Behe * i ; aide pay 4 fas pete eset my ; i y t Ne “pevotiond Hiatt UMS MLNTaH ASAE Sanne US ak A | ey american ce ee i Student Series a aa | Che Power of “Jesus Christ in the Lite of | ae sofuneit a The American Student Series | The Power of Jesus Christ in the Life of the Student MR. JOHN R. MOTT. Published by the Board of Education of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Rev. William F. Anderson, Corresponding Secretary, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York City. Price: 3 cents per copy in quantities of less than one hundred, postpaid ; in quantities of one hundred or more at $2.00 per hundred, not prepaid. THE POWER OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE LIFE OF THE STUDENT. Mr.Joun R. Morr. The present is preéminently an age of power. The military and naval power of the nations is vastly greater than in the past, both in point of defensive and also of destructive ability. The power of organization is far more highly developed than ever before, whether in indus- try, commerce, politics, social movements, or religious enter- prises. The accumulations and achievements of wealth are immeasurably beyond those of earlier times. Power over the forces of nature is so much in advance of the past that the triumphs of our day would have been regarded as almost mirac- ulous two generations or even one generation ago. But Jesus Christ is the same—yesterday, today, yea and forever—as in the past, so to- day the source of all superhuman power, He only can adequately empower one’s life. A splendid physique, a highly trained intellect, attractive social qualities, a strong personality, an influential family name, large financial pos- 3 sessions,all these and other thing's contribute to one’s power, but apart from Jesus Christ a man is comparatively weak. There are manifesta- tions of His power which should bring Him close to the student and which should lead the student to relate his life to this great Source of divine life and energy. Jesus Christ has power to overcome the force of temptation. This concerns every stu- dent and concerns him every day. The man does not live who is not tempted. Happily all are not yielding to temptation, but true it is that all are tempted. This will be a life-long experience. Life is a great battle-ground and the war will never cease. We would not have it otherwise, because temptations are not with> out their great advantage. They constitute the drill ground of character. The strongest , men in our colleges are the men who have come to recognize that temptations are not to be yielded to, but to be overcome, and who, in the process of overcoming, have received the dis- cipline necessary to develop strong character. While temptation is not in itself evil, the yielding to temptation is aterrible thing. Each yielding to temptation is sin, and the influence of sin is invariably deteriorating and deaden- ing. ‘The serious aspect of the subject which should startle and stimulate each man who has not been successfully resisting his temptations is that if he does not conquer his temptations his temptations will conquer him. Thereis no middle ground. Itis a choice between slavery and freedom. What is the secret of constant triumph over temptation? Some would answer that it lies in the exercise of the will. Experience shows, however, that the unaided will is not sufficient 4 to resist temptation in all its forms and in all degrees and at all times. Who can say, for example, that he has made his heart clean by the use of his unassisted will? Some urge that by withdrawal from the world one can best overcome temptation. This method is not practical in the present day. Moreover, many men who have tried this plan have testified that such withdrawal from association with their fellows has intensified their conflict with temptation. Some maintain that by professing ‘belief in certain doctrines temptation can be overcome. Each one, however, can think of persons who have assented to long and true creeds but who have continued to be overcome by their temptations. Invaluable as true doc- trines are, they are not in themselves sufficient. Yet others emphasize that religious observ- ances constitute a sure means of securing vic- tory over temptation. But again, we must admit that some who are most faithful in the use of religious forms and ceremonies are still slaves of sin. Useful as such observances are, they do not in themselves afford complete safety. Temptation can be met only by an adequate power. Jesus Christ is that adequate power. This is not a dogmatic statement, but one of | scientific fact in the sense that it epitomizes the experience of men who have actually over- come. After giving an address in one of the European universities I invited the men pres- ent who did not believe in the deity of Christ, but who sincerely desired to come to know Christ as Lord, to meet me for a thorough con- sideration of the subject. Over fifty of the students came to the appointed place. We had an intense and helpful time together. As 5 the little meeting broke up one of the young men said in the hearing of some of the others that he had understood me to say that Jesus Christ only could enable a man to overcome all his temptations, but he wanted to bear testi- mony that without the help of Christ he had been able to obtain complete victory over his temptations. I said to him that he was the first man I. had found who could bear such testimony, and that I hoped that he could arrange to travel with me among the colleges, because there would be a great advantage in our being able to present to young men two methods by which they could obtain victory over temptation: I presenting to them Christ as the sufficient Saviour, and he setting forth the means by which he apart from Christ had overcome temptation. After some further discussion we separated. Late that night, in the course of interviews which I was having with different students who came to seek help, the young man who had taken this position called to see me alone. No sooner had I given him a seat by the fireplace than he broke down completely, confessing that he had added sin to sin; going on to say that he not only had failed to overcome his temptations, but that he had also tried to deceive his fellow students and me by giving us the impression that he had overcome. Christ is the only name given ~ under heaven among men whereby we must — be saved. If this seems harsh and dogmatic, it is dogmatic, let it be reiterated, in the scien- — tific sense which takes account of all the facts of experience. Moreover, this truth should stimulate great hopefulness in the life of any ~ discouraged man who has been worsted by his temptations. Let him write across his strong-_ 6 ss ~ est, fiercest, subtlest, most persistent tempta- tion the words, ‘‘Jesus Christ is able”; and let him know that these words are supported by a vast and ever increasing body of the experi- ences of tempted and triumphant men. I do not say that he will not continue to have fierce conflicts; I do not say that he will not need to watch and to pray; but I do say that he will have great victories, and that instead of aninter- ‘ mittent experience he may come into a life of constant triumph. ; Jesus Christ has power to break the shack- les of evil habit. Here and there is a student who has yielded to his temptations so long that the chain of an evil habit has been forged upon him. The process may have gone on with his knowledge or he may for a long time have been in ignorance concerning it. It may be a habit which he began to form in boyhood, or it may have been acquired in young manhood. It may be a habit in the realm of the body or one in the realm of the mind. At last he wakes up to find that heisa slave. He does not need to be told this. That which he would, he does not; but the evil that he hates, that does he. Wherever a man would ance cannot, that is servitude. ‘There is no bondage like a sin-bound will unable to say a true no to the world, the flesh and the devil. One night at a university which I was visit- ing, a law student came to see me in order to learn how to break a certain evil habit. I asked him when he first yielded to the tempta- tion. He replied, ‘‘ Nearly three years ago.”’ ‘‘How often,” said I, ‘‘did you yield that year?” -He indicated that he had been over- come by it but once during that first year he was in college. ‘‘ How often did you yield the 7 second year?’’ He said he had yielded three times the second year and that he remembered it by the fact that he had yielded once in each of the three sessions. ‘‘ How has it been with you this year?” I asked. He replied that it had more often been once a week than a longer interval. ‘This illustrates the working of habit. It winds its toils more and more closely and more and more rapidly each successive year. May God pity that student who feels the fetters of any evil habit sinking into his life. The burning question of the slave of habit is not, where can I find good maxims and advice. The world is filled with good sermons and exhortations and counsels. His question is not, where can I find good examples. He can think of the lives of a number of men like whom he would be. He is not asking for some new and high ideal. He already has ideals which tantalize him. The great question with him is: Where and how can I find a power which will enable me to live up to the good maxims, examples, and ideals which I already possess? In this connection contrast what Christ offers such a man with what other religions hold out to him. Let me illustrate by a man who cannot swim being cast into a lake. What is the best word Confucius has for this man who is sinking? ‘‘Profit by your experience.’’ What is the most hopeful mes- sage which Buddha has for him? ‘‘Struggle.” What is the most encouraging teaching of Hinduism for the sinking man? ‘You will have another opportunity in the next incarna- tion.” What does Mohammedsay? ‘‘ Whether you sink or whether you survive, it is the will of God.”” And what does Jesus Christ say? ‘“Take my hand.” There is all the difference 8 in the world between His answer and that of other religions and of all other so-called saviours. It is the difference between sinking and being led out to solid rock. The recoverableness of man at his worst is the gift of Christ. He Himself announced that He came to proclaim deliverance to the captives. The student who takes this mighty Saviour, Christ, as his constant Companion ; who multiplies points of contact with Him by cultivating right habits of personal Bible study and secret prayer, by observing the practice of reminding himself of the presence of Christ» by availing himself of the great help of the Holy Communion, by associating with those who actually know Christ in experience, and by seeking to get out of himself and into the lives of others by helpful service, and who thus gives Christ an adequate chance to bring His power to bear; will be emancipated and led in triumph day by day. He will discover the large and wonderful content of the words, ‘Tf the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” ‘ Jesus Christ has power to take away from one’s life the sense of burden or remorse caused by sin. What student is there who has not sinned; that is, who has not,yielded to incitements from within or without to do wrong. True, he may have kept himself free from gross, outbreaking sins, but let him take a full, honest look at his hidden life. Does he not discover there the presence of pride, evil temper, uncharitableness, selfishness, impurity of thought or motive? Someone may say that these are small sins. There is no such thing as asmall sin. The smallest sin is a lapse, a fall, a letting down of high standards, and the 9 conscientious man cannot be satisfied with such an experience. If such an unprejudiced, fearless view of one’s inner life, by which God judges a man, be not sufficient, let him look at the example of Jesus Christ and His requirements, and the sense of guilt or remorse because of his own shortcomings and sins will deepen. This sense of remorse or burden because of sin committed or tolerated in the life is a reality. It is not for the man who merely theorizes or philosophizes upon the subject to say that there is no such thing as remorse for sin. It is for the man who has sinned to testify on that point. Wherever I have gone, both.in Christian and non-Christian countries, students in large numbers have come to me to tell of the reality of this experience as a result of their sins and to seek relief. Henry Drum- mond used to tell us that as young men left their homes to go upto the universities or cities the honie voices said, ‘‘Keep your garments unspotted from the world,” but that in many cases some day or some night there came the first spot. Later there came other spots, but none stood out in deeper black or in more lurid red than the stain caused by a man’s first sin. No man can remove the blots and stains or the sense of burden or remorse caused by his sins. Everywhere men are trying to do this impossible thing. In Mohammedan lands I have witnessed them going through their pros- trations and ablutions for this purpose. In India and other lands, I have seen them going on their pilgrimages and subjecting themselves to various tortures that they might get released from the sense of their sins. In Buddhist countries I have seen them occupied with their 10 many prayers from the same motive. In all lands, Christian and non-Christian, men are seeking by vain resolutions to loose themselves from their sins. Up and down the world one observes the same strugeglings and strivings. It is the problem of Lady Macbeth over again, ‘“‘Out, damned spot.” But a conscientious and sympathetic study of the experiences of all these men reveals that in none of these ways do they obtain release from their sins. No, Jesus Christ and He only has power on earth to forgive sins and to lift from conscience and-heart the incubus due to sin. By His achievement on the cross, men are made clean and pure again. As has been pointed out by some one, this cutting away of a man’s past life was the greatest miracle which Christ came to perform. Nothing is more certain than the sense of release from remorse which comes from the discovery and assurance of remission of sins by Jesus Christ. It is a great and wonderful thing. It changes darkness into light, despair and gloom into peace and hope. I knew a student who committed a terrible sin some three or four miles from his home. He went away to college. The college was located twenty-five miles from his home by the direct railway route which passed in sight of the place where he had experienced his awful fall. There was a roundabout route from his home to the college, necessitating a journey of nearly one hundred miles. This student told me that he usually went by the longer route, although it cost him more time and money, in order to avoid the severe lashing and torture of con- science which was vividly experienced when passing by the place associated with his sin. ‘ il One day he met Jesus Christ as the Saviour from the guilt of sin. Life at once became new. He found it possible to go with peace of heart by the short route between his home and college. He also was given the disposition and courage to do all that man could do to make atonement for his sin. If, as a man reads these words, some forgotten, unconfessed sin starts up in memory. let him deal with it in the only thorough and effective way, by claiming for himself in the most practical and definite manner Christ as his only sufficient Saviour from that sin as well as from all sins. Jesus Christ has power to lead men out of the mazes of doubt. Let us come to Him with our religious perplexities and problems. But some one objects. If I were free from my doubts I would come to Christ. Is not this begging the question? If you wait until you are free from your doubts before you come to Christ you will never come because you miss one of the greatest objects of, Christ’s mission ta men. He came not only to emancipate men from the power of.sin and evil habit and to break the force of temptation, but also to dis- solve doubt concerning essential spiritual truth. As Phillips Brooks has pointed out, Christ is not satisfied simply to win man's affection by His kindness, nor to govern man’s will by His authority, but He also wishes to persuade man’s mind with truth. At one of the Scandinavian universities I met a professor who had been brought up somewhat strictly and had had religious truth dogmatically pressed upon him as a boy. This prejudiced him deeply. When he went away later to attend the German univer- sities he broke away from his early beliefs and 12 drifted out on the wide sea of agnosticism. He tried in different ways to find his bearings but failed. He said to me, ‘‘ At last I decided to look to Christ again. In seeking to find what light His life and teachings might throw upon the religious problems which perplexed me, I found my way into satisfying truth.” During the years I have spent among students in hundreds of universities and colleges, I have found as a matter of fact that only as students come to Christ with their doubts do they obtain real relief and discover the paths which lead them out of the mazes of unbelief. I would therefore urge the doubting student on scien- tific and practical grounds, regardless of what his present view of Christ may be, to begin to study and obey Christ afresh and to continue so to do if he would obtain relief from his doubts. The reason for this, let it be reiter- ated, is that this is the method by which men have most quickly been lighted out of the dark The actual facts of the experiences of men corroborate the claim of Christ that He is the Way as well as the Truth and the Life. Remember His significant promise, ‘‘ He that cometh after me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” Observe in the first place that experience shows that it is by coming after Christ and after none other that the great result here promised is obtained. And observe also what is equally important, that it is he that cometh who finds himself ushered out into ever and ever greater light; not he that stands and prejudges the matter; not he that maintains that it transcends his experience and therefore cannot be; but he that sincerely, earnestly, and thoroughly seeks to follow the example and requirements of Christ discovers 13 that in the process of so doing he receives new and satisfying confirmatory evidence of what Christ is and does and reveals. Jesus Christ has power to make the most possible out of the life of the student. The great changes for better throughout the world during well-nigh two thousand years are trace- able to Christ. The three short years of His active ministry, as Lecky has said, have ‘‘ done more to regenerate and to soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists.” Christ is the chief influence in the greatest nations, and is most honored where the people are most free and most intelligent: He has shown His ability to take even the lapsed and basest individuals and peoples and re-make them, and raise up from among them men of saintliness and might. He is able likewise to enrich the lives of the best of men. There is nothing good which the student wants for his ideal which is not best found in and through Jesus Christ. Christ imparts a sense of reverence for the body as a temple of the living God. He stimulates and feeds the mind by the greatness of His conceptions and by the germinating power of His teachings. He enriches the emotional nature, creating and and developing finer feelings and _ sensi- bilities. He broadens and quickens within one sympathy for men. He generates the highest type of patriotism, that which desires to see one’s country a power for righteousness. Christ is greatest in the greatest realm, that of morals and religion. He makes the world a wondrous place, full of God. He admits us into the best of friendships and enlists us in the noblest and most unselfish forms of 14 service. In companionship with Him we have the deepest and richest experiences of life. By the loftiness of His own character and the magnificent sweep of His plans He lifts us from low levels and emancipates us from the narrow and the selfish. By showing what God is and what man may become He only reveals the full possibilities of life. By furnishing in Himself not only the perfect Pattern, but also the perfect Saviour and the perfect Power, He only can complete one’s life. Again, one must . admit that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Whatever else the ambitious student, who wishes to make the most out of his life, misses, let him not miss availing himself of the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has the power to inspire men to heroic and unselfish service. He is not satisfied simply with the transformation of the individual. He wishes to make the most possible out of society. His program em- braces every man, every nation, every race, in the whole range of their being, in all their relationships, for the present and for the future. Some day His principles and His Spirit will have right of way among men, and ‘His kingdom will become co-extensive with the inhabited earth. When Christ came among men he found them as a rule doing nothing with their religion save attending to its observances. He summoned them to serve their fellow men. He Himself set the exam- ple. The best epitome of His life is given in the sentence, ‘‘He went about doing good.” Professor James has emphasized that ‘‘what we need to discover in the social realm is the moral equivalent of war; something heroic, that will speak to men as universally as war 15 does, and yet will be as compatible with their spiritual selves as war has proved itself to be incompatible.” Jesus Christ has power to meet this need. He, as none other, moves men to heroic deeds. He inspires them with the most unselfish enthusiasm. He fires them with the passion of helpfulness. He creates a love which far transcends in force and qual- ity and scope the love of the patriot. He nerves men to endure any opposition, suffer- ing, or sacrifice. He impels men to noble and mighty achievements. Was it not Christ who prepared the little band which went forth to conquer the Roman Empire? Was it not Christ who used Clarkson to quicken the con- science of a whole nation to abolish the slave trade? Was it not Christ who energized Howard and enabled him single-handed to bring about in different lands reforms for the amelioration of the condition of prisoners? Christ sent Ruskin, Toynbee and Booth into the submerged districts to work for their redemp- tion. He thrust forth men of vision to found Christian colleges in the near and in the extreme Orient where Christian leaders could be trained for the multitudinous inhabitants of Asia. He commissioned choice spirits from all our uni- versities and colleges to go forth and proclaim good tidings and publish peace by the lakes of Africa, on the plains of India, and along the rivers of China. He inspired the students of both Orient and Occident, of Northern and Southern Hemispheres, to join forces in the sublime enterprise of world-wide evangel- ization. ‘The student who desires to leave the deepest mark for good upon his generation should relate himself to this great Source of divine life and energy. 16 Christ indeed is the strength of the stu- dent’s life. In Him resides all power. His power has not been diminished. It is inex- haustable; it is accessible; it is available. Each student needs the power of Christ; each student needs the Christ of power. If weneed Christ and ‘if he has the power we need and has shown himself trustworthy, should we not closein upon him? Inthe light of the evidence, can we question the reality of His trust- worthiness and power? What would you have Christ do which he has not already done to demonstrate his absolute reliability and omnip- otent might? Is it not right, therefore, that we give him opportunity to release His energies in our lives? Is any other attitudefair? Let us beware of what Bishop Westcott calls the ‘hypocrisy of skepticism.” There are two kinds of hypocrisy, and one is as objectionable as the other. ‘There is the hypocrisy of Chris- -tians who may profess what they do not possess. There is also the hypocrisy of those who do not call themselves Christians, but who do not give themselves with resolution and honesty of heart to complying with the condi- tions laid down by Christ without compliance with which it is impossible for them to know Him or to experience His power. The student who has not definitely yielded his life to the sway of Christ as his divine Saviour and Lord is standing at the fork in the roads as he reads these words. He has the ability to choose which of the two roads he will take, and he knows that he has this ability. He can say, I will continue to go my own way although I must admit that it has not been satis- factory, for in following it I have not had the help of a power greater than my own and have 17 therefore fallen far short of what I might have attained. Or, he can say, I now resolve to go Christ’s way, the following of which has never led meninto the dark, but, which on the author- ity of Christ and all those who have sincerely complied with His conditions, leads into ever stronger light, ever greater power and ever deeper satisfaction. “Our wills are ours, we know not how Our wills are ours to make them Thine.”’ 18 ‘ ‘3 e - eee eae, ee ee Lene nance pars “ipa. 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