one has ever taught us. He had a great, deep, loving heart. He was courageous and fearless. He had a personality which drew you to him. He said he was the Messiah but he would not let his followers fight for him. Although my life is nobler by having known him, his death is a sad, disappointment to us." And Joseph went on his way. Dismayed and disappointed, the disciples wended their The Burial and Resurrection of Jesus 145 way toward Galilee. Jesus was dead. Their hopes had been dashed to the ground, their hearts were sad. They would remain in quiet obscurity for a few days until the wave of popular clamor had subsided and danger to themselves had passed. Then they would take up their daily tasks again. But suddenly this group of frightened, dismayed disciples reappeared in public with the astonishing proclamation that their Teacher had risen from the dead and had appeared before them. So absolutely convinced of this fact were they, that they began to spread the news in all directions and not one but many laid down their lives in the faith that it was true. Read Mark 16: 1-20. Study XIV. Third Day The Resurrection of Jesus (concluded). I Cor. 15: 1-8; Acts 9: 1-7 Let us consider to-day what actually happened regarding the resurrection of Jesus. Read Luke 24 : 1-53. Did the physical body of Jesus which was dead come forth from the tomb? Perhaps the account of the appearance of Jesus to Paul on the road to Damascus may help, as this is the earliest account we have of the resurrection, and as Paul classifies this ap- pearance to him as the same as the appearances to the other disciples. Read I Corinthians 15:1-8 and Acts 9:1-7. It is evident that the appearance to Paul was a spiritual manifestation and not actual contact with a physical body. Moreover, the idea of Paul of the future life is that of a spiritual existence in which our physical body is transformed into a spiritual body as was that of our Lord Jesus Christ. If the resurrected body of Jesus was physical, the accounts which speak of the Master appearing in a closed room with all doors locked and again as vanishing from sight are evi- dently inconsistent with such a theory. It must also be re- alized that the task of the early church was not to prove the divinity of Jesus but to prove His humanity. His spir- 146 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day itual presence was so manifested that those who had not known Jesus while on earth, began to ask if He ever actually lived as a man. This naturally gave a materialistic tone to the accounts of the resurrection. On the other hand, the theory that the enthusiasm of the disciples arose from a return of their love for Jesus, and from intense meditation upon His teaching, and upon the Jewish scriptures in the light of the crucifixion, does not adequately account for the remarkable change in these Gali- leans. Many of the disciples never fully comprehended the. scope and nature of the mission of Jesus. H contact and conversation with Him while on earth could not enlighten their minds, how could it be accomplished by meditation, after a blow as crushing as the crucifixion? Moreover, untrained men do not lay down their lives for the sake of theories logically deduced which have no basis in fact. Occasionall}^ one may do so, but here is a laFge group of men dismayed, bewildered, and fright- ened, who suddenly face the world with the declara- tion that their Teacher who was dead has appeared to them and in proof of their conviction, suffer per- secution and death. Had it not been for this conviction, we to-day would not be studying the life of Jesus, for the Gos- pels would not have been written. Had it not been for this conviction, the Christian church would not have been founded. Although the writer does not believe in a physical resurrection, he knows that something happened after the crucifixion and that something, inconsistent as this statement may seem, he believes to be as much a fact of history as the crucifixion of Jesus. Certain it is, that the something that did happen which we call the resurrection, convinced the disciples that Jesus was with them and, as some one has ex- pressed it, " No matter whether what they saw could be pho- tographed or not they felt the personality of Jesus. The perfectly spiritualized body was there." The results cannot be questioned, therefore the cause must be adequate. The Path to Intellectual Comprehension 147 Study XIV. Fourth Day Obedience and Unselfish Service the Path to Intellectual Comprehension We have now completed the study of the life of Jesus. We have avoided all theological discussions and w^ith the ex- ception of the resurrection, have postponed the question of miracles. We have sought to picture the man Jesus and to study the principles of His teachings. What, then, is there for the man who can go no further, tlie man to whom the resurrection appears as an hallucination and to whom God is unknown ? In the first place, everyone knows that he is living. We! may douht everything but our own existence and even at-, tempt to disprove that, but actually we have to live and we know it. If we have to live, we want to live on the highest possible plane. Then we should hold fast to the truth that we have and live our lives, as far as possible, ac- cording to the example and principles of Jesus. We are to be kind and willing to share with others ; we are to be courageous ; we are to detest hypocrisy and snobbish- ness ; we are to be cheerful ; we are to be pure ; we are to be honest ; we are to be truthful ; and we are to be unselfish in active service for others. Jesus came not to give us a theological system but a way of life. The only avenue to a proper intellectual conception of Christ is through following Him. A teacher may tell you that by mixing two chemicals a certain precipitate will be formed. You may doubt it, you may argue about it, you may meditate upon it, but you should try it. You may doubt the existence of God, Jesus may be only a man, the immortality of the soul a mere dream, but you should not brood over such questions, but try to follow in the footsteps of the Master. Is there a student going down through drink or gambling? Try to help him. Is there dishonesty in athletics? Then fight it. Is there a group of immigrants near you needing help? Then spend yourself for them. Is there a struggling ex-convict 148 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day needing a job? Get him one. Is there a lonely man needing a friend? Then be a friend to him. Is there a heartsick mother craving affection? Then show a little. Is there a child-labor law needed? Then advocate it. Move, serve, love, act, do something in accord with the fearless, loving principles of Jesus, and soon there will come into your life a certainty about spiritual truths about which you are now uncertain. You will not only think that they are true, you will know that they are true, for they will be facts of ex- perience tested in the laboratbry of life. Dr. E. L. Trudeau, the eminent physician of Saranac Lake, expressed this thought when he said : " The more I live, the more I feel that what we need is Faith, Faith in the simple teaching of Christ as a moving force in our lives, not as merely something to theorize about. I do not believe any- one ever gets Faith — the real kind of Faith — by learned books or discussions, but simply through living it." " If there be no God and no future state, yet even then," said Frederick W. Robertson, " it is better to be generous than selfish, better to be chaste than licentious, better to be true than false, better to be brave than to be a coward. . . . Thrice blessed is he who — when all is drear and cheerless — has obstinately clung to moral good. Thrice blessed, be- cause his night shall pass into clear, bright day." 1 " If any man will to do his will, he shall know of the doc- trine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." John 7'-^7- We come back then to the subject of the study for to-day. Obedience and unselfish service is the path to intellectual comprehension of Jesus Christ. Study XIV. Fifth Day The Essence of Religion Yesterday we asserted that regardless of the doubts or unbeliefs of a man he should live in accordance with the 1 Quoted from Jesus Christ and the Christian Character. F. G. Pea- body. The Macmillan Company. New York. The Essence of Religion 149 life and teachings of Jesus. To-day, we wish to show that living a good life was, according to Jesus, the supreme re- quirement of religion. Let us look back over these studies and realize how little thought Jesus gave to creeds, ritual, or churchmanship. Not that Jesus condemned creeds or churches, for He did not. They are necessary adjuncts in the development and nurture of the religious life. But they are means, not ends. He continually laid the emphasis on actually doing the will of God. It was a glorification of the tasks of everyday life, it was an uncompromising attitude toward evil, it was open-mindedness, repentance, self-control, self-forgetfulness, mercy, purity, the use of one's talents, social democracy, righteousness, equity, faith in the ultimate triumph of right, self-sacrifice, love, that Jesus continually taught. In the account of Jesus of the last judgment, men are judged by their lives. It is the fruit by which the tree is judged. It is not the labels but the contents which are to be examined. Who then can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, the churchman, the evangelist, the orthodox, the philantho- pist? Perhaps, but not unless they have done the will of the Father who is in Heaven. Who is the foolish man? The man who hears and believes but does not live according to his beliefs. Who is the wise man? The man who hears, believes, and lives according to his beliefs. Who are the friends and brothers of Jesus, what kind of relatives did He want? "Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." Dean Hodges expressed it thus : " He cared about con- duct. He wanted to make men honest, and pure, and help- ful, and thus to increase the happiness of life. . . . He died in defense of the proposition that true religion is essentially moral, and that the supreme requirement of religion is char- acter." 1 1 Elveryman's Religion. George Hodges. Copyrighted 191 1. Used by permission of tlie Macmillan Company. New York. I50 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day Study XIV. Sixth Day The Motive Power — The Living Christ After stud^'ing the life of Jesus by a method similar to that which we have pursued, a Chinese student remarked at this point, " It is easy to say, ' Live a good life,' but how are you going to do it?" In other words, it is easy to place ideals before ourselves but we need power to realize the ideals in our lives. It is here that Christianity dif- fers from the non-Christian religions. It is a religion of power. This was the message which Paul sounded in the ears of the Roman world, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Men long since had had exalted ideas placed before them, but they needed a dynamic in their lives in order to produce character such as the ideas portrayed. What is there then in the Christian religion which accounts for this power? What was it which made the cowardly disciples be- come fearless and courageous ? They said it was the pres- ence of the Risen Christ. The expression, " In Christ," or " in the Lord " is repeated as if it were a refrain in the letters of Paul until in Galatians 2:20, he says, "It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me." It is often said of a man that he needs a strong friend to keep him steady. The early apostles said that the Risen Christ was with them as such a friend. They felt their lives charged with the unseen but real presence of Christ. What was the dynamic in the life of Jesus? It could not have been merely His own presence. It was His rela- tionship with the Father and His sense of the presence and approval of God. It was into this relationship that Jesus endeavored to lead men. When we speak of friendship with Christ and friendship with God, we are not referring to different relationships. " We cannot say that we have an experience of communion with Jesus which is distinguishable from our experience of communion with God," says Henry Sloane Coffin ; " we re- spond through Jesus to God. But if our God be the God of The Motive Power — The Living Christ 15 1 Jesus, we cannot think of Jesus as anywhere in the universe out of fellowship with Him. His God would not be Him- self, nor w^ould Jesus be Himself, were the fellowship be- tween Them interrupted ; and we cannot think of ourselves as in touch with the One, without being at the same time in touch with the Other." 1 Define the Christian djmamic as you please, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, the Living Christ, there is a power in Christianity which comes by the indwelling presence of the Infinite. " Yet, if it is true," says Durant Drake, " that salvation has come in greater or lesser degree to multitudes of men of all faiths, it is also true that it has come in the most striking measure through Christ. No other powder ever let loose in the world has accomplished nearly so much in free- ing men from the bondage of sin as the powder of his life and death. The great highroad of deliverance for sin-ridden men is that of overcoming evil with good ; a great love, a great loyalty, can banish temptations against which a direct struggle is futile. So a spiritual union with Christ has for millions wrought that transformation of character which w^e call regeneration ; and the surest way to save men who have sunk far into sin has proved to be, after winning their will to repent, to bring them to Christ." ^ " But," says some one, " you are speaking with practical certaint}^ of a mystical experience. I never had such an ex- perience." We speak of friendship with Christ as a fact be- cause to those realizing His presence, it is a fact. If the testimony of thousands of straightforward, self-sacrificing, transformed Christians is of any value, then it is a fact, and an experience within the reach of everybody. A few suggestions may aid in realizing such an experience. First, a friendship with Christ can be cultivated by a devo- tional study of His life and teachings in order that our ideals of life and conduct may be clarified. Secondly, we may cultivate His friendship by regular communion in prayer. If your faith is weak, make in sincerity, such a prayer as this. 1 Some Christian Convictions. H. S. Coffin. Copyrighted 191 5. Used by permission of the Yale University Press. New Haven. 2 Problems of Religion. Durant Drake. Copyrighted 19 16. Used by permission of the Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, 152 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day " O Christ, if it be possible for You to dwell in my soul, do Thou enter." Lastly and supremely important, we must be willing to follow His guidance. If you reject every ad- vance Christ makes, how can you expect a friendship to de- velop? Have you refused to face the mission appeal, do you cling to some favorite sin, do you refuse openings for unselfish service, have you stifled the voice of conscience within you, do you trump up excuses when duty calls? Then it ought not to seem strange that friendship v/ith Christ is unknown to you. If you are willing to follow the promptings of the still small voice within you, every step forward will find you closer to Him. On the other hand, there are a few tests a man may apply to his life by which he may know that he is in friendship with Christ. First, there is the test of life. Do you cheat in examina- tions, do you take books or magazines from the library and not return them, do you crowd on a street car without pay- ing your fare, did you keep your football jersey when you promised to turn in all your equipment at the end of the season, do you use the stamps of the firm for your own private correspondence, do you take towels from hotels and keep them for your own use, do you intentionally " beat the gun " at the start of a track race, would you claim exemp- tion from military service on the ground of dependent parents when your father and mother were financially independent and you did not contribute anything to their support, do you lie, do you accept graft, do you give men short weight, do you "skip your rent"? Then, no matter how emotion- ally stirred you may become, or how many churches you may belong to, Jesus dwells not in your life neither are you a friend of Him. But from those who honestly try to live the Christlike life, Jesus is not far distant. Secondly, friendship with Christ makes service a pleasure. Religion ceases to be a round of burdensome, calculated duties, but becomes spontaneous service, prompted by love. A man was heard to remark that if he had known before marriage all the trouble, sickness, and pecuniary burdens that married life involved, he would never have married. An- other man. who has borne greater cares and responsibilities, remarked that if he had known before what to expect, he The Divinity of Jesus 153 would have been married as quickly. What was the difference between the men? One loved his wife, the other did not. To the first one, married life was a burdensome duty. To the other, it was an opportunity for joyful service for those he loved. The soldiers in the A. E. F. did not have to be driven into battle or chained to machine guns. Battle was a su- preme opportunity to fight or die for a cause and country they loved. Similarly, when we enter into friendship with Christ, a song springs up in our hearts, and service in His name be- comes a real joy. The element of self-sacrifice disappears from our minds. Last of all, friendship with Christ produces in us a love of human beings as human beings. It matters not whether they are Baptist or Methodist, Catholic or Jew, Negro or White, Chinese or Hindoo, French or German, servant or king, if they are human, we love them. \i we have fellow- ship with Christ, we do not serve others because it is our duty, or in order to talk religion to them afterward. We serve them because we love them. Study XIV. Seventh Day (( What Think Ye of Christ? " The Divinity of Jesus " And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the place of toll, and he saith unto him, Follow me." Jesus did not merely formulate the principles of the King- dom of God and endeavor, as a salesman, to interest men in them. He placed the principles before men, and then com- manded men to follow Him in living by them. He did not merely submit plans for consideration but He drew plans and commanded men to build. He astonished the multitudes, for He taught as one having authority. He antagonized the priests by driving the money brokers from the temple and wspeaking as if endowed with the authority of a divine com- mission. 154 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day "Who is this man?" the priests ask. "What right has he to assume charge of the temple? Is this authority mere as- sumption or do the man and his message justify it?" Is this Jesus of Nazareth a teacher only, or has he the right to command the full allegiance of our lives even to-day? It is this questfon we wish to discuss at this time. Let us consider for a moment the teachings of Jesus. One is impressed by the fact that they are universal in scope. Jesus is perhaps the only man who fully realized that man- kind, regardless of race or environment, was and always would be fundamentally the same. His teachings then are not local or racial but are world-wide and eternal in that they meet the fundamental needs of all men. Yet Jesus came of a most intensely clannish and exclusive people. A second noticeable feature is the completeness of the teach- ings of Jesus. You find summarized in His words a com- plete program of life, embracing the best in all other ethical systems. We find in His teachings answers to the funda- mental questions. Why are we here. Whither are we going, How shall we accomplish our task? Moreover, this con- ception of God and life, adequate as it is for our needs, is set forth with perfect simplicity, and not interwoven with unnecessary words and ideas which the subsequent growth of knowledge has had to discard. Indeed we should add as our fourth point that the teachings of Jesus are remarkable for what they do not contain. i It was as if a font of type was spread on a table and a master printer picked out the good type, leaving the imperfect to be melted anew. As John Douglas Adam put it : " This is what students of com- parative religion as w.ell as simple disciples of Christ dis- cover in our day — 'that Christ gathers the broken, scattered revelations of God into a focused unity in himself. It is not that other religions are wholly false, it is simply that Christ makes a full-orbed, all-inclusive revelation of God, sufficient for human need. As a matter of historical fact, every other revelation of God since has either been an echo, a dilution, or a perversion of that which is in Christ." 2 In nearly all 1 The Ethics of Jesus. H. C. King. The Macmillan Company. New York. 2 Under the Highest Leadership. J. D. Adam. Copyrighted 191 7. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York, The Divinity of Jesus 155 lines of knowledge we have left the first century far behind but the ideals of this obscure Carpenter of Nazareth are still the distant goal toward which humanity is striving. Another noticeable characteristic is the fact that the teach- ings of Jesus are free from the current superstitions of His time. With the possible exception of belief in demoniac pos- session, we find that Jesus brushed aside current superstitions, useless traditions, and false customs, giving them no place in His teachings or life. As Horace Bushnell expressed it; " He lived in a superstitious age and among a superstitious people. He was a person of low education, and nothing, as we know, clings to the uneducated mind with the tenacity of a superstition. Lord Bacon, for example, a man certainly of the very highest intellectual training, was yet harmed by superstitions too childish to be named with respect, and which clung to him despite of all his philosophy, even to his death. But Christ, with no learned culture at all, comes forth out of Galilee, as perfectly clean of all the superstitions of his time, as if he had been a disciple, from his childhood, of Hume or Strauss. ' You children of superstition think,' he says, ' that those Galileans, whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices, and those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, must have been monsters, to suffer such things. I tell you, nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.' To another company he says — ' You imagine, in your Pharisaic and legal morality, that the Sabbath of Moses stands in the letter; but I tell you that the Sabbath is made for man, and not man for the Sabbath ; little honor, there- fore, do you pay to God, when you teach that it is not lawful to do good on this day. Your washings are a great point, you tithe herbs and seeds with a sanctimonious fidelity, would it not be as well for you teachers of the law, to have some respect to the weightier matters of justice, faith, and be- nevolence?' Thus, while Socrates, one of the greatest and purest of human souls, a man who has attained to many worthy conceptions of God, hidden from his idolatrous coun- trymen, is constrained to sacrifice a cock to Esculapius, the uneducated Jesus lives and dies superior to every supersti- tion of his time ; believing nothing because it is believed, respecting nothing because it is sanctified by custom and by 156 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day human observance. Even in the closing scene of his life, we see his learned and priestly associates refusing to go into the judgment-hall of Caiaphas, lest they should be cere- monially defiled and disqualified for the feast; though de- tained by no scruple at all as regards the instigation of a murder ! While he, on the other hand, pitying their delu- sions, prays for them from his cross — ' Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' " 1 Again, Jesus was warped by no desire to gain assent. He spoke the truth uncompromisingly. In speaking of this trait Horace Bushnell said : "... he never reveals the infirmity so commonly shown by human teachers, when they veer a little from their point, or turn their doctrine off by shades of variation, to catch the assent of multitudes. He never 'Conforms to an expectation, even of his friends. When they look to find a great prophet in him, he offers nothing in the modes of the prophets. When they ask for places of distinction in his kingdom, he rebukes their folly, and tells them he has nothing to give, but a share in his reproaches and his poverty. When they look to see him take the sword as the Great Messiah of their nation, calling the people to his standard, he tells them he is no warrior and no king, but only a messenger of love to lost men ; one that has come to minister and die, but not to set up or restore the kingdom. Every expectation that rises up to greet him, is repulsed ; and yet, so great is the power of his manner, that multitudes are held fast, and cannot yield their con- fidence. Enveloped as he is in the darkest mystery, they trust him still ; going after him, hanging on his words, as if de- tained by some charmed influence, which they cannot shake off or resist. Never was there a teacher that so uniformly baffled every expectation of his followers, never one that was followed so persistently." ^ Finally, think of the content of the teachings of Jesus. His teachings about God, about man, about love, about inward righteousness, about friendship with the Father are, we find, 1 The Character of Jesus. H. Bushnell. Copyrighted 1886. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. The Divinity of Jesus 157 truths not primarily emphasized in the non-Christian re- Hgions. Jesus, however, was not a mere collector of religious max- ims ; it was the emphasis and importance which He placed upon the great essentials of life and truth which distinguish Him as the supreme teacher of the ages. Durant Drake says : " His insight into human nature, his direct, straightforward perception of moral truths, together with his natural talent for expression, gave him a felicity of utterance which has never been surpassed. Capable upon occasion of subtle argumentation, overflowing now and then into genial humor, biting irony, or flash of wit, but in gen- eral homely in his language, and free from the useless verbi- age of the schools, keen and quick at epigram and paradox, with a gift at simile and parable, his sayings remain to-day among the most memorable — many of us would say the most memorable — of the spiritual teachings of all times. Free from all servitude to the orthodoxy of his day, following al- ways his own vision, and calling to his disciples, * Why of yourselves judge ye not what is right? 'his words must have been of rare stimulating power. He uttered few truths, if any, that had not been expressed before ; but in the clarity, terseness, and limpid simplicity of his phrasing, rid as it is of so much that repels or mars the vision in the utterances of earlier and later teachers, we have reason enough to un- derstand how his auditors * wondered at the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth.' " ^ As a teacher of moral and spiritual truth, both as to form and content, Jesus stands unique in history. 1 Problems of Religion. Durant Drake. Copyrighted 19 16. Used by permission of the Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston. STUDY XV, FIRST DAY The Divinity of Jesus (concluded) Having discussed Jesus as a teacher, let us examine the cliaracter of Jesus to-day as we would that of an}' other man. The first noticeable characteristic is the perfect balance of His character. If we will think a minute, we shall realize that Jesus possessed in a supreme degree the best traits of all other men. On the other hand, He was without their weak- nesses. H we were asked to name the weak points of the character of Jesus in contrast with His strong points, we should be at a loss what to mention, for the traits of His many-sided character seemed to be in a supreme degree evenly distributed. ^ Neither is this perfectly balanced character an imaginary picture drawn by the evangelists. Some such a figure as Je- sus must have been historical, for as Mr. Parker expressed this thought : " Suppose that Plato and Newton never lived. But who did their wonders, and who thought their thought? It takes a Newton to forge a Newton. What man could have fabricated a Jesus? None but a Jesus." ^ Rousseau said that the inventor of such a character would be far more as- tounding than his hero.i Miraculous stories could easily be the creation of the imagination but the superb abstract traits of character portrayed in the life of Jesus are facts beyond the imagination and could be understood and described only when expressed in the acts of everyday life. H the evan- gelists had been drawing on their imaginations for the char- acter of our Lord, inconsistencies would have been recorded 1 Christ and the Students. John R. Mott. Record of Christian Work. September, 1908. Used by permission. 2 The Character of Jesus. H. Bushnell. Copyrighted 1886. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. 158 The Divinity of Jesus 159 which would have marred the picture, and cast reasonable doubt upon the reality of such a life. This, as we shall see in the next study, actually occurred with regard to the mir- acles. First, then, we are impressed by the perfect balance of the character of Jesus. Another remarkable characteristic is that Jesus disavowed repentance and lived up to this denial of sin. Never do we hear a petition for forgiveness pass His lips and more re- markable still we cannot see in His life or words anything inconsistent with this avowal of sinlessness. Even more remarkable is the fact that this profession and all others, in- cluding that of His unique relationship with God, are at- tested by His own inner consciousness. Suppose we should pretend to be sinless or, in a special sense, divine. Our lives and consciences would soon belie us and we should break down under such false pretensions. But the inner and outer life of Jesus support His assumption even to the end.^ " Hu- man piety," said Horace Bushnell, " begins with repentance. It is the effort of a being, implicated in wrong and writhing under the stings of guilt, to come unto God. The most righteous, or even self-righteous men, blend expressions of sorrow and vows of new obedience with their exercises. But Christ, in the character given him, never acknowledges sin. It is the grand peculiarity of his piety that he never regrets anything that he has done or been ; expresses, nowhere, a single feeling of compunction, or the least sense of un- worthiness. On the contrary, he boldly challenges his ac- cusers, in the question — Which of you convinceth me of sin? and even declares, at the close of his life, in a solemn ap- peal to God, that he has given to men, unsullied, the glory divine that was deposited in him. . . . And no mere human creature, it is certain, could hold such a religious attitude, without shortly displaying faults that would cover him with derision, or excesses and delinquencies that would even disy gust his friends. Piety without one dash of repentance, one ingenuous confession of wrong, one tear, one look of con- trition, one request to heaven for pardon — let any one of mankind try this kind of piety, and see how long it will be 1 The Deity of Jesus. R. E. Speer. The F. H. Revell Co. New York. l6o Jesus and the Young Man of To-day ere his righteousness will prove itself to be the most im- pudent conceit ! how long before his passions sobered by no contrition, his pride kept down by no repentance, will tempt him into absurdities that will turn his pretenses to mockery! No sooner does any one of us begin to be self-righteous, than he begins to fall into outward sins that shame his conceit. But, in the case of Jesus, no such disaster follows. Begin- ning with an impenitent or unrepentant piety, he holds it to the end, and brings no visible stain upon it." ^ Another remarkable characteristic of Jesus was His aston- ishing assumptions. He professed to have established the Kingdom of God on earth. He declared Himself to be the spokesman of God, calling on men to follow Him, " laying his hand upon all the dearest and most intimate affections of life, and demanding a precedent love — 'he that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me.' . . . [It was] as if to follow him and be worthy of him was to be the conclusive or chief excellence of mankind ! " i He died in the belief that His Kingdom would ultimately triumph and that He had overcome the world. In studying the character of Jesus we should realize that His teachings are a reflection of His character, otherwise the abstract principles He sought to teach would have made no impression upon and would have been unintelligible to His followers. E. A, Cook expressed this thought when he said : " Abstract principles are always in danger of being lost in the forms in which they are stated or in the minds of those who have not learned to grasp or to value principles in abstract form. But a definite, divine, heroic figure, with a name and history easily grasped, whose life illustrates such abstract principles in ways readily understood by the simplest and most unlearned, is of inestimable value in the main- tenance of such principles as living forces among men." 2 Then, too, argue as we will, the resurrection of Jesus as we discussed it in Study XIV is a fact which cannot be ex- plained away. 1 The Character of Jesus. H. Eushnell. Copyrighted 1886. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. 2 Christian Faith for Men of To-Day. E. A. Cook. Copyrighted 1913. Used by permission of the University of Chicago Press. Chicago. The Divinity of Jesus l6l Last of all, think of the influence of Jesus in the lives of men to-day. Not only Jerry McCauley and Samuel Hadley, but David Livingstone and Robert Morrison, and thousands of others have testified that the power of Jesus, the Risen Christ, has redeemed them from lives of sin and selfishness and is the dynamic which moves them forward in paths of love and service. '* Where in all human experience," says John Douglas Adam, " is there any such escape from moral failure into triumphant moral achievement as in the lives of those who bear witness to having accepted forgiveness from Christ? There is no story of moral restoration, of renewed enthusiasm, of recovered joy, of fresh conscious oneness with the will of God, and of humble contrition, in the whole of human literature which compares with the testimony of a believing Christian." ^ There is only one conclusion that we can reasonably reach in reflecting upon these facts. It is, that Jesus was not just a mere man. [For] " if Jesus Christ was only a man," said Robert E. Speer, " if His character was merely human, then Bowdoin College, Yale. Bryn Mawr and Vassar ought to be turning out better men and women than He was. If Jesus Christ was only a man, it is strange that the nineteenth century cannot produce a better one. He was born in an obscure and contemptible province. He grew up in no cul- tured and refined community. He was a child of a poor peasant's home, of a lowly menial race. Yet He rises sheer above all humanity, the one commanding moral character of mankind. Now, if Jesus was all that just as a mere man, the world should long ago have advanced beyond Him." 2 The writer believes, then, that Jesus was, in a special and supreme sense, divine. When we use the word " divine " re- garding Jesus, it has for us the same meaning as when we say that we believe there is a germ of the divine latent in all humanity. We believe that in us the instinctive reaching- out after God, the feeling of dependence upon the Infinite, the natural turning to prayer and worship, the moral sense 1 Under the Highest Leadership. J. D. Adam. Copyrighted 1917. Used by permission of the Association Press. New York. 2 The Deity of Jesu«. R. E. Speer. Used by permission of the F, H. Revell Company. New York. 1 62 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day which decides between right and wrong, all arise from a divine spark which God has implanted within. The writer believes, furthermore, that every human being has this divine spark in him, and that in essence it is the same as the di- vine in Jesus. The difference between Him and us is a dif- ference in degree. We stifle the voice, we refuse to obey its promptings, and hence our hearts are faint and our grasp of the Infinite fee- ble. Jesus, however, followed absolutely the voice of God within Him. Every inner prompting of the Father He obeyed completely. Day by day, then, God revealed Him- self more and more to Jesus until the union between them was perfect and God completely expressed Himself in hu- man life through the personality of His Son. In this unique sense, Jesus was the beloved Son of God in whom the Fa- ther was well pleased. He, as no man, before or since, as far as we know, reached those heights of obedience to the will of God so that He could say, in the language of the Fourth Gospel, " My Father worketh even until now, and I work," and " he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." The writer does not believe in the preexistence of Jesus as a separate person in the Godhead who came into this world as a divine machine functioning in human life. He does be- lieve He was a man in whom God could and did completely reveal Himself, and through whom He absolutely expressed Himself to the world. Some may object to the conclusion that Jesus was the Son of God on the grounds that we are assuming the existence of God. If then there be no God, Jesus Himself should be the object of our worship, for we cannot conceive of God in terms higher than those exemplified in the life and teachings of Jesus. God, to us, is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, we must admit that the basis of the life of Jesus was His absolute conviction of the existence of God and the further conviction of His unique relationship with the Father. " We are weak, dragged down by animal instincts and im- pulses," said the author of " The Religion of Christ in the Twentieth Century;" "helpless often, before the sins which do so easily beset us: the religious consciousness of Jesus kept him, not only pure in deed, but pure in heart. . . . We The Divinity of Jesus 163 are selfish, lovers of ease, concerned for personal comfort: the religious consciousness of Jesus held him tranquil when he knew not where to lay his head. . . . We are troubled about many things, eager for possessions : the religious con- sciousness of Jesus kept him free from the clutch of ma- terial things, held him peacefully assured that even food and raiment are but things to be added unto the true life. . . . We are despondent, morose, afraid to be glad : the religious consciousness of Jesus led him to rejoice in the beauty of the world, made him no less welcome at the feast than in the house of mourning. We are hampered at every turn by conventions, concerned for the outside of the platter : the religious consciousness of Jesus held ever clearly before him the true values of life. . . . We are dull of sight, given to miserable misunderstandings : the religious consciousness of Jesus gave him a quick and sure insight into the hearts of men and women, so that the common people heard him gladly and all the city was gathered together at his door. We are bitter, unforgiving, ungenerous : the religious consciousness of Jesus enabled him to forgive all things, because ' they know not what they do.' W^e are cowardly, afraid of suffering, physical and mental, afraid, continually, of what may hap- pen : the religious consciousness of Jesus rendered him ab- solutely fearless, capable of defying without hesitation a re- ligious conservatism bitterly intolerant and vindictive, car- ried him from one danger to another with a courage quiet, steady, magnificent. We are cold, indifferent, unsympathetic : the religious consciousness of Jesus filled him with a com- passion so profound, so tender, so mighty, that the very sound of his voice, and touch of his hand, brought healing to the sick in body and in mind. ... In brief, the religious con- sciousness of Jesus made his life, so full of privation, dis- couragement, and suffering, the life that, whatever may be our creed, we all know in our hearts was the life preeminently worth living." ^ And this " religious consciousness " of Jesus was based upon the inward surety that He was doing the will of God, the Father. " Again and again in the history of mankind men of God 1 The Religion of Christ in the Twentieth Centurj'. Copyrighted. Used by permission of the G. P. Putnam's Sons. New York. 164 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day have come forward in the sure consciousness of possessing a divine message, and of being compelled, w^hether they will or not, to deliver it. But the message has always happened to be imperfect; in this spot or that, defective; bound up with political or particularistic elements ; designed to meet the circumstances of the moment ; and very often the prophet did not stand the test of being himself an example of his message. But in this case the message brought was of the profoundest and most comprehensive character; it went to the very root of mankind and. although set in the framework of the Jewish nation, it addressed itself to the whole of humanity — the message from God the Father. Defective it is not, and its real kernel may be readily freed from the inevitable husk of contemporary form. Antiquated it is not, and in life and strength it still triumphs to-day over all the past. He who delivered it has as yet yielded his place to no man, and to human life he still to-day gives a meaning and an aim — he the Son of God.'"^ " And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Csesarea Philippi : and by the way he asked his disciples, say- ing unto them, Whom do men say that I am? And they an- swered, John the Baptist : but some say, Elias : and others. One of the prophets. And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him. Thou art the Christ." " And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphseus sitting at the place of toll, and he saith unto him, Follow me." To-day He is saying to you and to me in the loving, authoritative voice of the chosen one of God, " Follow me." " If Jesus Christ is a man. And only a man, I say That of all mankind I cleave to him, And to him I cleave alway. "If Jesus Christ is a God, And the only God, I swear I will follow him through heaven and hell, The earth, the sea, and the air." Richard Watson Gilder. 1 What Is Christianity? A. Harnack. Copyrighted 1901. Used by permission of the G. P. Putnam's Sons. New York. The Miracles 1 65 Study XV. Second Day The Miracles Let us state in the beginning of this discussion of the mira- cles, that we are not arguing a question of possibility but of probability. The question is not, Could the miracles have happened? but, Did they happen? Almost anything can hap- pen but not everything does happen. Belief in the literal interpretation of the' miracles is not a question of faith in the power of God but a question of historical evidence. The writer believes, then, that many of the miracles ac- tually occurred, and that they can be easily explained on the basis of the psychic effect of a strong mind and personality upon a weaker one. The men of Jesus' day believed that the universe was peopled with spirits. Becoming melancholy, a man would imagine that an evil spirit was haunting him, until he became mentally unbalanced. Other cases of demoniac possession, the writer believes, were merely cases of insanity, in a greater or less degree. We see to-day evidence of the remarkable effects of belief and will upon the ailments of the body. Surely the influence of Jesus was no less potent. The writer does not believe, how- ever, that Jesus actually walked on the water, that five thou- sand people were physically fed with only five loaves and two small fishes, that the tempest was quieted by a word ; but he does believe that the lame walked, the deaf heard, in some cases the blind saw, and " demons " were cast out, just as such cures are effected by natural psychological causes to-day. We shall notice that in many cases, Jesus first stimulated the faith of the person in question, and that in other cases, people were healed by touching His garment without any volition on the part of Jesus whatever. See Mark 3 : 10, 5 : 28, 6 : 56, 7 : Z3^ 8 : 23. Mark distinctly says, that in Nazareth " Jesus could there do no mighty work ..." We notice also that Jesus did not attach particular im- portance to His miracles. He refused to give the Pharisees a sign, showing that the recognition of His person and mis- sion rested on higher grounds. The question of the Pharisees 1 66 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day also shows that it is evident that all the miracles were not actually performed as many suppose, for the Pharisees would not have made the request if such had been the case. Burkitt adds, " Nay more, occurrences which are certainly narrated as * miracles ' by the Evangelist did not greatly im- press even the disciples themselves. That on at least two occasions Jesus and His disciples had found themselves far away in the open country in the presence of large crowds without means of feeding them, and that nevertheless, when they made them sit down as for a meal, there was more than enough and to spare, is attested by the narrative in Mark 8: 11-21, a narrative which it is impossible not to regard as derived from genuine historical reminiscence. Yet the same passage shews us that the apostles had not been influenced by the events of these two meals, a circumstance which would be indeed incredible if these events had come to pass in the way generally supposed. What actually happened is of course quite beyond our power to ascertain : we only know that the same document that tells us of the wonderful meals tells us also of the distress of the apostles when shortly afterwards they found they were running short of provisions." ^ The only conclusion we can reach is that expressed by Dr. Sanday: "We may be sure that if the miracles of the first century had been wrought before trained spectators of the nineteenth, the version of them would be quite differ- ent." 2 It would have been strange, indeed, if miraculous stories had not grown up around such a life as that of Jesus Christ. Here was the most commanding and lovable personality, we think, the world has ever seen. He cast out " demons " and appeared alive after He was dead. He lived at a time when, as Harnack says, " people felt and saw that they were sur- rounded by wonders, not by any means only in the religious sphere." ^ " The Messiah would of course work miracles," said one writer in the Biblical World. " Jesus healed the de- 1 The Gospel History and Its Transmission. F. C. Burkitt. Used by permission of the Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. 2 Dictionary of the Bible. James Hastings. T. and T. Clark. The Charles Scribner's Sons. 3 What Is Christianity? A. Harnack. The G. P. Putnam's Sons. New York. The Miracles 167 monized : why should he not heal nature? The distinction that we should make would not have occurred to them. So the beautiful story of the stilling of the tempest. If demons could disturb the human consciousness, perhaps they could blow the waters of the lake into billows. And the authori- tative voice that could say to the legion of demons, ' Be gone,' could say to the winds, ' Be still.' Perhaps some actual occurrence produced the narrative. Perhaps in some storm the strong courage and faith of Jesus calmed the fearful fishermen, and the waves, heightened by their terror, were less dangerous as they regained their poise. And so the story grew that he had stilled the tempest. And the beauti- ful symbolic significance (perhaps, after all, the chief value of any miracle story) may have helped to give form to the calm. Wherever Jesus went he must have carried courage and calm." 1 In some cases, the parables of Jesus, the writer believes, have been recorded as actual occurrences. The conclusions reached in a study of the miracles are, in almost every case, purely personal, and often reflect merely the mental temperament of the investigator. If Jesus were not only the Messiah but, in a special sense, divine, as we con- cluded in the preceding study, then, of course, he would work miracles, says some one. If such a belief is necessary for you in order to have a satisfying faith, then hold to the belief in the literal interpretation of the miracles, realizing, however, that such a belief is not essential to the acceptance of the di- vinity of Jesus Christ. Many believe in the miracles only be- cause Jesus was divine. Th^y do not believe Jesus was divine because of the miracles. Take the question of the virgin birth, for instance. Jesus revealed God to us by His char- acter and His teachings and not by His physical body. If He had been born miraculously of a virgin and had then com- mitted sin. He would not have been the Son of God. It makes no difference as to the origin of His physical body. It is the origin of His spiritual life, it is the source of His insight into human hearts, it is the spring from which flowed the depth of His love that we wish to know about. We reached the conclusion in the last study that Jesus was in a 1 The Biblical World. The University of Chicago Press. Used by permission. i68 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day special sense divine, yet such a conclusion was reached with- out discussing any of the miracles except the resurrection. If, however, it is satisfying for you to believe in the virgin birth, and the literal interpretation of the other miracles, then believe in them, realizing their subordinate place. Study XV. Third Day The Church Lest some readers of this course be misled by the re- curring statements that church membership, worship, ritual, and creeds are the husks of religion, it was decided to devote the thought of this last day to the value of the church and its service. The church is the organization of Christian men and women for the development of Christian character and the nurture of Christian life. It is the gymnasium of the soul, where the spiritual muscles are developed and trained for Christian service. In its worship, we find opportunity to express our inward longings after God and to cultivate com- munion with the Father. In its outreach for men, we find opportunity to develop our lives in unselfish service. Its exercises prevent moral atrophy and spiritual degeneration. Its cross-crowned spires ever point us to Him who was lifted up that all men might be drawn unto Him. The church is indispensable in keeping alive our spiritual life. A man must worship, he must serve, in order really to live. In the church, he is constantly stimulated to nobler service and the ideals represented by the Cross of Christ are kept ever before him. In it, a man receives the inspiration of fellowship with others of similar purpose and hopes. In it, and through it, a man finds many opportunities to serve mankind. By identification with it, a man publicly commits himself to a Christlike life and is thereby held steady many times in the face of severe temptations to which, otherwise, he would yield. The church may be only the husk of religion but the husk is absolutely necessary for the protection and Hie of the in- References 1 69 ward grain. Mistakes it has indeed made, because its mem- bership is only human. It has made the world better, too, because its inspiration is divine. It has been the bulwark of society against the inroads of immoral and destructive cults. Its money has been the financial framework and its mem- bers the flesh and sinews of the philanthropic and charitable work of the world. In its membership is the logical place for every sincere follower of Jesus of Nazareth. Conclusion We have finished this brief survey of the life of Jesus, the Christ. We have sought only a minimum of belief but have endeavored to find at least a solid basis upon which each can build a reasonable faith for himself. Perhaps, the views of the writer will change as time goes on, for " we reach truth only by continual adjustments to new light." Whatever you believe or do not believe, follow Jesus Christ. References 1. Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. E. I. Bosworth. As- sociation Press. 2. The Gospel History and its Transmission. F. C. Burkitt. T. & T. Clark. Charles Scribner's Sons. 3. The Historical and Religious Value of the Fourth Gos- pel. E. F. Scott. The Pilgrim Press. 4. The Ethics of Jesus. H. C. King. The Macmillan Co. 5. Everyman's Religion. George Hodges. The Macmillan Co. 6. The Life and Teachings of Jesus. C. F. Kent. Charles Scribner's Sons. 7. Jesus Christ and the Christian Character. F. G. Peabody. The Macmillan Co. 8. What is Christianity? A. Harnack, G. P. Putnam's Sons. 9. The Character of Jesus. H. Bushnell. Charles Scribner's Sons. I70 Jesus and the Young Man of To-day 10. The Deity of Jesus. R. E. Speer. F. H. Revell Co. 11. Christ and the Students. J. R. Mott. Record of Chris- tian Work. September, 1908. 12. The Book of the Twelve Prophets. G. A. Smith. G. H. Doran Co. 13. The Sermon on the Mount. B. W. Bacon. The Mac- millan Co. 14. The Teachings of Jesus. H. H. Wendt. Charles Scrib- ner's Sons. 15. Christian Standards in Life. Murray-Harris. Associa- tion Press. 16. The Pupil and the Teacher. L. A. Weigle. G. H. Doran Co. 17. The Assurance of Immortality. H. E. Fosdick. The Mac- millan Co. 18. Some Christian Convictions. H. S. Coffin. Yale Uni- versity Press. 19. Problems of Religion. Durant Drake. Houghton Mif- flin Co. 20. Christian Faith for Men of To-Day. E. A. Cook. Uni- versity of Chicago Press. 21. International Critical Commentary. St. Matthew. W. C. Allen. Charles Scribner's Sons. -22. The Atlantic Monthly. February, 1918. 23. Carry On. Coningsby Dawson. John Lane Co. 24. Under the Highest Leadership. J. D. Adam, Associa- tion Press. 25. Dictionary of the Bible. James Hastings. T. & T. Clark. Charles Scribner's Sons. 26. Studies in the Life of Christ. A. M. Fairbairn. D. Ap- pleton & Co. 27. Historical Geography of the Holy Land. G. A. Smith. G. H. Doran Co. 28. Hours of Thought. James Martineau. Longmans, Green & Co. 29. The Religion of Christ in the Twentieth Century. G. P. Putnam's Sons. THE END PRINTED IN THE UNITKD STATES OF AMERICA npHE following pages contain advertisements of a few of the Macmillan books on kindred subjects The Soul in Suffering: A Practical Application of Spiritual Truths By ROBERT S. CARROLL Cloth, 12°, $2.00 This book, both for subject matter and style, will make a strong appeal to the thoughtful reader. The author is a physician of wide experience, with a trained and cultivated mind, an unusual mastery of the art of writing and a deep insight into life. Thoroughly versed in modern science, he is yet deeply religious, though in a truly undogmatic sense. His chapters constitute a spiritual interpretation of the life of the soul in the body, based upon modern scientific prin- ciples. His treatment is decidedly original, and the linking of the body with the soul, of matter with spirit, of science with faith, gives his essays a peculiar charm. " The greatest privilege of the physician's work is his welcome into the intimacies of his patients' inner lives. Day and night the busy practitioner is in close touch with the souls of the sick. To him it is specially given to most clearly recognize the healthy soul with its sick body, the ill soul with its distressed body and the whole body with its ailing soul. " The following chapters have been written with a con- structively sympathetic understanding of the soul-need which comes to the suffering." THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York A NEW VOLUME IN THE BIBLE FOR HOME AND SCHOOL SERIES Commentary on the Epistle of Paul to the Romans By EDWARD INCREASE BOSWORTH Cloth, i2mo. $1.10 The author of this Commentary has endeavored to help those who use it read Paul's letter to the Romans with due regard to the pre-supposi- tions which possessed Paul's mind and the minds of those to whom it was addressed, no matter to what extent these pre-suppositions have passed out of modern thought. He has tried to do this in such a way as to bring out the essential, vital facts of Christian experience which may persist under many forms of changing pre-suppositions. OTHER VOLUMES IN The Bible for Home and School Series SHAILER MATHEWS, General Editor GENESIS, by Professor H. G. Mitchell $.90 DEUTERONOMY, by Professor W. G. Jordan 75 JUDGES, by Professor Edward L. Curtis 75 JOB, by Professor George A. Barton 90 ISAIAH, by Professor John E. McFadyen 90 AMOS, HOSEA, AND MICAH, by Professor J. M. Powis Smith. .75 MATTHEW, by Professor A. T. Robertson 60 MARK, by Professor M. W. Jacobus 75 GALATIANS, by Professor B. W. Bacon 50 ACTS, by Professor George H. Gilbert 75 EPHESIANS AND COLOSSIANS, by Reverend Gross Alex- ander 50 HEBREWS, by Professor E. J. Goodspeed 50 VOLUMES IN PREPARATION 1 SAMUEL By Professor L. W. Batten PSALMS By Reverend J. P. Peters JOHN By Professor Shailer Mathews I AND II CORINTHIANS By Professor J. S. Riggs THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York Studies in Mark*s Gospel By a. T. ROBERTSON Chair of New Testament Interpretation, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Cloth, 12°, $1.50 Why are Matthew, Mark and Luke so much alike? Why do they, also, differ in so many places? Where did Mark get his information? What is the worth of this Gospel for modern men? What are its salient teaching points? What is its picture of Jesus? Questions like these are answered by Prof. Robertson and the human touch in Mark and Peter brought out with sym- pathy. Mark's Gospel is looked at from angle after angle in swift succession and in this way Jesus is shown with rare vividness in his actual life among men. It is the kind of book that all kinds of readers find in- forming and enriching: the scholarly preacher, the serious Sunday school teacher and the earnest Bible student. STUDIES IN MARK'S GOSPEL " Mark is a comfort to many a young man who has made a serious blunder in life." " Jesus is a citizen of two worlds." " Jesus is the Christ of Mark, of Matthew, of Luke, of John, of Paul, of Peter, of John, of Jude, of Hebrews." " It is clear that Paul did not ' invent ' Christ out of the Jesus of history." " All the Gospels have an apologetic value. The same thing is true of every paper that supports a scientific thesis." " It is easy to see in Mark that Jesus used repartee, wit, humor, irony, sarcasm, invective, question, appeal, rebuke. He let his hearers talk back." "The stories of Jesus stick in the mind like burrs." "He promised to make them ' fishers of men,' the only really ' big business ' in the world." THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York RELIGIOUS HAND BOOKS {New and Not Reprints) Each Sixty Cents THE NEW OPPORTUNITY OF THE CHURCH By ROBERT E. SPEER Preparing This vohime very suitably follows Dr. Speer's The Chris- tian Man, the Church, and the War, dealing as it does wit! the present responsibility of the Church. THE CHURCH FACING THE FUTURE Preparing By WILLIAM ADAMS BROWN Dr. Brown discusses four big questions : First, Where the War Found the Church ; second, What the Church did for the War; third, What the War did for the Church; and fourth. Where the War Leaves the Church. DEMOCRATIC CHRISTIANITY; SOME PROBLEMS OF THE CHURCH IN THE DAYS JUST AHEAD By FRANCIS J. McCONNELL " We have in mind the tasks of to-day as they confront the Christian Church," writes Bishop McConnell. GOD'S RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WAR By EDWARD S. DROWN Dr. Drown discusses this very interesting question in terse and vigorous prose. THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CRUSADE By LYiMAN ABBOTT Written by one who has an exultant faith that never in the history of the past has there been so splendid a demonstra- tion of the extent and power of the Christ spirit as to-day. THE WAY TO LIFE By HENRY CHURCHILL KING A discussion of the Sermon on the ^Mount, similar to that in Dr. King's former book The Ethics of Jesus. Besides re- writing them, he has added material on the war and the teachings of Jesus. THE CHRISTIAN MAN, THE CHURCH AND THE WAR By ROBERT E. SPEER Dr. Speer here discusses the essentials of a problem which has exercised Christian men since the beginning of the war. He deals with it sanely and in a manner that will be consid- ered distinctly helpful. NEW HORIZON OF STATE AND CHURCH , By W. H. p. FAUNCE " Broad, profound scholarship, close relationship with pro- gressive sentiment all over the land, and unusual powers of keen analysis and graphic statement are forceful elements in The Neiv Horizon of State and Church." — Philadelphia North American. • THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York IIP BS2420.H751 Jesus and the young man of today Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 00075 0267 Hi I ...i 'l'. ,,!,!«