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 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
PLAIN THOUGHTS ON 
 FAITH AND LIFE 
 
 BY 
 
 WELLESLEY P. CODDINGTON 
 
 NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS 
 CINCINNATI : JENNINGS & GRAHAM 
 

 Copyright, 1913, by 
 WELLESLEY P. CODDINGTON 
 
 ©Ci.A350850 
 
r^ 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Self-Seeking 1 
 
 II. Religion and the Home 17 
 
 III. The Abiding Life 35 
 
 IV. Our Divine Touchstone 51 
 
 V. The Impregnable Foundation 67 
 
 VI. Loss OP Conscience 85 
 
 VII. The Movement of the World Toward Christ 
 
 AND Christian Concepts 105 
 
 VIII. A Positive Faith 121 
 
 IX. Roadside Sermons 141 
 
 X. A Glance Through the Open Door 157 
 
 XL Skepticism 175 
 
 XII. Our Work. 191 
 
 XIII. Our Unconscious Faults 211 
 
SELF-SEEKING 
 
 Thyself and tliy belongings 
 Are not thine own so proper as to waste 
 Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee. 
 Heaven doth with us as we with torches do. 
 Not light them for themselves. 
 
 —Stialcespeare. 
 
 All men seek their own. — Paul, 
 
SELF-SEEKING 
 
 From that hour of revelation before the gates 
 of Damascus to the hour of his martyrdom 
 at Kome, Paul presents an example of mar- 
 velous courage, faith, and hope. At times, 
 however, as he views the vastness of the work 
 and the fewness of the workers the profound 
 sadness of his soul vents itself in such expres- 
 sions as our text : "All men — all men are seek- 
 ing their own." His words suggest for our 
 serious meditation the universal weakness of 
 humanity, the sin of inordinate self-seeking. 
 Taking life at its lowest valuation — that of 
 the individual happiness — even then the self- 
 centered life is a failure. With vast erudition 
 John Stuart Mill argued for happiness as the 
 chief end of life. Yet he was forced to confess 
 that if one should pursue his own happiness 
 as his supreme object, he must fail to attain it. 
 Happiness, like one's shadow, the more one 
 
4 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 pursues it the more it will elude his grasp. 
 Furthermore, Mr. Mill could find no faculty 
 in man having happiness for its end. Man's 
 faculty of vision is for seeing. That seeing, 
 however, may be attended with pain as well 
 as pleasure. Indeed, we see too much to be 
 perfectly happy. So with hearing and every 
 other power with which man is endowed. 
 They may minister to his enjoyment, they may 
 add to his sorrow. Both facts and philosophy 
 demonstrate that to the one who is forever 
 considering self, life must be full of fretting 
 and disappointment, envy and jealousy, and 
 many vain rivalries. The word "miser'' in the 
 original tongue signifies "wretched." In com- 
 mon use it designates one who employs his 
 energies in turning the world's wealth into his 
 own coffers. The two senses of the word are 
 not accidental. The Creator has so consti- 
 tuted man that such a course inevitably leads 
 to such a condition, and the selfish, hoarding 
 miser becomes a miserable man. 
 
 What most people need to make them both 
 more healthy and happy is more self-denial 
 for others. The Christmas time is the happiest 
 week of the year because it is the period in 
 which each is planning and working for the 
 comfort and enjoyment of others. The de- 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 5 
 
 velopment of the affections produces the hap- 
 piest life, but the affections have all this one 
 characteristic, — they all give forth; they have 
 their object outside of self. Herein they differ 
 from the appetites, which are craving and self- 
 centered. The affections in their exercise 
 sweeten and ennoble life, while the gratifica- 
 tion of the appetites often embitters it. More- 
 over, the affections are self -propagating. Love 
 engenders love. He who goes through the 
 world with a large benevolent spirit finds him- 
 self in a great, generous world. With all its 
 depravity, there is yet in human nature a re- 
 sponsive chord to every exhibition of affection. 
 On the other hand, he who wraps his garments 
 closely about him and walks shyly out among 
 men always with a sharp, suspicious eye, 
 watching for the main chance, finds himself 
 surrounded by a selfish world of sharpers. We 
 find what we look for, and often by our own 
 example we bring it to the surface where other- 
 wise it would be studiously suppressed. He 
 who in a community year after year is so en- 
 grossed in his own personal interests as to give 
 little or no helpful sympathy to his neighbors, 
 in turn alienates them, so that whatever may 
 be his gains he is losing day by day the very 
 best that is in the world, and that, too, when 
 
6 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 the Almighty has given him the key to it 
 
 all. 
 
 ♦jf <$► ■($» 
 
 But this self-seeking works a far greater 
 evil than the loss of the individual happiness. 
 That may be counted an insignificant trifle 
 compared with the injury which such a course 
 inflicts on the personal character. One may 
 not more effectually belittle one's self than by 
 trying to live to himself alone. It violates 
 God's law for the soul's growth — for growth 
 means service rather than self-seeking. Dig 
 down deep and you will flnd that the founda- 
 tions of every fruitful life are in the form of 
 a cross. He who adroitly manages to get 
 through life with little or no self-denials also 
 counts but little as a factor in its uplifting. 
 This world is a very coarse one, but human 
 character seems to need the brunt of its battles 
 in order to its largest growth. It needed a 
 lions' den to prove Daniel's faith. Paul al- 
 ways appeared at his best Avhen in a shipwreck 
 or when facing a furious mob in defense of 
 the truth. It was when being stoned to 
 death that the angel in Stephen illumined his 
 countenance. Luther grew mightily under 
 the anathemas of the Pope and when he him- 
 self became the storm center of converging 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 7 
 
 whirlwinds from every quarter of the habitable 
 globe. The cross may at times seem grievous, 
 and one may cry with Cowper's Hypochron- 
 driac, "O for a lodge in some vast wilderness, 
 where rumor of oppression and deceit may 
 never reach me more/' Yet, after all, that 
 cry is the cry of weakness. The Lord has a 
 far nobler mission for us than to be whining 
 away our life under some juniper tree in 
 the desert. Self-indulgence is always death, 
 whether in the individual or the nation. Cor- 
 tez told the Mexicans that the Spaniards had 
 a disease of the heart for which there was no 
 cure but gold, and gold he must have. He 
 extorted from them vast treasures, and their 
 gold and silver three hundred and fifty years 
 ago made Spain the richest nation in the 
 world. But the disease was fatal, and Spain 
 died long ago — ^died of the glut of self-indul- 
 gent wealth and the dearth of great-souled 
 men. 
 
 "What shall a man give in exchange for his 
 soul?'' Enter the marts of trade and you will 
 get many an answer. Esau is the type of a 
 great multitude who are willing to barter 
 their birthright for a mess of pottage. In the 
 Dark Ages it was superstitiously believed that 
 certain ones entered into secret compact with 
 
8 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 the devil, and sold him their souls for certain 
 temporal advantages. Three of the world's 
 noted dramatists, Christopher Marlow, the 
 Spanish poet Calderon, and Goethe, have each 
 made this tradition the basis of well-known 
 dramas. In form it is a myth of the Dark 
 Ages, in substance it is a startling reality of 
 all ages. As we study the world the great 
 wonder is that in theory men hold themselves 
 so dear, yet in practice sell themselves so 
 cheaply. There lies a small bundle of papers. 
 They are stocks and bonds. They sum up the 
 lifework of an immortal man. These are the 
 fruit of his toils — the account which he has 
 to give of his probation — these and little or 
 nothing besides. No holy life, no Christly 
 character, no helping hand to the fallen, no 
 pleading with the wanderer, no food for the 
 hungry, no cheer for the broken-hearted, no 
 special interest in the great benevolent insti- 
 tutions of the church, no prayer, no Sabbath 
 worship, no family altar, no closet of com- 
 munion — no, no, none of these, for life was 
 business, and business was worldly gain, and 
 here it is ! O God ! What a travesty upon life ! 
 What an awful trifling with the risks and re- 
 sponsibilities of probation ! What shall a man 
 give in exchange for his soul? A brief day's 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 9 
 
 selfish satisfaction of his lust for gold. The 
 English novelist Bulwer observed, "We should 
 never treat money affairs with levity/' Money 
 is character ; character is for the most part de- 
 termined by one's relations to money. Find 
 out how one gets money, how he saves it, how 
 he spends it, how he gives it, how he loans it, 
 how he borrows, and how he bequeaths it, and 
 you will have the character of the man in full 
 outline. Nearly all the virtues play about the 
 use of money — honesty, justice, charity, tem- 
 perance, frugality, generosity, self-denial, and 
 humility. Money, however, is only one of the 
 symbols of the selfish life. Power or fame or 
 fashion, once enthroned as the ruling passion, 
 may be equally suicidal. In George Eliot's 
 Romola we have a hideous portrayal of the 
 self-centered life. There the young Greek 
 Tito appears — a brilliant man of affairs, ener- 
 getic, talented, sensual, gracious in manners 
 and person. His life motto is to get all the 
 pleasure he can and at whatever cost, and to 
 escape all the pain. He receives abundant 
 adulation and achieves conventional success. 
 But he lacks genuineness, there is a prodigious 
 distance between his head and his heart, and 
 we cannot but feel a profound loathing and 
 suspicion. At its very core the life is selfish 
 
10 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 and contemptible. The self-seeker destroys 
 both happiness and high character. In this 
 world there is nothing more beautiful than 
 sacrifice. 
 
 *'■'?'■ "^ 
 
 >- 
 
 With equal truthfulness we may say that in 
 undue self-seeking is found the chief source 
 of man's sin against his fellow man. He is 
 by nature a social animal — alone he cannot 
 accomplish. In the vast social mechanism 
 the power of each part is multiplied by 
 union with its counterpart. In the coopera- 
 tion of moral forces one and one make eleven. 
 He, therefore, who selfishly sunders himself 
 from his fellows in the world's Avork does 
 injustice both to himself and to his brother, 
 seriously diminishing both the individual and 
 the community output. If you and I would 
 have our lives tell for the largest and best re- 
 sults, we must fall into the ranks and stand 
 shoulder to shoulder with those who, in the 
 name of the common Master, are banded to- 
 gether against every form of iniquity. They 
 need us, we need them, and the work needs 
 us all. 
 
 The eighteenth century brought out the idea 
 of the independence of man. That principle 
 came down to us stained with the blood of 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 11 
 
 many a battle. On this side of the water the 
 conflict ended with the birth of a great repub- 
 lic, while on the other side it culminated in 
 the fearful scenes of the French Eevolution. 
 The independence of man — that was the mili- 
 tant idea of the eighteenth century ; but while 
 Jefferson was incorporating this doctrine in 
 the Constitution, Adam Smith, in his Wealth 
 of Nations, was promulgating its counterpart, 
 the interdependence of man. The one prin- 
 ciple is the basis of our political compact, the 
 other lies at the foundation of our mechanical, 
 mercantile, and moral work. Once the indi- 
 vidual was the sole maker of his commodities. 
 That was the savage state. With civilization 
 came division of labor and cooperation, effect- 
 ing economy of force and a larger output. 
 
 It is true that, to a certain extent, the Al- 
 mighty has put a check on man's consuming 
 selfishness. He has made it impossible for 
 anyone to separate himself altogether from his 
 fellow man. No one may take to himself the 
 sole enjoyment of his goods, however much he 
 may desire it. In an important sense all the 
 world belongs to each. Everything is in mo- 
 tion, and all the ends of the earth contribute 
 to our present state. The poor man's meal is 
 gathered from every quarter of the globe. The 
 
12 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 ray of light falling upon his eye and lighting 
 his footsteps has traveled ninety millions of 
 miles on its mission of love to him. The heat 
 of his cottage fire was stored away in the coal 
 beds unknown ages ago. The very mote of 
 dust floating in the sunbeam has existed from 
 the beginning of time. No man is wise enough 
 to write its history. Its wandering no one can 
 tell. So in very truth all things come to all, 
 and the right is indefeasible. Man's selfish- 
 ness cannot abrogate this law of a good Provi- 
 dence. The lark or the bobolink rising toward 
 heaven and filling all the air with music as it 
 ascends may not enjoy the strains so much as 
 the little school children passing by, or that 
 bed-ridden invalid just within yonder closed 
 blinds, and to whom God sends this token of 
 his love. He who with swelling pride builds a 
 costly mansion may yet enjoy it less than the 
 unencumbered child of poverty that passes by 
 with a heart guiltless of offense toward God 
 and man. 
 
 However, it still holds true that one may 
 for a time seize on much more than his share, 
 and sin most grievously against his brother. 
 That is the history of every good thing which 
 God has conferred on the race. Nowhere a 
 tear-stained face, nowhere a divided and deso- 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 13 
 
 late houseiiold, nowhere a heart crushed with 
 a sense of unrequited wrong, nowhere a voice 
 passionate in the presence of iniquity, but the 
 same sad story is told. Self, self had the pow- er, 
 saw its opportunity for gain or indulgence, 
 and went coldly on to the accomplishment of 
 its Satanic purpose. O, the selfish hours, what 
 blistering memories they have! — hours in 
 which selfishness conquered love and con- 
 science, and we planted griefs and lost great 
 opportunity; selfish hours, when the grief 
 which we might have assuaged was allowed to 
 crush the sweetness out of dear lives, and 
 faces which might have shone with the seraphic 
 sunlight of holy confidence were turned away 
 from us in hopeless disgust. 
 
 Then, too, there are hours which fill the 
 heart with sweet memories. We are so glad 
 to have lived them. They are the hours in 
 which by God's grace we forgot self in the 
 cheerful ministries of love to others. Here 
 too the history is the same. Wherever sorrow 
 has been lightened and life uplifted we may 
 trace it all back to that love "which seeketh 
 
 not her own." 
 
 ♦*♦ ♦> <$» 
 
 To-day the sky is full of omens. Destructive 
 literature is broadcast, a literature which is 
 
14 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 all ajar with, the present order of things. It 
 seriously questions whether, as things now go, 
 life is really worth living. In passionate tones 
 it denounces man's consummate selfishness as 
 the root of the evil. This is the secret of that 
 great gTound-swell of muttering discontent 
 which to-day pervades the laboring masses of 
 the civilized world. It is the protest of the 
 many against the few, of the weak against the 
 mighty, and however urgently the few may 
 press the economic question of production, the 
 many discern a much larger issue in the ethical 
 question of distribution. 
 
 Man is the onlv animal that trades. Herein 
 he holds high preeminence. Here too he faces 
 his severest test. Trade may be helpful to 
 both buyer and seller. So man may be both 
 mercantile and moral. The great temptation 
 is to ignore the interest of the other party. 
 Then trade becomes a merciless game of wits, 
 in which wit wins and under wit is driven to 
 the wall. Thus emptied of all humanity, how- 
 ever finely it may be phrased, trade is simple 
 robberv. It would be well if in addition to 
 the pious motto which so often adorns the 
 household, "God bless our home,'' the man of 
 business might also emblazon on the wall of 
 his countinsr-room Lowell's homelv rhvme: 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 15 
 
 In vain we call old notions fudge. 
 And bend our conscience to our dealing; 
 
 The Ten Commandments will not budge, 
 And stealing will continue stealing. 
 
 Too many exploit society as they do the church, 
 chiefly for what they may get out of it. With 
 them society means customers and increased 
 profits. They wish no compact with the weak 
 and the needy, from whom they may expect no 
 gain. It is a sad blunder and a crime. We 
 shall yet learn that life is more than a matter 
 of wages. 
 
 Never before could one so grievously sin 
 against his brother as he who to-day burrows 
 and buries himself in the miserable little rat- 
 hole of a selfish life, for never before did the 
 individual bear such close relation to the en- 
 tire race. He that lives in the twentieth cen- 
 tury inherits and inhabits a world many times 
 larger than the ancients. Our eyes may pene- 
 trate the works of creation, infinite distances 
 beyond the vision of Socrates or Caesar. We 
 may whisper under the ocean, across the con- 
 tinents, and through the wireless heavens into 
 the ears of all men. God has given us our 
 probation in the most wonderful age the sun 
 ever shone upon. By very necessity we are 
 citizens of the world, in touch with every inter- 
 
16 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 est of humanity. The culpability of the self- 
 ish life to-day is limited only by the exceeding 
 wealth of its opportunities. In the larger 
 light, then, we must confess that for happi- 
 ness, for fruitfulness, for character there is 
 but one way and but one word. It is the divine 
 law of life : "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
 with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself/' 
 
II 
 
 EELIGION A:^D the HOME 
 
 To make a happy fireside clime 
 
 To weans and wife; 
 That is the true pathos and sublime 
 
 Of human life. — Burns. 
 
 Type of the wise, who soar but never roam. 
 True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home, 
 
 — Wordsworth. 
 
n 
 
 EELIGION AND THE HOME 
 
 ''^Go home to thy friends'' (Mark 5. 19). 
 So our Lord commanded one whom he had 
 just relieyed of a grievous affliction. Possibly 
 he saw that in the excitement due to the new 
 life the patient needed for a while the quiet 
 of his own household. It would give him also 
 an hour away from the crowds in which to 
 think it all over. On another occasion, when 
 Jesus had been discoursing, John significantly 
 adds, "Every one went to his own house." 
 They had heard great truths and they had 
 looked upon a wonderful personage ; now they 
 would be alone and ponder upon these things. 
 Perhaps also Jesus bade this man go home, 
 knowing that for the time the new disciple 
 could do his best work in the bosom of his own 
 family. Our Lord gave the great commission, 
 "Go ye into all the world," but he also added, 
 "beginning at Jerusalem, your home city." 
 
 <♦ ♦> •♦• 
 
 Every Christian's life, like his charity, will 
 begin at home. Human life has certain great 
 
 19 
 
20 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 fields of duty. Such, for instance, are busi- 
 ness, society, the state, the family, and the 
 church. The proper adjustment of these five 
 great interests so as to secure the largest re- 
 sults in each without the sacrifice of any 
 makes the most successful life. The great 
 danger is that some one may be allowed to 
 outgrow or crowd out some other equally or 
 even more important. Everyone is born into 
 the world with large temporal responsibilities 
 facing him. So it is the duty of everyone to 
 work and in some way enlarge lifers utilities. 
 Trade, for instance, is one of God's great ordi- 
 nances. As soon as man rises above the sav- 
 age state he organizes business. For one to 
 neglect his secular concerns is a sin, which no 
 amount of religious profession can atone for. 
 Yet it is also sadly true that business may so 
 absorb one's time and energies as to drive out 
 all proper thought for one's family. He can- 
 not be counted even a worldly success who, 
 while amassing great riches, has at the same 
 time brought up a neglected, irreligious, and 
 profligate family. Many a man struts the 
 streets far prouder of his blocks and bank 
 stocks than he is of his bovs. Then there is 
 the state, having large claims upon the citizen. 
 Especially is this true in our land, where the 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 21 
 
 government is vested in the people. No intel- 
 ligent Christian man may ignore his civic 
 responsibilities. Great moral reforms fail of 
 accomplishment and communities are cursed 
 with suffering and crime ofttimes because of 
 the sinful unconcern of good people. Yet the 
 claims of the state constitute only a part of 
 personal duty. The excessive prosecution of 
 politics to the neglect of home or church is an 
 egregious folly. Even in the name of religion^ 
 under the impulses of a morbid conscience, 
 one may ignore duties to family, society, and 
 the state. The extreme expression of this 
 error developed in the monastic life. Thus 
 to separate oneself from society and with self- 
 inflicted torture to spend one's life in useless, 
 unnatural solitude is one of the saddest blun- 
 ders because inspired by the deepest religious 
 sincerity. 
 
 ^ ^J^ ^$^ . 
 
 Now, among these cardinal appointments of 
 human life is the liome, an institution most 
 sacred and central. Ordinarily, no field of 
 duty will offer to the Christian man or woman 
 such constant and fruitful opportunities. 
 This is a field, however, which is liable to be 
 seriously neglected. Many infiuences in our 
 day tend to destroy the home. There is ex- 
 
22 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 ty^avagance, which prohibits marriage to the 
 young, and makes the maintenance of a family 
 in respectable style quite burdensome. How- 
 ever healthy it may be for a young man to 
 undergo the discipline of severe self-denial 
 and the struggle with poverty, yet it is by 
 no means agreeable to human nature. Such 
 chastisement for the time is grievous. And 
 when the usages of society call for an expensive 
 outfit and a constant strain to keep up ap- 
 pearances, certain results will surely follow; 
 either a refusal altogether to assume such 
 burdensome relations, or the temptation, w^hen 
 assumed, to live on ill-gotten gain, or what, 
 if possible, is still worse, matrimony is reduced 
 to a matter of barter, and beautiful virtue is 
 put into the market for the highest bidder. 
 Then home ceases to exist while so-called high 
 society becomes a scene of the shambles and 
 slaughter of the innocent. 
 
 Nowadays we have many clubs and much 
 sentimental talk about the artistic decoration 
 of our homes, but I submit in the interest of 
 honesty and the family that we need most of 
 all to get back to the severe simplicity of the 
 fathers. We need more homes where wealth 
 is too small and settled a thing to care about 
 displa^nng itself, and where family respecta- 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 23 
 
 bilitj is too well-established to depend at all 
 upon the cost and pattern of the furniture. 
 Such a home, built on the virtue, intelligence, 
 and quiet gentility of its members, wins our 
 esteem far beyond all the loud manners and 
 garish show of conventional art. Pity that 
 such homes are not found on every street. 
 
 A second influence undermining the home 
 is our feverish rage for amusements. Extrava- 
 gance and amusements are intimately con- 
 nected. Expensive living demands excessive 
 labor and undue nervous strain to support it, 
 and this in turn seeks relief in amusement. 
 
 The Israelites of old enacted a part which 
 has been repeated in every generation since, 
 when, as the record tells us, they first wor- 
 shiped the golden calf, then ate and drank, 
 then "the people rose up to play.'' Of how 
 many a worldly life in our cities is this record 
 a fair epitome! — a slavish worship of the 
 golden calf during the day, then eating and 
 drinking, then off to the playhouse. Of this 
 we may be sure : homes do not flourish around 
 a playhouse. Those who furnish the enter- 
 tainment there, tricked out in the gaudy tin- 
 selry of the stage, are scandalously often the 
 shattered monuments of severed and dishon- 
 ored households, while their utterances are 
 
24 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 not seldom interlarded with slurs against the 
 sacredness of the home and the marriage bond. 
 The multiplication of playhouses forbodes no 
 good to the purity and sovereignty of home. 
 Argue for it as a great public educator, yet 
 it is a stubborn fact that the communities of 
 loosest morals are the ones that give it most 
 abundant support. Hence this advertised 
 teacher of high art has its grandest edifice in 
 Paris, where the word "home'^ is not heard, 
 and where licentiousness parades itself with- 
 out a blush or a reproof under the sanction of 
 public sentiment and the protection of civil 
 law. - 
 
 Still another factor unfavorable to the home 
 is to be found in the mobility of our American 
 people. The amazing increase in facilities for 
 travel unsettles everybody. Opportunity is a 
 great temptation in this as in other things. 
 Publicists tell us that there is no country in 
 Europe in which the proportion of foreign to 
 the native born exceeds three per cent. In the 
 United States, the constituent elements of the 
 population would go far toward the reversal 
 of these figures. We are a nation of ninety 
 million Ishmaelites in perpetual motion. We 
 repeat on a larger scale the roaming life of 
 the North Araerican savage. The tramp is 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 25 
 
 a natural outgrowth of the spirit of the age. 
 It requires but little searching to find the tra- 
 ditional "oldest inhabitant'' in any of our 
 towns. Now, this extreme mobility is not con- 
 ducive to the best interests of home. It sepa- 
 rates the parents and children. It early 
 alienates the homestead, and the graves of the 
 fathers soon pass into stranger hands. True, 
 we transfer property, in high-sounding legal 
 phrase, "to him and his heirs forever.'' Yet 
 the very words are a solemn mockery of the 
 fact. The growing lad seems nowhere so ill 
 at ease as when at home. He chafes for his 
 majority and freedom. The spot where he was 
 born has no family history and no far-reaching 
 ancestral roots and traditions to bind him 
 there. Moreover, with the wonderful increase 
 of traveling facilities, trade has taken on vast 
 dimensions, ramifying the continent and fill- 
 ing the land with a great army of homeless 
 men, mostly young men, men whose home life 
 has been sacrificed to the inexorable greed of 
 business. Pity, and as you pity pray for that 
 one who must spend his life upon the road. 
 
 Yet another influence making fearful in- 
 roads upon the American home is found in the 
 loose notions of marriage and the easy divorce 
 laws of the land. These baleful sentiments 
 
26 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 and practices are also largely attributable to 
 extravagant modes of living. Plain, honest, 
 and intelligent people do not crowd the divorce 
 courts, neither do they furnish salacious scan- 
 dal for newsmongers. Christ's first miracle 
 was performed at a marriage feast. Yet a far 
 greater miracle has the Master wrought in 
 establishing the sacredness of the marriage 
 bond throughout the civilized world. It is in- 
 deed one of the most marvelous revolutions 
 wrought by the gospel of Jesus Christ. No 
 feature of Christianity was more strenuously 
 opposed by the ancient pagan. Even to-day 
 nearly all amendments offered by infidelity to 
 the moral doctrine of Christ favor increasing 
 laxity in these relations. Christianity con- 
 demns alike simultaneous and progressive po- 
 lygamy, whether among the rich or the poor, 
 w^hether law^less or under the sanction of in- 
 iquitous law. 
 
 ^ ')^ '*& 
 
 'JT '*' "-r 
 
 From this brief survey of influences tending 
 to destroy the home, let us turn to consider 
 some that go to build it up. It goes with the 
 saying that if it is to retain the affections of 
 its inmates home must he attractive. This 
 does not mean that it shall be palatial or 
 luxurious. The rich ornaments of art and the 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 27 
 
 numerous gratifications which opulence af- 
 fords, though they may enhance its agreeable- 
 ness, are yet not the essentials of a beautiful 
 home. Indeed, such luxuries may exist in 
 stately mansions which inclose and cover up a 
 very hell on earth. Home, to be attractive, 
 must he a place where harmony reigns, where 
 there is the expression and enjoyment of mu- 
 tual confidence and esteem. A divided house- 
 hold is no home. One can hardly conceive 
 of a more unwholesome atmosphere for early 
 childhood than that in which it is compelled to 
 witness the contentions and criminations of 
 the parents. To a child's faith, father and 
 mother are embodiments of all good, and the 
 suggestion of a suspicion against them is a 
 blow to faith hardly recovered. 
 
 Sympathy none the less than harmony 
 should be found at home. Far too often is the 
 child driven elsewhere by the stately distance 
 which the parent may think needful to proper 
 parental dignity. We do not naturally go for 
 advice to those who are forever and ever find- 
 ing fault with us. It is an irreparable loss to 
 the child when, from fear of ridicule or re- 
 proach, or from a feeling that there is want 
 of sympathy between himself and his parents, 
 he ceases his filial confidences and goes else- 
 
28 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 where for counsel and encouragement. It is 
 the more deplorable, and I may add culpable, 
 since at the beginning nature gives to the par- 
 ents the unreserved confidence of their little 
 ones. The gracious, patient, and tender sym- 
 pathy of a mother has many a time proven the 
 turning point in the salvation of a young soul, 
 where the unapproachable sternness of the 
 father had well-nigh driven it into unwise and 
 evil ways. 
 
 Again, if home is to retain its hold upon the 
 young, it must have sunshine^ it must be a 
 place of laughter and good cheer. Only sickly 
 things grow in the shade. We are exhorted, it 
 is true, to be sober, yet to be sober does not 
 require that one should be sepulchral. We 
 were made to laugh and be happy. That con- 
 demned criminal on the way to the scaffold, 
 with a dark history behind him and a darker 
 destiny before him, may reasonably refuse to 
 laugh, but a child of God, conscious of his 
 sins forgiven, in love and charity with his 
 neighbor, and on the way to heaven, has neither 
 right nor reason to go through the world with 
 a long, cadaverous countenance. If, on the 
 one hand, immoderate levity is sin, none the 
 less is a long-faced gravity, casting gloom over 
 the whole household and quenching all gayety 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 29 
 
 and mirth and laughter. We have read of the 
 dream of a bright little boy. ^^I thought/^ said 
 he, ^^we children were all in heaven and so 
 happy. By and by father came in frowning, 
 and said, as he always does, ^Can't you chil- 
 dren stop your noise?' So we were all afraid 
 and ran away.'' The children — ah! they will 
 come all too soon into the region of tears and 
 clouds. Let them therefore have laughter and 
 sunshine as long as they may, without the 
 shadow of a frown from those who are older. 
 Man of business, filled and burdened with 
 many Vv^orldly cares and perplexities, if there 
 is but one hour of the day that you can be 
 cheerful and sunshiny, let that hour be the 
 one at home, in the midst of your family. 
 
 Yet while harmony and sympathy and sim- 
 shine go to make home attractive, there must 
 be a far deeper, richer current of influence than 
 either of these. Home, above all else, must be 
 the nursery of holy character. This is its chief 
 function. Was it not for this very purpose 
 that the Almighty so made man that he must 
 remain longer dependent upon his parents 
 than do the offspring of the lower animals? 
 One cannot but notice the intimate relation 
 between the family and religion everywhere 
 asserted in the Bible. During the patriarchal 
 
30 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 age the father was also priest to his house- 
 hold. Christ inaugurated the new dispensa- 
 tion as a purely home religion. The first sem- 
 blance of a Christian Church seems to have 
 been organized by our Lord in a rude little 
 cottage on the banks of the Jordan. And for 
 nearly three hundred years we have no record 
 of its possessing any public church building. 
 The founders of this, the greatest nation in 
 the world's history, were as distinguished for 
 their family religion as they were courageous 
 in the defense of freedom. Our Puritan for- 
 bears were not perfect, and it is a very easy 
 matter to fling at them for the exceeding rigor 
 of their religious views, yet we can hardly 
 hope that our modern liberal notions will de- 
 velop a generation of grander men and women, 
 of more uncompromising integrity, and more 
 self-denying in the interests of righteousness. 
 Perhaps in nothing does this generation more 
 widely differ from theirs than in this matter 
 of home religion. That was a sad revelation 
 elicited by the correspondence of a prominent 
 college president in New England. Wishing 
 to acquaint himself with the demand for daily 
 prayers at college, some years ago, he sent a 
 circular letter to the parents and guardians 
 of eight hundred and twenty-eight undergradu- 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 31 
 
 ate students then in the college. In these com- 
 munications he asked if family prayers were 
 customary in their households. He received 
 seven hundred and forty-one replies, of these 
 two hundred and eleven responded "Yes/' 
 while five hundred and thirty answered "No'' 
 — revealing the fact that five out of every 
 seven families there represented were without 
 a family altar. 
 
 The church will never reach its highest pros- 
 perity until household religion prevails. We 
 may concede much to the Sunday school as a 
 means of grace to the young, yet, after all, 
 the perennial fountain of pure religion is to 
 be found in the Christian home where the ark 
 of the Lord rests. It would be difficult to 
 name any other factor so powerful for good 
 over the young mind. Every person bears 
 about with him in his face, his tones, his talk, 
 his dress, his manners so many indelible marks 
 of his early surroundings. No matter if he 
 has reached advanced life and has passed 
 through all sorts of rough experiences, there 
 still abide the ineffaceable impressions 
 stamped upon the nature in those early, far- 
 off years, when every influence sank deep into 
 the soul below the on-rushing tides of after 
 life. In view of this tenacity of home influ- 
 
32 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 ences, how sad the effects of a bad home! 
 How they cling to and warp the character! 
 And what a pernicious harvest springs from 
 such a soil! When Goethe first saw Thor- 
 waldsen's statue of Christ and his apostles he 
 expressed his sorrow that he had not looked 
 upon those serene and spiritual faces in earlier 
 life; he would, he was sure, have been a better 
 man. It is the duty of every parent so to live 
 as to place before the little ones of the house- 
 hold at least some humble likeness of the 
 Master. For if the baneful influences are so 
 lasting, none the less hallowed are the mem- 
 ories of a good home. "It is never far to 
 heaven from a good home.'' There one is al- 
 ready in the vestibule. To-day it may be we 
 have in mind vivid pictures of the old home- 
 stead — the books we read, the games we 
 played, and the little stockings we hung up 
 to be filled with goodies and all sorts of gim- 
 cracks at Christmas time. Then there are the 
 more serious scenes — the family altar and the 
 father's reverent tone as he read morning and 
 evening from the old family Bible and bowed 
 in prayer at the throne of grace. There too 
 were the mother's womanly loyalty and tender- 
 ness to us children in all our little troubles. 
 They have long since gone to a better home, 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 33 
 
 yet the memory of them and the sweet, simple 
 home life of those halcyon days is to us in- 
 expressibly dear. The religious instruction 
 there given, the pious example of godly par- 
 ents, the family altar and the family Bible, all, 
 all stand athwart the way as so many angels 
 from heaven to arrest the feet in the down- 
 ward way to ruin and help the tempted soul 
 to live upright. The seed thus soWn may be 
 buried long, the parents pass away to their 
 rest, the old house sink into decay, the rub- 
 bish of many busy, sinful years may shut out 
 the sunshine of God's grace, yet, friends, let 
 us never despair of one who in early life has 
 been nurtured in such an earthly paradise — 
 while in our own families we strive so to live 
 that the Saviour shall make our homes, as 
 he did that of the sisters of Bethany, the 
 chosen place of his own abode. 
 
 May I, in the words of the Master's benedic- 
 tion and command, bid you "go home to thy 
 friends"? 
 
Ill 
 
 THE ABIDING LIFE 
 
 Abide with me from morn till eve. 
 For without thee I cannot live; 
 Abide with me when night is nigh. 
 For without thee I dare not die. 
 
 — Kehle. 
 
 Brethren, let every man wherein he is called, therein 
 abide with God. — Paul. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE ABIDING LIFE 
 
 Paul assures us of the fact of a divine 
 call — "Let every man wherein he is called, 
 . . . abide/' Indeed, it would be strange 
 if the Almighty, who has revealed design in 
 the least of his creations, should have no plan 
 for man "made in his own image.'' It is al- 
 together reasonable to believe, as writes the 
 poet Lowell, "No man is born into the world 
 whose work is not born with him; there is 
 always work and tools to work withal for those 
 who will." The great blunder is that men at- 
 tempt to do life's work regardless of God's 
 plan for them. All other creatures seem to 
 serve their intended uses; man alone is the 
 great lawbreaker, forever getting out of his 
 place and, in his self-sufficiency, producing 
 discord. He would fain improve upon the Al- 
 mighty's plan of things. In various ways each 
 reenacts the folly of the French atheistic phi- 
 losopher, who with much assurance wrought 
 out an improved plan of the solar system, 
 whereby, as he claimed, man might have full 
 
 37 
 
38 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 moonlight all the year round. Hardly had the 
 scheme been published when the eminent 
 astronomer LaPlace demonstrated that the 
 plan proposed, if it could be tried, would re- 
 quire but three seconds to bring the entire 
 system to destruction. So to-day every path- 
 way of life is strewn with the wrecks of self- 
 sufficient souls — souls out of order, wandering 
 as crazed things out into the dark and pathless 
 places, making life a hard and inharmonious 
 failure. We may be sure if our lives shall 
 prove partial or total failures, it will be be- 
 cause we have sinfully forgotten or ignored 
 the mission which Infinite Wisdom has mapped 
 out for us. The confusion that sin thus works 
 in the world has been aptly represented by a 
 table perforated with square and round holes, 
 upon which are cast at random a number of 
 cubes and spheres which, if properly dis- 
 tributed, would fit into and fill all the open- 
 ings. But by the freaks and whims of selfish 
 nature, the round man rolls into the square 
 space and the square man falls into the round, 
 thus leaving angles which with the utmost 
 effort they can never fill. Now, we might 
 imagine each of these pieces capable of mag- 
 netic attraction, and their Maker by an un- 
 seen magnet drawing each to its own place. 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 39 
 
 In this we should have an illustration of God^s 
 providence over us, helping each bj the draw- 
 ing of his Spirit into his right place and work 
 in the world. The success of every human 
 life will in the end be measured by the degree 
 of its conformity to God's plan for it. The 
 grandest characters of history have been those 
 who were consciously surrendered to God's 
 purpose. Moses, Elijah, Paul, Luther, Calvin, 
 Wesley, were called and clearly set apart with 
 a conscious undergirding of the Almighty, 
 achieving their sublime lifework. In the life 
 of our Lord there was no drifting nor waste. 
 From first to last he could say: "To this end 
 was I born, and for this purpose came I into 
 the world.'' "I and my Father are one." 
 
 ^ ^ ^ 
 
 Observe there is yet another Pauline as- 
 sumption even more remarkable. He assumes 
 not only a call but a call to every one, "Let 
 every one wherein he is called, . . . abide." 
 In other ages so much stress was laid upon 
 the special call of the ministry that the church 
 almost lost sight of the divine call of each of 
 its members, the laity, the least and the hum- 
 blest, as well as the clergy. We have come to 
 see that Providence never intended that the 
 
40 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 work of evangelizing the world should be ex- 
 clusively committed to a religious caste called 
 the priesthood. In the larger light every true 
 life is a divine ministry among men. It is 
 only as our secular concerns promote the 
 moral and religious interests of humanity that 
 they become worthy of us as rational and im- 
 mortal beings. The words of the eloquent 
 Starr King are true: "A genuine Christian 
 must be either a missionary or a maniac." 
 That is, anyone in his right mind, brought un- 
 der the empire of these redeeming truths, must 
 feel himself sent of God, referring every de- 
 sire and every deed to the promotion of his 
 kingdom. Herein man most grievously errs. 
 He involves himself in a multitude of material 
 interests, studying mainly the question of dol- 
 lar-and-cent investments and returns, and he 
 calls this business. Machinelike he toilsomely 
 turns out his work from year to year, till by 
 and by the machine breaks down and he is 
 borne away to burial. Such work is worthy 
 of a machine; the more the better. But work 
 whose only purpose is confined to self or to 
 financial returns or to social and intellectual 
 improvement solely — ^such work, whatever it 
 is, is yet unworthy of us. Each day we are 
 called of God, and our day's work will be what 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 41 
 
 it ought to be only when it is inspired by a 
 definite religious purpose. Like the great 
 Paul, turning away from his former selfish 
 theory of life, we too must come to the ques- 
 tion, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?'' 
 Then, with the divine commission, like the sol- 
 diers of the Grecian phalanx, every step, every 
 energy must move toward that one supreme 
 objective, the soul under the quickening of a 
 divine inspiration saying to itself, "This, this 
 one thing I do.'' 
 
 In interpreting God's call much prayer and 
 many considerations will help to form our de- 
 cision. Among these one will seriously ask : 
 "What work does the world most need? To 
 what work am I as an individual best adapted? 
 What are the providential openings for me?" 
 
 ^ 4» ^ 
 
 Once in our calling Paul exhorts, ^^Therein 
 abide loith GodJ' The highest Christian life 
 is never incompatible with one's proper work. 
 It may be more difficult in certain call- 
 ings than in others, just as some dis- 
 positions seem naturally more inclined to 
 virtue than others, yet it still remains true 
 that a most blessed religious experience is 
 possible in the prosecution of any work that 
 
42 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 God calls us to. We may "walk with God'' 
 to-day as truly as did Noah and Abraham and 
 Enoch of old. It is a well-known fact that 
 the mind may entertain several chains of 
 thought and feeling at practically the same 
 time. Thus the speaker may be constructing 
 his argument and selecting words appropriate 
 for its expression, while at the same time sen- 
 sitively aware of the presence and attitude of 
 his audience. We sit in our homes reading the 
 news of the world while pleasantly conscious 
 of the presence of those we love. In this double 
 sense, then, we may abide with God in our 
 work. In the first place, we may be conscious 
 of our oneness with Christ in the controlling 
 purpose of each day's life, and, secondly, we 
 may be habitually mindful of his presence. 
 Only then does religion attain its richest mean- 
 ing, not only as a life for God, but also a life 
 toith God. It is that blessed life "hid with 
 Christ in God." The ninth verse of the second 
 chapter of First Corinthians is sometimes 
 quoted as a description of the joys of the future 
 world. Yet it was not so intended by the 
 apostle. He tells us that "Eye hath not seen, 
 nor ear heard, neither have entered into the 
 heart of man, the things which God hath pre- 
 pared for them that love him." But he at 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 43 
 
 once adds, "God hath revealed them unto us." 
 Though utterly unknown to the natural man, 
 to the regenerate heart they are a beautiful 
 possession even here. Paul meant it to be a 
 description of that heaven which may exist 
 here on earth in the disciple's heart. And ob- 
 serve, when Paul wrote these words telling of 
 a heaven in his soul of which the world had not 
 the remotest conception, he himself was one 
 of the busiest men on earth, "in labors more 
 abundant." In the darkest hour also the child 
 of God may walk hand-in-hand with the Father 
 without a fear. He may sing songs in the 
 night. So did the persecuted saints of old 
 "endure as seeing him who is invisible." Read 
 the context of this passage and you will learn 
 that some to w^hom this exhortation was ad- 
 dressed were common slaves — in chains, yet 
 assured that they might abide with God day 
 by day. That was a wonderful enlargement 
 of the religious idea to this laboring, weary 
 world. Moreover, the text clearly condemns 
 that false conception of religion appearing in 
 the ascetic practices of the hermit life. From 
 the days of Saint Anthony, who in the fourth 
 century of our era introduced monasticism 
 into Europe, multitudes of deluded men and 
 women have banished themselves from society 
 
44 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 to dwell alone in the deserts and caves of the 
 earth, or have buried themselves in cheerless 
 convent cloisters, thinking in this way to 
 escape sin and come into more intimate com- 
 munion with God. They seem to have forgot- 
 ten that the sinless Christ was a man of the 
 cities and of unceasing activity in the society 
 of men. They forget that divinely affectionate 
 prayer, "And now I am no more in the world, 
 but these are in the world." "I pray not that 
 thou shouldest take them out of the world, but 
 that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." 
 The Christian character is to be wrought cut 
 in the world, the busy, coarse, profane, com- 
 monplace world, with its cares and its rival- 
 ries, its drudgeries, its struggles, and its losses. 
 No man becomes a soldier by simply studying 
 books on military tactics. He must have ac- 
 tual service in the field drilling him into habits 
 of coolness and courage and rapid combina- 
 tion, without which all theories of strategy 
 must fail. 
 
 In the solitude of his cell one mav become a 
 learned theologian, and even an ideal hero in 
 holiness, yet, after all, such a life is likely to 
 prove quite fruitless and wanting in manly 
 vigor. The crowning evidence of the gospel 
 is that it can bear the brunt of life's battles 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 45 
 
 and can save man from sin in the world. Not 
 only is it possible, but the Master will teach 
 us that these very activities, however humble, 
 are the ordained means of the soul's strength- 
 ening. There is spiritual significance in the 
 humdrum and drudgery of our toil. Charac- 
 ter comes through commonplace, so the hum- 
 blest tasks may be the very "kingdom of heaven 
 at hand." But men are weakly inclined to look 
 upon labor as a daily vexation and a curse. 
 Year after year they toil on under protest, 
 while not a tool nor a task, not a stroke nor a 
 sale, not a calculation, not a care nor a cross 
 but was intended in God's great plan to nur- 
 ture in us Christly graces, patience and hu- 
 mility and calmness and charity and prayer- 
 fulness. 
 
 '^ ^ ^ 
 
 Especially, let us observe, it is this sort of 
 religion which abides strong and clean in every 
 calling that wins the world. Christianity 
 must not only condemn sin in the abstract, 
 it must banish it from practice, however finely 
 it may dress, however politely speak, however 
 protected by law, however society condones, 
 and under whatever name it is disguised. The 
 supreme proof of religion is personal right- 
 eousness. Faith and prayer, creeds and 
 
46 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 churches — they are all good, they are all 
 needed, but they are all "as sounding brass, 
 and tinkling cymbals" without the practical 
 virtues, honesty, purity, and charity in every- 
 day life. "He that saith he abideth in him 
 ought also so to walk, even as he walked.'' 
 Theoretical Christianity has met the searching 
 criticism of the schools and stands entire. 
 False interpretations of the Word have been 
 discovered and discarded, but divine truth 
 abides. To-day the gospel is called upon to 
 vindicate its practical value and vitality. Can 
 it conquer the depravity of the human heart 
 and lead men in the love of Christ to a new 
 life? This was the hammer of power in the 
 early church. The historian Lecky writes: 
 "One great cause of the success of Christianity 
 was that it produced more upright men than 
 any other creed. Noble lives crowned by heroic 
 deaths were the best arguments of the infant 
 church." To-day the world needs not instruc- 
 tion so much as example. It is recorded that 
 in the French Eevolution a certain marshal 
 dispatched word to headquarters, "Send me 
 at once three hundred men that know how to 
 die." To-day the world calls loudly upon the 
 church for men, men who know how to live. 
 This is the mission of the church, from age 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 47 
 
 to age to re-present the life of Christ, wrought 
 in his followers by the Divine Spirit. We are 
 to be living epistles, the truth of God, not 
 written on paper nor embalmed in the creed, 
 but on human hearts, beaming from human 
 eyes, bursting from human lips, and preached 
 from every hour from a regenerate character 
 and godly life. Infidelity, however loud or 
 learned, always quails when men are turned 
 from sin to righteousness, and in the love of 
 Christ lead blameless, useful lives. 
 
 ^ ^ ^J» , 
 
 In conclusion, dwell with me for a little 
 on the beautiful gospel contained for us in 
 this word ^^ahide" The term is a great favor- 
 ite with the beloved disciple John, occurring 
 much oftener in his Gospel than in the others. 
 If, on the one hand, it is our duty to abide 
 with God, it is also gracious truth that God 
 will abide with us. The strongest promise 
 contained in the Bible gives us this assurance. 
 In our version it reads, "I will never leave thee 
 nor forsake thee." In the original it has five 
 negatives, and the learned commentator Dod- 
 dridge translates it, "I will never, never leave 
 thee; I will not, I will not, I will not forsake 
 thee." 
 
48 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 In a world of perpetual change and decay, 
 how does this human heart yearn for some- 
 thing abiding. The life which the gospel offers 
 is eternal, not a transient phase of faith nor 
 an intermittent feeling. The soul that can 
 look into the face of Christ and sav, "All mv 
 springs are in thee,'' is lifted above the worri- 
 some contingencies of mere earthly fortune. 
 Our years glide quickly by, our friends pass 
 away, and soon we have more cherished ones 
 among the dead than among the living. Of 
 all that started out with us in childhood but 
 few remain with us at middle life. Then, too, 
 our possessions take wings and fly away. 
 More and more the world recedes from us ; but, 
 blessed truth! among all these changes there 
 is One that abideth, Christ formed within, the 
 hope of glory, "the same yesterday, and to- 
 day, and forever.'' 
 
 Moreover, while many things pass away 
 from us, we also outgrow many things; even 
 if the outward objects remain, yet we no longer 
 relish them. Our senses grow dull, our tastes 
 change, our ambitions wane, our young loves 
 grow cold ; the outward things remain, but we 
 are changed; the years draw nigh when the 
 grasshopper is a burden and we have no pleas- 
 ure in them. With unuttered sadness we turn 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 49 
 
 awaj from them all, deeply conscious that the 
 flood of years has rolled between and we have 
 no heart for them now. 
 
 Some time ago I visited the old homestead 
 where I was born. I went out on the hillside 
 where in the sunny days of winter time with 
 such a bounding joy I used to coast. Then I 
 sought and stood by the brook running hard by, 
 where many and many an hour we children 
 sailed our little chip boats together. Alone I 
 wandered among the old scenes, once my 
 earthly paradise. But I was disappointed, and 
 with a sense of heaviness that might easily have 
 brought tears to my eyes I turned away from it 
 all. The old house now seemed not at all invit- 
 ing. The familiar lane, along which my little 
 feet first traveled out into the world, seemed 
 much shorter and narrower than it did then. 
 Then, too, the old homestead had fallen into 
 stranger hands, and I was there by mere suffer- 
 ance. And that mother, who in those early days 
 had so tenderly soothed all our little troubles 
 and ministered to our childish delights, she too 
 had gone to a better home. These scenes had 
 no longer a lively interest for me. I found that 
 with the years I too had grown away from them, 
 making the sense of distance between this day 
 and those innocent days of the childhood home 
 
50 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 extremely painful. And so we grow away 
 from the past. But be assured there is one 
 thing that abideth. Neither does it decay nor 
 do we outgrow it. 
 
 Soon in the course of nature we shall go 
 hence to enter upon another stage of being, 
 yet this shall abide with us. There we shall 
 live not merely seventy years nor seven thou- 
 sand years. In that far-off maturity of the 
 ages, how small, think you, will appear these 
 earthly toys and trifles? Then we shall re- 
 member that away back there on the earth, in 
 an hour of contrition and holy resolution, with 
 much ignorance yet with intense desire, we 
 bowed at the foot of the cross. From that hour 
 to this, that surrender and espousal have grown 
 in importance. That hour was the supreme 
 crisis of our earthly life; all the issues of the 
 after years have hinged upon it. It is the one 
 great act by the grace of God for which every 
 day we must feel devoutly grateful. I doubt 
 not when from some height of the heavenly 
 world we look back upon this, we shall join the 
 hallelujahs of the sainted hosts in thanksgiv- 
 ing that we were ever led to drink at this 
 fountain which is as "a well of water spring- 
 ing up into everlasting life.'^ 
 
IV 
 OUR DIVINE TOUCHSTONE 
 
 Subtlest thought shall fail, and learning falter, 
 
 Churches change, systems go, 
 But our human needs, they will not alter, 
 
 Christ no after age shall e'er outgrow. 
 
 Yea, Amen! O changeless One, thou only 
 
 Art life's guide and spiritual goal. 
 Thou the Light across the dark vale lonely — 
 
 Thou the eternal haven of the soul. 
 
 — John Campbell Shairp. 
 
IV 
 
 OUE DIVINE TOUCHSTONE 
 
 That was a beautiful scene in tlie temple 
 when the aged Simeon, taking the infant Jesus 
 into his arms, declared, "This child is set for 
 the fall and rising again of many in Israel." 
 Then and there it was declared that Jesus 
 should be a sort of divine test of values among 
 men. The prediction so simply stated has 
 stood here in the Book now for nearly nineteen 
 centuries. Has history proven it true or 
 false? Has the Man of Nazareth proven to 
 be such a standard, measuring the stability and 
 value of man and his works? Let us prosecute 
 that question for a little. 
 
 '^ ^ ^$^ 
 
 Among all the products of human genius 
 that political construct called the state is 
 doubtless the greatest. Has Christ proven 
 the test of national strength and permanence? 
 In the long roll of the centuries many nations 
 have come and gone. Which have endured 
 and prospered, those acknowledging Christ, or 
 
 53 
 
54 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 those which have not known him? Simply 
 to ask the question is to answer it. When our 
 Lord walked among men he seemed sublimely 
 indifferent to imperial courts and armies. He 
 commissioned no adroit diplomatists to ma- 
 nipulate the world's state cabinets. He never 
 once sought audience with prince or potentate. 
 He was no rabid and revolutionary reformer. 
 The summary of his daily life was recorded 
 in five words: ^^He went about doing good.'' 
 He projected no political reforms, never pro- 
 posed a civil law, and, indeed, seemed quite 
 oblivious to the existence of the great Caesars, 
 save only when called upon to pay the cus- 
 tomary tribute money. And to this singular 
 silence on his part we may add also another 
 significant fact, the fact that he himself be- 
 longed to a people who had no government of 
 their own and might be regarded as a political 
 cipher among the nations. Yet in the face of 
 the fact that our Lord sought no personal pre- 
 ferment or participation in the government, 
 and the abject impotence of his people in these 
 matters, it is still true beyond all contradic- 
 tion that Jesus Christ has proven the deter- 
 mining factor in the strength and perpetuity 
 of the nations. When these words were ut- 
 tered over the infant Jesus mighty political 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 55 
 
 compacts existed, built on other foundations. 
 How have they all melted away like the mas- 
 sive mist banks of the night before the rising 
 sun, giving place one after another to nations 
 built on the solid foundations of Christian 
 principles! As we glance over the history, 
 three distinct ideals appear from time to time 
 to have determined the social and civil move- 
 ments of the race. These three ideals we may 
 term the aesthetic, the economic, and the ethi- 
 cal. In varying proportions each of this tri- 
 archy has proven a dominating factor in the 
 
 world's life. 
 
 ^^ ^ ^ 
 
 The sesthetic stood for the beautiful. It was 
 the ideal of ancient Greece, the supreme con- 
 ception which gave birth to great art and 
 artists, reared the Parthenon, wrote the 
 world's great poem, and inspired the world's 
 loftiest oratory. It sought the culture of taste. 
 It coexisted, however, as did high art in the 
 Middle Ages, with widespread moral corrup- 
 tion. It was satisfied with the worship of the 
 beautiful and a religion of ritual forms. De 
 Quincey rightly afl&rmed that the religions of 
 ancient Greece and Rome had no more to do 
 with morals than with trigonometry and ship- 
 building. The pagan priest had chiefly two 
 
56 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 functions to perform, namely, to supervise the 
 sacrifices and interpret omens. He was not a 
 
 moral teacher. 
 
 <♦ ^$* ^$* 
 
 The economic ideal stands for temporal 
 values, for power, for wealth, for every form 
 of worldly aggrandizement. This ideal was 
 essentially accentuated in the Roman empire. 
 It wrought its purpose by military conquest. 
 In the modern world the economic idea has 
 been realized in wonderful discoveries and in- 
 v^entions. To-day it stands for mercantilism 
 
 and machinery. 
 
 *t* ^ "^ 
 
 Christ came into the world to live and die 
 for the ethical as the supreme ideal, both for 
 individuals and nations. No culture, however 
 beautiful, no military power whatever its sway, 
 no materia] wealth, according to the Great 
 Teacher, could prove so firm a foundation for 
 the nation as would simple righteousness. It 
 was the gospel of the Old Testament reen- 
 f orced : ^^t is not by might, nor by power, but 
 by my Spirit." "Righteousness exalteth a 
 nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." 
 That has been a hard lesson for the nations to 
 learn, yet the ages have taught none more 
 clearly. This hour we may safely say in just 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 57 
 
 so far as the nations have incorporated the 
 Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the 
 Mount into their life, in so far have they risen 
 to power, while those that have built on other 
 foundations have either fallen into decrepitude 
 or have entirely disappeared. When these 
 words were spoken, there was the mighty Ko- 
 man empire with a hundred and twenty mil- 
 lions of people. Before the march of its 
 conquering legions fifteen countries of Asia, 
 seven of Africa, and fourteen of Europe had 
 fallen. The richest productions of art were 
 brought from the ends of the earth to adorn 
 its capital. All roads led to Rome. Its Forum 
 resounded with eloquence never surpassed. 
 The rites and myths of paganism were in- 
 trenched in all the current thought and en- 
 forced by the hoary traditions of ages ; military 
 power, law, literature all combined to estab- 
 lish Rome, the mighty and magnificent, on the 
 throne of the world. Into such an arena came 
 the humble herald of the cross, proclaiming 
 simple righteousness better than art, surer 
 than diplomacy, mightier than military power. 
 To the worldly-wise it was all foolishness. 
 But while the self-sufficient Csesars sat robed 
 in royal purple on the throne, there underneath 
 the seven-hilled city in the underground cata- 
 
58 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 combs were tlie Lord's despised people, destined 
 to inherit the earth long after the palaces of 
 the Caesars had crumbled into undistinguished 
 dust. 
 
 Then, too, there were the Jews, God's elect 
 people, with no political power, it is true, yet 
 gifted, even as infidelity is forced to confess, 
 with loftier moral and religious genius than 
 any other people. They too rejected this Child. 
 Coming to his own, his own received him not. 
 When a Roman judge demanded of them, 
 "What will ye do with Jesus?" in the heart of 
 frenzied malignity, they cried out, "Crucify 
 him, crucify him !" and in the fanatical zeal of 
 their rejection they lifted a prayer — "His blood 
 be upon us and our children," Morally endowed 
 beyond all others, of remarkably strenuous 
 character, of unflagging industry, of peculiar 
 commercial shrewdness, and inferior to none 
 in intellectual acumen, yet, having rejected 
 the Christ, they have come down through the 
 centuries a shattered and wretched race, upon 
 whom seems to have fallen in awful reality the 
 curse which they so blasphemously invoked. 
 Driven from land to land, robbed of property 
 and political rights, corralled and huddled to- 
 gether in the vilest purlieus of the cities, a by- 
 word in society and fearfully persecuted, even 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 59 
 
 for their religious fidelity, one cannot but feel 
 in contemplating their history that the Jewish 
 people are a living commentary on the aged 
 Simeon's words, "This child is set for the 
 fall ... of many in Israel." 
 
 *> *> 
 
 The truth thus stated has, moreover, just as 
 conspicuous illustration in the nations of to- 
 day as in those of the past. This hour every- 
 where Christ exalts, while without Christ there 
 is comparative weakness and decay. It should 
 be no mystery to us that to-day thirty thou- 
 sand Englishmen in India rule two hundred 
 million heathen. The mighty populations of 
 Asia and Africa do not with their merchant 
 ships sail all seas and command the commerce 
 of the world. They have vast territory and 
 unbounded natural resources, with multitudi- 
 nous populations, yet they do not control the 
 world's markets. The reason for this impo- 
 tence is in its last analysis a theological reason. 
 Without Christ they are without power. Pros- 
 trate and poor, they confirm the truth of our 
 Lord's warning words, "Without me ye can 
 do nothing." It has been justly said: "China 
 is the best block of land on this earth, one 
 third larger than the United States, with twice 
 
60 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 the productive power of any other country, 
 and with the great natural highway, the Yang- 
 Tse, even two hundred miles from its mouth, 
 still five miles wide and forty feet deep. There 
 is, apparently, no other reason why this garden 
 spot of the world should not have controlled 
 its commerce'' and stood at the summit of all 
 powers save this one: her people have been 
 without the uplifting influence of Christ. 
 
 ■►> ♦> 
 
 Let us not be misunderstood. Christianity 
 does not depreciate the value of aesthetic cul- 
 ture and the great economic forces. The gospel 
 is not a foe to art. He who paints the heavens 
 with such gorgeous colorings, he who could see 
 in the lily crushed beneath the feet of the un- 
 thinking multitude a beauty greater than the 
 adornments of an Eastern monarch, he surely 
 does not condemn in us the love and culture 
 of the beautiful. Neither does Christianity 
 ignore the worth of the world's vast economic 
 industries. Machinery, mercantilism, and 
 militarism are three factors of stupendous 
 power in the development of civilization and 
 the spread of the gospel. The gospel simply 
 declares that all these in order to be perma- 
 nently valuable must be permeated and sane- 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 61 
 
 tified by the Spirit of Christ. The nation that 
 seeks the aesthetic and the economic to the 
 neglect or subordination of the ethical is 
 doomed to decay. This universal system of 
 things is built on righteousness and for right- 
 eousness. No lesson of the past has been more 
 
 clearly enforced. 
 
 ♦♦♦ ♦** <* 
 
 Again, how true it is that Christ has been 
 the touchstone, the test of the world's religious 
 thought, set for the fall of many, that "the 
 thoughts of many might be revealed" at their 
 true value or valuelessness ! The world has 
 always been full of religions. So indestruc- 
 tible is the religious sentiment in man that 
 explorers have as yet failed to find a tribe 
 so brutalized as to be without some trace of 
 it. Into a world seething with religions Christ 
 came. Silently and steadily as the movement 
 of the suu to the meridian he. has gone forth 
 conquering and to conquer. Other religions 
 have not lacked for all the great human ele- 
 ments of success. Religious prejudice, the 
 superstition of ignorance, the heart's blindness 
 to its own sin, selfish interests, the adornments 
 of art, the intrenchments of custom and law, 
 the subservience of literature, the superior 
 impressiveness of the sensuous over the spirit- 
 
62 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 ual, all the constituent human factors going 
 to determine his religious life, yet with them 
 all and without the Christ how steadily and 
 how surely one after another of the many man- 
 made religions have dropped out of existence, 
 surviving only as the memory of a dream whose 
 fantastic imagery is recalled and studied as 
 a phenomenon of mind in troubled sleep! 
 
 Whatever in them conforms to the truth of 
 the gospel abides, while the vast remnant of 
 their content is cast aside as worthless drift- 
 wood in the current of the world's distempered 
 
 fancies. 
 
 ^ 1^ ^ 
 
 Next to its sublime conception of God, the 
 religion of Jesus Christ differs from other re- 
 ligions in its lofty valuation of man. In all 
 ages the question has arisen, "What is man?'' 
 Five words sum up the world's answers : Man's 
 measures have been brawn, blood, brain, bank 
 account, and character. In the age of brawn 
 Hercules with his club stands foremost. In 
 the age of blood some Pharaoh in royal purple, 
 tyrant by descent and divine right. In the 
 age of brain the philosopher, thinking to reach 
 life by logic, building his hopes on science and 
 the syllogism. In the age of bank account 
 some modern Croesus, sordid and sensual. In 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 63 
 
 the age of character, the world reverently turns 
 back across the centuries to the lowly Naz- 
 arene, the divine incarnation of truth and love, 
 crying, "Behold the man V^ Christ discovered 
 man to himself, and in the light of that revela- 
 tion the world's table of weights and measures 
 has been marvelously changed. To him man 
 was the supreme value. "What shall it profit a 
 man if he gain the whole world and lose him- 
 self?'' Even those who deny the Deity of Christ 
 yet confess him the noblest example and in- 
 spiration of self-sacrifice for the good of hu- 
 manity. The whole world put a market price 
 on man and sold him in the shambles. Even 
 to-day such mean valuation holds where the 
 gospel of Christ is not known. With painful 
 slowness, yet surely, under its influence, the 
 world has raised its estimate, first of man, later 
 of woman, and lastly of the child. To-day the 
 Master's appraisement of man is the founda- 
 tion of the world's great charities. The nearer 
 one approaches to Christ's view and valuation 
 of man, the nearer will such a one come to the 
 agony of the garden for his brother's redemp- 
 tion. Infidelity may call it the growing altru- 
 istic spirit of the age ; we prefer to call it more 
 of Christ in the world. In the love of man for 
 man, the world to-day takes its law and its 
 
64 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 example from the Man of Nazareth. We are 
 sure no such humanitarianism exists where he 
 is not known, and we may also assert that 
 only where he is adored as Emmanuel, ^'God 
 with us/' there such humanitarian effort at- 
 tains its grandest proportions, girdling the 
 earth with its missions for his salvation. 
 Truly, Christ has also been "a light to lighten 
 the Gentiles.'' 
 
 ♦> >> 
 
 While we recognize Christ as the test of 
 national strength, and of the world's religious 
 thought, it is of no less vital importance that 
 we recognize him as the test of each mmi's 
 value. "Thou shalt come again to be our 
 judge," so says the creed. This book tells us 
 that judgment is already set. It is all true. 
 Christ is in the world this hour, our Judge. 
 We each stand or fall by him. In him, by very 
 contrast, humanity recognizes its fallen con- 
 dition, and is brought to the penitence of moral 
 shame. In him also by example and precept 
 it has light and hope. So in Jesus humanity 
 sees both its ruin and its possible redemption. 
 The vision of Christ has filled the heart of man 
 with a noble discontent, and inspired the world 
 with an imperishable hope. Sometimes men 
 sit down to calculate what they are worth. 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 65 
 
 Then they take out their worldlj^ scales, count 
 their stocks and their bonds, their fame, their 
 social position, their power. Yes, that is 
 worldly wisdom. The great Paul tells us of 
 another way. He exhorts each "to think of 
 himself soberly, according as God has given to 
 each man the measure of faith''; that is, each 
 is to measure himself by the truth of Christ 
 which has been incorporated in his own char- 
 acter. Paul himself adopted this standard, 
 and to-day the great apostle towers above the 
 Croesuses and the Caesars of his day like the 
 mighty Alps above the common level. Ages 
 ago there were twelve who followed Jesus 
 along the dusty highways of Galilee whither- 
 soever he went. There were many called great 
 in that day, of great affluence and position and 
 power. But to-day it would be difficult for 
 you to name twelve men of that or any other 
 age so well known and so reverently remem- 
 bered as those twelve who walked with Jesus. 
 False and delusive all our so-called standards 
 may be. Distinctions and worldly gains may 
 even be the most fatal fortune that could come 
 to us. Achievements splendid in the eye of 
 the world may, after all, be not half so glori- 
 ous as a kind word of Christian sympathy to 
 a sinking soul. At that great assize a cup of 
 
66 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 cold water in the name of the Master to one of 
 hfe little ones may be rated much higher than 
 golden chalices brim full with royal wine. 
 
 Even the church has been slow to apprehend 
 the truth that Christ is the divine measure of 
 values. So it has talked of its large member- 
 ship, its ritual observances, its faith in the 
 creed, its fasts, its broad philacteries, and its 
 long prayers. These are all good, but it mis- 
 takes sadly when it measures itself by them. 
 It is Christ in us — "Christ in us, the hope of 
 glory.'' It is only as we grow up into Christ 
 that we may hope to attain unto the fullness 
 of the stature of men. Living Christ, in so far 
 as he may be re-presented in a regenerated 
 human life, that is our privilege and our duty. 
 When the quick and the dead shall stand be- 
 fore the great white throne, at their true and 
 eternal value, then we shall realize that our 
 usefulness, our happiness, our character, our 
 eternity are all summed up and measured by 
 our likeness to that one character, the charac- 
 ter of the sinless, self-sacrificing Christ. 
 
THE IMPREGNABLE FOUNDATION 
 
 If this fail, 
 The pillared fiTmament is rottenness 
 And earth's base built on stubble. 
 
 — Milton. 
 
THE IMPEEGNABLE FOUNDATION 
 
 There are certain passages of Scripture 
 which in the course of the centuries have 
 grown into great constructive principles, basal 
 to religious movements and systems. Thus the 
 Golden Rule, "Do unto others as ye would 
 that they should do unto you," summarizes 
 the world's best moral science. The great 
 commission, "Go ye into all the world, and 
 preach the gospel," is the church's inspiration 
 and warrant for world-wide missions. While 
 Luther on his knees was painfully ascending 
 the sacred stairway at Saint John Lateran in 
 Rome there came to him as a new revelation 
 that single passage, "The just shall live by 
 faith," and this afterward became the war 
 cry of the Lutheran Reformation. In like man- 
 ner the words, "Thou art Peter, and upon this 
 rock I will build my church," have been taken 
 as the corner stone of a stupendous religious 
 organization. As is well known, Rome inter- 
 prets them to mean the primacy of Peter and 
 
 69 
 
70 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 his successors as God's vicegerents on earth. 
 Others make Peter's confession of faith in 
 Christ as the Messiah to be the rock on which 
 the church should be built. 
 
 Yet a third interpretation may be offered, 
 based upon the words, "Blessed art thou, 
 Simon Bar-jona: for flesli and blood have not 
 revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is 
 in heaven." On this rock — the Divine Spirit re- 
 vealing the truth as it is in Jesus — on this rock 
 "I will build my church.'' The everlasting and 
 impregnable foundation of the church is not 
 a human personality nor a confession of faith, 
 but the Divine Spirit from age to age revealing 
 the truth contained in the written and incar- 
 nate Word and working in the hearts of men 
 a new life. 
 
 >> 4* ♦♦* 
 
 In their efforts to destroy Christianity, its 
 enemies have failed to recognize and reckon 
 with this divine dynamic. When the Jews had 
 compassed the death of the Master and dis- 
 persed his few disciples, the chief priests and 
 scribes doubtless fancied they had put an end 
 to the new religion. There was, however, one 
 man among them — Gamaliel, a doctor of the 
 law — ^who was far wiser than the rest. Eising 
 up in the council, the record tells us, he be- 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 71 
 
 sought them to refrain from all persecution, 
 saying, "If this counsel or this work be of 
 men, it will come to nought: but if it be of 
 God, ye cannot overthrow it.'' 
 
 All through the centuries there have been 
 men counting Christianity as nothing more 
 than a natural development of man's religious 
 sentiments, subject to such imperfections as 
 inhere in all human constructs, and destined 
 to pass away with the increase of intelligence. 
 To-day the visitor in the British Museum is 
 shown a medal struck off in A. D. 304 by order 
 of the Emperor Diocletian, after a prolonged 
 period of bitter persecution, announcing to the 
 world, "Christianity is destroyed." Yet within 
 twenty-five years from that date Christianity, 
 in the person of Constantine, ascended the 
 throne and became the established religion of 
 the empire. Again, in the eighteenth century, 
 Voltaire wrote these foolish words : "By the end 
 of the nineteenth century Christianity will 
 have disappeared from the earth." Yet hardly 
 had his ashes grown cold when there opened 
 up the splendid era of modern revival, and 
 world-wide missionary movement evincing a 
 creative energy equal to that of the apostolic 
 age. In the early years of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury such doleful predictions were ill the air. 
 
72 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 The great President Dwight, of Yale College, 
 records that in his day, "wild and vague expec- 
 tations were everywhere entertained of a new 
 order of things about to commence, in which 
 Christianitv would be discarded as a worn-out 
 superstition." Of like import is Mr. Parton^s 
 statement in his Life of Aaron Burr, "that 
 during Burr's time it was confidently claimed 
 that Christianity could not survive two genera- 
 tions longer/' Forty years ago the historian 
 Froude solemnly announced, "Protestantism 
 has failed," and at once proceeded to write its 
 epitaph. A little later Professor Goldwin 
 Smith declared in the Atlantic Monthly "that 
 belief in Christianity as a supernatural reli- 
 gion has given way," and thereupon in most 
 lugubrious terms foreboded a moral cataclysm 
 in human society. 
 
 The scientific world has yet to learn that 
 spiritual things are spiritually discerned, that 
 the most vital truths may lie hidden to the 
 natural man, and even when faintly appre- 
 hended may yet be grossly underestimated. 
 Christ declared, "The words that I speak unto 
 you, they are spirit, and they are life." We 
 may be sure, therefore, that so long as the 
 Spirit sanctifies and saves men through this 
 old gospel, so long will the church "prevail 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 73 
 
 against the gates of hell.'' Clearly, our faith 
 does not stand in the wisdom of man but in 
 the power of God. With the unprecedented 
 increases in knowledge from every quarter of 
 creation the gospel still goes forth to the con- 
 quest of the world. Account for it as we may, 
 the truth which the Bible contains is still the 
 truth for which the world hungers and through 
 which humanity is being redeemed. Of all 
 ages this is preeminently the age of books, but 
 among them all there is yet the One Book 
 which has royal preeminence. In answer to 
 the demand, we are told the press of Christen- 
 dom issues five volumes of the Bible or New 
 Testament every minute of the working day — 
 an average of one for every twelve seconds of 
 the laboring hour. These great truths seem 
 to be instinct with divine power, challenging 
 the belief and commanding the homage of the 
 human heart. Yet we make no fetish of the 
 Book. It is only a partial record of God's reve- 
 lations to man. We may have the record and 
 still not know the revelation. We may have the 
 letter and not the life of the truth. We may 
 have the record and yet egregiously misinter- 
 pret the revelation which it contains. It is only 
 as the Spirit shines into our heart and illumines 
 the page that we come to a saving knowledge 
 
74 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 of the truth. So while the record has been 
 here from age to age, the apprehension as well 
 as the acceptance of its truth has been a pro- 
 gressive process. Take for instance the duty 
 of the church to evangelize the world. No 
 responsibility was more plainly enjoined upon 
 it in these Scriptures. No loftier missionary 
 hymns were ever penned than those of David 
 and Isaiah, proclaiming the glories of Messiah's 
 reign, when "his name should be known 
 through all the earth, and his saving grace 
 among all nations." Yet hardly more than a 
 century has passed since the inauguration of 
 the great missionary movement in the church. 
 There too is the duty of toleration. To-day 
 that duty is so clear as to need no argument. 
 Yet it is a truth only recently recognized either 
 in state or church. In the constitution of 
 Ehode Island, under the influence of Roger 
 Williams, it was for the first time incorporated 
 in a state compact. When after long debate in 
 the Legislature of Virginia the bill insuring 
 religious freedom was finally passed, Thomas 
 Jefferson, its author, was so proud of the 
 achievement that he dictated this epitaph for 
 his tombstone: "Thomas Jefferson, author of 
 the Declaration of Independence, founder of 
 the University of Virginia, and author of the 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 75 
 
 Bill for Keligious Freedom in Virginia/' He 
 had been President of the United States, yet 
 counted the authorship of this measure the 
 greater glory. The Master had plainly taught 
 it both by word and by example, but the church 
 through the centuries failed to recognize the 
 duty. What the world needed was not a new 
 Bible, nor any addition to it, but clearer spir- 
 itual vision. 
 
 ♦♦♦ ♦^ 4^ 
 
 Now, if, on the one hand, its adversaries have 
 vainly thought Christianity about to perish 
 when some erroneous interpretation has had 
 to be discarded, so, on the other hand, its 
 defenders have too often sought for its evi- 
 dence and preservation in external and non- 
 essential appurtenances. Human nature is 
 so slow to put faith in the spiritual and the 
 unseen. The intrepid Elijah needed to be 
 taught that the Almighty often speaks with 
 "a still small voice.'' Zerubbabel, facing a 
 stupendous task, must be told that it is "not 
 by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit." 
 This overestimate of externals was the capital 
 error of all JeY>ish history, totally unfitting 
 them for the acceptance of a Messiah coming 
 without pompous credentials. Historians tell 
 us that Admiral Nelson was childishly fond 
 
76 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 of outward adornments, and that, at the last, 
 he lost his life because he would Avear his full 
 regalia in the battle of Trafalgar, having thus 
 made himself a conspicuous target for the 
 enemy. In the church a like passion for pomp 
 and ceremony has often proved fatal to a 
 genuine spiritual life. The emphatic message 
 of our Puritan forbears to the modern church 
 is a plea for simplicity in the religious life. 
 "With sublime courage and self-sacrifice they 
 contended against the surrender of religion 
 to ritual. And, believe me, so long as man 
 enjoys the sensuous and the beautiful in art 
 and in nature, so long there will be need of the 
 stern Puritan in society and in the church. 
 It is a noteworthy fact that the two periods 
 in modern times during which the faith well- 
 nigh died out of the world were the twelfth 
 and eighteenth centuries, and the countries 
 most bereft were Italy and France, where at 
 the same time the ceremonials of religion had 
 reached the very perfection of magnificent dis- 
 play. It is also to be observed that when in 
 the third century of our era the church was 
 constructing elaborate creeds, and again in 
 the thirteenth when throughout all Europe it 
 was building magnificent cathedrals for spec- 
 tacular worship, in both these centuries its 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 77 
 
 spiritual life was declining. Neither creed- 
 building nor cathedral-building can furnish a 
 firm foundation for the church. Even the 
 chosen people, under the shadow of the great 
 temple at Jerusalem, victims of this passion 
 for ritual, retained only the husks of their 
 ancient faith. Every life, whether of the indi- 
 vidual or of an institution, is dependent upon 
 the adjustment of its accent. To-day good 
 people are seriously debating how they shall 
 preserve the faith. In the schools of the 
 prophets teachers subscribe to rigid formu- 
 laries. But it not seldom happens that men 
 continue to observe forms after they have lost 
 the substance, and declining in intellectual sin- 
 cerity, content themselves with strained defini- 
 tions x)t the terms of the contract. We may be 
 sure that as words cannot express the deeper 
 spirit life, neither can they preserve it. 
 Christianity survives from age to age because 
 the Holy Spirit in the believer conserves, re- 
 veals, and vitalizes the truth. Hence Jesus 
 Christ living in the heart of an humble and un- 
 learned disciple may be a surer foundation 
 for the church than the learned researches of 
 theological faculties. Indeed, had not the 
 Divine Spirit made these saving truths real in 
 personal experience, they, together with the 
 
78 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 Bible itself, would long ago have perished from 
 among men. One of the most singular features 
 of human history is the ease with which great 
 truths may be lost when once they have ceased 
 to live in the heart. There, for instance, was 
 the central doctrine of justification by faith, 
 clear as crystal to Paul, yet for centuries it 
 lay dormant and inoperative in the church 
 until, as by a flash of divine illumination, it 
 was revived in the heart of Luther. 
 
 To insure the preservation of the truth the 
 Roman Church has declared the infallibility 
 of church councils, and latterly the infallibility 
 of the Pope. In each of these dogmas we have 
 fundamental truth imprisoned in a parasitic 
 error. The saving truth is not thus committed 
 to a single man, nor to any delegated body of 
 men. We believe rather that the Holy Spirit, 
 working in the hearts of all true believers, is 
 the revealer and preserver of the truth — the 
 one fundation against which the gates of hell 
 shall not prevail. 
 
 The age in which we live is witnessing tre- 
 mendous upheavals in society and state and 
 church. Institutions and systems all are in 
 the swirl. Now, it is the glory of Christianity 
 that it both produces and survives change. 
 The Koran of Mohammed teaches : "Every new 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 79 
 
 law is an innovation, every innovation is an 
 error, every error leads to eternal fire." Hence 
 among the Mohammedan peoples there is fatal 
 stagnation. Not so the gospel of Christ. It 
 proclaims a golden age yet to come, and moves 
 confidently forward. Forms and names and 
 creeds will change; these are human expedi- 
 ents and constructs. Histories and sciences 
 change from age to age with increase of knowl- 
 edge. Change is not to be feared so long as 
 it leaves the foundations intact. Death alone 
 is motionless. Life is the prihciple of growth. 
 Moreover, we need not fear if the powers 
 of the world be arrayed against the truth. 
 This has been its attitude from the beginning. 
 When on the day of crucifixion the little band 
 of disciples stood with trembling faith afar 
 off, there were Caesar on the throne, and Pilate 
 on the judgment seat, and Caiaphas in the 
 temple — enemies all^— and there was the blood- 
 thirsty mob surging about the cross. All 
 human conditions, public opinion, political 
 power, religious hatred, all arrayed against the 
 new doctrine; but the foundations were sure. 
 Forty days hence tongues of fire should de- 
 scend upon that little band of the faithful, and 
 they be imbued with power from on high. 
 Glance over the centuries, and you shall find 
 
80 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 like conditions and conflicts arising in each 
 and with the same triumphant issue. If in 
 the heat of the battle our hearts incline to faint, 
 it is wise for us to place the ages over against 
 the hour. Lowell's fine words are both good 
 history and good gospel : 
 
 Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the 
 
 throne — 
 Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim 
 
 unknown, 
 Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above 
 
 his own. 
 
 The church, then, is not to exhaust its ener- 
 gies contending for outgrown forms and 
 theories, but, rather, in this revolutionary age 
 to plant itself more firmly on the regenerating 
 power of the Holy Spirit in human lives. Ec- 
 clesiastical machinery was never so complete 
 as to-day. Eeligious and reformatory organi- 
 zations compass the globe. Societies and 
 guilds summon thousands to conventions 
 across the continents and the seas. But the 
 church must have more than organization if 
 it would burn sin out of man's heart and ban- 
 ish it from the earth. 
 
 Paul tells us that prophecy is the highest 
 gift bestowed on the church. "Desire spiritual 
 gifts," he writes, "but rather that ye may 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 81 
 
 prophesy.'' And again he writes, "Christ sent 
 me not to baptize" — no, that is a mere ritual 
 service — "but to preach the gospel''; and he 
 adds: "my preaching was not with enticing 
 words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration 
 of the Spirit and of power." The age calls not 
 for the ritual service of a priest, but for the 
 man of God in pulpit and in pew, in the church 
 and in the market place, unto whose quickened 
 vision the Spirit has revealed Christ. 
 
 The great epochs of history have been sig- 
 nalized by the advent of such prophets, bur- 
 dened with a message, men who like the Fore- 
 runner, were burning as well as shining lights, 
 and who realized to the world that "His min- 
 isters are a flaming fire." And the world has 
 run to hear them, for men do feel their igno- 
 rance, and they do hunger for better things. 
 Such a one was Elijah, the Tishbite, suddenly 
 projected across the course of history in an 
 age of base idolatry, contending for vaster 
 and deeper issues than a passing form or 
 dogma. Then, again, when the religion of 
 Israel had degenerated into a dead formalism, 
 and the Pharisee, arrayed in gorgeous robes 
 with broad philacteries, crooned his long 
 prayer at the corner of the street — then, again, 
 came one in the spirit of Elijah, crying, "Re- 
 
82 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 pent ye, prepare the way of the Lord.'' Still 
 again, when religion had suffered eclipse for 
 more than a thousand years, another of God's 
 prophets appeared in the Monk of Erfurt, and 
 later, in the eighteenth century, when a li- 
 centious infidelity pervaded all ranks of society 
 in Great Britain, and the pulpit had become 
 so degenerate that the learned jurist Black- 
 stone records that after hearing every clergy- 
 man of note in London he could not tell from 
 the message whether the speaker was a disciple 
 of Confucius, Mohammed, or Christ, then 
 again came the Lord's anointed in the per- 
 sons of John Wesley and George Whitefield, 
 evangels with a great message, born in their 
 souls of the Hoi}' Ghost. 
 
 To-day there appear on all sides signs of a 
 great ebb tide in spiritual life. With the de- 
 cay of long cherished faiths in many quarters, 
 there is a strong drift to blank naturalism, a 
 naturalism which would reduce the inspira- 
 tion of the Scripture to superior natural 
 genius, make the incarnation of God in Christ 
 a rare attainment of character on the part of 
 a pious Jew, the atonement at Calvary a 
 beautiful and heroic though purely human 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 83 
 
 martyrdom for righteousness' sake, and the 
 new life a highly commendable self-reforma- 
 tion. At such a time duty will demand of 
 the disciple far more than formal vows, social 
 organizations, and ethical exhortations. Be- 
 lieve me, no prayer should lie more heavily on 
 our hearts to-day than the fervent words of 
 Moses to Joshua, "Would God that all the 
 Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord 
 would put his spirit upon them !" As ambas- 
 sadors for Christ this is the secret of our 
 power. Contemporaries declared of the saintly 
 F^nelon that one could not be in his presence 
 a day without wishing oneself a Christian. It 
 is recorded of the great Chevalier Bunsen that, 
 though at first inclined to skepticism, through 
 the influence of his saintly wife he became a 
 devout Christian. When he lay dying, sud- 
 denly opening his eyes and looking up into her 
 face he whispered, "My dear, in thy face I 
 have seen the Eternal.'' The Holy Spirit 
 working in human hearts, kindling a divine 
 illumination, and producing a transfigured 
 character — that is the world's indestructible 
 gospel, the one perpetual miracle which Isaiah 
 predicted, the impregnable foundation of the 
 church against which the gates of hell shall 
 not prevail. 
 
VI 
 LOSS OF CONSCIENCE 
 
 Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of 
 celestial fire. — A line from Washington's copy book when 
 a child. 
 
VI 
 
 LOSS OF CONSCIENCE 
 
 Life is supremely a matter of profit and loss. 
 And so it was intended to be. Man was made 
 to grow. Like every mote in the physical uni- 
 verse, he is in perpetual motion. He can- 
 not stand still, he must go up or down, for- 
 ward or backward. If forward, it is a record 
 of profit ; if backward, of loss. Profit too, for 
 the most part, signifies pleasure; loss, pain. 
 It is natural, therefore, that men should as- 
 siduously guard against losses, and grieve over 
 them when they occur. There is one loss, 
 however, which it seldom takes into account. 
 This is the more singular, since it is the most 
 serious one which a human being may suffer. 
 This most serious loss is the loss of conscience. 
 
 In the Bible conscience is often likened 
 to an inner life. So the author of Proverbs 
 declares, "The spirit of man is the candle of 
 the Lord"; and, referring to spiritual declen- 
 sion, he says, "The light of the righteous re- 
 joiceth: but the lamp of the wicked shall be 
 
 87 
 
88 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 put out.'' In like manner, the ancient Job 
 ponders : "How oft is the candle of the wicked 
 put out!" "The light of the wicked shall be 
 put out, and the spark of his fire shall not 
 shine/' In that parable of our Lord represent- 
 ing the virgins who were not prepared to go 
 in to the wedding feast at his coming, they are 
 made to confess, "Our lamps are gone out." 
 
 The logicians tell us a question well defined 
 is more than half answered. A brief definition 
 of conscience will help us solve the problem of 
 its loss. To this question the Scotch phi- 
 losopher, Calderwood, answers: "Conscience 
 is the reason discovering to the individual ab- 
 solute moral law for the guidance of his con- 
 duct." With the exception of a single word 
 this definition appears acceptable. We do not 
 believe man's reason can discover absolute 
 moral law. When, however, the Almighty has 
 brought it within range, then man has capacity 
 to apprehend it, just as he has ability to see 
 the sun when the Creator has lifted it above the 
 horizon. We may say, then, conscience is the 
 reason cognizing moral distinctions, called 
 right and wrong. This is the philosophical 
 conscience, simple and without content or 
 command. It is also incapable of improve- 
 ment. As an executive factor in the moral 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 89 
 
 life, however, conscience is a complex of sev- 
 eral elements. Here it embraces the judg- 
 ment, whose function is to apply the distinc- 
 tion to concrete cases and individual objects. 
 In the light of reason the judgment affirms 
 this is right and that is wrong. Thus it sup- 
 plies each individual with a set of moral 
 opinions, and establishes rules for his conduct. 
 This element of judgment in the conscience is 
 liable to error and capable of improvement. 
 Accompanying this cognition of moral dis- 
 tinctions, and the decisions of the judgment 
 as to what is right and what is wrong, there is 
 a third element, which is the feeling of obliga- 
 tion, the feeling that one ought to do what is 
 apprehended as right and not to do its opposite. 
 This is the impelling, the authoritative, com- 
 manding element in conscience. It puts into 
 human language that word ^^ought,'' which 
 Joseph Cook pronounced "the weightiest word 
 ever uttered," commanding every impulse or 
 interest. It is the categorical imperative of 
 Kant. The direction of this impulse is always 
 the same toward whatever is apprehended as 
 right, and always away from what is appre- 
 hended as wrong. Its force, however, may 
 vary greatly, in one person absolute in com- 
 mand, in another abject in weakness. It is 
 
90 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 always, however, of supreme authority, though 
 often with little executive power. This is the 
 light that lighteth every man that cometh into 
 the world. It is the divinity that speaks within 
 us, an inward monitor, the still small voice 
 which makes itself felt as an awe and fear of 
 Deity. A fourth feature of conscience is yet 
 to be added, namely, a sense of approval or 
 disapproval. This also is variable in intensity. 
 As disapproval, it culminates in the form of 
 remorse, which drives its victim to the morgue 
 or madhouse. As approval, it is the peace of 
 the martyrs, the joy unspeakable. Together 
 these four elements form in every human 
 breast what we call conscience. With them 
 we have heaven or hell, here and hereafter. 
 
 With this brief analysis, ichat is a loss of 
 conscience? The first factor, the cognition of 
 moral distinctions, is constitutional and there- 
 fore unchangeable. As an intuition it is uni- 
 versal and inevitable. The second element, the 
 judgment, deciding in each case what is right 
 and what is wrong, may be improved by use, 
 weakened by disuse. Frequently or habitually 
 exercised on moral questions, it grows more 
 sensitive and reliable. When, however, the 
 moral aspect of one's conduct is seldom con- 
 sidered the moral judgment degenerates. In 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 91 
 
 like manner when the impulses toward the 
 good are continually ignored or smothered 
 they too cease to exert commanding influence. 
 Slighted and disobeyed, there is a gradual 
 withdrawal of the Spirit, its invitations grow 
 fainter and fainter, until at the last, in the 
 silent council chambers of the Eternal, the de- 
 cree goes forth: "He is joined to his idols; 
 let him alone," and the soul is in the antecham- 
 ber of its own perdition, its lamp is gone out. 
 This loss of conscience is subject to law as 
 real as the law of falling bodies. The impair- 
 ment of the judgment follows a natural law 
 of mind — use improving, disuse attended with 
 decay. On the other hand, the weakening of 
 the impulses and influence over conduct follows 
 a law of grace, which conditions all spiritual 
 gifts upon certain dispositions within our- 
 selves. Is our opinion upon duty vague? It 
 is because the judgment has not been enlight- 
 ened and constantly exercised upon the subject 
 of personal duty. Is the voice of invitation 
 from God growing fainter within us? It is 
 because — I say it reverently — we compel the 
 Holy One to leave us by our own perverse will 
 and wickedness. We stubbornly close up the 
 only window through which light can come 
 to us from on high. The Saviour — incarnation 
 
92 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 of infinite love — standeth at the door and 
 knocks, but lie will enter only at our bidding. 
 The Infinite will so profoundly respect our 
 personality. 
 
 This law of spiritual declension is as subtle 
 as it is real. Sin is an insidious disease. The 
 very silence of moral changes leads us to un- 
 derestimate them. Noise commands our at- 
 tention, while the silent forces of life are 
 depreciated. If disease, instead of its noise- 
 less tread, should stalk about our streets in 
 tangible form, bustling about with the puffing 
 and clangor of a steam engine, how like dead 
 men we would sit pale with fear, as it entered 
 our street or approached our neighbor's house ! 
 The eternal din of Niagara possesses us with 
 the sense of measureless power, while the in- 
 finitely mightier ebb and flow of the great 
 ocean tides scarcely attracts our attention. 
 Now, the footsteps of decay are never heard. 
 Temptation has a voiceless tongue. It is 
 without warning, and silent as the lightning. 
 Just as in growth the unconscious influences 
 are perhaps the most constant and powerful, 
 so also in decay the unthought-of dissipations 
 of a sinful atmosphere are the most effective 
 agencies in destroying character. In view of 
 these possibilities, Jesus portrayed the awful 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 93 
 
 penalties of sin with an emphasis unequaled 
 by any other religious teacher. 
 
 This loss of conscience is, moreover, a grad- 
 ual process, and for this reason also may go 
 on quite unobserved. No man leaps at once 
 to the consummation of his character, be it 
 saintly or satanic. The fortress of the soul 
 is taken by stealthy, it may be slow, ap- 
 proaches — now a little and then a little. At 
 times there may be an eruption of the hidden 
 fires, a sudden disclosure of secret habits, 
 startling the community, perhaps surprising 
 the individual himself, yet the honest study of 
 after reflection seldom fails to uncover the con- 
 cealed traces of cherished, long-continued sin. 
 On the avalanches of the Alps the surfaces 
 present the same solid appearance to the sight 
 up to the moment of their overwhelming, de- 
 structive descent, but far beneath, removed 
 from human eye, forces are at work loosening 
 every hold of the mighty mass, until but a 
 tendril remains, which the shock of a single 
 breath may snap. So Satan sometimes works 
 in the heart. Yet the movement of spiritual 
 declension is not always nor generally that of 
 the avalanche. You are familiar with those 
 great seas of ice which gather on the sides and 
 summits of the Alps, and, extending over miles 
 
94 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 of surface, move slowly down the slopes, bury- 
 ing everything before them — a movement so 
 stealthy as to be detected only by the closest 
 observation, yet none the less sure, and con- 
 stant, and ruinous. That is the process of sin 
 in the heart in its most fatal and usual form. 
 What wonder then that the Divine Master 
 should tenderly warn his disciples always to 
 watch, as well as to pray? The history of Ahaz 
 affords us a living illustration of this law. In 
 the sixteenth chapter of Second Kings are re- 
 corded his five sliding steps to the gates of 
 perdition. How simple the first step! He 
 went to Damascus, we are told, and saw an 
 idolatrous altar. The sight of sin is danger- 
 ous. Very justly did Bunyan portray the 
 pilgrim, when he would escape the City of 
 Destruction, as closing his eyes and stopping 
 his ears while he ran forward crying, ^^Life! 
 Life!'' The lust of the eye is a mighty con- 
 queror. It were better for many an one had 
 he been born blind — better. Then, too, Ahaz 
 not only looked upon the altar of sin, he vol- 
 untarily placed himself in the presence of it, 
 and that is always a perilous position. It is 
 a most pernicious theory that one may enter 
 into evil associations and yet remain pure. 
 True, the Bible teaches no monastic asceticism. 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 95 
 
 "No man liveth to himself alone." Yet, on the 
 other hand, it offers no insurance policy to the 
 one needlessly entering into such associations. 
 "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the 
 counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the 
 way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the 
 scornful." The love of the brethren is here 
 recorded among the positive evidences of a 
 new heart. The communion of Christ and the 
 fellowship of the good are the Christian's high- 
 est enjoyment on earth and in heaven. Ahaz 
 sought the society of idolaters, and from his 
 time to this hour uncounted multitudes of the 
 fallen and hopeless warn us to beware of the 
 bondage of evil associations. There is an in- 
 fernal magnetism in bad company, a continual 
 provocation to compromise the conscience and 
 the character. To parley with sin is half a 
 surrender. No virtue is safe which is not en- 
 thusiastic. We may not look upon sin with 
 complacency. Like Paul walking the streets 
 of Athens, the disciple's heart should burn 
 within him over the world's idolatry and folly. 
 There is occasion for alarm if one can listen to 
 profane or impure language without pain, and, 
 it may be, a firm rebuke. Looking without a 
 protest upon sin, we shall either, by the grace 
 of God, break at once that charm, or, like Ahaz, 
 
06 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 ere long admire and copy it. When sin has 
 ceased to pain us it will begin to please. And 
 although it is a deformity, a revolting thing 
 with no beauty in it, yet nothing is truer than 
 that our tastes are conformed to standards 
 continually present. Human nature easily 
 copies the absurdities and even the repulsive 
 deformities of society. Imitation is an in- 
 stinct with us. The growth of character is 
 largely a process of unconscious conformity. 
 Our words, our habits of thought and life, 
 are thus thoughtlessly copied. Even our reli- 
 gious creeds have thus grown up with us, im- 
 bibed, hour by hour, from the moral atmos- 
 phere in which we have lived. So a parent 
 proves the moral type of children for genera- 
 tions. Admiring and copying sin, with un- 
 uttered palliations of the act, having once 
 erected the idolatrous altar in the heart, then, 
 like Ahaz, we will speedily take the remaining 
 steps downward. First, worship at the altar; 
 then in self -justification lead others to do the 
 same; then remove God's altar. Bunyan tells 
 us "the other side of the Hill Destruction is 
 very steep." Tolerated on the threshold, Satan 
 soon leaps to the throne of the affections and 
 will. 
 
 Both the subtlety and the gradualness of the 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 97 
 
 process conduce to conceal the fatal effects: 
 "Because sentence against an evil work is not 
 executed speedily, therefore the heart of the 
 sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.'' It 
 is surprising how seriously this physical sys- 
 tem may be disordered without the individual 
 being much inconvenienced thereby. So may 
 the character be honeycombed with corrup- 
 tion while the individual shall live in compara- 
 tive ease with himself and in the esteem of 
 his fellow men. If, however, the soul of such 
 a one could be exposed with all its investi- 
 ture of evil thoughts, desires, and imagina- 
 tions, as clearly as the fine garments which 
 adorn his person, then, verily, mingling with 
 the gay throngs at an elite social gathering, 
 one might feel himself in the outer court of 
 Pandemonium itself. In our ignorance of the 
 reality it is possible for us to live, and hope, 
 and even love. It cannot be denied, however, 
 that this feature is fraught with imminent 
 peril. Very naturally it leads to unconcern 
 and presumptuous expectation. There is per- 
 haps not a single important fact in life, about 
 which men think so seldom and so lightly as 
 the moral changes going on in the character 
 — a suicidal unconcern, which finds its simplest 
 explanation in the insidious, bewitching, 
 
98 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 blinding influence of sin, drugging the soul to 
 pleasant dreams, on the brink of its own de- 
 struction. With minutest scrutiny men study 
 the symptoms of bodily disease, but decay may 
 go on in the character year after year and 
 excite no alarm, elicit no examination, receive 
 no check. Satan presents sin as only a tempo- 
 rary expedient. No one takes it as an everlast- 
 ing portion. The first intoxicating cup is the 
 whim or the merriment of a moment, perhaps 
 an easy way of escaping the odium of a sneer, 
 or the appearance of singularity in company, 
 or it may be to drown business and social per- 
 plexities. That man who utters one word too 
 much in trade and double deals is met and 
 overcome with the sudden temptation that for 
 once it is expedient to falsify. Then a second 
 sin is soon at hand as a subterfuge from the 
 discovery and penalty of the first. So sin 
 takes on the character of a temporary expedi- 
 ent, until so often repeated that there is either 
 no longer an elasticity of resolution against it 
 or a total failure to recognize its guilt. Eqg- 
 pedient! No sin is expedient. Perhaps it had 
 been well had that term "expedient" been 
 dropped from the vocabulary of man in the 
 early history of the race. No one so pitiably 
 weak as the man of expediential morals, ^^Ex- 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 99 
 
 pedientr^ It has been the great bulwark of 
 Satan against every righteous reform. It has 
 taught individuals and nations to excuse to 
 themselves every sin in the dark catalog of hu- 
 man crimes. No, no, let us firmly settle this 
 in the practical ethics of our lives. Sin is 
 under no circumstances expedient. It never 
 pays. Or, rather, it always pays. The Bible 
 is true — "The wages of sin is death." It has 
 wrapped up in it the seed of all disobedience 
 and the fire of perdition. Excuse it to our- 
 selves on the ground of expediency, and by and 
 by sin will assume the form of a circumstan- 
 tial necessity or a human weakness to which 
 there can be attached no serious result. Once 
 its enormity is hidden, the insidious work of 
 Satan in the human soul is consummated. 
 It approaches the nadir of its degradation — 
 "Its lamp is gone out." It is an established 
 law in physics that all disorders of a function, 
 if not corrected, cease to be functional dis- 
 orders and become organic. Thus sin may be- 
 come so ingrained in the human soul that, like 
 Milton's Satan, it shall freely say, "Evil, be 
 thou my good." Our Lord used no exagger- 
 ated language when referring to the apostate 
 Judas. He said, "And one of you is a devil" — 
 not "hath a devil" — but "one of you is a devil/' 
 
100 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 This brief studv of the loss of conscience 
 should suggest the wisdom of examining the 
 soundness of our moral judgments. They de- 
 termine the course of our daily life. If they 
 be vitiated by self-interest or worldly conven- 
 tions, the character is in peril. One easily 
 declines to the low standards of the world. 
 There is, however, no discharge in the Chris- 
 tian warfare. We must seriously inquire, not 
 how much truth do we possess, but how much 
 does the truth possess us. Society has its eti- 
 quette, trade its custom, even the worship of 
 the church has its forms and usages, and they 
 are all exacting. Yet they all need prayerful 
 study and sifting. We may be very respectable 
 society people, merchants, church men, yet 
 dead in trespasses and sin. 
 
 Then, too, we should never trifle with our 
 own or another's conscience. In all ages men 
 have fought and bled for this right. Shake- 
 speare tells us, "Conscience doth make cowards 
 of us all.'' Yes, a self-conscious criminal 
 cringes before it as before no earthly tribunal. 
 On the other hand, the soul aware of its own 
 integrity is always bravest. It has inspired 
 the noblest daring this world has ever wit- 
 nessed. Still, with strange inconsistency, men 
 sell it for the meanest price. There is not a 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 101 
 
 cheaper article on sale in the world's market 
 to-day. In the imperial office in Vienna there 
 is a diamond of great value. That precious 
 stone was carelessly carried onto the battle- 
 field of Graussen, by Charles the Bold, and 
 there lost. The world has counted him a 
 wreckless, princely prodigal. But men are 
 everywhere rushing into speculation, scram- 
 bling for office and for spoil, unconcerned for 
 conscience and character as was that royal 
 scion for the precious stone. 
 
 Will you, then, carry your conscience into 
 your life work? If so, you will find it a costly 
 thing to carry through the world. It will cost 
 you companions, ridicule, humility, loneliness 
 in society, in trade; it may cost you custom; 
 in worldly honor it may cost you office ; but it 
 will pay. Be sure the one whose conscience 
 never costs him anything is carrying about a 
 very cheap article. Life, liberty, pursuit of 
 happiness — these all may be sacrificed; con- 
 science must never be conformed to convenient 
 custom, must never be led to the altar of 
 sacrifice. 
 
 An allegory, ascribed to Luther, pictures to 
 us a missionary meeting of Satan and his min- 
 ions returning from their errands of evil over 
 the earth. "I dogged a caravan of Christians 
 
102 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 crossing the desert/' cried one, ^^and I hounded 
 wild beasts on them, and their bones lie whiten- 
 ing on the sand/' "But what of that?" shouted 
 Satan. "They kept their consciences, and 
 their souls were saved.'' "And I just now 
 espied on the waters a boat full of pilgrims," 
 said another. "I flung down a storm upon 
 them, their craft was foundered, and their 
 bodies lie bleaching in the sea." "But what of 
 that?" again exclaimed Satan. "They kept 
 their faith, and their souls were saved." "And 
 I," said a third, the subtlest of them all, "have 
 been many years tempting a righteous man to 
 violate his conscience. At last he yielded, and 
 I have left him alone in his sin." Then said 
 Satan, "Well done!" And the night stars of 
 hell shouted for joy while the angels wept. 
 It is only an allegory, but in substance it is 
 solemn truth. All earthly losses are but as 
 the dust in the balances when compared with 
 the loss of conscience. All earthly values sink 
 into utter insignificance when compared with 
 a clean heart. Said a dying man who had held 
 high office in the British navy, "Conviction 
 does not leave me, but it rests on my spirit 
 as a lifeless weight; this hour I would gladly 
 surrender all my earthly honors to get back 
 to the innocence of my childhood days, saying 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 103 
 
 my nightly prayer at my mother's knee.'' Per- 
 haps some one who reads these lines is also 
 yearning — 
 
 "O! to go back along the years long vanished, 
 
 To have the words unsaid, the deeds undone. 
 The errors canceled, the deep shadows vanished. 
 
 In the glad sense of a new world begun. 
 To be a little child whose page of story 
 
 Is yet undimmed, unblotted by a stain, 
 And in the sunrise of primeval glory 
 
 To know that life has had its start again." 
 
 Well, blessed truth ! which the divine love has 
 revealed to the world, 
 
 I may go back across the years long vanished, 
 
 I may resume my childhood. Lord, in thee. 
 When in the shadow of thy cross are banished 
 
 All other shadows that encompass me. 
 And o'er the road that is now dark and dreary 
 
 This soul, made buoyant by the strength of rest. 
 Shall walk untired, shall run and not be weary. 
 
 To bear the blessing that has made it blest. 
 
 So through the riches of His grace may our 
 lamps be trimmed and burning, and we enter 
 into the marriage supper of the Lamb. 
 
VII 
 
 THE MOVEMENT OF THE WORLD TO- 
 WARD CHRIST AND CHRISTIAN 
 
 CONCEPTS 
 
 Progress, man's distinctive mark alone. 
 
 Not God's, and not the beast's; God is, they are; 
 
 Man partly is, and wholly hopes to be. 
 
 — Browning. 
 
VII 
 
 THE MOVEMENT OF THE WORLD TO- 
 WARD CHRIST AND CHRISTIAN 
 
 CONCEPTS 
 
 Were some poor man — perhaps a carpen- 
 ter's son — from an obscure village of unenvi- 
 able reputation, to stand in one of the public 
 squares of Washington and announce that 
 when he was dead he would draw all men of 
 all climes and centuries to himself, he would 
 doubtless be looked upon with pity as a per- 
 son of disordered mind. Yet there was one 
 who, nineteen centuries ago, to a few Greeks 
 wishing to see him actually made such a claim. 
 Based on merely human calculation that pre- 
 diction seemed quite as unlikely of accomplish- 
 ment and as absurd as the one we have im- 
 agined. This hour, however, we stand in the 
 presence of its undeniable fulfillment. It de- 
 mands explanation. There are to-day millions 
 of intelligent persons on the face of the earth, 
 to whom that fulfillment appears reasonable 
 evidence of a superhuman prescience in the 
 speaker, and a superhuman power undergird- 
 
 107 
 
108 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 ing the movement. I invite you to consider 
 with me for a little this phenomenal movement 
 of the world toward Christ and his doctrines. 
 How strangely the Man of Nazareth has drawn 
 the ivorld to himself in inquiry! Who was 
 ever so sought after! When the claim just 
 mentioned was first made it was but to a few 
 Greeks, asking "to see Jesus.'' To-day un- 
 counted numbers in the deepest yearnings of 
 the human heart are praying, "We would see 
 Jesus.'' And during all these intervening 
 centuries what numerous learned councils, 
 what high debate, what tomes of volumes, what 
 weary pilgrimages, what floods of penitential 
 tears, what hours of prayer, what seas of mar- 
 tyr blood, what wealth of love and labor has 
 this name Jesus called forth! With what 
 variety of invention, with what lavish expendi- 
 tures has the world sought to know Christ, 
 his Avords, his miracles, his character, his mis- 
 sion, the mystery of his power, his passion, and 
 his person! How passing strange that this 
 young Man, the carpenter's Son of Nazareth, 
 hardly reaching the prime of manhood, should 
 by his words and deeds and death so closely 
 connect himself with the minutest and might- 
 iest interests of humanity, and after the lapse 
 of nineteen centuries that word should be the 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 109 
 
 foundation of state policies, his name the inspi- 
 ration of the loftiest educational forces, his 
 life man's highest ideal of perfection, and his 
 death the hope of the world! How passing 
 strange that multitudes of men and women, 
 most illustrious for industry, intelligence, and 
 virtue, should be found giving themselves to the 
 one great business of leading anxious inquirers 
 to him ! For thoughtful men who, looking over 
 the world's workfields and desirous of making 
 the most possible out of their little life for God 
 and for humanity, have solemnly consecrated 
 themselves — not to science, not to art, not to 
 statecraft, not to secular business, but to this 
 one work of bringing men to Christ. 
 
 The wonder lies not in the fact of such con- 
 secration, for multitudes of deluded ones have 
 given their lives to the promulgation of what 
 was false and evil. But the emphasis of this 
 wonder lies in the fact that such consecration 
 to Christ and his gospel is made here under 
 the focal light and with the sanction of the 
 world's best wisdom. 
 
 Moreover, as Christ himself declared, he 
 ^^came not to send peace, but a sword," so his 
 enemies as well as his friends have sought after 
 
110 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 him. Uneasy in their opposition, as if under 
 the behest of an irresistible fate, they have 
 seemed unable to leave him alone. Investigat- 
 ing Christ, they have studied with sharpest 
 scrutiny former economies, they have ran- 
 sacked the long-buried literature of the East, 
 they have unearthed the mighty ruins of re- 
 mote antiquity, they have enriched the Book 
 with an immense mass of historic, linguistic, 
 and moral commentary, which, like the types 
 and ceremonies of the chosen people who re- 
 jected Messiah, nevertheless serve to lead 
 others to the foot of the cross. So the Man of 
 Calvary has proven an irrepressible factor, 
 sure to rise to the surface in all scientific, so- 
 cial, and religious movements of the race. The 
 eloquent Dr. Channing well said, "The na- 
 tional pride of the Jews, the implacable hatred 
 of the Sanhedrin, the brutal despotism of the 
 Koman emperors, the contemptuous raillery of 
 the philosophers, the libertinism and caste 
 spirit of the pagan priests, the savage bigotry 
 of the masses, the rack, the fagot and the 
 bloody games of the amphitheater all, all 
 sought this Jesus to kill him.'' And from that 
 day to this every murderer, every debauchee, 
 every drunkard, every thief, every miser, every 
 slanderer, every worldling has sought after 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 111 
 
 this same Jesus either with tears of penitential 
 confession, or, like the mob at Pilate's palace, 
 crying, "Crucify him I'' Even the hoodlums of 
 the street, in the curses falling from unhal- 
 lowed lips, every hour and everywhere, must 
 publish his name. It is not so with any other. 
 So to-day we have not only the prophecy of the 
 text, but behind it nineteen centuries of phe- 
 nomenal fulfillment. Jesus has drawn all men 
 to himself, and to-day is the center — and the 
 storm center— -of its profoundest discussion. 
 
 ^ 4^ ^ 
 
 But there is a fact far grander than this, 
 and equally indisputable. This same Jesus 
 has been drawing all men to himself in doc- 
 trine. To have made himself the conspicuous 
 center of inquiry in all ages was the surest 
 road to detection and everlasting infamy had 
 he not stood for the truth. We do not question 
 the fact that many of the moral precepts which 
 he taught had been enunciated before his ad- 
 vent. Here it is claimed only that of the moral 
 maxims of Christ, recorded in the Book and 
 ranging over the entire domain of human duty, 
 not one has been reversed by the sifting criti- 
 cism, actual trial, and immense developments 
 of the intervening ages. Even further, without 
 
112 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 fear of contradiction, we may aver that among 
 all the philosophers, from Socrates to John 
 Stuart Mill, not one principle in fundamental 
 morals has been added to those of Christ. 
 
 ;^ ^ ^ 
 
 Consider for a moment Christ's doctrine of 
 God as a being of infinite intelligence and 
 goodness. How grandly does it transcend the 
 thought of his age, and how steadily the world 
 had been growing up to it! Prior to and at 
 the time of his coming the great masses of 
 men, learned and ignorant alike, were poly- 
 theists or pantheists. Aristotle, whose canons 
 of exact reasoning have survived twenty cen- 
 turies of criticism and change, taught "there 
 is one God and many gods, ruling the universe 
 often with divided councils." Cicero, the great 
 Eoman lawyer, orator, and philosopher, after 
 a careful survey of Greek opinions, came to 
 the conclusion that all the heavenly bodies are 
 gods, and that the earth is the oldest of these. 
 Jesus of Nazareth, discarding current opinions 
 and the speculations of philosophy, with the 
 quiet confidence of complete knowledge, al- 
 ways proclaimed one God. 
 
 4» ^ 4» 
 There too is Christ's doctrine of the Father- 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 113 
 
 hood of God. To us it seems almost a truism 
 that the Creator should continue to have an 
 interest in his own creatures. And there are 
 doubtless many intimations of such a hope in 
 the infancy of the race. Yet at the time of 
 Christ's advent it had quite ceased as an opera- 
 tive influence in the individual life. Pliny, the 
 great philosopher of nature, was wont to say, 
 "It is ridiculous to think that the Deity would 
 be polluted with such a sad and troublesome 
 ministry as that of attending to the petty 
 affairs of men.'' Reviewing the mournful 
 history of man's religious faiths, one cannot 
 but feel the truth of Madame de Stael's remark, 
 that if Jesus had taught the race nothing more 
 than to go to God with those two words, "Our 
 Father," in these he had wrought more than 
 all human philosophy. 
 
 ^ •* 4> 
 
 Still further, how steadily the world has 
 moved toward Chris fs concept of man! At 
 the advent the four great schools dominating 
 the world's thought denied man's immortality, 
 teaching, for the most part, that at death the 
 soul was absorbed, swallowed up in the abys- 
 mal ocean of unconscious existence. What a 
 pathetic picture does the great Cieero present 
 
114 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 after the death of his beloved child ! Ketiring 
 to his Tuseulan villa, he there gathered around 
 him his learned friends, and sought consola- 
 tion for his loss, discussing with them day 
 after day this question of the souPs immor- 
 tality. He devoutly wished to believe it, yet 
 shortly after, in private letters to his friends, 
 he expresses the gravest doubt and despond- 
 ency over the whole matter. Faith in this im- 
 mortality has become ingrained in the thought 
 and life of Christendom, impressing upon man 
 a profound sense of his supreme value and 
 solemn accountability. Paganism held man at 
 the meanest value. Infanticide and suicide 
 everywhere prevailed under the silent sanction 
 of public opinion. At the very hour when 
 Christ was blessing the little children, and 
 teaching "of such is the kingdom of heaven,'^ 
 in Egypt, Greece, and Kome — centers of the 
 world's best learning and life — deformed and 
 sickly infants were being put to death as a 
 duty to the state. This practice, said the his- 
 torian Hume, "was very common, and is not 
 spoken of by any author of the times with the 
 horror it deserves, or scarcely even with dis- 
 approbation.'' Solon, the most celebrated of 
 the Grecian lawgivers, made provision by law 
 for parents to put to death deformed children. 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 115 
 
 Public sentiment regarded it as innocent, and 
 it was matter of much complaint that the laws 
 of Thebes forbade it. Even Aristotle thought 
 it should be encouraged by the magistrates. 
 Plato also, towering like the Alps above the 
 common level in his day, when constructing an 
 ideal state, introduces laws commanding the 
 destruction of the feeble and deformed. Pris- 
 oners of war were slaughtered for mere pas- 
 time. So popular were the gladiatorial games 
 that the historian Lecky pronounces their 
 abolition the mightiest reform ever effected 
 by Christianity. The Coliseum at Eome, seat- 
 ing eighty thousand spectators, and surpassing 
 every other monument of imperial splendor, 
 w^as chiefly devoted to such butcheries. Epic- 
 tetus, whom certain rationalists in our day 
 would compare with Christ, says, "Jupiter 
 has opened a door whenever the evils of life 
 do not suit you ; you may go out at any time." 
 Seneca, Pliny, and Plato approved suicide, 
 while Zeno, Brutus, Cato, Cassius, and Demos- 
 thenes thus put an end to their own lives. 
 Such was the low valuation placed on man by 
 the great lights of the pagan world when Christ 
 came. We must admit such crimes against 
 humanity exist to-day, but we may safely as- 
 sert there is not this hour a single state policy, 
 
116 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 or system of philosophy, within the range of 
 civilization but condemns Aristotle and Plato 
 and Seneca while approving the teaching of 
 
 the Master. 
 
 ♦> "^ ^ 
 
 Closely allied to this was Christ's doctrine 
 of the brotherhood of man. Altruism, the 
 spirit and practice of sacrifice for others, is 
 the crowning idea of our age. But genuine 
 altruism is a purely Christian concept. The 
 entire literature of the pagan world is singu- 
 larly devoid of all those ideas which we call 
 philanthropic. Athens, Corinth, and Rome 
 were beacon lights of ancient culture, yet we 
 might have traversed all their streets without 
 finding a single hospital, asylum, or other 
 public charity. Publius Victor has left us a 
 list of institutions in Rome at the zenith of its 
 glory. There are many gorgeous palaces, 
 monuments, temples, magnificent mausoleums, 
 but we find not a single institution to help the 
 poor, the fallen, the sick, and the aged. Turn 
 over the pages of the Byzantian Chronicles, 
 which contain a catalogue of the public insti- 
 tutions in ancient Constantinople. You will 
 find there no mention of any agency of mercy 
 toward the degraded and the needy. So 
 among the unearthed relics of Nineveh and 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 117 
 
 Babylon we discover no evidence of a national 
 spirit of humanity. The best that can be 
 claimed for them is a clannish care for one's 
 kindred and a pride of tribe and race. Homer 
 praised piracy, and Aristotle taught the 
 Greeks that they had "no more obligation to 
 barbarians than to the wild beasts." 
 
 '*$*' '^ '<$>' 
 
 Wonderful, however, as have been the 
 achievements of Christ in drawing the world 
 to himself, in inquiry and in doctrine, I con- 
 ceive the words of the Master to have had 
 a much grander reach and meaning. He con- 
 fidently claimed he would revolutionize the 
 world^s moral consciousness — he would lift it 
 into a new life. This was a claim infinitely 
 above that of the philosophers. Origen, in his 
 day, writes: "I know of but one Phsedon and 
 one Polemon throughout all Greece who were 
 ever made better by their philosophy, whereas 
 Christianity has brought back multitudes from 
 vice to virtue." A brief glance at the moral 
 conditions of ancient society will convince us 
 that under the leadership of Jesus the race 
 has made hopeful though halting progress. 
 In contrast with its moral corruption, our 
 faith and hope gather new inspiration from a 
 
118 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 glance at the manifold and merciful fruits of 
 the gospel in our day. Its high valuation of 
 human life, its elevation of woman, its sanc- 
 tion of marriage, its establishment of the 
 family, its "creation of a vast and multifarious 
 organization of charity," its wide dissemina- 
 tion of knowledge, its increased remuneration 
 and dignity awarded labor, the growing su- 
 premacy of the moral idea, and, finally, the 
 development of a lofty religious consciousness 
 — forces never so potent and so numerous as 
 to-day — together constitute monumental evi- 
 dence upon which we may build a rational 
 religious faith. It was but yesterday the Mas- 
 ter stood alone. Philosopher and priest, Jew 
 and Gentile, not only rejected his doctrine 
 but with the most rancorous hatred combined 
 to crush him. To-day millions of disciples 
 representing the wealth, the power, the cul- 
 ture, and the loftiest morality of the world, 
 with humility and unspeakable joy acknowl- 
 edge him their Lord and Master. 
 
 ^^ ^ 1^ 
 
 What conclusion may be logically drawn 
 from this meditation? In the face of the facts 
 must we not candidly confess this movement 
 of the ages is a manifestation of executive en- 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 119 
 
 ergy of God himself? Is not the most natural 
 explanation the supernatural? Bergson, in his 
 Creative Evolution, argues that the so-called 
 first principles of science are value judgments ; 
 that is, as judgments they explain the phe- 
 nomena better than any other known to us. 
 Now, if the hypothesis of Divine prescience 
 and power explains the prediction and its 
 fulfillment better than any other, then that 
 hypothesis is a value judgment of the first 
 order. May we not, then, say that the history 
 of the Christian centuries affords us a scien- 
 tific demonstration of divine claims and char- 
 acter of the Founder? May we not also con- 
 clude that the most that any of us can do for 
 the world is to humbly re-present Christ to it? 
 For that work, however, we must have "the 
 mind which was in Christ." To be draAvn into 
 question about him is not enough. To know 
 the doctrines of the creed is not enough. Char- 
 acter must be transformed and' we be brought 
 into that life "which is hid with Christ in God." 
 In no other way shall we accomplish ourselves 
 and our work. No power on earth is so win- 
 some as a Christly character. Be sure that 
 when, with the great apostle, we can say, "To 
 me to live is Christ," then we shall also ap- 
 proach the grandeur of that apostle's life, 
 
120 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 Finally, standing to-day in the presence of 
 the prophecy and nineteen centuries of ful- 
 fillment, is it not reasonable to believe that in 
 the Christ of Calvary we have found that 
 "power not ourselves, evermore tending to 
 righteousness" ? The ages past declare the ages 
 to come belong to the Crucified. Twenty-seven 
 hundred years ago the prophet proclaimed, 
 "He shall see of the travail of his soul and be 
 satisfied.'' With increasing evidence may we 
 repeat the prophecy, while with the loftiest 
 intellect of the apostolic age we may enter the 
 world's workfields to-day, dauntlessly avouch- 
 ing, "We preach Christ crucified, unto the 
 Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks 
 foolishness; but unto them which are called, 
 . . . the power of God and the wisdom of 
 God." 
 
VIII 
 
 A POSITIVE FAITH 
 
 ealous, yet modest; innocent, the' free; 
 Patient of toil, serene amidst alarms; 
 Inflexible in faith, invincible in arms. 
 
 — Beattie. 
 
 Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that 
 faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it. 
 
 — Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to 
 and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine. 
 — Paul. 
 
VIII 
 A POSITIVE FAITH 
 
 Paul 'could very consistently preach to 
 others the duty of a positive faith. His own 
 career was an illustrious example of his teach- 
 ing. In our generation the subject is not popu- 
 lar. Christendom appears one vast Athenian 
 market place with babbling crowds, waiting to 
 hear or tell something new. Old creeds, like 
 old people, are quite ruthlessly brushed aside 
 as of little use or interest. Mr. Herbert Spen- 
 cer speaks of this movement as a "general thaw 
 of theological creeds." 
 
 We easily discern many influences at pres- 
 ent tending to this discredit of religious 
 doctrines. In Protestant lands freedom of 
 thought has produced such diversity of opinion 
 as to make many despair of reaching anything 
 clear and conclusive on the subject. Then, too, 
 the great religious bodies themselves seem to be 
 adrift, revising their Bibles and their standards 
 with many variant views. Moreover, it is ob- 
 served that many who profess very long creeds 
 
 123 
 
124 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 present quite imperfect lives, while some of 
 those who have theological views diametrically 
 opposed to each other lead lives alike blameless 
 and useful. So the opinion gains ground, 
 first, that the absolute truth cannot be known, 
 and, secondly, that what one believes is of 
 little consequence so far as it concerns personal 
 character. At an earlier day this sentiment 
 found expression in the oft-quoted words of 
 Pope, 
 
 For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight; 
 His can't be wrong whose life is in the right. 
 
 One finds it also in the flippant banter against 
 religious faith uttered by Byron in his ^'Vision 
 of Judgment.'' In this vein the German poet, 
 in ^'Nathan the Wise,'' represents a Jew, a Mo- 
 hammedan, and a Christian in the time of 
 the Crusades discussing religious matters, at 
 length unanimously concluding that one's 
 creed is of no consequence, if only his dispo- 
 sition is charitable. In Music Hall, Boston, 
 Theodore Parker declared, "It makes no dif- 
 ference, if our prayers are only sincerely of- 
 fered, whether they are addressed to God or 
 Brahm, to Pan or Jove, to the Storm Gods of 
 the Kalmuck, the stone image of the savage, 
 or to some one of the myriad divinities that 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 125 
 
 swarm in the Nile." They are all, to his mind, 
 alike acceptable and answered. 
 
 Then, too, some have seen in the religious 
 creeds nothing but sources of bitter contro- 
 versy. Mr. Lecky, historian of European 
 morals, writes: "Creeds can be shown to have 
 been the occasion of all the persecutions, tor- 
 ture, and bloodshed which have been perpe- 
 trated in the Christian Church since its estab- 
 lishment.'' It must be confessed that there is 
 much truth in this charge. Yet we fail to see 
 in it any condemnation of religious creeds. 
 Christ himself clearly foresaw this result and, 
 though coming as the Prince of Peace, plainly 
 announced, "I come not to bring peace, but a 
 sword." Let us ask, "What is a creed?'' Is 
 it not a man's or a company of men's settled 
 opinion on a given subject? In this way people 
 have their political creeds, their social creeds, 
 their financial creeds — settled opinions as to 
 the nature, value, and management of great 
 life interests. With equal truthfulness we 
 may assert that men's creeds about their per- 
 sonal and political rights, about property and 
 social distinctions, have also been a perpetual 
 source of persecution and bloodshed since the 
 beginning of the race. This appalling fact, 
 however, is no argument against creeds in poli- 
 
126 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 tics and society and business. All wars have 
 been fought about settled opinions of some 
 sort. Somewhat over a half century ago in 
 this country the people of the North held 
 firmly to the belief that this Union was sover- 
 eign and inseparable. The people of the South, 
 on the other hand, claimed that the several 
 States had supreme right and might secede 
 whenever they saw fit. A bloody, fratricidal 
 war was waged over these creeds. We called 
 it loyalty to principle and were not afraid to 
 die for our faith. Indeed, one could hardly 
 claim to be a man had he not some creed for 
 which he would willingly lay down his life. 
 The man that believes nothing has really 
 nothing to live for. The world has no use for 
 him. Now, it will hardly do to say that one 
 may have a creed on every other subject, but 
 none on so important a subject as religion. 
 Thomas Jefferson was somewhat of a skeptic, 
 yet he has left on record a very high estimate 
 of the importance of this subject. These are 
 his words : "The relations which exist between 
 man and his Maker are the most interesting 
 and important to every human being, and the 
 most incumbent on his investigation.'' 
 
 If a creed is thus most natural and need- 
 ful, what, we may ask, is the value of a creed? 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 127 
 
 You will at once reply, "That depends on the 
 truth there is in it.'^ All history proves that 
 the man or woman of great achievement is 
 the one possessed of a fine enthusiasm. Fruit 
 comes of faith — if that be large and lofty 
 enough to evoke and focalize all there is in 
 the man. It is the strenuous character that 
 succeeds. The man that comes to the front is 
 the one that has faith to remove mountains. 
 The man that achieves is the man that believes. 
 And the world gives its homage to the one that 
 dares. The Word says, "His ministers are 
 a flaming fire.'' On the other hand, we cannot 
 greatly respect the one who has no opinion of 
 his own, who, like the weather vane on the 
 steeple, is veered about with every wind of 
 doctrine. Any political party without an issue 
 is dead. A significant battle cry, concentrat- 
 ing a popular sentiment, is half the battle. 
 More than once a popular slogan has decided 
 the fortunes of a campaign. None the less must 
 a church have its battle flag ; it must stand for 
 something. It cannot live long on mere ne- 
 gations. At the advent of Christ there existed 
 a religious sect whose characteristic doctrine 
 was a denial. Of the Sadducees it is especially 
 recorded that they taught, "There is no resur- 
 rection." They were highly respectable, few 
 
■^■A 
 
 128 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 in numbers, and soon died out. Talk of a 
 church without a creed — as well expect a 
 strong government without a constitution, 
 science without definition, literature without 
 an alphabet, a political party without a plat- 
 form, or a grand life without a purpose. A 
 man with a message is what the world wants. 
 It calls for prophets rather than priests, for 
 seers with clear vision, whose call burns in 
 their bones, and who "cannot but speak the 
 things which they have seen and heard." The 
 church is set to teach its best conception of 
 Christ, and to re-present Christ to the world 
 so far as he may be in a regenerated character 
 and life. It is the depository and evangelist 
 of the most solemn, sublimest truth ever re- 
 vealed to man. When in the ancient days Lu- 
 cretius scoffed at all religion as the juggle of 
 priests, then the Koman empire began to de- 
 cline. When, again, in the eighteenth century, 
 Voltaire and the Encyclopedists abjured reli- 
 gion as mere priestcraft and declared enlight- 
 enment to be synonymous with disbelief, then 
 too began the most perilous era of social dis- 
 order the modern world has witnessed. Al- 
 ways, in the state, the church, the individual, 
 a rational faith means power and progress, 
 while unfaith means decrepitude and decay. 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 129 
 
 Christianity as a system is very positive. 
 Its Founder claimed for himself sole authority ; 
 he would have no compromise. The Pan- 
 theons of the pagan world gathered indiffer- 
 ently all the gods of the nations ; not so Christ. 
 In the New Testament his oft-repeated and 
 characteristic words were, ^^Verily, verily, I say 
 unto you," words repeated seventy times over. 
 There was no bidding for patronage by com- 
 promise or silence. And equally positive was 
 the character demanded of the disciple. "Ye 
 cannot serve God and mammon.'' "He that 
 is not for me is against me.'' "He that is not 
 willing to forsake all" — property, friends, 
 even life itself — "is not worthy to be my dis- 
 ciple." Among the last revelations made to 
 John on Patmos was a condemnation of the 
 half-hearted and the lukewarm. Concerning 
 the church in Laodicea, who were neither hot 
 nor cold, the Lord declares, "I will spew thee 
 out of my mouth," as one would cast out that 
 which was distasteful and offensive. 
 
 While thus commending a positive faith, it 
 would be an inadequate presentation did we 
 overlook the fact that faith has also its just 
 limitations. To believe everything would be 
 quite as foolish as to reject everything. A 
 positive Christian faith does not prohibit an 
 
130 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 open mind. Hinduism and Romanism teach 
 that a thought of doubt is a thought of sin. 
 Not so our Protestant Christianity. We rec- 
 ognize the fact that God's revelations both to 
 the race and to the individual have always 
 been progressive. The path even of the just 
 "shineth more and more." One must unlearn 
 much before reaching the final truth. Mr. 
 Ruskin is credited with saying that he was 
 never quite certain of a thing until he had 
 changed his mind about it at least three times. 
 Our faith does not hunger for change, neither 
 does it fear it. It always challenges the light. 
 "It buildeth in the cedar's tops and dallies 
 with the wind and courts the sun.'' With in- 
 crease of knowledge the formularies of the 
 Middle Ages may not satisfy the mind of the 
 church to-day. An outgrown faith is as use- 
 less and grotesque as an outgrown garment. 
 Once the church accepted human slavery as a 
 divine institution sanctioned by the Bible. In 
 the larger light of to-day it condemns it as the 
 "sum of all villainies." To-day we may not ac- 
 cept the commercial view of the atonement — 
 once held by a respectable portion of the 
 church — yet we may still devoutly look to 
 Christ as our Saviour from sin and death. 
 The believer of to-day finds himself confronted 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 131 
 
 with the numerous questions of the ^'higher 
 criticism." Questions, we say, for thus far this 
 school of thinkers has produced many more 
 questions than answers. What shall we do 
 with them? Not ignore them, surely. On the 
 other hand, even an unanswerable question for 
 the time need not wreck one's established faith. 
 I confess it does not much disturb my faith 
 to be told that in the book which the ancient 
 Hebrews called the prophecy of Isaiah there 
 are found traces of two or three authors. Even 
 should a more extended examination assign 
 the book of Daniel to the Maccabean age, yet 
 neither the dual authorship of the one, nor the 
 altered date of the other, need weaken our con- 
 fidence in them as the human record of a 
 divine revelation. With the devout and 
 learned Principal Shairp we may ask: 
 
 "I have a life in Christ to live. 
 
 And e'er I live it must I wait 
 Till science shall full answer give 
 Of this or that hook's date?" 
 
 Christianity is the only historical religion; 
 that is, it alone appeals to history both be- 
 fore and after its inauguration for its cre- 
 dentials. When Christ came appeal was made 
 to the historic writings of the Jews as pro- 
 phetic of his coming and character. Neither 
 
132 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 the Koran of Mohammed, nor the Shasters, nor 
 the Vedic Scriptures, nor the Book of Mormon 
 build thus on historic foundations. In this 
 regard Christianity is unique. Three quar- 
 ters of the Bible is history. Its doctrine is 
 embedded in the historic records. Now, it is 
 very possible that discoveries in science and in 
 the vast underground explorations begun in 
 our day may lead to modifications in our under- 
 standing of that history. In like manner the 
 comparative study of religions will aid us the 
 better to interpret the relations of other great 
 systems to the gospel. That intellectual sin- 
 cerity which Christ demands of his followers 
 will then require the church to face the facts 
 and change its commentaries. It is now more 
 than a century and a half since Semler inaugu- 
 rated the modern movement called "Higher 
 Criticism." Yet the changes thus far required 
 in the attitude of the church and its interpre- 
 tation of the Scriptures are far less radical 
 and revolutionary than those which Christ in- 
 troduced at his advent. To the devout souls 
 of that day they appeared the final destruction 
 of religion. It was, however, only a seeming. 
 To-day, after a lapse of nineteen centuries, we 
 still recognize the Old and the New Testaments 
 as integral parts of one revelation. The forms 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 133 
 
 of the Old passed into desuetude, but its great 
 religious principles, with vastly enlarged sig- 
 nificance, remain as fast and firm as the ever- 
 lasting hills. 
 
 Again, in estimating the limitations of our 
 faith, we will give due consideration to the 
 speculative element as well as to the his- 
 toric. A positive faith by no means demands 
 that one should be equally well assured upon 
 every article in his creed. With judicial can- 
 dor the disciple must distinguish between the 
 essential and the nonessential, between the 
 experimental and the speculative. One may 
 have unshaken faith in the sinfulness of the 
 human heart as portrayed in the Bible, yet be 
 unable to accept any of the theories as to how 
 sin came into the world. 
 
 With such reasonable limitations in the 
 realms of history and speculation it is very 
 clear that a proper religious faith will yet 
 count some things as settled, settled forever 
 and beyond debate. One may be really broad 
 and liberal and progressive even though he 
 refuse to cast away everything that is older 
 than day before yesterday. The child of eight 
 years has as firm a conviction of his own 
 existence as the sire of eighty. His conscious 
 experience long ago settled that fact forever 
 
134 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 beyond a doubt. If the fifteen hundred mil- 
 lions of people on the earth should march 
 before him and each deny it, that conviction 
 would still remain. A conscious experience 
 cannot be doubted so long as the consciousness 
 lasts. There are truths which awake within 
 us, and which, as Wordsworth has well said, 
 
 Wake to perish never, 
 
 Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavor 
 
 Nor man nor boy, 
 
 Nor all that is at enmity with joy 
 
 Can utterly abolish or destroy. 
 
 So there are rich experiences in soul life which 
 no after-learning can invalidate any more than 
 it could abolish for us the alphabet. To those 
 who seek, the best things are sure. Changes 
 may come in the interpretation of historic 
 records and in speculative theology, yet there 
 abides in conscious experience, in the great 
 truths of the Book, and in the credentials 
 which the gospel has wrought out for itself 
 during the Christian centuries a firm founda- 
 tion for a most positive, rational, and peace- 
 ful faith. The Hon. Jeremiah Black, justly 
 esteemed one of the ablest jurists that America 
 has produced, making reply to a skeptical 
 article appearing in the North American Ke- 
 viewj used these words : "To one who carefully 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 135 
 
 studies the ease, the proof of Christianity 
 becomes so strong that the disbelief we hear 
 of seems like a kind of insanity.'' 
 
 I hardly need add that a positive reli- 
 gious faith is essential to our highest happi- 
 ness. No man may hope to attain to his best 
 self while ignoring his religious nature. No 
 man can be properly at ease while yet these 
 great questions of the present and the future 
 remain unsettled. Both the mind and the 
 heart demand somewhere a rock foundation. 
 Such assurance has always been the secret of 
 the martyr's triumph. ^'They condemned us 
 to the wild beasts and we returned to our 
 dungeon with exceeding joy in our hearts." 
 Such was the last message ascribed to the 
 youthful Christian, St. Perpetua. Man is so 
 constituted that a state of indecision is always 
 uncomfortable : it may become torment. When 
 the psalmist could say, "My heart is fixed, O 
 God,'' then he could shout, "I will sing, yea I 
 will sing and give praise." Said Sir Humphry 
 Davy, "If I could choose what would be most 
 delightful, and, I believe, most useful to me, 
 I should prefer a firm religious belief to every 
 other blessing." Indeed, so needful is faith to 
 the human heart that the credulity of professed 
 unbelievers has become proverbial. One can 
 
136 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 easily credit the report that the arehskeptic, 
 David Hume, was yet a firm believer in ghosts. 
 Men are ready to believe everything when they 
 believe nothing. "They will have soothsayers 
 when they cease to have prophets, and witch- 
 craft when they cease to have rational religion. 
 They open the caves of sorcery whenever they 
 shut up the temples of God/' 
 
 It is quite possible that some who read 
 these lines may feel very sincerely and sadly 
 that for them a positive religious faith is a 
 sheer impossibility. Often they have coveted 
 the serenity and assurance which others seem 
 to enjoy. Our differences are so great, both 
 in circumstances and in constitution, that he 
 who speaks here wisely will always speak 
 modestly. Intellectual sincerity requires that 
 one shall cultivate the utmost candor with 
 oneself, striving for openness of mind to all 
 evidence. That, however, is an extremely dif- 
 ficult virtue. Prejudices constitute a large 
 part of our opinions — ^views taken at second- 
 hand with little or no investigation. Then, 
 too, our worldly interests and ambitions are 
 aggressive, warping the judgment with many 
 a bias. To properly limit them means per- 
 petual conflict. Indeed, it may be much easier 
 to deal honestly with bills and stocks in our 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 137 
 
 hands than with the thoughts and desires in 
 our hearts. Still, it is possible for each by 
 divine grace to possess a peace of mind passing 
 understanding. The promise of the Master, 
 "My peace I give unto you," was not limited 
 to the first few disciples. Have we ever made 
 religion a matter of supreme concern or have 
 we found time and given exhaustive attention 
 to a thousand other subjects while allowing 
 this one to remain unsettled? Here the Bible 
 speaks with no uncertain sound. "Seek ye 
 first/^ not fame, not a business success and a 
 fortune, none of these, but "Seek ye first the 
 kingdom of God." It is both unwise and unjust 
 to reach conclusions, in such a matter, without 
 reasonable examination. We may not hope for 
 a profound, joyous, religious faith except we 
 give the subject prayerful attention. 
 
 Moreover, to this end it is equally clear 
 that one must be true to the truth already 
 known. In our day there is a widespread ten- 
 dency to emphasize what one does not believe. 
 Our unfaiths seem to be vastly more important 
 than our faiths. The popular literature of the 
 age casts a halo of honor about doubt. Tenny- 
 son so glorifies it, saying, 
 
 There lives more faith in honest douht. 
 Believe me, than in half the creeds. 
 
138 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 With, this eminent leadership, the changes have 
 been rung upon this "honest doubt" so often 
 as to lead one to suppose that the only really 
 honest thing abroad is doubt. I submit, if it 
 would not be both healthy and helpful to begin 
 to talk somewhat more about our honest faiths. 
 In the seventy-fourth psalm we are told, "A 
 man was famous according as he had lifted 
 up axes upon the thick trees.'' Then men at- 
 tained fame as destructionists. Verily, those 
 days seem to have returned. In our age men 
 build great reputations on their ability to 
 tear down. It is not a good sign in society 
 or state or church. Mr. Burke pronounced the 
 leaders in the Reign of Terror "the grandest 
 architects of ruin the world has ever pro- 
 duced." But their temporary fame has passed 
 into eternal infamy. We will not get on well 
 if we take up our abode amid the tombs of our 
 dead faiths. One would hate to be forever 
 studying gravestones and epitaphs. Have you 
 not noticed on some hot summer day, after 
 meeting a hundred people, each of whom made 
 the uncomfortable heat the sole topic of con- 
 versation, that then it grew to be several de- 
 grees hotter even than the thermometer re- 
 corded? This is a psychological fact easily 
 explained and appearing in every realm of 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 139 
 
 thought. If we would have more faith, we 
 must cease forever and ever accentuating our 
 doubts, and begin to live what we believe. 
 Paul was a man of mighty faith, but Paul was 
 also a man of stupendous energy in the execu- 
 tion of his faith. If we would enjoy PauPs faith 
 we must come to Paul's consecration. Faith 
 and fidelity grow together. When with him we 
 can say, ^^To me to live is Christ,'' then with him 
 we may also shout adown the ages, "I am per- 
 suaded that neither death nor life, nor angels 
 nor principalities, shall be able to separate 
 us from the love of God which is in Christ 
 Jesus, our Lord." 
 
IX - 
 
 ROADSIDE SERMONS 
 
 Those graceful acts, 
 Those thousand decencies that daily flow 
 From all her words and actions. 
 
 — Milton. 
 
 There are hermit souls that live withdrawn 
 In the peace of their self-content; 
 
 There are souls, like stars, that dwell apart, 
 In a fellowless firmament; 
 
 There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths 
 Where highways never ran; 
 
 But let me live by the side of the road 
 
 And be a friend to man. 
 
 — Sam Walter Foss. 
 
IX 
 
 EOADSIDE SERMONS 
 
 The life of Christ has furnished the world 
 an illustrious example of the improvement of 
 wayside opportunities. He was not cathedral 
 or court preacher. On the mountainside, in 
 a fishing smack by the shore of Gennesaret, on 
 the roadside, at the couch of the suffering or 
 the bier of the dead, at the well curb of Sychar, 
 or on the way to Emmaus, to a single person 
 or to the hungry multitude, to rich and poor, 
 outcast or Pharisee, it mattered not where, or 
 who the audience, his presence was a benedic- 
 tion and his words an uplift to the better life. 
 The record tells us how two disciples on their 
 way to Emmaus said one to another, "Did not 
 our heart burn within us, while he talked with 
 us by the way?" And after that conversation 
 at the well of Sychar, "The woman then left her 
 waterpot, and went her way into the city, and 
 saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told 
 me all things that ever I did: is not this the 
 
 Christ?" Brief roadside sermons these, but 
 
 143 
 
144 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 very effective. All of us are thus week-day 
 preachers. As with the Master, so with each 
 of us, much of life must be spent by the way- 
 side. Its crises and grand opportunities come 
 to us in our ordinary walks, suddenly and 
 often unrecognized. That meeting at the well 
 curb, how seemingly unpremeditated on the 
 part of Christ, and how entirely unexpected 
 by the woman! Yet, in the divine wisdom, 
 how fruitful of good to the woman, to the 
 disciples, to her fellow townsmen, and to the 
 world ! It is often, if not usually so. The fac- 
 tors which go to decide the momentous issues 
 of our lives are not in times and places where 
 we are most clearly and intensely conscious of 
 them. The trial moments come and the deci- 
 sions are made quietly by the wayside. Thus 
 we often decide and enter upon courses of ac- 
 tion involving most vital consequences with as 
 little sense of the real situation as did that 
 woman going to draw water for the midday 
 meal. The thoughts and resolutions, the re- 
 fusals or consents of an hour sweep the life 
 onward for years thereafter upon a resistless 
 tide of delightful or dreadful consequences. 
 History tells us that Mohammed fleeing from 
 his enemy was saved by a spider's web woven 
 across the entrance of a cave where he had 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 145 
 
 taken refuge. Benjamin Franklin ascribed the 
 turn of his life to th6 casual reading of Cotton 
 Mather's "Essays to Do Good." Jeremy Ben- 
 tham's philosophy was in like manner the out- 
 growth of a single phrase, "The greatest good 
 to the greatest number/' which caught his eye 
 at the end of a pamphlet. Dr. Moffatt's work 
 in the Dark Continent and the glorious career 
 of his son-in-law, Dr. Livingstone, in the same 
 field, were inspired by the. sight of a placard 
 posted in one of the obscure lanes in London. 
 Historic examples might be indefinitely multi- 
 plied. There is scarcely a mature person who 
 reads these words whose life would not furnish 
 illustration. Unobtrusive words and influences 
 by the wayside have been the little sermons, 
 the turning points of each for good or ill. 
 
 Moreover, as all receive, so we are all preach- 
 ing sermons by the wayside. Our creeds are 
 preached on Sunday, in the symbols and serv- 
 ices of church worship. Our characters preach 
 all the week. They should agree, both creed 
 and conduct, but they do not always. The 
 real strength or weakness of a man will show 
 itself in his wayside, sudden, everyday speech 
 and action, for character, like murder, will 
 out. One of these spontaneous outbursts of 
 human nature, as revealing the real man, is 
 
146 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 worth more than whole days of occasional 
 parade and ceremony. Shall we say also it 
 is vastly weightier in its influence? Moreover, 
 the grandeur of one's moral character is not 
 displayed by his control of self against temp- 
 tations to great crime, to murder or highway 
 robbery. One of comparatively low morals may 
 govern himself against these. The strength of 
 one's integrity will shine, rather, when un- 
 moved by solicitations to the slightest and 
 most secret departures from rectitude. Moral 
 heroism is not most clearly proven when all 
 the world is looking on. Almost anybody could 
 endure martyrdom on a grand scale. It is, 
 rather, in obscure places of self-sacrifice that 
 one shall find the loftiest fortitude. Take, for 
 instance, the spirit that silently bears ingrati- 
 tude, brutality, betrayal. The wife or mother 
 who in the night-long watches endures the sus- 
 pense and agony of unrequited love, yet nobly 
 stands at her post, and, like the dove that 
 covers with its wing the poisoned arrow pierc- 
 ing the heart, faithfully performs her duty to 
 the family, the church, and humanity, while in 
 the spirit of the Master she prays, "Father, for- 
 give them, they know not what they do." In 
 such an one we shall have the finest example 
 of Christian fortitude. 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 147 
 
 It is this beautiful type of life exhibiting con- 
 sistency and sweet reasonableness in the ten 
 thousand wayside trials day by day that the 
 world wants more than any new theology. 
 Verily, he is a poor pleader for the cause who 
 is devout in the sanctuary and detestable at 
 home, sanctimonious on the Sabbath and 
 sordid all the week. Profess what he will, 
 loudly and with a long face, yet his character 
 will leak out by the wayside and preach the 
 louder. It is in the shop and ship, in the store 
 and street, on the farm and in the factory that 
 the world most needs Christ. In these road- 
 side revelations we touch each other at so 
 many points that it quite becomes us to be 
 modest in our professions and charitable to- 
 ward others. 
 
 It is blessed truth, moreover, that, while 
 it is our special privilege to meet Christ in the 
 closet and in the church, we also as the dis- 
 ciples of old may walk with him by the way- 
 side. Increased religious life and light shall 
 come to us in this way, just as the Master 
 revealed himself to the Samaritan woman. 
 Some people conceive of religion as an ecclesi- 
 astical form; they think of it in connection 
 with a sermon, as something inherent in the 
 church and its ordinances. They require the 
 
148 PLAIN THOUGHTS - 
 
 traditional time and place, priests and ritual. 
 The message must be couched in peculiar 
 phrases and forms. I had almost said if cer- 
 tain tones of voice were lacking they could 
 hardly be religious. Let us not mistake. For 
 each of us the Christian life lies close by the 
 wayside of our commonest faculties and duties. 
 As in the kingdom of nature, so also in the 
 kingdom of grace, the vital truths are on the 
 surface. The great duties and doctrines are 
 writ in illuminated texts, so that the wayfar- 
 ing man, though a fool, need not err therein. 
 The Christian life is plainer than the creeds. 
 Our stores and shops, therefore, our tools and 
 toil, even the sights of the street, with its coarse 
 and corrupt human nature, its pride and provo- 
 cation — these are not so many things to be 
 shunned for the sake of growing Christlike. 
 On the contrary, a roadside religion such as 
 the Master's will deal with them as so many 
 means of grace, both to ourselves and others. 
 Let the arena be little or large, questions 
 are constantly arising for adjudication. They 
 constitute our probation, ordained of Infinite 
 Wisdom for our growth in grace. So the world 
 becomes God's cathedral and affairs stepping 
 stones toward the larger life, and our work 
 by the wayside is holy worship. In simple 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 149 
 
 deeds of justice and mercy we may walk with 
 God as surely as did Enoch of old, for "what 
 doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, 
 and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with 
 thy God?'' The Christian life is no dissipa- 
 tion, no disparagement of life's commonplaces. 
 Would that men knew the wondrous accessi- 
 bility of Christ. That woman of Samaria, as 
 is shown by the context, was looking for the 
 Messiah, but doubtless she expected his com- 
 ing with some mighty accompaniment of ce- 
 lestial pageantry, appearing on the summits of 
 Ebal and Gerizim arrayed in supernal glory. 
 Little did she expect to find him in the dusty 
 garb of a tired traveler sitting at Jacob's Well 
 and asking for a drink of water. Happy the 
 one who has so far learned the truth that even 
 when drawing water for a midday meal she 
 may come into communion with the Saviour. 
 The story comes to us that when Lafayette 
 was confined in a German prison for some 
 years, he never looked through the keyhole of 
 his dungeon door without meeting the eye of a 
 sentinel directed toward him. True, or not, as 
 that tradition may be, it is truth of far higher 
 importance that the disciples in the humblest 
 condition and labor may always look up and 
 behold the face of the heavenly Father. In 
 
150 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 hours of spiritual despondency there was noth- 
 ing for you but a little work by the wayside, a 
 cup of cold water in the name of the Master. 
 Yet, away down there, the Comforter whis- 
 pered to your fainting spirit: "Act, work, be 
 merciful and honest, force yourself to abound 
 in little services, be true to the little knowl- 
 edge that you have. That must be right though 
 all else be doubtful.'' Then it was that these 
 simple ministries by the wayside proved step- 
 ping-stones out of the slough of despond, and 
 there by the wayside the sinking soul found 
 Christ the merciful waiting to meet and to 
 strengthen and to save. This Samaritan out- 
 cast had sunk far down in a life of sin, vet 
 came to Christ and received wonderful reve- 
 lation and uplift, as with receptive, open heart 
 she listened while offering a cup of water to 
 a weary traveler. She did not then know that 
 it was the Messiah for whom the nations were 
 looking. She saw only a despised Jew, dusty 
 and travel-worn, one with whom her people 
 had and wished to have no intercourse. Hon- 
 oring and lifting humanity anywhere through 
 the sweet offices of love, we meet and honor 
 the Master. 
 
 In that scene at Jacob's Well we have also 
 an example of Christ's method of spreading 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 151 
 
 the gospel. In this age of magnificent church 
 building, it behooves his disciples to watch 
 carefully lest there be neglect of the humbler 
 roadside work. Once let religion degenerate 
 into a patronized and fashionable thing, some- 
 thing to serve as a claim and introduction to 
 good society, a graceful curve of proprieties 
 and nothing more, then, heedless of its creeds 
 and cathedrals, the great masses will drift 
 away from it as if belonging to a sphere of life 
 not their own. By the operation of natural 
 law, doubtless, society will always divide into 
 classes. Differing capacities, conditions, and 
 employments will in the future, as in the past, 
 produce class sympathies and affiliations. As 
 social beings men will continue to form circles 
 and clans. But human nature, throughout all 
 history, displays an extreme tendency to self- 
 ish and unjust caste, to distinctions founded 
 on inferior standard, such as physical strength, 
 blood, color, family. So to-day the refined 
 and the rich and the fashionable fall into 
 cliques by the natural gravitation of their 
 tastes, their pursuits, and their possessions, 
 while the less favored shrink from such associ- 
 ations and enter others less mortifying to their 
 pride and more congenial to their tastes and 
 station. Yet neither the rich nor the poor as 
 
152 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 a class accomplish themselves best when thus 
 separated the one from the other. Under 
 such conditions the rich will weakly incline to 
 greater self-indulgence and the lack of healthy 
 human sympathies, while the less favored will 
 yield to a morbid sensitiveness, to jealousy 
 and unjust suspicion. Now, poverty is no 
 crime, neither is wealth; either one may be a 
 disgrace, either one may be honorable. 
 
 Moreover, it is not wise to be carried away 
 with visionary and drastic schemes for the 
 reconstruction of society on a dead level of 
 equality. That is neither natural, nor possible, 
 nor desirable. It is the duty of the Christian 
 Church to nurture a helpful sympathy and an 
 honest fellowship that shall, like the Master, 
 pass below outward conditions to what is true 
 and beautiful and good in man. The age of 
 religious persecution is passed, the age of 
 polite Christianity is come. To-day we need 
 to bevrare lest our very magnificence shall 
 prove so many hindrances rather than helps to 
 win the world to Christ. However widely a 
 Pharisaic exclusiveness may prevail in the 
 world, no pageantry of church service, no pride 
 of station, no gorgeous equipages, no patron- 
 izing airs among Christians should ever bar 
 the doors of God's house against the worthy 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 153 
 
 poor. Christianity stands in its high office and 
 in the name of God the common Father and 
 the lowly Christ of Nazareth, our common 
 Saviour, condemns such exclusiveness. When 
 the Master lived among men "the common peo- 
 ple heard him gladly/' The wayside life of 
 Jesus and his sermon to an outcast woman at 
 Jacob's Well is an impressive lesson to the 
 modern church in, the flood time of its worldly 
 prosperity. This gospel is no respecter of per- 
 sons, and we may trust as his disciples more 
 and more perfectly to attain to the "mind 
 which was in Christ" that in the fervent heat 
 of their love they will be melted into unity with 
 all men and with Christ their common Lord. 
 In that scene at Jacob's Well we also have 
 an eminent example of the value of personal 
 effort. Overleaping all social and sectarian 
 limits, Jesus in personal conversation led this 
 lowly seeker into the light of a new life. The 
 world, we are sure, is not to be saved by whole- 
 sale, but by individual effort with individuals. 
 James and John, Matthew and Nathanael, 
 Andrew and Peter were brought to Christ by 
 personal effort. Saul was led by the prayers 
 and counsels of Ananias ; the jailer and family 
 by Paul and Silas; Cornelius by Peter; the 
 eunuch by Philip. Everywhere it is the in- 
 
154 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 dividual workman that is honored. Moreover, 
 the first impulse of a converted soul is to win 
 others. Everyone born into the kingdom is 
 a propagandist. It was very natural, as the 
 record tells us, that the woman should hasten 
 back to the village to tell everybody she had 
 found the Messiah. 
 
 We are told that when his disciples came 
 back they marveled that he talked with the 
 woman. In his zeal to save a soul he had ig- 
 nored the suggestions of social pride and con- 
 vention. Think of it ! The Son of God enunci- 
 ating truths of eternal significance, preaching 
 to a single hearer, and that hearer a fallen 
 woman, a despised inhabitant of a mean city ! 
 No wonder the disciples marveled. Yet we are 
 told none of them dared ask him why he talked 
 with the woman. It is a wonder the impulsive 
 Peter did not. I imagine he stood by and 
 looked askance, now at the woman and then 
 at the Master. Perhaps, shrugging his shoul- 
 ders, he muttered to himself: "Ah, this will 
 never do! What can it mean! What a dis- 
 grace!" And then a sly doubt crept into his 
 heart whether that strange personage who 
 would talk with the Samaritan outcast by the 
 wayside were really the Messiah foretold by 
 the prophets, the anointed of God, who should 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 155 
 
 redeem Israel. Yet the Master yearned for 
 that inquiring soul and poured into its opening 
 door the light of a great revelation, and that 
 well curb at Sychar became an ideal pulpit for 
 the world, teaching all generations the su- 
 preme value of personal effort in saving souls. 
 
A GLANCE THROUGH THE OPEN DOOR 
 
 Heaven open'd wide 
 Her ever during gates, harmonious sound, 
 On golden hinges moving. — Milton, 
 
A GLANCE THROUGH THE OPEN DOOR 
 
 When our Lord ascended to heaven lie 
 opened the door and left it open. On that Sab- 
 bath morning when the Master, leading his 
 disciples out as far as to Bethany, was there 
 parted from them, their vision was not as yet 
 quickened to behold that door. Among the 
 wonderful apocalyptic visions of his maturer 
 spiritual life the revelator records the fact, 
 ^^I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in 
 heaven." Wise will it be for us, reverently 
 to turn our eyes toward that open door. 
 
 4^ '^ 4^ 
 
 Somewhere in his lectures on "Cloud Beauty'' 
 Mr. Ruskin declares that ninety-five of every 
 hundred Englishmen never look above the level 
 of their eyebrows. This, however, is a weak- 
 ness of human nature everywhere, notwith- 
 standing the Creator bestowed upon man an 
 erect posture, and attached to the human eye 
 a muscle whereby he might look upward. He 
 
 159 
 
160 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 also set apart one day in seven in which man's 
 thoughts should rise reverently heavenward, 
 and every graceful church spire to-day points 
 thither as a silent monitor both of this privilege 
 and duty. 
 
 At times it is objected that the Christian 
 pulpit deals too much with the invisible things 
 of the future life and too little with the stern 
 realities which confront us here and now. 
 Certainly, a ministry that fails to recognize 
 these earthly conditions and conflicts would 
 have no sanction from the Master. The gos- 
 pel of Jesus Christ is eminently practical. On 
 every page it accentuates the duty of the pres- 
 ent hour. When the disciples came to our 
 Lord with curious questions about the end of 
 the world and the details of the life to come, 
 he did not deign to gratify their curiosity. 
 His only reply, "Be ye ready," was a solemn 
 injunction to a correct everyday life as the 
 best surety for the life beyond. The Sermon 
 on the Mount from the beginning to the end is 
 a series of practical precepts. Of the Ten Com- 
 mandmefits six enjoin duties of man to man, 
 while but four have reference to the more spe- 
 cific duties of man to God. In its meagerness 
 of detail concerning the life beyond Christi- 
 anity differs widely from other religious sys- 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 161 
 
 terns, such as Mohammedanism and modern 
 Spiritualism. Mankind has always had an 
 unquenchable curiosity to break the seal, to 
 tear aside the veil, to find some cranny or 
 crevice through which one might peep into that 
 spirit realm. Herein the divine wisdom of the 
 Scriptures appears as conspicuously in their 
 silence as in their utterances. It is best, more- 
 over, that here we "know only in part/' No 
 heart is strong enough to bear the full revela- 
 tion. None of us at the beginning could have 
 borne the disclosure of his own future. In 
 God's mercy the griefs and the burdens of our 
 lives have come to us one by one, and, for the 
 most part, without that continuous fear which 
 must have attended a long foreknowledge. 
 
 Even the levelation of the joys of heaven 
 would be disastrous. In the presence of such a 
 vision this poor heart must break from very 
 excess of joy. It is a well-known fact that 
 under the excitement of a great emotion at 
 times the heart has suddenly ceased to beat, 
 while at other times reason has been dethroned 
 by the strain. Were the heavenly life fully 
 revealed, earth must become either a morgue 
 or a madhouse. When Moses prayed to God, 
 "Show me thy glory," the desire was not grati- 
 fied. The reply came, "No man can see God 
 
162 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 and live." That is true to the best philosophy 
 of our day. 
 
 Moreover, in the clear prospect of our heav- 
 enly home — even could we bear it — the hard- 
 ships and limitations of the present must by 
 very contrast become intolerable, and fill the 
 soul with yearnings for relief. Like the home- 
 sick sailor boy, tossed about on the tempestu- 
 ous ocean, so would the spirit of man droop 
 for very homesickness and be unfitted for the 
 duties of the present. It is well, therefore, 
 that God's revelations of our future, both here 
 and hereafter, are only partial and progres- 
 sive. 
 
 4^ ^ 1^ 
 
 While, however, the gospel maintains such 
 silence concerning the details of the life to 
 come, yet, on the other hand, no religious 
 teacher ever so magnified the importance of 
 that future as did Jesus. From the beginning 
 to the end of his ministry he emphasized the 
 question, "What shall it profit a man if he 
 gain the whole world and lose his own soul?'' 
 In this the world's best thought to-day con- 
 firms the wisdom of the Master. If man has 
 any really great interests, they are spiritual 
 rather than material, and extend beyond these 
 few days of the earthly life. Without that life 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 163 
 
 this loses its loftiest significance and inspira- 
 tion. It is no wonder that skeptical philoso- 
 phers often become pessimists and question 
 whether life is worth living. On the other 
 hand, one may possess one's soul in all pa- 
 tience when confident that the everlasting ages 
 are his own. In that faith he finds strength 
 for his burdens, consolations for his griefs, 
 inspiration for self-sacrifice, while every vir- 
 tue appears reasonable. How small a matter, 
 think you, must obscurity, or disappointment, 
 or bodily pain, or poverty, or social neglect, or 
 calumny, or the petty persecutions of a day 
 appear to the quickened spirit gazing upon its 
 endless years, and how impossible withal for 
 such a one to give himself to that which is 
 small or unworthy ! In the Epistle to the He- 
 brews we are told that Christ was made our 
 High Priest, "not after the law of a carnal 
 commandment, but after the power of an end- 
 less life." That sinless life was not ordered ac- 
 cording to temporal laws and conventions. It 
 was not a cunning adaptation to circumstances 
 and the things that are seen; it was, rather, 
 a life inspired by and adjusted to eternal 
 realities, ordered "after the power of an end- 
 less life." So too shall the disciple, as an heir 
 of immortality, live on a plan far outreaching 
 
164 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 to-day and to-morrow and the day after. On 
 the other hand, so soon as man comes to believe 
 himself a mere animal, to perish with his de- 
 parting breath, so soon and surely will he 
 begin to live as a mere animal, barbarous and 
 beastly. The Epicureans of old denied a fu- 
 ture life, and with this as a leading doctrine, 
 although their founder was abstemious, they 
 themselves degenerated to such a depth of cor- 
 ruption that the Eoman statesman Fabricius 
 prayed that all the enemies of his country 
 might be followers of Epicurus. 
 
 ^ ^ ^ 
 
 While the Divine Wisdom has withheld from 
 us minute detail concerning the future life, 
 it has, however, most positively announced the 
 fact and portrayed its character in outline. 
 Both reason and revelation assure us as to 
 what it is not. The Word tells us there will 
 be ^^no night there J' In that spirit world we 
 shall not need to pass a third of our time in 
 the unconsciousness of sleep, for sleep is a 
 function of the body, not of the mind. Neither 
 shall we require it for rest. Here the body 
 wearies and demands rest, but there the unin- 
 cumbered spirit shall not grow weary. It is 
 reasonable to suppose that with enlarged facul- 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 165 
 
 ties we shall have great work to do, yet our 
 diligence shall prove — as the word itself 
 originally signified — our eternal delight. Here, 
 day after day, it is work, weariness, and worry. 
 Observe for an hour the passing throngs on a 
 city's street. How many haggard and care- 
 worn countenances ! How many bodies bowed 
 down with burdens and broken with disease! 
 How many faltering footsteps of tired men 
 and women, dragging themselves along life^s 
 hard pathways for a little while! Soon they 
 will all have disappeared — sinking down one 
 after another by the wayside — perhaps glad to 
 have done with it all and forever. But in that 
 home of the freed spirit, needing neither sleep 
 nor rest, with tireless and ever-enlarging facul- 
 ties, we may expect to work out the Father's 
 will in everlasting day. 
 
 4$^ 4$» 4» 
 
 And there will he no sorrow there. Here 
 there are fountains of tears around all eyes, 
 no cheek is dry. The first utterance of the 
 infant's voice is a cry, and from the cradle to 
 the grave there is perpetual lamentation. All 
 nature is resonant with minor tones. The 
 very winds, moaning through the trees, seem 
 to voice forth the heart of burdened humanity. 
 
166 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 Even the holiest here are not exempt. Indeed, 
 at times, it seems as if the best were called to 
 suffer the most. But there, we are assured, 
 "God will wipe away all tears from their eyes." 
 There will be no dying there. Here death only 
 is certain, and the earth has the aspect of one 
 vast charnel house, the abode of many more 
 beneath the soil than live upon its surface. 
 Next to sin death is the most dreadful phase 
 of this earthly existence. Unknown multi- 
 tudes are all their lifetime subject to bondage 
 in fear of death. No day is assured. No step 
 but it is overshadowed with unknown risks. 
 Death lurks in everything. It is in the air we 
 breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, 
 the raiment we wear. It courses secretly 
 through the lifeblood. It haunts every place. 
 Soon or late each one of us must face it. But 
 to the Christian believer beyond death there is 
 deathlessness, and beyond the passing clouds 
 there is everlasting sunshine. Into those 
 heavenly mansions the angel of death can 
 never enter. There all is life — eternal life. 
 And there will he no parting there. Here 
 
 Friend after friend departs, 
 Who liath not lost a friend? 
 
 There is no union here of hearts 
 That finds not here its end. 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 167 
 
 We have sat by the bedside and through 
 filmy eyes watched as the departing spirit 
 launched out on that unknown deep. Like 
 ships on the far-off horizon of the great ocean, 
 so they faded away in the dim distance. No 
 voice or voyager on that mysterious ocean has 
 ever returned to whisper a syllable of assur- 
 ance to our aching hearts. O ! this world had 
 been a different world to us since that dread 
 hour. Every day our hearts have gone out 
 toward them with unspeakable yearning. In 
 the darkness and in the day the prayer has 
 been lifted, "O God ! that we may come to them 
 again !'' And our experience has been the uni- 
 versal story. The partings of this earthly life 
 have made our sweetest friendships fountains 
 of bitter tears, and the greater the joy of one 
 the deeper the grief of the other. Well, in 
 some glad hour, not long hence, we shall meet 
 them, never to part again. With reasonable 
 faith we may sing, 
 
 "So long thy power hath blest me, sure it still 
 Will lead me on 
 O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till 
 
 The night is gone, 
 And with the morn those angel faces smile. 
 Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile!" 
 
 "And there shall be no more death, neither 
 
168 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any 
 more pam : for the former things are passed 
 away.'' 
 
 ♦ *> ♦> 
 
 Finally, among the negative aspects of that 
 future life there is one that explains and 
 crowns all the rest — there will he no sin there. 
 Sin is the source of all our suffering, but sin 
 cannot enter there. The earthly life has been 
 one long tragedy of evil. Here sin has entered 
 every heart, diminished every joy, enslaved 
 every faculty, stained every character, blighted 
 every home. Sin — sin — has been our greatest 
 hurt. We have suffered, God only knows how 
 griCA'ously, from our own sins and from the 
 sins of others, suffered and wept bitter tears. 
 God knows it all. But into that world of re- 
 deemed spirits there shall not enter "anything 
 that defileth," nor anything to hurt or make 
 us afraid. There is no thought so grateful to 
 the heart bowed down under the burden of its 
 own sins or the sins of others, no longing so 
 deep, as the cry of the quickened spirit for that 
 
 sinless estate. 
 
 ^ ^ ^ 
 
 But heaven is more than a condition of ne- 
 gations. Both reason and revelation assure us 
 of certain positive features as well. We may 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 169 
 
 expect it to be a state of enlarged manifesta- 
 tions. Here "we know only in part." We see 
 through a glass darkly. We grope about in 
 a twilight world. With an insatiate hunger 
 for knowledge, mystery enshrouds us on every 
 side. It mocks us, it laughs in our faces, it 
 baffles our cunningest efforts, it fills our little 
 life with disappointments and fears. To our 
 shortsighted vision this world is a masked 
 world and one of infinite misunderstandings. 
 Before this seeming of things it has been 
 
 Hard to work for God, 
 
 To rise and take his part. 
 Upon this battlefield of earth, 
 
 And not sometimes lose heart. 
 
 Here our trembling faith is confronted with 
 a strange maladjustment of men and things: 
 sin triumphant through the ages, falsehood 
 and vice robed in royal purple, while virtue 
 and truth lie prostrate ; shams riding in state 
 while genuine merit plods wearily along on 
 foot. But we are assured this is not to en- 
 dure forever. There in that heavenly world, 
 and in that day of the revelation of all things, 
 all lives, all characters in the blazing light of 
 infinite justice will take on their true values. 
 Then too we shall have cleared up to us many 
 a mystery of our own lives — mysteries which 
 
170 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 have sorely tried our faith and for a time, per- 
 haps, embittered our hearts with the spirit of 
 murmuring. There we shall "know, even as 
 we are known," and in the larger life be able 
 to see that the "Lord doeth all things well." 
 As we think over it the clouds gather thick 
 and dark over our pathway — how the best 
 purposes apparently have been thwarted, 
 prayer unanswered, persecution malignant 
 and hurtful permitted, and the life ordered 
 along pathways so strangely different from 
 our own choosing and our own best judgment. 
 There we may believe these dark sides of God's 
 providence will all be illumined with the radi- 
 ance of divine love, and we shall rejoice with 
 joy unspeakable over all the way the Lord 
 hath led us. This hour 
 
 If we could push ajar the gates of life 
 And stand within, and all God's workings see. 
 
 We could interpret all this doubt and strife. 
 And for each mystery could find a key. 
 
 Moreover, with enlarged manifestation, heaven 
 will offer us a breadth and richness of fellow- 
 ship unknown in the earthly life. 
 
 The communion of saints without a shadow 
 or a suspicion. Human tongue may not tell 
 the bliss of pure spirits dwelling thus in un- 
 disguised fellowship, no misinterpretation, no 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 171 
 
 fear, no sinister motive, no self-defensive bars 
 and bolts between. Earthly associations are 
 a very limited affair at best — by very necessity 
 a matter of careful calculation and many 
 definitions. In this earthly society separation 
 and silence are the safeguards with which each 
 soul must encase itself if it would escape suf- 
 fering. Moreover, if one would, yet one cannot 
 communicate to another his deepest and his 
 best experiences. We communicate only com- 
 monplaces. Human language and human ac- 
 tion are but the attempts of an infant to ex- 
 press the soul's profounder thought and love 
 and life. They utterly fail to bridge the chasm 
 between. Such was the thought of Tennyson 
 when he wrote: 
 
 But what am I? 
 An infant crying in tlie night: 
 An infant crying for the light, 
 And with no language hut a cry. 
 
 To-day science affirms that no particle of mat- 
 ter absolutely touches any other particle. Sus- 
 pend from the ceiling a chain, and to the free 
 end of that chain attach a weight of twenty 
 thousand tons, yet even then, no link of the 
 chain will come into immediate contact with 
 any other link. An attenuated film of ether 
 will still intervene between them. As with 
 
172 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 those material atoms, so with souls. They live 
 forever apart — unmeasured distances one from 
 the other. There in that home of the soul we 
 may hope to come into far more intimate and 
 unalloyed communion with the good. To the 
 redeemed spirit, the crown of the heavenly 
 life will be eternal fellowship with Christ. We 
 cannot measure the bliss of bathing forever 
 in the sunlight of infinite love. Bui we shall 
 behold the King in his beauty and be "forever 
 with the Lord." 
 
 Here in the body pent. 
 
 Absent from him I roam, 
 Yet nightly pitch my moving tent 
 
 A day's march nearer home. 
 
 i$e H$» ^ 
 
 Now, it is a blessed truth revealed in these 
 scriptures and experienced in many a believer's 
 heart, that heaven does not lie all heyond the 
 grave. We need not die to have heaven. The 
 greatest of the apostles declares that we may 
 now and here enjoy the "earnest of our inherit- 
 ance.'' That word "earnest" in the old English 
 was a law term. Among our forebears, it was 
 customary for the seller of real estate to pass 
 to the purchaser a handful of soil as a part or 
 earnest of the whole. So heaven in the heart of 
 the believer is the earnest — the foretaste — of 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 173 
 
 that into the complete possession of which he 
 shall come hereafter. Bunyan's pilgrim had 
 three special foretastes of paradise. From the 
 House Beautiful he saw the Delectable Moun- 
 tains. Then, again, from the Delectable 
 Mountains he caught a glimpse of the Celestial 
 City, and finally in the Land of Beulah he 
 heard the voices of them that dwell therein. 
 The allegory limits that experience to three 
 occasions, but the gospel of Jesus Christ im- 
 poses no such limitations. Amid those won- 
 derful yisions on Patmos John saw "heaven 
 coming down to earth." In this he summed 
 up the whole meaning of the gospel. It 
 was Christ's mission among men not only 
 to bring life and immortality to light beyond 
 the grave, but also to make this earth the 
 vestibule of heaven. He came to establish 
 the kingdom of God among men. Heaven 
 here, in our hearts and homes, is to be to us 
 more and more the conscious evidence of a 
 heaven hereafter. When, a few days hence, 
 as our feet are slipping o'er the brink and 
 the spirit is about to take its flight, then may 
 it be our blessed experience, as it was that of 
 John, to look and behold a door opened in 
 heaven. 
 
XI 
 SKEPTICISM 
 
 Our doubts are traitors, 
 And make us lose the good we oft might win, 
 By fearing to attempt. — Shakespeare, 
 
 He fought his doubts and gathered strength. 
 He would not make his judgment blind, 
 He faced the specters of the mind 
 
 And laid them: thus he came at length 
 To find a stronger faith his own. 
 
 — Tenivyson. 
 
XI 
 SKEPTICISM 
 
 After the resurrection of Jesus we are told 
 that his disciples went away into Galilee, as 
 Jesus had appointed, and when they saw him 
 they worshiped him, "but,'' says Matthew, 
 "some doubted.'' This admission of doubt on 
 the part of some of the disciples is evidence of 
 the integrity of the sacred writers; being so 
 confident of their own honesty and the facts 
 in the case, with transparent simplicity they 
 record the fact of such doubt. 
 
 To believe is more natural for man than to 
 doubt. A little child begins with believing 
 everything and everybody. It is only after he 
 has been deceived either by his own judgment 
 or the acts of others that he learns to doubt. 
 And from early childhood to old age, with 
 increasing experience, the process is one of in- 
 creasing doubt in many directions. We may 
 say, therefore, that while faith is prior and 
 more natural, doubt is also an inevitable conse- 
 quence arising from experience. 
 
 177 
 
178 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 In the domain of religion an attitude of 
 doubt may spring from vicious early educa- 
 tion, evil association, perhaps a pernicious 
 book, and the effect more easily arises where 
 there is a constitutional tendency to suspicion. 
 These and many other special influences enter- 
 ing an individuaFs life may obscure the truth 
 to him, warp the judgment and seriously viti- 
 ate the character. There are, moreover, cer- 
 tain more general influences which conduce to 
 this attitude of religious doubt, not only in the 
 individual but as a pervasive characteristic of 
 a nation or of an epoch. Among such we might 
 adduce the unwise dogmatism of the churchy 
 especially in former times. Extremes always 
 excite reactions. Extravagant creeds must 
 arouse antagonism leading to the opposite ex- 
 treme of unbelief. While this offensive fact in 
 the history of the church must be candidly 
 confessed and deplored, it should also be re- 
 membered that dogmatism has featured all 
 human conduct and creed. Human nature is 
 itself dogmatic. For this reason all its social, 
 scientific, and political constructs built on too 
 narrow foundations have required continual 
 amendments. The truth, though intolerant, is 
 never tyrannical. Like law, it is the condition 
 of completest freedom, but man's interpreta- 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 179 
 
 tion and use of the truth, in civil society, in 
 science, and in religion alike, have often been 
 unjust and cruel. Every school of thought, 
 every government has had its popes and inqui- 
 sitions and martyrs. To-day there are as bit- 
 ter antagonisms between the different schools 
 of medicine as exist between the most inimical 
 sects, while the rancorous debates of the 
 Eeichstag outrival the wrangles of the Middle 
 Ages church councils. So dogmatism is by no 
 means confined to religious bodies. Tolera- 
 tion, it is true, began somewhat earlier in the 
 domain of science than in that of religion 
 — ^very reasonably so, since the profoundest 
 beliefs are and ought to be the very last to be 
 altered or relinquished. Man's religious be- 
 liefs, involving the deepest interests and affec- 
 tion of his being, even though tainted with 
 error, should therefore be changed with ex- 
 treme slowness. 
 
 With such palliations of its errors in the 
 past, we must still confess that the church has 
 seriously suffered from the undue dogmatism 
 of its exponents. It has attempted too many 
 ultimate definitions. Learned church councils, 
 with a zeal beyond their knowledge, essayed 
 to cast all thought into one mold, substitut- 
 ing ecclesiastical opinion for the simple Word, 
 
180 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 then foisting it upon the Avorld as the essen- 
 tials and of equal authority with the ''Thus 
 saith the Lord." 
 
 In their impatience for the conquest of the 
 world, religious zealots have been satisfied to 
 enforce outward conformity and intellectual 
 assent without the accompaniment of a holy 
 life. Such dogmatism has appeared in an un- 
 warranted application of Scripture to the 
 minute details of human conduct, and also 
 to the interpretation of natural phenomena 
 outside the realm of morals and religion. 
 What a history of absurdities has been written 
 upon the subject of religious duties! Tylor 
 in his History of Primitive Culture tells us 
 that when a Hindu gapes he must snap his 
 thumb and finger and repeat the name of some 
 god. He has been taught that to neglect this 
 is as great a sin as to murder a Brahman. 
 The Greek historian Xenophon narrates how 
 the entire Greek army on the march was 
 halted, and prayer offered up when a certain 
 soldier on the dusty highway was seized with 
 a fit of sneezing. Childish as these delusions 
 appear, they are hardly more so than many 
 duties read into the Scriptures by learned 
 ecclesiastics in later times. We need only 
 recall that mass of precepts which the Jewish 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 181 
 
 doctors had collected about the Old Testa- 
 ment at the time of the advent. Among the 
 thirty-nine kinds of work which the rabbis 
 taught should not be done on the Sabbath day 
 we find that shoes with nails in them should 
 not be worn, for that would be carrying a bur- 
 den. Neither should persons tread upon the 
 grass on the holy day, lest they should trample 
 on a stray kernel of grain and that would be 
 a species of harvest work. The over scrupu- 
 lous Pharisees found in Christ's miracles of 
 mercy on the Sabbath day conclusive evidence 
 against his Messiahship. 
 
 In later days the question as to the proper 
 time of celebrating Easter was believed to in- 
 volve the issue of personal salvation or damna- 
 tion. In the fourteenth century, after lengthy 
 and learned debate at Constantinople as to the 
 nature of the light at the transfiguration, those 
 who refused to believe it uncreated were de- 
 nied Christian burial. In this excessive ap- 
 plication of Scripture to the details of human 
 conduct the Roman Church even assumed to 
 make discriminations in the guilt of various 
 sins. So we have them catalogued and the 
 tariff price of each officially sanctioned by the 
 church. The historian Froude enumerates cer- 
 tain examples. For the sin of sacrilege one must 
 
182 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 pay ten shillings and six pence; for simony, 
 the same amount; for taking of false oaths, 
 nine shillings ; for burning a neighbor's house, 
 ten shillings; for murdering a layman, seven 
 shillings and six pence; but for even laying 
 violent hands on a priest, ten shillings and six 
 pence. These and many others are specified 
 and their money value given with the seal of 
 an infallible Pope attached. 
 
 Rome, however, has not been the only trans- 
 gressor in such matters. The historian Buckle 
 exposes in like manner to ridicule what he 
 styles "the invented sins of the Scottish 
 clergy." For a Scotchman to step foot in a 
 Roman Catholic country was denounced as a 
 sin. For a town to hold market on Saturdav 
 or Monday, for a Scotch woman to live alone 
 or with a married sister were pronounced sin- 
 ful. Even the Christian must beware of enjoy- 
 ing his dinner, for that would be indulging his 
 carnal nature. 
 
 The record of our own New England forbears 
 is not free from such criticism. To their dog- 
 matism in the interpretation of scriptures are 
 doubtless due the numerous "isms" and skep- 
 ticisms which have marred the otherwise splen- 
 did history of New England. It is always a 
 sad blunder for an institution or an individual 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 183 
 
 seeking permanent influence to profess too 
 much. Derogatory reaction is sure to follow. 
 The church in its efforts to be wise above what 
 is written has unquestionably occasioned much 
 of past and present skepticism. In like manner 
 the effort to give the sanction of Scripture 
 to this or that scientific theory has often proved 
 injurious, for with the increase of knowledge 
 and the abandonment of such theories men 
 have lost confidence also in the teachings of 
 the church and in the entire word of revela- 
 tion. 
 
 Yet another potent factor in occasioning the 
 skepticism of our day is to be found in its 
 idolatry of freedom. Liberty is the talismanic 
 word of modern times through which man is 
 to achieve all good and avert all evil. This 
 generation will call no man master. It has 
 little reverence for authority in state or 
 church, in family or school. It is democracy 
 run to seed. In the schools this appears in the 
 wildest denials of the sacred beliefs of the 
 centuries. In the home circle it manifests 
 itself in the lack of parental discipline and 
 the self-assertion of the young and ignorant. 
 In the state it crops out in such absurdities 
 as socialism, communism, nihilism. In the 
 church it eschews all creeds. It may indeed 
 
184 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 be looked upon as a mark of genius for the 
 young man with his mental requirements yet 
 resting lightly upon him first of all to run a 
 wild hari-kari among the creeds, cutting and 
 thrusting, it matters not where, only that he 
 free himself from the common faith. The li- 
 centious freedom of our age thus glorifies self- 
 assertion first, last, and always — to take noth- 
 ing on trust but one's own ignorant self. 
 While accepting the vast improvements and 
 accumulations of economic value coming down 
 to us in the past, these religious libertines 
 would fain cast away the a-b-c, religious con- 
 cepts and experiences of the ages. Any life 
 thus lacking faith foundations cannot be other- 
 wise than degenerate. No one has portrayed 
 the ruinous effect more forcibly than did 
 Goethe, who says, "Epochs of faith are epochs 
 of fruitfulness, while, on the other hand, 
 periods of unfaith, however glittering, have 
 uniformly proven periods of decrepitude, bar- 
 ren of all great achievement.'' Fickleness is 
 a sure sign of weakness, yet nothing has 
 been more characteristic of infidelity and its 
 exponents. From age to age it has been as 
 changeable as the chameleon. The histories 
 of Voltaire, Rousseau, and Eenan furnish con- 
 spicuous examples, alternately blessing and 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 185 
 
 cursing Christianity. There too was Strauss, 
 the very coryphaeus of modern infidelity. 
 Starting at Tubingen, he was a disciple of 
 Schelling; then he passes through a period of 
 religious mysticism; shortly after he becomes 
 an enthusiastic admirer of the evangelical 
 Schleiermacher ; then with childish supersti- 
 tion he is interested in the marvelous visions 
 of clairvoyance, until with pendulum swing 
 he sways from the stream of credulity to radi- 
 cal skepticism. It is safe to say that a mind 
 of such cast has little qualification for the 
 writing of a true life of Christ. 
 
 This false conception of freedom has passed 
 beyond loose theories to looseness in private 
 and public morals. The action of creed and 
 character upon each other is reciprocal. As 
 the want of correct faith eventuates in weak 
 character, so, on the other hand, decay of pub- 
 lic and private morals works degradation in 
 the ideals of a community. Our system of 
 thought is thus often only the history of our 
 hearts and an afterthought and apology for 
 our acts. Bacon long ago wrote to the same 
 effect: "None deny there is a God but those 
 for whom it maketh that there were not God." 
 Our practices thus become the fathers of our 
 opinions. Infidelity is seldom born of the 
 
186 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 logical faculties. The words of Holy Writ are 
 true, "This is the condemnation, that light 
 is come into the world, but men loved dark- 
 ness rather than light, because their deeds were 
 evil." Rousseau, who could not with any de- 
 gree of patience read the austere laws of 
 morality enjoined by Jesus, yet confessed that 
 he "found in the reasonings of a certain woman 
 with whom he lived in the greatest intimacy 
 all those ideas which he had occasion for." 
 
 Henry VIII of England had lived eighteen 
 years in peace with his wife Catharine of Ara- 
 gon, and without any qualms of conscience on 
 the ground that she had been previously es- 
 poused to his deceased brother Arthur. But 
 when once he became enamored with the 
 beautiful Anne Boleyn, then suddenly new 
 light shone upon that article in the Levitical 
 law forbidding marriage with one so near of 
 kin. Then his conscientious scruples troubled 
 him, cost Wolsey his life, and stirred all 
 Europe. Pope, cardinals, legates, learned doc- 
 tors of the law, and Parliament were all called 
 upon to relieve the royal Henry from his pangs 
 of conscience. 
 
 The heart dictates our practical creeds, and 
 when once it becomes corrupted the very wish 
 that a questionable course of conduct were 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 187 
 
 right recurring often to the mind goes far to 
 make one feel it is right. 
 
 The astounding revelations made of late in 
 our country cannot but impress all thinking 
 people that we are living in an age of fear- 
 ful corruption. The low standard of personal 
 honesty in public life is a sad spectacle in this 
 land of the Puritans. Greed and graft seem 
 to be an insane obsession of our age. Honest 
 people are solemnly asking, whom can we 
 trust? One of old declared all men are liars. 
 Were he living to-day he might add, "and 
 thieves also.'' The family altar too has been 
 removed from multitudes of Christian homes, 
 robbing the young of this generation of one of 
 the strongest safeguards of virtue. The fear- 
 ful laxity of law and of public sentiment upon 
 divorce and the low estimate placed upon per- 
 sonal purity among men all are making fear- 
 ful inroads upon the sanctity of the Ameri- 
 can home. It is this tainted atmosphere of 
 easy virtue that is weakening the morals of 
 the young. Even the Christian profession has 
 measurably lost its meaning and is bandied 
 about in the jest of the worldly. In conscious 
 or unconscious conformity to the popular senti- 
 ment, the troublesome truths of the Bible have 
 been quietly dropped out from the peaceful 
 
188 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 ministrations of the pulpit. Thus conduct in 
 public and private has been reacting on our 
 faith until what men do not believe has be- 
 come quite as prominent and as potent as what 
 they believe. 
 
 If thus the low moral tone of practical life 
 has been destroying the faith, it is equally true 
 that a lofty integrity will also lift it. Skep- 
 ticism is well-nigh impossible in the presence 
 of a holy life. The church was organized on 
 earth not primarily to carry down a creed, 
 but to represent Christ, the Sinless One, so far 
 as he may be represented in a regenerated hu- 
 man character. The term "Christianity'' does 
 not occur in the Bible. That is an abstract 
 term and smacks of system. The Bible con- 
 tinually speaks of "living Christ'' and "by 
 Christ," and "in Christ," nay, more, in our 
 measure, "living Christ." The highest en- 
 comium to be passed of any of us is not that 
 we are orthodox, though that is desirable, not 
 that we are well versed in the Bible, though 
 that also is an attainment excellent as it is 
 rare, but, rather, that as disciples of the Mas- 
 ter we live honest, unselfish, prayerful lives, 
 not belying nor belittling our profession. 
 
 In the Bonaparte Chapel of the Church of 
 Saint Croce, in Florence, lie buried the mortal 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 189 
 
 remains of Charlotte Napoleon Bonaparte. 
 On her beautiful tombstone is engraven the 
 simple inscription, "Charlotte Napoleon 
 Bonaparte, worthy of her name." Skepticism 
 would soon disappear from any community in 
 which it could be truthfully said that every 
 professing Christian lived worthy of his name. 
 The world will honor the church and its 
 creeds when they behold in its members the 
 "mind which was in Christ.'^ When the New 
 England churches admitted to their member- 
 ship those who subscribed only to the "half- 
 way covenant" then pews and pulpits became 
 infected with infidelity, from the effects of 
 which they have hardly rallied to this day. It 
 is blessed truth that the most effective evi- 
 dence for Christianity ever presented to the 
 world has been placed within the reach of 
 everyone. Example rather than argument is 
 the supreme influence. One upon being asked 
 under whose preaching he had been converted, 
 replied, "Under the preaching of my mother's 
 daily life." Every family, every church in 
 their members may thus present to the world 
 so many concurrent evidences both of the 
 truth and power of the gospel of Christ, 
 thereby making infidelity in their presence ap- 
 pear almost a species of insanity. 
 
XII 
 
 OUE WORK 
 
 We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; 
 In feelings, not in figures on the dial. 
 We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives 
 Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. 
 Life's but a means unto an end; that end 
 Beginning, mean, and end to all things — God. 
 
 — Philip James Bailey. 
 
 We may attain all the excellence of which humanity is 
 capable while doing the simplest daily duties. — Thomas 
 Hughes, 
 
XII 
 OUE WORK 
 
 Clearly^ man was made to work, and the 
 world was made for him to work in. Indeed, 
 if he would be a man, he must work. An idler 
 is out of place in this world. Even the in- 
 carnate Son of God came a laboring man into 
 a laboring world, leaving as his first recorded 
 utterance, "Wist ye not that I must be about 
 my Father's business?" and as his last upon 
 the cross, "It is finished." One of the most 
 gracious results of Christianity has been to 
 dignify and properly remunerate labor. Even 
 to-day we venture to assert the great ground- 
 swell of discontent disturbing the civilized 
 world over the question of labor and its wage 
 is the fruit of the gospel. 
 
 And we are all doing something. Much of 
 
 the burden of our work is to find out what 
 
 we shall do and how we shall do it. Ages ago 
 
 the Preacher, as you may find recorded in 
 
 the book of Ecclesiastes, made an answer 
 
 to these questions which has never been 
 
 X93 
 
194 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 improved upon. He bids us, ^^Whatsoever thy 
 hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." 
 
 Eeflecting upon his words, we are impressed 
 first with the fact that it is not ours to choose 
 our work. Men usually talk about selecting 
 a trade or a profession as if it were a matter 
 of their own convenience and liking as to what 
 their life's work should be. The Good Book 
 does not so represent it. Here we are told 
 that an all-wise Providence is near to us, "in 
 whom we live, and move, and have our being," 
 though unseen yet ready to mete out to each 
 his work according to divine plan and with 
 unerring wisdom. It bids us reach forth an 
 open, ready hand, and the Master will fill it. 
 So WB are all colaborers with the Almighty. 
 It may not be what the world calls great work, 
 but it will surely be good work. It may not be 
 what our worldly ambition craves, but it will 
 surely lift us up to the stature of manhood. 
 Drifting on the current of one's desires and 
 delights never builds a virile and valiant char- 
 acter. And it is well that it is not left for us 
 to choose. We do not know how if we would. 
 We need to go but a few steps in any direction 
 to reach the limit of our knowledge. Besides, 
 it is a matter of immortal moment what we 
 shall do here in these few years. The world's 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 195 
 
 work is on a broader plan than we are able 
 to conceive, reaching far beyond to-day, to- 
 morrow, and the day after. Man's petty per- 
 sonal schemes must therefore miserably fail. 
 Nothing is more foolhardy than to attempt 
 life's work alone, nothing more pitiable than 
 the sight of a mortal who ought to sweep the 
 great deep with full sail, in spiritual blindness 
 stooping to pick up the pebbles on shore and 
 play with them as a thoughtless child would 
 idle away a summer's day. Probation affords 
 no such holiday. 
 
 Moreover, in the light of this revealed truth, 
 how useless to worry about our work! The 
 heavenly Father knows better what the world 
 needs than we do, and he knows us altogether 
 — what we can do, and when and how we 
 should do it. What if it often seems to us in- 
 significant, we have but to do faithfully our 
 part and the Lord will provide. He will make 
 no mistake about it, either about our ability 
 or the necessities of the case. Yet how many 
 even Christian people go groaning about, 
 troubled in spirit as to what they shall do! 
 They forget that glorious name which the 
 prophet of old was inspired to write, "and his 
 name shall be called Counselor." Counselor — 
 that should be the everyday name of Christ in 
 
196 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 our hearts. Human philosophy never brought 
 humanity so consolingly near to the heart of 
 the Infinite as that one word of revelation 
 brings us. Are we disturbed, then, about our 
 present or our future work, concerning its fit- 
 ness, its utility, its righteousness, we have an 
 infallible Counselor, who loves us better than 
 we or our friends can love us, and who can 
 insure our interests and the world's infinitely 
 better than we are able. That Friend standeth 
 at the door at the opening, and at every hour 
 of the day. It is he who, with an infinite com- 
 passion, bids, "Come unto me, all ye that labor 
 and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'' 
 In this connection observe the apparently 
 sublime indifference expressed in that word 
 '^whatsoever J' "Whatsoever thy hand findeth 
 to do, do it." Everywhere we see people try- 
 ing to do something for which they have no 
 faculty, something greater than God by the 
 endowments conferred upon them ever in- 
 tended they should do, chafing at nature's 
 charter for themselves, perhaps murmuring 
 because he has given them such and so many 
 little things to do, as if he had misjudged their 
 capacity; misanthropes, embittered also with 
 the world, because it does not take them at 
 their own measurement of themselves. Thev 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 197 
 
 very much fear their lives will be frittered 
 away with only commonplace duties and deeds. 
 They have yet to learn that the Almighty has 
 really ordained that the weak things of the 
 earth should confound the mighty. 
 
 Even the church has but just learned that the 
 world is to be redeemed through the children, 
 although ages ago the words were emblazoned 
 on the pages of Holy Writ : "Out of the mouths 
 of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained 
 strength." In that very hour when Jesus in 
 the temple chided the long-robed priests, and 
 bade them, "Suffer the little children to come 
 unto me, and forbid them not,'' in that very 
 hour the Christian Church should have insti- 
 tuted the Sunday school. Yet it took seven- 
 teen centuries for Christendom to apprehend 
 the duty. 
 
 So to our weak vision it is one of the per- 
 plexing mysteries that God in his providence 
 so often, and apparently prematurely, calls 
 away the strongest workmen in the field. 
 When he thus takes the feeblest human agen- 
 cies to accomplish the mightiest results he 
 leaves us no room for boasting over our part. 
 Thus in divine wisdom did Christ estop the 
 mouth of cavilers when with a word or simple 
 touch he wrought his mighty miracles of mercy. 
 
198 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 Did not the Preacher have this feature of 
 our worii in view when he wrote, "In the morn- 
 ing sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold 
 not thine hand : for thou knowest not whether 
 shall prosper, either this or that, or whether 
 they both shall be alike good" ? "Thou knowest 
 not" — a hard lesson that for self-sufficient 
 man. Belshazzar thought he knew the path 
 to glory, till in that midnight revelry a strange 
 hand wrote upon the wall, "Thou art weighed 
 in the balances, and art found wanting." 
 
 Solomon thought he knew the conditions of 
 a successful life and plunged into all excesses 
 of worldly lust and ambitions, sought its wis- 
 dom, its power, its wealth and every desire of 
 the flesh. Now, listen to him, as sitting down 
 near upon the last milestone of his earthly 
 journey and looking back over it all, in the 
 language of profound disappointment he cries 
 out, "Vanity of vanities ; all is vanity." 
 
 And how little did Paul know what the 
 "whatsoever" of his duty was to be until, be- 
 fore the gates of Damascus, he lifted up the 
 prayer, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?'' 
 A man of resplendent genius, was he to stand 
 before kings? Yes, but as a prisoner in chains, 
 preaching righteousness and temperance and 
 judgment to come. A scholar, was he to 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 199 
 
 mingle with the philosophers? Yes, but "to 
 count all things but loss for the excellency of 
 the knowledge of Christ Jesus'' his Lord. An 
 orator, but one whose tongue should be a 
 tongue of fire as it was tipped with unction 
 from on high, and whose only eloquence should 
 be the simple story of the cross. Would you 
 know the duties that Paul found in that word 
 "whatsoever''? Gather them together as they 
 lie scattered in single sentences all through 
 the Acts and the Epistles. They tell us he 
 found duty in afflictions, distresses, stripes, 
 imprisonments, tumults, labors, watchings, 
 fastings, longsuffering, dishonor, evil re- 
 ports ; he was unknown, chastened, sorrowful ; 
 possessing nothing, in labors more abundant, 
 in stripes above measure, in prisons more fre- 
 quent, in deaths oft; received of the Jews at 
 five different times forty stripes save one, 
 thrice beaten with rods, once stoned, thrice 
 suffered shipwreck, a night and day he was in 
 the deep, journeying often, in perils of water, 
 of robbers, in the city, among false brethren ; 
 weary, in pain, hungry, thirsty, cold, and 
 naked. Such was the "whatsoever" of Paul's 
 duty — far different from what he or his friends 
 would have chosen for him as, in the morning 
 of life, the brilliant young genius sat at the 
 
200 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 feet of Gamaliel, the greatest teacher of his 
 people. Nevertheless, it was the pathway of 
 duty and the pathway of glory. Now, catch 
 the words of the grand old Panl, when, reach- 
 ing the summit of the Delectable Mountains, 
 his silver hair floating across his brow as beams 
 of the coming morn, his eye gleaming with 
 rapture in full view of the promised land, his 
 enraptured soul breaks forth, "I have fought 
 a good fight, I have finished my course, I have 
 kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up for 
 me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, 
 the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.'' 
 Such was Paul's last judgment; and, be as- 
 sured, those serious estimates of the world and 
 its works which rush in upon the reflecting soul 
 during its last days are generally quite correct. 
 Notice, moreover, how the Preacher designates 
 these whatsoever duties. He exhorts, "In the 
 morning sow thy seed." The similitude is a 
 very apposite one. Our deeds and our duties 
 are the seeds sown for the harvest of the after 
 life, and are fruitful beyond all calculation. 
 If we could but see in panoramic view a single 
 deed with all its train of consequences from 
 now until the hour of destiny, how grand be- 
 yond our loftiest conceptions would be a day 
 of holy work. The deed multiplies itself in 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 201 
 
 grand geometric ratio and herein lies the im- 
 portance of doing whatsoever the hand findeth 
 to do. 
 
 Then, too, the process from seed to fruit is 
 mysterious and often delayed. This mystery 
 in spiritual growth, and this delay in apparent 
 results, how sorely it tries our little faith! 
 Yet how much better to take to ourselves the 
 full assurance of faith and cast our bread upon 
 the waters, trusting to find it after many darys, 
 believing that "he that goeth forth and weep- 
 eth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless" — 
 without a doubt — "come again with rejoicing, 
 bearing his sheaves with him." 
 
 Then, again, there is the fact that the seeds 
 are small, and men do not like to work with 
 small means, so they are forever trying to re- 
 verse God's order in nature, casting the seed 
 aside and planting great oaks instead of little 
 acorns. It is so much more honorable in the 
 eyes of men to do large things, yet this is not 
 God's method. He has scattered the world 
 full of little living seeds, and men are wise to 
 use them and reap great harvests. If he has 
 in like manner strewn our every pathway with 
 little opportunities, then our days should be 
 full of little duties done, and fruit will come 
 of it, even an hundredfold increase in the pres- 
 
202 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 ent life and in the world to come life ever- 
 lasting. Such fidelity in the least things, be- 
 lieve me, is heroic. The age of bloody sacrifice 
 has passed away, yet not so the age of martyrs. 
 It is unto a living sacrifice that we are called 
 to-day. Said the Great Teacher, "Ye are my 
 friends/' that is "my martyrs" — as the original 
 reads — "if ye do whatsoever I command you." 
 And this is a harder test than martyrdom at 
 the stake. Many a man has died for the truth 
 who did not have strength to live for virtue. 
 To die was the struggle of a supreme moment, 
 to live the trial of lingering, tempestuous 
 years ; to die demanded moral courage, to live 
 required Christian fortitude. Now, to this 
 martyrdom, this wrack of a single day's life, 
 clean and sweet and consistent, to this Christ 
 is calling us. How few of us can endure this 
 test! It is a severe ordeal, yet with the help 
 of divine grace it comes within the ability of 
 everyone, for nothing is simpler than good- 
 ness, and nothing so completely in the power 
 of everyone as duty. There will always be dif- 
 ferent opportunities and capacity among men, 
 but Christianity makes it possible for anyone 
 in the performance of the most common duties 
 to be a most uncommon Christian. No man 
 ever taught so profoundly as did Jesus, yet no 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 203 
 
 one ever spoke more simply. No man ever 
 lived so perfect and beautiful a life, yet none 
 ever so faithfully performed the least and even 
 menial duties of life. 
 
 There is yet another feature of similitude 
 used by the Preacher which makes it very ap- 
 propriate. Seeds are very numerous as well 
 as small. So the "whatsoever" of his theme is 
 a word of suffocating abundance. "Whatso- 
 ever thy hand findeth to do.'' What diligence 
 will suffice to measure its content? That 
 "whatsoever" compasses every walk of life, its 
 every thought, desire, and purpose. It com- 
 mands every moment. Each hour comes to us 
 freighted with seeds of opportunity and bless- 
 ings. Each should be returned to our Lord 
 laden and crowned with fruit. The heart 
 faints before the fullness of duty in that one 
 word "whatsoever" until it hears the divine 
 voice only saying, "Come unto me, all ye that 
 labor," then with the majestic faith of Paul it 
 shouts, "I can do all things through Christ 
 who strengtheneth me." Be sure if we as in- 
 dividuals ever rise to this blissful assurance 
 of the great apostle, it will be in faithfully do- 
 ing all the numerous little and large duties 
 as they come. 
 
 So, too, the church, if it would gather around 
 
204 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 its altars the teeming populations of the fu- 
 ture ages, must face and do its duty in what- 
 soever the hand finds to do. It will be a 
 church not only of oTand cathedrals and ele- 
 gant services, but also a church of the high- 
 ways and hedges, whose membership — clergy 
 and laity — shall do humble service with the 
 Master seven davs of the week down along the 
 dustv highwavs of lowlv life. I do not imagine 
 the church of the future will differ essentially 
 from that of to-day in its doctrines. Its su- 
 perior glory will consist in the richer baptism 
 of the Spirit, in a profounder personal conse- 
 cration and in the broader scope of its work. 
 The temple of the future will be open seven 
 davs of the week as a fountain of saving in- 
 fluences and Christly benefactions, while its 
 simple catholicity and unselfish devotion of 
 person and power to the salvation of man will 
 put to shame the petty divisions and half- 
 hearted service of to-dav. 
 
 Yet another feature of the work suggested 
 by this text is quite as important. It is the 
 near work — ''just at hand'' — whatsoever thy 
 hand findeth to do. Bv this I understand our 
 duty belongs to the present hour. Indeed, this 
 alone is possible. We cannot do to-morrow's 
 work if we would. We must get the added 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 205 
 
 strength of to-day for the larger work of to- 
 morrow. Neither our present capacity nor 
 our circumstances will permit our doing it 
 now. The Creator has given us a life of as- 
 cending gradations. We must go up step by 
 step — to-day one and to-morrow another — 
 until by and by we shall have reached some 
 Mount Nebo, where God shall whisper to 
 the soul : "It is enough ; no more toiling on the 
 earth. Come up higher." We cannot, there- 
 fore, afford to lose the opportunity of to-day. 
 The sooner we cease to dream and begin to do, 
 the better. God's life is an eternal now. The 
 commands of the Bible refer to the present. 
 Dreams and good purposes for the future are 
 not enough. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to 
 do, do it. The most efficient Christians are 
 those who, in view of that great future, make 
 the most possible of the present. The true 
 measure of our life is what we are and what 
 we are doing — not what we intend to be and 
 do in some indefinite future. Splendid plans 
 are often the specious devices of Satan to cheat 
 us out of good solid work in the present. It 
 is our duty not to stop until we have settled 
 and solidified truth into principle, and from 
 principle passed it through purpose into the 
 practice of our daily life. 
 
206 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 Furthermore, while we may not selfishly 
 choose our work, and while it is of suffocating 
 abundance, and while it is near at hand, we 
 are not to go at it blindfold. The text reads, 
 ^^Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do." This 
 implies that we on our part are to seek after 
 the work. God does not thrust us into it. 
 Neither does he intend that we should go 
 through life drifting hither and thither and al- 
 ways stumbling into our work. There must be 
 prayerful and persistent seeking. We must 
 find ourselves and our place. Most grievous 
 failures are due to ignorance here. With all 
 intensity we are to pray, ^'Thy kingdom come," 
 while at the same time with the dawn of every 
 day we ask the question, ^^Lord, what wilt thou 
 have me to do?" We are to aim both to be 
 good, and good for something. It is said that 
 Luther rudely carved on the lintel of his study 
 door the three words, '^Bete, dann arheite^^ — 
 ^'Pray, then work," and God honored that 
 creed with the mightiest religious reformation 
 in the Christian centuries. 
 
 The text, moreover, clearly tells us how we 
 shall do our work. ^^Whatsoever thy hand 
 findeth to do, do it with tliy might.'' That 
 means that we do it promptly. This we gather 
 from the context, "for there is no work, nor 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 207 
 
 device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave 
 whither thou goest.'' It declares that the time 
 is short, the opportunities are passing, and 
 once gone are an eternal loss; therefore what 
 thou hast to do, do quickly. It enjoins the 
 habit of prompt obedience. At times we are 
 inclined to quarrel with duty and try to argue 
 it away. We take sides with our own selfish- 
 ness and then dispute, inch by inch, with con- 
 science. So duty becomes a task. Judging 
 from the course of some, their whole lives 
 would seem to be spent in complaining of their 
 lot. Paul was an illustrious example of prompt 
 obedience. When the light broke in upon his 
 soul at the Damascus gate, how quickly he 
 came to the question, "Lord, what wilt thou 
 have me to do?'' Keligion with him meant 
 vastly more than subscribing to a creed and 
 joining a church. And with what promptness 
 he went to the work. In that letter to the 
 Galatians, written some fourteen years after- 
 ward, he tells us, "But when it pleased God 
 ... to reveal his Son in me, that I might 
 preach him among the heathen ; immediately I 
 conferred not with flesh and blood: neither 
 went I up to Jerusalem to them which were 
 apostles before me.'' The church to-day needs 
 this Pauline type of "immediate" Christians — 
 
208 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 "the minute men'^ in the Lord's warfare. Ques- 
 tion is reasonable, but perpetual debate over 
 duty is sure evidence of moral Aveakness, for 
 genuine religion is love, and love is not con- 
 strained, neither is it inclined to dispute. 
 Kather it is yielding, it is all submissive. With 
 delight it leaps to do the will of its object. 
 So shall the service of Christ be without con- 
 straint, if his love dwell in us richly. And 
 until we have come to this liberty, the liberty 
 of ohedience ivithout debate ^ we may not ex- 
 pect the joy of salvation. We may school our- 
 selves, by the gxace of God, regularly to per- 
 form religious duties, and, like Bunyan's pil- 
 grim, go hobbling through life and never throw 
 aside our crutches until we come to the brink 
 of the river, yet our religion will prove to be 
 the yoke of Christian duty rather than the holy 
 joy of Christian love. 
 
 Doing with our might is also doing the best 
 tee know Jioio. At times we are inclined to 
 slight our work, or some part of it. Certain 
 duties are distasteful, hence neglected, while 
 others excite all the enthusiasm of our natures. 
 Some people have a great deal of formal re- 
 ligion, but are of very weak morality. They 
 may even grow very fervent in prayer while yet 
 they are very slow to pay their honest debts. 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 209 
 
 Such defects usually occur in small matters 
 which we are prone to underestimate. Per- 
 fection is made up of trifles, yet perfection is 
 no trifle. The daily routine of the greatest 
 among men doubtless seems to them in its de- 
 tails quite insignificant. It is, rather, our duty 
 to do as they do, and by the grace of God fill 
 out these least things to the utmost limit of 
 their value. God himself is the elaborator of 
 infinitely small things. He has made a uni- 
 verse of atoms so small and so filled them with 
 the mystery of his own glory that man in his 
 profoundest wisdom cannot fathom the depth 
 of a raindrop. 
 
 Finally, and above all, the word "might'' in 
 the text must comprehend more than merely 
 human strength. There is a spirit in man and 
 the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him 
 understanding. Our victories must come not 
 by might nor b}^ power, but by the Spirit of 
 the Lord of Hosts. With him we must do our 
 work. This is the secret. This is all. Let us 
 covet nothing so much as the power of a pro- 
 foundly spiritual life. Better be the hero of 
 a single virtue than conqueror of the world 
 without it. To-day the church needs most of 
 all a Pentecostal baptism of spiritual power. 
 Not money so much, not learning, not num- 
 
210 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 bers, not position, but fire — fire from on high 
 — the flame of the cloven tongues. And this 
 it must have to burn sin out of the world. 
 This is our might. When the Books shall be 
 opened in the last day our fate as individuals 
 may tremble in the balance, not because we 
 have failed to do with our wealth and our 
 learning, but because we have sought to do 
 life's work without the mainspring of our 
 might, the Spirit of the indwelling Christ. 
 
XIII 
 
 OUE UNCONSCIOUS FAULTS 
 
 It is not permitted to the most equitable of men to be 
 a judge in his own cause. — Pascal. 
 
XIII 
 
 OUR UNCONSCIOUS FAULTS 
 
 In one of the earlier psalms the writer asks, 
 "Who can understand his errors?'' and at once 
 adds the prayer, "Cleanse thou me from secret 
 faults/' On account of that word "secret" we 
 are apt to misinterpret the meaning of the 
 latter clause. "Cleanse thou me from secret 
 faults" is construed as a prayer to be delivered 
 from sins which he had been secretly and con- 
 sciously indulging. Yet, in the light of the 
 immediate context it is clear that the sins 
 from which he prays to be cleansed may have 
 been neither secret — that is, hidden from the 
 world — nor conscious on his part. He had 
 been reflecting on the perfection of God's law, 
 saying, "The testimony of the Lord is sure, 
 making wise the simple." "The command- 
 ment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the 
 eyes." Then, as if by contrast, impressed with 
 man's moral blindness, he asks, "Who can un- 
 derstand his errors" — who of himself is a cor- 
 rect judge of his moral condition? — "cleanse 
 
 213 
 
214 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 thou me from secret faults/' those which may 
 have escaped my own observation; save me 
 from the ignorant and habitual practice of 
 what is wrong. The psalmist's words suggest 
 a brief meditation on our unconscious faults. 
 We may regard sin as a state; then it is un- 
 godliness, unlikeness to God as a being of ab- 
 solute goodness, while as an act it is the willful 
 transgression of moral law as revealed in God's 
 Word and works. Both in character and con- 
 duct we may be far removed from the righteous- 
 ness of God, and be quite unconscious of our 
 alienation. Indeed, the greater the separation 
 the less intense will be the feeling of differ- 
 ence. Just as the absent child may at the first 
 feel keenly his absence from the father's home, 
 yet in the lapse of years he will cease from all 
 pain of separation, and even all longing for 
 the distant and half-forgotten ones, so may 
 the soul, wandering from its early innocence, 
 cease to feel its loss and degeneracy. It is 
 without God in the world and past feeling. 
 It is a general law that we measure the large- 
 ness of things by the slowness or suddenness 
 of our approach to them. Hence a course of 
 gradual declension, with no sudden surprises 
 or leaps, may in time lead one to the perpetra- 
 tion of diabolical crimes without any very 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 215 
 
 painful scruples of conscience. Indeed, with 
 great criminals there are no great crimes. 
 
 There is no iniquity that degenerate man 
 has not committed with a clear conscience. It 
 is the office of the Divine Spirit to "convince 
 of sin." Once banish him from the heart and 
 all sin tends to become unconscious. It is to 
 such experiences that Paul refers when exhort- 
 ing his brethren, "to lay aside every weight and 
 the sin which doth so easily beset" them, that 
 is, such sins as have by habit come to set easily 
 upon them, like a garment to which one has 
 become accustomed and of whose presence and 
 weight he is no longer conscious. This same 
 Paul has been a victim of just such delusions. 
 You recall his confession that when a proud 
 Pharisee he boasted himself blameless, though 
 haling innocent men and women to prison, but 
 when enlightened and penetrated by the Holy 
 Spirit, with humble contrition he confessed 
 himself the "chief of sinners." 
 
 By nature blind to the sinfulness of sin, it 
 behooves us also to remember that the soul is 
 exposed to many perilous influences. There, 
 for instance, is inordinate self-interest^ for- 
 ever magnifying our virtues and minifying our 
 vices. It will not see ourselves as others see 
 us. It flatters our egotism and often engenders 
 
216 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 bitterness in the heart because the world does 
 not take us at our own exaggerated valuation. 
 It also has many ready excuses for our failings. 
 Under its colored lens, the same fault in our- 
 selves seems not half so hideous as it does in 
 our neighbor, Just as some diseases are ex- 
 tremely offensive to others, though not to the 
 one afflicted. This self-interest forever stands 
 on the outmost boundary of our life, with an 
 ever-present tendency to overreach a little. It 
 often masquerades as a great principle, which 
 must not be surrendered for an inch or an iota. 
 Not seldom families have been disrupted, na- 
 tions bathed in blood, churches divided under 
 this pretense of lofty principle, suggested by 
 self-interest. At times it seems to justify the 
 individual in the most extreme expressions of 
 passion, while at others it will cover up the 
 grievous coveteousness under the guise of a 
 prudent frugality. An inordinate self-interest 
 will so fill the heart with vanity that those who 
 claim citizenship in heaven, and profess to be 
 followers of the meek and lowly Nazarene, hav- 
 ing renounced the vain pomp and glory of the 
 world, will yet lavish their best energies upon 
 themselves, in the face of famishing poverty 
 fare sumptuously every day, strut across life's 
 little stage in the tinselry of stars and spangles, 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 217 
 
 and yet have no sense of inconsistency in it all. 
 It is striking how this self-interest perverts 
 the property relations and rights among men, 
 sanctifying any means which will make one 
 rich the quickest. How it does play the casu- 
 ist with conscience ! and if there be some slight 
 compunction, sends it to the Bible, there to 
 justify such criminal absurdities as commun- 
 ism and the divine right of kings. History 
 furnishes no more conspicuous example of the 
 delusion self-interest may work than that pre- 
 sented by the Christian people of the South on 
 the subject of chattel slavery. There was a 
 time when that iniquity was openly denounced 
 in the Southern States, and measures were 
 taken there, just as in New York and Massa- 
 chusetts, to abolish the evil. One day, however, 
 the cotton gin was invented, making cotton the 
 king of commercial staples. Massachusetts and 
 New York, producing no cotton, extirpated 
 slavery. Throughout the cotton States slave 
 labor became immensely valuable, and, as a 
 consequence, grave moral opinions changed. 
 Again self-interest played casuist with con- 
 science, referred it to the Bible for conclusive 
 evidence, and satisfied half a nation of Chris- 
 tian people that a few words of personal curse 
 pronounced away back in the days of the flood 
 
218 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 amply justified the "sum of all villainies," hu- 
 man slavery. The foremost statesman of the 
 North, alluding to slavery, once warned the 
 people of the South that a matter of conscience 
 could not be smothered forever, yet he, too, 
 the mighty Webster, dazed with the glittering 
 prospects of the Presidency, thereafter voted 
 for the infamous fugitive slave law, then went 
 home to face his constituents and urged them 
 "to conquer their prejudices." 
 
 This self-interest the more easily hides from 
 us our weaknesses from the fact that we 
 usually act from mixed motives. Several may 
 conduce to the same outward act. A person 
 may bestow alms, desiring to help the needy 
 applicant, yet with more desire that his bene- 
 factions be seen by others. Then self-interest 
 flatters him with the memory of the best mo- 
 tive, though it may be the weakest. So it filled 
 the Pharisee of old with self-satisfaction when 
 observing scrupulously the law of Moses, 
 though at the same time it blinded him to the 
 fact that an ostentatious pride was the chief 
 incentive to the broad phylacteries and the long 
 prayers at the corners of the streets. Much 
 outward goodness may thus spring from fear 
 of fashion rather than the fervent love of 
 righteousness. Even one's church membership 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 219 
 
 may be mainly conformity to the respectabili- 
 ties of society rather than loyalty and love for 
 the truth. 
 
 Still another source of moral blindness is 
 found in false education. In a very important 
 sense our probation begins before we are aware 
 of it. The forces which are to sway us in life 
 have germinated before we were born, in the 
 blood, the habit, and the social conditions of 
 our forbears. So we take our first peep into 
 the world through colored goggles, which na- 
 ture furnishes us at birth. One begins the life 
 journey with a reverent, tractable disposition, 
 another is possessed of a legion of low pro- 
 pensities, as devilish as the Magdalene's. Since 
 our moral nature is first in the order of de- 
 velopment, and most impressible in childhood, 
 a vicious education then and there is the very 
 knell of doom to upright character in after life. 
 The low inconsistent religious life of a family 
 imbues the young mind with a debased ideal 
 of piety well-nigh unchangeable in later years. 
 The worldly indulgences and stinted benevo- 
 lences of a church will reproduce themselves 
 generation after generation in its membership, 
 though they be scattered to the ends of the 
 earth. So the common practice of church 
 members becomes the Bible of many. Imita- 
 
220 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 tion is one of man's strongest instincts. Under 
 its influence a considerable part of his thought 
 and conduct is only a complex of mannerisms, 
 consciously or unconsciously copied, the rea- 
 sons for which have never been examined. The 
 young Hindu has the spirit of caste, so forged 
 into the tissues of his mind through the tradi- 
 tion of ages that all his relations to humanity 
 are distorted. The young Fijian seizes his 
 club, bludgeons his victim, and munches the 
 human flesh without a thought of sin. In view 
 of such diversity and contradiction among the 
 moral judgments of men, a philosopher in our 
 day has declared, "Man's conscience is a med- 
 ley made up of one fifth fear, one fifth super- 
 stition, one fifth prejudice, one fifth vanity, 
 and one fifth custom," leaving no moral ele- 
 ment whatever in it. 
 
 It is, moreover, a significant fact that once 
 given the sanction of conscience, the moral 
 nature of man as enthusiastically toils for the 
 false as for the true doctrine. Error has had 
 perhaps more martyrs than truth thus far in 
 the history of humanity. Persecutions and the 
 endless wrangles of bigotry have largely sprung 
 from vicious education. Philip II and Isabella 
 the Catholic, we are told, inflicted more suf- 
 fering in obedience to their consciences than 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 221 
 
 Nero or Domitian in obedience to their lusts. 
 This pernicious education, however, is not con- 
 fined to home and the church only. In the 
 sentiment and the usages of the age it comes 
 to us with commanding sanction. Cicero pro- 
 nounced the common consent of the nations the 
 supreme standard of virtue. That Jesus with- 
 out a moment's compromise both in deed and 
 doctrine so loftily transcended the sentiment 
 of his own and previous ages is one of the many 
 evidences of his superhuman character. The 
 pitiable frailty even of the world's loftiest lives 
 has often disclosed itself in a weak submission 
 to the vicious opinions of the age. At a time 
 when persecution for religious opinion pre- 
 vailed the great John Calvin yields his assent 
 to the burning of Servetus. Zwingli with 
 Mohammedan zeal girds on the sword to ex- 
 tirpate heretics. Sir Matthew Hale condemns 
 innocent girls to be burned for witchcraft. 
 Blackstone commends torture for obstinate 
 witnesses, while John Wesley and Samuel 
 Johnson both pronounce witchcraft one of the 
 fundamental evidences of Christianity. Yield- 
 ing to the spirit of the age, we must confess 
 that the church has in other centuries been a 
 stumbling-block where it should have been the 
 inspiration and leader of all high culture. But 
 
222 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 it should be noted this was the church, and not 
 Christianity, yielding to the corruption of the 
 age. Christianity as revealed in the life and 
 doctrine of Christ has stood immovable and 
 unalterable amid the tumult and tempests of 
 human passions and opinions. Still further 
 we may observe such subservience to debased 
 public opinion has not been the weakness of 
 the church alone. Schools of science as well 
 as schools of theology have been tainted with 
 bigotry and martyred innovaters. When the 
 attempt was first made in England to intro- 
 duce coal for fuel the House of Commons 
 gravely petitioned the Crown in 1306 to pro- 
 hibit the burning of it. Its sale was forbid- 
 den, a commission was appointed to visit sus- 
 pected houses and break up the furnaces of 
 those found using it. Finally a law was passed 
 making it a capital offense to burn sea coal in 
 London. It took three hundred years to break 
 away from the foolish prejudices against coal. 
 It is less than one hundred years ago that 
 persons were mobbed in England for attempt- 
 ing to erect a sawmill on the ground that it 
 infringed on the right of the laborer to cleave 
 timber with a wedge. When Harvey an- 
 nounced his discovery of the circulation of the 
 blood not a single physician forty years of age 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 223 
 
 admitted the theory. When Jethro Wood's 
 cast-iron plow, which has been a saving of un- 
 numbered millions, was first introduced it was 
 received with unsparing ridicule. The facts 
 illustrate the plain truth that intolerance be- 
 longs to human nature and has disgraced all 
 man's works in science, in the state and in the 
 church. This surrender to public sentiment 
 is perhaps the most conspicuous weakness of 
 the church to-day. Within and without it is 
 too true we all keep step to public opinion 
 and march in obedient platoons to what the 
 world says. In matters of reform and in the 
 practice of personal piety we yield our in- 
 dividuality, and while we nominally revere the 
 moral law of the Book, yet we never allow it 
 to make us very singular or separate from the 
 crowd. 
 
 Man may also be the victim of spurious vir- 
 tues. Aristotle made virtue to reside in the 
 mean between two extremes. Spurious vir- 
 tues have been the exaggerations either too 
 much or too little. Under the name of Chris- 
 tian moderation we tone down and tone down 
 our zeal to the coldest indifference, while at 
 other times it becomes a blind fanaticism 
 breaking forth in the bigotry of sect and perse- 
 cutions. Paul for a time deluded his great 
 
224 PLAIN THOUGHTS 
 
 soul with spurious virtue, confessing that when 
 he was dragging the innocent to prison and to 
 death he verily thought he ought to do these 
 things contrary to Jesus of Nazareth. Zeal 
 for the church or sect may pass with us as love 
 for Christ and souls and truth. Fanatical 
 zeal has disfigured every page of religious his- 
 tory. It has been enjoined that we should set 
 our affections on things above and in the ex- 
 treme interpretation of this duty well-meaning 
 zealots have risen into ecstasies, shouting, ^^No 
 foot of land do I possess, no cottage in this 
 wilderness,'' while sanctimonious poverty and 
 even shiftlessness have been boasted of as 
 Christian virtues. In the earlier ages multi- 
 tudes forsook home and the proper industries 
 of life to wander about as barefooted, filthy 
 vagabonds, preaching self-denial, while others 
 abjured the family relation, lived alone in re- 
 mote cells and desert retreats in unnatural 
 and useless life, thinking to please and to im- 
 itate that Jesus whose whole earthly life 
 was spent in the cities, and in the most busy 
 benevolences among men. Perhaps two of 
 the most dangerous movements of religious 
 thought in our day are, first, the drift to 
 utter looseness in doctrine, ignoring all re- 
 straint and ridiculing creeds under the guise 
 
ON FAITH AND LIFE 225 
 
 of Christian charity for difference of opinions, 
 and, secondly, the exaggeration of the simple 
 and valuable forms of worship into pompous 
 rituals of saving efficacy. Charity and forms 
 are both good, but the danger of the modern 
 church is to be found in the extreme interpre- 
 tation of these virtues, lest its liberality be- 
 come licentiousness, and its excessive reliance 
 on forms smother its spirituality. No virtue 
 but Satan has counterfeited it. As the counter- 
 feit is cheaper, so it is more abundant. It is 
 a law of political economy that the baser metal 
 always drives the better out of use. 
 
 In view of these facts which I have thus 
 briefly presented, namely, our natural blind- 
 ness to the sinfulness of sin, the perilous in- 
 fluence of self-interest, the passions, false edu- 
 cation in early years, in society, in business, in 
 the church, and in the false sentiment of the 
 age, together with our liability to be duped 
 and satisfied with spurious virtues — in view of 
 these facts we cannot but feel, first, our im- 
 perative need of a standard — a rule of life 
 higher than the fickle and fallible human un- 
 derstanding — and, secondly, the duty of rev- 
 erently testing ourselves by it, with the devout 
 prayer that we may be cleansed and kept from 
 secret faults. 
 
AUG 16 1913 
 
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