11 
 
 \ii^fwy^i:}il:\,!:M-^(^S:mimMii^ 
 
 salms of the Social Life 
 BCleland B. McAfee 
 
BS 1430 .Mi5 1917 
 McAfee, Cleland Boyd, 1866 
 1944 . 
 
 Psalms of the social life 
 
y 
 
 EVERYDAY LIFE SERIES " ^ ^^ ^^'^^^]^ 
 
 / 
 
 Psalms of the Social Life 
 
 CLELAND BOYD McAFEE 
 
 Author of "The Greatest English Classic,'* 
 *' Mosaic Law in Modern Life,'' Etc. 
 
 124 East 28th Street, New York 
 1917 
 
EVERYDAY LIFE SERIES 
 
 The Christian According to Paul: John T. Paris 
 Psalms of the Social Life : Cleland B. McAfee 
 The Many Sided David : Philip E. Howard 
 Meeting the Master: Ozora S. Davis 
 Under the Highest Leadership: John Douglas Adam 
 * Other volumes to be announced later. 
 
 Copyright, 1916, by 
 
 The International Committee of 
 
 Young Men's Christian Associations 
 
 The Bible Text used In this volume is taken- from the American Standard 
 Edition of the Revised Bible, copyright, 1901, by Thomas Nelson & Sons, and 
 is used by permission. 
 
: CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. The Songs of a Thousand Years i 
 
 JI. The Solitary Mood i6 
 
 III. The Personal Mood 29 
 
 IV. Self in the Social Group 42 
 
 V. Self Against the Social Group 55 
 
 VI. Self for the Social Group 70 
 
 VII. The Challenge of the Social Order 84 
 
 VIII. The Group within the Social Order 97 
 
 IX. God in the Social Order iii 
 
 X. Sin and the Social Order 126 
 
 XI. The Spirit of Praise Within -the Social Order 141 
 
 XII. The Spirit of Prayer in the Social Order. . . 156 
 
 XIII. The Forecast of a Future Social Order 171 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 The Songs of a Thousand Years 
 
 The book of the Psalms is the best known book in the 
 Bible. That is because it is the most complete expression 
 of human life in literature. It ranges all moods. No man 
 can seek the expression of any mood without finding terms 
 for it here. From the depths of despair he can cry for help; 
 in rage at injustice, in the pain of betrayal by friends, in 
 doubt of God's goodness, in assurance of his unfailing love, 
 feeling himself wrong or wronged, seeing the world as going 
 to ruin or seeing it as working out a plan of good, wanting 
 inspiration to serve his fellowmen better or wanting refuge 
 from their demands, fearing the future or hoping for it, in 
 depression or in exultation-^whatever mood any man cares 
 to express is here. Calvin says : "All griefs, sorrows, fears, 
 doubts, hopes, cares, and anxieties, in short all those tumultu- 
 ous agitations wherewith the minds of men are wont to be 
 tossed — the Holy Spirit hath here represented to the life." 
 It is a literature of insight. 
 
 DAILY READINGS 
 
 First Week, First Day 
 
 Bless Jehovah, O my soul; 
 
 And all that is within me, bless his holy name. 
 
 Bless Jehovah, O my soul. 
 
 And forget not all his benefits: 
 
 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; 
 
 Who healeth all thy diseases; 
 
 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; 
 
 Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender 
 
 mercies; 
 Who satisfieth thy desire with good things. 
 So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle. 
 Jehovah executeth righteous acts, 
 And judgments for all that are oppressed. 
 
 — Psalm 103: 1-6. 
 
[1-2] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 This is a psalm in the mood of personal exultation. It is 
 a mood not brought about by absence of disturbing condi- 
 tions. Anybody can be exuUant when there is no reason for 
 being otherwise. This mood is caused by becoming sure of 
 the goodness that is in the world and in personal life be- 
 cause God is good. A laconic man was asked what is the 
 chief requisite for making a pessimist, and he answered, "A 
 poor memory," It takes a deal of forgetting to feel forsaken 
 in the world. The popular song about counting our blessings 
 suggests how impossible it is to do so. Imagine naming them 
 "one by one"! We may not be able to Hst them in just the 
 terms of this psalm, we may not have had these experiences 
 at all; but the habit of tracing the blessings of life to their 
 first cause in God is the best way of making this mood of 
 personal exultation permanent. There are men who have 
 a sense of eternal youth, feeling their power renewed con- 
 stantly like the eagle, which every year, as this psalmist 
 watched him, gained new plumage for his wings in place of 
 the old. And such joy deepens when it is made social and 
 we come to see that God's care covers all who need him, that 
 he has no favorites, that he does injustice to no one. We 
 say that misery loves company; it is not always true. But 
 is it not always true that joy loves company? Is our mood 
 ever worthy until we want the world to have such blessings 
 as we have ourselves? 
 
 First Week, Second Day 
 
 Praise ye Jehovah. 
 
 Praise, O ye servants of Jehovah, 
 
 Praise the name of Jehovah. 
 
 Blessed be the name of Jehovah 
 
 From this time forth and for evermore. 
 
 From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the 
 
 same 
 Jehovah's name is to be praised. 
 Jehovah is high above all nations, 
 And his glory above the heavens. 
 Who is like unto Jehovah our God, 
 That hath his seat on high, 
 That humbleth himself to behold 
 The things that are in heaven and in the earth? 
 
 — Psalm 113: 1-6. 
 
THE SONGS OF A THOUSAND YEARS [I-3] 
 
 This is an instance of the mood of national exultation 
 like many other psalms. Notice the change of pronouns. 
 Yesterday they were all singular number, though extending 
 at the last to all who have similar experiences. Today they 
 are plural. It is a social mood, in which the whole body of 
 the servants of God is included. It is a wide mood also, 
 covering all times and places : from the farthest east where 
 the sun rises, to the farthest west where it sets, there is 
 cause to praise God. The whole world looks bright in such 
 a mood. It is good to be alive. And it is impossible to be 
 narrow at such a time. One cannot, claim God or his bless- 
 ings as special possessions in which others cannot share. 
 God is above all nations. His gifts are for all of them. 
 Yet he is not so high that he is not also near. Some of the 
 great people whom we know are as haughty as they are 
 great. God's greatness is humble also. We are always in 
 danger of going to one extreme or the other about God. 
 Sometimes we make him so great and far away that we 
 cannot love him.. Sometimes we make him so near that 
 we cannot worship him. He becomes so much the king that 
 he is not the world's burden bearer ; or else he becomes so 
 much the burden bearer that he is no longer king. The 
 national thought needs to be kept between the two extremes. 
 But if the social mood is to recognize his true place, it must 
 first be recognized in the personal mood of each of us. 
 
 First Week, Third Day 
 
 Be merciful unto me, O Lord; 
 
 For unto thee do I cry all the day long. 
 
 Rejoice the soul of thy servant; 
 
 For unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. . . . 
 
 O God, the proud are risen up against me, 
 
 And a company of violent men have sought after my 
 
 soul, . . . 
 Show me a token for good. 
 
 That they who hate me may see it, and be put to shame. 
 Because thou, Jehovah, hast helped me, and comforted me. 
 
 — Psalm 86:3, 4, 14, 17. 
 
 Today the mood is one of personal depression. Most of 
 ■us know the mood. And the first thing to do when it comes 
 is to find out what caused it. Sometimes it is purely phys- 
 
[1-4] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 ical, an overstrain which can be made good by sleep or rest; 
 the world looks better through rested eyes. At other times 
 the mood of depression is caused by something wrong in 
 the life, and there is no cure for it except in diversion, 
 which is cowardly, or in correction. There are bad hours 
 which we have a chance to turn into good ones by being 
 honest with ourselves and putting the disturbing element 
 out of our lives. We only fix ourselves in unworthy ways 
 when we try to change the current of our thought in order 
 to be happy while we keep the wrong. Only a clean life can 
 be permanently a happy one. In the case of this psalm the 
 cause of the depression is in the social environment. The 
 man feels himself out of harmony with it. In a university 
 paper of 1916 was the declaration that on the campus which 
 it represented it was not considered altogether good form 
 to be clean in mouth and life. That was an exaggeration, 
 but most men know that it is hard to be one's best self 
 under some familiar social conditions. The cure for the 
 depression that comes is in keeping alive one's sense of the 
 larger environment where God is the ruling factor. We 
 belong to our social group, but above and beyond that we 
 belong to God. 
 
 First Week, Fourth Day 
 
 How long, O Jehovah? wilt thou be angry for ever? 
 
 Shall thy jealousy burn like fire? 
 
 Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not. 
 
 And upon the kingdoms that call not upon thy name. 
 
 For they have devoured Jacob, 
 
 And laid waste his habitation. 
 
 Remember not against us the iniquities of our forefathers: 
 
 Let thy tender mercies speedily meet us; 
 
 For we are brought very low. 
 
 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy 
 
 name; 
 And deliver us, and forgive our sins, for thy name's sake. 
 Wherefore should the nations say, Where is their God? 
 Let the avenging of the blood of thy servants which is 
 
 shed 
 Be known among the nations in our sight. 
 
 — Psalm 79:5-10. 
 
 Plainly we have here the mood of national depression. 
 
 4 
 
THE SONGS OF A THOUSAND YEARS [I-5] 
 
 The whole social group which means most to one seems to 
 be awry. It may be one's fraternity which is running down 
 in caliber and conduct or is being unfairly treated. It may 
 be a whole campus spirit that is changing for the worse, 
 losses of leading men in faculty or student body whose 
 going will take strength out of the institution which it can- 
 not well spare, unjust treatment in intercollegiate relations. 
 Or it may be a community losing its fiber, or a nation going 
 mad after wrong things or imperiled by enemies which it 
 seems unable to resist. Men who keep in right relation to 
 their own social groups will understand the mood. Thought- 
 ful men feel it even more keenly than personal depression. 
 But note the moral cleanness of it. The first thought is of 
 the presence of causes within the group itself. Iniquities 
 cannot be disregarded in a moral order. Honest men do 
 not want them overlooked. If the nation has sinned, if the 
 college has been unfair, if the fraternity has taken an unfair 
 advantage, clean men do not want the moral order to act as 
 though that were not so. But when fair requital has been 
 made, they want relief and victory again. And the reason 
 they want it is not selfish but moral. God and the large 
 values involved in relation to him are concerned in the out- 
 come. It is a great thing when we keep our social group 
 so right that we can ask for its prosperity for the honor of 
 God and when our depression over its failure is rooted in 
 our feeling that moral issues are being confused. We may 
 not personally amount to much, but God amounts to a vast 
 deal. 
 
 First Week, Fifth Day 
 
 Mine eye wasteth away by reason of affliction: 
 
 I have called daily upon thee, O Jehovah; 
 
 I have spread forth my hands unto thee. 
 
 Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? 
 
 Shall they that are deceased arise and praise thee? 
 
 Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? 
 
 Or thy faithfulness in Destruction? 
 
 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? 
 
 And thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 
 
 — Psalm 88: 9-12. 
 
 Here is a mood in which dread of tJie future predo^ninates. 
 
 5 
 
[1-6] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 It is not sudden, but has evidently been with the writer a 
 long time. He has tried to throw it off but it will not go. 
 Nothing changes the situation. He has prayed day by day^ 
 but the case grows worse instead of better, 'Ahead, every- 
 thing is dark. There was no help for him in the Christian 
 idea of the future, which is such that Professor William 
 Adams Brown can call his book on the subject, "The Chris- 
 tian Hope." Christ had not yet brought life and immortality 
 to light (H Tim. i : lo), and it was not possible yet to be 
 so triumphant as Paul and to say that whether we wake or 
 sleep we live with Christ (I Thess. 5:10). But there are 
 times even for us who have all that richer hope when it 
 grows dim. There are interests of this life which we want 
 to serve. An old Christian leader used to be asked if he was 
 not eager to go to heaven, and he frankly replied that he 
 was not, because there was so much yet to be done and seen 
 here in the earth. God surely means us to want to be 
 ht^re and to do our bit m the work of the world. Prospect 
 of not being able to do it, threat of failing health or 
 powers, hindrances which we cannot control, come over us 
 like a shadow of gloom. It is hard to keep up courage. 
 Calvin thinks the mood of this psalm is inexcusable because 
 we must leave all such things to God, letting him take us 
 or leave us as he thinks best. That latter part is true and 
 yet he must understand the feeling of dread that can come 
 over us. What we need to do is to keep it clear to our- 
 selves that the reason we want a better future is for the 
 sake of the service we can render, not for mere selfish 
 pleasure. It is by that path that God leads us out into 
 renewed courage. 
 
 First Week, Sixth Day 
 
 All thy works shall give thanks unto thee, O Jehovah; 
 And thy saints shall bless thee. 
 They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, 
 And talk of thy power; 
 
 To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, 
 And the glory of the majesty of his kingdom. 
 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, 
 And thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. 
 
 — Psalm 145:10-13. 
 
 Here the dominating mood is of hope for the future^ 
 
 6 
 
THE SONGS OF A THOUSAND YEARS [I-7] 
 
 specially hope for the social order, the kingdom of God in 
 the earth. Though the whole book of Psalms is called a 
 book of praise by its Hebrew name, this is the only psalm 
 which is expressly called one of praise in its title. It had 
 a notable place in Hebrew thought. In the Talmud it is said 
 that every one who repeats this psalm thrice a day may be 
 sure that he is a child of the world to come. It gives two 
 reasons : first, because the psalm is alphabetical and there- 
 fore covers the whole range of human language ; and 
 secondly, because the psalm celebrates God's care for all his 
 creatures. But actually the psalm has no magic, except in 
 its expressing the confidence which we have the right to 
 feel about the future. Everything ahead looks bright in this 
 mood. Tasks may be difficult, but there will be power for 
 them when it is needed. Evil forces may seem dominant 
 for a time, but it is only seeming. The real conquering 
 forces of the social order belong to God and they are at 
 work in the world. That is the tone of the psalm. 
 
 It is characteristic of this mood, as of every mood of joy, 
 that we want to pass it on to others ; we want to tell the 
 story of the cause of it. Ruskin speaks of the peculiarity 
 of a great truth, that when one really becomes aware of it 
 he feels an irresistible desire to tell other people about it. 
 When once we have seen the glory of a kingdom set up in 
 this world that is on its way to conquest, we do not treat it 
 as a secret but as a bit of the best news. The social order 
 is not doomed except as it is bad. A good social order is 
 on the way. We are sure of it because we are sure of God. 
 We call it a social order; it is his kingdom. 
 
 First Week, Seventh Day 
 
 Jehovah is my strength and song; 
 
 And he is becomte my salvation. 
 
 The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the 
 
 righteous: 
 The right hand of Jehovah doeth valiantly. 
 The right hand of Jehovah is exalted: 
 The right hand of Jehovah doeth valiantly. . . . 
 Thou art my God, and I will give thanks unto thee: 
 Thou art my God, I will exalt thee. 
 Oh give thanks unto Jehovah; for he is good; 
 For his lovingkindness endureth for ever. 
 
 — Psalm 118: 14-16, 28, 29. 
 
ll-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 Here all the moods of the week blend in a strong assur- 
 ance of the fellowship between God and men. It is right 
 to think of God, not merely in terms of the universe but 
 in terms of human life and need. If we read Tennyson's 
 "Higher Pantheism" in the light of his other writing we have 
 no fear of saying : 
 "The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills and the 
 
 plains — 
 Are not these, O Soul, the Vision of Him who reigns? 
 
 Speak to Him thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can 
 
 meet — 
 Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. 
 
 God is law, say the wise; O Soul, and let us rejoice, 
 For if He thunder by law the thunder is yet His voice. 
 
 Law is God, say some ; no God at all, says the fool, 
 
 For all we have power to see is a straight staff bent in a pool. 
 
 And the ear of man cannot hear, and the eye of man cannot 
 
 see ; 
 But if we could see and hear, this Vision — were it not He?" 
 
 God is not the universe, yet the whole universe helps us to 
 know him and to know that we are of concern to him. 
 Notice the four great needs which he supplies constantly in 
 human life. He brings strength when men face the big tasks 
 of life or the long pull at the commonplace tasks; he brings 
 cheer when men are depressed or heavy hearted, teaching 
 •them to sing instead of sigh; he guides men in their search 
 for truth and away from the paths of falsehood, giving 
 them a life law by which they may walk; he brings to men 
 salvation when there settles down on them the sense of loss 
 and ruin, when moral or social forces t^o strong for them 
 seem to have them in their grip. All this God is in his 
 fellowship with men. 
 
 COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 
 
 The psalms were born out of the actual life of men and 
 were meant to be used in that life. Historical events sug- 
 gested most of them, though few can be definitely located. 
 The songs themselves came out of hearts that burned in 
 
THE SONGS OF A THOUSAND YEARS [I-c] 
 
 the presence of evenly. Professor McFadyen speaks of the 
 genius the Hebrews had "for. seeing the universal in the 
 particular." They had that genius, but it does not preclude 
 their having wrought these songs t»ut with pain and effort. 
 It is a mistaken idea that inspiration is a substitute for work. 
 Rather, it is an impetus to work. The Talmud says "a 
 cithern used to hang above David's bed ; and when midnight 
 came, the north wind blew among the strings, so that they 
 sounded of. themselves ; and forthwith he arose and busied 
 himself with the Torah — the law — until the pillar of dawn 
 ascended." So it' tries to impress that his songs are the 
 fruit of toil. These psalms are inspired ; they show it in 
 the fact that only so could their writers have deak so 
 soundly and completely with human life. They came out of 
 an earlier period, but they fit all periods. 
 
 The psalms fit all periods in passing by the merely inci- 
 dental, and getting down to the abiding elements in a condi- 
 tion. "Personal religion is the same in all ages," as Fred- 
 erick W. Robertson said ; "the deeps of our humanity remain 
 unruffled by the storms that change the' surface." The 51st 
 psalm, "written 3000 years ago, might have been w^ritten 
 yesterda}' — describes the vicissitudes of spiritual life in an 
 Englishman as truly as in a Jew." That is characteristic of 
 great thinking. You have heard two men discussing an inci- 
 dent or a problem of common life. One handles it by little 
 details, sees it as an isolated event, without roots in any 
 larger condition ; the other deals with it on principle and 
 finds the roots of it in wider phases of life. The method of 
 one is to take a case at a time and devise means of correcting 
 a wrong here and a failure there ; the method of the other 
 is to get at the causes and deal with a single situation as 
 part of a whole. Politicians arc always concerned to get 
 around this or that obstacle ; statesmen are concerned to get 
 principles of national life into action. The psalms take the 
 wide view, without missing any of the value of the narrow 
 view. Recent years have emphasized the importance of the 
 historical elements and background of Scripture, but the 
 value of the psalms depends less upon their dates than 
 does that of other parts of the Bible, because, while they 
 
[I-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 doubtless rose out of particular historical events and some 
 of their details would be best understood in the light of these 
 events, yet they go far deeper than any events in their mean^ 
 ing. Mrs. Browning says that poets are the only truthtellers 
 left to God, by which she meant simply that they get down 
 under the mere accidents of events to their meaning, which 
 is always permanent. The death of Arthur Hallam was the 
 occasion for writing "In Memoriam," but the application of 
 the poem covers far more than that event. A shepherd boy 
 might have written the 23rd psalm, but what he wrote covers 
 a far wider field than a shepherd's life. The 133rd psalm may 
 have been written to celebrate the coronation of David, but it 
 meaijs a far larger thing than the coming together of divided 
 tribes. 
 
 This is one of the reasons why the psalms have such great 
 social value. The social order with which the writers were 
 familiar was widely different from our own. The enemies 
 which they had to meet were not like ours. And it is notable 
 that the particular enemies who may have been in mind are 
 never named. Who were the oppressors (59:1-4), and who 
 were the scoffers who sneered at distress (22:6, 7), and 
 who was the familiar friend who betrayed (41:9; 55:12, 
 13), are purely matters of detail. We have no way of find- 
 ing out at this distance. These men are not concerned over 
 petty troubles ; they are thinking in terms of principles. The 
 name of the man who betrayed them is not important ; the 
 thing that counts is that friendship is betrayed, that fraternity 
 brothers throw one down, that fellow church members turn 
 one out. That is no matter of one time or another ; it is 
 a matter of any time. It does not make much difference 
 who sneers at an honest effort to stand up for what one 
 thinks is right (123:3, 4) ; it is the fact of being sneered at 
 that counts. Whether it is a pious man toiling toward Jeru- 
 salem on a pilgrimage, or a young fellow taking a stand 
 against some bad campus custom and being laughed at for 
 it, or a girl practicing her religion in a group that laughs 
 at religion, is only a matter of detail; the thing is the same at 
 the heart of it. The same pluck, the same courage, the 
 same renewal of purpose by keeping God in mind, must get 
 into each case. As Kenyon Cox says about art : "To paint a 
 simple, everyday occurrence, a part of the routine of life, 
 and by one's treatment of it to reveal its deeper implications, 
 
 10 
 
THE SONGS OF A THOUSAND Y£ARS [I-c] 
 
 and to make manifest the dignity and romance of the life of 
 which it forms a part — that is what Millet did for the tillers 
 of the soil and what Winslow Homer does for the fisherman 
 and the sailor." The psalmists do it for all the moods of 
 life. 
 
 So with all national interests. Great national events always 
 tend to start men singing or praying, and the psalms are both 
 songs and prayers. A war brings victory and songs or 
 .defeat and prayer. Both imply a deepened sense of soli- 
 darity, a stronger feeling of need for God and for one's fel- 
 lows. Early in the European war the story was told of the 
 word of a farm toiler in England that he had changed all 
 his thought of his employer since the lads of both of them 
 went to war, because the employer had seemed so much more 
 kind and human. People always draw together in great 
 joy or in great sorrow. The deeper emotions are social. 
 This would be magnified in the case of a people like the 
 Hebrews to whom "the religious unit has been not the indi- 
 vidual but the nation." Many psalms which are in per- 
 sonal terms are quite certainly meant nationally. The writers 
 felt for the whole nation. What it suffered, they seemed to 
 suffer. When it conquered, their hearts swelled. They be- 
 came identified with their social group. 
 
 No amount of personal exultation can take the place of 
 that social sense. No man has gotten out of his college 
 training what it could have given him if he has not learned 
 to think of himself as an element in a much larger whole, 
 and to feel pain and joy which strike the whole of which 
 he is part. Being comfortable or being disturbed just on 
 one's own account is natural enough, but never worth}^ for 
 long at a time. No wonder a jreligion of service and sacri- 
 fice like the one we profess has laid such firm hold on these 
 songs. The Church could dispense with its gospels almost 
 as easily as with the psalms. 
 
 II 
 
 The psalms are true to life in that few of them are domi- 
 nated throughout by any one mood. Mountains and valleys, 
 heights and depths, are on the same landscape of the soul. 
 We move on the same level, high or low, for only short 
 journeys. When we say of a man that he is always on the 
 
 II 
 
[I-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 heights, always joyous, always cheerful, we are saying 
 either a very poor or a very fine thing of him. It is very 
 poor if he is the kind of man who persists in throwing off 
 trouble or difficulty and takes the bright, easy way all the 
 while. The philosophy of life that refuses to admit the 
 presence of things that disturb is not valuable enough to 
 make one a helpful factor in real life. But we say a fine 
 thing if by it we mean that the man has schooled himself to 
 face fairly and yet bravely anything that comes, knowing 
 that only so can he serve the need of the world. That is, a 
 man can shut his e3^es and be cheerful, which is cheap ; or 
 he can open his eyes and be sure of God and so be cheer- 
 ful, which is courageous. With most men moods are recur- 
 rent as they are in the psalms. Moods of confidence and 
 depression, of trust and of question, of assurance and doubt, 
 come one after the other there just as they do in life. 
 
 In some of them the same mood is recurrent. In the 42nd 
 and 43rd psalms, originally one, there is a refrain, "Why art 
 thou cast down, O my soul? Hope thou in God." It comes 
 not once but three times. The writer's spirit rose, but the 
 old gloom settled down again on him. The man has a 
 peculiar temperament who does not know what that means. 
 Psychologists have a term for it — perseveration, the tendency 
 of a particular phrase or melody to persist in the mind or for 
 a mood to reassert itself in spite of efforts to throw it off. 
 The books generally say that such perseveration is strongest 
 in the feeble-minded, but it appears often in times when a 
 strong mind is jaded. Heroic efforts to cast it off are suc- 
 cessful for a time ; change of mental direction, introduction 
 of a new line of thought, will help. But sometimes it 
 recurs in spite of such effort. There is no corrective, except 
 a powerful corrective thought on which the mind can dwell, 
 as in these two psalms. Perowne says that the 90th psalm is 
 like the pillar which led Israel through the desert — it is both 
 dark and light. Its darkness comes from looking at men ; its 
 light from looking at God. So it is with the psalms that fore- 
 tell a Messiah ; some of their expressions are of the mood 
 which applies to Christ, others are impossible of that appHca- 
 tion. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Two dominating lines in the psalms are those of assurance 
 
 12 
 
 I 
 
THE SONGS OF A THOUSAND YEARS [I-c] 
 
 of God and of the social group and order. The two unite 
 in the sense of God's law as the final social bond. Society 
 is not a human device or a whim of men. It is part of the 
 plan of God (68:6) and he is concerned with the affairs of 
 men. The longest psalm (119) has the peculiarity that with- 
 out exception — unless possibly vs. 121, 122 — each verse refers 
 in some term to the law or the will of God, claiming per- 
 sonal allegiance to it or promising obedience to it, and 
 basing every word of hope on it. Several of the verses 
 may have national reference (119:23, 161) but many take 
 account of a social group of friends or foes. And the 
 general attitude toward that law is one of clear-cut devotion. 
 There is no dread of it nor wish to escape it. The writers 
 love it (119:97) and delight in it (119:16, 47). Their hope 
 of the social order is bound up in God and not in princes 
 or other men (118:8, 9), and all hope for prosperity is in 
 his blessing (106:4, 5)- They explain the movements of 
 history by the relation of the acts of men to the wall of God 
 (44:1-3; 78 and 106 throughout). As we shall have occa- 
 sion to see (Chapter XIII) there are few details of the new 
 social order given, but the broad lines of righteousness and 
 peace and prosperity make the psalms available and inspiring 
 for any man who wants to help toward the better order 
 which the Christian hope expects. 
 
 In the light of their utter truth to the human heart and 
 of their expression of its abiding moods, all disputing about 
 particular authors and occasions of writing must be kept 
 secondary. The psalms cover a thousand years of human 
 feeling and desire. Fragments, possibly one psalm entire 
 (90), come to us from the time before David, and several 
 from his own time, the eleventh century before Christ. The 
 latest show signs of the period after the exile and some 
 scholars think a few may have been written in the second 
 century before Christ. Those are important details for crit- 
 ical study of the book, but they have no direct bearing on 
 our purpose in this study. Here are the songs of a thou- 
 sand years, not issuing in a continuous current through that 
 whole period, but scattered down the way around certain 
 singing periods, as in the time of David, of Hezekiah, of the 
 return from the exile. For the most part they were prob- 
 ably collected for use in the temple described in Ezra 3, a 
 hymnbook for the services of instruction and worship. Like 
 
 13 
 
[I-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 all hymnbooks, there are many writers and many moods. 
 No one ought to condemn himself if he is not always ready 
 to respond to every psalm and the mood it expresses. There 
 are times for one hymn and times when it would be very 
 much out of place; yet the hymn is true to human need. 
 Life is too complex to be shut down to a few expressions. 
 This great song book has in it some songs which are only 
 once in a while needed, but at those times the songs must be 
 available or the book would fail a seeking spirit. 
 
 IV 
 
 Perhaps it is only fair to stop for a word about a group 
 of psalms which are sometimes said to have no place in 
 the Christian life. They are called the imprecatory psalms, 
 or psalms of cursing — all or part of psalms 35, 58, 59, 69, 83, 
 I09) '^?>7- Professor McFadyen gathers up the word of most 
 of the writers on the subject in reminding us of these four 
 facts about them : i. They are not the spiteful expression of 
 personal enmity. 2. It is the cause of God that is at stake; 
 the prayer is that God may be avenged rather than that any 
 personal injury be made good. 3. The men on whom the 
 curses are to fall are guilty of cruelty and immorality; they 
 are downright bad men, who slay the fatherless and widows 
 (94:6), not mere personal enemies with whom the writers 
 have fallen out. 4.. Confusion of such wicked men was a 
 necessary postulate of the writers' faith in God. If good 
 men were defeated and the wicked were to triumph without 
 interference, God would then be defeated, and these men 
 had a passion for the moral order. There could be no hope 
 for a sound social order if moral order was not maintained. 
 
 To this can be added the question whether it is not possible 
 to become soft in the effort to be sweet. Most of us do not 
 dare use the imprecatory element in the psalms because we 
 cannot trust our spirits. We grow personal and vindictive. 
 In so far as these psalms may have that element, they are 
 not Christian, and they may well be in the book as a revela- 
 tion of a human mood which is just as real as the best mood 
 of life. But that element need not be marked in them. It is 
 possible for a man to take such high, fine views of the moral 
 order that for the sake of bad men as well as good men 
 he can ask nothing better than its vindication. Even the 
 
 14 
 
THE SONGS OF A THOUSAND YEARS [I-c] 
 
 bitterest curse of all — "happy shall he be, that taketh and 
 dasheth thy little ones against the rock" (137:9) — is at its 
 worst only a return to cruel Babylon of the treatment which 
 it had itself given to others. It is no gratuitous curse. It is 
 a rough plea for the equalizing of the moral order. There is 
 no group of any character which does not have limits on the 
 kind of misconduct it will allow. Any of them will cut oflf 
 a member who persists in passing that limit. The moral order 
 must surely be as sound as that. There comes a time when 
 it must cut off men who persist in outraging it. 
 
 These psalms seem reasonable enough when certain evils 
 come to light. They get their meaning in the social order. 
 The badness of a bad deed is not confined to the man who 
 committed it. The whole group has to share it. As our 
 sense of social unity develops, we find it harder to be 
 patient with a man who wrongs the order and tries to be 
 blithe about it. It makes no possible difference to us per- 
 sonall3\ but it does make a difference to us morall3^ 
 
 But there is. not much of imprecation in the psalms. For 
 the most part they express the moods of men who live a 
 daily life of need and who mean to help where they can to 
 get God's will done, who feel themselves bound up with 
 other lives and look forward to the correction of all kinds 
 of social evils and the triumph of all right social purposes. 
 It is the study of some of these moods and of these social 
 factors as the}^ api^ear in these songs of a thousand years 
 that concerns us now. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER THOUGHT AND 
 
 STUDY 
 
 Study the psychology of the fact that all wars or similar 
 strains on the spirit of a nation bring certain songs into 
 popularity. What is the social meaning involved in it ? 
 
 Value of songs in teaching religious truth. Can you trace 
 the origin of the fundamental things you believe to direct 
 or to indirect teaching? How much have the hymns j^ou 
 have sung contributed to what you believe? 
 
 In your observation, is the attitude of men toward evil 
 conditions generally so vigorous as that of the writers of 
 these imprecatory psalms? 
 
 15 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 The Solitary Mood 
 
 DAILY READINGS 
 
 Second Week, First Day 
 
 I cry with my voice unto Jehovah; 
 
 With my voice unto Jehovah do I make supplication. 
 
 I pour out my complaint before him; 
 
 I show before him my trouble. 
 
 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, 
 
 Thou knewest my path. 
 
 In the way wherein I walk 
 
 Have they hidden a snare for me. 
 
 Look on my right hand and see; 
 
 For there is no man that knoweth me: 
 
 Refuge hath failed me; 
 
 No man careth for my soul. . . . 
 
 Bring my soul out of prison, 
 
 That I may give thanks unto thy name: 
 
 The righteous shall compass me about; 
 
 For thou wilt deal bountifully with me. 
 
 — Psalm 142:1-4, 7. 
 
 According to the heading of this psalm, it was written in 
 a cave at a time of great distress v/hen David was fleeing 
 from Saul. He felt himself utterly solitary. About the 
 hardest thing a man has to face is that he does not count 
 for anybody. Everybody wants to be of concern to some 
 other people, and it is a dark hour when a man feels that 
 no otie really cares what happens to him. It is even darker 
 when he has to admit that those who do think of him are 
 thinking more of themselves and what they can get out of 
 him. It is a bad mood, one in which it is necessary for us 
 to take ourselves firmly in hand. Even if the facts are as 
 they look to us, it is still true that we do count to God and 
 
 16 . 
 
THE SOLITARY MOOD [11-2] 
 
 that other people ought to count to us. Is it not possible 
 that some one near us is actually thinking this very same 
 thing about himself? If he is, it is our business to make 
 his thought a mistake by showing in our manner and spirit 
 that we care. The quickest cure for loneliness is the effort 
 to cure a case of it in some one else. 
 
 Second Week, Second Day 
 
 The sense of things lost out of life often makes for soli- 
 tariness. To waken one day to the fact that we are not so 
 fine as we used to be in spirit or in life, no matter how much 
 we have advanced in other ways, is depressing to us. This 
 42nd psalm came from a man who felt himself banished from 
 the things that had once meant most to him. Such a loss 
 may come from the fault of other people or it may be one's 
 own act. 
 
 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, 
 
 So panteth my soul after thee, O God. 
 
 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: 
 
 When shall I come and appear before God? 
 
 My tears have been my food day and night. 
 
 While they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? 
 
 These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me. 
 
 How I went with the throng, and led them to the house of 
 
 God, 
 With the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping holy 
 
 day. 
 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? 
 And why art thou disquieted within me? 
 Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him 
 For the help of his countenance. 
 
 —Psalm 42: 1-5. 
 
 Many a college senior, while he laughs at the crude enthu- 
 siasms of the freshman, knows down in his heart that he 
 has lost something good out of his life in the years of his 
 course.. He has made great gains, of course, but he has left 
 behind some values which he wishes he could recover. Think 
 over some of the better things that can be lost in college. 
 When the experiences of the past are finer than those of 
 the present, any of us must grow thoughtful about himself. 
 And it is all the more important when we find ourselves 
 
 17 
 
[II-3] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 among people without those memories, who are contemptu- 
 ous about our losses and make light of the higher level from 
 which we have slipped away. Of one fact we are never to 
 lose hold: it is always possible to face forward again by 
 facing upward. We can challenge our own souls to remember 
 that God still has high levels on which we are to walk ; the 
 future under his guidance is to be better than the past, no 
 matter zvhat the present may be. 
 
 Second Week, Third Day 
 
 Robert Browning wanted men to remember him as one 
 who had kept sure of God. Here are two experiences which 
 either shake one's assurance of God or deepen it: desertion 
 by those on whom one has depended, and the feeling of sus- 
 picion and falsehood in the atmosphere. The Arabs have a 
 saying : "God could not be everywhere, so He made mothers." 
 A better way is to say that God is everywhere and has made 
 mothers to keep us sure of it. Yet even these may fail, and 
 if not these, then others who have been our mainstay. The 
 men on whose cheer and encouragement we have depended 
 fail us ; they are busy or they are fallible ; but their failure 
 leaves us solitary. 
 
 When my father and my mother forsake me, 
 
 Then Jehovah will take me up. 
 
 Teach rrle thy way, O Jehovah; 
 
 And lead me in a plain path, 
 
 Because of mine enemies. 
 
 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine adversaries: 
 
 For false witnesses are risen up against me. 
 
 And such as breathe out cruelty. 
 
 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness 
 
 of Jehovah 
 In the land of the living. 
 Wait for Jehovah: 
 
 Be strong, and let thy heart take courage; 
 Yea, wait thou for Jehovah. 
 
 — Psalm 27:10-14. 
 
 Sometimes the loneliness deepens as we find the air charged 
 with suspicion; the very breath of men is cruel. What can 
 we do? M^e can keep going without fainting. That is the 
 
 18 
 
THE SOLITARY MOOD [II-4] 
 
 very knack of brave living. Waiting is hard, but we are 
 equal to it. Many things clear up with time and we can 
 hold stead}'' in the expectation of the ruling of God. Per- 
 haps Ave can learn to talk less about our troubles to other 
 people and more about them to God. This will help to make 
 us feel less solitary. 
 
 Second Week, Fourth Day 
 
 Oh how great is thy goodness, 
 
 Which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, 
 
 Which thou hast wrought for them that take refuge in 
 
 thee, 
 Before the sons of men! 
 In the covert of thy presence wilt thou hide them from 
 
 the plottings of man: 
 Thou wilt keep them secretly in a paviliooi from the strife 
 
 of tongues. 
 Blessed be Jehovah; 
 For he hath showed me his marvellous lovingkindness in 
 
 a strong city. 
 As for me, I said in my haste, 
 I am cut off from before thine eyes: 
 
 Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications, 
 When I cried unto thee. 
 
 — Psalm 31 : 19-22. 
 
 That is characteristic of moods of depression : they tend 
 to hasty judgments, to sweeping generalizations of evil. The 
 writer of the ii6th psalm said in his haste that all men are 
 liars. In our cooler, clearer moods we know that we are 
 not cut off from before God's eyes and that all men are not 
 liars. When we are depressed, downcast, solitary, we look 
 out badly on the world. At such times we need to guard 
 our judgments with special care. After a defeat in debate 
 or a failure of any sort we are not to allow ourselves to 
 form sweepingly adverse opinions. Indeed, it is important 
 that any adverse judgment should be deliberate and long con- 
 sidered. The long view is the fair one. It shows the good- 
 ness of God. That is a striking figure in our passage for 
 the day which speaks of his goodness as "laid up" or stored 
 up in supply for them that fear him, but as "wrought" for 
 those who take refuge in him. God is willing to do a great 
 
 19 
 
[II-5] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 deal for us which he is given no chance to do. He does not 
 promise to keep us today from evil tongues, but to steady our 
 hearts. He may not give us friends at once, but he is sure 
 to be friendly to us himself. Whatever happens to us today, 
 let us see to it that we do not fall into pessimism and adverse 
 judgments about God and our fellov^ men. "God is not dis- 
 couraged," and we need not be. 
 
 Second Week, Fifth Day 
 
 Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: 
 
 Cast up a highw^ay for him that rideth through the deserts; 
 
 His name is Jehovah; and exult ye before him. 
 
 A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, 
 
 Is God in his holy habitation. 
 
 God setteth the solitary in families: 
 
 He bringeth out the prisoners into prosperity; 
 
 But the rebellious dwell in a parched land. 
 
 — Psalm 68: 4-6. 
 
 This is a bit from a long psalm which it would do us good 
 to read throughout. It moves through many moods from 
 the heights to the depths. The keynote of this little bit 
 and of much else in the psalm is that verse about God setting 
 the solitary in families. The social group is God's plan, not 
 a mere human device. No man can get into the world 
 except in a social group of at least three — himself, his father, 
 and his mother. In this deepest biological sense the soli- 
 tary are set in families. No man of us has been able to get 
 on as far as we have in life except by the cooperation of 
 social forces. We may feel solitar}^, but we actually are not 
 solitary or we could not exist. God does not mean any man 
 to remain in the solitary mood. He is to find his group. 
 Even in the desert he is to help cast up a highway for God. 
 But highways always mean a social order. Where there are 
 few people the roads are poor ; as people increase roads 
 improve. Fine highways m.ean deepening social conscious- 
 ness. 
 
 It takes the group to get anything done. Chronic rebels 
 always dwell in parched places. Sometimes we pride our- 
 selves on being able to criticize social movements and not 
 being caught in mistaken plans. The fact is we had better 
 be fooled a hundred times than fail to take our places in 
 
 20 
 
THE SOLITARY MOOD [II-6] 
 
 the social order which needs us. Pride in the solitary mood 
 is a far worse mistake than occurs in any social plan. God 
 means us today to get into the movements that belong to 
 our group, curing our solitariness by our service of the 
 whole. Have we the grit to do it, tin spite of our mood? 
 
 Second Week, Sixth Day 
 
 My soul, wait thou in silence ^or God only; 
 
 For my expectation is from him. 
 
 He only is my rock and my salvation: 
 
 He is my high tower; I shall not be moved. 
 
 With God is my salvation and my glory: 
 
 The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. 
 
 Trust in him at all times, ye people; 
 
 Pour out your heart before him: 
 
 God is a refuge for us. 
 
 — Psalm 62 : 5-8. 
 
 Here again is that difficult duty of waiting, only this time 
 it is to be -waiting in silence. Yesterday was the plea to 
 get into the task and do our share. There come times when 
 we cannot do it, though the fault is not our own. We simply 
 have to wait. Some of us realize this only when we are 
 laid aside by sickness or when things get so complicated that 
 there is no end by which we can lay hold to untangle them. 
 It is well for us to remember that there are some people 
 whose whole lives are lived under just such limitations. The 
 deepest dark of the solitary mood often is that nothing better 
 seems in prospect. If there were something to look for- 
 ward to — ! But far as we can see it all looks the same. 
 Most business moves forward on "expectations." So do most 
 lives. When expectation fails, it takes hard thinking to keep 
 courage up. 
 
 After all, one of the surest cures for solitariness of a bad 
 sort is getting a sense of bigger and more abiding realities 
 than men can furnish. Napoleon said to his generals, "I 
 beg you, gentlemen, plan by larger maps." Here at hand 
 is the cure for much loneliness. God .furnishes the larger 
 environment of the soul. When we can do the thing that 
 needs to be done, we ought to do it, but when we have to 
 wait, it is not for common human forces to work out their 
 result, it is for God. "The battle is not yours but Jehovah's." 
 
 21 
 
[11-7] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 The only thing that at the last insures stability for the soul^ 
 so that it is not moved, is its finding God a tower. 
 
 Second Week, Seventh Day 
 
 I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains: 
 
 From whence shall my help come? 
 
 My help cometh from Jehovah, 
 
 Who made heaven and earth. 
 
 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: 
 
 He that keepeth thee will not slumber. 
 
 Behold, he that keepeth Israel 
 
 Will neither slumber nor sleep. 
 
 Jehovah is thy keeper: 
 
 Jehovah is thy shade upon thy right hand. 
 
 The sun shall not smite thee by day. 
 
 Nor the moon by night. 
 
 Jehovah will keep thee from all evil; 
 
 He will keep thy soul. 
 
 Jehovah will keep thy going out and thy coming in 
 
 From this time forth and for evermore. 
 
 — Psalm 121. 
 
 This is about the pluckiest psalm in the whole collection. 
 Notice the verbs — only one in the past tense, the one that 
 tells that God "made heaven and earth." All the rest are 
 present (five) or future (nine). It closes with the farthest 
 possible look into the future and an exultant assurance 
 of what will be true then. The man who wrote it was not 
 holding steady because of what God had already done, but 
 because of what he was sure God was doing for him at 
 that moment and what he was sure God would be doing 
 for him at the next moment. The argument from the past 
 is a strong one, but it does not take the place of these other 
 assurances. We want the kind of thing that helps us today 
 and will help us tomorrow when we meet conditions which 
 we cannot foresee. We need a "present help" (46:1), One 
 who is "nigh unto all them that call upon him" (145:18; 
 Deut. 4:7). 
 
 This assurance helps to hold us steady in complicated 
 experiences. No man on the basis of sheer personal expe- 
 rience can say that he knows that all things work together 
 for good to them that love God (Rom. 8:28) ; yet we can 
 all claim the right to say it. We know it on broader grounds 
 
 22 
 
THE SOLITARY MOOD [II-c] 
 
 than our little narrow experience ; we know it in the nature 
 of the case. Such -a God as the Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ can be trusted never to sleep and never to let the 
 forces of the. universe ruin those who give themselves to him. 
 
 COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 
 
 The solitary mood is not always a bad one, nor one to be 
 too quickly escaped. In so far as it is merely being alone 
 it may have its large values. There are lessons of life that 
 are best learned in the solitary places. Moses met God in 
 the desert and there received his commission to deliver 
 Israel. Jesus went into desert places several times during 
 his ministry for the renewal of the relations with God which 
 were so necessary in his life. Paul went to Arabia after his 
 conversion to get his new point of view cleared and to adjust 
 his thinking to it more fully. It was on the island of Patmos 
 that John had his vision. We are to be pitied when we 
 cannot bear to be alone. Sometimes God cannot get at us 
 because of the throng of men. We have to be still to know 
 that he is God (46:10). 
 
 But a set mood of solitariness is not good. If it is forced 
 on us and we feel alone because nothing else is permitted 
 us, that is depressing. If we choose it and are solitary 
 because we have come to like it. that is bad, for it is taking 
 us from the place in the social group which is certainly in 
 God's plan for us. We are not meant to be solitary, even if 
 zve want to be. And we are not meant to be solitary even if 
 we feel we cannot help being so. There are causes of the 
 mood and cures of it. 
 
 Solitariness itself is a sense of isolation from the group 
 with a longing for admission to it. It is a sense of lack of 
 fellowship, a feeling of unimportance. Sometimes we rebel 
 over it, blaming others for neglect and indifference, leading 
 us to self-pity, one of our least worthy emotions. And 
 sometimes we count it entirely right that we should be left 
 out, finding the cause in our own deficiencies and failures, 
 leading us to self-depreciation, which makes any appeal to us 
 for effective service peculiarly difficult. Either of those 
 
 23 
 
[II-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 reactions on the mood of solitariness is bad. The desire to 
 be worth while is inherent. Something is wrong when we 
 come to feel that we are nobody in particular. One of the 
 psalmists spoke of himself as being "forgotten as a dead 
 man out of mind" (31 : 12). Walking around among men 
 and feeling that way is solitariness of a bad sort. Fellow- 
 ship is our duty as well as our right. There ought to be 
 something in the social group that calls for us or else some- 
 thing in ourselves that challenges the group to let us in. 
 Being on a college campus and not being in the college life 
 argues fault somewhere. Being in a church with no sense 
 of unity with it proves that somebody is wrong. We are 
 socially constructed, and we can no more take our place in 
 life, indifferent to that fact, than we could take our place 
 as one-handed men when we have two hands, or as tongue- 
 less men when we can speak. 
 
 The cause may not lie in ourselves but in the failure of 
 others. The 41st psalm and the 55th both tell the story of 
 the depression that came to the writer when he found him- 
 self deserted by his "own familiar friend," in whom he 
 had trusted, who had eaten his bread and now had "lifted 
 his heel" against him — as though a college student should 
 find that his own fraternity or his special crowd had played 
 him false or were throwing him down in some important 
 matter. He would feel cut off from all that was familiar 
 to him. The whole experience would challenge the best in 
 him to hold steady and fair minded. 
 
 The mood of solitariness is often deepened b}^ memory. 
 Soldiers in foreign service sometimes die of nostalgia, which 
 is not some mysterious disease but simply plain, old fashioned 
 homesickness. There are other soldiers around, there are 
 things to read and- games to play, but there is nothing to 
 keep memory from tugging at the heart. College students 
 know what it means to feel that one simply must go home 
 again for very loneliness. The drudgery of the present task 
 makes the former pleasures seem doubly attractive. The 
 writer of the 42nd psalm remembered how he went with the 
 throng and led them to the house of God, with the voice of 
 joy and praise, a multitude keeping holydaj^, and it made him 
 pour out his heart within him. Another writer (143:5) 
 remembered the days of old without so deep a pain of 
 contrast, but still with a feeling of change which troubled 
 
 24 
 
THE SOLITARY MOOD [II-c] 
 
 him; while a third {77 '. S^ lo. n) found in his memory a 
 ground of reassurance. And this is the best cure for the 
 depression of memory. The past carries with it promise. 
 Soldiers and college students alike are cured by using their 
 memories aright as grounds of inspiration and satisfaction. 
 The best of the past would be shamed by failure in the pres- 
 ent. The good times of the past would be very cheap times 
 if they have turned out men who cannot stand up to the 
 strain of the present. We may not lose the sense of solitari- 
 ness which memory brings, but we can bring into*that mood 
 an added sense of steadiness because of memory. We can 
 refuse to let happiness slip into the past tense. 
 
 Jesus told his disciples (John 13:19; 14:29) that he was 
 storing their memories with materials which the}'' would need 
 and could use later when heavier strain came on them. That 
 is the best service memories can bring us. They people our 
 solitude. And it becomes tremendouslj^ important what ma- 
 terial gets stored in them against the day of solitariness 
 when we shall draw on it for our steadying or our weakening. 
 
 There is an ebb and flow of faith. Even while we are 
 saying, "Lord, I believe," we have to go on to say, "Help 
 Thou my unbelief." That has been true of some of the 
 greatest believers. Robert W. Dale of Birmingham wrote 
 some of the finest books of argument for the Christian 
 faith that have been produced for our times, yet he was sub- 
 ject to occasional moods of depression when he felt deserted 
 not by men alone but by God as well, like the psalm writer 
 who said that he was as a man who had no help, whom God 
 remembered no more (88:4-7). It is bad enough to feel 
 deserted by men, but when the mood deepens until God seems 
 to have forgotten as well, the case is worse. 
 
 II 
 
 And that helps us to think of one of the gravest dangers 
 of the solitary mood — the danger of hasty judgments and 
 unfair generalizations. No man is ever cut off from God, 
 and when he stops coolly to think about it he knows how 
 impossible it is that he should be. He knows that all men 
 could not be liars and yet the social order have any coher- 
 ency. And 3^et when we are depressed it is such things that 
 we think. Men have thought themselves into madness at 
 
[II-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 such times. More frequently still they have become pessim- 
 ists, taking gloomy views of life. Sometimes we speak of 
 optimism as being blind and say that while we do not want 
 to be pessimists we are "compelled to face the facts." . The 
 truth is that real optimism is open-eyed to God and the facts, 
 while pessimism is open-eyed to only part of the facts. 
 Facts are cheerless things in many cases ; they are to be faced 
 with absolute frankness for all that, the more frankly 
 because they are unpleasant. But we never see foothills 
 right until ,we see them against the background of the moun- 
 tains. Getting down so low that the mountains are out of 
 sight makes foothills seem much higher than they are. 
 Getting up where we can see God and the troublesome facts 
 puts the facts in right proportion. Nothing else does it. 
 
 It is noticeable that all the cases of solitariness in the 
 psalms were cured by one of two things : either a renewed 
 • assurance of God, or a firm grip of the will on the life that 
 is still to be lived, no matter what the social group does. 
 Most of us are not equal to the latter way. Henley can 
 thank "whatever gods there be" for his "unconquerable 
 soul," but the trouble with many of us is that our souls are 
 too conquerable. It is good counsel to bid us assert our 
 wills ; the trouble is that our wills have weakened under the 
 strain of the things we have been thinking and doing. And 
 yet, no man can feel wholly deserted and solitary who faces 
 his task as the one God has given him, letting the assur- 
 ance form that the God who gave him the task will see him 
 through it. Confucius was once in danger from an enemy 
 and his followers wondered that he was not anxious ; but he 
 said, "As God has not yet put an end to this message, what 
 harm can these people do to me?" It is an early version of 
 man's being immortal till his work is done. But the writer 
 of the 56th psalm said it also : "In God have I put my trust, 
 I will not be afraid; what can man do unto me?" (56:11; 
 cf. 118:6). Another writer was thankful that it is the Lord 
 who bears the real burden of his daily task (68: 19), while 
 still another knew he could not have held his own unless 
 Jehovah had helped him (94; 17, 18). Long afterward, Paul 
 wrote to the Romans of his confidence regarding any kind 
 of trouble (Rom. 8:31-39), saying that with God for us 
 there can be no one worth thinking of against us. 
 
 While we ought to have a sense of other people and their 
 
 26 
 
THE SOLITARY MOOD [II-c] 
 
 relation to us, we dare not let them be primary. Relief from 
 solitariness may come to us more directly by our gaining a 
 sense of the larger environment that belongs to us. We do 
 not drift into that wider sense, though we may not realize 
 how we do come to it. Robert Louis Stevenson tells how 
 he came to it, changing his life from idleness and self-con- 
 cern to service : "I remember a time when I was very idle 
 and lived and profited by that humor. I have no idea why I 
 ceased to be so ; yet I scarce believe I have the power to 
 return to it; it is change of age. I made consciously a thou- 
 sand little efforts, but the determination from which these 
 arose came while I slept and in the way of growth. I have 
 had a thousand skirmishes to keep myself at work on partic- 
 ular mornings, and sometimes the affair was hot; but of that 
 great change of campaign, which decided all this part of 
 my life and turned me from one whose business was to shirk 
 into one whose business was to strive and persevere, it 
 seems to me as though all had been done by some one else. 
 . . . I was never conscious of a struggle, nor registered 
 a vow, nor seemingly had anything personally to do with the 
 matter. I came about like a well handled ship. There stood 
 at the wheel that unknown steersman whom we call God." 
 In a letter to his father during a hard and wandering time ' 
 in Paris, sitting in a cafe, he wrote of his deepening interest 
 in religion, though altogether as a matter of this world. 
 Much had baffled him: "I am lonely and sick and out of 
 heart. Well, I still hope, I still believe, I still see the good 
 in the inch and cling to it. It is not much perhaps, but it 
 is always something. . . . There is a fine text in the Bible, 
 I don't know where, to the effect that all things work together 
 for good to those who love the Lord." (Rom. 8:28.) "Strange 
 as it may seem to you, everything has been, in one way and 
 another, bringing me a little nearer to what I think you 
 would like me to be. Tis a strange world, indeed, but there 
 is a manifest God for those who care to look for Him." 
 (Life of Stevenson by Balfour, pp. 87, 138.) 
 
 So solitariness becomes God's working time in our souls. 
 It does, if we let ourselves grow into a stronger sense of 
 God as the great fact in Hfe. He may not put the materials 
 for gladness in our visible surroundings, but he can put 
 gladness in our hearts, more than men have when their 
 grain and their new wine are increased (4:7). The old 
 
 27 
 
[II-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 monk declined to receive the apologies of those who had 
 seemed to neglect him, saying, "I have not missed you ; I 
 have had God." We do not come to that very early in our 
 experience, but we learn to endure solitariness if we must, 
 because God breaks in on it for us. Only, when he does 
 break in, he inclines us the more to our fellows and the 
 service which our lives can render them. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER THOUGHT AND 
 ^ STUDY 
 
 How much of this mood may be temperamental? In so 
 far as it is so, how far is one responsible for it? What pro- 
 gram of correction is possible in such a case? 
 
 Make clear how subversive of the social life the solitary 
 mood is. In the cases which you know, does the fault lie 
 with the individual, or with the social conditions under which 
 he lives? Suggest the kind of traits that tend to cut one off 
 from social groups. Why do college societies entirely leave 
 out some students ? 
 
 28 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 The Personal Mood 
 
 DAILY READINGS 
 
 Third Week, First Day 
 
 Jehovah is my light and my salvation; 
 
 Whom shall I fear? 
 
 Jehovah is the strength of my life; 
 
 Of whom shall I be afraid? 
 
 When evil-doers came upon me to eat up my flesh, 
 
 Even mine adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and 
 
 fell. 
 Though a host should encamp against me. 
 My heart shall not fear: 
 Though war should rise against me. 
 Even then will I be confident. 
 
 One thing have I asked of Jehovah, that will I seek after; 
 That I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of 
 
 my life. 
 To behold the beauty of Jehovah, ^ 
 
 And to inquire in his temple. 
 For in the day of trouble he will keep me secretly in his 
 
 pavilion: 
 In the covert of his tabernacle will he hide me; 
 He will lift me up upon a rock. 
 
 — Psalm 27: 1-5. 
 
 Here the personal mood results in utter fearlessness. 
 There is no hint of desire that trouble may not come upon 
 us, but only confidence as to the feeling we shall have if it 
 does come. It will not break us down. That might be mere 
 bravado or recklessness, which is cheap and poor. But here 
 it is neither of those things. It is an assurance based not 
 merely on zvhat God can do for us, but on what he is doing 
 in us. In life tasks we come to a sense of security as to the 
 
 29 
 
[III-2] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 future because we feel we are prepared for whatever may 
 come; why not in life itself? An experienced engineer is 
 not afraid of tomorrow's problems ; an experienced teacher 
 does not tremble before tomorrow's questit)ns in the class- 
 room ; a trained nurse is not fearful about the next case. 
 Why should not a man come to the position of utter fearless- 
 ness about the reaction he will make on whatever comes to 
 him in the future? // he knows that God is working in his 
 life, can he not feel that his resources are unlimited? 
 
 Third Week, Second Day 
 
 Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want. 
 
 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; 
 
 He leadeth me beside still waters. 
 
 He restoreth my soul: 
 
 He guideth me in the paths of righteousness for his 
 
 name's sake. 
 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of 
 
 death, 
 I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; 
 Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. 
 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine 
 
 enemies: 
 Thou hast anointed my head with oil; 
 My cup runneth over. 
 Surely goodness and lovingkindness shall follow me all 
 
 the days of my life; 
 And I shall dwell in the house of Jehovah for ever. 
 
 — Psalm 23. 
 
 This best known psalm in the collection has sometimes 
 been called the nightingale psalm. Dr. van Dyke thinks it 
 is more like the song of a skylark, because it is sung not in 
 the night but out in the blaze of day. Here the mood is 
 strongly personal — no plural pronouns. It brings content- 
 ment, but without a hint of strenuousness. Enemies are men- 
 tioned, but the writer sees himself eating his daily meal in 
 their presence ; not snatching it like soldiers pursued and 
 half famished, but with his table spread while they looked 
 on ! The valley of the shadow of death comes to his mind, 
 but he sees himself walking through it fearlessly. Such 
 things are only a foil for his courage. He is in stronger 
 hands than those of his enemies. Under this same shepherd 
 
 30 
 
THE PERSONAL MOOD [III-3] 
 
 figure Jesus sounded the same note of perfect confidence 
 when he said (John 10:27-29) that no one is able to snatch 
 out of his own hand and the -liand of his Father those who 
 are committed to him. There is a legitimate personal mood 
 which demands action, but there is also a phase of the mood 
 which is almost passive, as it seems to be here. A shepherd 
 asks only docile following and zvhen we arc thinking of God 
 as shepherd we think of ourselves as called to follow and 
 trust him for the outcome. That is only one phase of the 
 fact. Today let us try that phase of it. 
 
 Third Week, Third Day 
 
 Wherev/ith shall a young man cleanse his way? 
 
 By taking heed thereto according to thy word. 
 
 With my whole heart have I sought thee: 
 
 Oh let me not wander from thy commandments. 
 
 Thy word have I laid up in my heart, 
 
 That I might not sin against thee. 
 
 Blessed art thou, O Jehovah: 
 
 T-each m.e thy statutes. 
 
 With my lips have I declared 
 
 All the ordinances of thy mouth. 
 
 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, 
 
 As much as in all riches. 
 
 I will meditate on thy precepts, 
 
 And have respect unto thy ways. 
 
 I will delight myself in thy statutes: 
 
 I will not forget thy word. 
 
 — Psalm 119:9-16. 
 
 Now the mood becomes more assertive. Our own wills 
 get active. We become confident, not merely because of what 
 God will do for us and in us, but because of what we will 
 do ourselves by the grace he gives us, A cleansed way is 
 not found in a dream by most of us. The element of the 
 strenuous enters in. Paul urged young Timothy (II Tim. 
 2:15) to give diligence to show himself the man he ought 
 to be. We have found that there is no upward drift in life. 
 // we are to have the right to assert ourselves in the pres- 
 ence of the demands of the world, we must earn it. Only 
 whole-hearted men know the safe personal mood. Half- 
 hearted men always sound hollow notes when they talk of 
 courage. 
 
 31 
 
[III-4] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 The mood is not supine. We are not to ask to be carried to 
 the skies on flowery beds of ease — we would not be carried 
 that way if we asked it; but we are not to ask it. We want 
 our share of the fighting, our share of the struggle. And 
 we are not to take it sullenly, whipped into caution by dread 
 of failure. The note is joyous. Precautions are not cow- 
 ardly; rather, they set us free to walk the way of life as 
 self-respecting men should do. 
 
 Third Week, Fourth Day 
 
 You never know how much a man's estimate of himself 
 is worth until you know what his ideals ar§. Granted a 
 low ideal of life, and it is not much to come up to it. The 
 young artist in the story thought himself a good deal of 
 a painter until he saw the Sistine Madonna ; then he knew 
 better. The personal mood at its best demands high ideals. 
 Nothing easy will do. Petty views will do for petty men, 
 but nothing cheap will do for strong men. The only ethics 
 that satisfies us at our best is impractical, super-practical 
 ethics, ethics so fine that we know it is rightly called our 
 duty, but so high that it keeps above us a challenging ideal. 
 Read over the description of the man who ought to live in 
 a world which God made and maintains, and ask whether 
 any cheap ways of living will do. 
 
 The earth is Jehovah's, and the fulness thereof; 
 
 The world, and they that dwell therein. 
 
 For he hath founded it upon the seas. 
 
 And established it upon the floods. 
 
 Who shall ascend into the hill of Jehovah? 
 
 And who shall stand in his holy place? 
 
 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; 
 
 Who hath not lifted up his soul unto falsehood, 
 
 And hath not sworn deceitfully. 
 
 He shall receive a blessing from Jehovah, 
 
 And righteousness from the God of his salvation. 
 
 This is the generation of them that seek after him. 
 
 That seek thy face, even Jacob. 
 
 — Psalm 24: 1-6. 
 
 The size of our view of the world determines our estimate 
 of our own Hves. If this earth is the Lord's, then the men 
 who live in it ought to be men of the right sort. They said 
 
 32 
 
THE PERSONAL MOOD [IH-s] 
 
 in England that the reason Rugby turned out so many square, 
 downright boys was because Arnold's headship of the school 
 made anything else contemptible. Does not God's headship 
 of the world demand the right kind of character in us men 
 who Hve in it? And the chief demand is downright honesty; 
 nothing mean or underhanded or selfish or dirty fits in with 
 the scheme of things, if this is God's world. In our best 
 personal moods, we mean to be this right kind of men. 
 
 Third Week, Fifth Day 
 
 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, 
 
 The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 
 
 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? 
 
 And the son of man, that thou visitest him? 
 
 For thou hast made him but little lower than God, 
 
 And crownest him with glory and honor. 
 
 Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thy 
 
 hands; 
 Thou hast put all things under his feet: 
 All sheep and oxen, 
 Yea, and the beasts of the field, 
 The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea. 
 Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 
 O Jehovah, our Lord, 
 How excellent is thy name in all the earth! 
 
 — Psalm 8: 3-9. 
 
 By such thinking the personal mood is saved from one of 
 its chief perils — selfishness. Here it passes into apprecia- 
 tion of humanity. When the mood is at its best, man looks 
 great wherever we see him. We are to suspect ourselves 
 when other men look small to us because we ourselves seem 
 great. Unless we feel the fundamental greatness of hu- 
 manity, any sense of our own importance is on the border 
 line of impertinence. When we are standing by a moun- 
 tain, the difiference between our individual heights at our 
 shortest and our tallest is not worth considering. Whether 
 we are five feet or seven feet tall is a negligible matter at 
 such a time. It is the big view that saves us for the best uses 
 of the personal mood. Asserting ourselves, we are making 
 claims for the humanity that is in us and that we share with 
 others. From one point of view man is small in the uni- 
 verse. Measured by the heavens, the moon, and the stars, 
 
 33 
 
[III-6] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 he does not come to much. Removing him would not jar the 
 universe seriously. That is the point of view of some of 
 the physical sciences, a wholly legitimate point of view. It 
 is quantitative ; m,an is so much bulk. But when the qualita- 
 tive judgment is passed, man becomes the greatest factor in 
 the universe. That means that the real demand, made on him 
 is qualitative. If he is to assert himself, it must be in the 
 line of quality. The personal mood that rises from assur- 
 ance of the value of the race will never hurt, will always 
 help. 
 
 Third Week, Sixth Day 
 
 O Jehovah, thou hast searched me, and known me. 
 
 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; 
 
 Thou understandest my thought afar off. 
 
 Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, 
 
 And art acquainted with all my ways. 
 
 For there is not a word in my tongue. 
 
 But, lo, O Jehovah, thou knowest it altogether. . . . 
 
 Search me, O God, and know my heart: 
 
 Try me, and know my thoughts; 
 
 And see if there be any wicked way in me, 
 
 And lead me in the way everlasting. 
 
 — Psalm 139:1-4, 23, 24. 
 
 Thinking of this sort saves the personal mood from 
 another of its serious perils — arrogance. It never tries to 
 bluff. It is not a surface matter, pretending to be what it is 
 not. Mr. Henry Mackay tells that he once showed a shrewd 
 Chinese buyer through his linoleum factory when the inlaid 
 manufactures were just beginning. He explained the differ- 
 ence between this new style, which runs the figure through 
 the fabric, and the old style which stamped it on the surface. 
 The Chinese merchant studied it a moment and then nodded 
 his head understandingly, saying in "pidgin English," "My 
 savey; pattern never die!" The pattern of a good man 
 never dies ; it runs all the way through. In this 139th psalm 
 the writer knows there can be no deception in God's sight. 
 But it is not enough to know that God knows us througJi and 
 through; we must want Him to know us that way. There is 
 no serious danger of arrogance when we keep sure of God's 
 knowledge of us. Bluffing our fellows is the simplest thing 
 
 34 
 
THE PERSONAL MOOD [HI-j] 
 
 in the world. We love to talk about being hard-headed and 
 not easily fooled, but every man has his blind side, and 
 when we find it in other men it is hard not to take advan- 
 tage of it. Any big talk in which we indulge in the presence 
 of God's through-and-through knowledge of us is likely to 
 be honest talk. We can say, "I am what I am," but we have 
 to go on to say, "by the grace of God." 
 
 Third Week, Seventh Day 
 
 I said in my haste, 
 
 All men are liars. 
 
 What shall I render unto Jehovah 
 
 For all his benefits toward me? 
 
 I will take the cup of salvation, 
 
 And call upon the name of Jehovah. 
 
 I will pay my vows unto Jehovah, 
 
 Yea, in the presence of all his people. . , , 
 
 In the courts of Jehovah's house. 
 
 In the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. 
 
 Praise ye Jehovah. 
 
 — Psalm ii6: 11-14, 19. 
 
 Here the personal mood renders a helpful service. In 
 presence of a hasty adverse judgment about other people, 
 which might or might not be accurate, the writer asserts his 
 own purpose. W^hether all men are liars or not does not 
 really make much difference to personal duty. If they are, 
 then I ought to be an outstanding exception ; if they are not, 
 then I ought not to be one either. Standards of duty can- 
 not be picked up in hasty moments. In the healthy personal 
 mood, we know ourselves such debtors to the grace and 
 favor of God that we cannot bother with the faults of others 
 and let them keep us from doing our own duty. After the 
 resurrection of Christ, he was one day talking with his dis- 
 ciples and speaking of the future, which led Peter to ask 
 quite irrelevantly what was to happen to John. Jesus replied, 
 "What is that to thee? folloM; thou me" (John 21:22). 
 Whatever happened to John, Peter's duty was plain. It is 
 possible to lose the scent of one's own duty by following the 
 trail of human failings and errors. The habit of minding 
 other people's business too devotedly works against persortal 
 correctness. 
 
 35 
 
IIII-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 So the personal mood in this same section demands a 
 positive life. A hid religion is quite sure to develop into a 
 feeble religion. Vows that are worth making are not worth 
 hiding. What does this seem to imply about the wisdom of 
 a Christian's joining a church? Do the faults of people in 
 the church affect one's own duty regarding it? 
 
 COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 
 
 The personal mood has two grave dangers. For one thing, 
 it may become mere arrogance, a boastful self-esteem that 
 is unendurable among honest people. Under that spell a 
 man feels that he overshadows other men ; his greatness 
 makes them small. It is the vice of talkative "self-made" 
 men, justifying the cynical remark of one of their critics, 
 that while he admired their architecture, he found them gen- 
 erally erected with the "gabble end toward the street." No 
 man has so made himself that he is not hopelessly in debt 
 to God and his fellowmen for the aid he has received. Get 
 back into the real story of any Josh Bounderby (Dickens, 
 "Hard Times"), and you find services rendered by others 
 which would have made him a better man but for a stub- 
 bornness which has helped to thwart their goodness. It was 
 in protest against arrogance that the writer of the 131st 
 psalm declared that his heart was not haughty, nor his eyes 
 lofty, for arrogant men have such a high range of vision 
 that they cannot see common men. In the loist psalm the 
 writer says that he will not suffer him that hath a high 
 look and a proud heart, and that he will destroy a man who 
 privily slanders his neighbor, as arrogance always does by 
 its implications. After long experience David declared 
 (18:27) that God is against the haughty, at least two 
 of the prophets adding to that assurance (Isa. 2:12; Zeph. 
 .3:11). It was just after Nebuchadnezzar had blown a loud 
 horn about "this great Babylon that I have builded," that 
 the hand of God fell on him and he wandered out like a 
 beast in the field, learning the lesson of dependence in the 
 primitive way (Dan. 4:30-33). Whatever virtue there may 
 b^ in the personal mood, it must be kept from arrogance. 
 
 The other imminent danger is that it may become mere 
 
 36 
 
THE PERSONAL MOOD [III-c] 
 
 indifference to the group. Most of us strongly object to 
 being called selfish, but it is always possible to justify our- 
 selves in not caring for people in general. The "crowd" 
 has always been a favorite word among young people, and 
 a favorite term of reproach among older people. That is 
 because younger people like to belong to something, while 
 many older .people have come to have a sense of personal 
 independence which makes cjmical indifference to numbers 
 seem a virtue. The continued struggle over high school fra- 
 ternities turns on that issue, so far as students are concerned. 
 No one argues very seriously for the abiding value of fra- 
 ternities at that stage of education, but we all like to belong 
 to a group just then and it seems most important to us that 
 we be not disturbed. Many men never leave that stage, but 
 most do, and if it is left too far behind, the personal mood 
 becomes mere selfishness. Under it we hold ourselves aloof 
 from the group because we are not interested in the group. 
 The writers of the psalms walk always in sight of that 
 danger and do not fall into it. The crowd from which they 
 are compelled to stand aloof in the interest of personal integ- 
 rity is a matter of constant concern with them. They are 
 not contemptuous even when they condemn. A later study 
 (Chapter V) will suggest how they could stand against their 
 social group and yet not be indifferent to it. 
 
 II 
 
 The essence of the personal mood is the feeling of our 
 feet under us, no matter how unbalanced men or conditions 
 may be around us. In this mood we share tl\e need of the 
 crowd without its nervousness, the danger of the crowd 
 without its dread, the ambitions of the crowd without its 
 anxiety. Men in this mood do not have their environment 
 changed by it, but they find themselves encouraged with 
 strength in their souls (138:3). They walk in the midst 
 of dangers, but are constantly revived by the help that 
 comes from above, but is felt within them. Read the 91st 
 psalm and see how a man can face a perfect storm of 
 troubles with a sense of being protected. That is the per- 
 sonal mood which leaves a man fit to take his place in the 
 world with a good spirit. 
 
 You see it in Joshua and his challenge to Israel to choose 
 
 37 
 
[III-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 between Jehovah and other gods, but refusing for his own 
 part to wait for their decision. Let them choose as they 
 would, "as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah" 
 (Josh. 24:15). Strong men do not take their color in reli- 
 gion from their environment ; they get it from within. 
 Their hearts are fixed (108: i). You see it also in the three 
 friends of Daniel who were brought before the king and 
 required to bow before the image, with the threat that they 
 would be thrown into the furnace if they refused. It did 
 not feeze them : "We have no need to answer thee in this 
 matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to 
 deliver us from the burning fiery furnace ; and he will 
 deliver us out of thy hand, O king; but if not, be it known 
 unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor 
 worship the golden image which thou hast set up" (Dan. 
 3: 16-18). If it be so — but if not; it is all one to these men. 
 -Suffering is merely a matter of detail with them. They 
 feel their feet under them and the waves break around them 
 without unsettling them. You see it again when Peter and 
 John are brought before the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:18) and 
 charged not to speak in the name of Christ — which arouses 
 more of their amusement than any other feeling: "Whether 
 it is right in the sight of God to hearken unto you rather 
 than unto God, judge ye: for we cannot but speak the things 
 which we saw and heard." Chrysostom was exiled for his 
 faith. He said, "When driven from the city, I cared nothing 
 for it; but I said to myself. If the empress wishes to banish 
 me, let her banish me ; 'the earth is the Lord's and the ful- 
 ness thereof,' " so he would be at home wherever he was 
 sent. That is characteristic of the personal mood. It has 
 learned to see conditions without depending on them. 
 
 In American history two fine instances of it are familiar. 
 One is the Faneuil Hall meeting which Webster was address- 
 ing, the crowd standing, as used to be the custom there. 
 The hall was densely packed and a swaying movement 
 began which seemed uncontrollable and would certainly 
 have injured hundreds of people if it had continued. 
 Webster called out, "Let every man stand firm !" Instantly 
 the swaying stopped. Each man took his own stand, regard- 
 less of the crowd. Then Webster exclaimed, "Gentlemen, 
 that is democracy, every man learning to keep his own feet !" 
 The other instance is the fine record made by the Wellesley 
 
 38 
 
THE PERSONAL MOOD [HI-c] 
 
 students on the morning of their great fire in 1914. After 
 the hne was formed and it was fomid that some names were 
 not answered in the roll-call, the line stood quietly while 
 the search was made for the missing students and teachers, 
 stood quietly until sparks came down the stairways and 
 had to be brushed from dressing gowns, and not a member 
 of it broke ranks nor fainted nor cried out. When the 
 order came for the line to move, the fire was on the floor 
 above, but the line moved steadily, each student keeping 
 control of herself. When it was over, some said it proved 
 the value of fire drills in colleges, and it did, but it proved 
 also the power of young people to keep self-control under 
 test. It was the emergence of the personal mood in a large 
 group. Each was helped by the others, but none could have 
 been held by the others if there had not been something 
 stronger holding each one. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Most of us feel too much the pressure of the opinions that 
 surround us. It is part of the new accent on social respon- 
 sibility; some of it is that accent carried too far. We are 
 not the less individuals with personal responsibility, because 
 we are also in a social group. The idols of the market place, 
 of which Bacon wrote, are not to be worshiped by men with 
 personal characters. Campus ideals have to submit to judg- 
 ment like any other ideals. Mere chesty opposition to tradi- 
 tions is foolish, of course, and it usually has its reward at 
 the hands of fellow students. But there are few colleges in 
 the land which are not needing a few healthy-minded stu- 
 dents who are not blinded by traditional arguments and who 
 will feel their own feet under them and refuse to be swept 
 into nonsense of a bad sort because the current runs that 
 way. It may be impossible to take active and successful 
 steps against traditions that are damaging the real life of 
 the college, but it is always possible to hold one's self free 
 and to do it so that favor is not lost where favor is worth 
 having. There are hoary notions in almost all fields which 
 need nothing so much as to have some one say "Booh" to 
 them ; then they would disappear. Are there any traditions 
 or conditions in your community life, which have come 
 to be taken for granted, but which are bad and hurtful, 
 
 39 
 
[III-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 regarding which you ought to take your own adverse stand 
 and be yourself rather than the crowd which generally you 
 can safely be? If there are and you will face them honestly, 
 you will soon know the difficulties of the personal mood, 
 for you will need to avoid mere stubbornness and love of 
 controversy on the one hand, and mere supine acceptance of 
 bad conditions on the other. Indeed, in the purely personal 
 li'iood you may need to see that you cannot hope to change 
 conditions at all; they may seem to you too fixed for altera- 
 tion; but you refuse to submit yourself to them; you will be 
 yourself and take the consequences without a whimper. 
 
 That last is an important part of it. No whimpering over 
 consequences. These psalmists cry to God, but to no one else, 
 and even to. him their cry is rather for strength to stand up 
 to the strain than for praise for themselves. That is the 
 secret of their insistent committing of the whole case to 
 divine inspection, which has appeared in the daily studies of 
 this week. In the latter part of the 139th psalm is a swift 
 and revealing change in thought. For some verses the writer 
 has been speaking strongly against the men who are mis- 
 treating him, speaking to God, to be sure, but none the less 
 strongly. Suddenly he turns away from that and remembers 
 that these people are not his main business, concerned as he 
 must always be with them. He turns from them and says, 
 "Search me, O God, and know my heart ; try me, and know 
 my thoughts ; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and 
 lead me in the way everlasting." That is a healthy reversion. 
 The evils of other people impress us greatly at times. We 
 want to serve them if we can, but we need to look after our- 
 selves in order to be fit to serve them. 
 
 The same swift turn comes in the ii6th psalm. Finding 
 himself hastily declaring that all men are liars, the writer 
 suddenly realizes that he can think too much about "all 
 men," and becomes personal again : "What shall I render 
 unto Jehovah for all his benefits toward mc?" Here the 
 personal mood has large value in helping us to cast out the 
 beam from our own eyes before we pick the motes from 
 other people's eyes. It is the healthy mood of a man who 
 stands up to his duty, not against other people, not even for 
 them, but just because it is his dut}', doing that without 
 criticism of others or else with that criticism soon over. 
 Indeed, it must be over before the spirit is. fine. Counting 
 
 40 
 
THE PERSONAL MOOD [III-c] 
 
 all men liars and hypocrites because they do not do so well as 
 we are trying to do ourselves is the mean streak in us, and 
 the best way to get away from that .mean streak is to ask 
 what our own dut}^ is and get down to doing it. 
 
 When Phillips Erooks graduated from Harvard he had 
 one experience of dismal failure as a teacher. Ever3^body 
 agreed that he had not the qualities of a classroom leader. 
 For some time neither he nor anyone else could decide what 
 qualities he had for any kind of leadership. He had a 
 gloomy six months wandering around Boston, wandering 
 mentally as well as physically, trying to find what his place 
 in life might be. Dr. Allen ("Life of Phillips Brooks," 
 p. 26) tells that he was much impressed with Souvestre's 
 "Attic Philosopher," which he read jyst then. It is the story 
 of a man who in the midst of the fever, restlessness, and 
 ambition of the times continues to live his humble part in 
 the world without a murmur. He has a small clerkship 
 which keeps him from real distress and he learns not to 
 covet riches nor to dread failure. So for a time Phillips 
 Brooks decided to give up all ambition for himself and 
 take the humblest, lowest lot he could find. When, later, he 
 found that he had a message for his fellows, that spirit of 
 being himself, no matter what the circumstances might be, 
 never departed from him. The same thing is only waiting to 
 be true of any man who will be himself, the self whom God 
 will approve, no matter what conditions challenge him to be 
 anything else.. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER THOUGHT AND 
 
 STUDY 
 
 Work out the difference between this personal mood and 
 the mood of the hermit or the misanthrope. How do you 
 estimate Thoreau and his experiment at Walden Pond? 
 
 If 3^ou were voting alone on a jury against the other eleven 
 members, how would you defend refusing to surrender to 
 their judgment? How would you defend yielding to their 
 judgment? 
 
 Jesus was compelled to stand alone at his trial. Think 
 over the spirit he showed under the circumstances and try 
 to imagine similar conditions in your own life and the spirit 
 which you would be likely to show. 
 
 41 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Self in the Social Group 
 
 DAILY READINGS 
 
 Fourth Week, First Day 
 
 Praise ye Jehovah. 
 
 Oh give thanks unto Jehovah; for he is good; 
 
 For his lovingkindness endureth for ever. 
 
 Who can utter the mighty acts of Jehovah, 
 
 Or show forth all his praise? 
 
 Blessed are they that keep justice, 
 
 And he that doeth righteousness at all times. 
 
 Remember me, O Jehovah, with the favor that thou bear- 
 
 est unto thy people; 
 Oh visit me with thy salvation, 
 That I may see the prosperity of thy chosen, 
 That I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation. 
 That I may glory with thine inheritance. 
 
 — Psalm io6: 1-5. 
 
 Here is the solid foundation for an abiding social order 
 ■ — men who keep justice and do righteousness at all times. 
 Nothing could break down an order whose people lived by 
 that. Think over the things that imperil society toda}^ and 
 see if they do not all run back to some form of injustice. 
 For a long time, as our social literature shows, it was felt 
 that the strong had all the rights, but they ought to be gen- 
 erous and favor the weak at certain points. A manufacturer 
 had a right to run his business to suit himself, and his 
 employes could stay with it or leave it, and yet he ought to 
 have charity enough to think of their welfare. We have 
 found that the situation demands much more than that. 
 It is not charity in this cheap sense that society needs ; it 
 is justice between man and man, justice which is not stern 
 
 42 
 
SELF IN THE SOCIAL GROUP [IV-2] 
 
 but fraternal. The labor problem, taxation, graft, exploita- 
 tion, and all the rest, will be cleared when we come on a 
 basis of justice in the social order. And it is to help that 
 kind of an order that every man whose heart is right 
 ought to pledge himself. The experiences of such an order 
 he may hope to share — no prosperity for himself that can- 
 not be shared with the chosen of the God of justice and 
 righteousness ; no gladness for himself in which the nation 
 does not rejoice; no glory for himsolf which cannot shine 
 on the inheritance of God, Men with this ambition are 
 needed in every social group. 
 
 Fourth Week, Second Day 
 
 Men of short views are the bane of the social group. Little 
 businesses can reckon their profits ever}^ night ; big ones 
 cannot. Men who persist in living by short lengths sneer at 
 pleas for longer ones. They talk about birds in hand versus 
 birds in bushes. Esau took the short view in his famous 
 colloquy with Jacob (Genesis 25:29-34), when he sold his 
 birthright which had only a far value for a mess of pottage 
 which he could eat at once. He also sneered at the long 
 view, saying after a day's hunting that he was about to die, 
 as of course he was not. A bird in the hand is better for 
 today's meal, but two birds in the bush may be worth a vast 
 deal more for one's longer life. Living by the day will do 
 for dire emergencies, but it is poor policy for life as a whole. 
 
 Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, 
 
 Neither be thou envious against them that work un- 
 righteousness. 
 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass. 
 And wither as the green herb. 
 Trust in Jehovah, and do good; 
 Dwell in the land, and feed on his faithfulness. 
 Delight thyself also in Jehovah; 
 And he will give thee the desires of thy heart. 
 Commit thy way unto Jehovah; 
 Trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass. 
 
 — Psalm 37: 1-5. 
 
 Evil-doers are proverbially shortlived. They have no deep 
 roots. The second commandment speaks of visiting iniquities 
 
 43 
 
[IV-3] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 unto the third and fourth generation with good reason ; evil 
 runs generations out at about that length. Bad men would 
 soon . destroy the social order. Over against the imperma- 
 nence of evil a thoughtful man must seek to set his own 
 life by connecting himself with God's larger plan. Letting 
 mushrooms shame oaks by their rapid growth would be 
 folly. It is the part of wise men to find the abiding value 
 and press that. Politicians differ from statesmen, the say- 
 ing goes, in that a politician guides his way by a candle which 
 he carries in his own hand while a statesman guides his 
 way by the stars. Politicians sneer at statesmen as being 
 visionaries, but history is for the statesmen. So is God. 
 
 Fourth Week, Third Day 
 
 And he will make thy righteousness to go forth as the 
 
 light, 
 And thy justice as the noonday. 
 Rest in Jehovah, and wait patiently for him: 
 Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his 
 
 way, 
 Because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. 
 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: 
 Fret not thyself, it tendeth only to evil-doing. 
 For evil-doers shall be cut off; 
 But those that wait for Jehovah, they shall inherit the 
 
 land. — Psalm 37:6-9. 
 
 This is beyond most of us. Yet every social group needs 
 men as steady as this calls us to be. College groups need 
 men who will not stand for dishonest winning of victories 
 because such victories are only pretenses. They may win 
 medals, but thej^ beat the college and they beat the men who 
 take part in them and who know themselves for frauds all 
 the while and are morally unsettled so far that they try to 
 pretend that fraud is the way of the world if you can only 
 get away with it — the excuse of cheap men. The situation 
 calls for sun-clear honesty, of course. Evil does prosper in 
 its way ; bad men do bring wicked devices to pass ; economic, 
 financial, social frauds do get on. Saying that they do not is 
 mere nonsense or ignorance. In immediate and external 
 returns badness pays about as well as goodness. That is 
 because moral forces work more slowly than economic ones 
 
 44 
 
SELF IN THE SOCIAL GROUP [IV-aJ 
 
 do. But it is nothing to worry about. The moral forces are 
 the ones that make the final result. If we realize that a man 
 is more important than his business, that what happens to 
 the man is the first thing to look for, then evil has no argu- 
 ment in its favor. L3^ing, for example, may sell goods 
 today, but it makes a liar out of a man, which is the big 
 thing ; and it does not sell goods very long, which is a smaller 
 but valuable thing. God, in the nature of things, cuts off a 
 liar after a while. He begins doing it at once, we see after- 
 wards, but his mills grind more slowly than American finan- 
 cial methods. Only they are also more reliable than those 
 methods. The social group needs men who love the group 
 enough to want it to last and who have sense enough to 
 know that it can last only on a righteous basis. 
 
 Fourth Week, Fourth Day 
 
 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, 
 
 When the glory of his house is increased: 
 
 For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away; 
 
 His glory shall not descend after him. 
 
 Though while he lived he blessed his soul, 
 
 (And men praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself,) 
 
 He shall go to the generation of his fathers; 
 
 They shall never see the light. 
 
 Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, 
 
 Is like the beasts that perish. 
 
 — Psalm 49: 16-20. 
 
 Here are two influences which a man's social group can 
 have on him which he has to watch against. For one thing, 
 it can make him selfish. Men praise thee when thou doest 
 well to thyself. Several cynical sayings involve that : "Every 
 man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost" ; "if a man 
 does not care for Number One, no one will care for it" ; "the 
 meek inherit the earth — six feet of it to be buried in." One 
 of our most serious moral problems is to strike the line 
 between commonsense care for ourselves and our own inter- 
 ests, without which we shall not be able to do our share of 
 the world's work, and that selfishness which is so often 
 praised. Think it out with reference to a student remaining 
 in college when he is needed at home for immediate support 
 — when is he justified and when not? For another thing, the 
 
 45 
 
[IV-5] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 tendency of the social group is to make the immediate day 
 the important one. What is the explanation of the American 
 saying of its requiring only three generations to pass from 
 shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves? How do you explain the 
 exceptions? Is there not something in the methods of life 
 adopted by the generations at just this point that explains it? 
 If the future is allowed to take care of itself, it is quite 
 sure to protect itself against foolish men. College men who 
 talk of letting the future care for itself while they live in 
 college for the college years alone are the same men who 
 afterwards talk of having to unlearn so much they learned in 
 college before they could make a success of life. We must 
 learn to play the long game even though the short one is 
 •easier and more attractive. 
 
 Fourth Week, Fifth Day 
 
 I said, I will take heed to my ways, 
 That I sin not with my tongue: 
 I will keep my mouth with a bridle, 
 While the wicked is before me. 
 
 I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; 
 And my sorrow was stirred. 
 My heart was hot within me; 
 While I was musing the fire burned; 
 Then spake I with my tongue: 
 Jehovah, make me to know mine end, 
 And the measure of my days, what it is; 
 Let me know how frail I am. 
 
 Behold, thou hast made my days as handbreadths; 
 And my life-time is as nothing before thee: 
 Surely every man at his best estate is altogether vanity. 
 
 — Psalm 39: 1-5. 
 
 This suggests a salutary element for a man who wants to 
 take his place in the social group. He must recognize the 
 presence in it of adverse elements before which he ought to 
 be cautious. Sometimes men look about a group to see if 
 they dare say a certain thing. That is both bad and good. 
 If they are anxious lest som.e man too good to hear dirty 
 stories may be about and they want to tell such stories, then 
 they are poor instances. But if they are seeing whether what 
 they are going to say will be understood as they mean it, they 
 .are wise. When certain types of men are around, wise men 
 
 46 
 
SELF IN THE SOCIAL GROUP [IV-6] 
 
 have to guard their tongues, as this psalmist says. Men 
 who blurt out whatever they think under all conditions, no 
 matter who is about, like to call themselves honest and out- 
 spoken ; they miss the adjectives; they are foolish and uncon- 
 trolled. Half the meaning of anything we ever sa}^ is in 
 the hearing of it. There are judgments which will be under- 
 stood in one group which will be wholly misunderstood in 
 another. Older people cannot always say all that is in their 
 minds v/hen certain younger ones are around, without doing 
 a damage to the social group for which they are responsible. 
 We have to learn to care more for our group than for the 
 sound of our own voices. 
 
 Fourth V/eek, Sixth Day 
 
 Jehovah is my portion: 
 
 I have said that I would observe thy words. 
 
 I entreated thy favor with my whole heart: 
 
 Be merciful unto me according to thy word. 
 
 I thought on my ways, 
 
 And turned my feet unto thy testimonies, 
 
 I made haste, and delayed not. 
 
 To observe thy commandments. . . . 
 
 I am a companion of all them that fear thee, 
 
 And of them that observe thy precepts. 
 
 The earth, O Jehovah, is full of thy lovingkindness: 
 
 Teach me thy statutes. 
 
 — Psalm 119:57-60, 63, 64. 
 
 The resolution to be one's best self is generally made in a 
 measure of solitude. We face a situation and determine that 
 our duty is thus and so. Then we brace ourselves to take 
 our stand even if we have to do it alone, and many times 
 we have reason to think we will be alone in it. One of our 
 pleasantest surprises is finding that other people are getting 
 ready to do the same thing or have already done it. Some- 
 times they are merely waiting for a leader, sometimes they 
 have already taken their stand quietly. You have noticed 
 how often in a discussion a motion seems suddenly to crys- 
 tallize a wholly unsuspected sentiment in a group. You made 
 the motion feeling that it would be defeated at once, but 
 that you must do at least that much to square yourself with 
 your conscience, and you found that most of the group 
 
 47 
 
[IV-7] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 were thinking the same way, but no one had made the start. 
 Elijah in the desert thought he was the only man left for 
 God in Israel, but he was happily surprised when he learned 
 of a good number like himself whose presence he had not 
 suspected, and also learned of a prophet who would be ready 
 to carry on the enterprise after he himself was dead. Try- 
 ing to help our group, we are not alone, but companions to 
 all who are trying to do the same thing. 
 
 Fourth Week, Seventh Day 
 
 Our American Revised Bibles give the 15th psalm a happy 
 title : Description of a Citizen of Zion. It is an account of 
 the Man who Ought to Be. 
 
 Jehovah, who shall sojourn in thy tabernacle? 
 
 Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? 
 
 He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, 
 
 And speaketh truth in his heart; 
 
 He that slandereth not with his tongue, 
 
 Nor doeth evil to his friend, 
 
 Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor; 
 
 In whose eyes a reprobate is despised, 
 
 But who honoreth them that fear Jehovah; 
 
 He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not; 
 
 He that putteth not out his money to interest. 
 
 Nor taketh reward against the innocent. 
 
 He that doeth these things shall never be moved. 
 
 — Psalm 15. 
 
 Study the eleven elements of character in this citizen of 
 God's world and see that they arc all social. They have to 
 do with the way in which he gets along with his fellows. 
 To be sure, they are not surface matters. Character is an 
 inner matter. Truthful words carry us a long way, but they 
 break down if they are not from the heart. Until we learn 
 to think truthfully, we are not safe in speaking truthfully. 
 We trip up soon or late. Nor are these traits negative alone. 
 Reprobates cannot be let alone. Good men cannot get away 
 from despising them. The soft nature that tries to regard 
 all men alike is poor stuff for making a social order. Nor 
 are they easy traits. It costs to be consistent. Finding 
 ourselves bound in honor to personal sacrifice is not a pleas- 
 
 48 
 
SELF IN THE SOCIAL GROUP [IV-c]" 
 
 ant experience, but it gives no excuse for failing the group 
 which has depended on us. The group is more than the self, 
 and when it gains, the self asks no more. That is high doc- 
 trine, but the coming society will be built on it. 
 
 COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 
 
 For weal or for woe we are in social groups and we can- 
 not get out of them. We leave one group only to go to 
 another. It may be our duty to change or it may be our 
 duty to abide where we are. But we are always abnormal 
 and a bit absurd when we pretend to get along without a 
 group. The writers of the psalms seem never to be out of 
 sight of their relation to a social group. Some of their hard- 
 est experiences came from it. In the group were men who 
 loved to do them mischief, selfish men, careless, indifferent 
 to the things that meant most to themselves, and brighter in 
 many cases than themselves. They actually did get on with 
 their evil plans. One of the problems of the psalmists was 
 to find and keep the right attitude toward the group and these 
 men. They were not of the sort that could let purely.personal 
 feelings determine their attitude. As moral beings in a moral 
 world they could not pretend that moral differences need 
 not be considered. They knew they had to be considered in 
 the long run and that God in the nature of things puts them 
 first. Loving had men is entirely feasible and under the 
 teaching of Christ we have learned it as a duty. But it does 
 not blind honest men to the fact that badness is doomed and 
 the social order that puts up with it is doomed also. 
 
 Most of us would hardly dare to voice the attitude toward 
 evil men that is expressed in some of the psalms, such as 
 the 35th, 69th, 109th, and occasional verses in others, because 
 it would involve personal antagonism in our own hearts. 
 But we' would be vastly stronger as members of our social 
 group if we could be as deeply stirred over moral conditions 
 as those psalms indicate. What we are afraid of is that we 
 may be resenting mere personal differences between ourselves 
 and other men who may be as good as we are, and whose 
 evil we have no right to presume. If we could keep the 
 moral issue clear, there are times when the psalms which we 
 have just listed are as logical as the moral law. As Dr. 
 Hitchcock said : 'When a thoroughly bad man stands 
 
 49 
 
[IV-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 revealed, only lightning is logical," These psalms are light- 
 ning, but most of us are safer with penny candles. 
 
 But it is not healthy-minded to think of the group as 
 filled with evil. It is the only place where good has its 
 chance. No man comes to his best self except in the social 
 group. There are in the psalms plenty of instances of the 
 solitary feeling, but it is always felt to be abnormal. The 
 kind of character that grows in solitude or that demands 
 persistent solitude for its exercise is not worth much in life. 
 What God thinks of monasticism is shown by the abnormal 
 men monastics turn out to be. They are "good," no doubt, 
 but the men Christianity means to make must be good — for 
 something. These men of the psalms count themselves part 
 of their social group; they leave it with pain, they stand 
 against it with regret, they stand for it with joy. In the 
 broad sense, while no man is forced to the level of his group, 
 yet we rise or fall together. We can be better or worse 
 than the group to which we belong, but our betterness or 
 our worseness will be sure to afifect the level of the whole 
 group in some degree. Even Jesus, who seemed miles above 
 the moral level around him, set out from the very first to pull 
 up toward his own level a small group of twelve, with others 
 less formally included, and through them began immediately to 
 affect the general level. No office man ever stood up 
 decently and manfully for the thing that is right without 
 changing the level of the office in some measure. No man 
 ever went the pace of evil in a college, unresisted by the 
 student forces, without lowering the general level. Con- 
 scious resistance can, of course, isolate one from the gen- 
 eral movement for a time. Think out why it is^ that in 
 times of religious revival some people seem all the more 
 inclined to the wrong thing; can you understand that in 
 your own life? On the other hand, how is it that when the 
 moral level of a village is peculiarly low an occasional fine 
 character appears and is steadily maintained? Is that gen- 
 erally the case, however? Does it not hold true that a col- 
 lege or a village rises or falls together? 
 
 It is this close interweaving of interests that brings out the 
 unselfish vein in us all. We learn to pray God to visit us 
 
 50 
 
SELF IN THE SOCIAL GROUP [IV-cJ 
 
 with his salvation (106:1-5), not for our own sakes alone^ 
 but because we are eager to see the group share the blessing. 
 We want it for ourselves, but as members of a group. Many 
 a man has set himself to build up the character of the col- 
 lege of which he is part, not for his own sake, but because 
 of other students who will be cheered by it. When a man 
 from a small college won a graduate fellowship, he declared 
 that he valued it less for his own sake than for the sake of 
 the little college and the fellows who were there getting^ 
 their education, and who would be reassured as to the value 
 of the training they were getting. Many a man has been kept 
 from courses of conduct because the traditions of his col- 
 lege are against them. He feels bound in the same bundle 
 of life with the fellows who are gone. And every genera- 
 tion of students ought to give careful thought before they 
 change college traditions, specially those that have entered 
 into the fiber of the institution. Its play traditions may have 
 little value ; its trick traditions may have less ; but its real 
 educational traditions, of honesty and reliability, of square- 
 ness and steadiness, are among its assets of which no gen- 
 eration of students can deprive it without doing despite to 
 the hard labor by which such traditions are always built up 
 in the first place. They have come into the inheritance and 
 they are not to trifle with it. 
 
 David Livingstone "remembered his father's telling him as 
 a lad that the Livingstone family had never been rich or 
 famous, but it had always been honest ; there had never been 
 a liar in it, so far as the records were known. If any of the 
 new generation became liars or dishonest they would be 
 betraying the generations that had gone before them. So 
 we become companions of those that fear God in all genera- 
 tions (119:63) and we learn the meaning of dwelHng to- 
 gether with our fellows in unity (133) by which blessing 
 flows down from the higher levels to the lower ones, as dew 
 descends from higher Hermon to lower Zion in Palestine. 
 
 Being so fully part of the social group, we keep our wide 
 interest in men. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe wanted Charles 
 Sumner to see and know Edwin Booth. When she proposed 
 a meeting, however, Sumner replied : "I don't know that I 
 should care to meet him. I have outlived my interest in 
 individuals." In her diary, Mrs. Howe adds, "Fortunately, 
 God Almighty had not, by last accounts, got so far." Most 
 
 51 
 
IIV-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 students of Sumner would feel that an enthusiasm for indi- 
 viduals would have helped his service of the whole, fine as 
 that was. Here is the place to discuss in your own mind 
 whether there is any way of balancing the social and indi- 
 vidual interests so that each gets its share of attention. The 
 social group .is the bigger fact, but it is impossible without 
 the individuals who make it up, and they would seem the 
 fundamental fact. What is the truth and what is the error in 
 saying that the state exists for citizens and not citizens for 
 the state? Under what conditions should a fraternity exist 
 for its members and when should its members think of them- 
 selves rather than in terms of the fraternity? 
 
 Sharing the common life of the social group, we come to 
 honest acknowledgment of the claims of its good and evil 
 on us. The reenforcing of good (22:22; 40:10) is as 
 important as the opposing of evil. It gives the same chance 
 for energy, and is all the more promising because it is 
 always rewarded with a measure of success. Negative atti- 
 tudes have always to be supplemented by positive ones to 
 become effective. Men who know what we ought not to do 
 are likely to be merely troublesome, until some man comes 
 along who knows what ought to be done instead. The man 
 whom we dread is the one who can pick flaws in plans, but 
 has no constructive thing to propose. The best argument 
 against a poor way of doing things is a better way of doing 
 them. A bewildered Freshman returned from an hour with 
 his tutor saying that he now knew so man}^ things that he 
 must not do during his first year that he would welcome at 
 least one thing that he could do ! Service of the social group 
 demands more than the attitude of opposition to its evil. 
 
 But it does demand that attitude, for all that. The pres- 
 ence of a wrong or doubtful thing puts every man on his 
 guard if he is really trying to help. It is not hypocritical, 
 it is only sensible, to consider who are present before one 
 speaks (39:1, 2). There are criticisms which it is wise to 
 make in some hearings which would be most unwise in 
 other hearings. Judgments on the Church mean one thing 
 to church people and quite another thing to scoffing out- 
 siders. You can see that in the use these people make of 
 the attacks which evangelists make on the Church. Inside 
 people accept them as challenges to cure the evils complained 
 of, knowing that the evangelist himself still loves and honors 
 
 52 
 
SELF IN THE SOCIAL GROUP [IV-c] 
 
 the Church or he would not stay in it. Outside people make 
 it an added reason for' disregarding or sneering at the 
 Church. Apply the same thing to criticism of faculty actions 
 or student votes ; under what conditions are they wise, and 
 when are they not so? Is it any use, in your own com- 
 munity, to try to stop criticism of official actions? Is the 
 criticism generally healthy? So far as you take part in it 
 yourself, can your purpose and method be wholly approved? 
 
 II 
 
 All the way through our relation to the social group is 
 the demand for the poised life. The success of evil, the fre- 
 quent difficulty of good, tend to i^nsettle us. The founda- 
 tion under us seems insecure and our feet almost slip (73:2). 
 We can even come" to feel that we have been wasting our 
 effort, making fools of ourselves for nothing {yT,: 13). Over 
 against this natural rhood of depression was written much of 
 Psalms 26, 2>7, 49. and y2,. The resistance had been made, but 
 what had come of it? And there is no relief from the feel- 
 ing of futility but the assurance that such effort does alzcays 
 pay, does always help, does akvays work tozvard victory. 
 That is because, as Carnegie Simpson says in "The Fact of 
 Christ," "This is really not the world for worldliness." The 
 universe is not ordered to give either advantage or perma- 
 nence to wrong. That grew so clear to one of the men who 
 had let himself be troubled about it that he says he was brut- 
 ish and ignorant when he thought it (73:22). 
 
 A later writer (Nolan Rice Best in The Continent, June, 
 1916) says that the world is not "a success as an arena for 
 sensuous enjoyment." "If in place of trying to get rich, to 
 have fun or to be famous, one sets out to build up in himself 
 a strong character, then the world helps him forward by 
 every circumstance it surrounds him with. The only thing 
 the world is perfectly fitted for is the development of moral 
 character in men." The argument for that is good, but it 
 required more insight and more patience than some of us 
 have had. Only the persistent habit of taking high views 
 and long views will give us that patience and insight. If 
 we are determined not to take such views, we cannot keep 
 our poise in the world as it is. Low views and short ones 
 
 53 
 
[IV-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 give us warrant for thinking that moral qualities do not 
 count and that the main thing is to "get there" by the short- 
 est possible route. That is the first step toward joining in 
 the very things which we once opposed ; so we become merely 
 reenforcing members of anything our social group may de- 
 termine to do, rubber-stamping the orders of the group. 
 Nothing else seems worth while ; but as a matter of fact, 
 doing that sort of thing is less worth while still. 
 
 And the worst part of that is that it kills in us the spirit 
 of fight. Professor James used to argue for a moral equiv- 
 alent of war, and the phrase has struck a good chord in 
 many writings since. Several such substitutes have been 
 suggested, but none is more feasible than the larger con- 
 flicts that are on in the whole social order of today. And 
 as we have come to feel that the man who hides or skulks 
 in the day of battle is only second in shame to the man who 
 deserts to the enemy and fights against his brothers, so we 
 are coming to feel that the man who stands by when the great 
 issues are being joined in life, on college campus or in com- 
 munity, taking no part, is only a shade meaner than the man 
 who goes over to the other side and adds the weight of his 
 life and influence to the burden that must be moved before 
 the wrongs can be righted. One of the sharpest condemna- 
 tions in the psalms is the one that charges an enemy with 
 seeing a thief and consenting with him (50:18). The priest 
 and the Levite in Jesus' Samaritan story did nothing bad, 
 except that doing nothing was itself bad. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER THOUGHT AND 
 
 STUDY 
 
 Consider the value of George Sorrow's expression : "Fear 
 God and take your own part." How does it fit into the 
 thought of our necessary membership in a social group? 
 
 Is war a constructive element in the social order? What 
 moral value has it to justify Professor James' expression? 
 
 54 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Self Against the Social Group 
 
 DAILY READINGS 
 
 Fifth Week, First Day 
 
 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the 
 
 wicked, 
 Nor standeth in the way of sinners, 
 Nor sitteth in the seat of scoffers: 
 But his deHght is in the law of Jehovah; 
 And on his law doth he meditate day and night. 
 And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of 
 
 water. 
 That bringeth forth its fruit in its season, 
 Whose leaf also doth not wither; 
 And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. 
 The wicked are not so, 
 
 But are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. 
 Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment. 
 Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 
 For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous; 
 But the way of the wicked shall perish. 
 
 — Psalm I. 
 
 Here is a man set over against a group. The group is 
 always put in the plural ; one man of a certain type is on 
 the other side. The attitude which he takes is worded here 
 negatively: "Walketh not, standeth not, sitteth not." Of 
 course it is also positive, for every man in his social relations 
 has to walk and stand and sit somewhere. Refusing to be 
 in one relation involves choosing to be in another relation. 
 Ordinarily our social group helps us. Everybody can be 
 better for being in college or in a society or in a church, 
 if he is brave enough to hold himself up against some influ- 
 ences. He must not commit himself to sneezing because the 
 group takes snuff. He must live in the social group, opposing 
 the walk, the way, the seat of certain people in it. Which 
 
 55 
 
[V-2] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 people they are will determine the kind of man he is. That 
 cannot be maintained on a purely negative basis. "You 
 cannot drive out bad air with a club" ; only the inflow of good 
 air gets rid of it. In Jesus' story the evil spirit came back 
 again to the house and finding it empty possessed it again 
 (Luke 11:24-26). Our only safeguard against lower attrac- 
 tions is in finding higher pleasures. We keep out had 
 thoughts by meditations that are good. The psalm says that 
 the man who does so is blessed, happy. It works out so in 
 the long run ; the process may have in it other elements, but 
 strong men are not asking to be happy on the spur of the 
 moment. 
 
 Fifth Week, Second Day 
 
 The largest danger of a bad social group is not that it may 
 do some external damage to a man, but that it may absorb 
 one into itself, making him like itself, dyeing him with its 
 own colors. It is becoming like the men whom one now dis- 
 approves on high moral grounds that constitutes the tragedy 
 of many lives. Being lied about is no great matter ; being 
 made a liar is the serious thing. Lies are like measles — 
 they do no special damage unless they strike in. Booker 
 Washington used often to say that holding another man in 
 the gutter is always harder on the upper than on the under 
 man. You have to be there yourself in order to hold him 
 there. He is there against his will, and may not be hurt by 
 it; you are there by your own will and cannot escape being 
 injured. Who recovers sooner from a fraudulent victory, the 
 winner or the loser? The loser can come to laugh over it; 
 the winner knows himself a fraud whenever he thinks of it. 
 It is becoming like the wrong group that is to be dreaded. 
 
 Unto thee, O Jehovah, will I call: 
 
 My rock, be not thou deaf unto me; 
 
 Lest, if thou be silent unto me, 
 
 I become like them that go down into the pit. 
 
 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, 
 
 When I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. 
 
 Draw me not away with the wicked, 
 
 And with the workers of iniquity; 
 
 That speak peace with their neighbors, 
 
 But mischief is in their hearts. 
 
 — Psalm 28: 1-3. 
 
 56 
 
SELF AGAINST THE SOCIAL GROUP [V-3] 
 
 Notice that in this passage the pull of wrong influences 
 in the social group is compared to a tide, an undertow, that 
 tugs at one and makes him feel the need of a rock on which 
 he can stand. Do not most of us lose our balance gradually, 
 subtly undermined, even though we fall with a crash at the 
 last ? 
 
 Fifth Week, Third Day 
 
 Jehovah, I have called upon thee; make haste unto me: 
 Give ear unto my voice, when I call unto thee. 
 Let my prayer be set forth as incense before thee; 
 The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. 
 Set a watch, O Jehovah, before my mouth; 
 Keep the door of my lips. 
 Incline not my heart to any evil thing, 
 To practice deeds of wickedness 
 With men that work iniquity: 
 And let me not eat of their dainties. 
 Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness; 
 And let him reprove me, it shall be as oil upon the head; 
 Let not my head refuse it: 
 
 For even in their wickedness shall my prayer continue. 
 
 — Psalm 141: 1-5. 
 
 This little section of a psalm suggests one of the largest 
 difftculties any of us can feel in taking an attitude against 
 the social group of which we may be part. It is the loss of 
 the advantages that lie with the group. Fellowship means 
 so much to many of us that breaking it, even if we feel it is 
 wrong, hurts us alrnost too much to be endured. We tend 
 to herd, and no deed of wickedness looks quite so bad when 
 we are with other people. We would not do the wrong- 
 thing by ourselves, but with others it is easier. Even wolves 
 hunt in packs and are like!}'- to be cowards alone. If cheat- 
 ing is fairl}^ common in school, it is easier to cheat. Refusing 
 the accustomed ways seems like breaking the fellowship of 
 the group, setting one's self up as better than the others, 
 and that often sends one to Coventry. There is no particular 
 drawing to vandalism or hazing, all by one's self ; it is the 
 crowd that makes it attractive and we all like our crowd. 
 Then, there are other advantages of the group, called here 
 their "dainties." Can we forego these obvious advantages 
 for the sake of being right? Certainly not unless there is 
 
 S7 
 
[V-4] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 a good deal of very good fiber in our makeup or unless we 
 want that fiber enough to pay the price for it. 
 
 Fifth Week, Fourth Day 
 
 There is about as much cowardice in this matter of adverse 
 attitude toward one's social group as anywhere else in life. 
 Some of us are cowardly in our refusal to face the adverse 
 facts. We pretend that the difficulties are negligible, or that 
 the evils themselves can be disregarded. One modern school 
 of religious thinking has declared it our duty to negate all 
 such things. Aside from the dishonesty that so easily 
 develops from that, we must keep it clear that there is no 
 real courage about it. Most officers executed in the war are 
 allowed to have their eyes unbound when they face the fir- 
 ing squad and the bravest ones claim the privilege. Bravery 
 wants to look the facts in the face, scorns to find a cheap 
 relief by pretenses about them. This is the way one man 
 faced his difficulties : 
 
 Jehovah, hov(7 are mine adversaries increased! 
 
 Many are they that rise up against me. 
 
 Many there are that say of my soul, 
 
 There is no help for him in God. 
 
 But thou, O Jehovah, art a shield about me; 
 
 My glory, and the lifter up of my head. \ 
 
 I cry unto Jehovah with my voice, 
 
 And he answereth me out of his holy hill. 
 
 I laid me down and slept; 
 
 I awaked; for Jehovah sustaineth me. 
 
 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of .the people 
 
 That have set themselves against me round about. 
 
 — Psalm 3: 1-6. 
 
 Looking at the facts does not mean fretting or v/orrying 
 about difficulties and evils. Instead, it prepares us for the 
 steadiness of life that makes us equal to the fight against 
 them. When we learn to hold such things out in the light 
 before God, with no pretenses, we can be quiet about them. 
 This writer, knowing all this about his many adversaries who 
 were challenging his place in the social order, could yet lie 
 down in peace and sleep, knowing that the whole enterprise 
 was in higher hands than his own. That was God's pre- 
 scription for one of the bravest men of whom we have any 
 
 58 
 
SELF AGAINST THE SOCIAL GROUP [V-5] 
 
 record. Read I Kings 19 and see how Elijah, depressed and 
 worn nervously, was first allowed to sleep and eat, getting 
 his nerve back, and then was allowed to face the facts again. 
 The overwrought, nervous state is not the one in which we 
 get our fairest views of life. 
 
 Fifth Week, Fifth Day 
 
 Who w^ill rise up for me against the evil-doers? 
 
 Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? 
 
 Unless Jehovah had been my help, 
 
 My soul had soon dwelt in silence. 
 
 When I said, My foot slippeth; 
 
 Thy lovingkindness, O Jehovah, held me up. 
 
 In the multitude of my thoughts within me 
 
 Thy comforts delight my soul. . . . 
 
 But Jehovah hath been my high tower, 
 
 And my God the rock of my refuge. 
 
 — Psalm 94: 16-19, 22. 
 
 Here is a case of the help which history brought to a man 
 making his stand against his social group. He was facing 
 a new condition, with new complications. There came to 
 him a moment of wonder whether he could do it. He knew as 
 we all have known under similar conditions, that he could 
 not do it alone. Somehow others must get involved in it 
 before it could be anything else than a mere self-assertion. 
 We have not made many fights against wrong if we do not 
 know what that means. One feels small and inadequate or 
 else impertinent and officious. What right has one man to 
 set himself up against his group? Only a few people are 
 jaunty all the way through a real effort to resist wrong. 
 Others wear a jaunty exterior, but down in their hearts they 
 often wonder whether it is worth while and how it will 
 come out. 
 
 Then comes history to the rescue. There are bad chapters 
 there, but the long-running fact is that the forces of good 
 keep winning victories. Evil has plenty of precedents but 
 not much encouragement from history. Good may have 
 fezvcr precedents but it has more encouragement. • One has 
 to forget or be ignorant of a great deal of history in order 
 to be fearful of the outcome of a fight for right. And as 
 personal experience extends, one recalls more and more 
 
 59 
 
[V-6] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 times when his foot held because a power not himself was 
 making for righteousness through him. The finest chapters 
 of general and personal history answer the question whether 
 standing against the group for the right is t worth while. 
 
 Fifth Week, Sixth Day 
 
 In Jehovah do I take refuge: 
 
 How say ye to my soul, 
 
 Flee as a bird to your mountain; 
 
 For, lo, the wicked bend the bow, 
 
 They make ready their arrow upon the string. 
 
 That they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart; 
 
 If the foundations be destroyed. 
 
 What can the righteous do? 
 
 Jehovah is in his holy temple; 
 
 Jehovah, his throne is in heaven; 
 
 His eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. 
 
 Jehovah trieth the righteous; 
 
 But the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hat- 
 
 eth. 
 Upon the wicked he will rain snares; 
 Fire and brimstone and burning wind shall be the portion 
 
 of their cup. 
 For Jehovah is righteous; he loveth righteousness: 
 The upright shall behold his face. — Psalm ii. 
 
 The earlier half of this passage, closing with the question, 
 presents one of the problems of the attitude of opposition 
 to wrong in the social group. The attitude seems futile. 
 Bad men are simply stronger than good men ; they are 
 shrewder; they **get there," while good men are so often 
 ineffective. The very foundations are destroyed and "what 
 have the righteous accomplished?" — so the margin reads. 
 It is the way of the fall of many a good man in public life, 
 of many a clean lad in college. He stands out finely for the 
 best things and then there comes to him the feeling of the 
 utter futility of it all. Sometimes early, sometimes later in 
 college, that comes over a student. He is missing the good 
 times in the interest of a principle and neither he nor the 
 principle is really getting anywhere. He has stood out, but 
 the evil has gone on just the same. He has become unpop- 
 ular and foolish in the minds of other people, and things are 
 unchanged. What is the use? 
 
 60 
 
SELF AGAINST THE SOCIAL GROUP [V-7] 
 
 The latter part of the passage, after the question, answers 
 that God is the use. // this is really a universe at all, if any- 
 one is on a moral basis here, then the dishonest thing, the 
 unfair thing, the cheap thing, is simple folly. God is there 
 "within the shadow keeping watch above, His own," and all 
 these bits of courage count in the long battle. 
 
 Fifth Week, Seventh Day 
 
 Cynicism is a besetting sin. of the mood which we are now 
 discussing. One easily becomes a mere croaker, refusing the 
 evil of the group out of contempt for it. That is unhealthy 
 and may be just morbid. Read over again the seven resolu- 
 tions of this little passage and see how sane they are. 
 
 I will sing of lovingkindness and justice: 
 
 Unto thee, O Jehovah, will I sing praises. 
 
 I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way: 
 
 Oh when wilt thou come unto me? 
 
 I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. 
 
 I will set no base thing before mine eyes: 
 
 I hate the work of them that turn aside; 
 
 It shall not cleave unto me. 
 
 A perverse heart shall depart from me: 
 
 I will know no evil thing. 
 
 — Psalm loi : 1-4. 
 
 Here is no doubt of the presence and power in the world of 
 lovingkindness and justice. Evil has not right of way in 
 the world and is not the law of life, even if there is a vast 
 deal of it. Men can be wise and can walk in a perfect way — 
 at least they can resolve to do it, and that is our part. We 
 cannot destroy all the base things, but we can keep from 
 gazing at them when they are none of our business. Dirty 
 deeds are done, but they need not cleave to^us. Perverse 
 hearts are plenty, but they need not be our boon companions. 
 Evil things are here, but they need not make up our stock of 
 knowledge. When a man can say, "I will," six times in so 
 few lin^s and let two of them involve a resolution to sing, 
 he is not much of a cynic, but he is likely t-6 be a vigorous 
 outstanding fighter on the right side. We need no more 
 croaking reformers. We want joyous ones, who are sure 
 enough that righteousness has conquering power from God to 
 
 61 
 
[V-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 sing about it. Such men cannot be triflers, compromising 
 with evil conditions. Nothing but the best is good enough 
 for the social group which involves lovingkindness and 
 justice, but nothing is to be despaired of in behalf of such a 
 group. 
 
 COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 
 
 We are not in our social group for what it can do for us, 
 but quite as much for what we can do for it. Of course it 
 serves our lives ; we could not live without it. But it is much 
 too one-sided if we do not think of our lives in terms of the 
 need of our group. And that is sure to demand, soon or 
 late, that we take our stand against the group at some point. 
 It is easy to accept bad conditions blandly, quietly evading 
 all personal responsibility. A strong current of popular 
 opinion runs that way. Taking other people and their needs 
 seriously is not quite the thing, or was not until the new 
 social sense was aroused. Hegel carries this idea of social 
 ethics so far as to think that the individual ought never to 
 set himself against the main line of opinion around him. 
 *'The wisest men of antiquity," he says, "have given judg- 
 ment that wisdom and virtue consist in living agreeably to 
 the ethos of one's people." Mr. Bradley is so sure of this 
 that he says that for a man "to wish to be better than the 
 world is to be already on the threshold of immorality." 
 But whatever the argument for such ideas, the reigning 
 judgment of the past and of the present is against it. Dr. 
 Rashdall has plenty of evidence for his saying that "moral 
 progress has, in point of fact, only been brought about by 
 the acts of individual men and women who have had the 
 courage to condemn, to go beyond, and to defy the existing 
 code of public opinion at a given time and place." 
 
 We are all in danger of soft acquiescence in conditions 
 which we find when we arrive. But we lose much when 
 we lose our power of moral indignation. When evils do not 
 hurt us enough to stir us, it does not show that they are 
 not evil ; it shows that we are dull. H the exploitation of 
 the poor for profit, of unfortunate women for pleasure, 
 of little children as toilers, does not matter to us, we are 
 
 62 
 
SELF AGAINST THE SOCIAL GROUP [V-c] 
 
 cheapened ourselves. The poor in London were just as needy 
 when the committee called on Mr. Scrooge in his counting 
 house on Christmas eve as they were the next day when 
 Scrooge met the chairman of the committee on the street, 
 but Scrooge had a hard heart at the first meeting and the 
 need could not get to him ; his heart had grown tender by 
 the second time, and he could feel what the need was. When 
 we keep wholly calm about wrong in our social group, we 
 do not reveal anything about the moral quality of the things 
 that are wrong, but we reveal something about ourselves. 
 
 After all is said about the gentleness and tenderness of 
 Jesus, it remains true that you could not be comfortable 
 with him unless you were willing to accept strong treat- 
 ment of hypocrites and exploiters. He was tender, but not 
 soft ; he was gentle, but not weak. Sometimes we say lightly 
 about a wrong thing that it never touched us. The real ques- 
 tion is whether we hit it as it came near. As Dr. Babcock 
 said years ago, "We are not l^re to play," to have a smooth 
 time, to drift along with the current. There is fighting to 
 be done, there are loads to lift, there are oppositions to be 
 accomplished. Can a man live an acquiescent life and not 
 miss his best chances to help? 
 
 The hardest place to meet wrong and oppose it is in the 
 nearer circle, which we are here calling the social group. 
 Jesus warned us that under his plan for social regeneration 
 "a man's foes shall be they of his own household" (Matthew 
 10:36). Not merely that they will sometimes oppose the 
 best in him, but that he will sometimes need to oppose things 
 dear to them, and so run athwart their practices. In the 
 io6th psalm (vs. 30, 31) a gruesome story of early Hebrew 
 history is reviewed from this point of view. The story Itself 
 is told in the Numbers. It is of Phinehas, who saw a foul 
 wrong that was hurting the whole nation, occurring within 
 the group of which he was part. He dealt with it violently 
 and there will always be nice people who will be so concerned 
 with his violence that they forget what he was trying to 
 get done. Healthy-minded people must remember that the 
 wrong he was attacking provoked wide imitation, and was one 
 of the subtle evils that draw many men in their train, while 
 his sharp way of handling it is not in danger of imitation. This 
 is no time to defend Phinehas, nor any of the group of men 
 who stood at crises and roughly, even wrongly, opposed evil. 
 
 63 
 
[V-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 Certainly, until we are willing in safer and yet equally strong 
 ways to oppose evil, -we may not be too sharp against them 
 without exposing our own indifference toward the evils 
 which they hated. It is, on the whole, better to do a piece 
 of needed work in a way less than the best than to leave it 
 undone in the most correct fashion. 
 
 II 
 
 The attitude of opposition may be both negative and posi- 
 tive. The best opposition is a life kept free but not isolated. 
 We do not stop evils in the game by going oft' the field. 
 That has its value, of course, but it makes us outsiders, easy 
 to accuse of lack of understanding. There may be times 
 when that is all we can do. It is sure that we do not 
 strengthen our hands for opposition by joining for a time 
 in the wrong thing. Repentance after the deed is better than 
 none at all, but it lays one liable to the charge of fickleness. 
 When Paul gives his list (I Cor. 9: 19-22) of the "all things" 
 which he was willing to become that he might save men, he 
 does not put wrong things in the list. He was not willing to 
 be a liar that he might save liars ; he was not willing to 
 cheat that he might oppose the whole matter of cheating; 
 he was not willing to tell a foul story that he might later stop 
 the telling of foul stories in his group. He was not willing to 
 do these things or their like, because they do not help in 
 opposing the wrong; they hinder. The writer of the 26th 
 psalm rests part of his argument on the fact that he has not 
 "sat with men of falsehood." He hates "the assembly of 
 evil doers." The 17th psalm follows the same general line. 
 Thesd men have kept their lives free. 
 
 But their lives have not been isolated. They have not let 
 the matter become personal. In so far as the sharpest psalms 
 represent a mood of moral indignation, they might well enter 
 our blood again at this time. Their writers are generally 
 conscious of nothing but a genuine desire to help and be 
 friendly. Their memories are of good fellowship in the 
 past which they did not break (41:9, 55:12). In the midst 
 of their opposition, they claim the spirit of love (109:4, 5). 
 There come times when we feel that the moral universe is 
 involved in a situation, when moral issues become clear and 
 we are no longer personally worth considering. The only 
 
 64 
 
SELF AGAINST THE SOCIAL GROUP [V-c] 
 
 thing for us to guard at such times is our own spirits ; if 
 they are right, moral indignation will never hurt us. 
 
 There have been two men, both now dead, who did the 
 same kind of work in different sections of America, opposing 
 the same evil and producing the same results. Both of them 
 hated the evil with a consuming hatred and each fought it 
 by all means in his power. One of them bore many scars 
 of his battle on his body; he had been attacked and beaten 
 over and over; he had been nearly murdered time and again; 
 in prisons and places of iniquity were his deadly enemies, 
 who hated him with a perfect hatred. The other was never 
 seriously attacked, bore no scars, was often sought out by men 
 whom he had imprisoned for their crime with full assur- 
 ance that he would help them, was never approached with 
 any suggestion of compromise, was never personally hated 
 and yet was feared in his territory even more than the first 
 in his, as an utterly relentless pursuer of the crimes to whose 
 destruction he was devoting his Hfe. One of them could 
 not keep the personal element out of his fight ; the other 
 could. One made individuals feel that he hated them for their 
 devilish business ; the other made them feel that he hated 
 their devilish business so that it hurt him to have anybody 
 connected with it. Partly that is a matter of personal tem- 
 perament, but which would you choose for yourself as a 
 fighting disposition? 
 
 You can see the same thing on a smaller scale in your own 
 community. One man fights a wrong so that he becomes 
 personally unpopular and out of favor; another is quite as 
 well known as opposed to it, but holds the esteem of the 
 group in the meanwhile. In your own observation, which 
 was the more influential in the ending of the wrong? Which 
 influenced you more yourself? Did you feel that the second 
 sacrificed something for popularity? Did you feel that the 
 former was braver? 
 
 Ill 
 
 The only salvation for most of us from being parties to the 
 wrong we ought to oppose is active opposition to it. If we 
 live as near to other people as we ought to do, we cannot 
 help feeling the tug of the things that they do. The mood 
 that would have the wings of the dove and fly far away to 
 be at rest, finding in the wilderness a home (55 : 6, 7) is real 
 
IV-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 •enough at certain stages in life, but it is not normal and cer- 
 tainly it does not appeal to the finest things in us. Getting 
 away from trouble is not specially fine. Jesus did not pray 
 that his disciples might be taken out of the world, but that 
 they might stay in it and yet be kept from the evil (John 
 17 : 15). We must keep close to the conditions that need help; 
 Ave need the conditions ourselves as truly as they need us. 
 
 But if we do stay there, we shall find an undertow pulling 
 us off of our footing and out of our depth, against which 
 we have to stand with more than negative aggression. The 
 influences that break down our finest resolutions are subtle 
 ■ones, seldom overt. A man entered one of our large Amer- 
 ican universities a loyal Christian and left it almost as decided 
 against the Christian faith. Later he came back to his faith 
 and was led to think back over the conditions that had 
 unsettled him in his university. He could not name any 
 professor who had said a plain, straightout word against 
 the student's faith, but could think of several whose class- 
 rooms had the atmosphere of contempt for it, where innuen- 
 does and slighting references were made to unstated posi- 
 tions which he recognized as those he had held. The fra- 
 ternity and campus arguments had not been serious enough 
 to unsettle him, for he knew the answer to most of them 
 perfectly, but the general tone of the place, the unspoken 
 amusement at religious professions, the disregard of reli- 
 gious demands, gradually cast a spell over him. No one 
 tried to undo him, but presently he found himself undone. 
 During his course he fell into certain wrong ways of living, 
 ways that he recognized perfectly as wrong, but wrong only 
 by the standards of living which he brought to the university 
 with him ; he wanted to follow those ways and so, for the 
 sake of inner peace, he modified his standards to include the 
 lower things. 
 
 He knew better, of course ; everybody does. And if he 
 liad faced it squarely and tried to accept the lowered stand- 
 ard all at once, he could not have done it, but the undertow 
 ^ot him and he was off his moral foundations. Telling of 
 it afterward, he spoke of another man in the university at 
 the same time, who entered the legitimate Hfe of the insti- 
 tution as much as he did and even more, and who came 
 out of his course aggressively Christian. He could not see 
 how it was accomplished except by the definite stand this 
 
 66 
 
SELF AGAINST THE SOCIAL GROUP [V-c] 
 
 man had taken from the first against the lowering things 
 of the Hfe around him. He had not evaded the hfe; he 
 had lived it, but always on the side of the things that were 
 best. 
 
 There is no danger in being where things are wrong 
 except the tendency of badness to rub off. There is a kind 
 of wet paint about evil ; it requires preternatural care to keep 
 from touching it so that it leaves a stain. Labelling it only 
 adds to the danger. How often have you gone up to a sign 
 of wet paint and touched the surface to see if it was really 
 still wet? And that is what men do about evil; they try it 
 to see if it is what other men pretend it is. On the other 
 hand, the consciousness of the presence of wrong condi- 
 tions stirs the blood, may even stir the ire of inherently active 
 men. The loist psalm, the 73rd, the 141st, all have this 
 spirit of keeping one's self free, even while one is in the 
 midst of the evil conditions, 
 
 Henry Boynton Smith, Bowdoin '34, who later became a 
 great American religious leader, went as a young man to a 
 foreign country to study. His friends grew anxious about 
 him, but he reassured them by saying that he knew his danger 
 and was watching himself. "Be sure," he wrote, "that if I 
 find my faith undermined, I will come home." There are 
 men who would count that cowardice ; they say if their faith 
 can be shaken, they want it shaken. That is mere bravado — 
 as though a physician, in a plague section, should be counted 
 a coward if he refused to watch against the first symptoms 
 of the disease he is fighting. He cannot know too much 
 about it, for the sake of others, but if he let it seize himself, 
 he is out of commission. That has happened with scores of 
 college men. They have been ready to accept any kind of 
 risk, supposably to grow stronger for life, only to be put out 
 of commission for life. What they needed was courage 
 enough to stand against the social group for the group's 
 sake as well as their own. The man who is willing to take 
 all his group is able to give him, but is not willing to give his 
 group all he is able to give it, is not playing fair. 
 
 IV 
 
 It is not mere fear of popular disapproval that holds many 
 of us back from the courageous opposition to wrong. It is 
 
 67 
 
[V-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 dread lest we may deserve that disapproval. Becoming a 
 croaker and faultfinder is painfully easy and painfully com- 
 mon, too. Once in a while appears a Dante who can take a 
 brave stand against Florence, or a Savonarola who can crit- 
 icize the Medici, or a Tennyson who can hold up his land to 
 severe judgment in "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After," and 
 yet be really loving and loyal. So occasionally a lad can 
 stand against a college tradition and keep fine and strong 
 and not become a mere pedant and stickler for his own ideas. 
 But generally it is not so, and we have to admit it. It is hard 
 to take a decided stand against something in the group and 
 yet be honestly for the group. Always one must pass through 
 a period of seeming to be a mere faultfinder, overproud of 
 one's own opinion, setting up one's own standard against 
 everybody else's standards, taking a holier-than-thou posi- 
 tion, which every normal person hates. The problem is to 
 keep from being that kind of critic down in one's heart and 
 also to be brave enough to stand the pressure of common 
 opinion that one is that kind until the opposite /fact can be 
 proved by time. 
 
 All of us hate being called Jeremiahs. But do -we know 
 the real story of Jeremiah ? The fact is that he was right 
 in his contention, as his history showed. And the further 
 fact is that he was right in his spirit all the way through. 
 He was always ready for any scheme which was not pal- 
 pably foolish that would help the situation. He was not 
 willing to do just anything that any fool proposed, but he 
 was eager to save the situation as long as there was the 
 slightest hope of doing it. He was no croaker. He differed 
 from other people only in the fact that his eyes were open 
 and theirs were not. The 31st psalm is often ascribed to 
 him as a man whose experiences would just fit such a song of 
 disappointment and query. John Henry Newman said that 
 "Jeremiah's ministry may be summed up in three words. 
 Good hope, labor, disappointment." In that psalm appears 
 the feeling of one who sometimes has to come out frankly 
 against his social group and even the whole social order of 
 which he is part. Always there is the danger of seeming 
 merely stubborn (v. 18), and indeed of actually being so, a 
 danger that makes so many men cowards on moral ques- 
 tions. Always there is the pain of estranging those whom 
 one needs for comfort and cheer (vs. 11, 12). Always there 
 
 68 
 
SELF AGAINST THE SOCIAL GROUP [V-c] 
 
 is the feeling that in near circles one is being discussed and 
 condemned so that talk changes when one comes along (vs. 
 II, 13, 20). It is all very natural. 
 
 But, mcamvhile, no matter what the danger or the cost, 
 here is our social group and the only hope for it is that it he 
 saved to its higher ideals, and that men like ourselves who 
 love it shall not desert it, but do our honest part in its behalf. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER THOUGHT AND 
 
 STUDY 
 
 Read Browning's "Ivan Ivanovitch" and consider sharply 
 its social problem — the right of an individual in a social 
 group to take the correction of an evil into his own hands. 
 Consider carefully the argument of the priest. Tennyson's 
 "Maud" presents a phase of the same problem. 
 
 Try to think out the principal traits which a man ought 
 to show if he is to set himself worthily against any particular 
 wrong on a college campus, in a society, or in a community. 
 Concrete cases are better than speculation. 
 
 69 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Self for the Social Group 
 
 DAILY READINGS 
 
 Sixth Week, First Day 
 
 Blessed is he that considereth the poor: 
 
 Jehovah will deliver him in the day of evil. 
 
 Jehovah will preserve him, and keep him alive, 
 
 And he shall be blessed upon the earth; 
 
 And deliver not thou him unto the will of his enemies. 
 
 Jehovah will support him upon the couch of languishing: 
 
 Thou makest all his bed in his sickness. 
 
 — Psalm 41: 1-3. 
 
 Here the self is taking account of the group and the need- 
 iest portion of it. The margin of our Bibles substitutes 
 "weak" for "poor," in the first line. It is not money poverty 
 that is of largest concern. That hurts a great many and 
 men who love the group must watch with interest any move- 
 ment that promises to relieve distress by a more equitable 
 distribution of wealth. Is not that a surface matter? The 
 man spoken of here takes account of the fact that other 
 people are weaker than he is and governs himself accordingly. 
 The weakest men in college are not generally the men with 
 least money, often they are the ones with most money. In 
 the average community there is often more manhood among 
 young fellows who are working their way along than among 
 those who have all the things they want. Men are needed 
 who will set their strength over against other people's weak- 
 ness, not for their own sakes, but for the sake of the weaker 
 people. Even kings get their honor from doing that (72: 12). 
 Whoever does it has the forces of the universe with him in 
 his effort. The law of sacrifice and service is universal, one 
 of the habits of God himself. He takes note of the man who 
 
 70 
 
SELF FOR THE SOCIAL GROUP [VI-2] 
 
 takes note of weakness. And he sees to it that no genuinely 
 unselfish act is regretted ; he makes its doer "blessed," happ}-. 
 When we talk about the ingratitude of others toward our- 
 selves we reveal that we were expecting something for our 
 supposedly unselfish actions ! The man who considers the 
 weak may have a couch of languishing or a sick bed, and 
 this does not say he may not, but he will be sustained on 
 it, and that is better. 
 
 Sixth Week, Second Day • 
 
 The Bible is not much concerned about the divine right of 
 kings, but it is very clear about the divine duty of kings. 
 The divine right belongs to the subjects; they have the right 
 to the right kind of kings. This 72nd psalm expresses the 
 ideal for any man who knows himself superior to others at 
 any point. 
 
 Give the king thy judgments, O God, 
 
 And thy righteousness unto the king's son. 
 
 He will judge thy people with righteousness, 
 
 And thy poor with justice. 
 
 The mountains shall bring peace to the people. 
 
 And the hills, in righteousness. 
 
 He will judge the poor of the people. 
 
 He will save the children of the needy. 
 
 And will break in pieces the oppressor. 
 
 — Psalm 72:1-4. 
 
 We have left governmental kings behind, partly because 
 they persisted in thinking of their superiority in terms of 
 somebody else's service instead of their own. If they had 
 counted themselves chiefly burdenbearers for their subjects, 
 we might not have grown so restive under the system of 
 which they are part. And we have not left behind the 
 many other types of kingship, which involve superiority in 
 mind, in leadership, in ability. President Buckham of Ver- 
 mont Unversity called college students "the very elect" be- 
 cause they were the most severely selected group in the 
 country, each one being the survivor of so large a number 
 that started with him. On that account he declared their 
 responsibility is greatest. Whoever knows himself at any 
 point superior to any other man is the theme of this psalm 
 
 71 
 
[VI-3] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 and ought to think not of his divine rights but of his divine 
 duties. The king lives for the nation, not for himself, and 
 the nation does not live for him. In the Christian scheme 
 men who want to be great must earn the place by being 
 servants of all (Mark lo: 43). In any social group some 
 men are sure to be broken in pieces ; here it is the oppressors. 
 There is a grim justice in that. They have used their supe- 
 riority for their own profit; a moral universe cannot approve 
 them. 
 
 Sixth Week, Third Day 
 
 He sent a man before them; 
 
 Joseph was sold for a servant: 
 
 His feet they hurt with fetters; 
 
 He was laid in chains of iron, 
 
 Until the time that his word came to pass, 
 
 The word of Jehovah tried him. 
 
 The king sent and loosed him; 
 
 Even the ruler of peoples, and let him go free. 
 
 He made him lord of his house, 
 
 And ruler of all his substance; 
 
 To bind his princes at his pleasure, 
 
 And teach his elders wisdom. 
 
 — Psalm 105:17-22. 
 
 "He sent a man before them" — could it be more finely 
 said? A man is always being sent before the rank and file. 
 He suffers and they profit by it. He gains his power at heavy 
 cost and they reap the advantage. There is a joy in leader- 
 ship, of course. There is inspiration in being the path- 
 breaker. But the pioneers are easier to read about and to 
 glorify than to imitate. The third generation after them 
 usually boasts of them by word of mouth and shames them 
 by weakness of character and life. What we think of our 
 ancestors is not half so important as what they would think 
 of us. In one of our western cities, one of the greatest orgies 
 of a recent season, with lavish and boastful outlay and 
 immoral exhibition, was to honor the memory of men who 
 toiled through hardship and pain to open the country and 
 get its life started. The only real way to honor a pioneer 
 ancestry is to be to our own generation what it was to its 
 generation. Think over the names of men sent before their 
 
 72 
 
SELF FOR THE SOCIAL GROUP [VI-4I 
 
 fellows and see what traits are needed now and what ones 
 you could offer the world : men like Moses, David, John the 
 Baptist, Paul, Luther, Knox, Washington, Lincoln, men 
 whom we make heroes, but who knew the storm and stress 
 of life while they lived it. Building monuments to them is 
 cheap approval unless the monuments are built by men like 
 them. 
 
 Sixth Week, Fourth Day 
 
 Biographies never take up a man at the beginning of his 
 larger career, as though that could be cut off from the 
 earlier days before there was any career in sight. Presidents 
 of countries are always something else first, and you cannot 
 understand the presidential career without some knowledge 
 of the life that had in it no such career. No one can -read 
 the story of David without seeing the influence of his early 
 work as a shepherd. He blends in his public dealing the 
 tenderness and the firmness of that calling. A shepherd 
 remembers that sheep are foolish, living for the moment 
 and its pleasure, without long vision or power of self-pro- 
 tection. He cannot, on that account, be harsh with them, 
 but on the same account he cannot let them have their own 
 way without control. 
 
 He chose David also his servant, 
 
 And took him from the sheepfolds: 
 
 From following the ewes that have their young he 
 
 brought him, 
 To be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his 
 
 inheritance. 
 So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of 
 
 his heart, 
 And guided them by the skilftilness of his hands. 
 
 — Psalm 78 : 70-72". 
 
 That is the key to most of David's rule. Browning makes 
 a good deal of those early days and their lessons in his 
 "Saul." When Jesus called Peter the fisherman to be his 
 disciple, he promised to gather up the earlier life into this 
 new service and make him a fisher of men (Matt. 4:19). 
 Peter's life could be written from that point of view and 
 could hardly be understood without it. And all that puts a 
 
 7Z 
 
[VI-5] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 new premium on the earlier tasks of life. Being a good col- 
 lege leader or a good gang leader has its bearing on what 
 comes after. The big group which one must serve after a 
 while is essentially like the little group of which one is a 
 member at the beginning of life. Learning to live for the 
 smaller group carries with it the secret of living for the 
 larger group. Peter was not a fisherman for fun, but for 
 tlie purposes of life, and as those purposes enlarged they 
 used all the deposits of the earlier days. Are you making 
 the most of your present opportunities to live for your group? 
 
 Sixth Week, Fifth Day 
 
 Jehovah, remember for David 
 
 All his affliction; 
 
 Hovv he sware unto Jehovah, 
 
 And vowed unto the Mighty One of Jacob: 
 
 Surely I v^^ill not come into the tabernacle of my house. 
 
 Nor go up into my bed; 
 
 I will not give sleep to mine eyes. 
 
 Or slumber to mine eyelids; 
 
 Until I find out a place for Jehovah, 
 
 A tabernacle for the Mighty One of Jacob. 
 
 — Psalm 132: 1-5. 
 
 Here is David thinking of the larger interest of his people. 
 Their food, their wealth, their outward prosperity had con- 
 cerned him. He had carried on his , heart these surface needs 
 of his social group for which he was responsible. But all 
 the while he was keeping in mind the deeper needs. Israel's 
 history was bound up with its religion. Its greatest need was 
 to keep the religious elements in its life vigorous. Not merely 
 for Jehovah's sake, but for Israel's sake also, David vowed 
 to provide a center for worship. There is alwa3^s danger of 
 being so occupied with obvious needs that the deeper needs 
 slip out of our concern. What is the deepest need of the 
 social group that means most to you, and how far are you 
 really concerned with its supply? Was the old alumnus right 
 when he wrote the president of his college that he trembled 
 for it as it received a large gift for buildings and endow- 
 ment? What could safeguard it? 
 
 Recall the story of David's disappointment over carrying 
 put his plan in full. He had to pass it on unfinished, but 
 
 74 
 
SELF FOR THE SOCIAL GROUP [VI-6] 
 
 largely advanced by his work (I Chron. 22: 14-16). That is 
 so of many fine projects for good that we attempt; we can- 
 not finish them, but we can advance them. Life is measured, 
 not by what we get done, but by the size of the projects to 
 which we give ourselves. Simon Bolivar, the South Ameri- 
 can patriot, said : "We shall not see, nor the generation fol- 
 lowing us, the triumph of the America we are now founding." 
 Is not that the very spirit of patriotism? The best things we 
 help with are not likely to be finished until long after we are 
 gone. 
 
 Sixth Week, Sixth Day 
 
 Come, and hear, all ye that fear God, 
 
 And I will declare what he hath done for my soul. 
 
 I cried unto him with my mouth, 
 
 And he was extolled with my tongue. 
 
 If I regard iniquity in my heart, 
 
 The Lord will not hear: 
 
 But verily God hath heard; 
 
 He hath attended to the voice of my prayer. 
 
 Blessed be God, 
 
 Who hath not turned away my prayer, 
 
 Nor his lovingkindness from me. 
 
 — Psalm 66: 16-20. 
 
 It is often true that the best service a life can render to its 
 social group is in the testimony it can bear to the better 
 things. The testimony is partly by word and partly just by 
 exhibition of itself. Sometimes we say that a good life needs 
 no tongue, but that is too wide a statement. A good life has 
 a tongue in itself and there are times when verbal testi- 
 mony is -as valuable as any other kind. Jesus had the happy 
 faculty of making friends with all sorts of people, not for- 
 ever correcting or reproving them, though he could not have 
 approved all he saw in them, but letting his life bear testi- 
 mony. Yet he could speak also when the need arose. When 
 he was leaving the earthly group, he told them that they 
 were to be his exhibits (Acts 1:8), for that is the meaning 
 of the word witnesses. He was to display them as argu- 
 ments in the case before the world. That is what he could 
 do with men, he would say. Mr. Moody said he resolved to 
 g^ve the grace of God a chance to show what could be done 
 
 75 
 
[VI-7] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 with a life wholly given over to it. The resolution was a 
 daring one, too much for most of us, but challenging every 
 one of us. It calls for a right life, which does not regard 
 iniquity in the heart so that it can be blessed before men, 
 and also for words of testimony in their time and place. 
 A ruined man told a pastor that he wished he could set up 
 his life as a red flag at certain danger-points for young 
 people. Why not set up our lives as white flags of encour- 
 agement at difficult points of life for our group? 
 
 Sixth Week, Seventh Day 
 
 I will come with the mighty acts of the Lord Jehovah: 
 
 I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine 
 only. 
 
 O God, thou hast taught me from my youth; 
 
 And hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. 
 
 Yea, even when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake 
 me not. 
 
 Until I have declared thy strength unto the next genera- 
 tion, t 
 
 Thy might to every one that is to come. 
 
 Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high; 
 
 Thou who hast done great things, 
 
 O God, who is like unto thee? 
 
 — Psalm 71: 16-19. 
 
 This is the way it looks from the farther end of life. 
 Youth is past, but its memories remain. Some of them are 
 dim ; others are still clear-cut. Most college men are sur- 
 prised as the years go on to see what a readjustment occurs 
 in memories. At reunions they talk of the more trifling 
 things ; down in their hearts they treasure the things that 
 counted, if there were any such things. It is those things 
 that get to the center of thought when they speak seriously 
 of the meaning of college life. Students hearing them 
 sometimes sneer at their pretense of making the really great 
 things so important; they say that they do not believe they 
 thought so at the time, and they are perfectly right. But 
 that is what time does; it shows what lasts in life and what 
 does not. On the whole, who would be the better judge of 
 the lasting things, the man who has lived his life or the man 
 who is beginning it? This man takes farther views and wants 
 
 76 
 
SELF FOR THE SOCIAL GROUP [VI-c] 
 
 his life to count with the next generation. There is a mood 
 of age which young people sometimes note with disapproval, 
 which suggests that the passing generation carries away 
 with it the main body of wisdom. Job scoffed at his friends 
 by saying that doubtless they were the people and wisdom 
 would die with them (Job 12:2), but the sneer runs deeper 
 than we readily think. If wisdom does die with any genera- 
 tion, so much the more shame to that generation. All that 
 we have that is best ought to be passed on to the next genera- 
 tion in life, college or community. 
 
 COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 
 
 The psalms reveal throughout a strong sense of the obliga- 
 tion of a man to take his place in his social group and lose 
 himself in it, a kind of forerunner of Jesus' word that a 
 man must lose his life to save it. In telling the story of 
 Moses (106:32) it is said that he suffered not so much be- 
 cause of his own misdeed as because of the provocation 
 which came to him from his social group. It went ill with 
 him for their sakes. It is only in theory that a hard and fast 
 individualism is possible. In experience men are always 
 living and suffering for and because of the social group. We 
 are socially built, and we never come to ourselves except in 
 social service. What the group does for the individual does 
 not now concern us ; we are to think in this study of what 
 the individual must be and do for the group. 
 
 At the beginning, the attitude of these songs toward the 
 commonplace duty a-s over against the exceptional one is 
 apparent. It appears in their frequent reference to the bless- 
 ing of kindness to the poor and needy (41:1; 112:5), and 
 also in the complaint of unkindness which is so often made, 
 with the assertion that this ensures the attention of God and 
 the penalty of his wrath on the unkind (109:4, 5 ; 35 : 14, 15)- 
 One verse is specially suggestive : "They also that render evil 
 for good are adversaries unto me, because I follow the thing 
 that is good" (38:20). The pressure of this steady demand 
 for fellowship with need is likely to become so familiar that 
 we lose ail sense of it. The emergent needs overshadow it. 
 
 77 
 
[VI-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 Most of the city charitable organizations in America an- 
 nounced shortly after the European war began that their 
 funds for current work had been greatly reduced by the 
 special relief funds that had been raised for European 
 peoples. That was entirely natural ; what is your estimate 
 of the equity or wisdom of it? 
 
 An interesting instance of the contact of the commonplace 
 and the emergent needs occurs in. Mark 14 : 3-9, in the inci- 
 dent of the alabaster cruse of ointment, about which the dis- 
 ciples complained because it seemed a waste to use it so and 
 not distribute its proceeds to the poor. Jesus said, "For ye 
 have the poor alv/ays with you, and whensoever ye will ye 
 can do them good ; but me ye havp not always." Here were 
 the abiding opportunities which seem never fully met, along- 
 side an opportunity which must be taken now or never. 
 Whether the word o\. Deuteronomy (15:11), "the poor will 
 never cease out of the land," is to be taken as final in the 
 social order or not, it has certainly been proved true up to this 
 time in any order we have been able to develop, and the 
 remainder ©f the verse has been pressed upon kindly men 
 ever since : "Therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt 
 surely, open thy hand unto thy brother, to thy needy, and to 
 thy poor, in thy land." 
 
 Some of the finest lives in our modern history have been 
 given to. just this commonplace need, always here, never 
 showy, never seeming to abate. Arnold Toynbee felt the 
 pull of impoverished London. So did Charles Booth. Jacob 
 Riis bore the Five Points in New York as long as he could, 
 but paid high tribute to men and women not so forceful as he 
 who had for years been sharing the suffering of the people 
 before he came more correctively into the scene. Today as 
 never before these everyday, commonplace problems which 
 involve the unhappiness of so many people are commanding 
 the service, the life, even the death, of large numbers of 
 devoted human lovers. This is not the custom of all men. 
 In a brief sketch of Professor Sumner of Yale ("The Chal- 
 lenge of Facts") his father is described as a "simple man 
 with sturdy common sense, who had never been trained to 
 entertain any kind of philosophical abstractions. His plan 
 was, if things did not go to suit him, to examine the situa- 
 tion, see what could be done, take a new start, and try again. 
 For instance, inasmuch -as the custom in New Jersey was 
 
 78 
 
V 
 
 SELF FOR THE SOCIAL GROUP [VI-c] 
 
 store pay and he did not like store pay, he moved to New 
 England where he found he could get cash." Doubtless this 
 policy is sometimes necessary, and it may have been wisest 
 for Thomas Sumner, but is there not something finer in 
 staying where the wrong conditions are and dealing with 
 them, for the sake of the many who cannot leave them and 
 go somewhere else? At any rate, hundreds of people are 
 deliberately going into the trying parts of cities to share the 
 needs and help to correct them. 
 
 We are discovering that it is of the very essence of the 
 Christian faith to cure the causes of these evils, so far as 
 we may be able. There is not much that is dramatic about 
 it, for that matter there is not much that is dramatic about 
 any permanent work. We say sometimes that going out to 
 mission fields is romantic, striking service, but the larger 
 service of missionary life is not dramatic but just plain, 
 matter-of-course living amid trying conditions and humdrum 
 duties. A few things will do to tell ; most things are not 
 striking enough to be written down. Jesus said that this 
 incident which the disciples thought so unusual would be 
 told around the world, as it has been, but its largest effect has 
 been to start people, not to dramatic things, but to the every- 
 day sacrificial life which is the beauty of Christian history. 
 
 II 
 
 This social opportunity determines a titan's estimate of 
 himself and his experiences. Several times the psalmists ask 
 for blessings on themselves for the sake of other people. 
 One feels that if he could have restored to him the joy of 
 salvation which he had lost through some personal sin, and 
 could be upheld with a willing spirit, he could then teach 
 transgressors God's ways and help sinners to turn to God 
 (51:13). Even forgiveness can be turned into a challenge 
 to service, and anyone who ever tried to help other people 
 when his own conscience was troubling him knows how 
 difficult it is. The many references to Abraham take us back 
 to the familiar promise covering his life which makes him a 
 blessing to many others in being blessed himself (Gen. 12:2, 
 3; 22:18). God's best blessings are always given to us as 
 trustees for investment in other lives. Many a man has 
 felt more free to ask blessings on his work when he could 
 
 79 
 
[VI-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 honestly include other people in his results than if he were 
 acting for himself. In May, 1916, the President of the 
 United States said to the National Press Club : "I tell you 
 this, gentlemen, the only thing that saves the world is the 
 little handful of disinterested men that are in it. I have 
 found a few disinterested men. I wish I had found more. 
 I can name two or three men with whom I have conferred 
 again and again and again, and I have never caught them 
 by any inadvertence thinking about themselves or their own 
 interests, and I tie to those men as you would tie to an anchor. 
 I tie to them as you would tie to the voices of conscience 
 if yoU' could be sure that you always heard them." 
 
 And as the psalmists expect their blessings to serve others, 
 so they pray to be kept steady for the sake of others. The 
 two feelings blend in the 69th psalm, which is one long cry 
 of a man who knows he is in danger of giving way under 
 the pull of his own sin and also of the opposition of men 
 who are against him. "Let not them that wait for thee be 
 put to shame through me, O Lord Jehovah of hosts ; let not 
 those that seek thee be brought to dislionor through me, O 
 God of Israel" (69:6). And it does not matter whether he 
 is pleading for fair treatment at Jehovah's hands, as some 
 think, or for strength to stand up to the strain without giv- 
 ing way, as seems more likely ; in either case he has a keen 
 sense of the social results that are awaiting his experiences. 
 Did you never set out to talk with a friend about the claims 
 of religion, only to have your mouth shut by the failure of 
 some obviously religious man known to you both? And have 
 you never found yourself the only Christian in a group and 
 felt a heavy burden of responsibility for what you said and 
 did because you knew they would judge the whole class of 
 Christians by you? 
 
 It is a familiar feeling in other lines. Athletes contest for 
 their college, not for themselves alone. Most of the criti- 
 cisms of college life are based on the actions of a few stu- 
 dents whom the critic has known or read about. It is no 
 jest that a student everywhere represents his college. When 
 a student wearing a college badge was seen in a questionable 
 resort a group of the other students went to him and took 
 off his colors, one of them saying that he was perfectly free, 
 so far as they were concerned, to be there himself, but he 
 could not take the rest of them there with him if they could 
 
 80 
 
SELF FOR THE SOCIAL GROUP [VI-c] 
 
 help it. Could that be done, in your judgment, properly? 
 An old man, writing in the 71st psalm, asked to be kept safe 
 until he could tell to the next generation what life had meant 
 to him. He counted himself bound in the same bundle of life 
 with other generations. No man ever holds steady for him- 
 self alone ; other people are steady because he is. 
 
 Ill 
 
 So these psalmists saw life as a plan of God for service. 
 The historical psalms tell the story of an overruling hand 
 that was setting men up and taking them down in the interest 
 of social need. Joseph had his experiences because they 
 were needed in the service of his group, and they moved 
 on under the will of God (105:17-21). Moses and Aaron 
 were not on their own errand, but on the mission of service 
 (105:26). David was taken from the sheepfolds for the 
 sake of the work he was to do (78:70-72). Everywhere 
 appears the perennial mystery of the sacrifice which the indi- 
 vidual makes for the group and then the group for the whole. 
 Vicarious suffering is everywhere, and vicarious suffering 
 has always to be voluntary. So it is here. As soon as these 
 writers see it, they rejoice in it for themselves and their 
 children. They show the same feeling about their joy; it 
 must be shared. The 24th ^salm is commonly counted to 
 have been written for the time when David had the ark of 
 God brought from the home of Obed-edom to Jerusalem, 
 when the account says he danced before the Lord with all 
 his might, full of enthusiasm and joy. Dean Stanley ("His- 
 tory of the Jewish Church," Vol. H, p. 94) says it was "the 
 greatest day of his life." But one of the obvious beauties of 
 the psalm is its construction for antiphonal use, voice answer- 
 ing to voice. There are times in life for solos, but there 
 are times and there is music when one voice seems wholly 
 inadequate. Quartets are out of place in the Hallelujah 
 Chorus. Self asks to be lost in the whole at such times. 
 It lives for the group. Men who have not known such times 
 are to be pitied. 
 
 Ofie essential mark of a man's real life work is that it sup- 
 plies the greatest need the man can see which he has the 
 capacity to supply. Until he finds that work, he may have a 
 "job" and may be making a living; but when he thinks in 
 
[VI-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 such large terms, he begins to do a man's work. Figures are 
 current which indicate that 97 per cent of all business men 
 in America fail at some time in their business career. Most 
 of them recover and make at least measurable successes, but 
 the majority who fail do it because they are misfits. They 
 have not found their place and often the failure shows them 
 their place. No man is in his place until he can realize him- 
 self as supplying part of the real need of the world. Robert 
 Louis Stevenson said there are only two just reasons for 
 the choice of any way in life; "the first is inbred taste in 
 choosing, the second some high utility in the industry 
 selected." It is that high utility that gives a man the larg- 
 est sense of the value of life. Along with it is the feeling of 
 fellowship with other men in doing his life work. One's 
 brethren and companions have a good deal to do with enthusi- 
 asm in service (122:8). They constitute an added motive 
 for activity (22:22). "The American laborer who does his 
 work feeling that he is a partner will do a third more work 
 in a day than laborers will in other countries where the 
 fight-psychology possesses the people, and where employers 
 and employes are all busy in fighting each other's interests 
 in the shops, and going home at night to hold meetings to 
 think how to fight better in the morning" (Gerald Stanley 
 Lee, "We," p. 562). 
 
 But we have had in America in recent years a merchant 
 whose life was lived on this iDasis — Mr. Robert C. Ogden, 
 leader in the Southern Education Board. "In the best sense 
 of the word he was an organization man, always working 
 with the structural elements in the life of the community. 
 He was a man who had learned to work in harness, but he 
 believed in the kind of harness that would give each man 
 scope to pull his best." His biography is written in a book, 
 but it is more fully written in the service he rendered with 
 his life, finding a need and gathering around him a body of 
 people who could be inspired to help in supplying it and 
 then giving himself generously to it. 
 
 Nor must we let this seem apart from our religion. It is 
 God who sets the solitary in families and who demands that 
 each life take its share of the world's load. The sense of 
 the psalmists that the great men of their history were only 
 working out a plan has sustained many a man in smaller place 
 since that time. Feeling God's concern in the social group 
 
 82 
 
SELF FOR THE SOCIAL GROUP [VI-c] 
 
 which we are set to serve is no affectation, but a very real 
 inspiration. James Russell Lowell said that Wendell Phillips 
 
 "Saw God standing upon the weaker side ; 
 . . . Therefore he went 
 And humbly joined him to the weaker part, 
 Kanatic named, and fool, yet well content 
 So he could be the nearer to God's heairt, 
 And feel its solemn pulses sending blood 
 Through all the widespread veins of endless good." 
 
 The attributes of the .true member of the society of God's 
 choice in the 72nd psalm are almost all social, and when we 
 serve the needs of the group we are serving Him to whom 
 our goodness cannot extend. Jesus' forecast of the future 
 and the attitude which eternal justice will take toward human 
 life is all connected with service or neglect of service of the 
 needy here (Matt. 25:31-46). The moral of Coleridge's 
 Ancient Mariner is deeply true : 
 
 "He prayeth well who .loveth well 
 Both man and bird and beast. 
 He prayeth best who loveth best 
 All things both great and small ; 
 For the dear God who loveth us 
 He made and loveth all." 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER THOUGHT AND 
 
 STUDY 
 
 Starting with the case of Thomas Sumner given in the 
 Comment for the Week, try to work out some general prin- 
 ciples which will help to determine when a man may serve 
 the social group best by leaving a bad situation rather than 
 by remaining in it to resist the evil in it. 
 
 Think over your campus or community and see some of 
 the special lines of unselfish service now being followed, or 
 followed in the past and productive now. This may help to 
 make living for the group a more normal thing. 
 
 83 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Challenge of the Social Order 
 
 In this study we pass from thouglit of the social group 
 nearest to us, the group of our own kind, to a wider field, 
 that social order which includes our o\yn and all other groups 
 and which is steadily being broadened in the minds of 
 thoughtful men until it carries with it the burden of responsi- 
 bility for all men. It was forecast centuries ago by a Latin 
 poet who said, **I am a man, and I count nothing that per- 
 tains to humanity alien to myself." But his thought of hu- 
 manity was not so wide as that of Jesus, who set the stakes 
 for his disciples at the uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 
 i:8). 
 
 DAILY READINGS 
 Seventh Week, First Day 
 
 We have heard with our ears, O God, 
 
 Our fathers have told us, 
 
 What work thou didst in their days. 
 
 In the days of old. 
 
 Thou didst drive out the nations with thy hand; 
 
 But them thou didst plant: 
 
 Thou didst afflict the peoples; 
 
 But them thou didst spread abroad. 
 
 For they gat not the land in possession by their own 
 
 sword, 
 Neither did their own arm save them; 
 But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy 
 
 countenance. 
 Because thou wast favorable unto them. 
 Thou art my King, O God: 
 Command deliverance for Jacob. — Psalm 44: 1-4. 
 
 What attitude ought we to take toward the past, specially 
 that part of the social order which has come most directly 
 to our own lives? We do not like talk of "the good old 
 days," nor suggestions that the golden age is past. Do you 
 
 84 
 
CHALLENGE OF S0CL4L ORDER [VII-2] 
 
 like the citizens of your town to tell verj^ often how much 
 better the earlier days were in the place? But neither 
 do we like the contemptuous dismissal of the past which is 
 common now, as college students do not like alumni to depre- 
 ciate the early conditions under which they were trained. 
 Mr. Gladstone once spoke of the conditions of the present 
 as differing from a better early time. An opponent chal- 
 lenged him to say what earlier time he meant, and when 
 Mr. Gladstone mentioned two centuries ago, said, "Oh, yes ; 
 the time when they burned witches !" The answer was 
 rather shrewd than satisfactory, for at the point of Mr. 
 Gladstone's contention those times might have been better. 
 There are bad items in any past period, but there are good 
 items too. Part of our history challenges us to our finest 
 lives. God has been plainly in it and there are obligations on 
 us who have inherited it. In the latter part of the psalm is 
 frank acknowledgment of failure. As for yourself, are you 
 the kind of American you ought to he in loyalty to the his- 
 tory of America t Are you living by the best of it? And 
 as a Christian are you as fine as you ought to he in view of 
 the history of the Christian faith? The social order which 
 we have inherited challenges us. 
 
 Seventh Week, Second Day 
 
 If we have forgotten the name of our God, 
 
 Or spread forth our hands to a strange God; 
 
 Will not God search this out? 
 
 For he knoweth the secrets of the heart. 
 
 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; 
 
 We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 
 
 Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? 
 
 Arise, cast us not off for ever. , 
 
 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, 
 
 And forgettest our affliction and our oppression? 
 
 For our soul is bowed down to the dust: 
 
 Our body cleaveth unto the earth. 
 
 Rise up for our help, 
 
 And redeem us for thy lovingkindness' sake. 
 
 — Psalm 44:20-26. 
 
 The admission of the presence of evils in the social order, 
 running through the rank and file of us, is always easy, so 
 easy that we can jest about them. Some of us even talk about 
 
 85 
 
[VII-3] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 evils as inevitable ; they continue if men are in social rela- 
 tions at all. There has never been a wrong done among men 
 which was not described by some people as belonging in 
 the nature of things, to continue "as long as men are men." 
 The logic of that we hardly realize, for it means that evils 
 are essential to a moral order, and that some men have to 
 be immoral so that other men may be moral, which is 
 monstrous in a rational to say nothing of a moral order, 
 whatever philosophy supports it. The existence of a social 
 order cannot require the existence of the things that make it 
 impossible. And the worst feature of the acceptance of 
 social disorders as necessary is that it cuts the nerve of our 
 opposition to them. A prime requisite of a helpful place in 
 the social order is that these evils shall hurt us, that we shall 
 recognize the inevitable punishment which they bring on any 
 social order. Mordecai believed in God strongly enough to 
 expect that deliverance would come for Israel in some other 
 way if Esther did not do her share toward deliverance, but 
 he saw plainly enough that she could not escape by standing 
 aside (Esther 4:14). God may be able to take care of the 
 social order without us, but what ought to come to us if we 
 stand aside and let it go without our care? 
 
 Seventh Week, Third Day 
 
 Come, and see the works of God; 
 
 He is terrible in his doing toward the children of men. 
 
 He turned the sea into dry land; 
 
 They went through the river on foot: 
 
 There did we rejoice in him. 
 
 He ruleth by his might for ever; 
 
 His eyes observe the nations: 
 
 Let not the rebellious exalt themselves. 
 
 Oh bless our God, ye peoples, 
 
 And make the voice of his praise to be heard; 
 
 Who holdeth our soul in life, 
 
 And suffereth not our feet to be moved. 
 
 For thou, O God, hast proved us: 
 
 Thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. — Psalm 66:5-10. 
 
 Pessimists are men who either do not see the saving forces 
 at work in society or do not believe in their effectiveness. 
 They see the 5,000 hungry people so clearly that they either 
 overlook the presence of five loaves and two fishes or else 
 
 ^6 
 
I 
 
 CHALLENGE OF SOCIAL ORDER [VII-4] 
 
 think of the absurdity of setting them over against the need 
 (Matt. 14:15-21). Forces of evil are generally more stri- 
 dent and conspicuous than any others. They constitute 
 "news" and furnish more attractive centers for the play of 
 imagination than anything else. So the social order seems 
 to many good people doomed. To people who do not try to 
 be good people, the only way to approve the present order is 
 to adopt a lower standard of social requirement and be 
 satisfied with attaining it. Anything more looks like dreams 
 of Utopia, But that leaves out God. Atheists have to whistle 
 steadily to keep up courage and a high ideal at the same time, 
 and they have to do it whether they are speculative atheists 
 like Clifford or practical atheists like many Christians who 
 believe that God exists but do not expect him to count largely 
 in common affairs. Without God, the forces of evil often 
 look greater than forces for good. Only eyes open to see his 
 forces can understand the situation (II Kings 6:15-17). It 
 docs not take as many good people to save a situation as it 
 takes bad people to ruin it. Sodom would not have needed 
 a majority vote to keep it from destruction (Genesis 18) ; 
 a small body of the right kind of people could have done it. 
 Are you one, at least, of that group, large or small? 
 
 Seventh Week, Fourth Day 
 
 Social wrongs of all sorts are to be set down as folly. 
 Falsehood, unfairness between man and man, injustice, 
 exploitation of the weak, are only seemingly shrewd; they 
 are actually foolish, and the universe, God's universe, is 
 against folly wherever it appears. Children cannot be worked 
 in mines and mills without more cost than gain to the social 
 order. Men who use up their capital may make a good show- 
 ing, but the nature of things is against them, and the nature 
 of things always takes right of way when it is ready. A 
 social order cannot use up its capital without paying for it 
 in God's universe. No land can be glorious until it has a 
 controlling group of people who hold right relation to God 
 and his moral order. It need not be the majority; no evil 
 was ever yet corrected until a moral minority had shown how 
 readily one can chase a thousand and two put ten thousand 
 to flight. Are you ready to be one. of the minority that can 
 get God's zuill done? 
 
 87 
 
[VII-5] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 I will hear what God Jehovah will speak; 
 
 For he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: 
 
 But let them not turn again to folly. 
 
 Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him, 
 
 That glory may dwell in our land. 
 
 Mercy and truth are met together; 
 
 Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. 
 
 Truth springeth out of the earth; 
 
 And righteousness hath looked down from heaven. 
 
 Yea, Jehovah will give that which is good; 
 
 And our land shall yield its increase. 
 
 Righteousness shall go before him, 
 
 And shall make his footsteps a way to walk in. 
 
 — Psalm 85:8-13. 
 
 The harmony of virtues in the sound social order is well 
 worded here. Mercy and truth — not mercy that is flabby 
 and false because it cannot bear to be honest ; not truth that 
 is brutal because it must be candid. Righteousness and peace 
 — not righteousness that keeps up a continual and unneces- 
 sary strife for strife's sake; not peace that asks only quiet at 
 any cost. So far as you know the social order around your- 
 self, which of the virtues is more needed today? 
 
 Seventh Week, Fifth Day 
 
 There is no abstract righteousness, no abstract justice. 
 Only moral beings can hold moral relations or display moral 
 traits. If the essential factors of the universe are moral 
 ones, it is because there is a moral Being whose throne is 
 founded on them. 
 
 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of thy 
 
 throne: 
 Lovingkindness and truth go before thy face. 
 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; 
 They walk, O Jehovah, in the light of thy countenance. 
 In thy name do they rejoice all the day; 
 And in thy righteousness are they exalted. 
 For thou art the glory of their strength; 
 And in thy favor our horn shall be exalted. 
 For our shield belongeth unto Jehovah; 
 And our king to the Holy One of Israel. 
 
 — Psalm 89: 14-18. 
 
CHALLENGE OF S0CL4L ORDER [VII-6] 
 
 As people make up the social order, so their traits are at 
 the last the only ones the social order has. Gustave Le Bon 
 long ago showed that the crowd displays traits and adopts 
 practices that no single person in the crowd all by himself 
 would display or adopt ; but that only means that men in 
 pronounced social relations release certain restraints which 
 are on them in purely personal conditions. The traits of 
 the crowd are actually the traits of the people who make it 
 up, magnified or deflected by the presence of others. And 
 there will be no change in the traits of the crowd until some 
 of the men in it, perhaps only one man if he is strong enough, 
 set out to have things different. Somebody has to care before 
 cruelty ceases in our penal system. Somebody has to hate dis- 
 honesty before truth becomes regnant. It is in the triumph 
 of such people that a social order is safe, for in their tri- 
 umph God gains his victory. The final defence of any nation 
 is its relation to God. Several of the psalms speak of God 
 as the rock and fortress, or the strength and shield of 
 nations. Here the saying is different. The nation has its 
 shield, but it belongs to God (so also 47:9, where the shields 
 of the whole earth are ascribed to him) ; it has its king, but 
 he is a vassal of the Holy One. All defences run back for 
 effectiveness to God." 
 
 Seventh Week, Sixth Day 
 
 What man is he that desireth life, 
 
 And loveth many days, that he may see good? 
 
 Keep thy tongue from evil, 
 
 And thy lips from speaking guile. 
 
 Depart from evil, and do good; 
 
 Seek peace, and pursue it. 
 
 The eyes of Jehovah are toward the righteous, 
 
 And his ears are open unto their cry. 
 
 The face of Jehovah is against them that do evil. 
 
 To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. 
 
 — Psalm 34: 12-16. 
 
 Here is a condensed program for an abiding life. It 
 breaks into detail the vaguer words righteousness and mercy 
 which we have noted already. The program is not merely for 
 permanence, but leads to a climax of good. Some lives are 
 not worth continuing; they constitute one of the problems of 
 
 89 
 
[VII-7] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 immortality. Once in a while a man declares he does not 
 care for a future life ; this one has been more than enough 
 for him. Do you consider the declaration wholly genuine? 
 Is there any man who does not desire life, or is it only cer- 
 tain things in life that he does not desire? Are suicides 
 trying to escape life or only some apparently unavoidable 
 conditions in life? All the items of this program are social 
 and atfect our widest relations. The first one illustrates 
 that. What we say goes farther than anything we do. 
 Maintaining communication with men on the basis of right- 
 eousness and honesty is a first necessity in the widening circle 
 of modern life. Less and less can the social order be main- 
 tained on the basis of legal documents, safeguarded against 
 the dishonesty of men. We are having to trust each other 
 more and more. The existence of a few men who cannot be 
 trusted when their word is passed is an annoyance to the 
 larger body of men who are keeping their tongues from evil 
 and their lips from deceit. Letting evil alone and doing good 
 is an item that comes more slowly, but the social order is 
 waiting for safety until it does come. The whole world has 
 recently been pleading for men in large and small relations 
 who love peace enough to go after it. ^Would not this pro- 
 gram fit into present needs to a nicety? 
 
 Seventh Week, Seventh Day 
 
 One generation shall laud thy works to another, 
 
 And shall declare thy mighty acts. 
 
 Of the glorious majesty of thine honor, 
 
 And of thy wondrous works, will I meditate. 
 
 And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts; 
 
 And I will declare thy greatness. 
 
 They shall utter the memory of thy great goodness, 
 
 And shall sing of thy righteousness. 
 
 Jehovah is gracious, and merciful; 
 
 Slow to anger, and of great lovingkindness. 
 
 Jehovah is good to all; 
 
 And his tender mercies are over all his works. 
 
 All thy works shall give thanks unto thee, O Jehovah; 
 
 And thy saints shall bless thee. 
 
 — Psalm 145:4-10. 
 
 There are two extensions of our thought of the social order 
 that are specially worth making in our day. The race is 
 
 90 
 
CHALLENGE OF SOCIAL ORDER [VII-c] 
 
 integrated more and more in space, around the world. All 
 men of all races are factors in it. It is not because they are 
 Americans or Europeans or Asiatics, but because they are 
 men, that they have to do with each other. There are doubt- 
 less some fairly deep-running differences, but the unities of 
 the race, clear underneath the surface, are the things that 
 are emerging more and more. Men who talk of the impos- 
 sibility of races understanding each other are behind the 
 times. East and West may not meet at some points, but there 
 is "neither border nor breed nor birth" when strong - men 
 meet "though they come from the ends of the earth." They 
 find a deep unity in their common relation to God, whose 
 tender mercies are over all his works, and not over only some 
 of them. And that integration has time relations also, runs 
 backwards and forwards. The social order is a product of^ 
 generations past and is producing itself anew for the genera- 
 tions yet to come. We cannot understand any tree without 
 some knowledge of its roots, nor without some knowledge 
 of its fruits. All of us are posterity and all of us are 
 ancestors. And over it all, both in space and time, is God, 
 being obeyed or disregarded, but never inactive in it. Jesus 
 saw the natural order wholly under- his eye (Matt. 6:26-30; 
 10:29), and argued from it to his constant care for the 
 human order as well (Matt. 5:45, etc.). We are to conceive 
 of the right social order as one in which God's will shall be 
 done on earth as it is in heaven. We help toward that order 
 when we do his will ourselves. 
 
 COMMENT FOR THE WE^^K 
 
 I 
 
 The widening of the sense of social responsibility is one 
 of the interesting studies of history. It begins with a feel- 
 ing for the community, the small group, whose interests are 
 thought of not as held in common with the larger group, but 
 as in opposition to it. The few are bound together against 
 the many. That is the cut-throat competitive spirit of some 
 fields of operation today. In political history the community 
 was gradually widened to include states, still small, but with 
 sufficiently unified interests to make them wiUing to stand 
 
 91 
 
[VII-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 together against wider opposition. The forming of the 
 United States, or of the British or German Empire, illus- 
 trates the spread of the spirit of fellowship and responsi- 
 bility. That it was not easy to make this wider responsibility 
 real to the rank and file of people, our own early history 
 and the efforts of Bismarck plainly show. It was counted 
 quite impossible that a group of people could be trusted to 
 have any other than selfish motives. Plenty of sapient people 
 still insist that the principle holds good. They want to know 
 first of all what their own particular group is to expect out 
 of any general proposal. Congressional trades between sec- 
 tions, you-vote-for-my-bill-and-I-will-vote-for-your-bill, are 
 remnants of that same spirit. And this larger union into a 
 kind of magnified state is as far as. most of us have gotten. 
 
 When the next and inevitable step is proposed, we Have 
 the same old arguments against it that have been urged 
 against every advance of the past. But the step is sure to be 
 taken by some approaching generation if we refuse to take 
 it. As we have advanced from the community to the state 
 and from the state to the nation, we must go on from the 
 nation to the world. We must learn that the interests of 
 all men are involved in the one social order, that national 
 interests are not to be held in opposition to the interests of 
 other nations but in fellowship with them. We have learned 
 it in ethics and in communities, in spite of the very protests 
 now raised against the fuller proposal of the Christian spirit. 
 An American statesman has voiced it for us by saying, "Here 
 is the world humanity has made. Will you take full citizen- 
 ship in it? It is a large world and a round world, and men 
 grow human by seeing all its play of force and folly." 
 
 Of this larger sense of the total social order there are only 
 shadowy traces in the psalms, but it is not lacking. It shows 
 in the feeling that the heathen are under Jehovah's power as 
 truly as Israel. The gods of the heathen are idols (96:5) ; 
 Jehovah is the only true God for the world. Because he is 
 God, all the peoples of the world are to rejoice (97:1, 6; 
 47: 1-9; 67:4). Other nations may oppose his chosen people 
 and his plans, but they cannot prosper in it {66 : 3 ; 108 : 7-9) ; 
 indeed, what they do is merely amusing to God, who has 
 set his king on his throne already (2:4-6). And the time 
 will come when all nations will gladly recognize his lordship 
 over them (68:31; 47:8, 9; 87:4-6). Meanwhile, all men 
 
 92 
 
CHALLENGE OF SOCIAL ORDER [VII-cI 
 
 everywhere are included in the works of Jehovah (103:22; 
 150:6). The psalms come from a troubled time, and the 
 surrounding nations are thought of generally as enemies who 
 wish harm to Israel. There is a constant sense, of invasion 
 either as having just occurred (85) or as imminent (79). 
 And yet the invasion of the nations then was as nothing to 
 the invasion which the whole world is receiving now, every 
 nation seeming to overflow upon every other nation. 
 
 II 
 
 The moral conditions which must obtain in the larger 
 social order are only those with which we are already familiar 
 in every well constructed social group. Fundamentally, the 
 social order must be made moral in practice as it is in God's 
 purpose. Otherwise it is not worthy of God's world. Fra. 
 Lippo Lippi spoke for many when he said : 
 
 "This world 's no blot for us, 
 Nor blank ; it means intensely and it means good ; 
 To find its meaning is my meat and drink," 
 
 Yet only moral beings can be moral, and the very existence 
 of the social order is a challenge to us who live in the midst 
 of it, to be and do our best in its behalf. Mercy and truth, 
 righteousness and peace (85 : 10) are the foundation virtues, 
 and only men can realize them. The social order may lack 
 any one of them. What is the largest lack of our penal 
 system, if it is not mercy? Thirty years ago the jailer an- 
 swered me when I commented on the hard conditions of the 
 prison at Blackwell's Island, "Well, young feller, these men 
 ain't here as a reward of merit." That is a legitimate re- 
 minder, and we will not gain by making our penal system 
 soft and infirm. But the new methods of treating ofi^enders 
 deserve a trial, since the old methods have failed so dismally 
 to check crime or to change criminals. Mercy that is right- 
 eous will not be flabby and ineffective. What is the largest 
 lack of our industrial relations, if it is not justice? Justice 
 on both sides, of course, rigid righteousness shot through 
 with fraternal regard on both sides. In the beginning of a 
 labor controversy on the Pacific coast in the summer of 
 
 93 
 
IVII-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 1916, Secretary Wilson wrote to the officers of a labor union 
 whose men were accused of violating a definite contract in 
 quitting work : "The American labor union has built up an 
 enviable reputation for living up to its contracts, even when 
 ■ it has had to forego temporary advantages in order to do so. 
 No union can long exert an influence for good which delib- 
 erately violates its contracts for, temporary gain. The aver- 
 age working man has little else to lose than his honor and 
 integrity; when that is gone, he is in a very sorry plight 
 indeed." Every man, employer or laborer, is in a sorry 
 plight without the justice which establishes the social order. 
 And it was this injustice which employers can show toward 
 laborers that so stirred Amos that he pronounced one of his 
 most terrible prophecies against it (Amos 8:4-10), a feeHng 
 that is shared by the psalmists in many expressions. 
 
 Or take the social problem of child labor, which John 
 Spargo calls *'the bitter cry of the children." Here the lack 
 is again of those fundamental moral virtues which must be 
 enforced on unwilling men and practiced by all willing ones. 
 Or the evil which John Penman calls "the challenge of the 
 Church" — poverty. It is a complicated problem, which only 
 light thinkers dismiss with a wave of the hand. Once we 
 said with all confidence that no man is poor but the man who 
 deserves to be because of some personal defect; but that is 
 not true today. There are social forces involved which are 
 actually not under individual control. The corrective of 
 those forces is, again, these same moral virtues which we 
 must practice if we are willing and propagate among those 
 who are not willing until they win their way, until they have 
 power as they already have authority. 
 
 But moral the order must become because God is concerned 
 with it. The psalmists are perfectly clear on that. Whims 
 do not count and nothing is arbitrary. When wrongs occur, 
 they are very mystifying, but there is no sort of doubt of 
 God's power, when his plan is ready, to take hold on them 
 and crush or cure. Wicked men flourish like a green tree in 
 its native soil, but they disappear, for all that (37:35, 36). 
 Looking out on the world is baffling, no doubt, because evil 
 seems to prosper, but if one will go to the sanctuary and 
 get a renewed sense of God, things look very different {JZ '- 
 16-22). The very purpose of God's dealing with men is 
 that they may keep his statutes and observe his laws (105: 
 
 94 
 
CHALLENGE OF SOCIAL ORDER [VII-o] 
 
 45). The issue of the battle is not in the slightest doubt. 
 Unless we want utter defeat for our projects, we must bring 
 them into submission to moral demands. 
 
 Every one of us has to take sides in that fight and give 
 account in the Day of the Lord. Standing aside may be 
 worse than taking part on the wrong side. The Jewish Tal- 
 mud teaches that a secret sin is an impertinent attempt to 
 oust God from the universe — it implies that something can 
 be done where he does not see it, or else that it does not 
 matter if he does see it. It contains a law declaring that 
 a thief should be punished more severel}'" than a robber, be- 
 cause the robber treats God and man alike, defying both 
 openly, while the thief is afraid of men, but not afraid of 
 God. Not helping to make the social order a moral one is 
 acting as though it does not matter wdiat kind of order there 
 is in God's world. It is disregarding him and his rights. 
 Dante tells in the opening part of the Inferno that he saw 
 outside the gates of hell a wailing company, denied entrance 
 everywhere and doomed to misery and isolation wherever 
 they were. He asked who they could be and was told that 
 they were the people who on earth had never been willing to 
 take sides on anything except with a view to their own inter- 
 ests. They were the pusillanimous, who had let great causes 
 go unbefriended while looking out for their own safety and 
 comfort. They had responded to no challenge of their social 
 order. And here in the place where moral balances were 
 struck, they had no place. Hell could not admit them lest the 
 damned get glory from them ; they had no virtue which pur- 
 gatory could bring out ; heaven could not admit them for lack 
 of any value. They had stood aside. And moral judgment 
 accounts Dante right in his placing of them. They are use- 
 less in the universe. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The psalmists feel not merely the inspiration of their his- 
 tory but its challenge. Men with such a history as they had 
 could not in fairness be just any kind of men they might 
 happen to care to be. And since we inherit all the history 
 there is, inherit it increasingly as the world becomes the 
 home of us all, whatever our race, the challenge of history 
 is on us all. The historical psalms are a wise way of binding 
 
 95 
 
I.VII-C] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 the nation into unity with its past. History can always be 
 sung better than it can be read. Psalms like the 105th and 
 io6th and 78th constitute a challenge to the people of the 
 latter day. So does every telling of the story of a nation. 
 We are not isolated units. We are in a stream that comes 
 to us heavily freighted. Our social order has the labor of 
 the ages in it, and we cannot in moral fairness act as though 
 we were beginning anew. 
 
 The evils which we have inherited demand our correction. 
 We are not to take them for granted or to act as though 
 they must remain. There are no necessary evils in a world 
 where God is and where there are people enough to take their 
 stand against them. Man does not need to oppress man 
 "beneath God's liberal sun." Corruption in politics is not 
 a necessity of human relationship. Dishonesty and self- 
 seeking in commerce are not inherent in trade. Nothing that 
 is wrong has any claim to immortality in the social order. 
 Evil men furnish their own doom (37:12-13). Their 
 weapons cut their own hands. Every bad man is holding the 
 l^lade end of his sword and when he strikes with it, his own 
 blood flows. The things that ruin are doomed and the social 
 order challenges us as God's believers to see to their ending. 
 
 So the heroisms of history challenge us to be worthy of 
 them. Moses and Aaron are still factors in life (99:6). 
 Joseph and David are part of our example. The things that 
 happened to the fathers happened for our example and God 
 used them to prepare the way for the better things in store 
 for us (Heb. 11:40). Men have died for the things which 
 are now matters of course to us. Careless acceptance of such 
 sacrifices is eminently unworthy. If there is anything to us, 
 anything fine, anything inherently heroic, it is challenged by 
 the virtues of the social order which we have inherited. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER THOUGHT AND 
 
 STUDY 
 
 A paper recently said : "The sooner we recognize that 
 nations are like individuals in having only selfish motives, 
 the sooner we will reach safe international relations." Is 
 that your opinion ? A recent political speaker said : "Not 
 America first, but America only." Consider this sentiment. 
 
 As you see the social order of today, is its chief weakness 
 a lack of mercy or of truth, of justice or of gentleness? 
 
 96 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The Group Within the Social Order 
 
 DAILY READINGS 
 
 Eighth Week, First Day 
 
 There will always be groups within groups and there al- 
 ways should be. There are intimacies which enrich life but 
 which cannot be very widely extended. This exquisite little 
 psalm suggests how much it means to have these inner groups 
 bound closely together. It seems to have been born out of 
 some experience of reunion, when an old division had been 
 healed, and everyone was rejoicing that the trouble was over 
 and brothers were brotherly again. 
 
 Behold, how^ good and how pleasant it is 
 
 For brethren to dw^ell together in unity! 
 
 It is like the precious oil upon the head, 
 
 That ran down upon the beard, 
 
 Even Aaron's beard; 
 
 That came down upon the skirt of his garments; 
 
 Like the dew of Hermon, 
 
 That Cometh down upon the mountains of Zion: 
 
 For there Jehovah commanded the blessing, ^ 
 
 Even life for evermore. 
 
 — Psalm 133. 
 I 
 
 No divisions run deeper or are more hurtful than those 
 within groups whose bonds are naturally most intimate. 
 Family quarrels, community quarrels, church quarrels are the 
 bitterest of all because they tear the closest ties. And the 
 very first service any man can render to the social order is 
 to see to it that the social group of which he is part is kept 
 right within itself. Men who want to see the whole Chris- 
 tian Church united will not help it by splitting their own 
 
 97 
 
[VIII-2] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 denomination, but by developing within it a spirit of unity. 
 College spirit cannot be corrected while society spirit is 
 divided. The inner groups are not to be maintained for their 
 own sakes, and the time may come with any one of them 
 when it ought to be abandoned, but while it exists it ought 
 to be kept right within. The two figures used suggest the 
 method of such unity. The oil was poured on Aaron's head 
 (Lev. 8:12), but it ran with its fragrance and sanctifying 
 influence to his feet. The dew gathered first on Hermon, 
 but it was blown by the currents of air down on lower 
 Mount Zion because it had gathered on the higher peak. 
 This unity comes from the top down. Where do you stand 
 in your social group? If you are at the top, your duty is 
 clear; if you are not there, ought you not to be? 
 
 Eighth Week, Second Day 
 
 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to 
 
 approach unto thee, 
 That he may dwell in thy courts: 
 
 We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house. 
 Thy holy temple. 
 
 By terrible things thou wilt answer us in righteousness, 
 O God of our salvation; 
 
 Thou that art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, 
 And of them that are afar off upon the sea; 
 Who by his strength setteth fast the mountains. 
 Being girded about with might; 
 Who stilleth the roaring of the seas. 
 The roaring of their waves, 
 And the tumult of the peoples. 
 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at 
 
 thy tokens: 
 Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening 
 , to rejoice. 
 
 — Psalm 65 : 4-8. 
 
 Notice the broadening of thought in the opening part of 
 this passage. First, singular number — the man whom Thou 
 choosest ; then, plural — we shall be satisfied ; then, universal 
 — all the ends of the earth. That is the direction the move- 
 ment ought to take — an individual fitting into a group for 
 the sake of the whole. Note a similar extension in three 
 New Testament verses: Who loved me (Gal. 2:20), Who 
 
 98 
 
GROUP WITHIN SOCIAL ORDER [VIII-3] 
 
 loveth us (Rev. i : 5), so loved the world (John 3: 16). How 
 many of the groups to which you belong provoke that kind 
 of movement? Your church, your college society, your club, 
 has taken you into it as an individual. Does it give you a 
 sense of larger responsibility or does it seem to exist for its 
 own sake? Are you of any importance in your group; is 
 your group of any importance to the social order? The unity 
 of the movement is found in the relation of all of it to God, 
 who maintains the conditions under which it is possible. 
 Jesus gathered individuals into a group of twelve and a few 
 more, and then gave them a sense of world relations, because 
 they held relation personally and as a group to him. Notice 
 also the nouns : goodness, righteousness, confidence, strength. 
 How do these elements enter into the service which a group 
 can render to the whole? If any group holds right relation 
 to God, is it not sure to contribute at least one of these traits 
 to the social order? 
 
 Eighth Week, Third Day 
 
 Not unto us, O Jehovah, not unto us, 
 
 But unto thy name give glory, 
 
 For thy lovingkindness, and for thy truth's sake. 
 
 Wherefore should the nations say, 
 
 Where is nov/ their God? 
 
 But our God is in the heavens: 
 
 He hath done whatsoever he pleased. . . . 
 
 Jehovah hath been mindful of us; he will bless us: 
 
 He will bless the house of Israel; 
 
 He will bless the house of Aaron. 
 
 He will bless them that fear Jehovah, 
 
 Both small and great. 
 
 — Psalm 115:1-3, 12, 13. 
 
 Here is a writer with a keen sense of the difference between 
 the group to which he belongs and the surrounding groups, 
 in the social order of the world. He feels the superiority of 
 his group, its higher ideals, its finer purposes, its greater 
 strength. There need be no sin or false pride in that. It 
 would be affectation of humility for some groups not to 
 know that much about themselves, even though they may 
 wisely say as little about it as the writer does here. There 
 are college groups that are better than others ; there are 
 
 99 
 
tVIII-4] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 community groups superior to others ; there are family 
 strains finer than others ; there are churches more effective 
 than others. Recognizing that is merely being honest. Yet 
 anybody knows the danger of it. 
 
 Being self-important about superiority reveals lack of 
 sense of humor, which is the power to see things in their 
 right proportion. This psalm sees things as they are. Later 
 in it, there runs a contrast between the idols of the inferior 
 races and the God of the Hebrews. One soldier said to 
 another, "Change generals with us, and we will fight as well 
 as you do." The world might say to Christendom, "Change 
 ^ods with us and we will lead as you lead." 
 
 Eighth Week, Fourth Day 
 
 If it had not been Jehovah who was on our side, 
 
 Let Israel now say, 
 
 If it had not been Jehovah who was on our side, 
 
 When men rose up against us; 
 
 Then they had swallowed us up alive. 
 
 When their wrath was kindled against us: 
 
 Then the waters had overwhelmed us, 
 
 The stream had gone over our soul; 
 
 Then the proud waters had gone over our soul. 
 
 Blessed be Jehovah, 
 
 Who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. 
 
 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the 
 
 fowlers : 
 The snare is broken, and we are escaped. 
 Our help is in the name of Jehovah, * 
 
 Who made heaven and earth. 
 
 — Psalm 124. 
 
 Here is a group that has had to stand for itself against the 
 larger forces of the other groups about it. It is a psalm of 
 some notable national deliverance. The saying that God is 
 pn the side of the heaviest guns is not true. The Cove- 
 nanters of Scotland, the Huguenots of France, the Waldenses 
 of Italy have outlasted the larger forces that were against 
 them. The persistence of moral minorities is a perfectly 
 familiar fact of history. The Hebrews themselves, when 
 they were a factor in Eastern history, are a good illustration 
 of the way in which a small group with inherent value can 
 persist in spite of tremendous odds against them. JVe tell 
 
 100 
 
GROUP WITHIN SOCIAL ORDER [VIII-5] 
 
 ourselves to he sure we are right and then to go ahead. If any 
 group will see to it that it is right, God will see to it that it 
 goes ahead. We need to keep that in mind when we take our 
 places in groups that have hard tasks before them, groups 
 like reform agencies or societies for the correction of any 
 abuses. They have a hard row before them, doubtless; it 
 seems in the plan of the world that things worth doing 
 should have elements of difficulty about them; but a moral 
 minority is still the biggest force in any situation. It does 
 not get swallowed up when floods rise out of the social 
 order. The universe, God's universe, is with it. Lincoln's 
 saying about being on God's side of questions is profoundly 
 true. 
 
 Eighth Week, Fifth Day 
 
 By the rivers of Babylon, 
 
 There we sat down, yea, we wept. 
 
 When we remembered Zion. 
 
 Upon the willows in the midst thereof 
 
 We hanged up our harps. 
 
 For there they that led us caDtive required of us songs, 
 
 And they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying. 
 
 Sing us one of the songs of Zion. 
 
 How shall we sing Jehovah's song 
 
 In a foreign land? 
 
 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, 
 
 Let my right hand forget her skill. 
 
 Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, 
 
 If I remember thee not; 
 
 If I prefer not Jerusalem 
 
 Above my chief joy. 
 
 — Psalm 137: 1-6. 
 
 A bit from an exile psalm. The danger here was that the 
 identity of the group might be swallowed up in the larger 
 and less worthy whole that surrounded it. There are doubt- 
 less times when a group has rendered its service and ought 
 to be absorbed into the order which it has made sufficiently 
 like itself. But when men do honestly stand for something 
 which is essential, then it demands courage to maintain their 
 separateness for that purpose. Yielding vital things for the 
 sake of accommodation to surroundings is easy — and ruin- 
 ous. Jesus spoke of the possibility of salt losing its saltness, 
 
 lOI 
 
[VIII-6] PSALM'S OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 the very thing that distinguished it from i)?^ surroundings, 
 in which case it had to be treated Hke its surroundings ; it 
 had become Hke dirt, let it be trampled on like dirt (Matt. 
 5:13). If college graduates are unwilling to maintain the 
 ideals that distinguish their group and prefer to settle down 
 to the drab life from which they ought to be distinguished, it 
 is no wonder that so many people think there is nothing in a 
 college education. If a church adopts practices common to 
 the unchristian life about it, and refuses to maintain its dis- 
 tinctive features in religion, the world will refuse to see any 
 particular meaning in religion. Here also arises the ques- 
 tion about denominations among' Christians. How far are 
 they justified and when does one of them lose the right to 
 exist? Is your own denomination serving a sufficiently dis- 
 tinctive purpose to justify its permanence, or has it caught 
 the color of all the rest? 
 
 Eighth Week, Sixth Day 
 
 Oh give thanks unto Jehovah, call upon his name; 
 
 Make known among the peoples his doings. 
 
 Sing unto him, sing praises unto him; 
 
 Talk ye of all his marvellous v^orks. 
 
 Glory ye in his holy name: 
 
 Let the heart of them, rejoice that seek Jehovah. 
 
 Seek ye Jehovah and his strength; 
 
 Seek his face evermore. . 
 
 Remember his marvellous works that he hath done, 
 
 His wonders, and the judgments of his 'mouth, 
 
 O ye seed of Abraham his servant, 
 
 Ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones. 
 
 He is Jehovah our God: 
 
 His judgments are in all the earth. 
 
 — Psalm 105: 1-7. 
 
 Here is an abiding sense of mission. The group does not 
 exist for itself or its own glory, but for "all the peoples" 
 and the glory of the forces of God which have made it what 
 it is. There are no favorites vv^hom God wishes to bless while 
 he prefers to neglect others. Probably most of the writers of 
 the psalms did not see it so clearly as we can see it in the 
 logic of their writings, but one of their devoted believers 
 saw it years after under the influence of Jesus, when he 
 declared that he could now see that God is no respecter of 
 
 102 
 
GROUP WITHIN SOCIAL ORDER [VIII-7] 
 
 persons, but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh 
 righteousness is acceptable to Him (Acts 10:35, 36). There 
 had been no change in God since the earhest times. He had 
 blessed men who feared him, so that men everywhere might 
 learn to fear him. When men had sought him, he responded, 
 so that men everywhere might seek him. That is actually the 
 way history works. No nation wins freedom without writing 
 a story for other nations, seeking freedom, to read — not to 
 imitate, but to emulate. In the movement for larger liberty 
 in China the names of Washington and Cavour and Gari- 
 baldi were much on the lips of 3^oung men. No city ever 
 worked out a civic problem or corrected an evil without help- 
 ing other cities to do the same thing. No community ever 
 developed along right lines without suggesting better things 
 to other communities. The group helps the order. 
 
 Eighth Week, Seventh Day 
 
 God be merciful unto us, and bless us, 
 
 And cause his face to shine upon us; 
 
 That thy way may be known upon earth, 
 
 Thy salvation among all nations. 
 
 Let the peoples praise thee, O God; 
 
 Let all the peoples praise thee. 
 
 Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy; 
 
 For thou wilt judge the peoples with equity, 
 
 And govern the nations upon earth. . . . 
 
 The earth hath yielded its increase: 
 
 God, even our own God, will bless us. 
 
 God will bless us; 
 
 And all the ends of the earth shall fear him. 
 
 — Psalm 67:1-4, 6, 7. 
 
 Here the vicarious blessing is emphasized strongly. God 
 is asked to be merciful to us, to bless us, to cause his face to 
 shine on us, not for our own sakes, but that his way may be 
 known on earth and his salvation among all nations. There 
 is a note of arrogance in the calm way in which we often 
 appropriate our blessings, as though they had caught on the 
 hooks of our merits and could not get loose. Nations are 
 important, but not so important as the world, and when a 
 nation is blessed, it is only poor national pride that leads its 
 people to think that the blessing is intended finally for itself 
 
 103 
 
[VIII-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 alone. There is plenty of that. Note it in the contemptuous 
 attitude taken by so many people toward those of other 
 nations. In a smaller way it is noticeable in inner groups in 
 a college. Intercollegiate victories are taken as victories of 
 a society or of some little coterie, instead of the victories of 
 the whole. The society comes to think of itself in terms 
 of itself and not of the whole, in whose behalf it should have 
 won its victories. God's hand is large enough to hold bless- 
 ings for the world. His method is to use the inner group as 
 a channel of blessing for the whole and as argument to the 
 whole for loyalty to him. 
 
 COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 
 
 Every social group, whether arbitrary or natural, is part 
 of the social order and holds relation to the whole. The 
 "whole" which it serves may be only relatively larger than 
 itself and in turn an element in a larger group, for no 
 group of any sort can draw a line around itself without 
 touching other groups and entering into some sort of rela- 
 tion to them. And all such groups carry a measure of 
 responsibility for the whole of which they are part. For one 
 thing, no group of any sort, natural or artificial, can be main- 
 tained except by using the energy of its members. The rea- 
 son so many societies of various sorts fail in college or com- 
 munities or in larger circles is that there are not enough 
 people who are willing to give time and strength to them. 
 Any society can live if a small group of people will pay the 
 price for it. Jesus risked a whole world plan on a mere 
 handful of people who could be brought to think so much of 
 the project that it would not occur to them to let it die. That 
 is one of the large reasons why his project has not died, in 
 spite of plenty of things that might have killed it. But if 
 a group uses up the strength and power of members of ihe 
 larger group, it ought in fairness to see to it that benefits 
 return to that larger group in some way. That is only 
 familiar social theory based on the Christian idea of human 
 responsibility. 
 
 Looking back on Jewish history we can see how plainly it 
 was God's thought that the Hebrews should be a group 
 within the whole for the sake of the whole. Often the 
 
 104 
 
GROUP WITHIN SOCIAL ORDER [VIII-c] 
 
 people themselves no more saw that than little groups of 
 people anywhere see their larger meaning. The Hebrews 
 thought of themselves as having special value to God on 
 their own account alone. Once in a while their prophets 
 and singers saw the larger truth which they have taught 
 all the rest of us. As children of Abraham they were to be 
 blessed and through them all the famihes of the earth were 
 to be blessed. Often in the psalms are hints of consciousness 
 of the surrounding peoples as those who were yet to be 
 brought to the same blessing as the Hebrews (65 : 4, 5 ; 
 67: 1-4; 48:2, 10). They saw that the Hebrews were not the 
 social order ; they were a group within that order and they 
 were meant to face outward toward that order and be a 
 blessing to it. That they should have seen the purpose in 
 all its fulness is hardly to have been expected, and it waited 
 for men like Paul and Peter and John who had been under 
 the spell of Christ to see it. Even so, we have been slow 
 enough to catch such a vision. The smug way in which we 
 accept blessings as belonging to us for some supposed merit 
 abiding in us suggests how much we have still to learn. 
 
 The demand that the group maintain itself for the sake of 
 the service it has to render appears in all the exile psalms. 
 The peril v/hich these more thoughtful men faced was that 
 they might be lost in the new surroundings and lose the 
 identity which constituted their value to the order. They 
 recalled the time in earlier history when that very thing had 
 occurred and the nation had suffered for it. It was in the 
 settlement days in Canaan (106:34-42), and they did not 
 keep themselves from the evils about them, but gradually 
 yielded to them, and like salt that had lost its saltiness they 
 were trampled under foot. These exilic singers saw the 
 danger that they might be tarred with the pitch of their sur- 
 roundings. They were compelled to mix with their captors, 
 yet they were to retain the essential thing that made them a 
 people. They had to live in the world but keep unspotted 
 from it (James 1:27). All the exile psalms bear testimony 
 to the distress of a group sharply out of place in a social 
 order where they are trying to keep right. 
 
 105 
 
[VIlI-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 It will always be difficult for some of us to understand the 
 depression and dejection that marks these exilic psalms. The 
 Hebrews were not bound slaves, not slaves at all in our usual 
 sense of the word. They were not confined, they were not 
 impoverished. Instead, they became officials, like Daniel and 
 his three friends, like Nehemiah and doubtless many others. 
 Some of them certainly became rich and prosperous, and 
 many of these settled down contentedly and never discussed 
 returning to their land. Yet many of them, on the other hand, 
 pined for the land from which they had been carried away. 
 Why could they not be contented? Partly it was for love 
 of liberty. A white man met a negro some years after the 
 war, a negro plainly poor and ill-kept though hardworking, 
 and asked him if he did not regret his release from slavery; 
 he was now hungry at times, then he always had food ; he 
 had poor clothing now, then he was clothed with all he 
 needed ; now he had only a hut to shelter him, then he had 
 a far better cabin. The negro waved it all aside: "No, sah ; 
 Ah doan regrets it ; de place is dere yet and you-all kin 
 have it if you-all wants it ; Ah wants to be free." There are 
 people Vv'ho will say, ''The more fool he," but other people 
 will understand. Man does not live by bread alone. There 
 are things which the soul demands which are' not supplied by 
 prosperity. It is this that underlies so much of the desire 
 for reform, even in cities whose bank clearings are steadily 
 increasing 'and whose streets are being paved by the mile 
 each year. It is the pull of higher things, better education, 
 finer home life, purer citizenship, that is felt by the group 
 which must often stand against the reigning social order. 
 The Hebrew exiles wanted some better things than prosperity. 
 
 But chiefly these men felt the shame of being in exile at 
 all. They had failed God and they must have a chance to be 
 true to him again. Study Daniel's pra3^er in his ninth 
 chapter, or Nehemiah's in his first chapter or the 137th psalm, 
 and it comes out that this is what hurt these finer souls. 
 They had been given a place in the w^orld, a place which the 
 world needed to have them take, a place which God's plan 
 needed to have them take, and they had failed the whole 
 situation. They might never be able to go back to Jerusalem, 
 but they meant to keep their desire for it alive (137:5, 6). 
 What a man can get is one thing; what he prefers is zvhat 
 makes him. Keep your preferences alive and your expe- 
 
 106 
 
GROUP WITHIN SOCIAL ORDER [VIII-c] 
 
 riencesitwill never narrow you. As Browning makes David 
 say, not what we do, but what we would do, exalts us. 
 
 There is always danger of a group failing at that point. 
 Many a society organized to protest against some abuse on 
 a campus or in a community has presently slipped into the 
 same evil against which it protested. It is hard not to cap- 
 italize our ideals, to make amusement with our highest hopes 
 for people who have no such hopes and so to cheapen them 
 for ourselves. The exiles were psychologically correct in 
 refusing to sin^ their songs in Babylon to show mirth (137: 
 3, 4). No man can use his highest hopes for cheap purposes 
 without sacrificing them. What is the actual effect of ama- 
 teur plays that ridicule the supposed ideals of the town, 
 that take off its religious or moral life? Do they make it 
 easier to be sincerely religious and deeply honorable, or 
 harder? And .if such things result in the cheapening of life, 
 that only illustrates again the fact that the group is easily 
 overcome by its environment, taking the color of its sur- 
 roundings. Salt has become common earth. 
 
 II 
 
 Maintaining this distinctive value is all the harder when 
 we are surrounded with other groups which have the same 
 responsibility and have abandoned it. The little 123rd psalm 
 is one of the "songs of ascent," connected with the pilgrim- 
 ages to Jerusalem undertaken under command of religious 
 duty by all the pious Jews. Along the way were villages or 
 settlements of various sizes whose people had only contempt 
 for those who still followed so trying a custom. The pil- 
 grims as they went on found themselves sneered at by others 
 who ought themselves to have been on the pilgrimage. Their 
 souls were exceedingly filled with the contempt of those who 
 were at ease, who had abandoned the difficulties of duty 
 and had only a sneer for others who persisted in them. Or 
 else, those who sneered were the heathen settlers among 
 whom they had to pass, who would condemn so stupid a 
 custom as the pilgrimage. Few men, known to any consider- 
 able body of friends, ever persistently followed the custom of 
 church going in a university or in a city without having to 
 face the same thing. The name of the Methodist Church is 
 
 107 
 
[VIII-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 the outcome of fellow students' contempt for the gpoup of 
 Oxford students who persisted in being religious and main- 
 taining their group testimony before the larger group. 
 
 At the root of sudi sneering is the desire for the easy way 
 of living. Religion makes demands and they are irksome to 
 some men. Once adopt the principle that one ought not to 
 be asked to do anything he does not feel like doing, or that 
 he ought to reduce such demands to the minimum, and you 
 have the whole argument against religion in a phrase. Most 
 men find it easier to lounge around a club ^unday morning 
 than to go to church, easier to loaf and chat in negligee than 
 to rake a place in a committee or a Bible class, and they pity 
 the poor dubs who do not see it so. And while there are 
 always some men who can pass that off with a jest, it goes to 
 the very roots of the matter with other men. It was not a 
 sword that upset Peter and made him deny Christ ; it was 
 being quizzed by a servant girl (Mark 14:66-70). Most of 
 us would rather be thought bad than foolish. We would 
 rather be denounced than ridiculed. And it is under just 
 such conditions that we have to be on our guard that we 
 maintain the thing that makes our existence worth while. 
 Have you ever known any compromises in such things that 
 have resulted well for either side of the difference? 
 
 Ill 
 
 The difficulty is increased when those who are equipped for 
 helping will not do so. The hint of the dereliction of 
 Ephraim (78:9-11) is worth noticing: "The children of 
 Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in 
 the day of battle." Ready for war, they left their brethren in 
 the lurch. It is the defection of the equipped that endangers 
 everything good in the world. The marvel is that good 
 causes prosper as they do when so many of them go short- 
 handed, while people armed and bearing bows turn back 
 when the strain comes. College people are as faithful as the 
 average, and yet there are enough college graduates, equipped 
 to make great warfare against all the social evils, to win 
 the victory ten times over, who have settled down into the 
 comfortable ways of the world and are valueless when the 
 need arises. They are not merely losses on their own ac- 
 
 108 
 
GROUP WITHIN SOCIAL ORDER [VIII-c] 
 
 count; they make everything harder for the men who keep 
 in the thick of the fight. Hopes are built upon them which 
 hurt when they fail. 
 
 IV 
 
 The largest group for social good ought to be the Church. 
 We must oppose any effort to make social service a side 
 issue of the Church's life. Speaking of it as a permissible 
 duty, depending on whether strength and time are left after 
 the gospel work is done, is sheer underreading of the terms 
 of the gospel. The old question persists as it did among the 
 Hebrews : Is the Church a body of people rescued from the 
 •world for their own sakes, blessed because God loves them 
 peculiarly and alone ; or is it a body of rescued people called 
 together to do the work of rescuing, the whole earth to profit 
 by God's blessing of them? A refuge or a place of inspira- 
 tion for world service — which is the Church? Is Mount 
 Zion the home of the faithful nation or the joy of the whole 
 earth (48:2)? And if it is for the whole earth, then for 
 what phases of the life of the earth, for all of them or for 
 only some of them? 
 
 Does it not make any difference to religion where and how 
 a man works, whether children are educated or abused, 
 whether immigrants are humanely or brutally treated, 
 whether men live in houses or in warrens? Life is too 
 closely interwoven in all its interests to be split up so that 
 the Church may be exonerated from concern for the whole 
 of it. Not as a side issue, but as part of its very central 
 duty, the Church must take its relation to the larger social 
 order within which it is placed. All the world and every- 
 thing in the world is part of its business. Its line of care 
 and its methods of correction will differ in different fields 
 of need, but as a social group it must recognize its relation 
 to the social order in God's world. 
 
 Jesus had in hand a great enterprise which even he did 
 not attempt to accomplish alone. He had his own unique 
 part to do, and that he did. But the enterprise itself was 
 laid on social lines. At the very beginning he formed a 
 group out of which the Church has grown. That group he 
 set squarely down in the world, knowing what their dangers 
 were and not asking to have them escape, but asking only 
 that they be kept true to the task and in the spirit needed for 
 
 109 
 
[VIII-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 the enterprise. He wanted them to be salt that would stay 
 salty, lights that would stay lighted, Christians who would 
 stay Christian. In that spirit he turned them to the enter- 
 prise, setting the world before them as their field. When 
 they fail or when evils come in the social group which they 
 have thus far mastered, the shame is not theirs alone; it is 
 the shame of the enterprise (79:9; 115:2). The worst 
 thing about war in Chrietendom, or labor riots or drunken- 
 ness or harlotry, is not its inherent badness ; it is the right it 
 gives to non-Christian nations to sneer at the God whose 
 worship we profess in Christendom. If this inner group of 
 those who know Christ had kept themselves as they should, 
 if they had pushed out their influence as they should, could 
 these things have occurred? 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER THOUGHT AND 
 
 STUDY 
 
 Consider the mutual relations that should exist between a 
 college society or fraternity or other inner group and the 
 institution as a whole, constituting what we are here calling 
 the social order. Go on to consider the relations that should 
 exist between the institution considered as a social group 
 and the general life of the world, conceived as a larger social 
 order. 
 
 What is the result of conceiving these relations as one- 
 sided? 
 
 Under what conditions would it be wise to serve the inter- 
 ests of the group even at the cost of the order, and when 
 would the opposite course be wise? In general, so far as 
 you have observed, which problem presents itself oftener? 
 
 1 10 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 » 
 
 God in the Social Order 
 
 The writers of the psalms, like all the Hebrews of their 
 times, have little to say about formal religion, and much 
 to say about God, but they mean the same thing. To them 
 religion was simply holding relation to God and religions 
 were measured by the God to whom relation -was held. 
 Hegel's familiar statement of religion would have been fairly 
 satisfactory to them : "Religion is a relation — a living and true 
 connection between God and man." 
 
 DAILY READINGS 
 Ninth Week, First Day 
 
 God is our refuge and strength, 
 
 A very present help in trouble. 
 
 Therefore will we not fear, though the earth do change. 
 
 And though the mountains be shaken into the heart of 
 
 the seas; 
 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, 
 Though the mountains tremble with the swelling thereof. 
 There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city 
 
 of God, ., 
 
 The holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. 
 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: 
 God will help her, and that right early. 
 The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved: 
 He uttered his voice, the earth melted. 
 Jehovah of hosts is with us; 
 The God of J^cob is our refuge. . . . 
 Be still, and know that I am God: 
 I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in 
 
 the earth. 
 
 f — Psalm 46: 1-7, 10. 
 
 Ill 
 
[IX-2] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 Probably the primary experience of anybody with the 
 thought of God is of courage. The word itself is worth 
 observing. Courage comes into the English language by way 
 of the French courage from the Latin cor, and of course 
 means that one has heart. Loss of courage means that one's 
 heart has failed before some strain or hard experience. 
 The first appeal of religion is to the heart. It does not draw 
 its assurance from what goes on around one. Jesus said 
 that the peace he gave is not given as the world gives it 
 (John 14:27), for he wanted to make our hearts untroubled, 
 while the world would like to make our surroundings undis- 
 turbed. The great service that religion can render us is to 
 make us sure even when chaos reigns in our surroundings. 
 Many things can happen, this psalm says, hut the failure of 
 God cannot happen. And the psalm does not suggest that 
 we need to look for this evidence merely in some personal 
 experience ; we can have it regarding the social group and 
 the social movements with which our lives are wrapped up. 
 That is not always best learned in the strenuous mood. It is 
 worth while to relax sometimes, as the phrase "be still" 
 actually means. In that quieter mood we get our reassur- 
 ance of the power of God and the religious life. 
 
 Ninth Week, Second Day 
 
 What is the cause of personal atheism as you know men 
 who profess it? Sometimes, doubtless, it is intellectual. Is 
 it not sometimes purely moral? Have you not seen young 
 fellows give up their idea of God, nominally because of some 
 intellectual difficulty, but actually because of the letting down 
 of their personal standards ?► 
 
 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. 
 They are corrupt, they have done abominable works; 
 There is none that doeth good. 
 Jehovah looked dov/n from heaven upon the children of 
 
 men, 
 To see if there were any that did understand. 
 That did seek after God. 
 
 They are all gone aside; they are together become filthy; 
 There is none that doeth good, no, not one. 
 
 112 
 
^ GOD IN THE SOCIAL ORDER [IX-3] 
 
 Have all the workers of iniquity no knov^ledge, 
 
 Who eat up my people as they eat bread, 
 
 And call not upon Jehovah? 
 
 There were they in great fear; 
 
 For God is in the generation of the righteous. 
 
 — Psalm 14: 1-5. 
 
 Whether this psalm means that the fool who declares there 
 is no God does so because he is corrupt and does abominable 
 works, or that he becomes corrupt because he has let the 
 thought of God get away from him does not" matter. The 
 two things might go together. There is something to be said 
 for the police power of religion for the average man. The 
 idea of God has a clear moral force. A serious, thorough- 
 going wish to know God prevents certain other wanderings 
 of spirit which are ruinous. Did you ever find yourself going 
 wrong at any point without having to change your idea of 
 God or to abandon it before you could have peace? 
 
 Religion would \^ave, on these terms, large social force. 
 The psalm goes on to suggest that the moral breakdown 
 which comes with denial of God works out into social wrongs. 
 Exploiting other people will always be easier if we forget 
 that we and they are children of one Father. Is Bernard 
 Shaw right in saying : "If you let a child starve, you are 
 letting God starve?" Certainly, injustice cannot go unpun- 
 ished in a social order in which God is remembered. How 
 is your own idea of God affecting your social life? 
 
 Ninth Week, Third Day 
 
 Arise, O Jehovah; O God, lift up thy hand: 
 
 Forget not the poor. 
 
 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God, 
 
 And say in his heart, Thou wilt not require it? 
 
 Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, 
 
 to requite it with thy hand: 
 The helpless committeth himself unto thee; 
 Thou hast been the helper of the fatherless. . . . 
 Jehovah, thou hast heard the desire of the meek: 
 Thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear 
 
 to hear; 
 To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, 
 That man who is of the earth may be terrible no more. 
 
 — Psalm 10: 12-14, i7» 18. 
 
 113 
 
[IX-4] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 If this kind of saying is valid, then social wrongs are irre- 
 ligious, whoever commits them, and in an order where God 
 has the final word they are doomed and people who continue 
 them are doomed also. That has been true since the begin- 
 ning, but it has sometimes been obscured by the accent on 
 personal relations with God. We have forgotten that other 
 men are so truly our brothers that offense against them is 
 offense against a family order of which the Head of the 
 family must take notice. The reason we are concerned with 
 social wrongs, oppression of the poor, unfair distribution 
 of the profits of toil, burdening of the helpless, is that all 
 these things are at root irreligious. Lord Morley said that 
 "morality is not in the nature of things, it is the nature of 
 things." That is even more profoundly true of right reli- 
 gion. What it calls for is not something arbitrary, set up 
 by a body of religious people, but obedience to the nature 
 of human society, conceived as the family of God. That is 
 what it means in the Lord's Prayer to hinge our being for- 
 given by God on our own forgiveness of other people. We 
 are all bound in one bundle of life — God, our fellows and 
 ourselves. He is noticing our social relations. Think over 
 the parable of Jesus (Matt. 18:21-35) about the two debtors, 
 one of whom owed his master a vast debt which was gra- 
 ciously forgiven, but who would not forgive a fellow servant 
 a small debt owed to himself. Relation to God, which is reli- 
 gion, has no meaning unless it affects relation to our fellow- 
 men. 
 
 Ninth Week, Fourth Day 
 
 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place 
 
 In all generations. 
 
 Before the mountains were brought forth, 
 
 Or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, 
 
 Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. . . . 
 
 Let thy work appear unto thy servants. 
 
 And thy glory upon their children. 
 
 And let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; 
 
 And establish thou the work of our hands upon us; 
 
 Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. 
 
 — Psalm 90: 1, 2, 16, 17. 
 
 Here is a word for those of us who are honestly trying to 
 get things done in the social order. We know that the best 
 
 114 
 
GOD IN THE SOCIAL ORDER [IX-5I 
 
 things we undertake cannot be finished in our own genera- 
 tion without a speeding up of movements which is not com- 
 mon. We are compelled at our best to take account of the 
 sweep of the generations. Somehow we are fitting into a 
 movement greater than any single generation. When they 
 asked Abraham Lincoln if he felt sure God was on his side^ 
 he answered that he was more concerned to be sure he was 
 on God's side. We have made a great step when we have 
 become sure that God has a side of things in this world, and 
 that the good causes are at home in him. 
 
 What we do in the social order gets its permanence from 
 the fact that God is in the work. It is this that makes it 
 possible to endure the deep sorrow of seeing some of our 
 best efforts come to nothing. A social worker in New York 
 said a while ago that he had ceased to mourn over the fail- 
 ure of his enterprises, because he had found that the ones 
 that failed were really in the way of better ones that could 
 not be seen until these were out of the way. At the end 
 of the great resurrection chapter (I Cor. 15:58) in which 
 Paul has argued for a present, living Christ and not merely 
 an historical Christ, he swings the whole argument back of 
 an appeal for vigorous service in the work of the Lord, 
 "forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in 
 the Lord." There may be ways in which work seems in. 
 vain, but it may safely be trusted to God to be established. 
 Are you willing to do your full part today in confidence that 
 God will make it worth while? 
 
 Ninth Week, Fifth Day 
 
 Most of us have a period in life, which some men never 
 outgrow, when we are afraid of the idea of God and when 
 we wish we could escape the demands of religion. That is 
 what men mean when they say that they had so much religion 
 when they were children that they have no taste for it now. 
 Religion was irksome to them and they welcomed the chance 
 to get away from it. That is not much to be wondered at, 
 for it applies to many other things. There are plenty of men 
 to whom school is so irksome that they want to escape it 
 as soon as they can. Others feel the same way about home 
 or work. All these things are merely grim necessities to 
 them, to be abandoned as soon as possible. Here, instead, is 
 
 115 
 
[IX-6] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 the true idea of religion both in personal and social life. It 
 is a joyous thing. 
 
 Oh come, let us sing unto Jehpvah; 
 
 Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. 
 
 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; 
 
 Let us make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. 
 
 For Jehovah is a great God, 
 
 And a great King above all gods. 
 
 In his hand are the deep places of the earth; 
 
 The heights of the mountains are his also. 
 
 The sea is his, and he made it; 
 
 And his hands formed the dry land. 
 
 Oh come, let us worship and bow_jdown; 
 
 Let us kneel before Jehovah our Maker: 
 
 For he is our God, 
 
 And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of 
 
 his hand. 
 To-day, oh that ye would hear his voice! 
 
 — Psalm 95: 1-7. 
 
 There is no better news possible than that there is a God 
 like the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and that 
 he reigns over the earth. As this psalm suggests, it makes 
 nature look different to feel that it is made by God and kept 
 by him; it changes the meaning of history to know that he 
 has a plan working through it; it transforms personal life to 
 realize that he cares how life is lived and what comes of it. 
 How do you feel about religion and its demands yourself? 
 Have you come to the point of chafing under its negations? 
 Is it chiefly a restriction or has it come to be an inspiration? 
 Are you tamely or deeply glad to be a religious believer? 
 
 Ninth Week, Sixth Day 
 
 O give thanks unto Jehovah; for he is good; 
 For his lovingkindness endureth for ever. 
 Let the redeemed of Jehovah say so, ^ 
 
 Whom he hath re4eemed from the hand of the adversary, 
 And gathered out of the lands, 
 From the east and from the west, 
 Erom the north and from the south. 
 They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way; 
 They found no city of habitation, 
 
 116 
 
GOD IN THE SOCIAL ORDER [IX-7] 
 
 Hungry and thirsty, 
 
 Their soul fainted in them. 
 
 Then they cried unto Jehovah in their trouble, 
 
 And he delivered them out of their distresses, 
 
 He led them also by a straight v/ay, 
 
 That they might go to a city of habitation. 
 
 — Psalm 107: 1-7. 
 
 The best argument for religion is its history. It has stood 
 by men in strain and made them able to endure. It has made 
 them face hunger and thirst without crying to anybody but 
 God. It has not left them weaklings and incapables. That 
 needs to be remembered when charges are made of the evil 
 done in the name of religion. There are plenty of such 
 things. Religion has always been a convenient cloak for evil. 
 That proves nothing. The fact that cheap plaster walls fall 
 down, though they are stained to look like marble, is really 
 no argument against marble. The Scripture is a good book 
 even though "old odd ends" can be stolen out of it to clothe 
 the wicked villainy of Gloster, as Shakespeare makes him 
 say he has done in Richard III (1:3). Whatever men have 
 said about it, the religion that is true to God as Christ taught 
 him does not provoke to violence and malice. It sustains us 
 in the strain of living as it has sustained men in the past. 
 It does not keep men from strain nor from hunger or thirst. 
 These things come in as part of the day's work. Distresses 
 and wandering are not evidences of desertion by God. He 
 has not forsaken the social group when it finds its relation 
 to the whole order difficult. But he does still make such 
 faithfulness worth while by making men feel an inner satis- 
 faction even in the midst of their needs. There is too much 
 history for that to let it be doubtful. 
 
 Ninth Week, Seventh Day 
 
 Jehovah reigneth; let the earth rejoice; 
 
 Let the multitude of isles be glad. 
 
 Clouds and darkness are round about him: 
 
 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his 
 
 throne. . . . 
 Jehovah reigneth; let the peoples tremble: 
 He sitteth above the cherubim; let the earth be moved. 
 
 117 
 
[IX-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 Jehovah is great in Zion; 
 
 And he is high above all the peoples. 
 
 Let them praise thy great and terrible name: 
 
 ^°ly i^ ^^- -Psalm 97: 1, 2; 99: 1-3. 
 
 This reading contains the famous quotation of James A. 
 Garfield when the assassination of Lincoln was announced. 
 He was in New* York and addressed a mass meeting in 
 Wall Street, deeply stirred by the news. At the opening 
 of his address he said : "Clouds and darkness are round about 
 Him ; God reigns and the government at Washington still 
 lives !" The case for God in history is not yet closed, and 
 there are more chapters to be written, but the evidence is 
 already enough to make us sure of his presence and power. 
 All movements for righteousness and justice are part of the 
 unveiling of his throne, for they are its foundation. When 
 we are troubled by the slow movement of such forces, we 
 need to remember that growth of moral character and habit 
 is involved in them. Would it be better to have a mechanic- 
 ally just world, in which social relations were determined 
 without the will of the people who make up the social order? 
 Is it not better for us to have to find out the demands of 
 righteousness and justice than to have them made so clear 
 to us that there are no clouds or darkness? Is Goethe right 
 in saying in the prologue to Faust, "Man still must err while 
 he doth strive"? Think out the value in your own case of 
 the moral venture of life. Sometimes we wish that questions 
 of duty or of human relationship could be answered so 
 plainly that we would have no doubts about them and could 
 always know just what we ought to do. Would that really 
 be best for us? Little children must have conduct deter- 
 mined for them in that way; what would be the effect on 
 them if it were so determined all through life? God does 
 rule, whether we rejoice or tremble over the fact. Is it not 
 well for us that sometimes his way is surrounded with clouds 
 and darkness? 
 
 COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 
 
 The Hebrews were not incHned to speculation. No such 
 philosophy as that of the Greeks nor even the coarser phi- 
 losophy of the Romans appears in the Old Testament. But 
 
 118 
 
GOD IN THE SOCIAL ORDER [IX-c] 
 
 no people were more assured about some great unseen real- 
 ities than were they. God is one of those facts in all their 
 literature. As Professor McFadyen says ("Messages of the 
 Psalmists," p. 5): "The refuge of these men was in God; 
 and more persistently than any other book in the Bible does 
 the Psalms bring home to us the overwhelming sense of the 
 reality and personality of God." Saying that there is no 
 God was simply to set one's self down as a fool \(i4:i; 
 53:1) — not always in our bad, vicious sense of the word, but 
 as a witless, thoughtless, unpenetrating man. Ernest Poole 
 in "The Harbor" makes one of his characters tell of his 
 college days that when the president was asked if they had 
 any free-thinkers there, he replied, "No, we have not yet 
 advanced that far. For it takes half as much thinking to be 
 a free-thinker as to be a believer in God !" Walter Scott 
 wrote in 1825 : "There afe few, I trust, who disbelieve the 
 existence of God ; nay, I doubt if at all times and in all 
 moods any single individual ever adopted that hideous 
 creed." And Churton Collins speaks of Shakespeare's "sense 
 of the utter contemptibleness and unintelligibleness of man 
 and life without reference to the divine." 
 
 Denial of God was explained for the psalmists by the bad 
 character of the men who made it. They were corrupt 
 (14:2, 3), they did foolishly — of course they did, the writer 
 thought ; for they had lost their moral balance when they 
 lost their God, so fully did the idea of God enter into 
 daily living. Some of our friends are insisting that morality 
 and religion have no necessary connection. "If there be no 
 God in the heavens, conscience is still in tue earth." Duty, 
 ethical culture, and many virtues are still possible. But we 
 have not yet found a way to make them effective in daily 
 life in the long run of things without finding a higher sanc- 
 tion than human opinion. The logic of the case, apart from 
 God, is still with the man who says : "You think your way, 
 and I think my way; why should you call me wrong?" 
 
 This relation to God was much thought of in social terms. 
 It was personal, of course, but even then it involved one's 
 being helped in social distresses (3:1; 57 : 4) and it demanded 
 one's service of others (51:12, 13; 23:22, 30, 31). Glance 
 through the 119th psalm and see how strongly personal it is 
 and yet how constantly the social relations are emphasized. 
 The writer knows he holds relation to God and his laws first 
 
 119 
 
[IX-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 of all, but he sees also how much those laws require of him 
 and how much they reward him in the social group and the 
 social order of which he is part. So these writers are ready 
 to draw universal principles from their personal experience. 
 It is not just themselves who can find help in God, but 
 ''Jehovah upholdeth all that fall" (145:14), and blesses all 
 those that take refuge in Him (2:12). God's relation to 
 humanity is open to all who will claim it, and therein lies a 
 tremendous social leverage. 
 
 We all tend to become like our real idea of God. Idols 
 have this curse on 'them, that those who make them tend to 
 become like them (135:18). If it is true that we tend to 
 make a God in our image, as some of the books say, it is 
 more markedly true that the God we have tends to make us 
 over into his own image. That is the great fact underlying 
 the assurance that the consummation of the Christian life 
 is coming into likeness to Christ (I John 3:2). So long as 
 this is possible, religion cannot be a matter of social indiffer- 
 ence. It must make a difference what kind of men go to make 
 up the social order. It must make even more difference what 
 kind of principles of life they adopt and what laws they 
 have in their social relationships. But all these are part of 
 the concern of religion. 
 
 I. Religion in the social order is often a disturbing power. 
 Under some conditions the thought of a reigning God will 
 make men tremble (99:1). If a .man wants to go wrong 
 and at the same time wants to be at peace, he must get rid 
 of his idea of God. Otherwise it- will haunt him. There is 
 nowhere he can go and be rid of it (139:7). Nevinson tells 
 of finding an excitable Frenchman at an African port who 
 professed himself delighted with the place because there 
 were no ten commandments and no God there. That left 
 him free to do as he pleased when he did not please nobly. 
 In a stirring account of the way of an evil man in the loth 
 psalm it is said that he can keep on as he does because "all 
 his thoughts are, The/e is no God." Otherwise, he could 
 not do it. One of our American statesmen said, "As I think 
 of slavery, I tremble for my nation when I remember that 
 God is just." But how would he feel if he thought that God 
 
 120 
 
GOD IN THE SOCIAL ORDER [IX-c] 
 
 is not just? God's justice is exactly the ground of hope 
 for the correction of social wrongs. They cannot be per- 
 manent in an order where God has the final word. 
 
 Men who believe in God ought not to wonder at social 
 disturbances. Some religions may stupefy men and call them 
 to accept present evils in hope of future rewards. There 
 have even been times when the Christian faith has been mis- 
 understood in that way. Indeed, the great practical problem 
 in the social field is to know how to use religion to make a 
 condition endurable without cutting the nerve of the effort to 
 correct the condition itself. It is the manifest purpose of 
 religion to make us brave to bear whatever we must bear 
 that comes to us in the order of our living (23:4). Equally 
 it must be the purpose of religion to make us unwilling to 
 rest in evil conditions, but to strain every nerve to undo the 
 evil to which we have to submit (118: 11-13). "A be-content- 
 with-your-lot religion and a beyond-the-stars heaven can no 
 longer be used as a soothing-syrup to silence the cries of 
 the oppressed," Dr. Vedder says with a familiar exaggera- 
 tion. How to obey the mandates of lawful authority and 
 yet to be strong to overthrow that authority because it is 
 not right, however lawful, is the great political problem. 
 How to use our faith to make us brave in bearing social 
 injustice and brave also to challenge that injustice is out* 
 social problem. But we can never hold a faith like ours, 
 which lays its chief stress on character, and whose God is 
 first of all holy (111:9) without being disturbed in the 
 presence of social evils. We will have to be blind to them 
 or dull to our faith to get along happily in their presence. 
 We may not care to use the imprecatory psalms and call on 
 God for the kind of vengeance they suggest, but we w"ill not 
 suppose that the wrongs with which they deal can go on 
 without moral ruin. 
 
 Religion in the social order is intended to be a rectifying 
 pozver. The inequalities of social conditions have always 
 troubled thoughtful men, A deeply religious man cannot dis- 
 regard them, and he is sure God does not disregard them, but 
 is heeding them and will act with reference to them. If 
 necessary, He will humble himself to see the things of earth 
 
 121 
 
[IX-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 (113:6) and will care for the poor and needy (113:7, 8; 
 107:41). If wicked men think they can oppress with 
 impunity, that only shows how foolish men can be. The 
 37th and 73rd psalms are devoted to the correction of any 
 spirit that would misread the story of the supposed pros- 
 perity of evil in God's world. It is mushroom prosperity. 
 We would have it corrected on the instant, but that cannot 
 be the way of a world in which moral character is to be 
 developed. Only, we are never to have the notion that im- 
 morality can go on uncorrected. The 7th and loth psalms 
 are based on some experience of the smash that has come 
 to men who seemed too secure to be disturbed. They carry 
 the same lesson as Browning's "Instans Tyrannus," a short 
 poem in which he has told the scheming of an importunate 
 tyrant to destroy a man who was not to his mind. The man 
 himself was too insignificant to deserve such animosity, but 
 the whim of the tyrant made him greater than he was. He 
 was friendless, without place or position. At last the tyrant 
 ran fires around him, laid mines under him and sent out his 
 thunders over him, looking on "to enjoy the event." 
 
 "When sudden . . . how think ye, the end? 
 Did I say 'without friend'? 
 Say rather, from marge to blue marge 
 The whole sky grew his targe ; 
 
 With the sun's self for visible boss, 
 While an Arm ran across 
 
 Which the earth heaved beneath like a breast 
 Where the wretch was safe prest ! 
 Do you see? Just my vengeance complete, 
 The man sprang to his feet, 
 
 Stood erect, caught at God's skirts, and prayed ! 
 — So, / was afraid !" 
 
 Is not that only a comment on Psalm 14 : 5, "There were they 
 in great fear; for God Is in the generation of the righteous"? 
 The favor claimed from God in the psalms is not arbitrary 
 and on grounds of favoritism, but on the ground of right- 
 eousness. When men are condemned they are bad men, not 
 personal enemies. They have oppressed the poor, they have 
 ground down the distressed, they have robbed widows and 
 orphans, they have sneered at the efforts of men to regain 
 their feet after a fall, they have ridiculed religion and men 
 
 122 
 
GOD IN THE SOCIAL ORDER [IX-c] 
 
 who have tried to be true to it, they have returned evil for 
 good. In a word they are social offenders, and it does not 
 occur to these writers that God can disregard that. On the 
 other hand, the men approved are not favorites of fortune, 
 but men who have tried to be true to God and man. In a 
 word, they are social servants, and it does not occur to these 
 writers that God can be indifferent to them and their fortunes. 
 If religion is not to rectif}^ such evils, if God is not to be 
 supposed to care about them, then we will have to have a 
 different idea of religion from that of the psalmists. It is 
 for this reason that the lovingkindness of God is the peril 
 of evil doers and the hope of the righteous (52). 
 
 Ill 
 
 Religion in the social order is intended to be a reassuring 
 power. It is God who makes effort worth while. Unless he 
 builds the house, they labor in vain that build it, and unless 
 he keeps the city, the watchman wakes in vain (127:1). 
 Admiral "Jack" Philip was not only a participant in our civil 
 war and more prominently in the Spanish-American war in 
 command of the Texas, but he was a sincere Christian. His 
 Bible showed dates of his reading the entire Bible through 
 twelve times and the New Testament thirty-four times. In 
 his working copy of the Bible were these words written : 
 "Send me anywhere — only go with me. Put any burden on 
 me — only sustain me. Sever any tie, except that which binds 
 me to Thy heart and service." 
 
 One Sunday Mrs. Julia Ward Howe had an experience 
 which she records in her diary: "As we drove into town 
 (to church) I had one of those momentary glimpses which 
 in things spiritual are so precious. The idea became clear 
 and present to my mind that God, an actual presence, takes 
 note of our actions and intentions. I thought how helpful it 
 would be to pass our lives in a sense of this divine super- 
 vision. The thought is one to which I have need to cling. 
 \ have at this moment mental troubles, obsessions of imagi- 
 nation, from which I pray to be dehvered. While this idea 
 of the divine presence was clear to me, I felt myself lifted 
 above these things. May this lifting continue!" Tenny- 
 son's son tells that a week before the poet's death he "was 
 
 123 
 
[IX-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 sitting with him and he talked long of the personality and 
 the love of God — 'that God whose eye considers the poor, 
 who catereth even to the sparrow.' He said, 'I should infi- 
 nitely rather feel myself the most miserable wretch on the 
 face of the earth, with a God above, than the highest type 
 of man standing alone.' " 
 
 There is no calculating the value in social movements 
 of a sense of divine interest in the movement itself. Paul 
 was ready for the hardest field, because after all it was 
 neither his planting nor Apollos' watering, but God ■ who 
 gave the increase (i Cor. Z'-^, 7)- When a scofifer asked 
 Morrison if he thought he could make any impression on 
 China, he replied, "No, but I think God can." Schemes have 
 their value, but power belongs to God (62:11). He is the 
 dwelling place of men who are trying to serve him (90: i) ; 
 a refuge and strength for them (46:1), even though the 
 last earthly friend should forsake them (27 : 10) ; not merely 
 a place where they may feel safe, but a source whence they 
 may feel strong. No man needs strength to keep him out of 
 the fight, seeking refuge for himself. If there is any promise 
 of strength it must be because men are to get into the thick 
 of things ; only, in the thick of things they are to be wholly 
 unafraid {3:6', 56:3, 11; 112:7). Such a state will be 
 brought about by keeping clear our sense of God as over 
 against men. One of the writers prays that nations may 
 know themselves to be but men (9 : 20) and another calls on 
 God to act so that "man who is of the earth may be terrible 
 no more" (10: 18). 
 
 Dr. Weir Mitchell once sent a nervous New York business 
 man out to the plains just east of the Rocky Mountains to 
 regain his perspective. He needed to get his horizon pushed 
 farther back where it belonged, to see himself as no bigger 
 than he actually was, to know how much of the world there 
 is outside of a business house. After six months there he 
 came back cured, steadied for work again. Religion is meant 
 to do that kind of thing for us. Apply it to your own case. 
 What is the effect of your own religion on your judgment 
 of events and characters on your college campus or in your 
 community life? Does it tend to make you ready to take 
 part in movements for good because you know they will not 
 fail? Do you incline to magnify small things beyond their 
 real importance? 
 
 124 
 
GOD IN THE SOCIAL ORDER [IX-c] 
 
 IV 
 
 Religion in the social order is intended to be an enlarging 
 power. That is the meaning of that strange combination of 
 ideas in the i8th psalm : "Thy gentleness hath made me great" 
 (v. 35). Our story of the argument between the wind and 
 the sun as to their power over the traveler carries the same 
 truth. Juvenal said that the adage, "Know thyself," came 
 down from heaven. Coleridge advises us rather to ignore 
 ourselves and strive to know our God. 
 
 But it is not necessary to call ourselves sisters of the worm 
 in order to realize that it is more important for us to know 
 God than anything else. Dr. Deems used to put the 
 three sa3''ings together : Know thyself ; The proper study 
 of mankind is man; Acquaint now thyself with Him and 
 be at peace ; and to say that each of them has its Value but 
 that they rise in importance in this order. Jesus said it in 
 the highest hour of his life (John 17:3) : "and this is life 
 eternal, that they may know thee the only true God, and him 
 whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ." Dr. Frank W. 
 Gunsaulus, in his sermon on this text, compares the growth 
 of a plant and its reaching up toward the sun, finding its life 
 there, with the growth of our souls as they reach up to God. 
 Christ is the sun-ray that comes down to the soul, bearing the 
 very nature of God and making him knowable to finite men. 
 Certainly no religion in history has attempted to mean so 
 much in the social order as the religion of Christ. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER THOUGHT AND 
 
 STUDY 
 
 In your observation of men who deny the existence of God 
 or who count the matter wholly indifferent, are the reasons 
 intellectual ones? What seems to you the probable explana- 
 tion for such a position? What is the best way of meeting 
 men of the sort? 
 
 Consider the attitude of the state toward religion. Is it 
 well to consider the religious affiliations of a candidate for 
 political office? Are laws relating to religion wise? How 
 far ought laws regarding the Sabbath to go? 
 
 Religion being necessary for the social order, what should 
 be the attitude of city or community settlements toward it? 
 In cases where settlement leaders think religious influences 
 cannot properly be used, how might their lack be made good? 
 
 125 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Sin and the Social Order 
 
 DAILY READINGS 
 
 Tenth Week, First Day 
 
 There- is a vigorous sense of sin revealed in the psalms. 
 Some of it is, of course, purely personal. The man cannot 
 think of the wrongs of other people when his own seem so 
 dark. But most of the sin dealt with in the psalms is social. 
 It breaks the relations among men and damages not only 
 the man who commits it, but other people who are caught in 
 his group or even the whole social order. This section for 
 today covers a wide circle of thought about the social aspects 
 of sin. 
 
 But unto the wicked God saith, 
 
 What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, 
 
 And that thou hast taken my covenant in thy mouth? 
 
 Seeing that thou hatest instruction, 
 
 And castest my words behind thee. 
 
 When thou sawest a thief, thou consentedst with him, 
 
 And hast been partaker with adulterers. 
 
 Thou givest thy mouth to evil, 
 
 And thy tongue frameth deceit. 
 
 Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; 
 
 Thou slanderest thine own mother's son. 
 
 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; 
 
 Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy- 
 self: 
 
 But I will reprove thee, and set them in order before 
 thine eyes. 
 
 — Psalm 50: 16-21. 
 
 One primary sin is hypocrisy, talking in the terms of religion 
 but refusing to live by its laws. That dulls one's keenness of 
 
 126 
 
SIN AND THE SOCIAL ORDER [X-2] 
 
 understanding, so that one does not want to know duty. 
 There is no sin in not knowing social duty, but there is deep 
 sin in refusing to try to find it out. Suppose we say we do 
 not see what we can do to hinder evils in the social order ; 
 may that not be an added charge against us? Ought we not 
 to see? And is there not much danger that we will take 
 part in the sins of other people, consenting with offenders, 
 until we become parties to the offense ourselves? No man 
 can be negative in his attitude toward sin without becoming 
 positive in its favor. He fights it or favors it. Playing 
 second fiddle to other men's sin is one road to committing 
 sin ourselves. 
 
 Tenth Week, Second Day 
 
 So they did eat, and were well filled; 
 
 And he gave them their own desire. 
 
 They were not estranged from that which they desired, 
 
 Their food was yet in their mouths. 
 
 When the anger of God went up against them. 
 
 And slew of the fattest of them. 
 
 And smote down the young men of Israel. 
 
 For all this they sinned still, 
 
 And believed not in his wondrous works. 
 
 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity. 
 
 And their years in terror. 
 
 When he slew them, then they inquired after him; 
 
 And they returned and sought God earnestly. 
 
 And they remembered that God was their rock. 
 
 And the Most High God their redeemer. 
 
 — Psalm 78:29-35. 
 
 Here is one of the perennial social complications ; the rela- 
 tion between prosperity and evil. Professor Giddings' say- 
 ing is familiar: "Sin is misery; misery is poverty; the anti- 
 dote for poverty is income." Do you think that is funda- 
 mentally true? Can we think that if we are prospering, if 
 our income is good, we have avoided sin? Would a prosper- 
 ous nation be a sinless one? Would it even be a happy one 
 on that account? There is no sin in prosperit5^ and if our 
 income is good we may well be glad of it. But we must 
 look elsewhere for evidence of freedom from sin. Moral 
 and temporal conditions do not always run parallel. Nor 
 does severe discipline or the withdrawal of prosperity neces- 
 
 127 
 
[X-3] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 sarily turn men from wrong-doing. It may be meant for 
 that, and the first question a thoughtful man must ask v/hen 
 he is suffering failure is whether he is being corrected for 
 the way he has been living. But he may not be. The thing 
 we have to face is : Can our souls endure prosperity and 
 keep right with God? And next after that: Can we learn 
 the lessons of adversity if it comes to us? But while we are 
 zealous to see great prosperity come to the social group which 
 we love, the college or the community, we are to keep it fit 
 for prosperity and brave enough for adversity. 
 
 Tenth Week, Third Day 
 
 Biit they flattered him with their mouth, 
 And lied unto him with their tong;ue. 
 For their heart was not right with him. 
 Neither were they faithful in his covenant. 
 But he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity, and de- 
 stroyed them not: 
 Yea, many a time turned he his anger away,i 
 And did not stir up all his wrath. 
 And he remembered that they were but flesh, 
 A wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. 
 How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness. 
 And grieve him in the desert! 
 And they turned again and tempted God, 
 And provoked the Holy One of Israel. 
 
 — Psalm 78:36-41. 
 
 Here again is the hollow note in religion which so soon 
 turns to a positive note of wrong. Talking favorably about 
 religion and God, and all the while merely flattering God, 
 lying with the tongue while the heart is not right, is sure to 
 lead to unfaithfulness in duty. God's covenant is a constant 
 challenge of service, but it appeals to hearts and not chiefly 
 to tongues. The trouble with the social order is the bad 
 hearts which appear so commonly in it — our own bad hearts, 
 whether they are born in us (51 : 5) or not. Imagine that 
 people everywhere, yourself included, were thoroughly sound 
 in heart ; how soon could the social problems be solved and 
 the social evils righted? Not instantl5^ of course; but would 
 we not be on the way toward the solution of all our present 
 problems and well safeguarded against new ones? Yet it 
 would be foolish to despair of the social order on this 
 
 128 
 
5"/A^ AND THE SOCIAL ORDER [X-4] 
 
 account. God does not. He deals with us for what we are 
 in order to make us what we ought to be. We never aggra- 
 vate God into petulancy. The social order would have fallen 
 to pieces many times if there had not been so many correc- 
 tive forces at work. God's mercy appears in them. We are 
 learning to think of human frailty more gently, somewhat as 
 God does, knowing that men are but flesh after all. But 
 that does not take away from them the fact of evil with its 
 spoiling of the social order. 
 
 Tenth Week, Fourth Day 
 
 God's law is human duty and it is failure In duty or viola- 
 tion of that law that makes sin. As you understand sin, 
 could it not he described as self-assertion in disregard of 
 Godf It is acting as though the law of God did not matter 
 to us. Our sight of the will of God really measures our 
 sense of sin. Paul speaks of that several times in the Romans 
 (3:20; 4: 15; 7 '.7). He says it is only when the law of God 
 comes that we have any sense of sin. If we take light views 
 of what God requires, is it not plain that we change our idea 
 of human conduct? We must lower our ideal or raise our 
 conduct to have peace of mind when they differ. But we 
 are not to think of God's law as a limiting fact. It is the 
 enlarging fact of the social order. God's ambitions for 
 society are higher than our own. 
 
 The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul: 
 
 The testimony of Jehovah is sure, making v^^ise the simple. 
 
 The precepts of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart: 
 
 The commandment of Jehovah is pure, enlightening the 
 eyes. 
 
 The fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring for ever: 
 
 The ordinances of Jehovah are true, and righteous alto- 
 gether. 
 
 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much 
 fine gold; 
 
 Sweeter also than honey and the droppings of the honey- 
 comb. 
 
 Moreover by them is thy servant warned: 
 
 In keeping them there is great reward. 
 
 — Psalm 19: 7-1 1. 
 
 This tells what God's will would accompHsh for us if we 
 
 129 
 
[X-5] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 gave it a chance. Sin is refusing to give it its chance to do 
 what he wishes to do for us. 
 
 V 
 
 Tenth Week, Fifth Day 
 
 Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Jehovah. 
 
 Lord, hear my voice: 
 
 Let thine ears be attentive 
 
 To the voice of my supplications. 
 
 If thou, Jehovah, shouldest mark iniquities, 
 
 Lord, who could stand? 
 
 But there is forgiveness with thee, 
 That thou mayest be feared. 
 
 1 wait for Jehovah, my soul doth wait, 
 And in his word do I hope. 
 
 My soul waiteth for the Lord 
 
 More than watchmen wait for the morning; 
 
 Yea, more than watchmen for the morning. 
 
 O Israel, hope in Jehovah; 
 
 For with Jehovah there is lovingkindness, 
 
 And with him is plenteous redemption. 
 
 And he will redeem Israel 
 
 From all his iniquities. — Psalm 130. 
 
 The arresting thing here is the writer's sense of the prev- 
 alence of sin all about him. If there is no way of standing 
 before God without sin, then no man can stand there. At 
 some point we are all self-assertive in disregard of God, and 
 that makes us hurtful to the social order for which his will 
 is the only safe law. And God's way of forgiveness is not 
 to disregard sin and not to make us think lightly of it, nor 
 to make us trifle with it. There is forgiveness with him that 
 he may be — feared. Sometimes we talk about forgiveness in 
 terms that make us disregard God. When Heine was asked 
 if he expected God to forgive him, he answered, "Of course; 
 that is what God is for !" Is that the attitude toward God 
 that understands his forgiveness? If our being forgiven 
 does not rnake us feel more reverent and humble before God, 
 then it may be wondered whether we have found forgiveness. 
 And we are not to think of forgiveness as relieving us from 
 the penalties of wrong doing. God redeems from iniquities, 
 not from penalties. Of course vv^hen the iniquity itself is 
 gone, the penalties go with it. It is not going to hell that is 
 to be feared ; it is belonging there because we have bound 
 
 130 
 
SIN AND THE SOCIAL ORDER [X-6] 
 
 our lives to the moral qualities that belong there that is to be 
 feared. 
 
 Tenth Week, Sixth Day 
 
 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: 
 
 Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 
 
 Make me to hear joy and gladness, 
 
 That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. 
 
 Hide thy face from my sins, 
 
 And blot out all mine iniquities. 
 
 Create in me a clean heart, O God; 
 
 And renew a right spirit within me. 
 
 Cast me not away from thy presence; 
 
 And take not thy holy Spirit from me. * 
 
 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; 
 
 And uphold me with a willing spirit. 
 
 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; 
 
 And sinners shall be converted unto thee. 
 
 — Psalm 51: 7-13. 
 
 The correction of social evil begins with the individual life. 
 A cleansed life is the first necessity. Purify me — wash me — 
 blot out mine iniquities; and then will I teach transgressors 
 Thy way. Jesus said the same thing in his parable about the 
 mote in the eye of the neighbor and the beam in one's own 
 eye. He did not suggest that we could be indifferent to either 
 mote or beam, or that we might decline to help our neigh- 
 bor with his mote because we have a beam in our own eye. 
 He tells us to get rid of our own trouble and then we can 
 see clearly to help somebody else. That is the weakness of 
 refusal to take part in movements for the correction of a 
 wrong condition in which one is personally involved. A 
 college student cannot fairly decline to stand against wrongs 
 on the campus because his own life has not been right. 
 It is his business to make his life right in order that he 
 may help in the work of correction. Dr. Arnold put a 
 younger boy under the care of Tom Brown and that made 
 Tom Brown brace up his own life. No v/rongs are ever 
 righted until somebody cares about them. There are no 
 perfect men to care. It must be men who know their own 
 need in some line who will ever get wrongs righted. The 
 root evil in the social order is selfishness, and it is one form 
 of selfishness when we will not correct our own lives so that 
 
 131 
 
[X-7] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 we may be effective in trying to correct wider wrongs in 
 the social order. 
 
 Tenth Week, Seventh Day 
 
 Jehovah is merciful and gracious, 
 
 Slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness. 
 
 He will not always chide; 
 
 Neither will he keep his anger for ever. 
 
 He hath not dealt with us after our sins, 
 
 Nor rewarded us after our iniquities. 
 
 For as the heavens are high above the earth, 
 
 So great is his lovingkindness toward them that fear him. 
 
 As far as the east is from the west. 
 
 So far ha^h he removed our transgressions from us. 
 
 Like as a father pitieth his children, 
 
 So Jehovah pitieth them that fear him. 
 
 For he knoweth our frame; 
 
 He remembereth that we are dust. 
 
 — Psalm 103:8-14. 
 
 Here again is the assurance that God understands our 
 fight as well as our failure. People around us have clear 
 eyes for the times we fall down, but they cannot know very 
 fully the times we stood up instead of falling. They have a 
 limit to what they will put up with, and they are not ready to 
 make allowances. Indeed, we ought not to ask allowances 
 from men because they have the same fight we have, for 
 aught we know. We must not do any baby-acting when 
 things go wrong with us. If we have any pleading to do, let 
 it be done where it is asked, that is, with God. But in our 
 own dealing with other people, offenders in the social order, 
 we have to learn God's attitude. Severity in dealing with 
 evils must always be safeguarded in spirit. Vengeance, or 
 trying to get even with wrongdoers, is not like God. A judge, 
 sentencing a seventeen-year-old offender, a murderer whose 
 nonchalance had been very trying, added to his committal to 
 the penitentiary for life the words, "And I hope you will rot 
 there." Meanwhile the boy became quite a hero with women 
 who sent him flowers and notes. Plainly, there is a middle 
 course of strength and gentleness which we must learn to 
 take. God's severity is for saving. Ours must be. The new 
 science of penology may swing too far, but it is more nearly 
 Christian than much of the old system. 
 
 132 
 
SIN AND THE SOCIAL ORDER [X-c] 
 
 COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 
 I 
 
 Sin is an act of the human will, self-assertion in disregard 
 of God. It may be defiant, committed in full view of duty, 
 or merely indifferent to any will of God. Most sin is of the 
 latter sort, and comes out of an inherent self-regard which 
 has value when it is rightly directed. Illustrate it with what 
 you know of ambition, which is one form of self-regard : 
 could a man do his best work without ambition ; on the other 
 hand, is there anything that cripples a man's power to help 
 ■ society more than ambition that is selfish? It is when the 
 self is asserted in disregard of God and his requirements on 
 self that sin is sure to appear. And as the self is set in the 
 order of God in a social group and then in a wider social 
 order, it follows ^naturally that most sin is social, either in 
 its provocation or in its .continuance or in its worst results. 
 The writers of the psalms treat it so. 
 
 The best writers in literature treat it in the same way. 
 Compare Tennyson's use of the Knights of the Round Table 
 with Malory's use of the same story. In both cases, the 
 Round Table is broken up by sin, the sin of individuals at 
 first, broadening into the group. Malory makes it the sin 
 of Arthur himself, and the breakup of the order an act of 
 fair reprisal for his wrong. Tennyson makes it the result 
 of the sin of Guinevere and Lancelot which could not con- 
 tinue theirs alone, but in the nature of the case spread to 
 the group. In either case, selfishness is the root form of the 
 sin, the war of Sense against the Soul, as Tennyson calls 
 it in the closing part of the Idylls. But selfishness is never 
 possible Vv'ithout damage to the social group, fo^ in its very 
 meaning it involves that group. When a man tells a lie he 
 not only becomes a liar, but he vitiates the social atmosphere 
 in which he has to live and makes it harder for himself and 
 for others to be true. 
 
 There is obvious danger in taking all responsibility from 
 the individual and blaming everything on society. Society 
 itself is made up of individuals and if the individual offender 
 is not to blame for his part in the wrong he has done, it 
 seems idle to blame other individuals for the part they have 
 had in the same wrong. If a poor man cannot help stealing, 
 then how can a rich man help oppressing him? Are not both 
 
 133 
 
[X-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 under the same social pressure? The plea which transfers 
 the load of blame from the offender to the social order proves 
 too much. The fact is that both the individual who is 
 "forced" to do wrong and the individuals who "force" him 
 to do it can keep from doing the wrong thing, while each is 
 making it harder for the other to do the right thing. The 
 slums do not explain all the badness ; it takes some measure 
 of the badness to explain the slums. Poverty makes some 
 men shiftless and shiftlessness makes some men poor. Need 
 for food drives some men to dishonesty and dishonesty 
 drives some men to hunger. If a young fellow goes wrong 
 on a college campus, that is partly because there are wrong 
 social conditions which he meets there and partly because he 
 gives way to them unnecessarily. So the psalms emphasize 
 personal responsibility for wrong, and yet almost without 
 exception use the plural for offenders. We sin individually, 
 but we live in droves and the drove helps us to sin and 
 carries the large result of the sin.' Read here, if possible, 
 Lowell's "Parable" in which he tells of Christ's coming to 
 earth again to see how his brethren believed in him. He 
 found churches everywhere, but need abounded as well. 
 
 "Then Christ sought out an artisan, 
 A low-browed, stunted, haggard man, 
 And a motherless girl, whose fingers thin 
 Pushed from her faintly want and sin. 
 
 "These set He in the midst of them. 
 And as they drew back their garments' hem, 
 For fear of defilement, 'Lo, here !' said He, 
 'The images ye have made of me !' " 
 
 How far was it fair for Lowell to place the blame of these 
 "images" on the whole social order or on all brethren of 
 Christ? 
 
 We noted in one of our daily studies four social sins which 
 are grouped in one psalm (50:16-21): hypocrisy, partner- 
 ship with evil, sins of the tongue, and contempt for God. 
 Frequently throughout the psalms oppression of weaker 
 people is dealt with (10:7-10; 55:9-11; 140:1-5). Not even 
 the minor prophets are more earnest in their protest against 
 oppression of the poor than these psalmists. The condi- 
 tions are almost modern, though the machinery for refined 
 
 134 
 
SIN AND THE SOCIAL ORDER [X-c] 
 
 oppression is more efficient today than it was then. We are 
 all more or less caught in that machinery and are unwitting 
 or helpless partners in wrong which we do not wish to per- 
 form. 
 
 A recent writer has suggested that we take a Sabbath morn- 
 ing off and put down in a row the things that are the matter 
 with us morally. We will find, he thinks, that sins will prac- 
 tically divide off into two lists. In one list will be original 
 sins, those which are just our own, which we know all about 
 and wdiich we can "turn on and off personally or by hand."- 
 In the othor list will be the sins that come from "what might 
 be called our sin factory," the evils which we allow to be 
 forced on us by the conditions under which we live. We do 
 not believe, let us say, in cutthroat competition, but our com- 
 petitors do; what can we do about it? We do not believe in 
 Sunday study, but our fellow contestants for a prize do ; 
 what can we do about it? As head of a corporation or of 
 a college society, can a man act just as he would all by him- 
 self ? In many ways these "machinery" sins are more dan- 
 gerous than the personal ones, for they lead us to unload our 
 responsibility on other people, specially on some vague, imper- 
 sonal condition for which no one can be blamed. Over 
 against that we need to set the solid assurance of personal 
 responsibility for sin which runs all through the psalms. 
 
 The prevalence of sin in the social order is plain also. If 
 God should mark iniquities, no one could stand before him 
 (i30-3)i> and in such eyes as his no man living is righteous 
 (143:2). There are many degrees of wrong, and men may 
 plead their own efforts to be right, but in every direction 
 there are signs of men's disregard of God. That does not 
 cast a shadow over human life, because God knows more 
 about it than we do and is unfailingly merciful to men (103: 
 10-12; 78: 39). All our thought of sin needs to be kept out in 
 the light of the love of God. It is persistent sin that makes 
 that love a consuming fire. 
 
 II 
 
 The seriousness of sin in the social order will always be 
 determined by the ideal of the social order by which we 
 measure offenses against it. Whether or not a boy likes the 
 spirit of the college in which he is studying depends on the 
 
 135' 
 
[X-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 kind of spirit he likes in a college. If he feels that "boys 
 will be boys" and therefore that stealing signs and sidewalks 
 is justifiable college humor; if he feels that professors are 
 the natural enemies of students, to be circumvented when- 
 ever possible, and that cheating in examination is the look- 
 out of the professors ; if he thinks that profanity and drink- 
 ing are essential or incidental to growing manhood and the 
 spirit of independence — then he may find the campus spirit 
 satisfactory where men of other ideals might think it quite 
 otherwise. Our moral judgments reveal our moral ideals. 
 
 Suppose we set out with the thought that prosperity is the 
 sign of a right social order. Under it everybody is to have 
 enough income so that he is not miserable and hence not sin- 
 ful. Then our idea of what sin is will be very different from 
 the one we will have if we take prosperity as a mere incidefit 
 in a right social order, while we put moral relationships and 
 right conduct foremost. The loth psalm and the 78th tell 
 what is the effect of getting the ideal of prosperity into the 
 uppermost place in thought of the social order. It clouds 
 the idea of any higher relationship with God. Eras of 
 prosperity are not generally those of greatest consciousness 
 of these higher relationships. They are not even the times 
 of greatest social service ; sense of fraternity with needy 
 people does not quicken at such times. The fact is that 
 adversity has often awakened a social group to the finer 
 things which had been hid from them by their prosperity. 
 College alumni rejoice in a great gift to a college, but they 
 rally to it more when a call for help goes out to them. Suc- 
 cess tends to loosen our higher bonds. It ought not to do 
 so, and it need not do so. All we need now to realize is that 
 no social theory which puts first the purely temporal pros- 
 perity will give us a good basis for judgment regarding social 
 evils. The factory that brings prosperity may be also the 
 most dangerous influence in the community or it may not be; 
 the prosperity it brings is no final gauge. 
 
 At the very end of the long 104th psalm is a sudden turn 
 which carries this same suggestion. The psalm is taken up 
 with an account of the goodness of God in the world, ' his 
 care of nature, his maintenance of its forces and all that. 
 Just at the end, out of a clear sky, comes the 35th verse : 
 "Let sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked 
 be no more 1" It is so amazing that some scholars have sug- 
 
 136 
 
SIN AND THE SOCIAL ORDER [X-c] 
 
 gested that it may not belong there. That is purely a crit- 
 ical question and need not concern us, though all the external 
 argument is in favor of its retention. But the internal argu- 
 ment seems good also. "In such a world as this, how utterly 
 out of place sin is !" seems to be the thought. One can 
 imagine worlds without the beauty and care of this one, 
 where sin could be excused, but not in this one. A place can 
 be imagined where an oath would be defended, but not in 
 presence of one's mother, surely; how then in presence of 
 one's God? A cesspool somewhere, perhaps, but not in the 
 front lawn of the palace. Sin in a social order which is 
 patterned on God's ideal is vastly more shameful than in an 
 order without such a pattern. You can have garish color 
 in a modernist painting, but you cannot have it in the Sistine 
 Madonna nor in The Last Supper. One of the writers asked 
 to be kept from "the dainties" of the wicked (141 : 4), lest his 
 taste be perverted. Social ideals are greatly needed before 
 we can pass fair judgment on the seriousness of sin or of 
 any social wrong. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Sin in the social order must be gotten rid of somehow. 
 Chief concern is not for its results, but for itself. These 
 writers are not anxious about what may happen to them be- 
 cause of their sin ; they want to be rid of the sin itself. 
 There is no plea for relief from penalties while they keep the 
 sins. They look for redemption from iniquities (130:8) 
 and release from sin (51:2, 7), If those things are gone, 
 penalties will take care of themselves, but there could be no 
 greater calamity than to take away the penalties and leave 
 the sins. Indeed, the fact that that seems sometimes to be 
 done is one of the baffling experiences of these writers. The 
 feeling is inevitable that in a right social order temporal suc- 
 cess should go along with right conduct and adversity with 
 wrong conduct. Ultimately, when the purposes of moral 
 character are accomplished, that will doubtless be the case. 
 Just now cases keep rising where it does not follow. They 
 rose in the earlier days as well (94:3-7; 10:4-11) and were 
 just as baffling. A prosperous scoundrel does more than any 
 other single factor to loosen the bonds of morality in a com- 
 munity. A successful college contestant who is crooked is a 
 
 137 
 
[X-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 tremendous force in vitiating the atmosphere of a campus. 
 We all like success and there are times when it seems worth 
 getting at any cost. Our eyes get fixed on results and we 
 think protests against methods pharisaical. We think that 
 a man cannot be very bad or he would not get on so well, 
 or else we think that it does not , matter whether a man is 
 bad or not if only he gets on well enough. That is the result 
 of thinking more of penalties than of sins. 
 
 And yet there is something in every decent man that pro- 
 tests against that. "You cannot get golden conduct out of 
 leaden motives." You cannot have a sound social order 
 wherein wrong is done to other people even if some people 
 do prosper by it. Sooner or later right will assert itself. As 
 Charles A. Dinsmore puts it : "About the certainty of retri- 
 bution there is perfect unanimity" (among writers of great 
 literature). "Nemesis follows hard after every transgressor. 
 The retribution of sin is sure, swift, terrible, casting far 
 its poisoned net and entangling sinner and saint, the mature 
 and the unborn, in its fearful toils. The interpreters of the 
 spiritual world are one in their vision of the reality of the 
 moral -order and the certainty of its recoil whenever it is dis- 
 turbed by sin." ("Atonement in Literature and Life," p. 
 157.) It has been said that the frontispiece of each of George 
 Eliot's works might fittingly be a pair of scales and a sword. 
 Dr. Dinsmore thinks it would serve for all the world's great 
 masterpieces. "The sure movement of the scales and flash 
 of the sword are seen in them all." William Dean Howells 
 "received some of his most pronounced ideas of the average 
 justice of the universe from Dickens and the way he dis- 
 poses of his characters." Nothing else than ultimate punish- 
 ment for sin was credible to men as sure of God as these 
 psalmists were. Sometimes they spoke as though evil car- 
 ried its own destruction with it (34:21; 140:11) and some- 
 times they looked to see God himself interpose (139: 19), but 
 they had no doubt of the ultimate outcome. The social order 
 in God's world has no place in it for sin. 
 
 But, with all this, they believe confidently in forgiveness. 
 They face, as we must, the problem of finding a way of for- 
 giveness which will not encourage men in sin. There have 
 been periods when God's forgiveness was taken for granted. 
 Easy views of his goodness expect him to overlook sin. The 
 social consciousness necessarily raises a question about 
 
 138 
 
SIN AND THE SOCIAL ORDER [X-c] 
 
 that. Can you have a social order that does not care about 
 sin? Can you maintain righteousness if you let righteous- 
 ness and unrighteousness run along on just the same plane, 
 if honest men and thieves are treated just alike, if liars and 
 truthtellers are undistinguished? And can a moral universe 
 exist if moral distinctions do not run deep enough in it to 
 count ? 
 
 That is the problem we face in our new penal methods. 
 Will they help to make men hate sin or will they loosen the 
 bonds that hold men back from it? It is the glory of the 
 Christian method of forgiveness that it does not make men 
 think more lightly of sin nor encourage them to go on in 
 it. Rather, it helps forgiven men to a wider sympathy than 
 is revealed in the psalms, except occasionally (51:12-15). 
 Men who know they have done wrong are not therefore 
 estopped from entering into movements for good. That very 
 chapter in their own lives may be used in God's goodness to 
 make them mightier in service. In George Eliot's "Scenes 
 of Clerical Life" is a story called "Janet's Repentance" in 
 which Mr. Tryon, the trusted minister, tells Janet the story 
 of his own early wrong-doing, not boastfully, but humbly, 
 and points out to her so helpfully the way of release from 
 her own sin that Mr. Moody asked the consent of the pub- 
 lishers to print it as a tract for use in his evangelistic meet- 
 ings. Men maimed by evils in the social life can use their 
 very injuries as arguments in their strife against them. One 
 of the most effective workers for temperance has been Fred- 
 erick W. Charrington, who renounced great brewery posses- 
 sions in the East End of London and took the losses, that 
 he might serve the opposite forces and so became "a. great 
 spiritual force of this era." On a stone in the old Tennant 
 churchyard in New Jersey is the name of a young n^in of 
 whom the inscription says that he gave up his worldly gains 
 and prospects "to avoid sin." Such men are challenged by the 
 chance to help in correcting sin in the social order, if they 
 really hate it enough. 
 
 Boastful, holier-than-thou men will never supply the cor- 
 rection for social evils, but neither will men who compromise 
 with or minimize such evils. We must have men who hate 
 evil with a deep passion because they love men with an equal 
 passion and cannot abide the things that ruin them. Near 
 the close of "Romola," after Baldasarre grapples Tito and 
 
 139 
 
[X-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 drags him to his death, George Eliot writes : "Who shall put 
 his finger on the work of justice and say, 'It is there'? 
 Justice is like the kingdom of God — it is not without us as a 
 fact, it is within us as a great yearning." Men with the 
 great yearning for a corrected social order have their chance 
 today as never before. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER THOUGHT AND 
 
 STUDY 
 
 Can sin be explained as mere defect or delayed develop- 
 ment? If so, is a lie a defective truth or stealing delayed 
 development toward honesty? Or, are the men who commit 
 these deeds on the way to righteousness by reason of them? 
 
 Work out some of the problems arising from the great 
 increase of modern corporate life. Are stockholders, bond 
 owners, partners in large concerns, responsible for evils that 
 may be there? In a time of economic distress the head of a 
 large corporation laid off 500 men and on the same day sub- 
 scribed $50,000 personally for relief of distress in the city. 
 Can you justify his action in both points? 
 
 140 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 The spirit of Praise Within the 
 Social Order 
 
 DAILY READINGS 
 
 Eleventh Week, First Day 
 
 It is a good thing to give thanks unto Jehovah, 
 
 And to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High; 
 
 To show forth thy lovingkindness in the morning. 
 
 And thy faithfulness every night, 
 
 With an instrument of ten strings, and with the psaltery; 
 
 With a solemn sound upon the harp. 
 
 For thou, Jehovah, hast made me glad through thy work: 
 
 I will triumph in the works of thy hands. 
 
 How great are thy works, O Jehovah! 
 
 Thy thoughts are very deep. 
 
 — Psalm 92: 1-5. 
 
 You recognize this as the familiar Bonum Est of the 
 church service and of many anthems. The title in our Bibles 
 calls it a song for the Sabbath Day and it was appointed to be 
 used always in the morning service of the temple on the 
 seventh day of the week. That is characteristic of the He- 
 brew idea of worship. It should contain petition and con- 
 fession of sin and humble recognition of the divine hand in 
 history, but its dominating note should always be praise. 
 And this psalm starts our thought of the element of praise 
 in the social order just where it should be started. Here is 
 the unfailing ground of praise — God himself and his rela- 
 tion to the world. Surface facts may change, and if our 
 joy is tied to them it may fail as they do. The only note of 
 gladness in the story of Jonah is in 4 :6, where the account 
 is given of the sudden growth of the vine that sheltered him 
 
 141 
 
[XI-2] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 while he watched for the destruction of Nineveh: "So Jonah 
 was exceeding glad because of the gourd." And when the 
 gourd dried up, his gladness dried up with it. No wonder 
 he was glad, but his gladness was not rooted deep enough 
 to last. After the gourd had dried up, God remained, and if 
 he had rooted his gladness in Him, he could have taken the 
 gourd as an incident, rejoicing in it. It does not do to grow 
 too dependent on surface facts in the social order, the suc- 
 cess of this or that incidental movement of reform, or the 
 advancement of this or that person, or the passing pros- 
 perity of a cause. We must get below these in order to be 
 secure in our joy over them. Unless they are incidents of 
 God's presence in the social order, they will not abide. 
 
 Eleventh Week, Second Day 
 
 Sing praises to God, sing praises: 
 
 Sing praises unto our King, sing praises. 
 
 For God is the King of all the earth: 
 
 Sing ye praises with understanding. 
 
 God reigneth over the nations: 
 
 God sitteth upon his holy throne. 
 
 The princes of the peoples are gathered together 
 
 To be the people of the God of Abraham; 
 
 For the shields of the earth belong unto God: 
 
 He is greatly exalted. 
 
 — Psalm 47 : 6-9. 
 
 Praises with understanding — that is the point today. In 
 one of Cowper's hymns he says that "blind unbelief is sure 
 to err." There is blind belief also, which accepts unintelli- 
 gently the profoundest truths. Have you ever met a scientific 
 student in college who accepted without care whatever he 
 thought was being taught in the classroom and noticed how 
 he tended to misrepresent the teaching and to announce the 
 most amazing "discoveries" of which no one else had ever 
 heard? He was a bhnd believer. In the same way, there is 
 such a thing as blind praising, our doxologies meaning noth- 
 ing to us or aroused by wholly unworthy causes of praise. 
 Mr. Chesterton says that while Buddhist or other "saints" 
 may sit with their eyes closed in contemplation of themselves 
 or of God, the Christian "saint" is always represented with 
 eyes wide open, looking squarely at Hfe at its worst and its 
 
 142 
 
THE SPIRIT OF PRAISE [XI-3] 
 
 best and sure of God all the while. We can never hope to 
 praise God worthily by closing our eyes to hard facts. It must 
 be -intelligent praise that honors him. The little extract for 
 today gives three grounds for such praise : the universal 
 reign of God, all nations being included; the holy throne on 
 which he sits; the overruling possession of all the forces of 
 the world — the shields of the earth belong to God. There is 
 no part of the social order from which God is excluded, his 
 purposes for it are not temporal merely, hut primarily moral, 
 and all questions about progress are to be moral ones at the 
 last; and all defences to be effective must have that same 
 moral value which will make than worthy of their relation 
 to him. 
 
 Eleventh Week, Third Day 
 
 With this day we begin an ascent of praise, rising each 
 day to the end of the week in thought of the grounds of 
 praise. Each has large social value. Today we are called to 
 praise God because of nature. He made the heavens and 
 that sets him above all idols and gives him honor and 
 majesty. In this sanctuary of the world which he has erected 
 are strength and beauty. 
 
 Oh sing unto Jehovah a new song: 
 
 Sing unto Jehovah, all the earth. 
 
 Sing unto Jehovah, bless his name; 
 
 Show forth his salvation from day to day. 
 
 Declare his glory among the nations. 
 
 His marvellous works among all the peoples. 
 
 For great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised: 
 
 He is to be feared above all gods. 
 
 For all the gods of the peoples are idols; 
 
 But Jehovah made the heavens. 
 
 Honor and majesty are before him: 
 
 Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. 
 
 — Psalm 96: 1-6. 
 
 In a sermon on this last line, which Dr. Mark Hopkins 
 preached to the Williams students, he suggests how often 
 we see strength in nature without beauty and beauty with- 
 out strength, but that no complete view of the world can be 
 taken without combining them. In the oak or the elm, he 
 
 143 
 
[XI-4] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 says, we have both. Recall Jesus' frequent use of nature as 
 argument »f or God. Can you place his use of these: the soil, 
 the grain of wheat, the mustard seed, the fig tree and "its 
 barrenness, the wheat, the tares, the vine, the liHes, the sheep, 
 the sparrows, the hen and chickens, the wind, the looks of 
 the sky, pearls? Some one asked Henry Ward Beecher how 
 he found his illustrations for sermons. He replied that they 
 kept finding him, that no one could cross the ferry from 
 Brooklyn to New York and look up at the sky without find- 
 ing things to say about God. This has social value in the 
 demand it makes on us to see that all men have a chance at 
 nature with its lessons. The increase of park acreage in 
 cities, the provision of fresh air trips for the poor and shut- 
 in, the movement toward many small holdings of land instead 
 of a few large ones, the effort to improve living conditions 
 in the country — all these are wise. They help to keep the 
 social forces on right terms with nature. 
 
 Eleventh Week, Fourth Day 
 
 Make a joyful noise unto Jehovah, all ye lands. 
 Serve Jehovah with gladness: 
 Come before his presence with singing. 
 Know ye that Jehovah, he is God: 
 It is he that hath made us, and we are his; 
 We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 
 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving. 
 And into his courts with praise: 
 Give thanks unto him, and bless his name. 
 For Jehovah is good; his lovingkindness endureth for- 
 ever, 
 And his faithfulness unto all generations. 
 
 — Psalm 100. 
 
 It is this psalm, put into meter and beginning, "All people 
 that on earth do dwell," that has given us our Old Hundredth 
 music to which we sing ordinarily Bishop Ken's verse, 
 "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." We have it 
 here complete and it ought to be committed to memory. It 
 furnishes a second step of ascent in praise — ma)i and God's 
 care for him. The men who make up the social order are 
 made and kept by God. They belong to him as a creature 
 belongs to its creator, as a people belong to the ruler and 
 
 144 
 
THE SPIRIT OF PRAISE [XI-5] 
 
 deliverer under whose care they exist, as a flock belongs to 
 its shepherd under whose guidance it finds food and drink 
 and shelter. There is nothing mechanical about it, nothing 
 arbitrary. The relationship can be repudiated or refused, or 
 else it can be recognized and rejoiced in. It is there, what- 
 ever we do about it. The whole social order and all the 
 groups that make it up belong to God. Injury of any of its 
 parts runs back to mjury of his possessions. There will 
 always be a false note in our praise while we omit other 
 lands or other peoples or other groups of people in our own 
 land. Whether the Hebrews saw such a wide sweep or not, 
 is of no importance; certainly they found themselves saying 
 it. Their phrases cover "all the lands" and "all generations." 
 It is this latter assurance of the reliability of God for gen- 
 erations yet to come that makes us ready to attempt enter- 
 prises that cannot be completed in our own day. We are 
 tenants, but we can plant orchards and forests for men who 
 will come after we are gone. God's faithfulness will keep 
 them for other generations. 
 
 Eleventh Week, Fifth Day 
 
 Praise ye Jehovah; 
 
 For it is good to sing praises unto our God; 
 
 For it is pleasant, and praise is comely. 
 
 Jehovah doth build up Jerusalem; 
 
 He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. 
 
 He healeth the broken in heart, 
 
 And bindeth up their wounds. . . . 
 
 Jehovah upholdeth the meek: 
 
 He bringeth the wicked down to the ground. . . . 
 
 For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; 
 
 He hath blessed thy children within thee. . . . 
 
 He hath not dealt so with any nation; 
 
 And as for his ordinances, they have not known them. 
 
 Praise ye Jehovah. 
 
 — ^^Psalm 147: 1-3, 6, 13, 20. 
 
 Many of the scholars think this psalm was written for use 
 at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem when it was re- 
 built after the exile by Nehemiah, when, we are told (Neh. 
 12:27), there was much singing and instrumental music. 
 It would be fitting for such a time. With it we rise again in 
 the grounds of praise in the social order — the sympathy of 
 
 145 
 
[XI-6] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 God with human need. When a pastor told a troubled man 
 that the fault with him was that he would not count God 
 his friend, he replied, "No ; I hope I am not so impertinent as 
 that." It seemed to him too much to talk of God as a friend 
 to an individual. Here is the assurance that God under- 
 stands human need and is active regarding it. Suppose, 
 therefore, we should find ourselves challenged by social need 
 and face movements for its supply; we have the right to 
 expect God's interest in them. He is on the side of every 
 moral movement and with every redemptive force. There 
 can be no need in the social order to which God is indifferent. 
 It is his challenge to us who are in the order to give his 
 power its chance in us to correct it. That is the way he 
 makes a real order in the world, by using men who know 
 him and care for their fellows. 
 
 Eleventh Week, Sixth Day 
 
 Praise ye Jehovah. 
 
 Sing unto Jehovah a new song, 
 
 And his praise in the assembly of the saints. 
 
 Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: 
 
 Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. 
 
 Let them praise his name in the dance: 
 
 Let them sing, praises unto him with timbrel and harp. 
 
 For Jehovah taketh pleasure in his people: 
 
 He will beautify the meek with salvation. 
 
 Let the saints exult in glory: 
 
 Let them sing for joy upon their beds. 
 
 — Psalm 149: 1-5. 
 
 Here is a daring word, that God "takes pleasure in his 
 people!" Yesterday we read that he upholds the meek; 
 today we add that he beautifies them. Evidently a morose 
 spirit or a gloomy heart cannot be suitable in a world where 
 such things can be thought about God. And the higher 
 ground for praise which we find here is the presence in the 
 world of a redeemed and redeeming group. Whatever is 
 happening to us personally, thjere is no missing the fact of 
 that group in the social order. If we should need to say that 
 the gospel of salvation is not working everywhere, we can- 
 not fail to see that it is working somewhere. There are 
 people in whom God takes pleasure. There are people whom 
 
 146 
 
THE SPIRIT OF PRAISE [XI-7] 
 
 he is beautifying with salvation. When Mill said that it is 
 well for men to remember that once a man of the name of 
 Socrates walked the earth, Harnack added that it was even 
 better for them to remember that a man of the name of 
 Jesus Christ once walked the earth. We can go on to add 
 that it is well to remember that even today there are thou- 
 sands of people who walk the earth showing the power of 
 God in their daily lives. That is what we can mean by the 
 clause in the creed, "I believe in the communion of saints." 
 We are not alone in the social order, and our judgment of 
 it ought to include these groups of redeemed people who 
 are giving themselves to the service of God and men. They 
 are in cities and country, in hospitals and prisons, in home 
 and foreign lands — just quiet people who are praising God 
 in their lives. "They do God's will; to them all one if on 
 the earth or in the sun." 
 
 Eleventh Week, Seventh Day 
 
 O praise Jehovah, all ye nations; 
 
 Laud him, all ye peoples. 
 
 For his lovingkindness is great toward us; 
 
 And the truth of Jehovah endureth for ever. 
 
 Praise ye Jehovah. 
 
 — Psalm 1-17. 
 
 This exquisite little psalm, the shortest in the collection, is 
 another that ought to be committed to memory. Probably it 
 was intended as a doxology for use at the end of other 
 psalms. We have had premonitions of it in several readings 
 of the week, but it brings us to the climax of our ascent of 
 praise. We have thought of nature, of man and God's rela- 
 tion to him, of God's sympathy with human need, and of 
 the presence In the world of a redeemed and redeeming 
 group. Here we find the highest ground of praise, as on 
 the first day of the week we found the surest ground, in 
 God himself and the two great traits of his character zvhich 
 are so often taught in' the psalms, his lovingkindness and his 
 truth. Notice how universal the psalm is, how completely it 
 surpasses every thought of narrowness. If there were He- 
 brews who felt other nations shut out from God's care or 
 from obligation to him, they must have choked on this 
 psalm. Even if we accent the pronoun "us," as some want us 
 
 147 
 
[XI-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 to do, it still leaves the psalm universal, for it implies that 
 the goodness of God to a group is intended to rejoice the 
 hearts of the whole. But that accent is wholly unnecessary. 
 The "us" is as wide as the nations and peoples. And the 
 plan of God will not be complete till the praise is as universal 
 as this call is. As to the social order, are there any two 
 virtues which are more needed than the two here suggested? 
 Which seems to mean more to you — lovingkindness (mercy) 
 or truth? Of which is our social order in greater need? 
 They are traits of God's dealing with men. They do not 
 need to be introduced into the world ; they are here. They 
 need only to be applied, worked out by the people of God 
 as God himself is working them into the social fabric. 
 Without either of them the social order will fail. But it 
 will not fail, for they are here, since God is here. 
 
 COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 
 
 Praise is essentially a social fact. We may sing solos, but 
 we sing them to a group and when once they are sung they 
 become everybody's property. We are not trained to praise, 
 but only in the method of praising. The fact rises out of 
 something deep within us. In such a world as this it is only 
 seemly that the voice of praise should be heard. Praise is 
 comely for the upright {33: i). It is a good thing; an appro- 
 priate thing, to give thanks unto God and to praise his name 
 (92:1; 147:1). One of the early writers said that praise is 
 the rent we owe to God for his goodness to us. Robert 
 Louis Stevenson suggests the prayer : "Lord, help us to 
 repay in service one to another the debt of thine unbene- 
 fited merits and mercies." All the great religions and even 
 their side-issues make provision for music in their services, 
 and while most non-Christian religious music is minor, yet 
 even so it provides for the expression of the spirit of thanks- 
 giving. 
 
 The psalms are songs, expressing much individual desire, 
 but gathering up that same desire for many others than the 
 singer. Most of them are distinctly plural, intended for 
 social use. The Hebrew name of the whole collection is 
 Sepher Tehillim, Book of Songs of Praise. And though 
 
 148 
 
THE SPIRIT OF PRAISE [XI-c] 
 
 only one psalm is definitely described in its title as a song 
 of praise (145), yet the title is appropriate for the whole 
 book, because "thanksgiving is the very life of the Psalms, 
 even of those in which there breathes most the language of 
 complaint." (Perowne, "The Psalms," vol. I, p. 57.) Our 
 English word Hallelujah is taken over from the Hebrew and 
 means. Praise ye Jehovah. It occurs over and over in these 
 songs. Part of the word gives the title to two sections in the 
 collection. Psalm 136 is known as the Great Hallel and is 
 arranged for responsive use by the appearance in every 
 stanza of the same response, "For His lovingkindness endur- 
 eth forever !" Here plainly is provision for social praise. 
 Can you not imagine that single refrain rising with increasing 
 volume from a congregation of worshippers? But the better 
 known "Egyptian Hallel" consists of Psalms 113-118; it was 
 sung on festival occasions throughout the j^ear ?ind was the 
 "hymn" sung by our Lord and the disciples as they went 
 out from the upper room after the first observance of the 
 sacrament of the Lord's Supper (Matt. 26:30). It tells the 
 story of deliverance from Egypt and from other oppression 
 and calls to praise for the lovingkindness of God. And this 
 sort of thing was characteristic of the Hebrew faith. It had 
 its fast days and seasons,, but many more feast days and sea- 
 sons. Indeed only one fast day was prescribed. Provision 
 was made for one week of outdoor life when the people were 
 to live in booths, free from the care of houses, just being 
 glad, reminding themselves of the care-free life which their 
 fathers had led in the wilderness under divine guidance, and 
 rejoicing in the completion of the harvest. Many of the 
 psalms were prepared for journeys and for particular events 
 which recurred in the national life. It was a singing faith. 
 The whole collection of its songs closes with a grand crash 
 of praise, in which voices, instruments, nature, histor3^ and 
 the individual soul are called on to attempt justice to the 
 spirit of praise (145-150). 
 
 This spirit is still in the Christian faith and the psalms 
 have entered into Christian worship more than anj^ other 
 single book of the Bible. The 92nd psalm is sung by choirs 
 and congregations as the Bonum Est ; the 95th is the Venite 
 of the church service; the 96th is the Cantate Domino; the 
 looth is the familiar Jubilate; and even the 67th, which is the 
 Deus Miseratur of our Christian worship, turns into a hymn 
 
 149 
 
[XI-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 of triumphant praise before it is closed. In all Christian 
 ages there have been churches which have felt so strongly 
 the value of these psalms that they have not permitted any 
 other songs to be used in formal worship,, and while the 
 main body of believers has not been ready io agree to that 
 limitation, it remains as a suggestive hint of the age-long 
 worth of songs written before the coming of Christ. They 
 have so much of the highest religious spirit that .Christian 
 believers can use them without a sense of lack of any note 
 which their faith requires. And even without the limitation 
 desired it is still true that these psalms make up a larger 
 part of the worship of the Church than any other one ele- 
 ment. 
 
 II 
 
 In the daily studies we have found part of the secret of 
 this power of the psalms in praise — the broad and unchang- 
 ing grounds which they suggest for it. They move on no 
 superficial level, not proposing mere dead levels of praise. 
 We need not go over the grounds again, but several will be 
 well to review. Take the call to praise with reference to 
 the setting of the social order, the world in which we must 
 live as men. There is doubtless a point of view from which 
 this world can be described as a "wilderness of woe," since 
 it is not our permanent home, as heaven is to be. But it 
 actually is our home for the present and our Father made it 
 and keeps it (95*5; 104 throughout). The heavens are the 
 work of his fingers, he ordained the moon and the stars 
 (8:3). The earth is full of his lovingkindness (33:5). It 
 belongs to him with all its fulness and with all that dwell 
 in it (24:1). Any good commentary will show that the 
 29th psalm is a vivid account of a storm sweeping in from 
 the sea; as it dies away and the sun comes out again, "in 'his 
 temple everything saith, Glory!" Open the book of psalms 
 to almost any page, and see if you do not find some work of 
 nature given as a ground of praise to God. It is here we 
 must live; it is under these conditions that any social order 
 must be formed ; it is by these forces that any social correc- 
 tion must be m.ade. 
 
 In the fourth week we noticed that the world as it is con- 
 stituted is fitted for the development of the human race in 
 the highest virtues. It comes to mind again here. This ought 
 
 150 
 
THE SPIRIT OF PRAISE [XI-c] 
 
 to give us a Christian point of view toward physical science. 
 So far is it from any colHsion with the Christian faith that it 
 ought to be counted its firmest, ally. Whatever truth it may 
 discover about the world and its forces will be onl}^ so much 
 more light on the works of God's hands, in which even the 
 Hebrew writer rejoiced (92:4, 5). God has not hid his way 
 ill nature to keep us from finding it out, but to induce us to 
 find it out. IVe cannot find out too much about the world 
 if zi'c count it our Father's world. We are meant to think 
 his thoughts after him, to consider his heavens, the moon 
 and the stars, his wonders in the deep. Indeed; there is no 
 physical science which could not find its warrant in the words 
 of these psalms. The great discoveries of the past have some- 
 times been received with suspicion, lest they unsettle some 
 elements of religious faith. Surely there is experience enough 
 by this time to make every religious man wish well to every 
 laboratory or scientific expedition in the world. Jesus Christ 
 is the Truth, and to him all truths in all fields will draw as 
 steel fihngs draw to a magnet. The social order needs all 
 the discoveries that can be made in this world of God, and 
 when it is declared that science is advancing the human race, 
 let no religious man resent it; let him rather rejoice in it. 
 At the root of it, the fact is religious. God has made the 
 world and he keeps it. Man whom he loves will come to a 
 sound social order by knowing his world all the better. All 
 that we learn deepens our note of praise. 
 
 It wnll be well also to think again of the value in the world 
 of the forces for good, the corrective agencies which appear 
 in groups of redeemed and redeeming men. Once in a while 
 the other forces get such prominence that they seem to take 
 the field. It is only a seeming. Any Hst of the redemptive 
 forces of a great city will reveal a vast amount of overlap- 
 ping and unwisdom in method and organization. No doubt 
 one of the longest steps toward the correction of social 
 evils would be the destruction of many of the corrective 
 agencies, as a social worker has said. But even so, the pres- 
 ence of such agencies always implies the existence of at least 
 a small body of people who care enough to try to do some- 
 thing about the evils. Every man who in his own turn cares 
 about those evils is partner with a multitude of others whose 
 names he cannot know, but who are working in the same 
 campaign in other parts of the field. 
 
 151 
 
[XI-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 Dr. Robert Clements tells that in a Canadian village more 
 men volunteered for the European campaign than could be 
 taken, and the volunteers were compelled to draw slips of 
 paper to determine who should go. . The successful ones 
 drew papers designated with a cross mark. One lad hurried 
 home to his minister father rejoicing that he was to go, say- 
 ing, "When my turn came, I just prayed that I would draw 
 the cross." In a far. deeper sense than the boy ever meant, 
 the hope of the social order turns on a multitude of men 
 who have done that very thing, who have not wanted the 
 eas}^ thing or the pleasant thing, but the thing that will help 
 most, that will cost. The presence of so many such men is 
 ground for praise and for unfailing" assurance about the out- 
 come of social movements. 
 
 In the long sweep of history these men find God on their 
 side among them that help them (118:7). It is he who has 
 taught their hands to war and their fingers to fight (144:1) 
 and they realize him as the abiding fact in the progress of 
 the generations (144:4). And he becomes at the last, both 
 for himself and for the work which he does among men, the 
 deepest ground for praise. It is a favorite expression of 
 President McClure that he finds God beautiful, and when 
 James Russell Lowell was facing the national needs, he said, 
 "I take great comfort m God." 
 
 Ill 
 
 It is at this point of its joy that religion makes its first 
 appeal to many in the social order. Can it brighten life? 
 Does it reveal something to be glad of? Is it restrictive or 
 inspiring? No one has put religion out of his life because 
 it seemed to him too joyous. The multitudes who refuse to 
 go to church services on the Sabbath are not complaining that 
 these services encourage them too much in the life battle. 
 Rather, they think they can find larger cheer and rest in 
 other things. To a great many people, impossible as it may 
 seem to us, Disraeli's expression in "Coningsby" is not too 
 strong : "Youth is a blunder ; manhood a struggle ; old age a 
 regret." Most of us count that blasphemy, but to these 
 people it represents their experience. They are hot-foot in 
 search for redeeming joys in life. They v;ant the singing 
 elements discovered. 
 
 152 
 
THE SPIRIT OF PRAISE [XI-c] 
 
 Nor does Carlyle's grim counsel overcome that desire. 
 He warns us that we are not in this world to be happy, 
 but to do our dut}'-. And that is true, but it does not mean 
 that we are not to be happy. The contrast between the two 
 facts of duty and happiness is not necessary. There is 
 always something awry within us when religion is irksome 
 and duty a bugbear. We can learn to delight to do the will 
 of God (40:7, 8) and no one can read the 119th psalm with 
 its many references to the law of God without realizing that 
 to the writer it was an inspiration and not chiefly a restric- 
 tion. It did not shut him in ; it let him out. When we get a 
 social order expressive of the will of God for men, it will 
 not be one that chafes the free spirits of men, but a joy- 
 ous one whose main note will be cheer. It is not the thought 
 of the psalmists that strength enough barely to hold out may 
 be available, but rather that men can feel their strength 
 steadily renewed (103:5), can have a sense of perpetual 
 youth. 
 
 So it becomes peculiarly the obligation of men who count 
 religion a vital thing to be on the side of movements which 
 aim to deepen the note of joy in the social order. It 
 may be necessary to oppose plans for amusement, and it may 
 be only sensible to resist schemes for what some men will 
 call pleasure. They may be actually cutting the root of joy. 
 Recreation is a possibility not yet worked out. Much that 
 goes by that name is not re-creaticn at all, but is destructive 
 of vital forces. It is possible for college athletics to pass the 
 bounds of recreation and become only a kind of business. 
 Great Sunday excursions, plans for excessive pleasures, 
 maintenance of places of resort which are nominally for the 
 happiness of people but which actually bring ruin to lives — 
 these can be opposed in no kill-joy spirit. 
 
 Plenty of men are watching for the chance to capitalize for 
 their own profit the pleasure desires of society and to reap 
 a financial harvest without regard to the ruin they may work 
 in the social order. Corrupt dance halls, road houses, saloons, 
 dives of all kinds, have for their only public argument the 
 legitimate wish of people for pleasure, sometimes even called 
 happiness. The reply to that argument is not the denial of 
 the right of people in God's world to be happy, but the 
 denial that anything rightly called happiness can come out 
 of such enterprises. The weakness of most cheap plans for 
 
 . 153 
 
[XI-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 putting joy into life is shown in the necessity for strength- 
 ening the potion constantly; the plans do not satisfy, they 
 only inflame. Professor James Moffat of Mansfield College, 
 Oxford, reminds us that "hardly anything in our nature is 
 more characteristic than what we choose to laugh at or the 
 tone in which we laugh. If there is anything vulgar or 
 coarse or vain or sour or malicious lying in our hearts, it will 
 be apt to come out in our laughter." The Senior week num- 
 ber of the Cornell Widow (1916) asked returning alumni at 
 commencement to laugh about other things than drinking and 
 escapades of the lower sort. A good college theme would 
 be, "The Moral Significance of Laughter." 
 
 But all of these mistaken ways of finding joy simply deepen 
 the responsibility of those who love men for seeing to it that 
 -provision is made in the social group and in the social order 
 for happiness as well as for comfort and prosperity. Happi- 
 ness cannot be made a direct concern of the whole life. 
 It would pall on any spirit if it occupied all the attention. 
 Much of the happiness of life must be found in the work 
 that men do. Conditions must be created, are being created 
 rapidly, under which work can bring joy and not mere burden. 
 Meredith in his Letters (vol. II, p. 478) wrote a friend: 
 "I have lived long enough to see that our chief agonizer and 
 thwarter is impatience. One of the prettiest spectacles to me 
 is a costermonger's donkey going blithely at a trot. Our 
 maxim should be. Merry in harness — while we have to serve." 
 It is well put. Doing our bit in the world is the most joyous 
 part of life, and when a man has to leave his task to have 
 a good time something is wrong with the way he fits into his 
 task or with the method required for the task. Increasingly 
 that is being recognized in the great industries, factories, 
 stores, offices. It is an instance of the place that praise has in 
 a sound social order, for praise is only the recognition of 
 our joys as the gift of God. 
 
 Also it is necessary that provision be made for happiness 
 arising outside of our tasks. Movements in this regard are 
 notable in our day. Cities are providing for the pleasure of 
 the people, concerts open to the poorest are brightening the 
 lives of many, art collections are no longer shut out from 
 them, playgrounds are making the child life of cities and 
 tow'ns happier. Meanwhile hundreds of young men and 
 women are finding a life task in thinking out the problems of 
 
 154 
 
THE SPIRIT OF PRAISE [XI-c] 
 
 happiness for whole communities or for groups within the 
 social order. And all it needs to make it wholly acceptable 
 and beautiful is that we who know the God who made and 
 keeps the world shall keep him in the minds of ourselves and 
 others, letting our happiness lead us to praise. A joyous 
 social order is the only order which can be worthy of the 
 faith which we profess. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER THOUGHT AND 
 
 STUDY 
 
 Take up more fully the attitude which Christian believers 
 ought to take toward discoveries or theories in physical 
 science which seem to contradict important items of religious 
 faith. There can be warfare between scientists and theo- 
 logians ; why can there not be warfare between science and 
 religion ? 
 
 Discuss the best methods of dealing with cynicism, espe- 
 cially with men who pride themselves on being cjaiical. Look 
 up the Greek origin of the word itself. 
 
 Has the Church a duty to substitute worthy means of pleas- 
 ure if it feels it must oppose unworthy ones? If so, does 
 it imply that dance halls and billiard rooms should be pro- 
 vided in church buildings? 
 
 Work out a principle governing the use of the Sabbath for 
 pleasure. Does it help you here to make a distinction between 
 pleasure and happiness? For which is the Sabbath intended? 
 
 155 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 The Spirit of Prayer in the 
 Social Order 
 
 DAILY READINGS 
 
 Twelfth Week, First Day 
 
 It is Vv^ell to begin any thought of prayer with the fact 
 that it is addressed to some one. No man will ever pray 
 sincerely unless he counts God trustworthy. If God's word 
 does not mean much to himself, it certainly cannot mean 
 much to us. Or if God does not take us and our needs 
 seriously, we cannot pray with any spirit. This gives force 
 to the saying that God has magnified his word above every- 
 thing else in his revelation of himself. 
 
 I will give thee thanks with my whole heart: 
 
 Before the gods will I sing praises unto thee. 
 
 I will worship toward thy holy temple, 
 
 And give thanks unto thy name for thy lovingkindness 
 
 and for thy truth: 
 For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. 
 In the day that I called thou answeredst me. 
 Thou didst encourage me with strength in my soul. 
 All the kings of the earth shall give thee thanks, O 
 
 Jehovah, 
 For they have heard the words of thy mouth. 
 Yea, they shall sing of the ways of Jehovah; 
 For great is the glory of Jehovah. 
 
 — Psalm 138: 1-5. 
 
 We say that some men's word is as good as their bond. In 
 social relations only such men have any value. In spiritual 
 
 156 
 
THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER [XII-2] 
 
 relations only a God whose word is the securest fact about 
 him will command our prayers. When a sceptical man tried 
 to unsettle an old woman's trust in God for her future 
 safety by asking her what she would do if she found her- 
 self in hell after all, she replied that it coidd not make 
 half the difference to her that it would make to God, for in 
 that case his word would have been broken and the loss of 
 her soul would be a small thing compared to that. One of 
 the first social values of prayer is that it tends to keep alive 
 in us the assurance of the reliability of God. We find as we 
 practice it that we are using precedents and assurances based 
 on what we know of him. Apply the same principle to the 
 relation a body of students hold to the authorities of the 
 college. If they believe them to be reliable and trustworthy, 
 does it not tend to increase their readiness to present to them 
 needs which ought to be supplied? And does it not also tend 
 to strengthen the bonds of the college group? Can there be. 
 a social order not founded on mutual trust? 
 
 Twelfth Week, Second Day 
 
 For though Jehovah is high, yet hath he respect unto the 
 
 lowly; 
 But the haughty he knoweth from afar. 
 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive 
 
 me; 
 Thou wilt stretch forth thy hand against the wrath of 
 
 mine enemies. 
 And thy right hand will save me. 
 Jehovah will perfect that which concerneth me: 
 Thy lovingkindness, O Jehovah, endureth for ever; 
 Forsake not the works of thine own hands. 
 
 —Psalm 138:6-8. 
 
 Here appears one of the social values of prayer, in taking 
 away the weakening sense of inferiority. Being poor is not 
 hard to bear ; it is feeling poor that hurts. Holding a lowly 
 position is not hard ; it is the feeling of humiliation in being 
 there that is hard. No social order can be sound or final 
 when it rests on the degradation of any of its individuals. 
 Of course the humble work of the world must be done. 
 There is dirty work that cannot yet be avoided by everybody. 
 As the story of "The Servant in the House" Suggests, drains 
 
 157 
 
[XII-3] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 must be cleaned and danger of disease must be run by some 
 people for the sake of the whole. Perhaps' some day there 
 may be much less of such work required ; possibly machinery 
 may do away with it all. But we have no near corrective 
 for the whole of it. Men in the necessary lowly positions 
 must be helped in some other way. That way is to develop 
 in them a sense of intrinsic worth, of assured place in the 
 general scheme. Prayer will do that if it is given a chance, 
 for it shows how purely incidental the differences are, and 
 how certainly the God who is over all has respect to the 
 lowly. This same influence would keep the man who knows 
 he is in high place from arrogance or haughtiness. Over 
 against the God of the whole plan and over against the whole 
 plan itself, human places are not on such different levels. 
 All are high, since the plan is high ; all who occupy the 
 places should be humble, for the plan is the great thing after 
 all. 
 
 Twelfth Week, Third Day 
 
 // prayer did nothing more than put courage into a man 
 it would have tremendous social value. Cowardice has crip- 
 pled more plans for social betterment than any other one 
 v^eakness. Men have been afraid of the bad results for 
 themselves, the enemies they might raise up, the perils to 
 causes of which they were fond. What is the explanation of 
 the frequent consent to help a cause of reform on condition 
 that one's name be njot used? Jesus's own cause went more 
 slowly during his lifetime on earth because some men were 
 his disciples "but secretly for fear of the Jews" (John 19: 
 38). So long as we draw our sense of security from the 
 relation we hold to our fellows, we will not be ready to take 
 our stand against them even though they are wrong. Prayer 
 gives 'us a sense of larger, higher safety. It is wholly com- 
 patible with vigorous daring and attack on evil. "The wicked 
 flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a 
 lion" (Prov. 28:1), is as true here as anywhere. The pray- 
 ing man flees — to God. When Cromwell's soldiers were 
 seen to fall on their knees in prayer just before an attack, 
 royalist leaders thought it a sign of fear, but their superiors 
 told them they were mistaken, that such men would be all the 
 more dangerous when they had prayed. 
 
 158 
 
THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER [XII-4I 
 
 Deliver me, O Jehovah, from mine enemies: 
 
 I flee unto thee to hide me. 
 
 Teach me to do thy will; 
 
 For thou art my God: 
 
 Thy Spirit is good; 
 
 Lead me in the land of uprightness. 
 
 Quicken me, O Jehovah, for thy name's sake: 
 
 In thy righteousness bring my soul out of trouble. 
 
 And in thy lovingkindness cut off mine enemies, 
 
 And destroy all them that afflict my soul; 
 
 For I am thy servant. 
 
 — Psalm 143:9-12. 
 
 Two parts of this reading seem to conflict ; the first really 
 safeguards the other. Can a man with the spirit of prayer^ 
 asking to do God's will because God's spirit is good, go on tO' 
 ask that his enemies be cut off or destroyed? At any rate, 
 the difficulty for most of us would be to keep the true spirit 
 of prayer with such a wish. With such a spirit, taught by 
 our Lord, we can pray for our enemies, for their forgive- 
 ness, their correction, rather than for their destrucrion. 
 
 Twelfth Week, Fourth Day 
 
 O Lord, open thou my lips; 
 And my mouth shall show forth thy praise. 
 For thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it: 
 Thou hast no pleasure in burnt-offering. 
 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: 
 A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not 
 despise. 
 
 — Psalm 51: 15-17. 
 
 Prayer helps to get moral values adjusted. This 51st 
 psalm is evidently the result of sorrow over some great 
 wrong the writer has done, and it is the moral evil of it 
 that is uppermost in his mind. As happens with every man 
 who sees a sin for what it is, he knows that something needs 
 to be done to clear it out of the way. Waving the hand and 
 dismissing it never works in serious moods. Easy treatment 
 of wrong does not get the social order forward. Laying the 
 whole matter before God as one has to do in prayer tends to 
 clear the issues and to show the way out. It makes clear to 
 us that it is not things God wants, but men and men of a 
 
 159 
 
[XII-5] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 certain sort. Something within us rises to protest when we 
 let any thing or any act be substituted for ourselves in our 
 religious lives. If prayer is anything at all, it is the contact 
 of our spirits with God's spirit and it is unthinkable that 
 things, sacrifices of any sort, can take the place of that con- 
 tact. 
 
 What is a broken spirit in view of evils? We generally 
 speak regretfully of a man when we call him broken-spirited. 
 The saying here must be set over against the Bible hints of 
 stubbornness and hardness of spirit. Illustrate it in your 
 experience of a college student who has disgraced the honor 
 of his college in some way and wants to come back into good 
 standing : he must not be cowed or whipped in spirit ; what 
 would a broken and contrite spirit mean in such a case? 
 
 Twelfth Week, Fifth Day 
 
 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly 
 
 nation: 
 Oh deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. 
 For thou art the God of my strength; why hast thou cast 
 
 me off? 
 Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the 
 
 enemy? 
 Oh send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me: 
 Let them bring me unto thy holy hill, 
 And to thy tabernacles. 
 Then will I go unto the altar of God, 
 Unto God my exceeding joy; 
 
 And upon the harp will I praise thee, O God, my God. 
 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? 
 And why art thou disquieted within me? 
 Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him, 
 Who is the help of my countenance, and my God. 
 
 — Psalm 43. 
 
 Prayer puts cheer into the spirit of the man who prays 
 and therein it has large social value. Depressed men do 
 not get things done. A saying is that God can do nothing 
 with a discouraged man, but fortunately that says it much too 
 strongly. Only, it is true that the first thing needed is to 
 cheer up a discouraged man. Teachers know that some- 
 times a student gets blue over a course without any good 
 reason, and so long as he stays blue he cannot do good work 
 
 160 
 
THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER [XII-6] 
 
 in it. Leaders of community work find that helpers who ' 
 think nothing is coming out of their projects soon become 
 ineffective. We have already noticed that this little 43rd 
 psalm was originally part of the 42nd psalm, for the closing 
 verses occur twice in that psalm, a recurring refrain sug- 
 gesting a recurring mood of depression driven away by recur- 
 ring prayer and faith in God. Many good men have had that 
 experience and there was proliably never a bit of good work 
 done on a college campus or in a community without periods 
 when its doers felt that they could not go on. There is a 
 depression that settles down on our spirits at times unac- 
 countably. Sometimes it is physical and can be dealt with 
 physically; nerves "play out" at times and need rest. Some- 
 times it is deeper than physical. In both cases, it helps to 
 cheer us up to remember the interest of God in us and our 
 enterprises. 
 
 Twelfth Week, Sixth Day 
 
 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, 
 
 Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; 
 
 Thou that sittest above the cherubim, shine forth. 
 
 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up 
 
 thy might, 
 And come to save us. 
 Turn us again, O God; 
 And cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. 
 
 — Psalm 80: 1-3. 
 
 This whole 80th psalm is a cry of distress because of some 
 national condition which cannot now be determined. Sev- 
 eral times it suggests that the cause of the trouble may be 
 in some bad condition within the nation itself, and it expresses 
 a sincere readiness to be corrected if that is the case. That 
 is always the honest position to take. In a moral order, it 
 cannot be expected that evil conditions in a social group 
 shall go unnoticed. Augustine once wrote : "It is in Thy 
 order, O Lord, that all irregularities of mind should carry 
 their own punishment along with them." If a nation is 
 wrong, it may be expected that the wrong will carry its 
 punishment with it. Whenever a social group fails to ad- 
 vance as it should, or if it is undergoing peculiar difficulty, 
 the first question of its members who care must be regard- 
 
 161 
 
:[XII-7] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 * ing itself. Is it worth keeping alive? We always suspect 
 the man whose discharge from position after position is 
 always someone else's fault. Let him look to himself first. 
 What shall be said in reply to a student who declares that 
 no teacher in the school likes him or is fair to him? 
 
 Prayer is a true emergency relief under such conditions. 
 It forces a man to take honest stock of himself. But it 
 also drives him back to God for the help he needs. The 
 thought of God as a shepherd occurs several times, notably 
 in the 23rd psalm, and it carries with it the assurance of 
 his really doing things for the people who trust him. If 
 we do not think he will do things, we will not pray very 
 much. The value of prayer as a spiritual exercise is very 
 great, and it is worth while for that alone, but few men are 
 able to practice it with any earnestness simply on that basis. 
 
 Twelfth Week, Seventh Day 
 
 Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion; 
 
 And unto thee shall the vow be performed. 
 
 O thou that hearest prayer. 
 
 Unto thee shall all flesh come. - 
 
 Iniquities prevail against me: 
 
 As for our transgressions, thou v^rilt forgive them. 
 
 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to 
 
 approach unto thee, 
 That he may dwell in thy courts: 
 
 We shall be satisfied with the goodness of .thy house. 
 Thy holy temple. 
 
 By terrible things thou wilt answer us in righteousness, 
 O God of our salvation. 
 
 Thou that art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, 
 And of them that are afar off upon the sea. 
 
 — Psalm 65: 1-5. 
 
 Prayer ought to widen the social horizon. In thought of 
 God and his readiness to help, we think more easily of "all 
 flesh," "all the ends of the earth," "them that are afar off 
 upon the sea." There are personal prayers that are wholly 
 legitimate, but not if they exclude other men from our desire 
 for blessing. When Jesus said that he prayed not for the 
 world but for those whom God had given him out of the 
 world (John 17:9), he yet prayed that they might be left in 
 the world (John 17:15) and soon revealed why he wanted 
 
 162 
 
THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER [XII-c] 
 
 them left — for the sake of their mission to the uttermost 
 parts of the earth (Acts i:8). An old believer once said 
 that while she liked the 23rd psalm, she liked the 46th better, 
 because it was plural and called God our refuge and strength 
 while the 23rd called him my shepherd. Is there anything in 
 that, as you see it? The conditions on which any man finds 
 help from God are open to all men. He needs to be for- 
 given and so do they; he trusts God's lovingkindness and so 
 must they. All that makes God helpful to one class in society 
 makes him helpful to all classes. He is not the enemy of 
 "rich or poor, ignorant or learned. In the thought of him 
 the social horizon broadens to take in all men. 
 
 COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 
 
 We are not'concerned in this study with the philosophy of 
 prayer nor with objections to it. Students of the subject 
 who are troubled over such phases are advised to go over 
 the little book by Dr. Fosdick, "The Meaning of Prayer," 
 and the one by Nolan Rice Best called "Beyond the Natural 
 Order," in which the whole matter is briefly treated. A 
 more exhaustive treatment can be found in James Hastings' 
 larger volume on Prayer. The writers of the psalms are 
 not bothered about such matters. Like all vigorous religious 
 people, they practiced prayer steadily in spite of any diffi- 
 culties that might be in the way. The result is that they have 
 produced a series of psalms which are almost all prayers. 
 "If prayer be the eye of the heart turned toward God, then 
 each psalm is a prayer." All of them are uttered with a 
 vivid sense of the presence and attention of God. Asleep 
 or awake, they were still with God (139:18). "The psalter 
 has been in the truest sense the praycrbook both of Jews 
 and Christians. It is, in itself, to a very great extent the con- 
 verse of the soul with God. It teaches us what we are to 
 do and to be through prayer." (Perowne, "The Psalms," 
 vol. I, p. 18.) Luther counted this the great service of the 
 psalms, that they tell us of the words which the saints used 
 and may still use in praying to God. Most books tell of the 
 works of good men ; this tells of their words. 
 
 Our interest at this time is with the place of prayer in 
 the social order, what it does there, what its field is. Two 
 
 163 
 
IXII-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 facts stand out in the psalms at this point. One is that the 
 writers felt themselves always in the presence of God ; the 
 other that they felt themselves always in some sort of a 
 social group. Sometimes the group was adverse and they 
 realized the presence of God protectively; sometimes it was 
 favorable and they realized his presence encouragingly. But 
 they seem never to be conscious of the group without a sense 
 of God and never to think of God without some sense of 
 the social group. There is nothing morbid about it, no 
 sense of strain in keeping aware of God or of men. It is 
 simply healthy human life expressing itself in its outward' 
 and its upward connections at the same time. Prayer was 
 merely a natural act of counting God in when they were 
 thinking about life. Even in a personal psalm like the 
 familiar 23rd, which speaks of the Lord as "my" shepherd, 
 the social group appears in the very figure involved, A 
 shepherd always has a flock, not a single slteep. The ad- 
 verse group appears in the thought of a table spread in the 
 midst of his enemies. There is no psalm without this double 
 consciousness of God and the social group or the whole 
 social order. Our daily readings have suggested several 
 .social values that such an attitude toward life would have. 
 
 One element of its force would be in its steadying one's 
 • own life. The most familiar verse about prayer in the 
 whole book is the one that sa3^s, "If I regard iniquity in my 
 "heart, the Lord will not hear" (66:18), which emphasizes 
 this value. Before a man can feel any power in prayer he 
 must come wifh an open heart, himself thoroughly square 
 with God. As they say in the law courts, he must come with 
 ■clean hands when he accuses any other man of having stained 
 hands. Meredith, in "Beauchamp's Career," makes Dr. 
 Shrapnel speak of the fact that many who pray for no gift 
 yet 
 
 "have cleansing in prayer, 
 And free from impurities towerlike stand," 
 
 If a man is to stand in the presence of the Lord, he need 
 not be perfect, but he must be sincere, one who has not lifted 
 
 164 
 
THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER [XII-c] 
 
 lip his soul unto emptiness nor sworn deceitfully (24:4). 
 Goethe tells in Faust of the unrest of Margaret when 
 Mephistopheles was near. She did not know who he was, 
 but something in her pure soul detected evil and she told 
 Faust that his presence chilled her blood. She brings her 
 suspicion to its climax in declaring : 
 
 "Besides, when he is near, I ne'er could pray." 
 Shakespeare uses the same idea when he tells of Macbeth's 
 return from the murder of Duncan, telling Lady Macbeth 
 of the two servants who in their sleep had murmured "God 
 bless us !" and he could not say Amen. She bids him not 
 think of it. He cannot dismiss it : 
 
 "But wherefore could not I pronounce, amen? 
 I had most need of blessing and amen 
 Stuck in my throat." 
 
 / 
 
 And the same thought appears in the familiar soliloquy of 
 the murderous king in Hamlet who feels a curse upon him 
 and knows he cannot truly repent his sin and yet retain the 
 profits of it : 
 
 "Pray can I not, 
 Though inclination be as sharp as will; 
 My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent." 
 
 Keeping ourselves able to pray keeps us also ready for the 
 tasks of the social order, keeps our own lives steadied and 
 braced for service. 
 
 That same steadying influence of prayer appears in the de- 
 mand praying makes that our spirit be kept right when we face 
 those who oppose us. It is noticeable that in war times, when 
 national enemies are much in mind, sermons or orations are 
 always more vitriolic than prayers. With our fellowmen 
 we can be denunciatory of other people, and it is .possible 
 to get so assured of the righteousness of our cause that we 
 can pray for its victory. But when we approach God in 
 prayer, denunciations are not so easy, and, specially under 
 the influence of our Christian thinking, we fall to praying 
 for the success of our cause for the sake of our enemies 
 as well as for our own sakes. In the European war men 
 have talked of hating each other, but when they have prayed, 
 they have not been so belligerent ; or if they have, all men 
 
 165 
 
[XII-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 who looked on knew that they had missed the deepest note 
 of prayer. It is here we find the largest difficulty with the 
 psalms of imprecation or cursing; at some points they are 
 not in our Christian spirit ; in so far as they call for per- 
 sonal vengeance on evil doers because of personal injuries, 
 they are not Christian at all. But it is something to notice 
 that prayer turns the enemy over to God and does not sug- 
 gest the least desire to take the vengeance one's self. In the 
 saddest psalms is the assurance that if these enemies were 
 in any need, the injured one would be swift to help (141: 
 
 5; 35:13, 14). 
 
 Great social movements do not prosper under leadership 
 of men who grow bitter and denunciatory even when they 
 feel deeply. Keeping God in mind, his patience which out- 
 lasts our imagination, his blessing even on men who are 
 unworthy, so that sun and rain come to just and unjust alike, 
 (Matt. 5:45), the sure outcome of his plans which no evil 
 of men can finally defeat, so that their best efforts are only 
 amusing (2:4) — all this will steady the life of any m.an who 
 wants to take his place helpfully in the social order. Tenny- 
 son says that after the heroic self-sacrifice of Enoch Arden:. 
 
 "He was not all unhappy. His resolve 
 Upbore him, and firm faith, and evermore 
 Prayer from a living source within the will, 
 And beating up thro' all the bitter world, 
 Like fountains of sweet waters in the sea, 
 Kept him a living soul." 
 
 The task of helping in the social order is not easy; it has its 
 bitter taste as well as its inspiring sweetness. If men are to 
 take their places without wavering and weakening, they must 
 keep in touch with the power of God. 
 
 II • 
 
 Another element of social value in prayer is its broadening 
 of one's horizon. The God who hears praj'er is one to whom 
 "all flesh" can come (65:2). There have been good men 
 who kept narrow horizons in their thinking, but it has been 
 in spite of their prayer. They have not prayed much or 
 else they have not prayed with understanding. The great 
 
 166 
 
THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER [XII-c] 
 
 advance movements, the great achievements, have come with 
 that widening of horizon which usually grows out of 
 renewed assurance of God. But the widening life, little as 
 it may have to do with great movements, has grown by the 
 same assurance. Remember again the word of Browning in 
 "Saul," that David did not come to the test of Saul's need 
 unprepared, for though he had been only a shepherd lad, 
 he had tried to think big thoughts and to push back his 
 horizon constantly even in his narrow field. So, when the 
 demand came, there came with it great thoughts. 
 
 Most of our problems are helped by being lifted into larger 
 connections. Social cures are generally conceived on too 
 narrow a basis. We tend to cure symptoms instead of causes 
 — as though on a campus a particular misdeed were magnified 
 to such dimensions that we should not try to find out the 
 spirit that might be pervading the whole college and finding 
 expression in the one deed. Cheating in examination is not 
 the bad thing, mean as it is ; far worse is the spirit of a 
 student body that does not care about such things, whose 
 nerve of integrity is cut or deadened. There is no cure for 
 cheating while that spirit rules. 
 
 Men who pray widely and honestly cannot long take nar- 
 row views of evil, nor think it makes no difference. To a 
 man who knows this to be a world from which God can be 
 reached, the presence of evils here is monstrous. They carry 
 with them widespread results to which he cannot be indif- 
 ferent. And just thinking them out in the presence of God 
 helps to show the way of correction. A student once brought 
 a serious difficulty of life to an instructor of whose interest 
 he was sure and whose question? as the story proceeded 
 gave the problem definite outlines. When the tale was done, 
 the instructor said, "It is a big question, my dear fellow, 
 and I fear I cannot help you much with it." "Help me 1" 
 the other exclaimed, "why, you've helped me immensely 
 already; just telling you has made it seem clearer and I 
 think I see myself what I ought to do." Many a man could 
 testify that just telling a situation over in the presence of 
 God has seemed to clear it up. Nothing has happened, yet 
 his prayer, for guidance has been answered and duty has 
 grown clear. You 'cannot miss that tone in these psalms. 
 They are the cries of perplexed men, but almost without 
 exception before the cry is ended it has turned into praise 
 
 167 
 
[XII-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 and assurance of God's hand in the troublesome matter. 
 Even when the mood of depression recurs, as in Psalms 
 42 and 43, the assurance recurs also. 
 
 Of immense value also is this widening of horizon in its 
 taking away cheap class spirit from our thinking. Animos- 
 ities between social groups are hurtful to the whole social 
 order. Rich and poor, laborer and capitalist, American and 
 foreigner, aristocrat and plebeian, will do for convenient 
 terms of speech ; they will kill any prayer. When we 
 approach a great God we must learn to think wide thoughts. 
 The more destructive forms of socialism on the one side and 
 of capitalism on the other are contemptuous of religion. 
 They must be if they think of their own interests in terms of 
 the overthrow of other people. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Another element of social value in prayer is in its maintain- 
 ing courage for largest attempts. There is always danger 
 in our saying so much about the value of little things in 
 life and of small services of helpfulness that we overlook 
 the necessity for many big things that must be attempted by 
 men who have the courage for them. There is a cheap little 
 song that says "the world is dying for a little bit of love." 
 That is more nearly what the world is dying of, than for. 
 What it really needs is a tremendous deal of love, the outgo 
 of hearts that know no limit to their sacrifice. If small 
 things are all we can do, then they are the big things of life 
 for us. But the big things are not less needed, and our lives 
 get their main strength from being linked up to big attempts 
 that are being made for the good of men. We could make 
 those attempts in a spirit of dogged devotion to duty, saying 
 to ourselves that nothing can come of them, of course, but 
 that we can die trying. And certainly it is better to fail 
 in the effort to do something thoroughly zvorth "while than 
 to succeed in doing a thing that is not worth while anyway. 
 But we need not make any such choice. 
 
 Prayer puts courage into a man. When he cries to God, 
 He encourages him with strength in his soul (138:3). When 
 we wonder that God does not correct social evils, we are 
 forgetting that he does much better by the social order in 
 
 168 
 
THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER [XII-c] 
 
 making a group of men brave enough and strong enough 
 to face and deal with an evil than in removing it by a mir- 
 acle. When we ask the Lord to provide, his answer often is, 
 "I have provided, and you are the provision !" In a sound 
 social order men are more important than institutions, for 
 they can make any kind of institutions if they are right 
 themselves. The only reason great correctiy^e measures do 
 not start earlier is that the man big enough and brave enough 
 and sure enough of God does not appear.^ When he comes, 
 things move. So much of Carlyle's philosophy of history 
 is right. 
 
 These psalmists had no notion that anything is too hard 
 for God or that any evil thing has to be put up with (34: 16; 
 37:1, 2; 76:10). They knew how deeply evil is rooted in 
 human nature (51:5), but it was no impossible thing in their 
 eyes for God to change human nature where it had gone 
 wrong (51:7; 139:23, 24). Social evils always root some- 
 where in human nature and there are men who lie down as 
 soon as they see that fact, declaring that they cannot then 
 be corrected. Men always have drunk, always have been 
 impure, always have gambled ; therefore they always will 
 do so. And to make that a sound syllogism we have to put in 
 another premise to the effect that what always has been 
 always must be. Men who know God well enough to trust 
 him challenge tljat premise on the instant. There is no evil 
 of any sort in the social order that is to be accepted as a 
 finality to which the order must regretfully adjust itself. 
 All evils are doomed in the appearance of a group of men 
 with courage enough to make big attempts for God and men. 
 
 Prayer demands that we be worthy of it ourselves. The 
 Rabbis said that without mention of the kingdom "a. prayer 
 is not a prayer." All real prayer needs a background of 
 a great purpose. Petty praying gets to be mere talk before 
 long. When Theodore Lee was asked about his decision 
 for the mission field, he said that he could not very well fail 
 to put his life to some large uses when at the family altar 
 at home his father always prayed for the kingdom of' Christ 
 and its extension. An atmosphere was formed in which 
 petty plans were impossible. As a Christian man, are you 
 expecting great things for your communit}^ the correction of 
 its evils, the cure of its plague spots, or have you learned the 
 sad lingo about traditions which it is no use to try to correct? 
 
 169 
 
[XII-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 That is, are you a man sure enough of God to dare big things 
 for him, or are you afraid to be daring in his interest? 
 
 IV 
 
 Prayer has a social value also in the actual achievements 
 which it makeS> possible. This is not the place to enter into 
 the argument about the effectiveness of prayer in gaining 
 results. The books mentioned at the opening of the study 
 present it fully. Enough now to say that if men do not 
 believe that prayer is worth while in making some things 
 possible that would not be possible without it, they will not 
 long pray with any earnestness. They do not dictate the 
 time of answer, for there is an acceptable time which may 
 be trusted to God's lovingkindness (69:13), but they believe 
 that their pra3^er does rise to God as an incense, finding favor 
 there (141:2), and bringing things to pass. It introduces 
 into the situation further spiritual forces, which violate 
 no natural forces, but direct their action so that they accom- 
 plish what otherwise they would not do. This is no more 
 mysterious to a man who believes in a personal God than 
 the operation of any request he makes of a fellow man to do 
 something in the natural order whereby results come which 
 would not have occurred but for that request and that service. 
 Prayer engages these highest spiritual forces; It is not fool- 
 ish but very wise, for a group of men who want something 
 accomplished on a campus or in a community to band them- 
 selves together in prayer for it. Results are achieved by it 
 which could not come without it. That is part of the social 
 power of prayer. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER THOUGHT AND 
 
 STUDY 
 
 The pros and cons of group prayer meetings, as of col- 
 lege classes, fraternities, bands, — their value to the group 
 itself? Their value to the whole order of which the group is 
 part? How can such meetings be kept thoroughly sincere? 
 
 Sometimes it is suggested that the midweek meeting of the 
 church should be abandoned. Under what conditions can 
 this be approved? What losses might be expected? 
 
 170 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 The Forecast of a Future 
 - Social Order 
 
 There is no mistaking the forward look of the psalms. 
 Open your Bible to any page of these songs and count the 
 future tenses of the verbs. Sometimes the expectation is per- 
 sonal, as in the 23rd and other psalms. Generally it is 
 strongly social. It took in the nation, or all those that fear 
 Jehovah or all the righteous. Something better is always 
 before these writers. We speak of that hope as Messianic, 
 meaning by it not simply that an anointed leader and king 
 was to come, but that with him a new and corrected social 
 order was to come also. Dr. Briggs in his book on Mes- 
 sianic Prophecy refers to sixty-four of the psalms as having 
 one or more references to the Messiah and the new order 
 which he was to inaugurate. 
 
 DAILY READINGS 
 
 Thirteenth Week, First Day 
 
 It is easy enough to be hopeful for a good social order in 
 the future if you do not let yourself think of the forces 
 that are against it. One large body of people today are 
 trying to keep cheerful by refusing to let their minds dwell 
 on disturbing facts. The working motto of other people is, 
 "Forget it!" Within limits such policies are feasible. But 
 they are not very courageous, and they leave one wilted 
 when the adverse facts finally break, through and demand 
 to be noticed. The truth is that there are no easy paths to a 
 better future. The new social order "which eager hearts 
 expect" has plenty of forces operating against it in the order 
 that now obtains. 
 
 171 
 
tXin-2] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 Why do the nations rage, 
 
 And the peoples meditate a vain thing? 
 
 The kings of the earth set themselves, 
 
 And the rulers take counsel together, 
 
 Against Jehovah, and against his anointed, saying. 
 
 Let us break their bonds asunder. 
 
 And cast away their cords from us. 
 
 He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh: 
 
 The Lord will have them in derision. 
 
 Then will he speak unto them in his wrath. 
 
 And vex them in his sore displeasure: 
 
 Yet I have set my king 
 
 Upon my holy hill of Zion. — Psalm 2 : 1-6. 
 
 No one ever tried to improve conditions anywhere without 
 finding plenty of people to whom present conditions are 
 wholly satisfying. The clearing out of tenement slums is 
 never easy because they are productive of revenue on the 
 one hand and are homelike to the inhabitants on the other. 
 The new proposals always seem like new bondage which must 
 be resisted. "Reformers always kill business" is a truism 
 with those who oppose them. But the- movement goes on for 
 all that. Opposition is petty at its strongest. It may over- 
 come our plans and defeat our programs, but it cannot stop 
 the moral forces of the universe and they are on the side 
 of the movement for a better social order. 
 
 Thirteenth Week, Second Day 
 
 I will tell of the decree: 
 
 Jehovah said unto me, Thou art my son; 
 
 This day have I begotten thee. 
 
 Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine 
 
 inheritance, 
 And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 
 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; 
 Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. 
 Now therefore be wise, O ye kings: 
 Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. 
 Serve Jehovah with fear. 
 And rejoice with trembling. 
 
 Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye perish in the way, 
 For his wrath will soon be kindled. 
 Blessed are all they that take refuge in him. 
 
 — Psalm 2: 7-12. 
 
 172 
 
FORECAST OF A SOCIAL ORDER [XIII-3] 
 
 Ruin or compliance with the advancing order — that may 
 seem a harsh alternative, but it is the natural, inevitable one. 
 It is in the moral order only the familiar law of life in the 
 natural order. Animals must find some way of adjusting 
 themselves to a changed environment or perish. Institu- 
 tions must continue to serve the need of men under their 
 changed conditions or cease to be. In recent years American 
 colleges have made many changes in the effort to adapt them- 
 selves to the needs of changed social demands. Society 
 cannot allow itself to be forever encumbered with dead 
 material even though it was once alive. The coming Messiah 
 spoken of in the 2nd psalm is to be God's king, whose reign 
 will have no limit. The nations and the uttermost parts of 
 the earth belong to him. As his reign extends, it makes the 
 new conditions which all nations must meet if they are to 
 continue. It is not the hope or wish of the writer of this 
 psalm, nor of any man who loves the coming kingdom, that 
 any should perish. He wants all kings, judges, leaders of 
 the earth, to learn the new order and adjust themselves to 
 it. The expression, "kiss the son," only means to do homage, 
 to recognize the right of the son as king on the throne. And 
 the last line of the psalm takes away the sting of the seem- 
 ingly harsh words that go before. The only refuge from 
 God is in God. We flee from him by fleeing to him. The 
 kingdoms of the world are not marked for destruction but 
 for subjection. Our hearts are marked in the same way. 
 
 Thirteenth Week, Third Day 
 
 The coming social order, the kingdom of heaven on earth, 
 is not to come as an arbitrary, forced victory. It will come 
 by the power of God and through the rule of Christ, it is 
 true ; but its method is the service of a voluntary people who 
 offer themselves willingly in a day when they know God's 
 power. 
 
 Jehovah saith unto my lord, Sit thou at my right hand, 
 
 Until I make thine enemies thy footstool. 
 
 Jehovah will send forth the rod of thy strength out o£ 
 
 Zion: 
 Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. 
 Thy people offer themselves willingly 
 In the day of thy power, in holy array: 
 
 173 
 
IXIII-4] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 Out of the womb of the morning 
 Thou hast the dew of thy youth. 
 
 — Psalm no: 1-3. 
 
 The time comes in national history when the draft must 
 he used to get men for the emergent demands of a war. 
 Even then it is hoped by all thoughtful statesmen that the 
 drafted men will respond willingly when their turn comes. 
 A dragging soldiery is defeated before it begins the fight. 
 In social warfare it is peculiarly true that only willing people 
 who offer themselves can render the best service. When they 
 are salaried, as many social workers must be, it is never 
 like day laborers who watch the clock. Their salaries are 
 not to reward them for their work ; th^ey are only to enable 
 them to live while they work. Ministers, teachers, social serv- 
 ice workers, and all the group whose special business it is to 
 advance the forces of the new social order, are on the same 
 basis of return. They know no hours of labor, nor limita- 
 tion of responsibility. If they should be found balancing 
 work against pay, they would be counted failures at once. 
 
 The new social order calls for the gift of increasing num- 
 bers of selves not for service in the distinctive group alone, 
 but even more for the ordinary, every-day life of all men who 
 have the forward look. There is no right mode of living 
 which is not also a call to service. The better order does 
 not advance without enemies, but in the midst of them, and 
 not by sweeping them away, but by subduing them to the 
 new order. And the advance of the forces of that order is 
 not chaotic, but in "array," in order and organization. 
 Merely good spirit, willingness to help, will not take the 
 place of reason and the cooperation of forces. 
 
 Thirteenth Week, Fourth Day 
 
 In his days shall the righteous flourish, 
 
 And abundance of peace, till the moon be no more. . . . 
 
 Yea, all kings shall fall down before him; 
 
 All nations shall serve him. 
 
 For he will deliver the needy when he crieth, 
 
 And the poor, that hath no helper. 
 
 He will have pity on the poor and needy. 
 
 And the souls of the needy he will save. 
 
 — Psalm 72:7, 11-13. 
 
 174 
 
FORECAST OF A SOCIAL ORDER [XIII-s] 
 
 By all accounts this is a psalm of the coming Messiah. No 
 doubt it was first applied to the king then reigning or com- 
 ing into power on the Jerusalem throne of David, but its 
 hopes overstate the possibility of that king or of any. other 
 who ever sat on that throne. It may be a prayer that all these 
 things may come to be true of the king, but even then it is 
 prayer that works on to an expectation. Only in a new social 
 order, under the reign of a King greater than any man, 
 could the expectation of the psalm be fulfilled. And it is zuell 
 to notice that the new social order is to be fundamentally 
 moral: righteousness is to flourish and peace in abundance 
 on that basis. Can there be any effective arrangement for 
 peace until that basis is established f 
 
 The social order that makes provision for unfairness must 
 some day give way to one that refuses to do so. Christ's 
 claim to world mastery is not arbitrary, but rests on the 
 ground of the. social order which he proposes. In that order, 
 kings and all that upper level of authoritative folk whom 
 every order has, will realize that they are themselves under 
 a higher power and will wield their power as subjects. 
 Nations will serve each other because they serve a common 
 Lord, by an application of that spiritual mathematics wherein 
 two men serving the same Lord serve each other. And in 
 that order, the under levels have their chance. The poor 
 and the need}^ count in it and are helped through it. The 
 new social order will be for all and all will be for it. Are 
 you helping to bring this kind of social order? 
 
 Thirteenth Week, Fifth Day 
 
 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn untO' 
 
 Jehovah; 
 And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before 
 
 thee. 
 For the kingdom is Jehovah's; 
 And he is the ruler over the nations. 
 All the fat ones of the earth shall eat and worship: 
 All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him, 
 Even he that cannot keep his soul alive. 
 A seed shall serve him; 
 
 It shall be told of the Lord unto the next generation. 
 They shall come and shall declare his righteousness 
 Unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done it. 
 
 — Psalm 22:27-31. 
 
 175 
 
[XIII-6] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 If you did not know it, you would never guess that this 
 triumphant forecast of coming world unity and victory is 
 taken from the psalm whose opening words Jesus quoted on 
 . the cross in the hour of his deepest agony : "Aly God, my 
 God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" (22:1; Matt. 27:46). 
 That very fact shows how possible it is under present press- 
 ing trouble to get a clear assurance of coming victory for the 
 forces of righteousness. If, as some think, our Lord went 
 on through the psalm in his own mind on the cross, it is 
 easy to see how new strength would come to him in seeing 
 that this distress of his would be a factor, actually the larg- 
 est factor, in bringing the better day. Personal distresses 
 or the setback of good projects sometimes make us wonder 
 if the kingdom is advancing. But they do not dethrone God 
 nor destroy the seed that still serves him, out of whom will 
 grow the new social order in which he will be the ruler of 
 all. 
 
 Looking back over history is one of the surest cures erf 
 pessimism. No generation is a good judge of its own prog- 
 ress. Great movements are sometimes like glaciers that 
 creep so slowly that the advance can hardly be measured by 
 the generation. Then again they will be like the liquid in a 
 test tube that crystallizes quickly. If we live in a rapidly 
 moving period, it is not so difficult to keep encouraged. 
 But in the slow periods history supplies reassurance to men 
 of hope. Apply that to generations of students. Is it cer- 
 tain that those that do not seem to introduce any new move- 
 ments have been ineffective in the history of the college ; and 
 are the biggest results always the outcome of slow processes? 
 
 Thirteenth Week, Sixth Day 
 
 When our sons shall be as plants grown up in their youth, 
 And our daughters as cornerstones hewn after the fashion 
 
 of a palace; 
 When our garners are full, affording all manner of store, 
 And our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands 
 
 in our fields; 
 When our oxen are well laden; 
 
 When there is no breaking in, and no going forth. 
 And no outcry in our streets: 
 Happy is the people that is in such a case; 
 Yea, happy is the people whose God is Jehovah. 
 
 — Psalm 144:12-15. 
 
 176 
 
FORECAST OF A SOCIAL ORDER [XIII-7] 
 
 It is sometimes said that the Hebrew idea of a good time 
 yet to come or of a social order yet to be reaHzed, is too 
 physical, too temporal, makes too much of worldly comforts 
 and prosperit3\ Perhaps so. But a social order which does 
 not make much of these things will never be worth forming 
 in this world. Contempt for them is sheer pretense. If we 
 do not prefer good clothing and food and an adequate supply 
 of both, we ought to. Bloated wealth, foolish extravagance, 
 silly outlay, we ought to despise. But if we count this world 
 God's world and look on its evil as out of place, sin as an 
 interloper which ought to be put out, terribly real as it still is ; 
 if we follow Jesus in his joy in the lilies and the birds as 
 evidences of a Father's care ; if we feel that in a world so 
 rich with the things that human life needs it is a shame that 
 human lives should be impoverished — we will not refuse our 
 interest to any phase of social betterment which looks toward 
 temporal improvement. 
 
 It is a wise prayer in Prov. 30 : 8, 9, "Give me neither 
 poverty nor riches," not poverty lest one grow bitter and dis- 
 honest with it, nor riches lest one grov/ self-satisfied and 
 forget God. In a sound social order it is necessary that all 
 •have enough ; it is not at all necessary that anybody have 
 too much. Crops and manufactures have a real religious 
 interest, not because they are final indexes of social sound- 
 ness, but because without them the social order cannot be 
 sound. The duty of men who take a large view of the com- 
 ing order is to see that temporal things do not get into first 
 place. The kingdom itself must have that place, with right- 
 eousness ; after that, all things can be added to us (Matt. 
 
 Thirteenth Week, Seventh Day 
 
 For Jehovah hath chosen Zion; • 
 
 He hath desired it for his habitation. 
 
 This is my resting-place for ever: 
 
 Here will I dwell; for I have desired it. 
 
 I will abundantly bless her provision: 
 
 I will satisfy her poor with bread. 
 
 Her priests also will I clothe with salvation; 
 
 And her saints shall shout aloud for joy. 
 
 There will I make the horn of David to bud: 
 
 I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. 
 
 177 
 
[XIII-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 His enemies will I clothe with shame; 
 But upon himself shall his crown flourish. 
 
 —Psalm 132:13-18. 
 
 This psalm is one of the "songs of ascent," probably in- 
 tended for use in the journey to the annual feast at Jeru^ 
 salem. Each of them renews the impression of the import- 
 ance of Zion as the place of desire. Zion is the geographical 
 incarnation for all the world of the contact of God with men. 
 The new social order is not to make less but rather more of 
 Zion. Religion will grow to be a broader, deeper reality, 
 under whose influence men will know God better. That 
 movement is alread}^ going on. The faith of the Church in 
 Christ, so far from making God less real, is making him 
 mean more. Furthermore, the new order comes by use of 
 the social agencies among men. New agencies will develop, 
 but the heart of them will be the familiar religious forces 
 which bind men to God. In the most vivid prefiguring of 
 the final social order in the Bible, in the two closing chapters 
 of the Revelation, it is said that the first impression of the city 
 coming down out of heaven from God is the clear sense of 
 God which its people have. He dwells among them and is their 
 God and they realize themselves to 'be his people (Rev. 21 : 3). 
 It is a tradition that when Dr. Charles Hodge of Princeton 
 was asked what was the most attractive word about heaven 
 in these chapters, he said, " 'And his servants shall serve 
 him' — at last!" (Rev. 22:3). But that is not reserved for 
 heaven ; indeed, it is given as one of the facts of the new 
 order which is being formed here in the spirit of heaven. 
 Whenever any man helps another to serve God, to be loyal 
 to all that Zion means, he is advancing the new social order 
 by that much. 
 
 COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 
 
 The future of the psalms is not heaven, but transformed 
 earth. To be sure, nothing in them precludes thought of 
 heaven for the individual. Probably too much has been made 
 of the supposed lack of a sense of a future state in the Old 
 Testament. The idea appears in many forms actually (16: 
 10; 49: 15), and something could be said of the assurance of 
 personal immortality as a social factor. Life cannot look the 
 
 178 
 
FORECAST OF A SOCIAL ORDER [XIII-c] 
 
 same if it is ended at seventy years instead of being con- 
 tinued in another state ; as college would not be the same if 
 students did not think of it as preparation for following life. 
 But certainly the main outlook of the psalms is toward a 
 new and glorious and rectified social order which would fit 
 into the order of the present time, growing out of it by the 
 operation of the forces of righteousness. The minor prophets 
 lay stress on social wrongs as calling for personal correction ; 
 bad men must cease to oppress. The psalmists lay larger 
 stress on personal wrongs issuing from the social order 
 which must be corrected by changmg the order. In the new 
 order, when God is given the power among men which is his 
 by right, earth will yield its increase and righteousness will 
 be the rule of life (85:12, 13). Temporal prosperity and 
 moral vigor will go together. 
 
 In the minds of the writers there is no shadow of doubt 
 of the coming of this better time. They are sometimes 
 baffled by its delay and wonder at the slow movement of 
 God toward its coming (74:10; 77:7-9), but even then they 
 rebuke themselves for anxiety (37:1-17; 73:1-22; 77:10- 
 13). Short views may discourage, but long views correct the 
 discouragement. God is not a man that he should be in 
 haste. There were baffling cases of failure, and the exile 
 psalms face the greatest of them with peculiar courage. They 
 continue to be sure of the power of God. Zion was destroyed, 
 but the servants of God took pleasure in her stones and 
 had pity on her dust (102:13-17) and the time for God's 
 favor was sure to come soon. There is the sarne feeling with 
 which Lowell faced the crisis of his times, when so many 
 institutions and hopes were destroyed : 
 
 "Careless seems the great Avenger ; history's pages but record 
 One death grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the 
 
 Word ; 
 Truth forever on the scaffold ; Wrong forever on the throne, 
 Yet that scafifold sways the future, and behind the dim 
 
 unknown 
 Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his 
 
 own." 
 
 There are conditions in our own times that call for strong 
 
 179 
 
[XIII-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 faith. Weak men can lose courage. Professor Giddings 
 may be right in saying that "we are witnessing today beyond 
 question the decay — perhaps not permanent, but at any rate 
 the decay — of republican institutions. No man in his right 
 mind can deny it." If he is right, then our faith in the com- 
 ing order is put to the test, for most of us in America think 
 that republican institutions mark progress toward that order. 
 But no one can take the long view, from the times of the 
 psalmists to our own, and not. see the emergence of condi- 
 tions of promise ; and no one can keep alive his trust in God 
 and his plan for the new order without being patient to 
 work and wait for its coming. Professor McFadyen says : 
 "Whatever the fate of the* earthly monarchy might be, Israel 
 always felt herself to be under the sovereignty of an invis- 
 ible king, and however the dreams of an earthly kingdom 
 might be dashed by the hard facts, the kingdom of Jehovah 
 was sure to come." ("Messages of the Psalmists," p. 281.) 
 The coming of Christ with his fuller revelation of God and 
 his purpose for the world ought to make us even more sure 
 of the coming victory. 
 
 II 
 
 Nor was this reign of God and righteousness to be counted 
 merely future. It had already begun. The Lord reigneth 
 and that may mean rejoicing (97:1) or trembling (99:1), 
 but the fact is there to be dealt with. He is King over nature 
 (29:10) and over bad men (2:1-5), indeed he rules over 
 all (103: 19). This is a basal fact with which their thinking 
 begins. WJiQt is needed is not something new but more of 
 the best that now is. 
 
 Moreover, anyone who will look carefully enough will see 
 the nev/ order coming in the present apparent chaos. It 
 appears in the order of nature. The heavens declare God's 
 glory and also his righteousness (19:1; 97:6). His right- 
 eousness finds a good illustration in the mountains {2,6:6), 
 the most enduring element in the nature which the writers 
 knew. It is as fixed as they are. Dr. Newman vSmyth, in 
 his book, "The Meaning of Personal Life," has- urged that 
 nature shows signs of a program which it is carrying out. 
 "The electrons have come to do something — the}^ are here 
 that more may be." "The earth in its final forming has the 
 appearance of some vast assembling room of well fitted 
 
 180 
 
FORECAST OF A SOCIAL ORDER [XIII-c] 
 
 parts." He finds the purpose in the emergence of personal 
 life which gives nature its real meaning. Everything in 
 nature has a forward look, is working out a program. The 
 program is from God. It is he who has given the earth to 
 men (115:16). For a time we grew so interested in the 
 history of the physical earth that we had no concern for its 
 future, but we are finding that the two points of view are not 
 contradictory. Whatever push nature has from the past is 
 toward something in the future. We may be wholly unsure 
 what that future thing is, but we can join the psalm.ists in 
 being sure that since nature is so much the expression of law 
 it must carry with it an assurance of the righteousness of 
 the God whose it is. 
 
 Also it appears in every passing victory for righteousness. 
 Whenever a bad scheme is thwarted or a good one advanced, 
 the new order. is helped forward. Clouds and darkness may 
 be round about Him, but righteousness and justice are the 
 very foundation of his throne (97:2). Many of the strong 
 assertions of the sure prosperity of the righteous rest on 
 the assurance that a fundamentally right order exists under- 
 neath the chaotic social order we now experience. Only 
 once in a while does that fundamental order crop out, as a 
 ledge of rock thrusts itself up through the soil at points, but 
 when it does appear, moral beings may take heart. Emer- 
 son's essay on "Compensation" was written after hearing a 
 sermon in which it was argued that there must be a future 
 life to provide a moral balance for this life. On the con- 
 trary, Emerson contended that Hfe even here is morally 
 balanced. Both the preacher and Emerson had truth on 
 their sides. Fundamentally the moral order underlies even 
 the chaos of today, but its full expression waits for the 
 future — here as soon as we will give it chance, beyond this 
 life in any case. Even the remote heathen have had reason 
 to know that righteousness is God's law (98:2), and little by 
 little nations not among the chosen ones are moving toward 
 God (72:9-11; 87:4; 68:31). Even now it is better with 
 the man who is right and generous and helpful than with 
 men of the old order who seek their own interest first (112). 
 
 Progress actually has been made. The good old days have 
 something to say for themselves, but not so much as the 
 later daj^s whose comipg they helped along. The story of 
 the spread of the new order, hinting of its further lines, 
 
 181 
 
[XIII-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 has been told many times. We cannot he blind to evils and 
 fool ourselves into thinking that the social order is what it 
 ought to be, but we must not be blind to the forces for good 
 which are at work, overcoming evil and bringing in a king- 
 dom, which will transform human society. Kaftan spoke well 
 of Jesus when he said that only a paradox could state his 
 message : "The future salvation has become present, and yet 
 has not ceased to be future." 
 
 Ill 
 
 For we need to go on to say that though the new social 
 order is emerging in the pi;esent, its fulness waits for the 
 future. For the psalmists it waited for the coming of a 
 King who could bring it in. The King has come and has 
 left a program for bringing it in which we are trying to 
 execute. We say much of loyalty to the past and something 
 of loyalty to our own times and their demands on us. We 
 do not say enough of the largest loyalty demanded of us — 
 loyalty to the future. Yet there is no loyalty to which we 
 owe more passionate allegiance than this. If we are faced 
 with the question of the politician who was urged to a large 
 plan for the sake of posterity, "What has posterity ever done 
 for us?" we have a ready answer. Posterity has given us 
 our greatest opportunity. It has made it worth while to 
 attempt big things, to lay plans greater than we can ever 
 execute, to design programs which are worthy of our rational 
 natures, in the assurance that there will be men to take up 
 the task where we lay it down. 
 
 Life is a big relay race where generations touch hands 
 before the first stops and the second goes on. President King 
 says that each new generation asks of the former one three 
 questions : What are you trying to do ? How far have you 
 got? What can I do to help? As a young man, is that the 
 way you think of life? Do you have a sense of obligation 
 to the generation whose work you are taking upf You will 
 find as you come to the end of your generation that part of 
 your reassurance will be in the next generation whose young 
 men will take up the great projects where you leave off. 
 Posterity demands a firm loyalty. We have no right not to 
 plan for better things. The generation following must hear 
 good stories from us if we do our share (48:13; 102:18). 
 
 182 
 
FORECAST OF A SOCIAL ORDER [XIII-c] 
 
 One generation must tell of the victories of God and his 
 advancing order to another (145:4). The coming gen- 
 eration makes worth while the strain it takes to change a bad 
 social custom or to introduce some fine new observance. 
 It is not enough to believe that the new social order is com- 
 ing; the great thing is to live our lives for the sake of its 
 coming. Despairing of it or turning away from it for per- 
 sonal profit is the deepest treason. Lowell's poem on "The 
 Present Crisis" goes on : 
 
 "New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient good 
 uncouth ; 
 
 They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast 
 of Truth; 
 
 Lo, before us gleam her campfires, we ourselves must Pil- 
 grims be, 
 
 Launch our Mayflower and steer boldly through the desper- 
 ate winter sea. 
 
 Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted 
 key." 
 
 Some one looked at Lincoln as he sat, "a tall bony figure, 
 devoid of grace, a countenance almost redeemed from plain- 
 ness by two kindly blue eyes, but overshadowed by the dark 
 problems of the moment," and after he had gone, remarked, 
 "Helpless Honesty!" "As if honesty could ever be helpless!" 
 comments Mrs. Howe. 
 
 Yet the real assurance of the coming of this better social 
 order does not rise out of what we see in nature or in history 
 or in present movements. Those might all be dead against it, 
 and still we might have the assurance if we were like these 
 psalmists. For their assurance is in God and his power and 
 purpose. The promise on which they based it rested in God.'s 
 character and love (89:24-37) and took frank account of the 
 weakness of the men through whom that character had to 
 work in the world. But a ^ood God with good men could 
 not fail to make a good order (125). Much of their hope 
 gathered around a central Figure (45 and 72), but it saw him 
 drawing nations to himself. We need not suppose that they 
 had any clear vision of Christ, for they may be of the group 
 of which Peter speaks (I Peter i:ii) who felt more than 
 they understood as they wrote. But when that central Figure 
 did appear it is noticeable that their phrases fitted him with 
 
 183 
 
[XIII-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 fine nicety. It is from the 2nd psalm that we get our two 
 principal titles for our Lord : in the second verse he is 
 called the "anointed," which in the Greek form is the word 
 Christ; in the seventh verse he is called the Son. Peter 
 put the two together in his famous confession which so 
 touched the heart of Christ: "Thou art the Christ, the Son 
 of the Hving God" (Matt. i6: i6). It is interesting to observe 
 that there are more quotations from the psalms in the New 
 Testament than from any other part of the Bible. They 
 express the Christian expectation — assured victory through 
 the power of Christ. 
 
 IV 
 
 Few details of the future social order are given. Three are 
 emphasized frequently. It will be a time and condition of 
 righteousness, peace, and prosperity. The coming of the 
 Lord will be to judge the earth with righteousness and the 
 peoples with equity (98:9). There will be an end of oppres- 
 sion (72:4, 14) and men will receive their just dues (149: 
 7-9). Whatever unfairness exists in the present order is a 
 hindrance to the new order. Unequal distribution of profits 
 of industry, unfair and cruel treatment of children, oppres- 
 sion of weaker nations, withholding of justice from accused 
 criminals, arbitrary administration of law, and all else of 
 the sort must be worked out of our social order by the com- 
 ing in of the -new order. Whoever loves the new social 
 order must take his stand against all such unrighteousness. 
 To be unloving, unfair, unjust, to take selfish advantage, to 
 exploit a weaker person for one's profit, and yet to pretend 
 to want the coming of the new order is to live a lie. 
 
 Because it is a reign of righteousness, it will be a reign of 
 peace. Most of the psalms indicate at some point a sense of 
 danger, or disturbance at least. Life is lived in the presence 
 of peril. But all the trouble comes out of the evil of other 
 men or else out of one's own eyl. If that were once taken 
 away and God's voice could be heard, he would be speaking 
 peace to men (85:8; 29:11). ' The logic of that is clear 
 enough. If two nations can be brought to take the same atti- 
 tude of genuine loyalty to God and his rule of righteousness, 
 there is no room for controversy between them. The new 
 social order will make no provision for war on a large scale 
 as between nations, nor on a small scale as between social 
 
 184 
 
FORECAST OF A SOCIAL ORDER [XIII-c] 
 
 groups. Peace will come on earth among men of goodwill, 
 men in whom a righteous, loving God can be well pleased 
 (Luke 2:14). When we "^foster national hatreds, or racial 
 oppositions, or encourage feelings of hatred between classes 
 of men, or slur the merits of other men, magnifying our 
 own, we hinder the new order. 
 
 We must not minimize the place of prosperity in the 
 better social order. The psalms make much of it. They 
 thought of the earth as a kind of mirror which smiled when 
 God smiled and frowned when he frowned. They had no 
 occasion to think of the intricate social organization that 
 enters into our present life. That would have deepened 
 their realization of the intimate relation between a righteous 
 social .order and the comfort and prosperity of the people 
 who live in it. Better houses will not necessarily make better 
 people, and rascals are quite as likely to live on boulevards 
 as anywhere else. But there is nothing in a bad house that 
 makes a fine soul and nothing in a good house that makes a 
 coarse soul. There is better chance for a fine soul to be 
 its best self in a good house, and bad houses tend to coarsen 
 souls. Plenty of good food is the natural outcome of an 
 abundant, rich world Hke this. Right industrial conditions 
 should make it possible for every man doing his share to 
 have the returns which he and his dependents need. A 
 sound social order will provide care for the incapable and 
 will put aspiration into the hearts of the indolent, whereby 
 they take their place in the program of the whole, and will 
 reward the active with place in the group beyond oppression 
 and poverty. Economics has been a "dreary science," but if 
 it is a study of the w^ys whereby the new social order can 
 come, it may cease to be dreary. 
 
 V 
 
 Meanwhile, the new social order is to come by the power 
 of God working in men (101:1-8; 110:1-3), men who will 
 behave themselves wisely in right ways, who will take God's 
 side against wrong, who will offer themselves willingly in 
 the day of God's power. If we will not be that kind of 
 men, then other men will have to carry us as additional 
 loads as they go on toward the . better future. But if 
 we are that kind of men we help the enterprise forward, 
 
 185 
 
[XIII-c] PSALMS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 however much or little we seem to be able to do. There is 
 even something in the word of Bishop Blougram which we 
 need to face : 
 
 "When all's done and said. 
 Like you this Christianity or not? 
 It may be false, but will you wish it true? 
 Has it your vote to be so if it can?" 
 
 But rugged old Carlyle is better at the end of his lecture "The 
 Hero as Priest," when he is describing John Knox and his 
 hope for Scotland and the world, that the petition, "Thy 
 Kingdom come," should not be any longer an empty word. 
 The regent Murray shrugged his shoulders and called it "a 
 devout imagination" to think that a social order might be 
 formed wherein God would rule, but John Knox was not 
 restrained from giving his life to advancing the purpose. 
 The lecture closes : "How far such Ideals can ever be intro- 
 duced into Practice, and at what point our impatience with 
 their non-introduction ought to begin, is always a question. 
 I think we may say safely, Let them introduce themselves as 
 far as they can contrive to do it ! If they are the true faith 
 of men, all men ought to be more or less impatient always 
 where they are not found introduced. There will never be 
 wanting Regent Murrays enough to shrug their shoulders, 
 and say, 'A devout imagination !' We will praise the Hero- 
 priest rather who does what is in him to bring them in ; and 
 wears out in toil, calumny, contradiction, a noble life, to 
 make a God's Kingdom of this Earth, The Earth will not 
 become too godlike." The psalmists were more sure of the 
 outcome than was Carlyle. The fulfilment of the hope waits 
 for men enough who will live for it. They cannot do it in 
 their own power, but they can live in the strength and joy 
 of the vision of the kingdom of the earth becoming the king- 
 dom of our Lord and of his Christ (Rev. 11:15), mean- 
 while bearing the witness of a changed life to the uttermost 
 parts of the earth. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER THOUGHT AND 
 
 STUDY 
 
 Make a list of the forces or movements now visible which 
 seem to you to indicate the advance of the social order 
 
 186 
 
FORECAST OF A SOCIAL ORDER [XIII-cl 
 
 towards God's purpose for it, at least in the three traits of 
 righteousness, peace, and prosperity. 
 
 Think out some safeguards against such emphasis on 
 service for a new present order that one loses interest in the 
 eternal phases of human lives. 
 
 This chapter is written in full view of the fact that equally 
 earnest Christian believers differ as to the method of the 
 coming of the ultimate social order. Some expect it to be 
 developed gradually out of the present order, though doubt- 
 less with many forward leaps, under the power of Christ. 
 Others expect it to be inaugurated by his personal return to 
 earth. Consider whether difference here should affect our 
 duty in the present social order. 
 
 187 
 
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