YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL

SPIRITUAL MESSAGES
OF THE
MIRACLE STORIES

BY
GEORGE HENRY HUBBARD
Author of " The Teachings of Jesus in Parables,'
" Spiritual Power at Work," etc.

THE PILGRIM PRESS
BOSTON CHICAGO

Copyright 1922
By SIDNEY A. WESTON

THE JORDAN & MORE PRESS
BOSTON

TO MY DAUGHTER
LOIS DEAN HUBBARD, M. D.
THIS VOLUME IS
AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

"The Good Physician liveth yet
Thy Friend and Guide to be;
The Healer by Gennesaret
Shall walk thy rounds with thee."

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
chapter page
I. Wheat versus Chaff. Interpretation
of the Miracle Stories ... 3
THE NATURE MIRACLES
ONE MIRACLE OF TRANSFORMATION
II. The Social Christ. The first Miracle :
the Marriage at Cana . . . . 12
TWO MIRACLES OF CREATION
III. Doing the Impossible. Feeding the
Five Thousand  21
IV. Cardinal Points of Christian Benefi
cence. Feeding the Four Thousand 30
THREE MIRACLES OF KNOWLEDGE
V. The Challenge of the Deep. A Won
derful Catch of Fish . ... 39
VI. Sovereignty and Self-Restraint. The
Tribute Money  49

CONTENTS
CHAPTER page
VII. The Value of New Methods. A Second
Wonderful Catch  57
THREE MIRACLES OF POWER
VIII. Fear and Faithlessness. Stilling the
Storm . . .... 65
IX. The Assurance that Dispels Feu '
Walking on the Waves . . 73
X. Blessing in Blundering. Peter's
Fiasco Transfigured . . 81
ONE MIRACLE OF DESTRUCTION
XI. Anticipating Faith. The Blasting of
the Fig Tree ... 90
MIRACLES OF HEALING AND RESTORATION
TWO CASES OF FEVER
XII. Sickness and Salvation. The Noble
man's Son at Capernaum .... 99
XIII, Saved to Serve. Simon's Mother-in-
Law  107
SEVEN CASES OF DEMONIACAL POSSESSION
XIV. A Moral Tonic. The Demoniac in
the Synagogue . . .115

CONTENTS
chapter page
XV. Self-eclipse the Condition of Supreme
Endowment. The Syro- Phoenician
Woman's Daughter . . 124
XVI. Spiritual Action and Physical Reac
tion. The Dumb Demoniac of
Capernaum . . . . 133
.-ir _
XVII. Division and Desolation. The Blind
and Dumb Demoniac . . . 142
XVIII. Swine versus Souls. The Gerasene
Demoniac ... . ... 150
XIX. Unfaith and Failure. An Epileptic
Hysteric  .159
XX. A Miracle Overshadowed. The Wo
man with a Spirit of Infirmity . 168
TWO CASES OF LEPROSY
XXI. A Healing Hand-clasp. The First
Leper Healed .... ... 176
XXII. Ten Times One Are Ten. Ten Lepers
Cleansed  185
FOUR CASES OF BLINDNESS
XXIII. Christianity a Religion of Power.
Two Blind Men Receive their Sight 194

CONTENTS
chapter pace
XXIV. Seeing Men as Trees. The Blind
Man of Bethsaida . „ 202
XXV. A Problem Transfigured. The Man
Born Blind . ... 210
XXVI. In Darkest Jericho and the Way Out.
Blind Bartimffius and his Com
panion ... . 219
FOUR CASES OF PARALYSIS
XXVII. Study of a Spiritual Spectrum. The
Palsied Man of Capernaum . . 228
XXVIII. Faith's Flowers in Flanders Fields.
The Centurion's Palsied Servant . 236
XXIX. Authority in Religion and Life. The
Healing at Bethesda ... . 245
XXX. Left- Handed Souls. The Man with
the Withered Hand . . . 253

VARIOUS INDIVIDUAL CASES
XXXI. Touching versus Thronging. The
Woman with an Issue of Blood . 261
XXXII. The Irrepressible Witness. The Deaf
Mute of Decapolis . . .269
XXXIII. Jesus' Estimate of a Man. The Man
with the Dropsy . . . .277

3NTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
XXXIV. .,7ss of True Courage. The
Healing of Malchus . . 285
XXXV. The Contagion of Character. Many
Sick Ones Healed by a Touch 293
THREE MIRACLES OF RESTORATION
XXXVI. Sympathy and Service. The Widow's
Son of Nain . . . 301
XXXVII. An Interrupted Miracle Story. The
Restoration of Jairus' Daughter 309
XXXVIII. Stones Rolled Away. Lazarus of
Bethany . . .... 317
THE GREATEST MIRACLE OF ALL
XXXIX. The Crowning Miracle. The Resur
rection of Jesus .... . 325
CONCLUDING CHAPTER
XL. The Promise of the Miracles. The
Ever-Present Christ . . 333

SPIRITUAL MESSAGES
OF THE
MIRACLE STORIES

CHAPTER I
Wheat versus Chaff
INTERPRETATION OF THE MIRACLE STORIES
Matt. 9 : 1-35
Text. — " What is the chaff to the wheat? " — Jer. 23 : 28
LIFELESS facts are the chaff of history. Living
forces are the golden grains of wheat enfolded
within the facts or the record of facts. The
present worth of the facts, as we view them in the ever
receding past, is exactly measured by their molding
influence upon the advancing life of today.
A student commits to memory a thousand dates and
ten thousand incidents. Is he any wiser therefor? Is
his life any richer? Is his personality any larger or
more forceful? Not a whit, unless he discover and assim
ilate the living truth hidden in each one of these. We
waste our time reading the hero tales of the past, if such
reading does not kindle in our own souls the spirit of
present heroism. Dates of discovery or achievement are
mere brain lumber if they fail . to suggest permanent
factors in the world's progress. And the value of either
date or story is, for the most part, independent of its
historic accuracy or literary character.
Do you doubt this statement? A couple of familiar
illustrations will make it clear as noonday. — The precise
date of our Lord's birth is unknown. The date of the
Declaration of Independence is well known. But
would not the most loyal of American citizens acknowl
edge that the Christmas festival exerts a greater influ
ence upon human life today, even in his own country,
than does " the Glorious Fourth "? The story of the
prodigal son is fiction. The biography of John Newton is
a record of fact. Which has won more souls to God and
righteousness, the real portrait or the imaginary? The

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
answer is self-evident. Clearly, then, the value of
legends and folk-lore lies not in their own inherent
nature, but in the moral ideals which they inculcate and
the spiritual forces which they embody. Not the
knowledge of past facts, but the transmutation of these
into present and living forces is the aim of true scholar
ship. Now we have in the Gospels a series of narratives
popularly known as " Miracle Stories." Though vary
ing widely in character and significance, they reveal
certain common characteristics that lead us to group •
them together under the common title. In number
these stories about equal the major parables, and they
are no less striking from a literary point of view, nor less
replete with human interest. To most of us, however,
they doubtless seem somewhat remote from the experi
ence of modern life, and wanting in practical applica
tion to everyday problems. To the average expositor
they yield more fruit of scholastic discussion than of
moral or spiritual inspiration. Why is this? Is it not
because student and expositor alike fail to realize that,
like all other records of the dead past, the miracle stories
are but chaff — the chaff of the Gospels — and that
their value for us lies not in the stories themselves, nor
in the transient events which they describe, but in the
living truths which they teach, the active forces which
they embody?
The miracle stories are but Gospel chaff, I say. Do I
mean by that phrase to discredit these scriptural records,
or to detract anything from their claim to our reverent
regard? Not at all! On the contrary, I hope to make it
very clear that such a classification is quite consistent
with the most extreme views of the supernatural charac
ter and literal historic truthfulness of every narrative.
What is chaff? Something false or worthless? No.
It is a significant, yes, a vital product of divine efficiency.
It has a specific and by no means unimportant mission
in the order of nature; but that mission is clearly defined

Wheat versus Chaff

and strictly limited. The sole purpose of chaff is to
protect the wheat during the period of its immaturity
and to insure its perfect development. We prove the
value of the chaff only by threshing out the ripened
grain and nourishing our bodies therewith.
Like chaff, the story — whether miracle story or
parable or legend — encloses within itself grains of
truth and power which must be winnowed out and as
similated if they are to feed the moral and spiritual life
of mankind. To center our thought upon the nature of
the stories themselves, or upon the character of the
incidents involved, is simply a process of chaff analysis
adding nothing to the spiritual food supply of the world.
A popular preacher of past days had a famous sermon
on the book of Jonah. For the space of about an hour
and a quarter he would argue mightily to prove that the
story was literally true, to the great edification of those
who already believed as he did, and to the amusement
rather than the confusion of those who differed. Yet
in all his exhaustive discussion there was not a single
word about the spiritual message of the book, not a
word about the purpose for which the book was written,
namely, to impress upon the mind of every reader the
fact of God's impartial love for all his children, whatever
their race or religious belief. And the validity of this
truth is not in the slightest degree dependent upon the
literary character of the story by means of which it has
been preserved and handed down through the ages.
On the shelves of every large religious library one may
find numerous volumes devoted to the study and exposi
tion of Jesus' miracles. But the eager disciple who
comes to these works seeking spiritual light or moral
inspiration is liable to serious disappointment. At
least nine out of every ten of them, and these by theolo
gians of the most diverse schools, are wholly concerned
with a microscopic study of the consistent elements of
chaff. Of the remaining tenth the majority retain
enough of the chaff to well-nigh conceal the wheat from

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
the hungry seeker, and some even contain a few pebbles
that have been mistaken for grains of good wheat.
About the middle of the nineteenth century an arch
bishop of the Anglican Church published a volume of
Notes on the Miracles which ranks as a classic with
theological students to this day. Of its nearly four
hundred pages about one-fourth are devoted wholly to a
study of chaff. First we have a " Discussion of Names,
Nature and Authority of Miracles." Next comes " A
Comparison of Bible Miracles with Others." Then
follows a review of various " Assaults on Miracles."
And finally he considers " The Apologetic Worth of
Miracles." The remaining three-fourths of the book
are devoted to notes on the individual miracles, but most
of these contain a considerable quantity of chaff mingled
with a limited measure of wheat, and that not of the most
nourishing variety. Valuable time is wasted over the
question, Was the " nobleman's son " of one story the
same as the " centurion's servant " of another? And
was that nobleman Chuza? Commenting on the healing
of the paralytic, the writer discusses at some length the
form of the house where the miracle was performed,
and the breaking up of the roof. Is this chaff? Or is it
mere gravel?
A Scotch divine lecturing to American theological
students takes up these seven topics: — 1. The Nature
and Possibility of Miracles; 2. The Supernatural in
Christ; 3. The Credibility of Miracles; 4. The Testi
mony in Behalf of Miracles; 5. The. Mythical Theory;
6. The Evidential Value of Miracles; 7. The Spiritual
Significance of Miracles. Where in all this learned
course of lectures is there any spiritual wheat, unless it
be in the concluding discourse?
These two works are typical of the most scholarly
productions upon this general subject that appeared in
the nineteenth century. And many of the works pub
lished in the present century are little more than echoes
of the earlier discussions, with slight variations of form

Wheat versus Chaff

and emphasis. Doubtless such works have about the
same value for students in the theological classroom as
has chaff analysis to students of natural science; but to
the world at large they are of no vital importance. To
spend valuable time and thought in discussions of this
sort is to " Stretch lame hands of faith and grope
And gather dust and chaff."
It wearies the mind, and does not nourish the life. The
folly of such expository methods is clearly manifest
when we turn upon them the light of daily experience in
the realm of the physical life and its needs.
Starving Armenia or India or China cries to America
for relief. What shall we do? Shall we inform the
hungry ones that countless shiploads of wheat are
already stored up in our grain elevators and will be sent
to all who need, just as soon as we have made an abso
lutely authoritative analysis of the chaff from which the
wheat was threshed, and they have accepted our pro
nouncement? Nonsense! The chaff is nothing to them.
The wheat, the wheat, that is what they need! That is
food. That is life. Give it to them quickly, or they
will die.
The world hungers for the wheat of divine truth, the
living moral force embodied within the gospel narra
tives, and its hunger is unsatisfied. For wheat the
preacher too often gives them chaff. All the while,
the message of Jehovah's true prophet comes ringing
down through the centuries, — " What is the chaff to
the wheat? "
But what of the honest doubter? What of the troubled
soul to whom the difficulties presented by the miracle
stories themselves are a perpetual stumbling-block, endan
gering his faith in the Gospels as a whole? Must we not
strive to convince him of the credibility of these stories, or
at least to resolve his doubts concerning them, in order

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
that his mind may be open to the larger appeal? Per
haps so. But how shall we best convince him? By
feeding him with chaff? Or by winnowing from the
chaff rich measures of golden grain that shall nourish
his soul? In any case, does it follow that because a few
individuals are troubled with dyspepsia the entire race
must be put on a diet of bran biscuit?
In some countries, when the wheat has been carefully
threshed and winnowed out, the chaff is used to fill
mattresses, and the poorer people sleep on these beds of
chaff. Aye, — more, not a few die on them. While
we preachers concern ourselves with the chaff of the
gospel, while opposing schools of religion quarrel over
its precise nature, the Church sleeps and disciples die
upon the beds that we have stuffed for them. May
we not trace the utter moral collapse of a great nation
at the present time, in part at least, to the fact that their
religious teachers have been feeding the people for many
years past on the chaff of biblical criticism and dry-as-
dust historical discussion, instead of holding aloft
the eternal principles of truth and righteousness which
alone give to the Bible its unique value? When shall we
learn to apply to our spiritual efforts the same simple
common sense that we illustrate every day in the harvest
field, namely, to
" Take the corn and leave the chaff behind"?
The present writer has no desire to add another
volume to the already overflowing stream of critical
and controversial literature that eddies and whirls
about the gospel miracles. This is not a general work
on The Miracle Stories of the New Testament. It is not
even a discussion of The Miracles of Jesus. It is simply
what its title proclaims it to be, — a single-minded search
for Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories.
The purpose of the work is practical. No theory of
miracles is propounded. No stress is laid upon the

Wheat versus Chaff

historic verity of the narratives, nor upon the super
natural character of the incidents described. The stories
are taken just as they come to us, and their classification
is left to the judgment of the individual reader. The
writer will be best pleased if his own opinions upon
mooted questions are totally eclipsed by the moral
teaching that lies at the very heart of the stories, the
inevitable spiritual impression made by this phase of our
Lord's ministry.
Even from the historical point of view, we are not
particularly interested in the intellectual or scientific
impression made by the miracles upon those who wit
nessed them. We are concerned with their moral and
spiritual reactions alone, and these reactions inevitably
and quite unconsciously find expression in the evangelic
record. The relation between the intellectual and the
spiritual reactions which follow any study of nature or
life varies indefinitely. The intellectual reaction is
largely a matter of education. The spiritual reaction
is determined by character and affects life. Hence the
spiritual reaction is of supreme importance.
For example : — The psalmist David had a very limited
intellectual knowledge of astronomy, but his spiritual
reaction was perfect when he sang —
" The heavens declare the glory of God,
And the firmament showeth his handiwork."
Today, as the educated Christian astronomer sings the
same psalm, his mental concept is a thousand .. times
greater and. more, glorious than, that -of any ancient
cantor ^ yet his. spiritual, reaction may be far inferior.
By the same tokeij, the spiritual reaction. of the apostles
is of far greater significance to the disciple of the present
day than are their mental processes and conclusions.
Some one has styled the miracles — "Jesus' acted
parables";, and . the phrase is. a. most allurijig one,
though misleading. We must beware of admitting any

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
element of unreality or play-acting into our thought of
the life and work of the Master. When we speak of the
spiritual messages of the miracle stories, we do not mean
to imply that the Master wrought any miracle with the
deliberate purpose of teaching a particular moral lesson.
Every work of healing or helpfulness was a purely sponta
neous expression of his divine love: and, so far as the
conscious, premeditated purpose of the Worker went,
it was nothing more. Yet every such work inevitably
produced a definite moral impression upon all who wit
nessed it, and that moral impression has been passed on
to us by the evangelists. So the miracle stands out in
marked contrast with the parable at several distinct
points. The parable is a story told by the Master for the
definite purpose of teaching a particular lesson or illus
trating a specific truth. The miracle is a work wrought
for the purpose of relieving distress, supplying need or
accomplishing some other important end. The moral
reactions, however Valuable the lessons suggested by
them, are incidental and undesigned, although inevitable.
Again, the parable, being designed to embody a definite
lesson, is so framed that all its details converge upon the
one central thought; and in most cases there is but one
lesson to be drawn from the story. The miracle reveals
no such unity of purpose or plan. We must seek its
practical message not merely from the Work of the
Master himself, but from the effect produced by that
work upon different classes of men who witnessed it.
It follows of necessity, therefore, that the study of the
miracles is by no means as simple a matter as is the study
of tbe parables, and the personal equation of the inter
preter is a more evident factor in the final result.
Naturally, dogmatism is ruled out of the following
studies. For the messages deduced no other authority
is 'claimed than that which necessarily grows out. of the
manifest reasonableness and worth of the product offered.
The .writer makes' no claim to have threshed out all of
JO

Wheat versus Chaff

the wheat, or even the best of it. The chief purpose of
this work is to indicate a method of interpretation by
which any one may thresh out grain for himself. And
this is in every case the implicit appeal: — Never mind
what you think about miracles in general, or about any
particular miracles; is the given interpretation of the
story reasonable? Is it true? Is it of any moral value
to you? If so, accept it; feed your soul upon it. If it is
not true or good, find a better one and give that to the
soul-hungry. But, in heaven's name, find wheat!
Don't try to feed your own soul and others' souls on
chaff!

The Nature Miracles
CHAPTER II
The Social Christ
THE FIRST MIRACLE: THE MARRIAGE AT CANA
John 2:1-11
Text. — " This beginning of his signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee,
and manifested forth his glory." — -John 2 : 11
THE glory of the Christ-life is its perfect symmetry.
Truly divine, it is none the less typically human.
Intensely spiritual, it never belittles or ignores
the material. Supremely religious, it enters with uncon
strained interest and enthusiasm into the secular.
Everywhere it is well balanced; on all sides, fully
rounded. Jesus was no recluse, no misanthrope. Entirely
consecrated though he was to his great mission, he did
not withhold himself from any phase of the varied life
of his time. The workshop of industry, the circle of
society, the duties of citizenship, all were alike hallowed
by his presence and made luminous by his example and
teaching. He entered into all the essential departments
of human activity, but everywhere he was the Christ,
manifesting the divine character and employing the
divine power for blessing. " In the world, but not of
the world " was true of the Master that it might be true.
of his disciples in all ages and lands. This, in brief, is
the message of the first miracle story.
Note the setting of the incident. Jesus' public minis
try is just begun. By way of preparation he has had
about thirty years of quiet, uneventful home life with
its disciplines of obedience, education and service. At
length the period of immaturity and tutelage is passed.
The last duty of childhood's subservience has been dis
charged. The boy has become a man, fitted to take
12

The Social Christ

upon himself all the responsibilities and duties of man
hood. As he comes forth into the full light of an independent
personality, we get our first glimpse of him at the Jordan,
receiving the rite of baptism at the hands of the wilder
ness preacher. Then, for a space of six weeks, he retires
into the solitude for prayerful meditation, that he may
definitely outline in his own mind the methods, motives
and principles that shall shape his future work. This
task accomplished, he returns to the scene of his baptism,
and there we discover him in earnest conversation with
the men who, quickly attracted by his wondrous graces
of speech and person, become his first disciples.
Now, on the third day after, we meet him again at a
marriage feast in company with his mother and the little
group of followers. So graphic is the story as told in
the Fourth Gospel, that we can easily imagine ourselves
among the guests, seeing with their eyes and hearing
with their ears; and in this way we may easily infer
what would be the impression made upon their minds by
the incident as a whole, and by its details.
I am very sure there were some whose chief thought
was of the wine supply, its embarrassing failure and its
unexpected replenishment. For them it was more than
a " nine days' wonder," and rapidly grew into a miracle
story with which to entertain similar gatherings. So the
Worker and his message are totally eclipsed by a single
incident which should have served merely as a side-light
upon the noblest of characters.
Their offspring have appeared in every age, — those
Bible students who read in this narrative merely a record
of the miraculous transformation of water into wine.
Their interpretation of the act and its application to life
depend wholly upon the nature of the mind in which it
is reflected. For example, one person of my acquaintance,
a manufacturer of intoxicants, justifies his business on
the ground that Jesus made intoxicating wine at Cana of
Galilee. Another man, a somewhat fanatical temperance
13

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
advocate, uses this narrative in quite the opposite way,
declaring that Jesus on this occasion persuaded the host
to accept pure water as a substitute for the wine which
had already partially intoxicated himself and his guests.
This interpretation he supported by inserting a hyphen
between the last two words of John 4 : 16, so that it
should read, " He came therefore again unto Cana of
Galilee, where he made the water-wine."
Of course all fair-minded students recognize such
arguments as a reductio ad absurdum. But are they not,
after all, traceable to precisely the same attitude of mind
that Archbishop Trench betrays when he speaks of this
incident as " a turning of the Water of Earth into the
Wine of Heaven," hence a good introduction to the
miracles as a whole?
The present worth of the story, however, does not lie
in the one act of the Master, even though it be miracu
lous. As in the case of all the so-called " Nature mira
cles," the facts asserted are out of alignment with
modern thought and experience, hence as facts they sug
gest no lesson, either spiritual or practical, and time
devoted to their discussion is wasted.
Let us try to put ourselves en rapport with the more
profound and spiritually minded guests at that feast.
From their viewpoint what was the first remarkable
feature of the scene? A miracle? No. It was a very
commonplace fact, the fact of our Lord's presence with
his disciples at a marriage feast at the very outset of his
ministry, when every act would establish a precedent
and be significant of character. How shall we interpret
this fact? I know of no better interpretation than that
expressed in the phrase, " In the w.orld."
It is a marriage feast, a scene of special and continued
hilarity, an occasion of genuine and often excessive
merriment. Remember this, ye who delight to picture
our Saviour as a man of perpetual sorrow, ever weighed
down by the consciousness of human sin, weeping over
the impending doom of the incorrigible, or burning with

The Social Christ

fiery indignation at the hypocrisy of his enemies, but never
smiling on human joy or taking any part in earth's glad
ness. Remember this, I say, that one of the first events
in the public ministry of Jesus was his attendance^at a
marriage feast. From the solemn service of baptism,
from the soul-trying struggle with temptation in the
wilderness, from the earnest conversations of the enquiry
room, he comes by a single step to the house of mirth.
Furthermore, he did not come to rebuke the festivity.
He did not hold himself aloof from the merrymakers,
nor introduce discordant thoughts that would make
everybody feel ill at ease in the midst of the gaiety.
He did not pull a long face and quote the gloomy warn
ing of the pessimist of Ecclesiastes, " Know thou, that
for all these things God will bring thee into judgment."
No, no! Very far from that! He entered into the spirit
of the occasion, and exerted his special gifts to rescue the
host from an embarrassing predicament. The first of
his " mighty works " was wrought, not to clench the
message of some great discourse, not to convince some
doubting multitude of the validity of his claims to leader
ship, but to save a purely festal gathering from disagree
able interruption, and to spare the feelings of one who
was his host.
Can you not see how some really devout and spiritual
souls must have beheld the presence of Jesus at this
feast with serious misgivings? Why, I can almost hear
the reproachful tones with which they address him.
" How does it happen that you, of all men, are here_ at
this scene of thoughtless revelry? You, whose mission
it is to preach the gospel of eternal life! You, who have
come to save men from sin! If it does not harm you,
still you should think of the example and its influence
upon others! You should give yourself wholly to your
preaching. Things so worldly should be abhorrent to
you. You should leave such gatherings to the un
spiritual and indifferent."
Am I drawing upon my imagination? Not at all.
15

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
From first to last, this attitude of Jesus towards the
social life of his time was a matter of surprise to his con
temporaries. Some expressed this surprise in serious
questions, others with sneers and scoffing. Disciples
of John come to the Master with the query, " Why do we
and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not? "
And contemptuous religionists of the pharisaic type point
the finger of scorn at him, saying, " Behold, a gluttonous
man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!"
You see, then, that the gist of this story is not in a
single act, however wonderful. It is in a far-reaching
principle of action. It involves a religious ideal, a
spiritual revolution. One has come upon the greatest
mission of all the ages; yet here he is among the merry
makers, not a whit less a man, a neighbor, a friend, be
cause he is the world's Redeemer. Nay, he could not
have been an effectual redeemer of man had he not first
been a man among men, one with his fellows in all right
relations. He could not touch life with transforming
power from the outside. He must be in the midst of it.
Do you catch the lesson for your life? The place for
religion, the place for the Christian of whatever calling,
is not above or outside the common life, but in the midst
of it. There is no manifestation of public or common
activity from which the disciple of Jesus may rightly
withhold himself. Is the drama debased? Are politics
corrupt? Is society frivolous? Is commerce greedy and
unscrupulous? You will not uplift or purify any of these
by holding yourself aloof from them. The ceaseless
procession -of monks, nuns, anchorites and. the. like who
have marched down the centuries have achieved little
for the cause of truth and righteousness. Their vigils,
penances and fastings have been a pitiful waste of spirit
ual force. A yeast-cake in a cupboard never made light
bread; neither did a hermit in his cave ever redeem a
city by his prayers and fasts.
Hardly less than the danger of over-absorption in the
affairs of the world is the opposite danger that we shall
le

The Social Christ

put ourselves wholly out of touch and sympathy with
life in the name of religion, and so lose all power to
sanctify human society and make it what God would have
it. In the world should every Christian be, in the noblest
sense of the phrase, — " In the world, but —
" Not of the world." This is the second point that
glistens in our story. It was the second vital fact that
impresses itself upon every discerning guest at that
marriage feast. Jesus is still the Christ, the Son of God,
at a festal gathering as everywhere else. Mingling
freely and without constraint in the festivities of common
men, he loses not for a moment his distinctively divine
character. Associating with worldly pleasure-seekers
in a manner that never in the slightest degree embarrasses
them, but rather enhances their pleasure, he yet descends
not to their level. In short, he reveals at Cana of Galilee
the same Christly purpose, the same loving devotion, the
same power, earnestness, self-surrender, that appear in
the synagogue or on the Mount of Transfiguration, or in
Gethsemane or on Calvary.
And this is, I submit, a matter of infinitely greater
importance to the world, a fact of infinitely deeper
significance to every disciple of Jesus, than the turning of
water into wine, — to enter heartily and without so
much as a shadow of censoriousness into the world's
pleasures, or the world's struggles, or the world's aspira
tions, even when these are in a great measure false and
corrupt, and to maintain the Christly purpose and
character intact. To hold fast to the spirit of unselfish
ness amid the grinding competition of commercial life,
to manifest a Christly integrity amid the temptations
and corruptions of political life, to retain a Christly
earnestness in the giddy whirl of social life, — this is, I
repeat, of greater value to the cause of human redemption
than any mere miracle of power.
Often enough we mingle freely with the world , -tfe
plunge eagerly, heartily into the world's pleasures and
ambitions, and many times, far too many t^mes, we
17

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
wholly lose our identity as disciples of the Christ. Not
only are we in the world, but we are also of the world.
We make unconditional surrender to worldly opinion
and custom. We adopt worldly methods. We act from
worldly motives. We bow down to worldly principles,
and we fear nothing so much as that we shall seem in
any degree peculiar or unworldly.
I do not say that this is true of all. No, in spite of our
unbelief and criticism, there are even now in the world
multitudes of those Christly souls who sanctify every
avenue of life by their presence and influence. There
are the Brights and Gladstones and Lincolns uncorrupted
and incorruptible amid the temptations of public life,
and touching the problems of statesmanship with the
light of Christian principle. There are men like William
E. Dodge and Franklin Fairbanks, entering business
life not for selfish gain, but that they may consecrate
their service and their accumulation to God. There
are women like Charlotte Cushman and Lucy Larcom
and Mrs. President Hayes, who in the life of the stage
or the cotton factory or the home so prove their pure
womanliness and sweet discipleship that other lives
about them are strengthened, and the whole sphere of
thought and action in which they move is made better
by their presence.
Such men and women there are, but they are all too
few. It is a fact much to be regretted that for most
persons, whether men or women, the recognition of a
divine call is limited to special " missions " in life. Now
I have not a word to say in criticism of that noble army
of special reformers and missionaries of every descrip
tion whom God has called out from the ordinary ranks
of life to work for their fellow men from the outside, as
it were. Their service is necessary and noble, even
though it must be done at long range. But 1 do say
that where God calls one to come out for an unusual
work, he calls thousands, yes, tens of thousands, to
serve him " in the world "; that is, to remain just
18

The Social Christ

where they are, and to demonstrate the blessedness of
the Christ-life in the midst of the same toil to which
their life is already given. He calls for a host of men in
the common walks of life, for a host of women in homes
and in unseen lines of service the world over, to display
the tokens of the divine life wherever they may be, not
preaching, not criticizing, not rebuking, not finding
fault with those about them, but so diffusing at all times
and in all places the savor of their consecration, the in
fluence of their heavenly spirit and purpose, that life
about them shall be insensibly transfigured and sanc
tified. Have I not rightly interpreted the gospel picture of
the divine guest at the marriage feast in Cana? Not
a mere miracle, not a change of material elements, how
ever subtle and extraordinary the chemistry of it, but
a spiritual revelation, a manifestation of divine charac
ter and life. Christ in the world is the Christ still, with
all his Christly power and beneficence. This was the
beginning of Jesus' miracles, yet the " miracle " is over
shadowed by the glory of his divine personality and the
beauty of his divine spirit.
What better beginning of miracles for us? Our age
is clamoring for the wonderful. The challenge of the
times is for material gifts and manifestations of occult
power. Let us not be misled. We can do without
these if instead thereof we have divine love and purity.
To you, and to me, and to all, the Christ of Cana
calls to-day, and this is the burden of his message: —
" Seek not to escape from the world, — from your
world. Do not withdraw yourself from its interests
nor sneer at its foibles. Do not search for some magical
power that shall free you from the necessity of toil and
struggle, or some mystical experience that shall lift you
in a moment far above all temptations and trials. Rather
enter into the life about you more heartily, more gener
ously. Give yourself ungrudgingly to the common
service that is yours. Let the world at your door share
19

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
the fulness of your sympathy and your enthusiasm;
but ever keep your service, your enthusiasm, your
sympathy true to the Christly standards. See in this
commonplace and often frivolous world the true and
only field for the development of Christian character
and for the exercise of Christian influence. Make the
daily toil, — aye, and the daily temptation, too, —
means of divinest service, proofs of genuine discipleship."
Doing this we shall most effectively manifest the glory
of the Christ, and men will believe on him.

20

CHAPTER III
Doing the Impossible
FEEDING THE FIVE THOUSAND
Matt. 14 : 15-21; Mark6 : 34-44; Luke9 : 12-17; John 6 : 5-15.
Text. — " Give ye them to eat." — Matt. 14 : 16
HE who has never done the impossible knows noth
ing of real fellowship with God, for God always
requires the impossible of his servants. God's
Word is a record of past impossibilities and a summons
to future impossibilities. God's law embodies an impos
sible standard of life and duty. Were it not so, that
law would be useless. What is the transcendent value
of true religion? Is it not that the impossible becomes
possible when human weakness is reenforced by divine
power through the channel of worship?
Jesus says, " Ye shall be perfect." We reply, and
truthfully, — " Perfect! why, that is impossible; we
are human, and humanity is ever imperfect." The
old theologians were right, as far as they went, when they
affirmed the inability of men to keep the divine law.
" As far as they went," I say; for they stopped short
with a half-truth. They proclaimed with great ear
nestness and show of pious wisdom what all men knew
only too well before. Jesus knows that he has set for
us an impossible standard, — the perfect character;
therefore he comes to us with the power of a divine
Saviour, and perfection becomes possible. We are
perfect, complete, in him.
Again, the Master sends us out into the world and bids
us redeem it. Once more we cry, " Impossible!" Men
cannot convert the world. " No man can by any means
redeem his brother." But our Lord bestows upon us
the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the salvation of the world
becomes possible. 21

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
" Impossible," is, after all, only a temporary and
relative word. It is almost out of date already. It
is fast losing its meaning. It has small claim to space
in the lexicon of twentieth century enlightenment.
" With God all things are possible "; and all things are
possible to men to the degree of their fellowship with
God. By virtue of our growing intimacy with God we
are doing the impossible every day. That is to say, we
are doing, without a thought of miracle or wonder,
things that our fathers would have considered not only
marvelous but absolutely impossible.
We travel by rail at the rate of sixty or more miles an
hour, and complain because we do not go faster; yet,
the most intelligent men at the opening of the last cen
tury declared such a rate of travel impossible. We
climb mountain sides with our railways, or with them
pierce through the heart of mountains at will, — both
feats being laughed at as impossible scarcely more than
fifty years ago. We illuminate our city streets and houses
with electricity, the promise of which in my own college
days was dismissed by a learned (?) professor as a delu
sion; it was impossible.
The myth of Icarus and the absurdity of " Darius
Green " were both based upon the supposed impossi
bility of aerial navigation. The exigencies of a great
war have spurred men to the mastery of the third ele
ment, and today battles rage hundreds of feet above the
clouds, and -mails are carried through the air by men
with eagles' wings. The day is not far distant when the
aeroplane will be as commonplace as the trolley or the
automobile. What has given us these new forfns of power? Whence
comes our enlarged dominion over nature? It is an
open secret. We have simply come into more perfect
harmony with the mind of God. We have entered into
a more extended and confident partnership with Omnip
otence. Can we not see in these achievements some
thing of our Lord's meaning when he says, " All things
22

Doing the Impossible

are possible to him that believeth "? Is there anything
of which one may say today, — " This is impossible"?
In times past the word " impossible " has been a
favorite refuge of skeptics and faithless souls. Men
have refused to believe the Scripture records, and with
an air of superior wisdom have said, " Impossible ";
or, they have sneered at the moral standards of Jesus
and the lofty ideals of the Sermon on the Mount as
utterly beyond the range of human attainment. They
have cast the word " impossible " as a stumbling-block in
the pathway of every progressive soul, whether preacher,
discoverer, inventor or reformer. The theologians used
the word to ti ip up Luther, Wesley and Finney ; with it
the navigators tried to anchor the vessels of Columbus to
the shores of the Old World, and the religio-scientists
endeavored to blot out the discoveries of Galileo. But
in view of the daily miracles of our own generation the
word is fast losing its terrors.
Now turn the light of modern experience upon the
ancient story of The Loaves and the Fishes. Four evan
gelists describe the incident in terms that are practically
identical. This, in substance, is what they tell us: —
Jesus and his disciples are in the wilderness, at a con
siderable distance from any food supply. Gathered
about them is a company of probably more than five
thousand persons who have been so completely absorbed
in the quest of divine truth, or so preoccupied by curi
osity, that they have taken no note of the flight of hours,
and bodily needs have been forgotten.
At length the day nears its close; the Great Teacher
ceases his work of preaching and healing. Then the
claims of hunger begin to assert themselves, and there
is no adequate supply with which to satisfy them. "Send
the multitude away," say the practical disciples, —
" send them away, that they may go into the villages
and buy themselves food." " Nay," replies the Master,
" they may faint by the road. Besides, it is not nec
essary to send them away. Give ye them to eat."
23

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
" What! feed this multitude of five thousand persons
here in the desert? Impossible! We have only five
loaves of bread and two little fishes ; and what are they
among so many? Be reasonable. Ask us anything
within the bounds of possibility. This is absurd."
Not heeding their surprise or incredulity, Jesus quietly
answers, " Bring them hither to me." The little hand
ful of food is brought, and, after a few words of blessing,
he bids his disciples distribute it to the multitude. Then,
(wonder of wonders!) they did all eat and were filled,
and after the feast the broken pieces gathered up filled
twelve baskets. The impossible has been accomplished.
How? By the copartnership of human obedience with
divine blessing. The day's provision of a lad, touched
by the power of God, makes an ample meal for thousands.
" A miracle! A miracle! " we cry; and with that
word we throw the incident wholly out of gear with life
as we know it, and despite strongest faith give to the
story an atmosphere of unreality. Yet the occurrence
is not so Unusual as many would have us believe. True,
we cannot match it with experience in the matter of food
supply; but we can discover its parallel in many other
lines and find it deeply significant. However we may
analyze the chaff of detail in the story, there is, enfolded
within, wheat of truth with which we may feed our
souls. The essential processes of this miracle Jesus
repeated many times in the course of his ministry, and
its marvel is a matter of daily experience in every true
life. This story, I say, is not merely local or temporary,
not just a bit of ancient history. It is an up-to-date
picture of the relation of the Christ and his disciples to
the world. It is a living illustration of a common method
of divine working among men. It expresses a perpetual
command of the Master, the ever present duty of the
Christian Church, the daily privilege of every Christian.
As, sitting at the feet of the Master, my soul asked, —
" Declare unto me the miracle of The Loaves and the
2-i

Doing the Impossible

Fishes," the answer of the divine Spirit came somewhat
as follows : — -
Religion does not consist wholly in sitting at the feet
of Jesus, in listening to his words of grace, in witnessing
his wonder-working. It is not altogether a matter of
separation from the world, of punctilious observance of
the Lord's Day, of regular and frequent attendance at
God's house, of receiving instruction and help for our
own better living. All this is pleasant; in its place it
is well. But what of the multitudes? On every hand are count
less hearts that are crying for help of one sort or another.
Of course these needs are more apparent and more
clamorous in some communities than in others: yet
they are real everywhere. Furthermore, Christianity
itself is responsible for many of these needs. As Jesus
and his disciples led the multitudes out into the desert
where there was no food, so the preaching of the Chris
tian Church, the proclamation of Christian ideals, has
led men away from their old sources of supply or their
former condition of indifference or satisfaction, and has
kindled within them a new sense of aspiration, of desire,
of hope. The longings that have been inspired by the
gospel, the gospel is bound to satisfy. We must give
men, in place of that which they have abandoned, the
completer satisfaction which comes from Christian
light and love.
Here is the true token of discipleship, not that we are
numbered with the little group close to the Master, not
that we follow him about hither and thither receiving
his word with eagerness and wonder, not even that we
adopt certain ideals and teachings as the general rule of
our lives, conforming our action to the standards com
monly accepted as Christian, — not this, I say, distin
guishes us from the multitude. If we are true Chris
tians, we shall hear, sooner or later, the command,
" Give ye them to eat." We shall be carried away from
our complacent and selfish hearing to the accomplish-
25

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
ment of some sacrificial service. We shall sometimes
be required to relinquish the highest spiritual privileges
for what seem to us most earthly and commonplace
duties. We shall be called, like the monk in Long
fellow's Legend Beautiful, from communion with the
Christ to feed the hungry; we shall suddenly descend
from mounts of transfiguration to valleys of disease and
despair, from the prayers and psalms and incense of the
sanctuary to the troubles and worries and wants of the
alley. More than this, we shall be required to perform impos
sibilities. The tasks set before us will not be limited by
our own estimate of our ability. We shall be bidden to
do many things for which we have by nature neither
fitness, inclination nor strength. Work will be allotted
to us for which many others seem better qualified, or
which seems altogether beyond human power. For the
Lord does not choose his workers after the manner of
men. He calls a stuttering shepherd of Midian and bids
him face the Pharaoh on his throne and lead forth a
nation from bondage. He sends an unskilled farmer
lad to fight the mailed giant of whom great Saul is afraid.
He finds Elisha and Amos at the plow and lays upon
them, all untrained as they were, the burden of prophecy.
He sees Peter and John, a couple of rude Galilee fisher
men, and he sends them forth to preach a new gospel
and to found a new religion. He takes Florence Nightin
gale from her home of culture and delicacy and thrusts
her into the midst of bloody battle-fields, to accomplish
wonders in saving the lives and ministering to the com
fort of thousands of soldiers. He commits the salva
tion of a great country, at the most critical period of its
history, to a man whom he brought forth from a log
cabin in the mountains. When the nations of Christen
dom look helplessly upon the sufferings of persecuted
Armenia, he brings a feeble Clara Barton to their rescue.
So he is perpetually calling upon men and women to
26

Doing the Impossible

perform impossible tasks, and as a result of their obedi
ence, the multitudes are always being fed with the few
loaves and the little fishes.
That there is much to be done for God and our fellow
men is very evident to all; the needs of the world are
only too apparent. But we look at our supplies of ex
perience or power or skill, and we say, " What are the.se
among so many? " The forces for the accomplishment
of God's work always seem inadequate, pitifully in
adequate. I doubt if there was ever a time when a
great work was required that the force in view seemed
proportionate to the task. Certain it is that no disciple
ever gets a worthy sense of duty and service but that his
capacities seem far too limited for their accomplishment.
That man or that woman who goes through life seeing
only the duties that he can easily do, undertaking only
such service as is plainly within the scope of his natural
endowment, has no worthy conception of Christian living
and obligation. Not for such are the glorious experi
ences of God's presence and power; not for such the
constant attainment of greater power and growing faith.
The life that never reaches out to the impossible is a
stagnant life, a dwindling life, an unspiritual life. Only
as we venture out boldly into the region of the untried
and the impossible do we link ourselves by faith to the
divine Christ, and make practical experiment of his love
and faithfulness.
How persistently we try to escape this manifest truth!
Have you never heard the echo of the disciples' words,
" Send the multitudes away "? Are we not ever ready
to throw the burden of responsibility upon others?
Is there ever a time when we cannot point to many who
are better fitted to supply the need than we are?
The phrase perfectly expresses the principle upon
which unchristian men deal with every emergency
today. " Send them away. Let them shift for them
selves. Why trouble our minds about them when they
have the same chance that we have? " The philosopher
27

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
looks out upon the world and sees that things are not as
they should be; there are grievous wrongs among men;
human society is not controlled by principles of righteous
ness and justice; there is dishonesty, oppression, suffer
ing, sorrow; and he says, " Let be! Things must take
their course. They will work out all right at last. It is
of no use to meddle, I shall only make matters worse."
That is practical.
But the Christ in our hearts ever says, " Give ye them
to eat." Satisfy the need that you see ; right the wrong ;
fight the evil; lift the fallen; encourage and strengthen
the weak. " But," answers the soul, " I have little
experience, less influence, and no skill." " Never mind:
do it! " " I don't know how." " What of that? Do
it! " " Only a handful of provisions! " " Bring them
to me. With my blessing, consecrated to my service,
they shall suffice to satisfy hungering thousands."
There is the secret of every miracle. Men may be the
instruments, but the work is God's. The channel
through which it flows may be very human, even earthy,
but the power is divine, infinite. God is not limited by
our weakness ; he is not hampered by our lack of wisdom ;
his purposes are not frustrated by the smallness of our
means. Yet small as our resources may be, they are absolutely
necessary. Without them God will not, cannot work.
He will feed the thousands, but he must have the few
loaves and fishes. He works now, as he has always
worked, as far as possible through the ordinary chan
nels. If he has given us never so little power for any
work, we may not expect him to do the work for us until
we have surrendered all our power to him. The little
must be consecrated, it must be used; and when this has
been done faithfully, obediently, trustfully, we may
expect that he will work wonders with it.
Because our gifts are few, our means small, we are
tempted to hold them in idleness like the man with one
talent: yet how often do we find God choosing the things
28

Doing the Impossible

that are few and small for the achievement of largest
results. It is Gideon's band of three hundred that
rescues Israel from the overwhelming hosts of Midian.
It is a little Holland or Switzerland that champions the
cause of liberty for the world. It is an insignificant
company of persecuted Pilgrims that determines the
character and fate of a new continent. It is a heroic
little Belgium that mounts her cross and stays the drive
of the Prussian hordes till the greater nations are ready
to meet them.
So this ancient miracle story impinges directly upon
your life and mine. It is not a wonder tale. It is a
practical message. Are we never overawed by the great
ness of the demands made upon us in our own circle,
and the smallness of the means at our command? Have
we never said, " What are these among so many? "
Inadequacy of resources, fewness of workers, lack of
opportunity, — who has not heard the complaint many
times? Who has not uttered it?
We have the few things, the weakest, the poorest of
us. Not one but has some gifts for service, some power
to bless others; not a church nor a disciple but has at
least five barley loaves and two little fishes. Hear the
Master as he says, " Bring them hither to me." Let us
consecrate our little things to him, let us bring them for
his blessing; and then, whatever the need we are bidden
to satisfy, we shall find we have an abundance for the
task.

29

CHAPTER IV
Cardinal Points of Christian Beneficence
FEEDING THE FOUR THOUSAND
Matt. 15 . 32-38; Mark 8:1-9
Text. — " And they took up that which remained over of the broken
pieces, seven baskets full." — Matt. 15 : 37
JESUS seldom repeats himself. His ministry is too
brief, his work too great for that. Incidents and
teachings that seem repetitious at first glance, stand
out as distinct under the light of careful study. Par
ables like "The Pounds" and "The Talents" are often
confused, even declared in the name of profound scholar
ship to be but variant records of one story. To the dis
cerning mind, however, they reveal a marked contrast
in origin and purpose. Critical examination resolves
other seeming repetitions into diverse uses of similar
incidents. One striking exception appears. Two of the most
familiar of our Lord's miracles are known respectively
as The Feeding of the Five Thousand and The Feeding of
the Four Thousand. The incidents and circumstances
are almost identical. So also are the narratives in which
they are recorded. Yet the two stories cannot be
reduced to one without convicting two of the evangelists
of flagrant error. Nor, on the other hand, can we dis
cover in one any lesson that is not as clearly taught in
the other.
Note the detailed parallelism; — the command or
suggestion on the part of the Master, the surprised
questioning of the disciples, the disparity between supply
and demand, the blessing and breaking of the food by
the Master, the distribution to the multitude, the
abundant satisfaction of the company, the careful con
servation of a surplus which exceeds the original supply.
30

Cardinal Points of Christian Beneficence
By contrast the variations are insignificant. Five
loaves against seven. Two fishes versus a few. Five
thousand in place of four thousand. The miracle in the
two cases is identical ; a mere handful of food made to
satisfy the hunger of a multitude of men and women.
But if the two stories are practically identical, why
give them separate treatment? Interpreting the one
have we not exhausted the meaning of both? My an
swer is found in the manifest truthfulness and signifi
cance of the present message. That it is a common
corollary of both miracle stories every student will admit.
In either feeding of the multitudes we have a picture
of the method and spirit of Christly beneficence. It
represents, as in a parable, the work of the Christian
Church in all ages, feeding hungry bodies in order that
she may minister the more effectively to starving souls.
In response to our questioning the incident unfolds
three cardinal points of all Christian beneficence. These
three points we may express in three words, Bounty,
System and Economy.
The first impression made by the story before us is
that of bounty. The ready generosity with which Jesus
responds to the need, and the resulting abundance of
satisfaction are apparent to the most superficial reader.
To many this is the sole suggestion of the miracle story,
the large-hearted beneficence of the Christ.
To the thoughtful mind comes also the impression of
system. How orderly is the arrangement of the com
pany! For that which is fully stated in the former
narrative is implied in this one. Bounty must not be
frustrated by carelessness or confusion. System makes
it possible to insure equitable distribution to all.
Last of all comes the divine example of economy, which
is, if we think of it a moment, the most remarkable
element in the story. Bounty? That is just what we
should expect of Jesus in view of his limitless power and
resources. System? That is also quite in harmony with
our notions of the Master's work. But economy!
31

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
That he who could create from so little an abundance
for the multitudes should require a careful saving of the
broken pieces, — is not that strange? With infinite
power to repeat the miracle at will, he does not permit
any waste. Had you been there, which fact would have
astonished you more, the power or the prudence, the
bounty or the economy?
" I and the Father are one," said Jesus. Here is an
illustration in point. These three elements, — bounty,
system and economy, enter into all God's work precisely
as they enter into the work of Jesus. In fact, Jesus'
method is but an incarnation of God's method. Every
where the three principles are characteristic of divine
Providence. What is the first impression received by the child as he
looks out upon this world which God has made? Is it
not the impression of bounty? Abundance of all good
things, that is what he sees, and he never foresees
possible exhaustion of the supply. He sees no need of
care or economy in the use of God's gifts. When, all too
soon, he learns the lesson of possible exhaustion and want,
it is seldom because of actual limitation of the supply,
but because of needless waste or of failure to connect with
the source. The same is true in the history of the race.
Furthermore, the progressive study of God's revela
tion in nature confirms childhood's first impression of
bounty. Everywhere we discover the most lavish provi
sion for human needs. Every tree and plant produces
many hundredfold more seeds than are needed to secure
the continuance of its kind. The earth reveals its capac
ity to feed and clothe a population a thousand times
greater than it has ever sustained. When we speak of
power, we have already discovered immeasurably more
than we can use, and there yet remain unimagined forces
to be discovered. If there is want anywhere, it is not
because God's providence is scanty, but because his
gifts are wasted or misdirected.
Again, if the whole creation declares the bounty of the
32

Cardinal Points of Christian Beneficence
Creator, it testifies no less clearly to the system with
which he works. Everywhere is abundance; every
where, also, is law and order. What is modern science
but the discovery and expression of the systematic
method seen in all God's work? Whoever thinks God's
thoughts after him will inevitably think with regularity,
and will work systematically in matters great or small;
for his life will fall into the great plan of God which moves
in accordance with laws, not hard and inexorable, but
helpful and free, a yoke which does not increase the
burden but makes it more easily borne.
If, however, the providence of God speaks the message
of bounty and of system, it speaks no less clearly the
message of economy. On every open page of Nature we
read the command, " Gather up the fragments, that
nothing be lost." Everywhere the most abundant pro
fusion ; everywhere the most rigid economy ; no vagrant
leaf whirled hither and thither by the wind, but is at
length worked into the soil to contribute its share towards
new life and fruitfulness. Out of the decay of past
generations in the vegetable world come the growth and
harvest of future years. The little streamlet waters
many a meadow and slope, and afterwards pours its
volume into the great sea. Not a drop is wasted or lost;
all are sought out, gathered up in the clouds and carried
back again to the mountain tops to renew their work of
blessing. The vast surrounding atmosphere is purified
and vitalized over and over again for the breath of living
men. The boundless forests that grew and perished
before there was any man to use them were not lost.
No smallest leaf or twig was wasted. Their fragments
were collected and stored in the earth till man was ready
to bring them forth in the form of coal and make them
serve his need.
So, too, of force. Scientists talk of " the conserva
tion of energy." What do they mean by the phrase?
Simply this, that Nature always gathers up the frag
ments of force and permits no loss. We speak of the
33

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
power of Niagara as " going to waste." It can never do
that. Even if no work is accomplished, the power is
transformed into heat, light, electricity, or some -other
of the numberless manifestations of force. Muscular
energy is spent, we say. Not so ; it is but sent forth to
appear elsewhere undiminished. Vital power lets itself
out here that it may spring forth fresh and ever more
glorious in some other place, — bounty everywhere, but
nowhere any waste.
Now turn the searchlight of our thought from the
ancient story and the remote creation to ourselves and
our common life. No miracle of the Christ is of any
present worth if it does not embody a message of pres
ent duty and service, and this is the message that he
speaks through that lakeside drama. " All true benefi
cence will manifest itself in a threefold form. It will
reveal three underlying principles, bounty, system and
economy." The Christian Church of today should be above all
else a beneficent organization ministering to human
needs, — feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, heal
ing the sick, helping the weak, championing the op
pressed. She should be, as she ever has been, the source
whence all beneficent organizations in human society
spring. And her beneficence should be characterized
first of all by bounty. From her overflowing wealth she
should pour forth abundantly and gladly for the supply
of every human want.
There was real Christianity in the saying of an earnest
woman who was seeking a suitable channel for her gifts,
" I hear a great deal about helping the worthy poor:
let me do something for the unworthy poor." The
bounty of God is not conditioned upon our worthiness.
If it were, how pitiful our condition! Jesus does not
appear to have investigated every case that came to him
before he bestowed his blessing. The Christ spirit is
impatient of red tape and exact patterns. It gives
freely, lavishly. 34

Cardinal Points of Christian Beneficence
Henry Ward Beecher once said, " There is often more
of the gospel in a single loaf of bread than in a whole
volume of sermons." And it is true beyond a question
that the church has made more conquests by the freeness
of her beneficence than by the orthodoxy of her preach
ing. The ready response of the Christian world to the
cry of famine-stricken India or China has exerted a
strong influence in recommending the gospel of J-esus
Christ to the people of these lands. The lavish outpour
ing of consecrated substance and service and life in
behalf of the sick and wounded in the Great War, a
sacrifice bestowed as freely upon foe as friend, has done
more than can be told to steady the faith that the war
itself had shaken, and to hasten the coming of God's
kingdom on earth. Is it not a like exercise of Christly
compassion for the poor and hungry and suffering in our
own midst that most commends our gospel to our
neighbors? The Christianity that is not bountiful is spurious. A
niggardly church or a selfish and miserly disciple is a
religious monstrosity. The world expects bounty of the
Christ. Men know that God is good, that he has made
abundant provision for all his children, and that God-
likeness implies a bountiful spirit.
We cannot emphasize too strongly this element of
bounty in all Christian beneficence ; yet we must remem
ber that bounty without system may be suicidal. -Jesus
might have created ten times the amount of food repre
sented in our miracle story, and yet have' sent many away
hungry. Why did he seat the company in platoons
upon the grass? In order that all might be supplied
and none omitted. For want of like system in our
beneficence, we often give to one person a double supply
for his need, while another is left in want, thus working a
real injury to both. The growth of our cities makes
system in our benevolence, whether churchly or indi
vidual, increasingly imperative with every passing year,
lest we encourage the spirit and practice of dishonesty
35

¦ 
Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
on the part of some, while others are left to starve in
spite of our generous gifts.
Order or system is a truly Christian grace, but it
must be a system that will serve bounty, not hamper it.
We may exalt system till it tyrannizes over everything
else, and makes real bounty impossible. That is a very
real danger in this age of committees and organizations.
Much of our beneficence loses its spontaneity, becoming
cold and lifeless. All we need is just system enough to
save our benevolence from miscarriage, and to guarantee
its widest and most effective distribution. We must
make sure that with sufficient provision for the needs of
all none are left hungry while others are pampered with
a double portion.
Now what place has economy in Christian beneficence?
I answer, a large place, and yet the last place. Christian
charity does not go around beforehand carefully counting
mouths, and then with approved tables and carefully
adjusted measurements supply just enough to feed the
waiting company, or to stay the pangs of pressing hun
ger; but, having supplied more than enough, it after
wards gathers up for future consumption what remains of
the untouched provision. It does the kindly deed with
out measure at first; it pours out its bounty freely,
ungrudgingly; and then, when hunger has been appeased,
when the needs of men have been satisfied to the full, it
guards against all unnecessary waste.
In all our bounties we are stewards of God. As
stewards we have no right to squander our Lord's goods,
even as Jesus himself felt that he had no right to make
wanton or unnecessary use of the wondrous power by
which his miracles were wrought. We are, therefore,
in duty bound to practise the most rigid economy that is
consistent with the largest bounty; or better, we are
bound to practise the most rigid economy in order that
we may be able to exercise the largest bounty. Every
benevolent project of the Christian Church or of the
disciple should be conducted on the soundest business
3fi

Cardinal Points of Christian Beneficence
principles, otherwise we cannot hope to win the hearty
support and cooperation of clear-headed men or the
blessing of the Almighty. The most evident and press
ing appeal of the best cause cannot excuse wastefulness
in the management of its funds. Such management is
poor business and poor Christianity as well. We are
trying in these days to infuse the spirit of Christianity
into political and social economics. Might it not be
equally advantageous to infuse the principles of sound
economics into every department of our Christian life
and work?
God wastes nothing. The Christ wastes nothing.
And man becomes truly Godlike, most Christlike, in
proportion to the prudence and economy with which he
administers the gifts of God for the good of his fellow
men. The highest type of life is that which lays hold
of the best things and uses them freely, unselfishly, but
without waste.
I say again, and with increasing emphasis, — let us
write the word " economy " plainly on all our Christian
beneficence, but let us write it last, not first. Always,
always, the bountiful spirit must come first, — must be
the dominant note of all our giving. Our beneficence
must be generous, spontaneous, hearty. We must not
permit the mind to dethrone the heart. From a scientifi
cally or an economically perfect system of beneficence,
good Lord, deliver us!
The miraculous feeding of the multitude by the sea
shore or in the desert is nothing if it be not symbolic of
the work of the disciples and of the church in all ages and
in all lands. Not what we believe about God and
Christ makes us Christians, nor yet the form and fervor
of our worship. Our real, our vital Christianity mani
fests itself in Christly deeds of kindness and love. Creeds
and worship are of value only as they inspire to these and
give us the power for their accomplishment. Even our
kindly deeds are Christian only when they reveal these
three elements: a bounty that shares God's gifts eagerly,
37

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
ungrudgingly with our needy brother; a system that
makes our bounty unerringly effective ; an economy that
refuses to waste even the lavish gifts of God. If in all
our service we imitate the Master, then will he bless the
little we have to offer, and with it work miracles of
beneficence that shall gladden the hearts of men, and
lead them into his kingdom.

an

CHAPTER V
The Challenge of the Deep
A WONDERFUL CATCH OF FISH
Luke 5 : 1-11
Text. — " Put out into the deep.'' — Luke 5 : 4
TO most men religion and business are like the
opposite poles of an electric battery, — you must
not bring them into contact or you will get a shock.
Yet Jesus always does bring religion into contact with
life in its every phase; and that is what he would have
every disciple do.
One day a crowd gathered about the Master as he
taught on the shore of Gennesaret. That he might
speak more easily and be more widely heard, he stepped
into a boat belonging to Simon Peter and asked him to
push out a little from the land ; then he sat down and
taught the people from the boat. When he had finished
speaking, he turned to Simon and said, —
" Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a
draught." What a sudden transition these words suggest: — a
transition from preaching to fishing, from religion to
business, from the contemplation of things heavenly to
participation in things earthly!
Simon is astonished. Note the distinct ring of sur
prise, even doubt, in his reply: — " Master, we toiled
all night, and took nothing; but at thy word I will let
down the nets." It seems to him like a waste of time and
effort. The best time for fishing is the night; if they
had caught nothing then, what hope of catching anything
now in the broad daylight? The experience of years
makes the command ridiculous. Still, Simon obeys.
He puts out into the deep, he casts his net, and there,
where but a few hours before not a fish was found, " they
enclosed a great multitude; and their nets were break-
39

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
- - ¦ ¦ • ¦¦ ¦ 
ing; and they beckoned unto their partners in the other
boat, that they should come and help them. And they
came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink."
What wonder that Simon and his companions were
amazed, terrified, at this unexpected and inexplicable
phenomenon! What wonder that devout scholars in
all succeeding ages have spent hours unnumbered in
vain efforts to account for the incident in some rational
and universally acceptable manner! Both results are
quite natural, quite human, yet wholly aside from our
Lord's purpose. Alike to the disciple who trembles
in the presence of the wonder worker, and to those who
worry over an apparent contradiction between religious
faith and scientific fact, the Master says, " Fear not;
from henceforth ye shall catch men." Then do not
allow the miracle in the sign to obscure the sign in the
miracle. This is not a lesson in deep-sea fishing, but in
the enrichment of life that results from a deepened
personal experience.
You see what I mean, do you not? With this episode
a new era dawns in the life of Simon Peter. The same
voice that bade him push out from the land and let down
the net, now calls him to forsake his nets forever and put
out into new depths of service. Not Simon's boat only,
but Simon's life as well, had hitherto been moored to
the shores of Galilee. Here were his work, his friends,
his home. Here, too, were his ambitions, his hopes, his
sympathies. His whole life, in short, was bound fast
to this spot as with an anchor rope. Here he expected to
live and die, a fisherman as all his family were ; in no way
different from hundreds of other fishermen, save for some
local and petty distinctions of wealth or influence.
Now the word comes, — " Put out into the deep.
Lift your anchor from the mire of ignorance, of super
stition, of bigotry, of selfishness, of sin. Long enough
have you been idly floating in the shallows of the com
monplace. Long enough have you satisfied yourself
with this narrow round of toil and rest, with the petty
40

The Challenge of the Deep

interests and prejudices amid which you have been
reared. Yes, long enough have you been content to be a
mere listener to my words, to enjoy the truths which I
have proclaimed in parable and illustrated in miracle,
while you still cling to your nets. The time is ripe for a
change. You must now become a doer of my word, artd
not a hearer only. Let attention inspire to action. Wed
belief to life. Before you lies a broad sea of command
and promise. Cut loose from your past, and give your
self without reserve to the untried future in my service.
Trust your life to me. Permit me to shape the course of
your career from this time forth. Let my word be your
law, your inspiration, your one standard of possibility
and of duty."
Once more Simon obeys. He is surprised at many
things, somewhat doubtful as to the practical wisdom
of many a step. He has seen other leaders start out
with great promise and under circumstances more favor
able than those amid which Jesus calls him to work, and
they have come to naught; albeit he obeys the summons.
From the shallows of fishing he puts out into the deep
of apostleship, from the shallows of Judaism into the
deep of Christianity, from the shallows of selfishness
into the deep of self-sacrifice, from the shallows of a
calculating materialism into the deep of trusting spiritu
ality. '
What result? A miracle of personal enrichment
fittingly but feebly symbolized by the bursting sets of
Galilee. Think first of the expansion of his own soul. His
was a discovery of spiritual light and power far surpass
ing his wildest previous imagination. The childish
self-confidence that could be sneered into denial by the
chaffing of a foolish maid-servant was displaced by a
humble trust in God that knew no fear. The Sordid
spirit that asked, " What shall we have therefore?"
was transformed into the Christly spirit of altruistic
service. The ignorant, narrow-minded, fickle Galilean
41

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories

became a large-hearted benefactor of men, whose sym
pathies were as broad as the race, and whose name shall
endure throughout all time.
Think, again, of the work that Simon Peter accom
plished. What a continuous miracle of divine power:
thousands converted by his first sermon, other thou
sands by the sermons and labors that followed, mira
cles of healing and greater miracles of teaching from
an uneducated fisherman! Although the deep had its
storms and perils, it was stored with rich rewards for his
faith. But enough of Simon and his nets; enough of Peter
and his apostleship; enough of the ancient legend.
Let us rewrite the story in the language of the twentieth
century, illustrate it with pictures from modern life, and
inscribe it with our own names and with the experience
of our own times. At what points does it impinge upon
the life of today?
Surely not one of us can fail to see the details of this
miracle story as they flash forth in letters of light writ
large upon our national life. Turning back the pages
of American history, we see the Fathers living in the
shallows of a meager and divided colonial life. It was
the same life that their forebears had lived, fraught with
bickerings, rivalries and poverty. Their boats were
still anchored to Plymouth Rock, or the shores of Long
Island Sound, or the coast of Virginia, or such other
safe glaces as the early adventurers had explored for
them. They were living lives of conventional piety
and enjoying religious freedom; but their religion was
not drawing the different colonies together, nor devel
oping in the separate groups any broadening ideals of
fellowship or mutual interest.
Suddenly the call of the Christ, bringing them together
in defence of a common cause, bade them cut loose from
their Colonial moorings and put out into the deep of
national solidarity. It was a daring venture of faith.
Doubts and misgivings were many; but the reward
42

The Challenge of the Deep

was rich beyond the power of that generation to con
ceive. The nets burst. The boundaries of the country
had to be enlarged. The nation became overloaded
with wealth, glutted with prosperity. From all lands
the people were flocking to our shores to share in our
liberties and our luxuries.
Now the deeps of the past always become the shallows
of the present. Witness the course of our subsequent
history. We were satisfied with our inheritance and
its natural fruits. We rejoiced in our material prosper
ity, content with our isolation, and given over to the
cultivation of selfishly national ideals. Then again was
our quiet interrupted. A terrific storm arose across
the waters and brought our pleasant musing to an
abrupt termination. The Christ turned from his teach
ing and uttered the perennial challenge, — " Put out
into the deep!"
We hesitated, we doubted, we questioned. At length,
however, we obeyed. What has that obedience meant
for us? Today our nets are bursting with a miraculous
draught; the multitude of opportunities for noblest
service fairly overwhelms us. We are awakening to an
absolutely new life; our horizon has extended itself a
hundredfold. Our ideals are no longer national ideals, —
they are international, world ideals. For all our sacri
fice and effort we have sought no material rewards,
no territorial acquisitions, no monetary indemnities.
Yet we have had thrust upon us world leadership and
the spiritual conquest of the nations. The perils and
responsibilities of the new situation are appalling; but
its riches of promise and reward are beyond expression.
So the miracle story writes itself into the life of our
nation, and in some similar fashion into the life of all the
nations involved with us. How shall we interpret the
story as it appeals to the Christian church?
Before the cataclysm, we flatterered ourselves that
we were doing great things for God whereof he was glad.
We looked with pride upon our most attractive churches ;
43

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
we took no little satisfaction in our manifold and far-
reaching benevolences, administered upon the soundest
business principles; we thought our missionary enter
prises, with annual gifts of ten or fifteen millions of
dollars, were fitting witness to our devotion and self-
sacrifice. Were we not also calling World Peace Con
ferences that were to make an end of war by means of
the palaver cure? Had we not established the Hague
Tribunal for a similar purpose? And, best of all, while
we thus benevolently planned for the healing of the
nations, we were not unmindful of the divisions and
quarrels in the church itself. The agitations for Chris
tian unity were already making quite a commotion in
our shallow waters.
But the Voice that spoke to the nations spoke also
to the church, and the message was the same: — "Put
out into the deep! " " You have been interpreting the
ideal of benevolence in hundreds or thousands, or at
most a few millions of dollars. You must begin to reckon
in hundreds of millions and billions. You must learn
to give — till it hurts? — no, till giving seems the most
glorious thing on earth next to serving and sacrifice.
You have reduced religion to the essence of selfishness by
persistently urging individuals to make their own salva
tion the first and supreme quest. That is the shallow
ideal of religion. Logically interpreted it is suicidal.
The Christ came into the world to save mankind as well
as to save individuals, and individuals can afford to be
saved only as a part of the process by which the race
itself is regenerated. This is the deeper, broader con
cept of his mission. Then be no longer content to know
that you are snatching here and there a lost soul from
perdition, that you are rescuing a pitiful salvage from the
wreck of a lost world. Get the larger vision and trans
late it into life. Go about your work with the conscious
ness that it is your God-given task to set on foot proc
esses that shall lift the whole level of modern society
and make the world itself God's world."
44

The Challenge of the Deep

The appeal has already met with a notable response,
though many who answered the call have been but dimly
conscious of the meaning of their acts. " Put out into
the deep," said the Master, and at that word young men
and women who had been leading easy-going lives amid
comfort and luxury, bade good-by to their friends and
loved ones and crossed the seas to minister in numberless
ways to the needs of the weary and suffering. There
was the magnificent work of the Red Cross nurses and
physicians, the splendid service of the Christian Asso
ciations in their diverse forms, and many other organi
zations and instrumentalities ministering in as many
ways to the welfare, physical and moral, of those who
had gone forth to fight, to suffer, and to die for liberty
and justice.
Those who enlisted in such service were numbered by
the tens of thousands. They left behind them another
host, perhaps more numerous than their own, a host of
both men and women, many of whom had been mere
devotees of pleasure, but who now gave themselves to
long hours of exacting labor that the efforts and sacri
fices of the over-seas workers might be effective.
In the stress of the terrible need, Christian workers of
every sect and party forgot their differences. Even the
partition walls between different religions became so
tenuous that they were broken through from both sides.
Romanist priests ministered to the sick or wounded or
dying Protestants, and Protestant clergymen recipro
cated the service, while the age-long antagonism between
Judaism and Christianity was wholly ignored in the
undiseriminating devotion of priest, minister and rabbi
to all who were in distress of " mind, body or estate."
Plans for a world-wide discussion of Christian unity had
been interrupted by the war, only to be displaced by a
demonstration of Christian unity such as the world had
never witnessed. Men had put out from the shallows
of argumentation into the stormy deep of action, and
the Christ wrought a miracle. 45

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
The wonderful moral and spiritual gains that have been
won in time of war must not be lost in time of peace.
We must accept as permanent the new standards of
stewardship and sacrifice that have been adopted as
temporary expedients to bridge over an emergency.
We must never unlearn the priceless lesson of unity in
service, the obliteration of sectarian rivalries by means
of absorption in a common cause. As the feuds of cen
turies have been forgotten while men who could not
understand one another's speech have stood side by side
in the great struggle for democracy and justice, so race
prejudice and suspicion must be submerged in the culti
vation of the spirit of human brotherhood in our most
intimate relations. Above all, we must forsake the shal
lows of a negative and good-natured pacifism for the
deep waters of active and self-sacrificial peace-making.
The shallows, — what do they represent? They stand
for the life we have been living: the eminently proper
and respectable habit we have always cultivated of listen
ing attentively to the preacher, the docile submission
of our conduct to the conventional requirements of
Christian society, inconspicuous conformity to estab
lished Christian ideals; in service, it is such and so
much work as will meet the approval of our fellow dis
ciples, and will assure us of "good and regular standing"
in the church; in beneficence, it is giving what our
neighbors expect us to give, or what we expect of our
selves on the ground of established precedent; in every
department of effort and experience, it is keeping up
the family traditions, it is not allowing ourselves to drift
far enough from any of the ancestral moorings or con
ventional anchorages to attract attention or involve
risk. The shallows mean safety — with starvation ; ease —
with poverty. By a strange perversion of our ideals
there may be a vast amount of self-satisfaction; but
there can be no enrichment, no moral growth; only
the life shrunken and self -centered, the net empty, no
46

The Challenge of the Deep

worthy service for God or man, no exalted experiences
of fellowship with the divine.
The deep, on the other hand, — ah! that is the place
of danger, of toil, of self-sacrifice. What a multitude
of problems we must face the moment we venture to cut
loose from the past! What will people say? Will the
venture amount to anything after all? Can I hold out
in the course upon which I have embarked? If I take
the first step, will it surely lead me to the last?
Is it not reasonable to suppose that these and many
similar questions confronted Abram before he left Ur of
the Chaldees, Caesar before he crossed the Rubicon,
Savonarola before he began his great work in Florence,
Joan of Arc before she drew sword in defence of her
country, Oliver Cromwell before he assumed the leader
ship of the English Revolution, John Hancock before
he signed the Declaration of Independence, Abraham
Lincoln before he issued the Emancipation Proclama
tion? Surely they did, for the great ones are human
still, and every great undertaking involves risk, real
moral and spiritual risk.
But place over against the risk the certain reward : —
a life enlarged, a personal experience enriched, the joy
of successful labor, the unspeakable happiness of having
contributed something to the uplift and progress of man
kind. One thought remains to be spoken. The message of
our miracle story is progressive. It presents a new ideal
to each successive generation, yes, to each successive
decade, year, day. To Peter the " deep " meant the
Sea of Galilee and the apostleship. To Columbus it
meant the Atlantic Ocean and a New World. To
Orville Wright it meant the air in all its boundless
reaches, and a new element for the conquering. What
does it mean to you? Do not venture to interpret your
Lord's challenge in terms of a Galilee fishing smack or a
Santa Maria! Mount your biplane! Cast loose from that
which has been and that which is, and put out into the
47

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
deep of that which ought to be and must be. Caution
lives forever amid the shallows, unblessing and unblessed.
Faith, with obedience and enterprise, dares the unfath-
omed deep and reaps rich rewards.

48

CHAPTER VI
The Value of New Methods
A SECOND WONDERFUL CATCH
John 21 : 1-14
Text. — "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and ye shall find." —
John 21 : 6
THE meaning and worth of all speech is determined
by two factors. Those factors are words and
emphasis. Identical words differently empha
sized may convey widely diverse meanings. There
is a little German poem that aptly illustrates this truth.
The opening lines tell us how two men had gone up from
the city to the summit of one of the Alps. They re
turned, and their friends pressed about them to know
what reward their toil had brought them.
" Twas a buzz of questions on every side; —
' And what have you seen? Do tell,' they cried.
The one with yawning made reply,
' What have we seen? Not much have I :
Trees, mountains, meadows, groves and streams,
Blue sky and clouds and sunny gleams.'
The other, smiling, said the same;
But with face transfigured, and eyes of flame:
' Trees! Mountains! Meadows! Groves and streams!
Blue sky! and clouds! and sunny gleams !'
You see, these two men, using the same words, told very
different stories. One said in effect, " The game wasn't
worth the candle. I had a hard climb, and what did I
get? My labor for my pains." The other told a story
of rich reward that made him forget the toil of the way.
In all our reading we must take account of this second
factor. We must strive to catch the emphasis of the
writer, or of the speaker whose words are recorded ; other-
49

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
wise we shall miss the meaning altogether. Take, for
example, the two miracle stories of the Gospels each of
which describes a wonderful catch of fish. The stories are
well-nigh identical in detail. They have the same back
ground — the Sea of Galilee; the same actors — Jesus, on
the one hand and Peter and his partners on the other ; the
same climax — a catch of fish that fills the nets to break
ing. Yet, notwithstanding these points of similarity,
there is clearly a changed emphasis in the second story
that calls for a fresh interpretation. The two incidents
made dissimilar impressions upon their participants,
and they embody distinct lessons for all who read the
narratives. The turning-point of the first story is the sudden
transition from hearing to doing. The emphasis is
upon the single phrase, " Put out into the deep." In
the second story, the disciples are in the midst of their
activity, but their efforts are fruitless. The call of the
Master is not to a new effort, but rather to a new method,
or a fresh cast, if you please. The lines of the picture
seem to converge upon the words, " Cast the net on the
right side of the boat, and ye shall find." Placing the
emphasis here, the story speaks to us its own individual
and distinct message, and is in no sense a repetition of
the tale found in Luke's Gospel.
With this for our clue, let us follow the convergent
details of the story in quest of their present life lesson.
The story begins with the coming together of that fa
miliar group of seven Galilee fishermen, and their ready
agreement to spend the night together plying their calling
upon the lake. The first words that attract our atten
tion are those in which the evangelist sums up the
results of their toil; — " That night they took nothing."
What do they suggest to us in the realm of moral and
spiritual effort? This, do they not? —
The best effort of the best men without the Christ is fruit
less. Where could you find better men for the task they
had undertaken than these whom the story presents to
50

The Value of New Methods

us? Seven skilled fishermen of ripe experience. The
lake was their home. They knew every inch of its
surface. From childhood they had fished in its waters.
There was nothing about fishing in the Sea of Galilee that
they did not know. They had chosen the night, the
very best time for fishing; and they had put forth the
best effort of which they were capable; yet with the
dawning of the morning they realized that their labor had
been in vain.
These seven fishermen of Galilee, who are they?
Types of living men and women the world over who have
accepted the Lord's commission, " I will make you fishers
of men." They represent individual toilers in the
Master's kingdom. They represent the Church and the
churches of today. We know them well. Peter, James
and John and the rest, — we meet them every day.
I see here a truthful picture of much of our modern
Christian activity. No lack is there of enthusiasm, of
energy, of equipment for service — the best effort of
best men. The church of Jesus Christ was never so well
equipped for work as at the present time. Christians
were never more active than now. With all the manifold
organizations for preaching, teaching, missionary and
philanthropic enterprise, and a thousand and one other
instrumentalities, we are hard at work day and night,
fishing for men. And what is the outcome of our toil?
A great amount of noise; a tremendous splashing upon
the surface of the water; but, too often, no fish.
It is in the dim twilight, just before the dawn has
revealed to the world the completeness of the disciples'
failure, that the Lord appears upon the shore and asks,
" Have you caught anything? " And they answer,
"No." And this answer prepares the way for the
miracle. So always. — Realization and confession of
failure are first steps toward success. It is when the
disciples confess the fruitlessness of their night's toil that
Jesus bids them cast on the other side of the boat and
find the reward of their labor. He did not come to them
51

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
at once with his miracle of blessing, and this is symbolic
of Jesus' common method when helping his disciples in
their spiritual efforts.
See the disciples, a few days later, seeking the gift of
the Holy Spirit. Did the wonderful experience come in
answer to the first prayer? Did it come at the first meet
ing, or on the first day of meeting? No. The little
band met and prayed, and received nothing. The next
day they met again and prayed, and again they received
nothing. So they continued to meet and to pray for
nine consecutive days. Can any one fail to see that with
every passing day they became more humble, more
earnest, more prayerful, as they realized more and more
deeply their utter helplessness? When at length the
consciousness of failure and impotence in themselves was
clear and unmistakable, then, on the tenth day, the Lord
manifested himself in a wondrous gift of power.
Is not our Lord trying to teach us, the disciples of
today, the same lesson of dependence? We talk of revi
vals, we pray for great awakenings, but their coming is
delayed. We pray and we wait, for what? Is it not that
we may be made conscious of our failure and need?
How slow we are to realize our poverty! We are so
dazzled with the glitter of outward show, the material
wealth of our institutions, the completeness of our equip
ment, that we fancy ourselves to be spiritually rich.
Or we so occupy ourselves with insignificant activities,
fairs, socials, entertainments, organizations, — " the
laborious doing of nothing," as some one. has styled it —
that we are often quite unconscious of our real fruitless
ness. We keep the machinery whirling with no little
noise, or we make a great splashing on the surface'of the
water, like the small boy who lashes the surface of the
stream with hook and line when the fish do not bite, and
imagines that he is fishing. A great deal of the activity
of the Christian church nowadays is simply the whirr
ing of ecclesiastical wheels, a great zeal for organization
and method, with nothing to show by way of results.
52

The Value of New Methods

Read the various church reports and see how little
they show, for all their padding, in the matter of winning
souls for Christ or of advancing the kingdom of heaven.
But that is not the worst of it. Suppose Peter had said
in reply to Jesus' question, " No, we have caught no
fish, but never mind about that, for we have not lost a
single fisherman." " Absurd! " you say. Of course it is
absurd; yet, were the Master to appear at the door of
many a church today asking, " Have you caught any
thing the past year? " the disciples would, if truthful,
be compelled to answer, " No, Lord, we have caught
nothing; and, what is worse, we have lost a goodly
number of our fishermen."
We need a vision of the Christ, a challenge of the
Master, to draw from us a confession of failure. And
this is what Jesus is trying to do for us. He wishes us to
realize the utter fruitlessness of our self-reliant efforts,
the uselessness of mere machinery in the service of God.
When the Christian church of the advancing twentieth
century awakens to the fact that she is not accomplish
ing the work she ought to accomplish, that with all her
splendid equipment and showy activity she is a lament
able failure, when individual disciples become convinced
that their lives are not manifesting the fruits of the Spirit
either in personal holiness and spiritual joy, or in the
leavening influence upon the world that Jesus has a
right to expect, then there will be hope of such a return
to the Master as shall bring divine power to bear upon
our need until it is fully supplied.
Coming to this point, we shall discover a third truth
embodied in our story. It is this: success comes when
we cast the old net in a new way. " No man putteth new
wine into old wine-skins," says our Lord in one of his
parables. In other words, new spiritual experiences and
fresh activities will naturally express themselves in new
forms. This truth has been illustrated again and again
in the progressive experience of the Christian church.
Over and over again have conventional disciples opposed
53

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
the work of the Wesleys, the Finneys, the Booths and
many like fruitful workers because they employ new and
unusual methods. Here and there some one suggests
a new plan of effort, and at once the cry arises from
many lips, " Why, that is no better than the methods
already in use! "
Well, what of it? It is new, and that may be an
advantage in itself. The right side of a fishing-boat is no
better than the left side as a place for casting the net;
but it is a new place, a slight change from the work of the
night, and it brought success.
One secret of the success of " Sam Jones," the noted
evangelist, is to be found in his use of the phrase, " Quit
your meanness," instead of the stereotyped terms
commonly used in urging repentance and the forsaking of
sin. Was the new phrase any better than the old? No,
it was not so good ; but it was new, and even in cultured
Boston it was a cast that caught many fish. When
criticized for his unconventional language, Mr. Jones
was wont to say, " Let any man show a bigger string of
fish than I, and I will gladly adopt his methods and use
his language."
Are we not too suspicious of new ideas and fresh
methods? Do we not cling too fondly to the old in both
form and substance? If the tide of spiritual life is really
moving onward, it must cut for itself new channels every
day. There must be new methods in religious work,
new forms of religious expression, new discoveries of
religious truth. If we set ourselves against these, we
condemn ourselves to the toil that catches nothing.
After all, the chief thought is that the change must be
from the disciples' way to Christ's way. Through the
night the seven had been casting the net as seemed
wisest to themselves. In the morning they cast it as the
Master bade them. Do you catch the suggestion? We
choose the best places and the best methods from a
purely selfish or conventional point of view. Often we
decide our action solely upon grounds of expediency or
54

The Value of New Methods

convenience. Were it not well if we should try to learn
Christ's will and Christ's way more clearly, and to do our
work precisely in the way he bids us do it? Just as soon
as we work in the Christ way and the Christ spirit, our
labor will be richly rewarded.
Our interpretation requires but a single thought for
its completion. The thought is this: fruitful effort
in obedience to our Lord results in the recognition of Christ
and communion with him. As they sat in their boat
weary and disappointed, the disciples did not recognize
Jesus. But when, at his bidding, they cast in the net,
and drew it up filled with great fishes, immediately they
recognized him and after the recognition there came one
of the most precious seasons of fellowship recorded in the
Gospels. Who of us cannot reproduce this part of the picture
from experience? We go on week after week, perhaps
year after year, in our perfunctory and fruitless service,
and gradually we lose the sense of the divine presence.
The rule is invariable. Spiritual perception is dulled
by fruitless toil. The cry, " My soul thirsteth for God,
for the living God," is the utterance of a man in the
darkness of unfruitful service. When we get into right
relations with the Master and our toil begins to bring
forth fruit, then we recognize his presence with us; then
that " Lo, I am with you " is full of meaning.
First recognition, then communion. Did you ever
observe the air of personal acquaintance with God, of
daily and hourly communion with him, that characterizes
every fruitful worker in the Master's vineyard? We
sometimes wonder at the apparent intimacy of a Spur-
geon, a Brooks, or a Robertson with the Saviour. They
seem to see him everywhere and to live in perpetual
companionship with him, so that they understand his
methods and his will. What is their secret? Is it not
found in their fruitful work? Fruitfulness depends upon
absolute trust and obedience, and reacts in clearer views
and closer friendship. Obey the unrecognized Christ,
55

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
and your eyes will soon be opened that you may know
him and enjoy his society.
The final word of this miracle story is " Success."
That is the final word of all true Christian endeavor.
If Jesus would have us perceive and confess failure, it is
that we may mount from failure to success. The gospel
is never a gloomy message of ultimate loss and weakness.
It is a clarion call to victory, — always to victory. So,
while its message to us of the present time may be an
accusation of fruitlessness and failure, it bids us toil on,
hope on, try new methods, cast in new places; for it
is withal a message of promise. Though we toil all the
night in vain, if we toil earnestly, faithfully, our Lord
will surely appear in the morning to crown our efforts
with highest success.

5(i

CHAPTER VII
Sovereignty and Self-Restraint
THE TRIBUTE MONEY; A SUGGESTED MIRACLE
Matt. 17 : 24-27
Text. — " Lest we cause them to stumble, go thou to the sea." —
Matt. 17 : 27
SUGGESTION is often more effective than direct and
complete expression. An innuendo may be more
blasting than an accusation, an approving look
more inspiring than fulsome words of praise. History
is no less a matter of inference than of utterance.
There is a certain play, based upon scenes and events
in the life of our Saviour, in which the Master himself
necessarily appears as one of the characters, yet he is
never visible to the audience for a moment. The play
wright, knowing that any impersonation of the Christ
upon a theatrical stage by actors of every character
might shock the popular sense of propriety, has accom
plished his purpose by suggestion alone. At no point in
the play does the Lord actually come into view upon
the stage; nevertheless as you follow the course of the
drama you are conscious of his presence in several scenes.
At one time the multitude moves along the highway
just beyond a garden wall, and you are sure that if you
could scale that wall and look on the passing throng, you
would see the Christ with his disciples at the forefront.
Again, it is the house of the Bethany sisters and Lazarus
that actually appears to view; but as you see the light
streaming from the windows and open door into the
darkness of the night without, you know that Jesus is
within, enjoying the hospitality of his friends and bestow
ing upon them the blessing of his presence.
The same principle of suggestion reveals itself in the
old gospel drama of " The Tribute Money." We are
57

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
accustomed to think and to speak of the narrative as
a miracle story; yet no record of a miracle is there,
only a suggestion in the form of command and promise.
I venture the assertion that the average Bible student
supposes this miracle to be a matter of record. We have
always thought of it as a fact, although the actual per
formance can only be inferred. No doubt that part of
the record is omitted as of least importance, and to turn
the attention of the reader from mere wonder-working to
its spiritual aim and meaning.
With this thought in mind, let us read the tale once
more. — " When they were come to Capernaum, they
that received the half-shekel came to Peter, and said,
Doth not your master pay the half-shekel? He saith,
Yea. And when he came into the house, Jesus spake
first to him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? the
kings of the earth, from whom do they receive toll or
tribute? from their sons, or from strangers? And when
he said, From strangers, Jesus said unto him, Therefore
the sons are free. But, lest we cause them to stumble,
go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish
that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his
mouth, thou shalt find a shekel: that take, and give
unto them for me and thee."
Here the story ends abruptly. Did Peter obey the
command? Most assuredly! Yet our assurance rests
entirely upon his uniform obedience as recorded in other
similar incidents. Did he find the shekel as promised?
We assume that also as an inference essential to the
completeness of the story. But when we ask what
Jesus seeks to teach men through the medium of this
occurrence, the so-called miraculous element of the
story drops out of sight as inconsequential. All time
spent in explaining the phenomena or rationalizing them
is utterly wasted. They are not worth a moment's
consideration. The crux of the story lies in the attitude of Jesus
towards the matter of the Temple Tax as contrasted with
58

Sovereignty and Self -Restraint
that of Simon Peter. Observe that they arrive at the
same conclusion, but by different methods. And in this
and similar cases the method is vital. Simon accepts
the tax as a matter of course ; and his payment of it thus
would have had no moral signifiance either for himself or
for others. Jesus, on the other hand, first asserts a right
to refuse the tax, and then waives the right in the
interest of his more important service.
Peter is the first actor in this little drama. He first
appears in conversation with temple officials. They
ask, " Doth not your master pay the half-shekel? "
Instantly, and without hesitation, Peter answers,
" Yea." You see, he answers the question off-hand and
upon his own responsibility, never thinking it necessary
to refer his questioners to the Master himself.
" That is just like Peter! Always self-sufficient,
always impulsive! A little more thoughtful humility
would have saved him many hours of humiliation and
shame," you say. True enough, friend, but Peters are
many even in the church of the twentieth century. How
is it with yourself? When brought face to face with
questions of duty or principle, do you always hold your
own opinions or ideals in abeyance and seek first to know
just what Jesus would answer were he in your place?
If you and I always did this, fewer blunders would mar
our work, fewer errors would darken our teaching, fewer
mistakes would hamper the efficiency of our life.
The Master is close at hand, but Peter gives him no
chance to speak. Today the voice of Peter often drowns
that of the Lord. We take a great deal for granted, and
when we have given utterance to some cock-sure declara
tion of supposed truth we are sometimes very much
surprised to learn in later conference with our Leader
that we were wholly wrong. Who has not heard dis
cussions of ethical or religious questions, or plans of
service by nominally Christian workers, in which the
only appeal was to expediency or practicability without a
single word as to the teaching of Jesus.
59

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
A trite but suggestive illustration is the familiar anec
dote of the young English clergyman who argued against
the appeal for foreign missions at a great church conven
tion over which the Duke of Wellington presided.
As the youth vehemently denounced the foreign mission
ary enterprise as utterly foolish and impracticable, he was
suddenly interrupted by the " Iron Duke " with the
challenge, " Young man, what are your marching
orders? " And as the erstwhile eloquent speaker was
floundering about in search of a reply, the Duke opened
his Bible and read our Lord's parting injunction to his
disciples, — "Go ye into all the world, and preach the
gospel to the whole creation."
Of course, it is not possible to answer every question
of conscience or to solve every problem of duty and of
service by reference to a direct command of Jesus. Such
a possibility would cripple the moral power and stunt
the spiritual growth of the disciple. It is possible, how
ever, to apply to every perplexing situation the chal
lenge, " What would Jesus do? " and by a careful study
of the broad principles of the gospel as illuminated by the
Master's life lo reach conclusions that are really con
sistent with our profession of discipleship and vital to
our moral development. Were the Christian Church of
today as eager to know the mind of Christ and to fittingly
express his spirit in all matters as she is to give free rein
to her own impulses and to prove her own wisdom, she
would exert a vastly greater influence upon the spiritual
life of the world. But Peter is, as ever, impetuous and
self-sufficient. Over against this self-sufficient impetuosity of Peter
place the self-restraint of Jesus. He does not rebuke his
presumptuous disciple in the presence of the temple
officials, as he might have done with justice. In fact,
he does not directly rebuke him at all. But later, when
they are alone together, he puts to him a question which
somehow or other sets the matter of the temple tax in an
altogether different light. To the reader of today, the
60

Sovereignty and Self -Restraint
question with its appended argument seems to have little
or no bearing upon the subject in hand. It is, however,
sufficient for us to know that Peter was convinced that
he had been in error and that his Master was morally
free from the ancient law.
Having proven to his own satisfaction and that of his
disciple his superiority to the claims of the established
religious forms and institutions, Jesus proceeds to demon
strate, in a manner that even the most modern of disciples
can appreciate, his superiority to any petty assertions
of dignity or claims of exemption by refusing to demand
the recognition of his rights. " But, lest we cause them
to stumble," he says, " go thou to the sea, and cast a
hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up ; and when
thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a shekel:
that take, and give unto them for me and thee." Thus
he not only accedes to the demand of the collectors for
his own tax, but he provides payment for Peter also,
concerning whose indebtedness nothing has been said.
Could anything be clearer than the permanent spirit
ual message of this story? The details of wonder-work
ing may be incomplete and doubtful in character. The
logic of the Master may be incomprehensible. But
the command that follows the argument is unmistakable.
It bespeaks the self-restraint of true sovereignty. It inter
prets in terms of life the ideal of the third Beatitude, —
" Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."
Comparing the text of the different Gospel records, we
easily locate the incident which we are studying in its
relation to other incidents of our Lord's ministry. It is
one picture in a familiar group. Another incident,
probably occurring on the same day, is the dispute
among the disciples as to who should be greatest in the
kingdom of heaven. And about the same time Peter
had propounded his question regarding forgiveness.
Both of these incidents revealed the current ideals of
greatness that were accepted by the disciples, and be
trayed a spirit sharply contrasting with the spirit of the
61

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
Christ. The disciples imagined the tokens of greatness
to consist in the unyielding assertion of rights and claims,
the deferential recognition of our superiority by those
about us. Peter thought that a proper dignity implied
a limit to the forgiveness of injuries. And they all
represented the common notion as it prevails even in
Christian lands and nominally Christian society to the
present day.
Here is one of the points of sharpest contrast between
the Christian and the unchristian ideal of sovereignty.
The unchristian ideal of sovereignty is based upon self-
assertion, the Christian ideal upon self-abnegation.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a " Bill of Rights."
Rather does it inculcate and represent the will to do
right. In all the teaching of Jesus, the word " rights "
finds no place. On the other hand, the word " right "
or " righteousness " occurs with exceeding frequency.
True, no mari ever did so much as Jesus to secure the
rights of every member of the human race. Woman's
rights, children's rights, the rights of servants and
masters, the rights of the poor and the weak and the
ignorant, — all have found an increasingly clear recogni
tion and respect with the spread of the gospel among
the nations. Yet this has come about by the persistent
inculcation of the principle of right and the equally
persistent restraining of the spirit which demands " my
rights." Today we hear a great deal about the rights of particu
lar classes or individuals. In fact, the great mass of
human society is divided in every direction by cleavage
planes of conflicting rights. The wars of the ages have
been fought for the most part to secure the rights of
nations or tribes or classes. The best type of citizen
ship is often described in the familiar lines, as —
" Men who their duties know,
But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain."

62

Sovereignty and Self -Restraint
And they are not few who consider this as the highest
Christian as well as highest civic ideal.
Not so did our Lord. Fancy Jesus of Nazareth de
manding his rights! He never asked for them, and he
never received them. And he is the absolute pattern of
conduct for his disciples. Christian to maintain one's
rights? Why, it isn't even moral! The man who asks
regarding every act, "What would Jesus do? " will never
be heard whining about his rights. He will be so com
pletely absorbed in the great work of bringing the king
dom of heaven to earth that all personal claims and
dignities will seem less than trifles.
"Lest we cause them to stumble." — There is an
illustration of what Dr. Hillis has called, " The Gentle
ness of True Gianthood." And in developing his
thought the Doctor says of Jesus, " No other hero mov
ing through the crowds has ever been so courteously
gentle, so sweetly considerate in his personal bearing as
this Christ — who never failed to kindle in men trans
ports of delight and enthusiasm."
Here is an infallible test of true greatness, a sure token
of genuine royalty of soul. It is never concerned with
maintaining its own dignity or asserting its own honor;
but forgets all about dignity and honor in the eagerness
of service. With what rank growths of artificial gran
deur, with what swellings of imaginary glory, do small
minds hedge about their fancied greatness! The petty
king of some barbaric tribe surrounds himself with all
manner of pomp and special privilege. He bolsters up
his trifling authority with despotic laws and cruel deeds.
He multiplies royal prerogatives and grinds down his
people as much as possible, that the distinction between
sovereign and subject may be clearly marked.
The intelligent sovereign of a great empire, on the
contrary, feels that he can afford to live simply and with
out ostentation, submitting himself to the same laws by
which the poorest and meanest of his subjects is governed,
and caring little for royal prerogatives. So, too, the
63

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
man who is truly great in any sense is the man who forgets
all about his greatness, who thinks little of rights and
honors, but stoops to humblest service and most self-
sacrificing action in order that he may bring happiness
and blessing to his fellows. It was Jesus' consciousness
of divinity that made divine humility at once easy and
natural. And the same is the touchstone of our real fellowship
with the Master. Tenderness towards ignorance and
prejudice, rights giving way to right, dignity yielding to
service, divine prerogative gracefully submitting itself
to human assumption, — these are the tokens by which
our Lord demonstrated his oneness with the Father.
Would you prove your own greatness, your own saint
hood, your own divinity? — Go thou and do likewise.

64

CHAPTER VIII
Fear and Faithlessness
STILLING THE STORM
Matt. 8 : 18-27; Mark 4 : 35-41; Luke 8 : 22-25
Text — " Why are ye fearful ? " — Matt. 8 : 26
MIRACLES of divine power are often mere conces
sions to human weakness. What we boast as the
rewards of our faith may be only God's rebuke of
our faithlessness. The very answers to our prayers some
times convict us of an utter lack of the spirit of prayer.
In the moment of some great deliverance we may our
selves hear the words, " Why are ye fearful?"
Is not this the truth that flashes out upon us as we
read the thrice told tale of Jesus stilling the storm?
It is the story of a miracle, although the miracle is by
no means the most significant element in the story. It
is a picture of what men have called the " supernatural,"
but its abiding message must be found in the perfectly
natural scene that is sketched upon the same canvas.
The revelation of power, however men may delight to
magnify it, bespeaks the divine far less clearly than does
the revelation of perfect peace. Doubtless that was an
impressive moment when Jesus, standing in the little
boat and looking out over the foaming billows, utters
those quiet words of command, " Peace, be still! " in
stantly subduing the wind and the stormy waters; but
far more impressive, if" we think of it aright, is the moment
preceding when the Master lies quietly sleeping in the
midst of the storm. The slumber is supreme proof of
conscious mastery over all things. The miracle is not
so much a witness to divine power as it is a testimony
against human weakness.
The story presents two striking contrasts. First we
have inward peace in contrast with outward turmoil, —
65

Spiritual, Messages of the Miracle Stories
the Master sleeping quietly, the elements lashing them
selves to ever increasing fury. Not less striking is the
contrast between the faithlessness of fear and the fear
lessness of faith. What a frenzy of fear in the cries of
the disciples, " Save, Lord, we perish! " " Master,
carest thou not that we perish? " " Master, Master,
we perish! " What a sublimity of confidence in the words
of Jesus, " Peace, be still." " Why are ye fearful?"
Is it strange that the disciples marveled? Unfaith
always marvels at faith. Weakness always marvels at
strength. Yet, after all, it is not so much the miracle
that excites wonder. " What manner of man is this?"
they cry. The man is at all times greater than his
works. Even the miracle worker is greater than his
most occult miracles. The Master, Jesus Christ, is
unspeakably greater and more wonderful than his mighti
est works or his most gracious words.
I am very sure, however, that there must have been
in the hearts of the disciples another feeling than that
of wonder. I believe they must have felt heartily
ashamed of the fear that dragged forth their Lord from
his sublime repose and brought him down to the lower
plane of self-defence. The Lord's gentle rebuke must
have made them see the infinite superiority of the inner
calm over the outer. It must have made them feel that
true faith would not have cried out for a miracle, but
would have rested quietly in the assurance that no ill
could befall the vessel that carried the Lord of glory.
Doubtless all of them afterwards wished that there had
been no miracle, but that instead they had trustingly
waited the manifestation of their Lord's own will.
The analytical discussion of the extraordinary elements
of this narrative has never brought to light a single calory
of spiritual food value. But as a parable of spiritual
experience the story, viewed from any aspect, enfolds
some rich kernels of truth, moral proteids and car
bohydrates of perennial worth in building up soul fibre.
In its initial chapter the incident illustrates a truth
66

Fear and Faithlessness

that finds confirmation in the daily experience of ev<yy
disciple. Fellowship with the Christ does not insure out
ward calm. Enlistment in the service of God does not
guarantee freedom from the storms and distresses of
life. Even those who keep very close to the Master
may be assaulted by trial and temptation. The very
boat that carries the Lord is often tossed about by the
tempest and sadly battered by the waves.
What billows of persecution rolled over the infant
Church, and threatened her utter destruction! What
gales of false teaching, yes, even of false motive and aim,
beat her back upon her course! Has there ever been
an age in Christian history when some part of the Church,
some boatload of disciples with their Master, has not
been imperilled by persecution or strife or heresy or
worldliness, until faithless and fearful ones have cried
out in dismay, " Master! Master! we perish "? Have
not we ourselves often heard the cry?
Is not that little boat on the Sea of Galilee the proto
type of the larger vessel that, steering toward Rome,
cast Paul and his companions upon the island of Melita?
Does it not suggest to our minds the devoted band of
Huguenots in France, persecuted by the cruel Medici?
or the staunch old Covenanters of Scotland, hunted and
harried by the officers of state? or the Mayflower, bear
ing her company of godly Pilgrims to the bleak New Eng
land shores? or the Protestant Armenians, massacred
by the ferocious Turk? or hapless Belgium, overrun
and devastated by the pitiless armies of the Kaiser?
Nay, does it not truly represent many a feeble church
in our own land, hard beset with difficulties, dissensions
and debt?
Again, is not this a parable of many an individual
Christian experience? Read the great hymns of the
church, and note how many of them are baptized with
the spray of stormy waters. The Psalms of David, for
example, witness on the one hand to real fellowship with
God, but often, on the other, to deep experiences of
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
trouble in the life of their writer. When we turn to our
modern hymnbooks, we observe that many of the choic
est hymns such as " Jesus, Lover of my Soul," "Nearer,
my God, to Thee," " Lead, Kindly Light," " How Firm
a Foundation," and many others, bear the impress of
stormy experiences.
Nor have more prosaic lives escaped a like discipline.
Doubtless every true saint has at some time sailed the
stormy sea with his Lord. Robertson of Brighton,
Henry Ward Beecher, Henry Drummond, — all of them
suffered from suspicions and slanders. George Fox,
Roger Williams, and Theodore Parker, with many other
equally godly, are witnesses to the perennial truth of
St. Paul's words, " All that would live godly in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution."
But tempests do not all blow from one quarter of the
heavens. Persecution is not the only word that expresses
spiritual storm. Into the lives of the most truly con
secrated and self-sacrificing persons come many and
severe trials that are not due to the malice of their
fellows. Sorrows, temptations, perplexities, yes, great
waves of trouble, roll over the life and seem to threaten
complete shipwreck. The most saintly and spiritual
lives are not freed from the common trials that harass
the ungodly, nor do they feel them a whit less keenly.
Sometimes these storms seem to come as the direct re
sult of sincere devotion. Many a man has been called
upon to endure poverty and loss because his conscience
was keener than that of the majority of his contempo
raries. Refusal to conform to certain unchristian cus
toms has entailed loss of position, or perfect honesty of
dealing has cut down profits, or loyalty to conviction has
been punished as crime. In such cases "the trial of faith
is doubly severe.
So this miracle story comes quite close to life at its
most sensitive points. Universal experience interprets
to us its first lesson, — viz., Fellowship with the Christ
does not insure outward calm. 68

Fear and Faithlessness

Not less clear, not less true to experience, is its second
message standing out in marked contrast with the first.
Have you discovered it? Fellowship with Jesus does
afford inward peace even amid outward storm.
Note that I say fellowship, not mere companionship.
The difference is heaven-wide. There may be a certain
companionship, yes, there is often such companionship
without true spiritual sympathy and fellowship. It
was so in the gospel narrative. Here were the disciples
in Jesus' company. They were honest and earnest in
their allegiance to him, they loved him and believed in
him, but they had not yet entered into any deep spiritual
fellowship with him. They did not understand him;
they had not fathomed the depths of his power. They
were not in perfect sympathy with his aims and ideals,
consequently they were terrified by the rising storm.
Jesus slept. He rested quietly, unmoved by the in
creasing commotion of nature. And whoever has come
into real fellowship with the Christ spirit and the Christ
life may perpetually enjoy a like peace. It is not enough
to be a member of the Christian Church, to be in the
same boat with the Master, to be joined to him by merely
external bonds. The union must be deep, spiritual,
vital. We must have that mind in us which was also in
Christ Jesus; then we shall have peace.
Cruelly unjust is that question of the disciples, —
" Carest thou not that we perish? " That was the sleep
of faith, not of carelessness; the sleep that followed hard
work for souls, and prepared for more hard work for
souls. " Carest thou not? " Why, there was no other
who cared one thousandth part as much as he! But
Jesus knew that the storm was not a rebellion of the ele
ments against their Creator. He realized that the
forces of nature are always God's obedient servants.
Not of themselves do storms arise. Every gale that
blows is but a " stormy wind, fulfilling his word."
The modern student of nature will tell you that every
commotion on earth or sea or in the air is part of the
69

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
essential working of the universe. It is necessary to
clear the atmosphere, to purify the sea, to restore tone
and vitality to the physical world after these have be
come temporarily exhausted. They are all directly
produced by the infinite laws which control the universe,
and no slightest puff of wind or dash of spray nor any
greatest avalanche or cataclysm occurs without law or
contrary to law. The greatest storm cannot for a mo
ment delay or endanger the plans of God, nor put in
jeopardy one who is bearing his commission.
In the light of the gospel, human life reveals the same
truth, although it is difficult to read the revelation when
storm clouds hang low and tempests rage. Trouble,
sorrow, failure, bereavement, even doubt and temptation,
are all messengers of God, subject to his laws, doing his
will in our lives, to save them from stagnation and give
them new vitality. Our Lord himself was made perfect
through suffering. His marvelous character and life
were not products of a special creation, or of hothouse
culture. They were brought to completeness of beauty
and worth by means of the terrible storms of opposition
and suffering through which he passed in doing his work.
Surely, therefore, no disciple can hope to become per
fectly Christlike without similar discipline.
To him who has the mind of Christ, all things become
God's ministers; hence he knows no fear. Peter sleeps
in Herod's prison at night, although he knows that the
morrow is named as the day of his death. Paul and
Silas pray and sing in the jail at Philippi even after they
have been cruelly scourged by their enemies. Many a
saint of later times has passed unmoved through deepest
afflictions, resting calmly on the promises of God, and
being assured that nothing comes to any soul that is not
the perfect expression of everlasting love. Others have
been made strong and true, have met trials and dan
gers without flinching. History has no more luminous
page than that which records the sinking of the Titanic,
while the captain and crew stood fearlessly in their
70

Fear and Faithlessness

places and the ship's band played " Nearer my God to
Thee " as the waves slowly rose and swallowed them to
gether with their ill-fated vessel. So may it be with you
and with me. If we are conscious of divine sonship, if
we know that our lives are unreservedly consecrated
to the fulfilment of our divine mission, that wherever
we go or whatever we do the Christ is with us not only
in our ship but in our hearts as well, we need never be
disturbed by storms, however terrible. Rather may we
always sing with Anna Waring, —
" The storm may roar without me,
My heart may low be laid ;
But God is round about me,
And can I be dismayed? "
And is not this inner peace, after all, the matter of
vital importance? Why need we be concerned about
what goes on around us, if all is right within? It is in
ward restlessness that kills. It is the storm in the heart
that destroys the peace of our lives. Who has the peace
of Christ in his soul enjoys the greatest of earthly bless
ings. Obtaining this our lives are transfigured.
Now what is the secret of this inward peace? For
answer, read the final message of our story. Briefly it
is this : — Fellowship with Jesus does insure against ulti
mate disaster. It does contain the promise of abiding
peace at the last, even though it does not save from pass
ing storms. Nothing can really endanger, much less
thwart, the plans of God, or hinder the completion of his
work. His messengers are absolutely safe amid the
greatest perils till their mission is accomplished.
" Fear not, you carry Caesar and his fortunes! " was
the confident assurance with which Rome's future
emperor once restored the courage of his sailors in a terri
ble storm. A splendid utterance, even if a trifle pre
sumptuous, which tells the story of Caesar's greatness.
A like thought may well inspire courage in the disciple
of the Christ at all times. Let a church but be sure
that =he carries the Christ, and she need not fear perse-
71

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
cution or difficulty. Let the disciple be sure that he is
engaged in God's work, and he need not fear the ship
wreck of any enterprise to which God may call him.
Storms and gales there may be, but no spiritual ship
wreck for the soul that lives in daily fellowship with
the Son of God.
Make God's cause your own. " Take Christ on board
thy little ship." That is the secret of safety. Read
the Psalms; observe how the writer identifies his own
cause with God's. Self and subjects are nothing to him
save as they represent the will of God and hold in trust
his truth. Every enemy of Israel becomes to him an
enemy of God, and every attack upon David a thrust
at God's servant. What wonder that the Psalmist felt
strong and confident in the midst of greatest dangers?
Before we turn away to other themes, let us take a
final glance at ourselves as our lives are' reflected in this
gospel mirror. Little faith cries out for calm waters.
Whose little faith? Yours and mine. Do not our
prayers often reecho the cry of the disciples? Yes, our
little faith prays for calm waters, for release from pain
and suffering; but the great faith, which may be ours,
rests in God and rides out the storm.
For us, too, there may be rest, — inward rest in the
midst of outward storms. If, like Jesus, we have done
our work, we may sleep peacefully on the tossing sea,
knowing that if God has more work for us to do he will
wake us in safety to do it.
Taking the Lord of life within our boat we are secure
against final disaster. Though we fail, it is that he may
bring us to greater success thereafter ; though we suffer,
it is that we may be made perfect; though we die, itis
that we may enter through death into the life eternal.

72

CHAPTER IX
The Assurance that Dispels Fear
WALKING ON THE WAVES
Matt. 14 : 22-33; Mark 6 : 45-52; John 6 : 15-21
Text. — " It is I; be not afraid." — Mark 6 : 50
A THRICE told tale should be a tale of more than
passing interest and value. Such a tale we have,
recorded by the pens of Matthew, Mark and
John ; and these are its salient points. — After the
miraculous feeding of the multitude in the desert, Jesus
sends his disciples by boat across the sea. Then, dis
missing the multitude, he ascends a neighboring hill and
gives himself to solitary prayer and communion with God.
Meanwhile a storm arises, and the disciples are unable
to make any progress even by the hardest toil. As morn
ing approaches, the Master, perceiving their distress,
descends the hill and comes to the disciples, walking
upon the surface of the sea. At first sight of him the
men are terrified; but being reassured, they gladly re
ceive him into their boat, the storm quickly subsides,
and soon they reach the land. Matthew interjects the
episode of Peter's attempt to imitate his Master, but
that interpolation has no bearing upon the major inci
dent with which we are now concerned.
" Of course we cannot believe that the tale is liter
ally true," many are saying today. " Doubtless Jesus
came by the shore, or was carried by a boat to some spot
near them, and suddenly appeared upon the neighbor
ing strand, as on that morning after the resurrection.
The welcome sight followed by a speedy landing and
renewed fellowship was easily exaggerated in the course
of years into the story as it comes to us."
Very well, I reply, but that is another story. It is not
difficult to invent ingenious theories and plausible ex-
73

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
planations, but we have nothing to do with them in the
present discussion. We are studying the miracle stories
of the Gospels, and we must take them as we find them.
In any case we are seeking the wheat of eternal truth.
If we find that and it feeds the hungry soul, what mat
ter as to the composition of the chaff? Let us, then, take
the story as it comes to us and seek its message. If I
mistake not, it lies close to the surface and may be quickly
found. Even as we read the story three pictures flash out
before us. The first of these is, like Raphael's Trans
figuration, a twofold picture. Above we see the Master
alone on the mountaintop kneeling in prayer ; below, the
disciples in their little boat struggling with contrary
winds upon the stormy lake. The second picture shows
us the Christ coming to his disciples over the crests of
the waves. In the third scene the Saviour is received
into the ship, the storm ceases, and the port is reached.
Take these pictures in their order and let us see what
lines of truth they indicate.
Look first at the picture of solitary prayer. " After
he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a
mountain apart to pray; and when even was come, he
was there alone." Prayer is ever the significant preface
to ihe volume of power. Omit the preface and you have
thrown away the key to all that follows.
Seven times it is distinctly recorded that Jesus gave
himself to solitary prayer. He spent whole nights on
his knees alone with God. What wonder if there fol
lowed transfigurations, marvels of teaching, greater
marvels of action, missions of apostles, woild redeem
ing sacrifices! Do you ask the secret of divine power?
Read it in those seasons of devout prayer. The Son oi
man on his knees will soon be the Son of God on his
throne. Fie who bows in humble reverence before
nature's God, will soon see nature's forces bowing in
humble obedience to himself. The night of prayer is
but the prelude to a day of power, whether that power
74

The Assurance that Dispels Fear
be displayed in the mastery of the elements of Galilee,
or the outflashing of supernal glory on Tabor, or the
self-renouncing death on Calvary. The prayer on the
mountain, the wonder on the sea, — can we doubt the
vital connection? Can we ignore this simple lesson?
The Christ of today is to a great degree bereft of his
supreme power. Transfiguration scenes are rare in our
modern religious life. " The age of miracles is past,"
say the church and the world in an utterance fatally
harmonious. The Christianity of the present age does
not make a vivid impression of power, whether social,
political, or spiritual. Need we ask the reason? With
the light of this heaven-drawn picture shining before our
eyes the reason is only too apparent. The church of
the opening twentieth century seldom goes apart by her
self for prayer. The habit of prayer is being neglected
in our individual lives. The prayer-meeting languishes
in our church life. A generation or two ago men left
their work and women their household duties or social
pleasures to attend the prayer-meeting on a week-day
afternoon. Now the meeting must be appointed at an
hour when it will not conflict with any other possible
duty or engagement, and even then it is attended by a
handful. Gideon's Band has suffered several reductions
since last heard from, and soon it will reach the vanishing
point. Need we any other explanation of spiritual weak
ness? Were there more nights of prayer, there would be more
days of power. Personal prayer means personal power;
united prayer means united power. What is the prayer-
meeting? It is the church of Jesus Christ on her knees
before God, being charged with spiritual power.
Most preaching nowadays is weak from the viewpoint
of spiritual effectiveness, yet in all other respects it is
the strongest and best preaching the world has ever
heard. Never was there more rhetorical power, never
more thorough intellectual culture devoted to the service
of God, Measured by the gauge of oratory or learning
75

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
or refinement or edification, the pulpit of today is un
rivaled. Tested by the standard of effectiveness, by
its success in the only work that makes preaching rational,
it is wholly inadequate.
What is lacking? The earnest, persistent prayer of
the pews. Not the material or the quality of the bullet
but the charge of powder behind the bullet determines
its execution. A sufficient charge of powder will send
a tallow candle through an oak plank; while a cannon
ball of solid iron rolled slowly along the floor may be
stopped by a child. So a very poor sermon may be made
fruitful in the conversion of men if it receive spiritual
momentum from the prayers of a united church. By
these it can be driven through the oaken bulwarks of
prejudice, pride, indifference, selfishness and sin. With
out these the best pulpit effort falls fruitless.
We might well stay with this picture, were there not
others beckoning us on. Before we turn away, let us
pray that its message may be indelibly fixed not in our
minds only, but in our hearts as well. The Christ on
the mountaintop praying, the disciples in the boat row
ing. Blow, winds! Roll, waves! Toss and fret, thou
puny sea! The boatmen may be discouraged and terri
fied, but that solitary figure in the darkness on his knees
is Master of all, and through his supplications peace and
safety are assured. Do not separate the scenes: they
are a unit. Prayer and power, worship and work, ¦ —
hold the connection fast and clear or this miracle story
is meaningless.
Are you ready for the second picture? Here it -is. —
" In the fourth watch of the night, when they had rowed
about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they beheld
Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the
boat." Men have doubted the historic truth of this
statement. Can any one doubt that it is true to life in
the broadest sense? The historic truth is a matter of
evidence. The essential truth is a matter of conscious
experience. Not far away, but near, is the truth which
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The Assurance that Dispels Fear
it depicts. Do you not catch the message? The Christ
often uses the waves of trouble that threaten and buffet us
as a causeway over which he comes to us.
David was a man after God's own heart; but there
were times when his life was beset with storms of perse
cution and trial; and, if we may judge from his psalms,
it was over these waves of trouble that God came nearest
to his soul and brought the most blessed revelations of
his presence.
God suffered Elijah to be driven far out into the wilder
ness by the storm of Jezebel's wrath and hatred, then
over the billows he came to him and whispered in the
still, small voice the most helpful and encouraging
message the grand old prophet ever received.
Over the waves of a stormy life the Christ came to
John Newton and brought him safely to the haven of a
noble sainthood.
Am I speaking in an unknown tongue? Nay, rather
does not the word find a ready echo in many a heart,
perhaps in every heart? Has not this been the witness
of your own experience? How has the Christ come to
you most frequently and most blessedly? Has it not
been over a stormy sea of failure and disappointment?
or upon the angry crests of enmity or temptation? or
through the salt and blinding sprays of sorrow or be
reavement? Have not your struggles and your dis
couragements, yes, and your very terrors too, been his
chosen pathways to your heart?
The picture will bear prolonged study. Is it not
beautiful ? Is it not true to life , — to your life ? It speaks
a message of hope and courage. Perhaps you find your
self today upon a stormy sea; you have Taeen toiling
hard in obedience to the Master's command; you have
been struggling to reach some harbor of worthy achieve
ment, and you feel yourself not advancing but being
beaten backward. Darker and more dark lower the
clouds, higher and more high rise the waves, the winds
increase, the tempest rages with accumulating violence, —
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
it is the supreme moment of despair. Ah, look out
through the darkness! There, over the waters, comes
the Saviour to work for you a miracle of deliverance.
The surging billows of life's turmoil are the paving-stones
upon which his feet hasten to 'comfort and strengthen
you with a new revelation of his love.
One scene remains in this Gospel panorama. It is a
picture of peace and progress. " When they were gone
up into the boat, the wind ceased." John adds, " They
were willing therefore to receive him into the boat; and
straightway the boat was at the land whither they were
going." Fear relieved, the waves stilled, the port
reached, — inward peace, outward victory, ultimate
success; so it is always in the experience of the true
disciple. The coming of the Christ into the life brings
courage in danger and triumph over difficulties.
The ship that God sends over the sea cannot be
wrecked, it cannot be hindered from reaching its des
tination. The life that is consecrated to God, the church
that is devoted to his work, may meet with dangers and
severe trials; either may be beaten back in its course
for a time : but there can be no ultimate defeat, no ship
wreck. For such the Christ ever prays; over such he
ever watches; to such at the supreme moment he will
manifest himself with all the fulness of his divine power.
Real disaster in our Lord's work is impossible. Obeying
his commands, receiving him as our companion, we can
not fail through the severest storm to reach the desired
haven. Linger a moment with this closing picture. It is
characteristic. Two things hinder the attainment of
our highest aims: they are, first, inward fear; and
second, outward storm. Of these the inward fear is the
more serious. Whether we aim at some noble ideal of
personal attainment or at some more Christly work for
others, the first foe we have to contend with is our own
discouragement and lack of faith. After this there will
surely be difficulties which arise from the opposition or
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The Assurance that Dispels Fear
indifference of others. Once overcome the obstacle
within, however, and the obstacles that confront us from
without will speedily give way.
Is not this always the divine method? The Christ
begins at the root of the matter. First, he dispels fear;
then, if necessary, he quiets the storm. What more
need we ask? To reach the haven then requires no mira
cle, — it is the easiest and most natural thing in the
world. Manly courage and hope transform the stilled
waters into an easy pathway to land.
Is not the whole blessed truth of this story caught up
and flashed forth in the words that I have selected as my
text? " It is I; be not afraid." Literally rendered,
the phrase would read, " / am; be not afraid." It is
the same thought with which Jehovah encouraged Moses
and sent him to defy the Pharaoh on his throne: — "I
AM hath sent thee." It is the thought which the de
parting Saviour bequeathed to his disciples and the
Church as a source of perpetual comfort and strength : —
" Lo, I am with you always." Let me paraphrase it in
a single sentence. The sense of Christ's personal pres
ence is the source of the Christian' s abiding confidence.
Here is the secret of spiritual power and repose and
victory, — the sense of the Saviour's personal presence,
the perpetual vision of him who said, " It is I; be not
afraid." Have you never felt this to be true as you have
listened to some strong or courageous soldier in the Lord's
army, or as you have tried to discover the secret of some
effective Christian worker? There seems to be a pro
found consciousness of the Saviour's presence and per
sonality. To some of us, Christianity is little more than an
abstract system of ethics. To others it is the religion
of a book or an institution. To still others it is an emo
tional ecstasy or a matter of sentiment. What wonder
if such Christianity often becomes misty or uncertain!
What wonder if it is, easily undermined, even destroyed,
by false teaching or temptation! The only sure and
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
abiding foundation of a Christian life, the secret of its
power, the source of its effectiveness, is not belief in a
book, however divine, it is not in loyalty to an institu
tion, however hoary; it is in love and obedience to a
divine and personal leader, Jesus Christ.
This is, therefore, the final message of our miracle
story for each one of us. This power may be ours.
This is our privilege and strength, — the personal
Christ. For more than a century the Church has been
singing, " 'Tis religion that can give
Sweetest pleasure while we live ;
'Tis religion can supply
Solid comfort when we die,"
and many eager souls have accepted the teaching of that
hymn only to be bitterly disappointed. Why disap
pointed? Because " sweetest pleasure " and " solid
comfort " are not to be derived from any abstraction,
even though it be a spiritual abstraction which we call
religion. It is not " religion," but fellowship with the
living and personal Christ, that insures eternal pleasure
and comfort. Let us be careful to make our religion
a light to reveal Christ and not a veil to conceal him.
Like the terrified disciples, we too often fail to recog
nize the Master as he approaches in some hour of dark
ness and struggle. Yet in the familiar voice he calls
through the din and the shadow and reassures us. "It
is I, I who have sent thee forth upon this sea, I who con
trol and direct this storm, I who will bring thee safely
through the peril, — thy loving Friend, thy personal
Saviour." 0 thou who art tempest tossed, who art driven back
ward in the fight, who art discouraged and weary, do
not look for some helpful text, some encouraging law,
some brightening of the sky. Listen! Listen! and
you shall hear the words, — " It is I; be not afraid,"
80

CHAPTER X
Blessing in Blundering
PETER'S FIASCO TRANSFIGURED
Matt. 14 : 28-31
Text. — "Lord, if it be Ihou, bid me. come unio thee upon the waters."
— Matt. 14 : 28
THE sublime and the ridiculous are ever to be found
side by side. Every mountain has its neighboring
valley. The beetling cliff involves the darksome
abyss, and a single step hurls the unwary traveler from
the heights above to the depths below. Jesus' calm dis
play of power over the forces of nature is a sublime
spectacle. Peter's rash imitation is a ridiculous fiasco.
Sublime the self-forgetful kindness of the Master; ridicu
lous the self-assertive vanity of the disciple. Sublime
the complete triumph of divine power; ridiculous the
utter failure of human weakness. The contrast is sug
gestive; it sets us thinking.
What a pitiful parenthesis in a wonderful story!
How brilliant the work of the Master; how humiliating
the interruption of the disciple! Yet as we study the
episode in its completeness, as we look upon it in the
light of centuries of Christian progress and education,
it is not difficult to "understand why the disciple failed,
even though we may not be able to explain how the
Master succeeded.
The catastrophe is approached by a series of palpable
blunders. ,At least five false steps bring Simon Peter
to his final disaster. They are, 1. Self-exaltation; 2.
Self-confidence; 3. Self-seeking; 4. Self-will; and 5.
Self:consciousness. And these five obtrusions of self
stand out in the narrative as five red lights of warning
along the path where every Christian must walk, to
advise us of danger and to save us from like disaster.
Self-exaltation was Peter's first misstep. " Bid me
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
come." There is the key to the whole ridiculous situa
tion. It is the we set in contrast with the other disciples.
It is the desire not simply to do some great thing, but
to outdo his fellows. How this spirit reveals itself again
and again in the words and conduct of Peter! When the
Twelve are gathered together in the upper chamber for
that Last Supper, the Master girds himself with a towel
and begins to wash the feet of his disciples, but when he
comes to Peter, that ever-impetuous one cries out,
" Thou shalt never wash my feet! " In other words,
" I will outdo my brethren in humility. They have ac
cepted this service from thee; I will not permit it." At
another time, when Jesus warns the disciples of their
coming desertion, Peter exclaims, "Though all others
forsake thee, /will never forsake thee !" Yet he who was
so' eager to outdo others in loyalty and service finally
outdoes them in folly and unfaithfulness.
Is Peter's ideal unique? Unfortunately not. So far
from that, it is exceedingly common. Not to do, but to
outdo, is a popular ideal of achievement and success
both inside and outside the church. Not a few disci
ples adopt the same measure of life. We gauge our
benevolence, our service, our respectability, our duty,
our character, not by the use we make of our opportuni
ties and our gifts, but by the number of those who fall
below us in the scale of attainment or showy activity;
not by how much we do, but by how far we outdo the
average disciple.
With this contrast God's standard. He never asks
whether we surpass our neighbors or are surpassed
by them. His only question is whether we have done
our best with what was given us. Witness the parable
of the talents. His successful ones have often been
written failures by the pens of their human biographers,
and his great ones are frequently insignificant in the
estimation of the world. Not the rich who outdo all
in the greatness of their gifts, but the poor givers of
mites, are his models of beneficence. Not the Pharisee of
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Blessing in Blundering

spotless character, but the humble and very imperfect
publican, who has forsaken his sin and sought forgive
ness, is his model of sainthood. Not the emperor on his
throne, but the little child in its mother's arms, is his
object lesson of greatness. Christianity knows no law
of competition or rivalry; its sole law is the law of hum
ble, loving service. To do, not to outdo, is its aim.
Peter's second misstep is self-confidence. Doubtless
he imagined that he displayed strong faith. Rashness,
however, is not faith, nor does it indicate faith. True
faith is ever cautious and self-distrustful. Rashness
always invites defeat; it often indicates weakness of
faith. Most perfect trust in God implies utter want of
confidence in self.
Everywhere God's Word abounds in promises of
sufficient strength to cope with every God-sent trial.
We have the assurance that whenever God calls us to
undertake a great task or to face any fierce temptation
he will with the trial give us grace for complete victory.
Yet the Master taught us to pray daily, " Lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Necessary
temptation is a means of spiritual development and
growth. Unnecessary temptation is an insidious snare.
Any Peter can walk on the water with safety when
called to do so in the service of the Christ; essaying it
for his own glory, he invites humiliating failure.
Self-seeking is the third misstep that Peter made. He
would prostitute divine power to personal gratification.
He would ask for a miracle that he might show off.
Jesus walked on the waves to succor the distressed
disciples. Peter tried to walk on them that he might
experience a new sensation and gratify his childish vanity.
He rushed in where even Jesus himself dare not venture.
Recall the great drama of the temptation in the wilder
ness. At one time the arch-tempter takes our Lord in
vision to the pinnacle of the temple and mockingly cries,
" If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is
written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee:
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
and on their hands they shall bear thee up, lest haply
thou dash thy foot against a stone." What said the
Master? " Again it is written, Thou shalt not make
trial of the Lord thy God." The divine Saviour would
not use his power for wanton display. Never once did
he use it for selfish ends. The power was divine, hence
it was sacred. To invoke it for unworthy purposes were
sacrilege. Had he thus invoked it, doubtless the same
discomfiture would have come to him that came to Peter,
and for a like reason.
Has Peter no imitators at this point today? Are there
no disciples among us who seek divine power for selfish
and petty ends? Has that type of Christian altogether
disappeared from the earth who looks upon godliness as a
way of gain? We pray, and the burden of our prayers is
for great spiritual manifestations, but for what purpose?
That others may be blessed? That the world may be
enriched and transfigured? Not always. Very often
we desire spiritual gifts that we may be happy, successful,
prosperous, conspicuous, that we may outdo others in
spiritual attainment and glory. The well-nigh universal
prostitution, in modern times, of psychic force to per
sonal profit has brought that force into disrepute, until
many deem it little short of blasphemy to associate the
miracles of Jesus with familiar psychic phenomena.
More than this, the present age has given birth to a dis
tinct religious movement claiming the name of Christian
and laying special stress upon the healing function, yet
all the while belying the Christly spirit, inasmuch as the
foundress greatly enriched herself by means of the
propaganda, and healers heal only for pay.
Oh, think not that the infinite power of God has no
better use than to minister to thy wealth, or happiness,
or vanity! Forget selfish happiness and profit, and see
in that power the instrument of help and salvation for
those about you. For Christ's sake and the world's
sake lose thyself, and the power shall be thine for others'
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Blessing in Blundering

After self-seeking comes ¦ self-will. The three initial
steps form a cumulative motive which reveals itself in
the overt expression of self-will. " Lord, if it be thou,
bid me come to thee." Was there ever more striking
illustration of that
" Vaulting ambition which o'er -leaps itself "?
Here we have a complete somersault of relations. The
disciple assumes the tone and attitude of a master and
dictates to his Lord. He seeks to bend the Christ to his
will instead of bending his will to the Christ, — the
very essence of worldliness. And he enforces hij demand
with a suggestion borrowed from Satan himself. " If
it be thou!" That phrase carries us back again to the
wilderness scene. It is not an expression of doubt, but a
peculiarly tantalizing form of assertion. When Satan
says, " If thou art the Son of God," it is a challenge
based, not upon doubt, but upon a clear knowledge of him
to whom he speaks. Even so Peter utters not a doubt
but a dare in the words, " If it be thou." He is uncon
sciously Satanic, submissively dictatorial, trustfully
infidel. Self-will is the greatest of all enemies to the will of
God. It is the final standing-ground in the great battle
between sin and righteousness, between the rebellious
soul and its King. And we are Christians just to the
extent that self-will is surrendered to the will of God.
The true attitude of the disciple is not expressed in the
words, " Lord, bid me do this or that," but in the words,
" Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? " Not to choose
our own line of service, but to discover the line of service
that God has chosen for us, should be our aim. For the
prayer, " Thy will be done," we too often substitute the
prayer, " Make thy will the power for the fulfilment of
my will." It is one thing to be on the Lord's side; quite
another thing to pray the Lord to be on our side. If half
the time spent in trying to bring Christ over to our ways
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
and wills were given to bringing our wills into subjection
to the will of Christ, our spiritual progress would be
wonderfully accelerated.
Self-consciousness was the final step in the rash
disciple's course of discomfiture and humiliation . ' ' When
Peter saw the wind, he was afraid." Why afraid?
Because he knew that he had no power in himself to defy
the storm and tread down the angry waves. " But,"
you say, " was not every step in this farce a token of self-
consciousness? " No, I think not. It is quite possible
for us to cherish many selfward motives and ideals
unconsciously. All these weaknesses were so natural to Peter that he
was wholly unconscious of them. His motives had been
selfish, but without direct thought of self. Now,
however, as he sets out to walk on the water, now that
his desire is about to be gratified fully, self springs out
into the limelight. The new experience turns his
thought selfward, and he begins to fear and consequently
to sink. One may be sufficiently conceited to forget
himself and his weakness in the eager desire for some
great task or honor ; but when the fulfilment of desire
brings him face to face with duty and responsibility,
he suddenly becomes self-conscious in the realization of
utter inability to meet the demands which his new
position makes upon him.
Self-consciousness is always disastrous to Christian
effort. It undermines faith; it weakens influence; it
frustrates endeavor; it severs the connection between the
human soul and the divine Helper. Wise with the wis
dom of inspiration is the saying, " Let us run with
patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus
the author and perfecter of our faith." There is the
secret of strength, of faith, of victory. Who looks at
self, at waves, at difficulties, or even at helpers, will soon
become faint-hearted. Who looks ever to Jesus will be
brave. Elijah, the noble prophet of Israel, boldly with
stands a host of false prophets and is completely vic-
S6

Blessing in Blundering

torious, for he looks steadfastly unto God. After the
victory he' thinks of himself, of his danger, he looks about
to count his adherents, and seeing none, flees despairingly
into the wilderness.- Peter — every Peter — looking
trustfully to Jesus, may walk the waves safely: looking at
the wind and thinking of himself, he is sure to sink.
What a succession of selfward thought, self -exaltation,
self-confidence, self-seeking, self-will, self-consciousness!
Is it strange that these lead to disaster? Could it be
otherwise? Still, when in the moment of danger and
defeat Peter cries to Jesus for help, immediately the
Master's hand is stretched out to save, and the rash
disciple is brought in safety to the ship once more.
Peter is an incarnate object-lesson. We can learn
more and more varied lessons from him than from any
other apostle, yes, than from all the other apostles to
gether. He is the champion blunderer of the Twelve.
He has a limitless capacity for making a fool of himself;
but, after all, that is because he is such an impulsive,
energetic man. That, too, is why he helps so much.
You never read about Thomas making a fool of himself.
Of course not! He was cool, cautious, skeptical. He
never allows his feelings or impulses to run away with
him or to get the better of his judgment. But Peter — ¦
well, he was Peter, the headlong, the impulsive blunderer.
Yet he does more for God and the world than a dozen
Thomases. Did you ever think how much the world owes to
blunderers? The cool and judicious critics who never
make any mistakes themselves and who spend most of
their time exposing the mistakes of others, could well be
spared from human history, — we should be very little
poorer for losing them. But the blunderers have been
the leaders of the race, the advance guard of the kingdom
of heaven.
I thank God for an apostle who was not too wise and
too cautious ever to make a fool of himself! Would
there were more like him in that respect today! The
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
man who tries to do something that was never done
before will be almost sure to blunder, but the" world will
be the richer for his effort. I fancy I hear James or
Thomas or Philip say with a covert sneer, " Aha, Peter!
you got a wetting, didn't you? " And Peter might well
have replied, " Yes, I got wet, and I acted very fool
ishly, — but I walked on the water! "
We may criticize Peter as we will, and point out his
mistakes; yet, notwithstanding his mistakes, the Lord
needs more men like him, men who are willing to blunder
and to do apparently foolish things in his service. This
is an age of wisdom, an age of calm and frigid intellectu
ality. Never was there a time when men were more
afraid of appearing foolish than at present. We are
willing to surrender many things to the service of Christ;
but when it comes to the question of surrendering our
wisdom and our calm judgment, we halt, and because we
halt we lose many a glorious experience. Until we are
willing to become fools for the sake of Christ and our
fellow men, we shall never know the joy of being lifted
from the trough of our selfishness into the fellowship of
our loving and forgiving Lord.
Shall we stay at this point? Of course not! Thus
far our story has found no place among the miracles
of Jesus. It seems rather to be a miracle of Peter, and
an abortive one at that. The miracle is yet to come.
When Peter has frustrated the divine power through
selfward thought and desire he cries out, " Lord, save
me! " And we read that " immediately Jesus stretched
forth his hand and took hold of him. . . . And when
they were gone up into the boat, the wind ceased."
There is the miracle. Hand in hand with the Master
Peter walks safely to the boat and is rescued.
Is not this the real thought that comes down to us
from the episode? If we really try to do anything in
the Master's service, we blunder, we make mistakes, we
get into trouble. Shall we therefore hold back and
remain in cautious idleness? Too many of us are doing
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Blessing in Blundering

that now. Better, far better, attempt something,
however foolishly, assured by this story that if we are
sincere in our effort and consecrated in our purpose the
Christ will be at hand to help us in our extremity and to
bring us out in safety and triumph at last.

89

CHAPTER XI
Anticipating Faith
THE BLASTING OF THE FIG TREE
Mark 11: 12-24
Text. — " All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye
receive them, and ye shall have them." — Mark 11 : 24
THE bur of a chestnut is set with thorns. Its
meat is sweet to the taste, and good for food.
In these two points the chestnut may serve as
a fitting type of one of the gospel miracle stories, —
the story of the blasting of the fig tree. The husk of the
miracle, i. e., the narrative itself, is beset with difficulties.
It abounds in what an old Scotch friend of mine was wont
to call " kittled points." Interrogations thrust them
selves at us from all sides. Is the story credible in itself?
Is it not a contradiction of the spirit and teachings of
Jesus? Does it not impugn even the intelligence of the
Master? These and many similar questions confront
us as we read the story. How shall we answer them?
It is customary to invoke the aid of biblical criticism,
oriental research, natural history, and kindred authori
ties, as though the task were essential or even really
important. But why answer these questions at all?
They concern only the husk, and in no way affect the
quality or value of the kernel. Try to swallow a chest
nut bur and you get wounds a-plenty, but no meat.
Tear off the husk and throw it in the fire, and you have
left all that possesses food value.
So with the miracle story. It is a bur; it contains
a kernel. Time spent on the story itself is wasted.
The discovery and assimilation of eternal and unques
tionable truth embodied in the story is worth most
careful thought and study. Once you have disposed of
your husk, the kernel lies before you, — the incarnation
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Anticipating Faith

of truth which cannot be mistaken. Permit me to
illustrate from personal experience.
Not long ago I listened to a discourse based upon this
narrative. The preacher, a very pleasing and scholarly
young man, gave his hearers .a learned disquisition upon
the natural history of the fig tree, which was designed
to explain our Lord's apparent disappointment and the
action that followed. I came away from the service
feeling much like the husky and hungry stevedore whom
Oscar Wilde had invited to dine with him " on the scent
of a lily."
On another occasion, many years previous, as I was
passing through an experience of extreme soul hunger,
this old wonder story flashed into my mind with our
Lord's own interpretation, I was filled, and went in the
strength of that meat many days. Better still, the
satisfaction and strength then received have remained
with me as a permanent enrichment of my spiritual life,
an unfailing source of soul power.
What, then, is our Lord's interpretation of the inci
dent? What is the truth that he would have us discover
in the narrative? It is the lesson, or law, of anticipating
faith embodied in the words, "All things whatsoever ye
pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall
have them."
This is the paradox of faith. As a statement of the
ultimate condition of prevailing prayer it is unique;
and, taken out of its logical connection, it seems wholly
unreasonable. Can faith anticipate fact? we ask.
Can I believe that which is not in order that it may be?
Must I believe that I have received something which
in fact I have not received, in order that I may receive
it at some time in the future? Plainly, that is at once
absurd and impossible. Is our Lord's declaration, then,
a mere rhetorical flourish? Or have his words been
reported to us erroneously by the evangelist? Neither
conclusion is necessary. The real difficulty is not with
the Master's words, but with the interpretation of his
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S 'mutual Messages of the Miracle Stories
words by the average disciple. We have failed to turn
upon them the light of the incident with which they are
connected. The true perspective of the message requires
the background of the miracle.
Let us briefly review the story together, that we may
impress its details afresh upon our minds.
Walking from Bethany to Jerusalem with his disciples,
Jesus is hungry. The sight of a fig tree in full leaf gives
promise of food, and the Master approaches it eagerly,
only to find it fruitless. Then, in the hearing of his
followers he pronounces this judgment, — " No man
eat fruit of thee henceforward forever," and passes on
his way.
The next morning they pass along the same road, and
the disciples are astonished to discover that the fig tree
has withered. Peter voices the common surprise in the
words, " Rabbi, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst
is withered away! " Jesus, on the other hand, betrays
no surprise, but answers, as though it were the most
natural occurrence in the world, " Have faith in God.
Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this
mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea, and
shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what
he saith cometh to pass, he shall have it. Therefore I
say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for,
believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."
Now any attempt at a literal interpretation or uni
versal application of Jesus' words as here recorded is
even at the present day impracticable. Such efforts
always result in profitless and unsatisfactory discussion.
Nevertheless, we may find in the concluding exhortation
a far-reaching law of life which is at once important and
practical. And this law of " anticipating faith " is most
clearly illuminated by the story of the evangelist.
The words of the Master, which Peter interprets as a
curse, were in effect a prayer for the destruction of the
tree. Their effectiveness was dependent upon the abso
lute faith of the speaker. He must believe in the moment
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Anticipating Faith

of his asking that he has received the divine power to blast
the tree, or his prayer will not prevail. As he speaks
no change reveals itself in the tree; yet he goes on his
way in perfect faith that his prayer has been answered.
Why? Because he is able to believe that something has
already taken place which in reality does not take place
till a later time? No; but because he believes that
something has actually taken place the evidence of which
although it is wanting at the moment, will appear in
due time.
Taking the story just as it comes to us, let us ask,
When did the fig tree die? Did death occur after our
Lord and his disciples had passed on, — say at some
time later in the day, or during the ensuing night?
Certainly not! The fig tree died at the very moment
when the prayer for its destruction was uttered. If not
at that moment, then there is nothing in the narrative
to account for its destruction. If the tree died at some
indeterminate time subsequent to the utterance of the
curse, its destruction is not to be attributed to the
agency or power of Jesus. In a word, unless the tree
died at the moment of the spoken curse, there is nothing
to connect its destruction with our Lord in any way.
Of course there was no external evidence of the fact
of death at the moment, but that was perfectly natural.
The disciples went on their way wholly unconscious of
the change that had taken place: but when the day
had passed, the withering of the leaves and smaller
twigs proved to them that life had been destroyed.
Is not this precisely what takes place when a tree is
killed by ordinary means? You cut down a tree, dig
up and destroy the roots if you please. Can you ques
tion the fact that the tree is dead the moment the trunk
is severed? In such a case the fact of death is self-evi
dent. Nevertheless no change will appear in the leaves
for some hours. In certain conditions they may retain
the appearance of life for many days. In spite of
appearances, however, you not only believe that the tree
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
is dead, but if you see the severed trunk you know that it
is dead; and the gradually accumulating evidence of
withering leaves and decaying wood causes you no sur
prise. It is just what you expect.
The faith of Jesus, therefore, did not anticipate fact;
it merely anticipated the evidence of the fact. He believed
that he received because in fact he had received, al
though the evidence of the fact did not appear for several
hours, — could not have appeared without another special
miracle. The faith that believes without the evidence is
the force that brings the evidence in due time.
Does not the action of Jesus in the performance of this
miracle make very plain the lesson he would teach us?
And is not the lesson equally clear and practical whatever
view we may take of the miracle story as such? We
cannot believe that which we know is not a fact; but we
can believe that which we do not know. Faith cannot
anticipate fact, but it can anticipate the evidence of the
fact. We can believe without the direct testimony of our
senses, and by that belief make it possible to receive
such testimony.
This law of anticipating faith which our Lord illus
trates in the destruction of the fig tree and enjoins as a
condition of all highest achievement is not, after all, so
very strange or unusual, as we shall see if we give the
matter a little thought. In our every-day life we are
constantly making use of the same principle, and it is a
most important factor in all our progress and civiliza
tion. Many of the things that we have in this world
we have because we first believe that we receive them.
The merchant receives a check in payment of an
account, and he writes a receipt for money while as yet
he has_ received no money. It is his faith that the
check, in itself a comparatively worthless bit of paper,
represents money on deposit, that makes it possible for
him to use it and thus to obtain the money in due course.
If a tradesman should refuse to exercise this antici
pating faith in his fellow men, or to believe that he has
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Anticipating Faith

received till he has tangible evidence, he would soon
find that he had nothing.
In the autumn of 1886 a great exposition was about to
open in Minneapolis. All the machinery was finished:
everything was in perfect order. Nothing remained to
be done but to apply the power that should set it all in
motion. This was to be done by touching an electric
button many hundreds of miles away. In the Adiron
dack Mountainsthe President's wife touched the button.
It was an easy thing to do, and produced no result at
all so far as she could see; yet she believed, doubtless,
as soon as she had done it, that far away in Minneapolis
a vast amount of machinery had been set in motion by
that simple act.
Setting aside the brief time required for the passing
of the electricity over those hundreds of miles of wire,
we may say that at the very moment when Mrs. Cleve
land's finger was on the electric button in the mountains
of New York the machinery started in Minnesota. She
could have no direct, sensible evidence of the fact for
some days, perhaps she did not have it at all; yet it was
a fact none the less : but to make it a fact she must have
faith enough to place her forefinger on the electric button
as directed.
I say we are continually and unhesitatingly exercising
this anticipating faith in the most commonplace affairs
of daily life, and it is this exercise of faith that to a great
degree determines the effectiveness of our life. We are
hourly doing things whose results we cannot see at the
moment, and then doing other things the value and
import of which depend upon the reasonableness of what
we have already done. It is this perpetual believing that
we have received which enables us to have. Upon such
faith commerce is built. Without such faith science
would grope slowly and helplessly in the darkness. All
social and intellectual progress too, depends upon a
similar faith, just as truly as do our spiritual growth
and achievement. The bold, unwavering faith that
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
destroyed the fig tree is identical with that which under
lies all the marvelous progress of this wonderful age.
It is that which makes things appear by launching out
on the laws and promises of God. Believing that we
have received them, we have blessings of which other
men know nothing.
Now turn for a few moments to the sphere of the
strictly spiritual experiences and aspirations. There
are many blessings that we desire and pray for as Chris
tians, the evidence of which can come only by a slow and
gradual process after our prayer has been answered.
This is one of the most common and at the same time
one of the most severe tests of our faith, that we must
pray and believe before we can have evidence that the
blessing has been received.
Take the initial experience of the Christian life, —
the new birth. From its very nature it comes without
tangible evidence. The new-born soul is never con
scious (I use the phrase advisedly and emphatically, —
never conscious) of the incoming of the spiritual life, any
more than the infant of a day is conscious of its' birth.
We come to a knowledge of our physical life by a very
gradual process; and the evidences of the spiritual life
are no less gradual in their coming. One may have
remarkable emotional experiences at the time of his
conversion, may be overpowered by some extraordinary
happening, as was Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road;
but these are not tokens of the new birth. Such experi
ences are often a delusion and serious stumbling-block
to the spiritual life. The infallible tokens of the divine
life imparted from above are seen only in the growing
power for victory over self and sin, the increasing love
of heavenly things, the daily manifestation of the Christly
character. The gift of the Holy Spirit is another spiritual experi
ence that is not clearly evidenced at the moment of its
reception. True, the apostles were assured by the shak
ing of the place where they were gathered, by the unusual
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Anticipating Faith

sound and the appearance of fiery tongues; but these
phenomena were not in themselves reliable witnesses
to the fact that the heavenly gift had been received.
Whether the unspiritual were ever misled by similar
phenomena in those early days the Scriptures do not
inform us ; but in our own time it is by no means uncom
mon to hear persons claiming for themselves the spiritual
baptism merely on the ground that they have passed
through an experience outwardly similar to that of
Pentecost, while their fruitless and notably unchristly
lives furnish proof positive that they have never been
touched by spiritual power. In the case of the apostles,
the real evidence of the spiritual baptism was not em
bodied in the noise or the tongues of flame, but in the
manifest power by which thousands were convicted and
converted under their preaching.
Every religious worker is familiar with that class of
really serious and often eager persons who halt at the
threshold of the Christian life, praying earnestly for the
gift of spiritual life and yet refusing to enter into the
service and joy of their Lord because they discover in
themselves no tokens of the new birth. So others pray
for the baptism of spiritual power, and then declare
that their prayers are not answered, whereas they never
venture to apply those tests of faith and spiritual adven
ture which alone can bring forth evidence of the desired
gift. The Word of God abounds in rich promises. Every
thing that we need for highest spiritual attainment or most
effective service is offered on condition of faith and obedi
ence. We have no promise, however, that with the gift
will come immediate evidence of its bestowal. We must
accept the gift by faith, and living in its daily exercise
the evidence of its presence will manifest itself with con
stantly increasing clearness.
Is not this the key to present blessing — ' ' Believe
that ye receive and ye shall have "? Miracles halt.
The power of God seems withdrawn from us. His
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
church makes few conquests, his kingdom little progress.
Yet the promises stand in all their fulness and glory.
What we need is a more expectant faith — not a faith
that is more superficial and presuming, but a faith that
is courageous, a faith that steps boldly forth upon the
promises of the living God. Lord, increase our faith!

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Miracles of Healing and Restoration
CHAPTER XII
Sickness and Salvation
THE NOBLEMAN'S SON AT CAPERNAUM
John 4 : 43-54
Text. — " Sir, come down ere my child die." — John 4 : 49
TROUBLE is a mighty means of grace. Sorrow is a
most successful messenger of the Spirit. A period
of business depression is apt to be a period of
religious revival. A storm at sea will drive to their
knees men whose nearest approach to prayer at other
times is a curse. The only religious services ever held
in some homes are those in which the casket of a loved
one occupies the central place.
Do not the Gospels faithfully mirror our human life
from this point of view? Think how the miracle stories
testify to the power of distress and need to drive men to
Jesus for help. Witness the Canaanitish woman who
would never have experienced our Lord's saving grace
had she not sought relief for her daughter's malady.
Witness Jairus the Roman, who would have scorned the
Jewish teacher had not his little child lain at the point
of death. Witness the nobleman of Capernaum,
who entered the highway of saving faith through the
gate of anguish for his fevered son. These are but three
witnesses from many who bear testimony to the function
of sickness as a means of grace.
How often do we invert the divine estimate of life's
values! The supreme gift we depreciate or ignore, while
we clamor loudly for blessings of lesser worth. Preach
a gospel of health, success and happiness and you will
have the world at your heels. Stick to the message
of individual and social regeneration through the cross,
and the crowds will run after others. Human nature
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
was the same in the Galilee and Judea of our Lord's time
that it is in the America or Europe of our own time, and
the Master often met men on the lower level that he
might lead them upward to the highest.
Of the nearly forty miracle stories of the Gospels,
about three-fourths record miracles ' of bodily healing ;
and, however we'may interpret these stories, they clearly
align the ideals of the early church with those of Chris
tians in all ages and lands, in that they point to some
subtle connection between sickness and sin on the one
hand, and health and holiness on the other. Whether
this be a connection of cause and effect or merely a
relation of type and antitype is an open question, the
most extended discussion of which results in no acquisi
tion of light or power.
The earliest religious philosophy of the Scriptures
interprets death as the supreme penalty of human sin,
and sickness, in common with all other forms of trouble,
as a token of divine wrath because of human disobe
dience. St. Paul distinctly affirms that " by man came
death," he being as a matter of course ignorant of the
fact that not individuals only but entire species of the
animate creation had died countless ages before man
appeared upon the earth. This ancient biblical philos
ophy practically dominates the thought of the Christian
Church today.
Now, in view of the fact that Jesus himself made no
positive declarations upon this subject in connection
with his healing miracles, are we justified in using these
stories as witnesses in favor of any of the numerous
religio-therapeutic ideals that have sprung up from the
soil of Christianity? So far from that, we must con
clude that they are matters of wholly secondary im
portance, and that the vital message of each story is to
be sought in the facts that lie clearly revealed upon its
surface. In a word, we must treat the healing miracles
precisely as we treat the nature miracles, not presuming
to make greater claims for them because of their appar-
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Sickness and Salvation

ently greater credibility, or because of their more inti
mate relation to our common human life.
With this thought in mind, let us study together one of
the familiar healing miracles, that we may discover, if
possible, its practical message for our life today. And
none will serve our purpose better than the incident
which John describes as " the second sign that Jesus did,
having come out of Judea into Galilee." It is the story
of a nobleman of Capernaum and his sick child.
Jesus has just returned to Galilee after a visit to Jeru
salem. As he journeys, he comes to Cana, — Cana
" where he made the water wine." That first wonder is
not forgotten, though some months have passed. He is
known in that region as the miracle worker. His return
is noised abroad. At the neighboring village of Caper
naum lies a boy burning with fever. As the family
hover about the bedside, word comes, — " The miracle
working rabbi is at Cana again! Why not bring him
here that he may work a miracle for us? " Instantly
the father sets off for Cana in quest of Jesus. The
journey up to the hill town is not a long one, and doubt
less within a few hours he finds the Master.
Being himself a man of importance, he does not delay
for much ceremony, but quickly announces his errand.
" Sir, my little son is very ill with a fever, and I believe
you could cure him. You wrought a miracle here in this
village not long since at a marriage feast, and I hear that
you have healed sick persons in other places. Come
down and heal my son, I pray you."
Apparently unmoved Jesus answers, " Except ye see
signs and wonders, ye will in no wise believe. It is not
my mission to work wonders for the entertainment of the
curious. I come to preach the gospel and to do my
Father's work."
Spurred to greater earnestness by anxiety for his child,
the father, renews his plea, but with changed emphasis.
" Sir, come down ere my child die! "
Taking this plea at its face value, and ignoring any
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
lingering desire to witness a miracle, Jesus replies, — -
" Go thy way; thy son liveth."
Believing that his prayer has been granted, though not
in the way he sought, and ashamed to insist upon a
literal fulfilment of his demand, the nobleman sets out
upon his return to Capernaum, and is met on the way
by servants bringing news of the son's recovery, the turn
of the tide taking place at the very hour when the
Master had declared, " Thy son liveth."
The story concludes with the declaration that " him
self believed, and his whole house," a phrase implying
that the entire household became .disciples of Jesus, and
so entered into the higher spiritual fellowship.
Here we have an incident at once individual and typi
cal. The story is one of the simplest of its class, and so
free from exceptional elements that its specific implica
tions are also representative. It brings before us the
elementary questions involved in the entire panorama
of healing miracles, and contains, in embryo at least,
all the suggestions that spring from these. Let us
endeavor, therefore, to keep in mind the more compre
hensive scope of its particular unfoldings.
Now what is the very first truth that confronts us as
we review the story? Is it not the same that I have
already expressed in general terms? Distress is the men
tor that prompts this dignified official to seek aid from
the wonder-worker, and distress is clearly reenforced by
a certain measure of curiosity, — a desire to witness the
performance of a miracle. Otherwise there would be no
meaning in our Lord's first reply to the father's appeal, —
" Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will in no wise
believe." More than that, the words would have been
unjust and cruel, a gratuitous insult to a sincere seeker.
But recognizing the manifest curiosity which must have
called forth the rebuke, it becomes profoundly significant.
It is a repudiation of the demand for the miraculous in
religion, a refusal to prostitute Christly service to the
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Sickness and Salvation

satisfaction of idle curiosity. Do you catch the implica
tion? Miracle working, as such, is no part of Christianity.
Healing and helpfulness of all kinds are vital elements of
all Christian service, but there is no limitation of method.
Medical missions, the marvelous though perfectly natu
ral and scientific work in the military hospitals during
the Great War, all the numberless forms of practical
philanthropy that have grown up in modern society,
are the present-day offspring of the Gospel miracles of
healing and comfort, and they are exerting a no less
potent influence in winning the world for God. What
was it that silenced the great outcry about " the failure
of Christianity " that was so rampant soon after the
outbreak of the late war? Was it not the Christly
work of the Red Cross nurses, the medical units, and
other organizations, and the heroic efforts and sacrifices
made by them in the ministry of healing and comfort
alike to the sick and wounded among the soldiers and to
the distressed citizens of the war-cursed countries?
Not a single " miracle," in the common acceptation of
the word, is recorded: yet the influence of the work is
not a whit the less for that.
A cup of cold water given to a thirsty one in the name
and spirit of the Christ has greater spiritual value than
a nine-days-wonder of supposed supernaturalism. No
coldly unsympathetic healer who works only for money,
however wonderful and numerous his " cures," will
ever confer upon mankind the moral blessing that comes
when some Christly soul has compassion on a bereaved
mother, or weeps with a sorrowing household. The
sorrowing, the afflicted, the distressed, are always with
us. We may not be able to explain the existence of
these to the satisfaction of the sufferers, but we can offer
them help, comfort, friendly interest and sympathy.
These the world needs and always will need : but it can
get along very well without signs and wonders and the
works that we name " miracles." 103

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
At the very beginning of his career Jesus had branded
as a temptation of Satan the impulse to cast himself
from the pinnacle of the Temple in wanton proof and
display of his divine power. And ever afterwards he
was careful to correct any notion that such a display or
test could be permitted in connection with his work.
But if mere wonder-loving curiosity was abhorrent to
Jesus, the spirit of dictation was no less so. When the
father cries in agony, " Sir, come down ere my child die!"
the Master still refuses to yield. This refusal sprang
not from any wish to assert his dignity, but from a genu
ine desire to confer a greater blessing than the seeker
had as yet conceived. The Christ was willing, eager, to
heal the sick; but he must not be bidden to " come down"
for that purpose. That were fatal to his deeper and more
vital mission, whether to the individual or to the world.
From the day when Naaman the Syrian turned away
in a rage because Elisha did not " come out, and stand,
and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his
hand over the place, and recover the leper " until the
present, men have been prone to dictate to God the
method by which their desires shall be granted. We are
forever bidding the Saviour to " come down " and satisfy
our individual wishes. If we are sick, we expect the
whole machinery of the universe to stop till we are healed.
If we are in trouble, the progress of the race must pause
till our claims are adjusted.
Now it is of not the slightest importance that a particu
lar illness be cured by miraculous means, or that any
human ill be removed by a special and direct manifesta
tion of divine power. In many cases, in the great
majority of cases doubtless, the ordinary methods are
best. Those extremists who say, " I would rather have
the Lord for my healer than any earthly physician,"
are presuming to dictate to God how he shall bless them.
They are saying to the Christ, " Come down."
What then? Shall we not seek material or spiritual
blessings from God? Must we never ask for divine
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Sickness and Salvation

healing in our sicknesses or for our friends? Certainly
we may: but "doing so let us never forget that bodily
health is ever secondary to spiritual growth, and that
God has many ways of working out his loving purposes.
The first condition of all healing, whether of body or soul,
is self-surrender to the will of the Healer, God.
Thus far the nobleman has tried to direct the course of
events, and he has made a failure. Now Jesus takes the
initiative, and the horizon of the story expands. Ignor
ing every suggestion of miracle, by no word or act con
necting himself with the result, he quietly gives a com
mand and announces a fact. — " Go thy way; thy son
liveth" ; and the calm assurance of his tone, the deep
sincerity of his manner, was such that the great man
obeyed without a word, and " went his way."
I have said that with Jesus in control the horizon of our
story expands. Give the nobleman his way and one
child would have received physical health. Let the
Christ work unhindered and an entire household gets a
new spiritual vision. This brings us to the climax of our
message, — the mutual reaction of faith and experience.
Our nobleman went out from Cana without one scin
tilla of evidence that his chief desire had been fulfilled.
For several hours his only ground of confidence was the
word of the Master; yet he believed and obeyed. In
him we see a living incarnation of faith. On the way,
however, he is met by servants from his home confirming
the Master's assurance; and later he sees for himself
that the boy has recovered. " So the father knew, and
himself believed, and his whole house." There you have
the unvarying order of spiritual life and growth; first
comes faith, then knowledge, then more and higher
faith. Many blessings must be accepted on simple faith
before they can become tangible facts. If we are not
willing to set out in simple faith they never become facts
at all. Of necessity the faith that precedes experience is
slight and temporary, and cannot endure for long. On
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
the other hand, the faith that grows out of personal
experience and knowledge of the divine power is abso
lutely impregnable. It is proof against logic of the
clearest sort. It defies all attacks of the most scientific
argument. Today the church is distressed because there have
grown up in her shadow certain healing cults. Every
now and again some great preacher exposes their errors
and proves the absurdity of their claims, then sane men
wonder why these fanatics are not convinced and con
verted. Why is it? It is because men and women are
actually being cured in connection with these cults. And
so long as men are being healed, it is useless to cry, —
" Humbug! " or " Blasphemy! " or to batter their flimsy
theories with abstract argument.
Faith begets fact; and fact reacts upon faith to
strengthen and confirm it, to make it broad and deep and
rational. Not blind faith, but faith built upon a strong
foundation of personal experience, is the basis of a stable
Christian life.
Here, then, is the test of living faith. I am not
particularly interested to know that this nobleman's
son recovered from that particular attack of fever.
What interests me is that the household became followers
of the Christ. So today when one testifies that he has
been healed of bodily infirmity by some religious cult,
I say " Very good! but has your physical healing
enlarged your spiritual vision? Has it become the seed
of moral transfiguration? " We have read our story in
vain if we stop short of that last sentence, — " Himself
believed, and his whole house."

106

CHAPTER XIII
Saved to Serve
SIMON'S MOTHER-IN-LAW
Matt. 8 : 14-17; Mark 1 : 29-34; Luke 4 : 38-41
Text. — " The fever left her, and she ministered unto them.'' —
Mark 1 : 31
GO into the United States Mint at Philadelphia,
and you may see a million coins of the same
denomination, each precisely like all the rest
with no smallest perceptible difference ; and this likeness
is the test of their genuineness. Go out into a forest of
ten thousand oak trees, and each tree with its ten thou
sand leaves, yet in all that forest you will find no two trees
precisely alike, — nay, more, you will find no two leaves
that are identical in every particular.
Again, visit a great watch factory. There are thou
sands of watches each of which is a counterpart of all
the rest so exact that were one to separate them all into
their various parts, wheels, cases, pivots, etc., they could
be reassembled with absolute indifference as to the rela
tion of particular parts to the particular watch; and
when a watch is finished it can be identified only by a
special number stamped upon it. Stand at the door of
the same factory, and though a million men pass by,
you will not see in all the procession a single replication
of 'face or form.
Here is a point of contrast between human workman
ship and the divine creation. The human is branded by
monotony. The divine reveals infinite variety. In the
light of this thought do you not see how Jesus' works of
healing link him closely with the divine? His thera
peutics were absolutely free and varied.
I once knew a good woman who had a medicine chest
well stocked with little bottles, each bearing a distinctive
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
number, and each number was the unvarying " specific "
for a given disease. Did you have a fever, she pre
scribed " specific " number this; was it a case of bilious
ness, take " specific " number that. She even had
" specifics " with different numbers to be used as your
giddiness inclined you to fall forwards or backwards, or
to the right or left, but always the same " specific " for
the same ailment.
What a contrast to this is the healing .work of the
Master! I read the account of his treatment of seven
cases of demoniacal possession, and they present seven
diverse methods of treatment. Four cases of blindness
are cured. In one case moistened clay is applied to the
sightless eyes; in another, spittle. A third is bidden to
go and wash in the pool of Siloam, while the fourth is
cured by a word and a touching of the eyes. So although
the twenty-six recorded cases of bodily and mental
distress healed by our Lord may be arranged in ten groups,
you search the narratives in vain for talismanic words
or fixed methods. Each case receives individual treat
ment which is determined not by the disease alone, but
by the deeper spiritual needs of the patient.
But two cases of fever appear in the list of maladies to
which Jesus ministered, and in neither case does the
Great Physician throw any light upon the practical
treatment of that disease; from them, however, we get
two widely diverse pictures of spiritual truth which are
of permanent value and practicability. The story of the
nobleman's son is a picture of spiritual development
from curiosity to faith followed by the reaction of faith
and experience, leading to deeper faith. In the story
before us we have a concrete illustration of three great
facts of human redemption. What are they? These,
are they not?— 1. The presence of the Christ is the
promise of blessing. 2. The disciple is the link between
the Healer and the helpless. 3. The first fruits of health
should be the ministry of helpfulness.
The first theme in this progressive message as I read it
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is this : — The presence of the Christ is the promise of
blessing. " Jesus rose up from the synagogue, and
entered into the house of Simon," says the writer;
that was the signal for disease to depart from that house.
It is ever thus. Every kind of evil retreats before the
approach of the Son of God. He enters a home in Cana,
and embarrassment is relieved. He enters a home in
Bethany, and a cloud of sorrow is lifted. He enters the
home of Zacchaeus, and a load of sin is removed. He
enters the home of Matthew, and the hard grasp of
covetousness is relaxed.
What a blessing to have Christ in the home! His
coming means benediction; he brings peace and joy;
he banishes woe and trouble. Is there sorrow in the
home? He transfigures it with divine comfort. Is
there sickness? He gives healing and strength. Is
there strife and envy? He speaks the word of peace.
Is there anger or hatred? He brings the stillness of love.
Is there perplexity and want? In him is abundant
supply for every need. As his coming into SimonPeter's
household made it impossible for sickness to remain there,
so always will evil flee before the coming of the Christ,
so always will the fever of sin be cooled by his touch.
Do you see how this truth illuminates our present life?
The Christ of today is incarnate in the Christian. Your
Christianity and mine, if it be genuine, is a perpetual
manifestation of the Christ. In us he lives, through us
he works continually; otherwise our religion is a sham.
As I read this story, I seem to hear this heart-searching
interrogation, — What is the effect of your coming into
the home? Does it invariably bring peace, joy, healing,
strength? Are clouds dispelled, difficulties removed,
burdens lightened, sorrows banished? Are all hearts iri
the home made glad by your coming? Are all lives made
stronger for service, more secure against temptation,
more earnest for high attainment? Does your presence
minister to health of body, health of mind, health of
soul? If not, where is the Christ in your religion?
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
Do not speak of your fervor and zeal in public reli
gious service. Do not point to marvels of wonder
working. Do not plume yourself on your honest deal
ing and upright life. Do not think complacently of
active and wide-spread beneficence. How is it in the
seclusion of the household? " Learn first to show piety
in the home," says the apostle. Read afresh the story
of Jesus' life and see how some of the most blessed exhibi
tions of his power and love shine out in the quiet of
friendly homes. By the same token, the home should be
the scene of the sweetest and clearest revelations of our
religious life. We have no right to becloud the home
with tales of sin and wrong, or with discussions of
disease, no right to destroy its harmony with the discord
of our worries and fretfulness, no right to mar its peace
and joy with our disagreeableness. (If that be Christian
Science, make the most of it!)
Jesus was always a welcome guest, because he came
into the household like a fresh breeze from the ocean,
bringing health and inspiration and gladness. If you are
an unwelcome guest in any home, do not flatter yourself
that it is because of your exceeding Christliness. It is
because you bring so little of the Christ with you. In the
home of Pharisee and publican, of saint and sinner alike,
the Christ is a welcome guest; for now as ever the pres
ence of the Christ is the promise of blessing.
A second theme follows closely upon this, viz., The
disciple is the link between the Healer and the helpless.
The true Christian will ever seek the blessing of the Christ
for others in need. It is Simon's house the Master
enters. Within the house is one who needs his healing
office, but who is unable to come to him and ask. " And
straightway they tell him of her." That is to say, the
disciples, Simon and Andrew, immediately and urgently
entreated the healing power of Christ for the sick one in
the home. They had just come from the synagogue
where they had witnessed a marvelous display of healing
power, and they bespoke the exercise of the same power
no

Saved to Serve

for their own loved one. Thus they formed the neces
sary link between the divine Healer and the helpless
woman. Many of our Lord's most notable miracles were
wrought in answer to the prayers of friends and not at
the request of the sick ones themselves. It is the prayer
of Jairus for his daughter, of the Syrophcenician woman
for her child, of the centurion for his servant, of the
nobleman for his son, of the four for their palsied friend,
of Martha for her brother, of Simon for his mother-in-
law, that calls forth the wondrous display of divine power.
We are not told that the suffering woman was a disci
ple, but Simon was a disciple, and that was the essential
fact. He believed in the power of Jesus. More than
this, he knew the power of Jesus. With that knowledge
he could not rest so long as there was a sick one under his
roof and the Great Physician was at hand. He therefore
becomes the link between Jesus and the sick woman.
So, in earlier days, had Andrew been the link between
Jesus and Simon; so, too, had Philip been the link be
tween Christ and Nathanael. The words are signifi
cant, — " They besought him for her."
Is that a truthful picture of your Christianity and
mine? Are we eagerly entreating the Christ to heal the
sin-sick ones around us? Is our chief thought, evenin
the matter of salvation, for other souls oppressed with
sin and sorrow? Or do we think first and chiefly,
perhaps wholly, of our own spiritual peace and progress?
How is it with our prayers? Are they most frequent and
most fervent for others or for ourselves? There are sick
ones under our roof, and the Christ has come in. There
are dying ones, and the Great Physician is close by.
Shall we give ourselves up to the selfish enjoyment of his
company, listening to his words, chanting his praises?
Shall we not rather tell him of them? Shall we not
bring him to them?
Oh, the mockery of that piously camouflaged selfish
ness that greets the Christ with gladness, but immediately
ill

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
sits down to enjoy his society, to drink in his words, to
bask in the sunshine of his presence, quite unmindful
of those who lie just beyond earshot and are powerless
to share the same privilege! Oh, the worthlessness of
prayer and praise and offering, if we have not first re
membered the stricken lives about us with effort and
entreaty that they too might join in our worship! Of
the Phariseeism that seeks to exclude the sick ones
yet more completely with curtains drenched in moral
antiseptic the less said, the better.
What is the church? What is your particular church?
It is a Simon. Doubtless there is an Andrew across the
way. The Christ has come into the community. He
has come to tarry, to speak some precious words of grace ;
but just outside the circle of these churches, bedridden
with sin, weak with much yielding to temptation, con
sumed with burning appetite or passion, held fast by the
delirium of prejudice or error, are many souls that can
not share his blessed fellowship till they are lifted up and
healed. To bring the Christ to them is the business of
the church. That is the meaning of our church life, the
vindication of our fellowship, the reason for our organiza
tion. The church is the link between the Christ and the
Christless in every community; this or nothing. If we
cannot bring the needy to Christ, then we should bring
the Christ to them.
The message of our story reaches its climax in its
closing words, — " The fever left her: and immediately
she arose and ministered unto them." The first fruits
of health should be the ministry of helpfulness. Every
soul that is healed ought to begin at once a ministry of
helpfulness to other souls. Of what use is health, moral
or physical, that is not devoted to the service of men?
Of what use is wealth that is not employed to enrich the
race? Of what use is culture that does not exert a
beneficent influence over the uncultivated? Of what use
is salvation that does not make the saved one a blessing
to the world and a minister to the Saviour?
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Saved to Serve

Too often salvation is made the great end in itself,
instead of being made a means to the greater end of
service. Too many rescued souls persistently reecho
the thought and prayer of the restored demoniac, that
they may remain with their Healer to enjoy the security
and further blessing of his presence. The Master would
have us employ restored energies of whatsoever sort in
helpful service; he would have us use them for others'
good. Again, let the message take the form of a question.
You say that the Christ has healed you. You have felt
the touch of his power, and a new and divine life has come
into your soul. You are no longer prostrate and help
less. Very good! But have you begun to minister to
himself or to his other children? Have you made any
worthy use of the spiritual power you have received?
Waiting for experience or growth, are you? By and by,
when you have listened a little longer to his teachings,
when you have enjoyed a little more of his fellow
ship, when you have become a little more fully assured of
your own complete salvation, you will begin to think of
others. Ah, this woman began at once! " Immediately,"
says Luke, " immediately she rose up and ministered
unto them." That one word " immediately " justifies
the repetition of the story in the third Gospel. That is
the pith and essence of all true service. It does not
delay. It is immediate. We read that when Jesus came
into the house where the woman lay sick, the disciples
" straightway " besought him for her. And when she
is healed, " immediately " she begins to minister. Do
not overlook the " straightways " and the " imme-
diatelys " in the gospel; they embody at least one-half
its value. Your ministry will be doubled in blessing if
you read into it the word "straightway" or "immedi
ately." Begin to minister at once. Do it now!
We have been talking in threes all along; let three
words express this concluding message. They are
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
the words of a favorite Christian Endeavor motto, —
" SAVED TO SERVE." What motto more fitting for
any Christian, young or old? Is not service the great
end of salvation? What do you think you were saved
for,? To enjoy? To rest? To boast? No, no! You
were saved to serve, — this or nothing. Are you doing it?
Into the household of our common humanity the
Christ has come and found countless sick ones, prostrated
with sin. He has touched many. Many he has taken
by the hand and lifted up. You and I, perchance, have
experienced his blessing. What use are we making of
our new-found power? We are singing the praises of the
Great Physician. Very good. Such benefits call for
praise. We are rejoicing in the fellowship of our Re
deemer. Still very good. Such fellowship is an un
speakable privilege. We do well to hearken to the voice
of the Saviour. But is that all? Oh no; there is some
thing better yet. Are we ministering to him and to his?
Are we going about doing good? Can it be said of every
church, as of the healed woman, that it ministers to the
community in which it is established? Can it be said
of you? — of me?
O Simon, whoever thou art to whom the Christ has
come in, within thy house are fevered ones, beneath
thy roof are souls prostrate with burning ills, all around
thee are lives brought low by overmastering sin. The
Christ can heal them. He can save them. He can lift
them up and give them new strength. Wilt thou not
bring him to them? Wilt thou not entreat for them the
mercy and the love he so longs to bestow? Wilt thou
not labor and pray until they are saved?
O soul, whom the Christ hath raised from the holding
of sin, wilt thou not thank him with the ministry of
love? Wilt thou not be to some other stricken soul the
angel of mercy? Thus and thus only canst thou truly
minister to the Christ. Himself hath said it, — " Inas
much as ye did it unto one of these niy brethren, even these
least, ye did it unto me." 114

CHAPTER XIV
A Moral Tonic
THE DEMONIAC IN THE SYNAGOGUE
Mark 1 : 23-28; Luke 4 : 33-37
Text. — " With authority ¦ commandeth he even the unclean spirits,
and they do obey him." — Mark 1 : 27
A BUSINESS man of my acquaintance once went
to his physician for treatment. He was over
worked, weary, nervous and irritable. He felt
himself in need of expert advice and perchance of medical
treatment. Not unnaturally, therefore, he followed the
time-honored example of old king Asa, who " sought
not to the Lord, but to the physicians." Fortunately,
however, the result was less disastrous in the modern
instance than in the ancient; for my friend does not yet
" sleep with his fathers." His family doctor was a man
of broad mind and sterling common sense. After a
thorough examination and skilful questioning he made
his diagnosis and announced his findings in a blunt
though not unkindly fashion. " Nothing that comes
out of a bottle will do you any good. What you need is
a moral tonic."
The physician then proceeded to talk to his would-be
patient with the utmost frankness regarding his business
habits and attitude of mind, assuring him that he had no
disease either physical or mental, but had simply per
mitted himself to fall into the grip of certain morbid
emotions and feelings which he could and must throw off
completely if he wished to maintain his position in the
business world. To accomplish this he must recognize
his personal responsibility for present conditions, and
must use the moral forces resident within himself to
correct them. My friend accepted the " moral tonic"
and soon found himself fully restored to normal health.
Would that all physicians were as courageous and as
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
frank as that one; for there are multitudes following in
the footsteps of Asa today who might be saved by a
similar prescription. There are many distempers, not
only individual, but social, religious and national as well,
that can be cured by no other treatment.
In the pharmacopoeia of Jesus the " moral tonic "
occupied the chief place. For at least one class of ail
ments it was his sovereign remedy, and it was always close
at hand whenever an appeal was made for healing power.
Probably there is no phase of the Great Physician's
curative work that brings him more closely into touch
with present-day life and experience and need than
his attitude toward the so-called " demoniacs." More
than one fourth of the healing miracles of the Gospels
were wrought upon patients of this type, and I am very
sure that the average medical practitioner of the twen
tieth century meets at least as large a proportion of
similar cases, in the course of his daily rounds. From
personal experience I can testify that they frequently
confront the modern pastor in his work, and that they
form the most perplexing element in the problems of
social welfare and progress.
True, we have discarded the old phraseology; but the
old facts and symptoms, aye and the old distracting
results, remain with us still. New " hysteric " or
" neurotic " is but old " demoniac " writ differently.
Individual manifestations vary widely now as of old,
but a common cause underlies the entire group. That
cause is moral weakness. Our Lord is confronted at one
time with the frenzied maniac of the tombs, at another
with a gentle woman deformed by a " spirit of infirmity "
and apparently unable to stand erect, and he puts them
in the same category — that of the "possessed." So
today we find at one extreme a Charles J. Guiteau or a
Jesse Pomeroy afflicted with moral insanity that renders
him a dangerous criminal, and at the other that host of
weakly self-indulgent men and women who make their
homes and family life miserable with temper, " nerves,"
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A Moral Tonic

or hysteria. For all alike, the one effective cure is the
" moral tonic " such as Jesus administered to the de
moniacs of his day. In other words, it is the recognition
by the individual of his personal responsibility for existing
conditions and the exercise of his God-given power of
self-control. Now taking this story of our Lord's first cure of a
demoniac not as individual merely, but as typical and
representative of a distinct class of cures, how shall we
discover its vital message for earnest souls of the present
age? To discuss demonism either historically or patho
logically would be a mere threshing of worthless chaff.
If we are to garner wheat, we must relate both malady
and remedy to living experience, than which nothing is
easier. Without dogmatizing, the only authority claimed
for our interpretation is its self-evident truth and prac
tical value.
The principle of the " moral tonic " is illustrated today
and its efficacy is established by the " psycho-analytic "
treatment of various forms of violent insanity and also
by the well known " Emmanuel Movement " for the
cure of less dangerous forms of hysteria. Christian
Science and the Faith Cure represent less scientific efforts
to apply the same principle, and the measure of success
achieved by either of these methods is exactly measured
by the moral element in the cases treated and the
genuineness of the moral treatment applied.
When we speak of a " moral tonic," precisely what do
we mean by the phrase? What is this one panacea for
ills, whether personal or social, which result from hy
steria or " demoniacal possession "? The answer may
be expressed in a single word — Conscience, of which
Byron has said, —
" Yet still there whispers the small voice within,
Heard through Gain's silence and o'er Glory's din;
Whatever creed be taught or land be trod,
Man's conscience is the oracle of God."
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This voice of God that speaks clearly in every human
soul its message of power, of responsibility, of duty, —
yes, its message of righteousness and self-control and
judgment to come, — is the one potent remedy for the
moral weaknesses of men or of society.
The onlookers in the synagogue, amazed at the healing
of the demoniac, exclaimed, " What is this word? for
with authority and power he commandeth the unclean
spirits, and they come out." Magic it seemed to them.
Yet what could be more rational or natural? The words
of the Master, " Hold thy peace and come out of him,"
were a direct challenge to the moral consciousness of the
patient. Their effectiveness lay in no claim of external
authority, but in their direct and unmistakable appeal
to the man's conscience. Despite the popular camou
flage of terms he knew that his was a responsible slavery,
that he could break his bonds if he would, and the impact
of a strong, masterful soul awoke the dormant manhood
within him and set him free.
How frequently we quote the line, —
" Conscience does make cowards of us all,"
and seldom realize that only conscience disobeyed or
flouted makes a coward. Conscience honored and
obeyed makes heroes, develops noblest manhood. Listen
to the testimony of some of the world's greatest heroes.
St. Paul, the outstanding hero of the apostolic church,
on trial before an unprincipled Roman governor, fear
lessly declares, " I exercise myself to have always a
conscience void of offence toward God and toward men";
and conscience obeyed made Paul, the prisoner, a hero,
while conscience disobeyed made of Felix, his judge, a
trembling coward. Martin Luther, the hero of the
Protestant Reformation, on trial for his life before the
Diet of Wurms, makes a similar declaration in words
that have become classic, — "I neither can nor will
recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to act
against conscience. God help me! Amen." Every
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A Moral Tonic

schoolboy is familiar with the historic appeal to the
English conscience by which Lord Nelson, the hero of
Trafalgar, awakened the spirit of heroism in all his men, —
" England expects every man to do his duty." Have
we not our own hero, the great Washington, contributing
his testimony in the words, " Labor to keep alive in your
breast that little spark of celestial fire called Conscience " ?
Was there ever a more heroic band than the Pilgrim
Fathers, enduring hardships without complaint, facing
dangers without flinching? And what was the secret of
their heroism? They believed devoutly in the sover
eignty of God, and their supreme test of action was
conscientious obedience to his Commandments as they
understood them. The " New England Conscience "
has become a popular synonym for the most exacting
standard of righteousness. All that is best in the New
England life of today is due to the regnant force of that
ideal. Wherever one may go throughout our wide land,
from North to South, from East to West, the moral back
bone of every community derives its strength from the
old Pilgrim stock with its " New England Conscience."
Everywhere it makes for social stability and moral power;
everywhere it produces a noble type of manhood and
womanhood. A few years ago, New England's greatest preacher
wrote an article on " The Collapse of the New England
Theology " that was read widely and with greatly
differing emotions. By some the facts suggested in the
paper were accepted with unqualified pleasure; others
shook their heads sorrowfully, believing that those
facts betokened religious and moral decline in our
national life. Now, whatever any one may think of the
so-called " New England Theology," we are all agreed
that its importance is in every way secondary to that of
the " New England Conscience." Theologies come and
go; but conscience abides, eternal, unchangeable. It is
the Word of God in every human soul, the " open vision,"
" never unperceived," never fully understood, but
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interpreted with ever increasing clearness by every
succeeding generation of devout souls. The supreme
calamity of our era in America is not the collapse of the
" New England Theology." It is the collapse of the
" New England Conscience." That is self-evident.
Was there ever a period in our history when not indi
viduals only but whole communities, even the nation
itself, was so demon-possessed as at the present time?
True, every great war has brought in its train waves of
crime and recklessness and social unrest; but this latest
war, because of its exceeding greatness, has surpassed
all others in its reactions. And these reactions in most
cases take the form of some social or national hysteria.
It is not merely the increase of brutal crimes, the inevi
table outgrowth of the essential barbarity of war. In
our own land, and in every other land affected by the
war, social and industrial revolutions of one sort or an
other are vying with frenzied finance to disturb the pub
lic peace. Far worse than all, however, is the manifest
and growing reaction from the high ideals that, in some
measure, animated all the nations of the Allies, and were
declared most positively and unmistakably by our own
people. In view of these conditions and the distresses resulting
from them, the groaning public appeals to our statesmen
to devise new political adjustments and laws, to our
economists to prescribe some new economic system, to
our sociologists to reorganize society upon some new
plan, by means of which the discomfort shall be relieved
and the disease cured.
Thus far the efforts of the specialists have been unavail
ing. Why? Because at its root the disease is moral and
calls for a moral remedy. If it were merely social, eco
nomic or civic, then it would yield to treatment by physi
cians of these various schools; nor can their responsibility
for aiding in the complete work be ignored, since the
root of moral evil has borne fruit of bad social, economic
and political conditions. 120

A Moral Tonic

To revert to an illustration already used: it is a
recognized principle with all true practitioners of the
Emmanuel Movement that any patient seeking their aid
must first be examined by some recognized medical
specialist; only after such specialist has pronounced the
ailment to be moral and not physical will they attempt
its cure. So, too, in the treatment of insanity. Mental
disturbance resulting from depression of the skull calls
for trepanning, not psycho-analysis. (I speak as a lay
man.) By the same token a social disease demands a
social remedy.
But, I say again, the present world malady in the last
analysis, is not social or political, but moral. When
dishonest financiers swindle thousands of ignorant
investors with attractive get-rich-quick schemes, and
thousands of investors, equally dishonest, eagerly jump
at the opportunity to realize enormous returns which
can be gained only at the cost of equally enormous
losses on the part of others; when landlords " profiteer "
in rents and merchants in commodities necessary to life
or comfort ; when employers defraud labor that they may
increase dividends, and labor in retaliation publicly
advocates the making of contracts only to break them;
when politicians proclaim from the housetops, " We are
tired of idealism! " — what further proof is needed to
convince any sane mind that the root of present evil and
unrest is not social or civic or economic, but moral?
As a recent speaker expressed it most effectively, "The
great trouble with America today is not insufficiency of
wealth. We have enough wealth to go around. The
trouble is that we have not character enough to go
around." In other words, I say yet again, the trouble
is moral.Now a moral evil demands a moral remedy. Nothing
that comes out of books or schools or forums or halls of
legislation will meet the present crisis. What America
needs just now is a moral tonic. If there is one call that
comes down to us through the three centuries from old
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
Plymouth that is more insistent than all others it is the
call for a reenthronement of the New England Con
science as sovereign of our lives. In every walk of life
we need this reenthronement, for in every walk con
science has been neglected.
In the church, for example, we need a new evangelism,
— not an hysterical evangelism of crowds and excite
ment, but a revival of sober, God-fearing insistence
upon the eternal law of righteousness. In recent years
we have paid too much attention to trivial matters of
doctrine and form and " experiences " falsely so-called,
and have given a wholly secondary place to " the weight
ier matters " of justice and truth and honesty. We
have been like the old colored preacher of slave days.
There had been a good deal of stealing on the plantation
and the master said to Sam one day, " Sam, I hear that
you are a famous preacher." " Yes, Massa," responded
the slave, " de cullud folks seems to enjoy my ministra
tions." " Well now, Sam, I wish you would preach a
course of sermons on the Ten Commandments. Your
people seem to need them." " Oh, no, Massa, I couldn't
do that! " " Why not? " asked the master. " Why,
Massa, dere ain't no warmth in de Ten Command
ments." Modern evangelism, whether in the church or as a
distinct profession of free lances, seems to find its warmth
in theological quibbles and humorous epigrams rather
than in a strong, sober and persistent emphasis upon the
necessity of strict obedience to the still, small voice that
speaks to every man through his conscience. The
result is only too clearly manifest. Just as surely as
Germany undermined the moral sense of her people by
skilfully centering the thought of her religious teachers
on trifling questions of biblical criticism, leading them to
neglect the moral Teachings of the Bible, and so made
possible the shameful cruelties and duplicities that
marked her entire action throughout the Great War,
so surely has much of the most popular modern preaching
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A Moral Tonic

in America, by substituting issues trivial or artificial,
driven conscience from the throne and exalted in its place
an easy-going selfishness that may well sum up its relig
ious ideal in the words, " The Lord is on my side; I will
not fear." {pott mit uns.)
Yes, we need a reenthronement of conscience in the
church first of all, but we need it also in business, so that
the profiteer and the speculator shall see themselves as
own brothers to the highwayman, the burglar and the
common thief. We need it in citizenship, so that offi
cials of the municipality, state or nation shall be ashamed
to use their public trusts as a means of adding to the
profits of their private business. We need it in industry,
that working men may realize the dishonesty of receiving
high wages for which they make no adequate return in
labor performed.
The outstanding social distempers of our time are not
organic but functional, not physical but moral; they do
not inhere in the social system, but in the individual
human heart. And they will be cured, not by wholesale
methods, not by legislation framed by one class to com
pel other classes to do right, but by individual men and
women coming to the Christ that conscience may be
corrected by the divine standard, and then enthroning
that corrected conscience as the absolute ruler of life and
conduct.

128

CHAPTER XV
Self -Eclipse the Condition of Supreme
Endowment
THE SYROPHCENICIAN WOMAN'S DAUGHTER
Matt. 15 : 21-28: Mark 7 : 24-30
Text. — "For this saying go thy way; the demon is gone out of thy
"iter."— Mark 7 : 29

THE eclipse of self is the measure of unselfish desire.
Partial eclipse betokens limited desire; but if the
eclipse be total, it proves the desire supreme.
Only the strongest desire of which the soul is capable can
wholly overshadow self and put it out of sight.
This is the key to our Lord's conversation with the
agonized mother of Syrophoenicia, by which he paves the
way for the healing of her child. The little daughter
was possessed by a demon, and the mother, although a
heathen woman and a Gentile, had doubtless seen or
heard of the wonderful cures wrought by Jesus, and
believed in his power to help her. Eagerly she came even
to the place whither he had retired in order to escape the
multitudes, and falling down at his feet " she besought
him that he would cast forth the demon out of her
daughter." At first the Great Physician is silent. And his disci
ples, impatient at this interruption of their quiet fellow
ship urge him to send her away. " Surely," they reason,
" surely the Messiah of Israel can have no blessing for
this heathen woman. She is wholly outside the circle of
his mission and can have no share in any phase of his
benevolent activity." But the frowns of the disciples
and the suggested possibility of rejection only increase
the earnestness of the woman. Now she identifies
herself with the afflicted one, and her prayer is, " Lord,
help me I" 124

Self -eclipse — Supreme Endowment
Then follow those words that sound so strangely as
they fall from the lips of the loving Saviour: — " Let the
children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the
children's bread and cast it to the dogs." That is the
common language of insult such as the Jew so often used
towards the lowest of the heathen, softened only in this,
that the word for " dogs " is not the one that signified
the wild and repulsive scavenger of the streets, but is the
word used with reference to the pet dogs of the household.
At any other time even this word would doubtless
have stung her, and the woman would have flung back
some coarse insult in reply: but now she is wholly ab
sorbed in her quest, and does not think of retorting. In
her heart desire is supreme. " Lord, help me." " Call
me ' dog ,' call me anything you please. Insult me,
trample upon me; but grant my request !" More than
this, — she not only permits the title, but eagerly adopts
it, and turns it into an argument in support of her plea : —
" Yea, Lord; even the dogs under the table eat of the
children's crumbs."
What a masterpiece of humility triumphant ! Obnox
ious personality effaced, desire is untrammeled. Eagerly
Jesus flings open the door of his compassion and replies,
according to Mark's version, " For this saying go thy
way; the demon is gone out of thy daughter." The
words of the woman had removed the last obstacle, and
her wish is immediately fulfilled. Joyfully she returns
to her home and finds her daughter perfectly healed.
In the order of the record, this is the second case of
simple demoniacal possession treated by our Lord.
Viewed from a therapeutic standpoint it differs from the
first case only in a minor detail of treatment. In the
synagogue Jesus comes into immediate personal contact
with the demoniac and banishes the evil spirit by a
direct command. Here the afflicted one is not brought
immediately into view. It is the mother who comes to
Jesus. The daughter is left at home, perhaps miles
distant. The woman does not even ask the Healer to
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
come to her home, but simply to exercise his healing
power. And Jesus, remaining in his retirement, speaks
the word of power and sends her away to find its promise
fulfilled when she reaches her own village.
In its successive phases of prayer, faith and response,
this story runs parallel to many others in the Gospels.
The elements of need, desire, eager quest and divine
compassion are common to all, but the dialogue between
Jesus and the afflicted mother, as it has come down to
us, is unique. At this point the incident takes a direction
all its own. It involves a moral reaction peculiar to
itself; hence it is to this part of the narrative that we
must look for the particular message of the occurrence.
As we note first the apparent unwillingness of Jesus to
grant the mother's request, and then the seeming harsh
ness, or even insult, with which he replies to her petition,
we cannot escape a feeling of surprise and disappoint
ment. The scene impresses the casual reader as in flat
contradiction to the loving spirit that marks the action
and speech of the Master when dealing with others in
like need. How shall we interpret it?
Doubtless most of us have asked this question at some
time or other, and the answer has been given, — " Jesus
spoke as he did simply to test the woman's faith." A
common explanation of this and similar incidents in
the life of our Lord. But does the explanation really
explain? Does it ever satisfy the demand of our truest
moral sense? Does it not place Jesus in a very un-
pleasing light? To my mind it does far worse than that.
Have you never seen persons who take delight in
teasing little children? Have you never seen such a
one offer some gift to a small tot, holding it just beyond
his reach and tormenting him with a proof of his helpless
ness for the poor satisfaction of laughing at his distress
or anger? Can we believe that there was in the Saviour
anything of this spirit? Strength tantalizing weakness,
— is it not devilish rather than divine? No, no; that
can never be ! We must beware of attributing any merely
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Self -eclipse — Supreme Endowment
dramatic motives to Jesus, particularly such motives
as these, lest we make him cruel and untrue. The truth
lies deeper and is more far reaching. Think a moment. —
Who was this woman? She was a Syrophoenician.
In other words, she was a descendant of one of the
original heathen tribes inhabiting the land of Canaan.
She was also a Greek. That is, she was a pagan in
religion as well as a heathen by birth. She had not
become a proselyte to the Jewish faith. For this twofold
reason she was, to the mind of every Israelite, wholly
outside the pale of divine grace; and even the disciples
would have sent her away as one to whom the Master
could show no favor.
" But surely," you say, " Jesus at least was free from
such a narrow Jewish prejudice." True; but remember
his mission. He came not merely to heal a few sick
bodies. His life work was to save the multitude of lost
souls. All the miracles of healing, however wonderful,
are but passing incidents in the course of an unspeakably
greater work. Always the secondary service must be
made subordinate or rather contributory to the supreme
purpose. Better that one body should continue to suffer
than that the redemption of the race should be delayed ;
for the greater blessing includes the smaller boon.
Now consider the situation. The unique spiritual de
velopment of the Jewish people throughout the centuries
had prepared them, as no other nation was prepared, to
lay the foundations of Christianity in the world. Yet
they were narrow and bigoted. To announce a universal
gospel at the outset of the movement would be to sacrifice
all hope of winning any Jewish disciples. The new ideals
must be slowly and clearly evolved from old truths firmly
established, and cherished notions must be treated very
carefully or the results might be disastrous. It required
nothing short of divine wisdom to hold fast to essential
truth and yet avoid arousing unnecessary prejudice.
Even the disciples were not yet ready for a universal
gospel. An immediate welcome to this Gentile would
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
doubtless have caused every one of them to desert Jesus'
standard at once. You see, then, why he hesitates. He
longs to grant the woman's petition in the moment of her
asking; but it is a choice between yielding to the personal
impulse of the moment and being true to the demands of
his life work. He cannot jeopardize the world's, redemp
tion for the physical comfort of one child. Yet he must
help her too. How shall he solve the problem?
He frankly states to her his dilemma. With a tender
ness that softens the harshness of the phrase he lays the
case before her in all its apparent cruelty, and so affords
her the one opportunity that remains. That is enough.
Quickly she grasps the life-buoy thus thrown out, and
makes of the very bigotry of the Jew an argument for
the blessing of a Gentile.
Presto! the obstacle has vanished. What Jew is so
narrow that he could object to granting the prayer of a
Gentile when received as crumbs cast to a dog? At once,
therefore, the word of healing is spoken. The plea of the
distressed mother prevails without marring the Saviour's
greater work. Better still, the thin edge of the wedge is
in for a universal gospel.
Fellow Christians, come sit with me for a few minutes
at the feet of this heathen woman, and let her teach us
two important truths that we need to observe in our
own upward striving.
First, she reminds us by contrast that — The assertion
of self is often the bar to blessing in our own lives. Do we
always subordinate our personal feelings to the success of
God's work? Are we, — we Christians — always more
eager for the redemption of the world or even the highest
welfare of our own community than for our personal
comfort and dignity? Remember, the Christ cannot
heal one afflicted body at the expense of redemption for
many afflicted souls.
How quickly we mark the bigotry of others and the
loss it brings to us! But do we never seek for ourselves
divine gifts in such a manner that other lives are dark-
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Self-eclipse — Supreme Endowment
ened, other souls misled? Now God does not withhold
from us any real blessing, when we are ready to receive it
in such a way that the gift to ourselves shall promote
the spiritual progress of mankind at large.
We all desire great things for ourselves. We realize
that there are imperative needs in our lives, and many
times we look prayerfully to God for the supply of these
needs. But there are obstacles. Our prayers seem to be
unanswered. Our eagerness meets with severe repulse.
Who of us but has found in the hesitation and refusal of
this story a parable of his own experience? Is not the
Master frequently silent when we pray to him? Do
not disciples often discourage our eagerness? Some
times do we not seem to find difficulties placed in our
path even by the Lord himself? Ah, do not stay with a
partial interpretation of the story. Do not leave the
parable incomplete. At the very outset of your study
you see in certain details of the story a picture of your
own obstacles and discouragements. Take a second
step and you will find in the action of the woman the
promise of triumph over both. Listen to the wonderful
message that she speaks, which will go ringing down
through the centuries to the end of time! " Yea, Lord;
even the dogs under the table eat of the children's
crumbs." Happy is he who can make of every obstacle in his path
way a stepping-stone to the attainment of his purpose.
That is the other side of the picture. As this woman
turned the expression of popular bigotry into a prevailing
argument for her cause, so may we make of every ap
parent hindrance in our lives an instrument of help,
so may we discover in our physical toil a rough tool for
our spiritual polish, so may our temptations becomethe
means of our moral invigoration, so may our sufferings
and disappointments be made the ministers of patience
and trust. In short, there is not a barrier of any kind
in the way of our highest attainment that cannot be
transformed into a bridge with which to cross the chasm
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
lying immediately beyond, when we are willing to sub
ordinate selfish ideals and personal feelings to the good of
others. Turn the world's rudeness about and it becomes
the resistless plea for heavenly blessing.
Take the purely religious function, the practice of
prayer. It goes without saying that every true prayer
ought to have its reaction, which we commonly call its
" answer." Yet it is equally manifest that the vast
multitude of prayers, so-called, bring no answer what
ever. Of course many of these unanswered prayers are
mere empty mouthings, forms of worship that have no
basis of real desire or aspiration. Many others there
are, however, which express genuine heart-longing for
self or for others. More than this, many prayers are
inspired by a spirit truly unselfish, and embody noble
aims and ideals; nevertheless they come at last to the
scrap-heap of spiritual failure. Why is this? Because
with all their nobility of purpose, their spirit of altruism,
their genuineness of desire, these are not sufficiently
overmastering to effect the eclipse of self. The sense of
personal dignity, the bondage of popular opinions or to
consistency with past ideals, the notion of one's own
rights, whether temporal or spiritual, — these and many
similar forms of self-assertion may stand directly athwart
the pathway by which alone may come the answer to
oft-repeated prayers. Then, too, there are our precon
ceived notions as to the how, the when, and the why that
make a divine answer impossible. Not every seeker of
divine blessing is fortunate enough to be surrounded
with wise and frank advisers who shall save him from
the obstructive effect of his own " I thought," as was
Naaman of old.
Then there is that other sort of prayer, which expresses
itself in the form of effort for the achievement of some
high purpose. It is not always consciously religious.
Yet whenever a truly devout soul strives for the fulfil
ment of a worthy task, his life interprets the ancient
proverb, " To labor is to pray." The appeal of action
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Self -eclipse — Supreme Endowment
speaks no less clearly than the appeal of words, and its
answer depends upon the same conditions. If self be
not eclipsed success is impossible.
Not many years ago, the head of a well-known educa
tional institution resigned his position after a quarter of a
century of service which, though efficient and faithful,
had yet failed to leave any permanent mark of his
individuality upon the institution. The prayer of his
daily service received no answer of real success. What
was the reason? It was betrayed in a single sentence
spoken to a friend after the resignation. " When I
came to this institution I resolved that I would never
become so completely identified with its life and work
that my heart would break if obliged to leave it." And
so the ghost of an uneclipsed self haunted the entire
pathway of those twenty-five years and drove out the
divine messenger of success.
In this demon-possessed age, society is not lacking in
men and women who, like the Syrophoenician mother,
are burdened with real desire for the relief of the present
distress, and who with the worship of words and works
are beseeching the Christ of today for his aid. But all
seem more concerned for the sacredness of their own rights
and privileges than for the casting out of the demon.
They will not accept crumbs cast to " dogs." The
answer must come politely or not at all ; for we are still
praying, " Lord, help my neighbor! " Few have come to
the point of crying, " Lord, help me! " And so the heal
ing of society waits.
In the days of the primitive church the great need of
disciples was for a faith which could face the difficulties
of the time. They were pitifully few in number and the
work before them was infinitely great. Think of their
position, — twelve men against a world! Persecution
arising and increasing daily in violence! The strong
ones determined to stamp the new teaching from the
earth! Could anything be more hopeless? How natural
the prayer, " Lord, increase our faith! "
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
Today all is changed. The tiny mustard seed has
grown to a great tree. The cause of Christ has become
firmly established in many lands. The church has
become rich and powerful. Despite the many evils that
surround us, we are wondrously comfortable and self-
satisfied. In its original sense we scarcely need the prayer
of the early Christians. We have faith in God. We
have faith in Christianity. We have faith in prayer and
other spiritual forces.
But with all our faith, with all our many other gifts,
there is one thing we supremely need, one thing we sadly
lack. If there is one prayer that ought to go forth from
every Christian church and from every Christian heart
in these days of spiritual wealth and contentment, of
self-seeking and self satisfaction, it is this, — "Lord,
increase our desire! "

132

CHAPTER XVI

Spiritual Action and Physical Reaction
THE DUMB DEMONIAC OF CAPERNAUM
Matt. 9 : 33, 34
Text. — " When the demon was cast out, the dumb man spake." — ¦
Matt. 9 : 33
THE science of medicine is not an exact science.
Its data are varied and uncertain; identical dis
orders may spring from widely differing causes;
diseases essentially diverse may have certain common
symptoms. The diagnosis of even the most skilful
physicians is at best but a guess, the value of which is
determined by his experience with similar cases. From
outward appearances he must try to discover hidden
causes. Very often he must trace some general distress
or weakness of the entire body to its source in the obstruc
tion of a single organ or the derangement of one definite
function. And it is perfectly reasonable to attribute
similar maladies to dissimilar causes when they appear in
different persons, or even when they appear in the same
person at different times and under different conditions.
Should we, then, feel any surprise when the Gospel
writers record one case of a particular ailment as a genuine
physical disability, while they credit another case of the
same apparent disorder to demoniacal possession?
Even such clearly defined physical symptoms as loss of
speech or sight or hearing do not always spring from
actual defects of the physical organs. They may be
caused by some nervous derangement, or some disturb
ance of an emotional, mental or moral nature. It is quite
in accord with the most up-to-date therapeutics that we
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
should find in the story of Bartimseus a clear case of
organic disease of the eyes, and in the deaf mute of
Decapolis a genuine physical incapacity, while the infirm
ity of the dumb man of Capernaum is traced to demoni
acal possession.
Doubtless this man had been examined by numerous
physicians and throat specialists of his time, if such there
were, and they had found no organic throat trouble.
On the contrary, the vocal organs were in a perfectly
healthy condition and fitted for fluent speech. Memory
recalls a similar case of one who seemed to take a certain
pride in the long list of doctors that had been consulted
only to be baffled in their efforts to cure the trouble.
The patient approached each newly recommended physi
cian in the spirit of a knight at a tournament, and seemed
to feel a real triumph at each successive failure to restore
the voice.
So it was, doubtless, with the mute of Capernaum.
Popular opinion had announced its judgment that, as
there was no discoverable lesion of the throat, the secret
of the case must be sought in some morbid nervous, men
tal or moral condition of the patient. A modern practi
tioner would, no doubt, have pronounced it a case of
" nervous aphonia "; for in these days we are wont to
make nerves the scapegoat for all manner of failings,
even the most serious. We do not acknowledge moral
or spiritual responsibility until we have exhausted
every other resource. We have invented numberless
" manias " to explain crime by brain defect, and we
condone all manner of sinful tempers and disagreeable-
nesses on the score of irresponsible nerves. The people
of New Testament times were less euphemistic. They
also had a clearer view of the moral and spiritual rela
tions of life than do many at the present day. Hence
the popular judgment of the case before us, and perhaps
also the professional dictum, is expressed in the phrase,
" A dumb man possessed with a demon."
Precisely what Jesus said or did in this instance we
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Spiritual Action and Physical Reaction
are not told. What need to tell that which lies plainly
on the surface of the story? The popular diagnosis is
accepted, and the case is treated as moral and not physi
cal. All this is implied in the phrase, " When the demon
was cast out the dumb man spake." When the proper
remedy was applied the treatment was successful and the
cure complete.
So much for the incident itself. Now what are the
moral reactions that appear in Matthew's record of it?
And how do those moral reactions relate themselves to
the Christian life of today? My own study of the record
discovers two such reactions. First, the writer is evi
dently impressed with the real interplay of forces and
results between the spiritual and the, physical natures.
And second, he is conscious that whatever " possession "
may mean from a medical standpoint, for the possessed
it implies moral slavery.
Now take the first of these reactions, — belief in the
actual inter-play between the physical and spiritual
natures in the form of cause and effect. What place
has such, a notion in the Christian life of our time, in
this age of scientific research and progress? Will it
bear the light of modern thought and discovery? Or
must it be relegated to the museum of abandoned super
stitions? A few years ago scientists and philosophers were wont
to draw a sharp line between the realms of the physical
and the moral or spiritual. No direct relation was
recognized, and according to the popular notion there is a
great gulf which allows of no passing from one side to the
other. Material or physical effects are due to causes
that are material or physical. Spiritual causes can
produce only spiritual results, said the voice of the last
century, and this notion, originating with scientific
scholars, percolated through all realms of thought until
it colored even the religious beliefs of the most intel
lectual men.
About thirty years ago Prof. John Fiske published his
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Spiritucd Messages of the Miracle Stories
great work on " Cosmic Philosophy," in which I find this
statement, — "He who has swallowed arsenic will be
saved, not by prayer, but by an emetic." In other
words, a material poison requires a material antidote.
No spiritual force can counteract the physical force
embodied in the poison.
At present we are not concerned with the particular
view of prayer involved in this statement, but only with
the implied absurdity of attempting to affect physical
conditions by means of a spiritual force. Probably this
dictum of Professor Fiske, in its widest and most natural
interpretation, fairly expressed the opinion generally
prevalent among all classes of scientific thinkers of the
time, even among .the most devout Christian thinkers. •
Yet it is utterly unphilosophical, and is being abandoned
by students at the present day.
A moment's thought will serve to betray its weakness,
for the direct physical results produced by purely spirit
ual or mental causes are apparent on every hand. Take a
simple illustration — the lifting of a weight in the hand.
Here, by the exertion of a force purely mental, (which
though not identical with the spiritual is closely akin to
it) viz., the application of his thought and will, a man
may lift with his hand and arm a weight which, hung
upon the muscles alone and separated from all connec
tion with the brain, would tear them asunder and per
haps wholly destroy them. What is it that gives to the
living muscles a power vastly greater than the same
muscles would possess when separated from the body?
Is it not the power of mind acting with the muscles and
strengthening them? The enormously augmented
strength of a person mentally deranged by sickness or
insanity, and the utter indifference of a hypnotized
person to pain, are further witnesses to the same fact.
More convincing still are the well known phenomena
of the class illustrated by our story. That serious physi
cal maladies are often due to mental or moral causes is a
fact too well known to need argument or confirmation.
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Spiritual Action and Physical Reaction
On the other hand, the thoroughly rational and scientific
work of practitioners of the Emmanuel Movement fur
nishes numerous instances of the cure of painful physical
ailments by means that are purely spiritual. A single
case comes to mind. A woman suffering intensely with
inflammation of the eyes after thorough examination
by an oculist of high standing was sent by him to Em
manuel Church with the statement that her trouble was
caused solely by a morbid mental condition, that it would
inevitably result in blindness if not cured, but that his
own treatment would be unavailing. Only moral treat
ment could effect a cure by overcoming her morbid state
of mind. The treatment was given, and with no use of
material aid the woman recovered.
Even the advocates of the Faith Cure and the famous
shrines of healing, notwithstanding their many extrava
gant claims and occasionally deceptive methods, have to
their credit numerous remarkable cures which can be
attributed to nothing other than the intense faith of the
patients. He must be blind indeed who will deny at this
day the reality of moral and spiritual forces and their
potency for either good or ill.
Whatever we may think as to the precise mode of its
operation, the scientific progress of our times should lead
us to magnify rather than to belittle the value of prayer
and the prayerful spirit, not alone as a means of producing
results purely spiritual, but also as forces for the healing
of disease and the solving of many other problems of
human life. It is scientifically true that —
" More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of,"
And the same assertion applies not only to prayer, but
to spiritual force in any of its manifold operations. He
was indeed a seer quite abreast of the times in philosophi
cal insight who added to the lines above quoted the exhor
tation, — 137

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
" wherefore let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by golden chains about the feet of God."
The second moral reaction revealed in this story is
this: — whatever "possession" may mean from a
medical point of view, for the possessed one it clearly
implies moral slavery. This citizen of Capernaum is
presented to us as under bondage to some despotic
power that forbids him to speak. It matters not whether
the despot be a satanic personality distinct from the
man himself, or merely a morbid condition of his own
mind and will. In either case his manhood is enslaved,
his power of speech is fettered. The Christ comes, and
with a word he breaks the fetters and sets the enslaved
one free. Instantly the man speaks; once more he is
master of his own voice and able to express himself
freely in the councils of his fellows.
Of course every story of demoniacal possession
embodies the same truth, — " possession " means moral
slavery; and the extent, so to speak, of the slavery varies
from control of a single function, as that of speech,
hearing, etc., to the complete enslavement which we
call insanity, from the mute of Capernaum to the maniac
of Gadara. In every such case, however, submission
to the moral tyrant is voluntary, though often uncon
sciously so. To illustrate : —
Not many years ago, a youth in one of our public
schools was sharply reproved by the music teacher for
making a discord while singing in the class-room.
Instantly the demon of sensitiveness took possession of
the boy, and from that time to the day of his death no
one ever heard him sing a note. When asked to sing,
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Spiritual Action and Physical Reaction
he averred with all apparent sincerity that he could not
do so, although his voice remained unimpaired for all
other uses.
Quite different from this was the case of a promising
young clergyman who was obsessed by the twofold
demon of excessive vanity and a bad temper. Yielding
to their sway he developed a form of insanity that mani
fested itself in criminal action. Indictment in the
courts and commitment to an asylum soon brought him
to himself, he reasserted his moral independence, and
once more gave himself to a useful ministry.
Our object lesson at the present moment is a mute
demoniac. And his message is very direct and definite.
We have our mute demoniacs today who need to hear the
Emancipation Proclamation of the Christ. Where do
we find them? In public life, — men who have been
honored by their fellows with unusual opportunities and
responsibilities, but who are possessed by the demon of
a ward boss or a party manager and are unable to think,
speak or act in accordance with the promptings of their
own consciences. Where are they? We find them, again,
in society. Possessed by the demon, Mrs. Grundy,
they taboo from social gatherings all serious conversa
tion, all real subjects, and spend their time in small talk
and frivolities. Where are they? They are in the
church, — in both pulpit and pew. Demons of popu
larity or financial necessity fetter their tongues and bid
them speak that which shall please their most liberal
contributors, or forever hold their peace.
Where are they? You may find them in almost any
of our " best " churches of a Sunday morning. Just
watch their " poor dumb mouths " during the service of
song. Listen to the impressive silence all around you, —
possessed by a false modesty or a pitiful indifference,
every one of them; and their silence not only indicates
their own slavery, but it seriously detracts from the value
of the service.
Music wedded religion when religion became aggres-
J39

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
sive, triumphant. Passive religion can do without
music, can subsist on art and elaborate ceremonials.
Self-centered Christians never sing unless they have
studied under the best teachers and are paid for their
warbling. Then it is not worship, but a performance.
Quartette choirs are the flimsy excuse of an unspiritual
church for a religion that is mute when it should be
militant. Sacred song is the natural expression of spiritual
feeling and experience. Without it the soul, like a lark
with broken wing, struggles vainly to rise heavenward.
All religious enthusiasms seek an outlet in psalm or
. hymn or spiritual song. Very often the first token of a
new life in the soul is a joyful song of praise that bursts
forth from the lips.
Every advance movement of the Christian Church
has given to the world some fresh and blessed gift of
canticle or holy chai.t or popular anthem. The first
great struggle with heathenism inspired those early
Latin hymns, and was in turn inspired by them. Born
in tribulation, they were attuned to the keynote of
triumph, and many of them still live to kindle the fires
of spiritual enthusiasm in an age of ease and self-satis-
: faction. The Crusaders marched to the rescue of the Holy City
- keeping, step to the music of sacred" songs. The great
Reformation brought forth the German chorales, those
. sturdy compositions that revived the courage of many a
drooping heart in times of adversity and danger. . The
• Methodist revivial under the Wesleys produced, its own
: hymns and tunes, not a few of which, live today and have
. their place amongst the best music of the Church uni
versal. And the greatest revival campaign of the nine
teenth century has bequeathed to succeeding centuries
a rich legacy of Gospel Hymns that have sung themselves
into the hearts and lives of multitudes.
Now why is it that the dumb demon possesses so
many of our churches? Why is the voice of song so
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Spiritual Action and Physical Reaction
often stilled? One reason may be found in the flood of
weak and mawkishly sentimental hymns and tunes that
has poured forth in recent years and has furnished a
gag for tongues of the more intelligent and thoughtful.
On the other hand, the demon himself has invented a
number of super-classic hymn-books with difficult tunes
that seem designed for the sole purpose of making an
end of congregational singing. But, after all has been
said, the underlying reason for silence is the lack of deep
spiritual experience and of earnest devotion to the
service of the Master.
Here then is a message from the restored mute of
Capernaum to the dumb disciples of America.
" Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Sing unto the
Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of
the saints. Praise God in his sanctuary. Let the saints
be joyful in glory ; let them sing aloud. Let everything
that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord!"
What shall be our response? What can it be but this:
" O Lord, open thou my lips;
And my mouth shall show forth thy praise."

141

CHAPTER XVII
Division and Desolation
THE BLIND AND DUMB DEMONIAC
Matt. 12 : 22-28; Luke 11 : 14-20
Text. — " Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desola
tion." — Matt. 12 : 25
WONDER is never the supreme reaction of Jesus'
miracles. Only shallow minds are so fascinated
by the marvel that they miss the moral. They
" see the miracle in the sign, but fail to discover the sign
in the miracle." To souls of deeper draught the wonder
is but a beacon light, pointing the course to some channel
for the discovery of truth. To the thoughtless multi
tudes the work of the Great Physician was doubtless a
mere " nine days' wonder." In minds more earnest and
spiritual, that work produced a moral reaction that
frequently overshadowed its marvel and made it an
eternal fountain of truth. The records themselves show
that this was the case with the evangelists.
At one time there was brought to Jesus a man " pos
sessed with a devil, blind and dumb," and he healed
him. The multitudes were amazed. The Pharisees
were jealous and angry. But the disciples pondered
upon the incident until it disclosed a message. Two
evangelists tell the story, and both of them make of the
healing a mere text for a homily. Matthew, in his
account, devotes but one-ninth of his space to the de
tails of the miracle, while the other eight-ninths are
given to the brief but impressive discourse with which
Jesus answered his Pharisaic detractors. Luke even
forgets to mention the element of blindness in the case,
and gives to the abbreviated details as little prominence
as does Matthew, yet with variations of expression he
emphasizes precisely the same moral reaction. Passing
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Division and Desolation

through the lens of each clear, spiritual mind, all the
rays of light from this story are focused upon one great
truth of unspeakable importance to men in every age.
It is this: " Every kingdom divided against itself is brought
to desolation."
The pages of history and the cases of our archaeological
museums abound in concrete illustrations of this truth.
Take a single example.
About half a century before William the Conqueror
crossed the English Channel, there appeared among the
highlands of Peru a hero named Manco Capac. Con
cerning his origin tradition is somewhat misty, but the
story of his achievements has become historic. Accom
panied and aided by his sister -wife, he drew about him
the barbarous tribes of that region, organized an empire,
and laid the foundations of a unique civilization among the
valleys and plateaus of the Andes. For more than five
centuries that empire grew and extended its sway year
by year over new tribes, till at length it covered a vast
territory and included within its borders a population
numbering several millions. Throughout all this time
the government had descended from father to son in
unbroken succession and without division. So great
was the strength of the nation that none of the surround
ing tribes could successfully stand against her armies in
war. In an evil day, however, came a sovereign who,
after adding new provinces to the already wide-spread
dominion, and vastly increasing its wealth and grandeur,
committed the fatal mistake, when dying, of dividing
the realm between his two sons. As a result which
might naturally have been foreseen, mutual jealousies,
friction, and finally war followed one another in rapid
succession. It was when the powerful dynasty was thus divided
against itself that Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish adven
turer, with a band of less than two hundred followers,
marched boldly into the very heart of the country and in
a few months completed a conquest which laid the mag-
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
nificent empire of the Incas forever in ruins. As a matter
of fact, it was not the Spaniards who conquered Peru.
The Peruvians conquered themselves. The kingdom
divided against itself was brought to desolation. In
less time than was required for its development, the Inca
civilization has passed from the realm of history into the
mists of tradition, and its few surviving monuments
furnish tantalizing problems for the archaeologist.
Is the story of the Incas unique? Does Peru stand
alone as a witness to the fate of a kingdom divided against
itself? By no means. On the contrary, the pathway of
human progress is thickly strewn with fossil remains of
internecine strife whose conjectured history is closely
akin to the " restored " specimens of prehistoric animal
life; and every one of these relics of extinct glory is a
mute witness to the eternal truth of our Lord's words.
Strange, is it not, that even under the clear light of this
oft attested truth men, Christian men and teachers have
devoted much more time and study to the debatable
and divisive questions regarding miracles than to the
practical application of the spiritual lessons or messages
which the miracle stories bring to us and upon which all
are easily agreed! Strange that so many theologians and
preachers join the ranks of the wonder-seeking multi
tudes of caviling Pharisees, and that so few manifest the
spirit of the devout evangelists!
Now precisely what is the message, — the most trans
parent and important message of our miracle story?
At what point does it impinge upon, the life of the present
day, upon my life and yours? I have already said that,
to my mind, the message expresses itself in our Lord's
answer to his critics, and I find a -waiting field for the
application of that message in the life and work of the
Christian Church.
Almost from its birth the history of the Christian
Church has been a history of division, — a kingdom
divided against itself. The great councils of the early
church were theological battle-fields, scenes of strife and
144

Division and Desolation

bitterness. The Council of Nice was a battle royal
between Athanasius and Arius about questions which
would be scarcely understood by the average intelligent
Christian of today, and if understood would be con
sidered of trifling importance. Yet for many years the
Church was rent with the conflict between these two
leading ecclesiastics and their followers, the members of
each party denouncing those of the other as damnable
heretics. Succeeding councils brought new leaders to the front,
with new subjects of dispute to replace those worn
threadbare by much discussion. In the ninth century
came the first great rupture of the Church into Eastern
and Western, or Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic.
A few centuries later, western Christianity was per
manently divided by the Reformation under Martin
Luther, and a new warfare was waged between Roman
ism and Protestantism. Since that time divisions have
multiplied, until American Protestantism numbers her
sects by scores or even hundreds, and the Christianity
of our time is represented by a church divided against
itself not once nor twice, but many times. Thank God,
it is the Church of Jesus Christ and not the kingdom of
God that is thus divided! Yet even the division of the
Church is an unspeakable calamity ; for while these many
divisions have not utterly destroyed the Church, they
have paralyzed her efficiency. Power has been wasted.
Evils have crept in and entrenched themselves within
her very walls. Many times the Church has become a
mere tool of the ungodly, and has exchanged religion for
statecraft, or has stifled the voice of the Christ that she
might preach a gospel acceptable to society. The evi
dence of her weakness was only too manifest when she
was utterly powerless to prevent the terrible war between
nominally Christian nations, or even to mitigate- its
horrible brutalities.
What wonder that in many quarters the cry was heard,
" Christianity has failed! The gospel of Jesus Christ
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
has proved itself inadequate to the greatest needs of the
world"! What wonder that the faith of many sincere
disciples was sorely tried and, in some cases, shattered?
The whole world stood face to face with the disheartening
problem of Faber, —
"111 masters good, good seems to change
To ill with greatest ease ;
And, worst of all, the good with good
Is at cross purposes."
Yet it was not the Christianity of the Gospels that had
proven itself impotent, but the diluted and often dis
torted Christianity of the churches. At the very mo
ment when " Churchianity " failed, Christianity shone
forth with new power and glory. That was indeed a
wonderful triumph of true religion when clergymen and
laymen, evangelicals and non-evangelicals, Protestants
and Romanists, even Christians and Jews worked to
gether in closest harmony and vied with one another in
loving service for wounded and dying amid the dangers
of the battle-field. Under the stress of imperative needs
and suffering, differences, suspicions, even deep-seated
hatreds and jealousies, were flung to the winds, and
reincarnate in thousands of consecrated men and women
the living Christ visited the bloody battle-fields of France
to repeat his old blessed work of healing and comfort and
sacrifice. Strangely enough, however, even after that sublime
demonstration of practical Christian unity, the Church
has been slow to learn its lesson. When the great
Interchurch World Movement was launched, it was
confessedly a Protestant movement, and, furthermore, the
lines were carefully drawn between evangelical and non-
evangelical. Even then it failed to enlist the cooperation
of numerous strong denominational bodies, and was
strangled by criticism and lack of support. Prominent
Christian leaders went so far as to ally themselves with
146

Division and Desolation

the Pharisees of old in denouncing the entire plan as the
work of Beelzebub.
Does it follow that the Interchurch idea, the practice
of Christian unity, is a dead issue? God forbid! It is
not dead. It cannot die. The Christ himself was
crucified; but the cross could not slay him, the grave
could not hold him. He came forth to a new and larger
life. No longer confined to a few obscure villages about
the shores of Gennesaret, he walked forth to other lands
and extended his blessed mission of teaching and healing
to the remotest parts of the earth. So shall it be with
this new ideal that has come to the Church out of the
horrors of war. Criticised, crucified, cremated it may
be by churchly reactionaries, but the spirit of unity which
it embodies is immortal and invincible, and shall yet
triumph over all divided and divisive forces and infuse
new vitality, new power into the Church Universal.
Now what is the essence of the new ideal purified in
the fires of world agony? This, is it not? — True
spiritual unity is not a matter of outward forms and
ceremonies, of challenging shibboleths, or even of
theological opinions ; it does not imply uniformity either
outward or inward. On the other hand, it is a matter of
spirit and service; it does imply hearty cooperation in
loving service. Always thoughtful Christians must
differ in opinions, in forms of expression, in methods of
work; yet with all these differences they may be " one
in charity," one in redemptive service.
Is not this the secret of the Church's continued exist
ence in spite of the destructive power of her divisions?
These divisions have never yet touched her essential
life. Real Christianity has never been divided. Amid
the clash of tongues and the din of warring sects there
-have always been souls in all communions and in no
communion that have been attuned to a common chord
of love and service. Have you never observed the re
markable fellowship of the great singers of the Church?
Every hymn book fit for use in Christian worship bears
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
witness to this underlying unity of spirit. I have heard
a hymn of Charles Wesley, the Methodist, and of Mrs.
Adams, a Unitarian, sung at a most impressive service in
a Roman Catholic church. And many a staunch Protes
tant finds in the hymns of the Romanists Faber and
Newman the expression of his own deepest spiritual
experiences. Evangelicals who would not sit at the
Lord's Supper with those of the so-called " liberal "
faiths, will sing at that same service hymns that have
been contributed by non-evangelical singers ; and Christ
ians who do not expect to meet Jews in heaven delight to
sing the psalms of Jewish David on earth.
And this, I affirm, is the reason why the divisions of the
Christian Church have not yet brought her to desola
tion. Though painfully manifest and destructive of
much that is good, these divisions are, after all has been
said, like the waves of the ocean, mere surface distur
bances. Underneath is the deep, unmoved ocean of
spiritual unity that makes for continuance and power,
and for ultimate triumph. The time is surely coming
when the great Church Catholic shall cease to fritter
away her splendid power with rivalries and competition,
and shall manifest to the world the supreme example of
absolute freedom and manifold diversity in heartiest
cooperation. By the same token, this great utterance of our Lord
which sounds a perpetual warning to save the earnest and
aspiring forces of love from self-destruction through
rivalry and suspicion, embodies also a sure promise of
final triumph and the destruction of evil! We are often
amazed at the apparent solidarity of the forces of evil.
Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians lay aside for a time
their mutual animosities and make common cause against
Jesus. So in our own time, evil forces the most diverse
and inwardly hostile unite in temporary fellowship, and
present a solid front in opposition to the often divided
forces of righteousness, and the most hopeful are some
times dismayed. To such, I say, this word of the Master
148

Division and Desolation

is a note of cheer. Solidarity is foreign to the nature of
evil. It can be maintained only for a brief period, and
even then it is but a surface condition resulting from exces
sive pressure. Underneath are the explosive elements of
hatefulness and suspicion that ensure final destruction.
In ihe end wickedness shall destroy itself.
As you turn aside from this miracle story, carry with
you as its final message that clinching phrase in the
argument of the Christ, " If I by the Spirit of God cast
out demons, then is the kingdom of God come upon you."
In many ways* and under varied forms the Christ of
today is working his miracles of healing and helpfulness.
Through countless divine agencies the ills of men and
society are being cured. How often do we, even we
Christians as we call ourselves, stand coolly by and
criticise or sneer! Yes, how often do we set ourselves in
direct opposition or utter venomous slander, because
some work does not happen to accord with our precon
ceived notions regarding such effort! Could we but learn
this lesson, could we but realize that wherever a wrong is
made right, wherever pain is relieved, suffering removed,
want supplied, sorrow comforted, there is the coming of
the kingdom of God, how eager should we be to welcome
it, how gladly should we bid the worker God-speed!
We are too much given to watching for the presence
and working of Satan. We eagerly snatch our morning
paper to read the latest record of his doings. We
applaud the preachers who rant most about the devil
and say least about the Christ. What wonder that so
much of modern Christianity is pessimistic? Let us
watch for the Christ. Let us welcome every sign of his
coming. Let us seek diligently for the good, let us
cultivate it and nourish it and do all that we can to aid its
fullest development. Thus, and thus only, shall we
bring ourselves into perfect harmony with the divine life
and be ready to share in the joy of God's kingdom when
it has fully come.

11.9

CHAPTER XVIII
Swine Versus Souls
THE GERASENE DEMONIAC
Matt. 8 : 28-34; Mark 5 : 1-20; Luke 8 : 26-39
Text. — " They that saw it declared unto them how it befell him that was
possessed with demons, and concerning the swine." —
Mark 5 : 16
VIOLENT insanity is a natural and not infrequent
result of uncontrolled hysteria. So close is the
relation between these two phases of disease
that it is not always easy to draw the line between them.
In some cases, however, the hysterical paroxysms are so
violent that they pass quite over into the realm of
lunacy, and the sufferer becomes a raving and dangerous
maniac. The present narrative describes a typical case
of this sort.
The story is a striking one. Jesus, with his disciples,
has just crossed the Sea of Galilee to the eastern shore.
As he steps from the boat to the land, he is confronted by
a madman — or rather by two madmen as Matthew tells
us — who were a terror to the whole region. So violent
were they that no man could pass in safety that way.
" Possessed with unclean spirits," said the wise ones of
the time concerning these and many similar cases; but
in this case the madness was extraordinary in its hopeless
ness and ferocity, so that it was attributed not to one
evil spirit, but to a legion of demons. Many had been
the attempts to cure, to tame, or to restrain these men
but all had been fruitless. Chains were riven asunder,
clothing was torn to shreds, and like two mad brutes,
hideous, menacing, pitiable, they wandered among the
tombs along that rocky shore, crying and cutting them
selves with stones. 150

Swine Versus Souls

Recognizing the character and person of Jesus, the
spirits cast their victims upon the ground in a sort of
frenzied worship. Being commanded to come out of the
men, we are told that they begged permission to enter
into a herd of swine that was feeding near by, and that
their request was granted. As a consequence the swine
rushed madly down the steep hillside into the sea and
were drowned.
With the precise mental reaction of the witnesses as
manifested in the narrative we are not concerned. The
moral reaction is clear, unmistakable. Certainly it is a
most vivid picture of a striking phenomenon. The
spirit of the scene is perfectly clear to every reader. We
do not wonder that it caused a great commotion, that
everybody was excited and eager to tell the news.
Like wild-fire through all that section of country spread
the twofold story of the healing of the demoniacs and
the destruction of the swine. Quickly the people flocked
together from every direction to see for themselves what
had happened. And what did they see? The man who
had been possessed of a thousand devils, the more violent
of the two demoniacs, sitting clothed and in his right
mind; the wild spirit perfectly tamed, the brute made
human. What a blessing to the sufferer, set free from bondage,
and restored to the society of his fellows and to all the
joys and privileges of normal manhood! What a blessing
to the community, — no more trouble in caring for him,
no more danger to passing travelers, no more fear for
the consequences of his mad acts! What a revelation of
possible blessing yet to come! He who eould restore one
so hopeless surely has both the power and the will to
rescue many others in like need. ;.
But two thousand swine have been killed! A large
sum of money has been swallowed up in the sea. True,
the keeping of swine was unlawful ; but there was money
in the business. True, to many of the inhabitants of
the country the swine were unclean; but there was
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profit in their sale. Wealth had been destroyed, and
this fact obscured all sense of gratitude for the wondrous
work of grace. It blinded the people to the possibilities
of still greater blessings in store for them. They had
but one thought, — gain, gain, and ever more gain. For
this reason they beg the divine Healer to depart out of
their coasts. '
But there are other demoniacs! " Yes, let them
rave." There are blind men! "Let them grope in
darkness." There are lepers! " Let them suffer and
miserably die." There are benighted souls! " Let them
perish without hope; but let us keep our swine, for they
are exceedingly profitable."
The Master had just come from the opposite shore,
where he had spoken that matchless series of parables
found in Matthew, chapter 13. He returned to work a
series of miracles which filled the entire region with
wonder and gladness; but Gerasa, — Gerasa must be
content with a single miracle, because her people were
wholly absorbed in the quest of material wealth. The
door of blessing had been opened, and they had seen
the matchless gifts within ; but they had hastily shut the
door, lest the condition of entrance should be that they
leave their unholy gains without.
The gist of the whole story is contained in the words,
" They which saw it declared how it befell him that was
possessed with the demons, and concerning the swine."
There you have the contrast between the human and the
divine spirit, between worldliness and Christianity.
It is two thousand swine versus two men. The world
says, "Save the swine"; the Christ says, "Save the
men." The work of human redemption involves a ceaseless
struggle with selfish greed. Many forms of sin are
exceedingly remunerative, both to those directly engaged
in them and to many others indirectly connected there
with. When the vested interests of any man or class of
men collide with the public welfare or endanger the
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Swine Versus Souls

peace of a human soul, they seldom yield without a fierce
struggle. It matters not how great the wrong involved,
or how terrible the suffering brought upon others, the
average man is very tenacious of any privilege or practise
that is profitable to himself.
Every step of progress in the life" of the race, every
great moral reform, every newly discovered principle of
righteousness, has had to fight its battle with the forces
of mammon. Again and again when the Christ, casting
out a demon of evil and working a blessed miracle of
healing, has clogged some channel of unrighteous gain,
the multitudes have cried out, " Depart from us! "
Thus has been repeated in every age the old antithesis
of hogs versus humanity, money versus manhood.
What was the crux of the opposition to Martin Luther
and his gospel of freedom through faith? Why did the
great religious leaders of his time try to silence the heroic
reformer or to drive him from the earth? A great
ecclesiastical trust was being enriched by sinful traffic.
The sale of indulgences had become a scandal through
out the Christian world, but it was a source of immense
revenues to the church. This was one of the first points
of attack for the new movement. The reformation of the
church and the enlightenment of the people meant death
to all such unholy methods of enrichment. And the
great church, concerned supremely for her revenues,
angrily bade the Christ, " Depart! "
But the church of today, even the Protestant Church,
cannot cast stones at the church of Luther's day. We
are not wholly free from like sins. We, too, have our swine
that we do not wish to lose. We are oftentimes more
eager for church growth and material or external success
than for genuine moral and spiritual conquest. Earnest
young pastors who venture to speak out boldly in denun
ciation of social evils or political wrongs, who strive to
cast out demons of injustice and wrong from the com
munities where they work, are frequently advised to
" stick to the gospel," and let these living topics alone.
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
And if they fail to heed the suggestion, they are speedily
invited to depart. Why? Because any meddling with
living topics, any effort to right existing wrongs is almost
sure to imperil the vested interests of contributors and so
disturb the financial equilibrium of the church. There
are many in our Christian congregations whose attitude
towards the preacher and his message is well summed
up in the words of " Hosea Biglow, "
" I'm willin' a man should go tollable strong
Agin wrong in the abstract, fer thet kind o' wrong
Is oilers unpop'lar an' never gits pitied,
Because it's a crime no one never committed ;
But he mus'n't be hard on partickler sins,
Coz then he'll be kickin' the people's own shins."
The " successful " preacher of today is usually the
preacher who waxes eloquent over dead issues, splinter
ing his lance against windmills of heresy and the like,
but who leaves the hogs alone.
In civic and social life, too, we may find numberless
parallels of our miracle story.
There was the demon of slavery that so long possessed
our own land, making a mockery of her boasted freedom.
Like the legion of unclean spirits, the system was
dehumanizing thousands of men and women, transform
ing them into brutes, beasts of burden, chattels. It was
becoming a serious menace to the peace and even to the
very life of the nation. But when the Christ came with
the purpose and power to cast out the demon, men of all
classes besought him to depart. Not alone the slaveholders
of the South and the politicians who looked to them for
support, but the merchants and artisans of the North,
eager in the pursuit of wealth, educators and even preach
ers of the gospel of human brotherhood, — all joined in
the prayer. Why? Because all were striving with one
heart and mind for that material prosperity and enrich
ment which would be hindered by any meddling with
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Swine Versus Soids

the iniquitous system. Men of all classes in all sections
of the country were more careful for hogs than for
humanity, more eager for riches than for righteousness.
But that is of the past and becoming daily more
remote. We may draw our parallels closer. Cast the
picture on the screen of the present. This generation
has its swine just as truly as any generation of the past.
If one form of human slavery has been abolished there
are other forms still working ruin to manly and womanly
lives, threatening the peace of society and the stability
of nations. Today, as ever, the hogs are feeding close
beside the demoniacs, and while we would gladly have
the sufferers healed, we pray the Christ to depart lest
he shall interfere with our selfish gains.
We have but recently witnessed the casting out of the
demon of strong drink from our national life. Already
the wonderful results of that act are manifesting them
selves. Multitudes of men and women who had been a
menace to society, a terror to the home, a burden upon
public charity, a recruiting force for crime, have become
rational, clean, thrifty, and in every way good citizens.
In every community you may see many a man who, in
the old days, was completely possessed of the demon rum,
now clothed and in his right mind.
But many swine have perished. Thousands of saloons
have been closed; breweries, distilleries and kindred
activities have perforce gone out of business. Personal
incomes and public revenues aggregating millions have
been cut off. Consequently "they" — a very im
personal they — are eagerly beseeching the Christ to
depart. Agitation and propaganda are continuous.
Unremitting pressure is brought to bear upon public
officials of every grade from the President in the White
House to the sheriff in the remotest village, to secure
neglect or annulment of the law, so that the evil business
may once more be safely and profitably carried on.
Unless the Christian Church awakens to new and posi
tive activities to counteract these efforts for evil, unless
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
we fill the social void resulting from the banishment of the
saloon, the evil spirits will inevitably return, and the
last state of our country will be worse than the first.
And what shall we say of the jingo spirit which would
drive out the Prince of Peace from our land in order that
some of our citizens may fatten their purses with the
profits of war? What of the greedy ones who, undermin
ing the bodies and minds of their brothers by unsanitary
housing and dangerous conditions of labor that they may
more rapidly build up their own fortunes, beseech the
Christ of mercy and health to depart from their neigh
borhood? W7hat of the — But one might continue
indefinitely the list of the modern successors of the
Gerasenes who would put an end to all miracles of heal
ing and helpfulness if these in any way interfered with
their unrighteous gains.
Still it is blessedly true that the Christ always saves
the man. He does not always respect unrighteous
wealth, in fact, he never respects it. That may suffer,
especially if it stands in the way of man's highest good;
for that the Christ has no care but to make an end of it.
He would save men. The Christian, too, must seek to
save men, at whatever cost of material wealth. The
kingdom of God is first with every true disciple of the
Christ, whether man or nation.
We talk of " prosperity " or " success." But what is
prosperity? What is success? What is either if it be
not the accomplishment of that purpose for which wc
were created? True, our Lord would not have us less
thrifty. There is nothing Christly in thriftless disregard
of tomorrow, in carelessness or indolence. The influence
of Christianity must ever be to spur men to larger con
trol of the material resources of the world ; in other words,
to the accumulation of wealth. But this must never be
first; it must be a means to the greater end, the redemp
tion of men, the perfecting of the commonwealth of God.
To what purpose shall the church grow strong and
wealthy and popular, if in so doing she neglect any
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Swine Versus Soids

opportunity to rescue men from temptation and sin,
or to cast out the demons that enslave human lives?
The church that purchases her greatness and supremacy
by refraining from the work of casting out devils and
attacking unhallowed business is not a true church of
Jesus Christ. She has forfeited all claim to such a
title. She has failed of the sole purpose for which she
was begotten.
Is not this equally true of nations, — our nation or
any other? What is the American nation? For what
was our commonwealth established? Was it not as an
agency for the redemption of men, a haven of moral and
spiritual freedom? Was it not that we might become an
instrument in the hands of almighty God for the salva
tion of the world, beginning with our own citizens?
If, then, we turn away from this high purpose, and give
ourselves to the common struggle of the nations for
supremacy in the matter of temporal power or wealth,
even if we are satisfied with the seemingly^ higher
task of leading mankind in the march of intellect
and refinement, we have forsaken our life-purpose, and
there is no reason under heaven why we should not
follow the nations of antiquity to oblivion.
The power of the Christ is still as available as ever to
cast out the strongest demons of sin. The Saviour is
longing to break every chain that binds the souls of men.
But we as a people, as citizens, as church members, are
too often wholly absorbed in the pursuit of the treasure
that lies at the foot of the rainbow. Despite our nomi
nal Christianity, we have our herds of swine, and many
times we would rather that the Lord should depart from
our country than that he should permit any harm to
come to them. Is not this old Gospel story, then, a true
picture of ourselves and our times? Have we not among
us many possessed with evil spirits? Have we not our
swine of unholy wealth? Are we not balancing our hogs
against our humanity?
Down through the ages comes a solemn question : —
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
" What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world,
and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in
exchange for his soul? " The question is put to com
munities, to churches and to nations as directly as to
individuals. What shall it profit the church or society
or the nation, to gain wealth or wisdom or popularity
or prestige, and lose souls? That is the balance we must
strike, — Money or manhood? Swine or souls?

158

CHAPTER XIX
Unfaith and Failure
AN EPILEPTIC HYSTERIC
Matt. 17 : 14-21; Mark 9 : 14-29; Luke 9 : 37-43
Text. — " Why could not we cast it out? " — Matt. 17 : 19
THE contrast between expectation and experience is
often disheartening. We expect great things and
experience little things. We expect success and
experience failure. We expect power and we experience
weakness. This is true in every sphere of life, but
particularly so in the sphere of the spiritual. We are
constantly being baffled by revelations of our helpless
ness, humiliated by ever fresh discoveries of our ineffi
ciency. We plan large things and we accomplish little
or nothing. With the courage of eager discipleship we
endeavor to work miracles, and our effort is rewarded
with utter discomfiture. With the earnestness of a
high and unselfish idealism we undertake some large
service for God and our fellow men, and all our labor
comes to naught. We aspire to noble achievement or
exalted experience, and we attain nothing but vexation
of spirit. We scatter our seeds of labor and self-sacrifice
with liberal hand, and the blossoms are withered before
they come to fruitage.
Is not this frequently true of our soberest and most
rational hopes as well as of our less carefully considered
impulses? That many an air-castle of childhood should
vanish, that the dreams of the visionary should fail of
realization, we take as matters of course; but when we
have based our expectation upon careful thought, when
it is a mature judgment growing out of past experience
and a reasonable estimate of the possibilities involved,
then we are stunned by failure. Then we ask, " Why
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
were not our hopes realized? Why was our effort unsuc
cessful? Why could not we cast out this demon? "
The experience is old as the race, common as birth and
death. An incident recorded by three of the evangelists
illustrates our thought; and careful study of the old
story may help us in solving the ever new and vital
problem. The Master, with three chosen disciples, has ascended
the Mount of Transfiguration. The remaining nine
disciples await their return at the foot of the mountain.
To these waiting ones a sorrowing father brings his little
son, who is possessed by a demon, and begs them to set
him free.
The case is one of unusual complication and severity.
Under the influence of this obsession the child is a deaf
mute and also manifests violent epileptic symptoms.
Here is the father's description of the case: " He hath
a dumb spirit; and wheresoever it taketh him, it dasheth
him down: and he foameth, and grindeth his teeth, and
pineth away : for he is epileptic and suffereth grievously ;
for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and ofttimes into
the water." Jesus adds yet another symptom, that of
dumbness, when he exorcises the spirit in the words,
" Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I command thee, come out
of him."
The father makes his appeal with all confidence, and
the disciples respond in a like spirit. Without a moment's
hesitation, without any apparent doubt as to the result,
they undertake the cure; but to their astonishment and
dismay their words are without the desired effect. In
stead of departing, the demon redoubles his fury. What
is the matter? Have they not stood by on many similar
occasions while their Master was casting out demons?
Have they not heeded his words and noted his acts most
carefully? Furthermore, has he not assured them that
they should have like power, and perform even greater
works? Why, then, does the fiend refuse to budge at
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Unfaith and Failure

their word of command? They even make a second
trial. They repeat the accustomed formula. With
louder and more authoritative voice they reiterate their
injunction. They are careful to imitate the precise
tones and gestures of the Master. Still their efforts are
futile. In the very moment of their defeat and humiliation,
Jesus is seen coming down the mountain side, and, rush
ing to him, the almost despairing father falls on his
knees and cries, " Teacher, I beseech thee to look upon
my son: for ... I brought him to thy disciples, and
they could not cure him." Then, after a brief conversa
tion in which he brings out the facts of the case and
stimulates the faith of the father, Jesus rebukes the evil
spirit, and instantly and completely cures the child.
Later, when the crowd has dispersed and the disciples
are once more alone with the Master, they ask him, —
" Why could not we cast it out? " They are perplexed,
and naturally so, by their failure. It was no mere
childish impulse, no wild freak of fanaticism, that led
them to attempt the cure; but a reasonable expectation
of success, based upon many similar cures wrought by
their Leader of which they had been eye-witnesses.
More than this, the duty had been laid upon them as
disciples to share in their Teacher's v, ork of healing and
comfort. What question, therefore, could be more
natural or reasonable than theirs?
Recognizing the pertinence, aye more, the vital im
portance of the question, Jesus gives a direct and simple
answer. " Why could not you cast it out? Because
of your little faith. ... If ye have faith as a grain of
mustard seed, . . . nothing shall be impossible unto
you. But this kind can come out by nothing, save by
prayer (and fasting (?))." In other words, the disciples
had been wholly absorbed with the externals of speech
and manner. They had not yet begun to discern that
inner spirit of unhesitating faith and prayer by which
Jesus put himself into a relation of closest fellowship. with
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
the Father and laid hold of the divine power for the
healing of men.
Perhaps there is no incident of the Gospel story that
touches more closely upon present-day life and experience
than this little drama in two acts, the Transfiguration on
the mountain and the fiasco in the valley. Is it not
familiar — too familiar — to every one of us? Is it not
a vivid picture of the experience of the Christian Church
throughout the ages, of the Christian Church of our own
day? While the few are on the Mount of Vision with
the Lord, the many are down on the plain or in the deep
valleys with the needy multitudes. Most of us stand
face to face with human need and distress and sin. Not
only so, but the world looks to us for relief from its
suffering and affliction. It pleads with us to cast out
the demons that torment society. And we know that
it is our great mission as disciples of the Christ to respond
to the call. Often we make the attempt. With voice
and hand we attack the enemies of human peace and
seek to expel them. Do we always succeed? Does the
evil spirit always depart at our bidding? Is every
problem of suffering relieved the moment we take it in
hand? Is every possessed life purified and made whole
by the magic of our touch? Every such question brings
up the memory of countless failures.
Has there ever been a time when the Christian Church
— when a Christian church — fulfilled the reasonable
expectations of men? Has Christian effort ever been
characterized by that unfailing fruitfulness which- the
Gospels seem to promise? Is it not rather true that rapid
progress and miraculous achievement have always been
the exception, not the rule?
To be sure, we may find here and there a Christian
disciple or a body of Christians seeming to live in a
perpetual blaze of transfiguration glory. We hear them
continually singing, " It is good to be here." Visions
abound, but there is little practical service. In fact,
transfiguration scenes should be the exception, not the
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Unfaith and Failure

rule, now as in the days of our Lord. Their value is
purely inspirational, and they are worse than wasted if
each heavenly vision does not bear fruit in earthly
service. Now as of old, however, at least three-fourths of the
band of disciples remain continually in the valley, where
they are engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle with
demons of unbelief and sin and wrong; and many times
that struggle is a disappointing one. For all our effort
and expenditure and expectation the returns are exceed
ingly small; little progress is made; the demons defy
us. The evils persist, and flaunt their defiance in our faces.
Puzzled and disappointed by our failures, we are wont
to imagine that the secret of our impotence lies in the
method of work, the outward forms of service. Surely
we have forgotten the talismanic words. We have
omitted some vital element of conjuration. " The old
doctrines are not being preached." " Too little emphasis
is being laid upon this point or that." " Modern
preachers are afraid to declare the whole counsel of
God." Such are some of the popular explanations of our
failures. They are by no means few, even among the
most intelligent and spiritually minded Christians, who
believe that if we could only recall the teachings of Calvin,
Edwards, Whitefield or Wesley, with all their old-time
sharpness and terror, the demons of sin and indifference
would quickly flee and miracles of social regeneration
and individual freedom would follow; so we shore up
our orthodoxy, and scripturalize our phraseology and
exorcise the demons once more, but with no better suc
cess than before. Then multitudes of discouraged ones
reiterate the query of the disappointed nine, " Why-
could not we cast it out? "
Now, since we are often confronted with the same
problem that perplexed the disciples of old, let us put
ourselves in their place and ask what message this miracle
story has for us. Do the Master's words have any
practical meaning for the Christian worker of today?
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
If we would make such personal and present appro
priation of them we must consider the words, not merely
in their immediate and specific meaning, but in their
more general and far-reaching suggestion. Do you not
see that Jesus is trying to emphasize the religious or
moral nature of the task? A moral task, he says in
effect, — a moral task demands the use of moral forces for
its accomplishment. So he calls attention to their
neglect of the principle of faith, adding, " This kind can
come out by nothing, save by prayer." (Some old manu
scripts add the words " and fasting.")
" This kind." — He is speaking, mind you, of demon-
ism, so-called. It matters not how succeeding genera
tions may have changed the name, the evil is still the
same. The task that had baffled them was not the task
of curing a complication of physical disorders; it was,
rather, the task of overcoming a moral weakness or sin.
In this case, epilepsy and the want of speech and hearing
were illusory results of hysteria or a perverted will. Per
haps the child had discovered the fatal secret of " rule by
tantrums " which destroys the peace of so many house
holds, and had in time fallen a victim to his own perver
sity. Hence Jesus' treatment of the case, of which we
have only the most meager and incomplete report, was
distinctly moral. Its effectiveness lay not at all in the
mere formulas uttered or methods employed, but in the
moral potency of a soul radiating faith, illuminated by
prayer and perfect in its self-mastery.
Is not this the vital point of contact between an inci
dent of the long-dead past and the experience of present-
day life and effort? The tendency of our age is to empha
size the material elements of even the most purely moral
and spiritual problems. While we still insist upon
spiritual regeneration as the only effective preparation
for the life to come, we rely more and more upon legisla
tive and police coercion for the purification of society
and the civilizing of man in the life that now is.
Take a single illustration, — the course of temperance
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Unfaith and Failure

reform within the past century. The first great cam
paign of the movement was undertaken by Father
Theobald Matthew," a Roman Catholic priest of Cork,
Ireland. Carrying on his work single-handed as a
purely religious effort, within four years he had secured
in Ireland alone more than five million voluntary pledge
signers, out of a total population of less than eight and
one-quarter millions. The genuineness of the work is
attested by the fact that during the same four years the
annual consumption of alcoholic liquors decreased from
twelve and a quarter millions of gallons to about five and
a quarter millions.
In our own land, Father Matthew accomplished a
similar work, though on a srnaller scale. And a crusade
known as " The Washingtonian Movement," which also
relied upon purely moral forces, duplicated his work,
the results of the twofold effort netting about one and
a half million enthusiastic recruits for the temperance
cause. Perhaps the most remarkable movement in the his
tory of the temperance movement was that known as
" The Women's Crusade." A half a century ago
seventy-five intelligent and devoted Christian women
gathered in one of the churches in a little Ohio town
and, after conference and prayer, marched forth singing
songs of courage and faith to besiege the saloons with
prayer and earnest appeals. Soon, the drinking places
in their own town being reduced from thirteen to four
in number, they went to a neighboring town and closed
eleven saloons in eight days, besides pledging the drug
stores to sell only on prescription, so making an end of
the liquor traffic in that town. The movement spread
rapidly through Ohio and twelve other states. In every
place, the leaders were women of the highest standing in
society and the churches; their only weapon was prayer
and their dependence upon the power of God, and their
work was grandly successful.
Very soon after this, however, the course of the
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
temperance movement turned into a wholly different
channel. Spiritual weapons were exchanged for engi
nery of another sort. Prayer gave place to prohibition,
and faith was supplanted by force. Step by step this
new movement has advanced till at length its advocates
have succeeded in securing national prohibition of the
liquor traffic. Today many good people are rejoicing
in the delusion that the terrible scourge of intemperance
in this land is cured. In point of fact we have achieved
nothing at all towards the cure of the evil ; we have simply
put our country into a strait-jacket so that society
may be more safe and clean, but the demon still pos
sesses us. Unless we follow up the success of prohibi
tion with spiritual measures for the casting out of the
evil itself and the enthronement of divine self-control in
its place, the last state of our country will be worse than
the first. Father Matthew and the Women's Crusade
transformed drunkards and even rum-sellers into good
citizens and loyal advocates of temperance; prohibition
often makes of both more violent enemies of righteous
ness, and incites them to break the laws of the land.
As I hear the lamentations of excellent Christian men
and women over the outbreak of the drink evil in new
forms, — crimes committed under the influence of
strong drink, scores killed by poisons substituted for
alcohol, wholesale violations of the law, and numberless
attempts at evasion, — I seem to hear the words of the
Christ to his disciples as of old, — " This kind can come
out by nothing, save by prayer."
Is not the true lesson of this miracle story, then, a
simple one? The forces that accomplish all great results
are God's. Man, unaided, has little power. In partner
ship with God, he is omnipotent. If we are to perform
miracles, we must lay hold of divine forces, we must
open the channels through which God can work.
The man who, standing beside some great rock of
many tons weight, should think to move it by a simple
word of command, or by his own unaided strength, —
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Unfaith and Failure

yes, or even by means of some ponderous machine to
which no power was applied, — would be foolish indeed;
but let him take steam or electricity for his partner,
let him harness some Niagara to the task, and it will be
easily performed.
So the disciple who is confronted with some demon of
entrenched evil, if he attempts to drive out the evil one
by means of some formal exorcism, or with the machinery
of legislation or even of preaching, will surely fail. But
when, through the channels of prayer and genuine faith,
the infinite power of God is brought to bear upon it, the
demon will soon be overcome and society healed.

167

CHAPTER XX
A Miracle Overshadowed
THE WOMAN WITH THE SPIRIT OF INFIRMITY
Luke 13 : 10-17
Text. — " And the ruler of the synagogue, beingmoved with indignation
because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, — " Luke 13 : 14
DISTANCE lends enchantment to the view," says
a familiar proverb. And the truth of the say
ing is nowhere more strikingly illustrated than
in the attitude of the popular mind of our day toward
the miracle stories of the Gospels. As the centuries
have passed, reverent disciples of Jesus have read into
them an increasing measure of unreality, and have encir
cled them with a halo of peculiar wonder and sanctity
that was not dreamed of at the first. In this way we
have put ourselves out of rapport with the original wit
nesses of these phenomena, sacrificing living truth to
false reverence.
Here, for example, is the story of the woman with the
" spirit of infirmity " whom Jesus healed one sabbath
day in the synagogue. What is its most significant
element? What was the predominating impression
made upon the assembly of worshipers that day? What
were the mental and moral reactions of those present?
In the mind of the average modern reader the narrative
seems to focus about the words, — "He laid his hands
upon her, and immediately she was made straight."
We write the word MIRACLE in capital letters across
the story. We think of that synagogue congregation as
especially favored, and wish that we, too, might be per
mitted to witness such a wonderful work. We imagine
that a similar incident occurring in our own day and land
would absorb public attention and command the imme
diate confidence and approval of all beholders. In fact
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A Miracle Overshadowed

it would be a convincing proof to all unbelievers of the
divinity of the miracle worker.
But let us put ourselves for a few moments in the
place of those original witnesses of Jesus' work and note
what actually happened. Let us observe very carefully
the impression made upon the different classes of be
holders. It is the sabbath day, and Jesus, " as his custom was,"
is teaching in one of the synagogues. As he looks over
the aud.ience, he observes a woman bowed with weakness
and apparently unable to lift herself to an upright
position. Pausing for a brief space in his teaching, he
lays his hands upon her, saying, " Women, thou art
loosed from thine infirmity," and instantly she is made
straight. Naturally enough the woman herself, after her long
years of suffering and bondage, overflows with grateful
praise. But what of the onlookers? Are they, too,
filled with wonder and praise? Do they at once with
unanimous voice pronounce it a convincing demonstra
tion of divine love and power? Not by any means.
True, they all recognize the genuineness of the cure that
has been wrought. There seems to have been no shadow
of doubt as to the physical blessing that has come to the
woman; but the moral and religious aspects of the case
produce at least two widely differing reactions. The
woman glorifies God for her release. The multitude
rejoices for all the glorious things that are being done.
But the ruler of the synagogue, a man of influence and
authority, a man of marked piety no doubt, is moved
with indignation because this work of healing has been
wrought upon the sabbath day, and he sternly rebukes
the multitude for their manifest approval. Of course he
did not stand alone, but gathered around him a group
of the more conservative and thoughtful religionists to
sustain him in the position he had assumed.
Now, I repeat, there was no doubt in any mind regard
ing the genuineness of the cure. The very words of the
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
synagogue ruler indicate his belief as clearly as the
rejoicings of the multitude indicate theirs. Conse
quently the miraculous element of the story at once falls
to a subordinate place, and is quite overshadowed by a
question of Jewish morals. That this woman has been
healed of a severe affliction is taken as a matter of course.
The only question is, — was it right that she should
be healed in the synagogue and on the sabbath day?
If, therefore, we center our thought upon the act of
healing, if we see in the story nothing more than a witness
to the miracle-working power as an evidence of Jesus'
divinity, we shall miss its real message. If, on the other
hand, we treat the incident as an " acted parable,"
allegorizing about moral deformity, we are still to one
side of the mark. I confess I do not find any practical
helpfulness in the words of a famous Scottish preacher,
" Base are our souls, and bent toward the earth, instead
of looking up to heaven. In no wise can we lift ourselves
up till the voice of Christ through his gospel proclaims
our liberation, and the hand of his Spirit, laid on us,
makes us actually free." ¦ — Professor Laidlaw.
The pith of the narrative is clearly indicated by the
writer. No intelligent reader can fail to catch his
emphasis. The woman and her healing are a mere
introduction to the rebuke of the ruler of the synagogue
and the reply of Jesus. The focal point is a question of
moral values. Wherein do they reside? In personality
or in precepts? In men or in institutions? Let us study
the incident from this viewpoint.
First of all, let us ask why Jesus habitually attended
synagogue service on the sabbath day. Simply because
it was the approved way to " observe the sabbath "?
Surely not. The Master was no slave of conventionality.
He saw the sabbath as an opportunity, not as an observ
ance; to him the synagogue was a house of service, not of
strife. He went to the synagogue on the sabbath because
he expected to find there the largest opportunity for
helpful service. 170

A Miracle Overshadowed

He frequently taught in the synagogues, because he
found the people in bondage to false ideals, victims of a
dead formalism, and he knew that he had a living message,
a vision of truth and life that would set them free and
transfigure their manhood and womanhood if they
would receive it. In his hands the Scriptures were
luminous. From his lips fell wondrous words of grace.
He took the words of the old prophets and brought them
up to date. His hearers realized that he was talking to
themselves about themselves and for themselves. He
spoke not to amuse them or interest them, but to help
them, to serve them.
His was ever the message of loving, helpful service.
And when he saw an opportunity to put that message
into practice, he did it, without a thought of what
people would say, heedless of what they might think,
intent only on doing that which might relieve distress or
overcome evil.
So it happened as he stood in the synagogue on this
particular sabbath, roll in hand, unfolding the truth to
eager minds. Perhaps he had opened the scroll at his
favorite passage in the prophecy of Isaiah — • " The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he appointed me
to preach good tidings to the poor: he hath sent me to
proclaim release to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to
proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." And even
as he was speaking, his eye fell on one who had been for
many years a captive to some moral perversion, bound
by some spiritual obsession that deformed her body and
enfeebled her life.
Here is a challenge to the sincerity of his utterance.
He who does not practice his own preaching is unfit to
preach, and his preaching is without value. Jesus has
declared that it is his mission not merely to preach good
tidings and to proclaim release, but also to set at liberty
them that are bruised. What more natural, therefore,
what more perfectly in accord with the spirit of the
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
occasion, than that he should turn to the enslaved one
and by the moral force of his own word and act enable
her to throw off the shackles that had held her so long
and stand erect in all the dignity of emancipated woman
hood? Strange, is it not, that such a proof of the Preacher's
sincerity, such a demonstration of the power of his
gospel, should have aroused the indignation of the ruler
of the synagogue and called forth from him a stern
rebuke? Yet not so strange, after all, when we consider
the fact that many intelligent and profoundly spiritual
disciples of Jesus at the present day array themselves on
the side of the synagogue ruler in their attitude towards
the Christian sabbath. To be sure, they approve Jesus'
action, and in consequence modify slightly the interpre
tation of the ideal, but the ideal itself is that of the
Pharisee rather than that of the Christ. And this
contrast of moral ideals is the point upon which the whole
incident hinges.
The ruler of the synagogue thought of the sabbath day
in terms of obligation and observance. It was to him a
day of prohibition and privation, a day of sacrifice and
often of discomfort. Little spiritual meaning lay behind
these. The chief value of the day lay in the line of
self-discipline for its own sake, or as a means of pleasing
God. The " unco guid " split hairs to decide the precise
line of safety, the minimum of discomfort that would
satisfy the divine law ; while the worldly walked close to
that line, looking eagerly across to the other side and
fretfully inquiring, " When will the sabbath be gone,
that we may sell wheat? "
In contrast with these, what were the outstanding
points in Jesus' thought of the sabbath? By word and
deed he proclaimed a wholly new ideal. For him the
sense of obligation, while never forgotten or belittled,
was transfigured by the sense of opportunity, and the
notion of observance was swallowed up in the larger
concept of use. Recognizing the law of the sabbath as a
172

A Miracle Overshadowed

divine ordinance, he understood that it was not an arbi
trary decree having its end in God's good pleasure, but a
law with a definite and beneficent purpose for man's
good. As a day of opportunity its purpose was to be
attained not by observance but by use, — i. e., not by
negative inaction but by positive and benevolent activity.
Jesus regularly attended the synagogue service on the
sabbath day, not because it was " the proper thing " for
respectable and devout Jews to do, but because the
gathering of the people and the forms of the service
afforded excellent opportunities for preaching the gospel
and performing many a miracle of healing and helpful
ness. For the same reason he accepted many invita
tions to feasts on the sabbath. The frequent mention
of sabbath activities in the story of his ministry indicates
the fact that it was for him a day of special opportunity,
and because of this it was to many of those who came in
contact with him on that day a day of special blessing.
This conflict of ideals between Jesus and the synagogue
ruler is no mere relic of a dead past. It is a perpetual
conflict, a conflict just as persistent and as bitter today
as it was two thousand years ago. And our miracle
story presents no more vital truth than this, — that the
Sunday, or Christian sabbath, is a day of liberty rather
than of law, a day of opportunity rather than obliga
tion, a day for use rather than for observance. If the
day is falling into neglect at the present time, we Chris
tians are not wholly without blame. We have talked too
much about observance and too little about use ; we have
failed to emphasize the elements of liberty, of opportunity,
of blessed purpose; we have written " Thou shalt not "
very large, giving far greater prominence to the com
mandment of Moses than to the words of Jesus. Even
the Puritans and Pilgrims of New England fell into this
mistake. By their austerities they made the Sunday a
bugbear and a burden to many, especially among the
young, and we are witnessing the inevitable reaction.
The true Christian attitude toward the sabbath, as
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indicated in the teaching and practice of Jesus, is well
expressed in the words of Browning's " Pippa." You
remember the poor little Italian silk weaver of Assolo,
toiling incessantly in the mills from morning till night,
with but one day in the year for a holiday. Little
wonder that the one day seemed exceedingly precious to
her, and that for weeks she anticipated its coming with
careful plans for the fullest use of every moment. As the
day dawns she pours forth all her sense of its value in the
familiar lines : —
" O day, if I squander a wavelet of thee,
A mite of my twelve hours' treasure,
The least of thy gazes or glances,
(Be they grants thou art bound to, or gifts above
measure)
One of thy choices or one of thy chances,
(Be they tasks God imposed thee, or freaks at thy
pleasure)
— My day, if I squander such labor or leisure,
Then shame fall on Assolo, mischief on me! "
Here is a true picture of Christ and his ideal of the
sabbath day. Here obligation and opportunity, duty and
privilege are harmonized in one perfect chord of joyful
anticipation and purpose. " Ye hypocrites! Doth not
each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass
from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And
ought not this woman, whom Satan hath bound, lo,
these eighteen years, to have been loosed from this bond
on the sabbath day? "
The sabbath day has brought greater blessings to
mankind than all the miracles that have been wrought
throughout the ages. Yet its possibilities of blessing
have never been really demonstrated. Neither Jew nor
Christian has ever shown the world what a true sab
bath can do for men and nations. The ancient Jews had
a saying that if the sabbath could but once be perfectly
174

A Miracle Overshadowed

observed the nation would be restored to its greatest
glory. Yet their artificial and arbitrary rules of observ
ance were self-destructive. No perfunctory or formal
observance of the sabbath could ever result in anything
but petrifaction, national, social and moral. But when
men, — Christian men or any other men, — learn to
look forward eagerly to the sabbath (or whatsoever they
may name the day) as a day of freedom from self and
selfish aims, a day of opportunity for self -development
through unselfish service, a day " to loose the bonds of
wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke," " to let the
oppressed go free," to " break every yoke, ... to deal
thy bread to the hungry," to " bring the poor that are
cast out to thy house," ... to clothe the naked, and to
get acquainted with thine own family, — " Then shall
thy light break forth as the morning, and thy healing
shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall
go before thee; the glory of Jehovah shall be thy
rearward." But what of the poor woman who was so wonderfully
freed from her " spirit of infirmity "? Simply this:
the miracle of healing has been wholly overshadowed by
the miracle of teaching, as the evangelist intended that
it should be.

175

CHAPTER XXI
A Healing Hand-Clasp
THE FIRST LEPER HEALED
Matt. 8 : 2-4; Mark 1 : 40-45; Luke 5 : 12-14
Text. — " He stretched forth his hand, and touched him." — Matt. 8 : 3
HERE is the gospel in pantomime. Two figures
stand before us. One is the embodiment of
divine purity and power; the other represents in
himself the foulest of human disease, the depth of human
woe. The two are brought into contact through the
touch of loving compassion. The result is healing and joy.
The scene is well worth our careful attention.
The first figure is that of Jesus, the Christ. But what
of the second? Who is that man whom Jesus touched?
Is he a pleasing and attractive member of society? Is
he some comfortable and pious individual, clad in spot
less raiment, his body sanctified by frequent washings,
and scrupulously careful to avoid even ceremonial
defilement? Is he a clean and highly respectable person
whom everybody is glad to meet?
Very far from that! He is one of the most repulsive of
human beings, an outcast from society, foul with disease
and doubly foul with filth and neglect. In a word —
he is a leper. What that means of wretchedness and
horror we in America may not fully understand. Only
a native of the Orient, or of some of the other lands
where leprosy abounds, can appreciate all its meaning.
Yet we may imperfectly picture him to our minds, —
" With ashes on his brow,
Sackcloth about his loins, and on his lip
A covering, stepping painfully and slow,
And with difficult utterance, like one
Whose heart is with an iron nerve put down,
Crying, Unclean! Unclean! "
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A Healing Hand-clasp

All his old companions and former friends, even the
members of his own family, his father and mother, his
brothers and sisters, if he has them, shrink from him with
loathing and fear.
" Not one of all
The many whom he loved, nor she whose name
Was woven in the fibres of his heart
Breaking within him now, to come and speak
Comfort to him."
They drive him pitilessly from their homes. They
shun him. Even the breeze that cools him must not be
permitted to blow upon their faces. There is unclean
ness in the slightest contact with his person or his gar
ments. A terrible dread of contagion fills every heart.
And well it may; for no disease is so hopeless or so
utterly repulsive as leprosy. It is a life immeasurably
worse than death.
As the unfortunate sufferer advances towards them,
see how the disciples and others who are following Jesus
begin to draw their garments a little closer about them!
They turn aside in the way and would pass to the wind
ward of the plague-stricken man.
The leper himself dares not approach too near, for the
laws forbid him. At a distance of several yards he halts,
draws the covering more closely over his lips, that none
may be endangered by his tainted breath, and, after
repeating the sad cry, — " Unclean! Unclean! "shrouds
his face in the coarse sackcloth and falls to the earth,
beseeching the Saviour to take pity on him and heal him.
Is it not a striking picture? Here, a group of shrink
ing, fearful men and women with horror and disgust
manifest in every face; there, a heap of foul sackcloth
and fouler sores in the form of a man crying for pity and
help. Distinct from both is the Christ, his whole being
radiant with divine love and compassion.
What does he in such an emergency? Does he say, —
" Poor man! I am very, very sorry for you. I will see
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
that a committee of the Sanhedrin looks into your case?"
Does he promise to mention his need to the Board of
Public Charities? That would have been the safe way,
the rational way, the modern way of dealing with the
case. But it is not Jesus' way. No. Watch him and see.
He steps boldly forth from the shrinking crowd. He
comes very close to the spot where the wretched man lies.
He looks on him, not with loathing but with love. He
stoops down. He touches him!
What recklessness! What useless courting of danger!
Surely the Master will be defiled. Almost surely he will
be smitten with the dread disease. He does not stop to
think of that. The whole heart of the Saviour goes out
in desire to bless the unhappy soul; and he touches him.
And what of the leper? A wondrous thrill of courage
and hope takes possession of him as he feels the touch of
that outstretched hand. Many years have passed since
he has known the pleasure of such contact with a fellow
man, excepting such as are as foul and diseased as him
self. But the hand that touches him now is soft and cool
and clean and healthy. More, it is strong and kind and
loving. There is a sympathy in the touch that reaches
the innermost recesses of his soul and kindles afresh
hopes that were almost dead. There is power in that
touch, power to cleanse the leper, power to restore the
sick to health. Instantly the scales fall from his body.
His blood flows with a delicious coolness through his
veins. His dry palms become moist. His flesh becomes
as soft and as clean as that of a little child. His leprosy
is gone — gone forever — and he is a well man once more.
Imagine, if you can, the effect of this cure upon the
bystanders, especially upon the disciples who were eager
to catch the meaning as well as the bare facts of their
Master's blessed work. Doubtless the first reaction of
even the most devout mind was sheer astonishment and
wonder. But after that there must have come something
deeper, more abiding: a suggestion, in short, of eternal
truth. What was it? 178

A Healing Hand-clasp

The healing in a hand-clasp, — that is the kernel of the
story, the ultimate impression made upon the mind in
sympathy with the Christ. Jesus incarnates all Christly
graces and attainments. He stands for the divine in
redeemed humanity. The leper represents every form
and degree of human despair and repulsiveness. Hand
touching hand is but a symbol of soul touching soul,
heart clasping heart. It is personal contact, it is brother
hood, it is interest, it is sympathy.
Beyond the literal assurance of divine power to heal
even leprosy by direct spiritual efficiency, which is as
real today as ever it was, and has had its witness in every
age, the story is a picture of the true attitude of all
purity towards the impure, of all refinement towards
the rude, of all righteousness towards the sinful, of all
godliness towards the ungodly. In it I see that Christli-
ness has nothing to fear from contact with evil and want
and woe, that the secret of saving power is sympathy,
that it is Christian not to withdraw ourselves from the
careless or the wayward or the coarse or the degraded or
the unlovely, but to clasp hands with them in token of
brotherhood and sisterhood, to overcome the contagion
of their disease with the more potent contagion of our
health, to impart to them something of our positive
spiritual life, and so to restore them to highest manhood.
All the meaning and power of the gospel may be con
centrated in a simple touch. A hearty grasp of the hand
may embody more real religion than whole volumes of
theology. We can never measure the influence for good
that springs from the personal contact of an earnest,
godly soul with the indifferent or the erring or the sinful.
Not till that great day when the Book of Life is opened
shall we know how many wandering souls have been
reclaimed from the paths of sin, how many fainting souls
have been encouraged in the way of duty, how many
dark lives have been brightened, by a strong and loving
clasp of some consecrated hand. Not till, then shall we
know how many, for want of such a hand-clasp, have
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
strayed, or fainted, or become discouraged and utterly
hopeless. The power is with us still to restrain or to rescue, to
hold or to heal. But today, as in the days of Jesus, the
world is exceedingly afraid of contagion. The so-called
Christian world is afr aid. It banishes the leper; it keeps
itself as far as possible not only from disease and sin,
but even from rudeness and ignorance and want. Smug
and selfish respectability flees from the vulgar and
unrefined lest it should be contaminated. It keeps the
unattractive and the wretched well beyond arms'
length, and ministers to them, if at all, through organiza
tions and missions. It preaches its gospel from a safe
distance, and utters its cold words of pity; but it rarely
gives itself in personal sympathy and power.
Study the evolution of any large city and you will
trace the continuous retreat of purity and piety before the
advance of the lepers. The present slums of Boston
were once the abodes of the refined and the godly. In a
moment of unwatchfulness some family of less refine
ment or attractiveness gained a footing in the hallowed
spot, and straightway, instead of trying to make the
new-comer one of themselves, a welcome addition to
their circles, the good Christians of the street —
" Folded their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently stole away."
As a result of this spirit, street after street has been
abandoned to the Italian, the Greek, the Hebrew, and the
Negro in turn; and now we see the children of these
Christians planting an Andover house in the slums of
Boston, or a Hull House in the slums of Chicago, to touch
with the hand of American Christliness the foreign and
ruder elements of our people, or establishing " Homes "
like the Meonah Home and the Florence Crittenden
Home to reach out and lift up the fallen.
We take a vast amount of satisfaction in contemplat-
180

A Healing Hand-clasp

ing these modern developments of Christian philan
thropy. We think they prove the Christliness of
present-day religion. But do they? No! A thousand
times, no! On the contrary, they convict the great
majority of us of utter unchristliness. Is it Christly
that one disciple in ten thousand should thus reach out
and touch the lepers? Yes, Christly for that one. But
what of the remaining nine hundred and ninety-nine?
Unchristly! Selfish! Cowardly!
What the few are doing we ought all of us to be doing,
not in missions or rescue homes or social settlements,
but right where we are. We ought to be touching the
lepers, clasping hands with earth's needy ones, and
imparting to them our strong and healthy life. The great
cities are not the only sinners in this regard. Whence
come the outcasts, the fallen souls that are rescued in
the " Homes " of the metropolis? Many of them come
from our country villages and hill towns whence they
have been driven by the frowns and frigidity of respect
able Christian people.
But have we nothing to fear from contact with im
purity and sin? Never, if our contact be true and
Christian. The power is with us. Our spiritual health,
if we are genuine and earnest Christians, is sufficient to
overcome the contagion of any moral disease that exists.
There is no healthier class of persons in our land than the
physicians who come into daily contact with disease of
every sort to cure it.
The perfect purity of Christian character is not to be
maintained by carefully avoiding all contact with that
which is evil. Where will you find the most beautiful
types of womanly character and purity in both thought
and life? Among those exclusive circles of Christians.
who never associate with the vile, and who keep them
selves at a safe distance from the erring? No; you find
them rather in closest contact and most helpful associa
tion with the fallen. It is in the prisons that you find a
Mrs. Fry or a Dorothea Dix. For a Hannah More or a
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
Maud Ballington Booth you must search among the
degraded. A Lady Somerset is found touching the
victims of intemperance with the saving hand of Chris
tian love more often than in the parlors of the refined and
respectable. The character that is wholly devoted to keeping itself
unspotted from the world is a useless character. Human
ity could not be redeemed in ten thousand eternities by
such Christianity as that. Even the power of infinite
holiness accomplishes nothing at long range. For this
reason God reveals himself in the Christ, coming into
immediate contact with our earthly life that so he may
elevate and save the race by the touch of divinity. If the
Christ could not save men at long range, how much less
can we!
Did Jesus, then, touch all those whom he would heal?
Far from it. When a nobleman entreated him to come
down and heal his son, he merely answered, " Go thy
way; thy son liveth "; and when a Roman centurion
asked healing for his servant, the request was granted in
a similar manner. These were both rich men, standing
high in society and having no lack of friends. They
felt no need of sympathy.
But when some poor person sought him; a leper, a
blind beggar, or any one who knew little of the joy of
human sympathy, the Great Physician always came to
him, touched him, took him by the hand, spoke kind
words of encouragement and blessing, and by such mani
festations of personal interest and sympathy and contact
revealed his deep love, and drew from the heart of the
unfortunate one a warm response of faith and confidence.
How often do we, who call ourselves the disciples of
Jesus, reverse this method! To the poor and friendless
we send messages of help. For the unattractive or the
lowly or the degraded we work through the medium of
societies and agents and hired missionaries. We think
it is enough if we remember them even in the most dis
tant manner. We are seldom ready to come into close
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A Healing Hand-clasp

personal contact with them, contact of hand and heart.
To the rich, on the other hand, to the respectable, the
refined, the clean, we extend the hand of cordial sym
pathy. If opportunity occurs to confer a benefit, we go
in person, and we are very careful to render our service
in the most delicate and pleasing manner.
Who of us does not stand convicted in this matter?
We clasp hands with those who need no hand-clasp, but
we hold ourselves aloof from those who need us most.
We take our stand on a lofty eminence and expect
the world to come up to us, instead of going down to the
world. Jesus said to his disciples, " As ye go, preach."
We have a revised version which reads, " If they come,
preach." We establish our churches, we organize the
various forms and departments of religious service, then
we throw open our doors and declare the services free
to all, and we wonder why the world does not accept
this general invitation and become a pious, respectable,
church-going world. What more can we possibly do?
In this miracle of healing Jesus shows us that there is
at least one thing more that we can do. We can touch
the people. We can come close to them where they are,
in their homes or wherever they are to be found, even
in the haunts of vice and sin. When by chance any
unlovely one comes to the house of God, we can extend
the hand of hearty welcome and brotherhood. In
numberless ways we can put ourselves into direct per
sonal contact with them; we can make them feel our
loving interest in their lives and in their needs, and so
bring to bear upon them the divine influence for their
healing. The Spirit of God is much like electric force. If you
wish to send a current of electricity from one wire to
another, you must bring them together. Too many
Christians are like electric light wires, carefully insu
lated. The power of God is never transmitted through
them to others because they never really touch their
lives. If we could but tear away the insulation, and so
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
come into direct contact with the needy souls about us,
the power of the Holy Spirit would soon be revealed.
If individual disciples were continually exercising their
power in the consecrated touch of love and sympathy,
we should see the miracle of cleansing repeated daily.
" The touch of human hands —
That is the boon we ask;
For groping, day by day,
Along the stony way,
We need the comrade heart
That understands,
And the warmth, the living warmth
Of human hands.
" The touch of human hands;
Not vain, unthinking words,
Nor that cold charity
Which shuns our misery;
We seek a loyal friend
Who understands,
And the warmth, the pulsing warmth
Of human hands.
" The touch of human hands —
Such care as was in Him
Who walked in Galilee
Beside the silver sea;
We need a patient guide
Who understands,
And the warmth, the loving warmth
Of human hands."

184

CHAPTER XXII
Ten Times One are Ten
TEN LEPERS CLEANSED
Luke 17 : 11-19
Text. — " Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? —
Luke 17 : 17
A QUESTION? No, — a cry of bitter disappoint
ment and heart sorrow. Ten men had come to
Jesus with a piteous appeal, and he had responded
with all the eager fulness of divine compassion. They
came in all the foulness and despair of lepers ; going away
to fulfil his command they suddenly found themselves
clean and strong. Every one of the ten shared this
marvelous blessing, but only one returned to thank him
who had wrought the blessed wonder. Is it strange that
the Master cried out in amazement and sorrow, " Where
are the nine? "
As an illustration of divine healing the incident is one
of many. As a parable of our common life in its relation
to God, it stands alone. For vividness of suggestion
along this line it has no parallel in literature. Here,
then is our cue.
When did this event happen? Two thousand years
ago? Yes, — and it also happened yesterday, is hap
pening today. Our Lord is blessing men every day
more signally than he blessed those lepers. He is work
ing perennial miracles of transformation and joy. Not
one of us but has received numberless tokens of the
divine love and compassion ; yet this old story from the
Gospels is being written over and over again in human
history, it is being written in many of our lives. It is
true in Christian America in this twentieth century that
of every ten men whom the Lord most wonderfully
blesses not more than one returns to give thanks; and he,
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
as a rule, is the most unlikely one of the ten, — a Samari
tan. "Where are the nine? " In fact a cry of pain; in
form a question, it furnishes the key with which to
interpret the message of this ancient story. Herein lies
its only moral reaction, its one life lesson. Then why
not seek an answer? Why not follow the ungrateful
ones and ask them why they do not return to give thanks?
" Impossible! " you say, " They are beyond our ques
tioning. We can never know why they failed to return."
Ah, yes, we can. We have all the necessary data for the
writing of genuine history. The answers need be no less
literally true than the Gospel narrative. No need to
draw on the imagination. We can easily reproduce
each reply from memory. Listen! —
There goes No. 1. We hail him and cry with aston
ishment, " Man, why are you not rushing back to thank
him who healed you so gloriously?" And what does he
answer? " Thank him! What have I to thank him for? I
ought to be profoundly grateful because I have been
cleansed of my leprosy? Oh, it is easy enough for you
who have never been afflicted with leprosy to talk about
gratitude for deliverance. But please remember that
there are thousands like yourself who have never been
afflicted, many of whom are no better than I. Now just
think of the long years that have passed since I was
banished from the society of my fellow men, the years
in which I have known nothing of the real joy of living.
God brought this leprosy upon me. Is it anything more
than the barest justice that he should heal me? "
Perhaps you doubt that any man would be guilty of so
ungracious a reply. Well, you have only to listen and
you may hear him for yourself. True, not every man
will express his feelings so baldly in words: but many
are saying by their action, " I owe nothing to God. I
have no call to be grateful to him, or to acknowledge his
goodness in my life. To be sure, I enjoy a great many
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Ten Times One Are Ten

blessings and comforts, but there are others no more
deserving who have received a great deal more than I."
So they go through life with no recognition of God's
claims either in secret, or in the family, or in the world,
or in the church. Fortunate if they be not often heard
grumbling in the midst of their blessings, and complain
ing because they do not receive more.
Where is No. 2? Does he not feel grateful for re
stored health and comfort? Yes, of course he does. —
That is to say, he will feel grateful, exceedingly grateful,
when he is assured that the cure is permanent. But he
is cautious. He has been a leper for many years, and
several times he has been led to believe that he was
recovering, only to meet with bitter disappointment.
The present change has been very sudden. He must not
be too sure that it will last. He would return to give
thanks, but suppose that the leprosy should break out
again tomorrow as unexpectedly as it disappeared today,
suppose it should appear before he reached the Master, —
how unspeakably mortifying that would be! So the
dread of future evil prevents the acknowledgment of
present good.
Have you never met him, — this man who neglects
the duty of the present hour because he is not sure about
next week or next year? Have you never heard of one
who will not obey the command, " Follow me," lest
he should not hold out? Have you never met any of
those persons who are so completely absorbed with
worry about the future that they fail not merely of grati
tude for present good, but of the very enjoyment of it
as well? If not, your sphere of acquaintance is unusu
ally small. The world is full of men and women who are
afraid to trust the Lord for a single day to come, although
he has cared for them through long years, and has
blessed the world for ages. What the spirit of grumbling
does for No. 1, the spirit of distrust does for No. 2.
It dries up the springs of gratitude, and inspires conduct
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
How about No. 3? Oh, he is too busy enjoying his
new-found health to waste any time in formal thanks
giving. Of course, Jesus knows that he is grateful. How
could he be otherwise? No need, therefore, to go back
and tell him. So, without further ado, he rushes off to
the city and enters at once into its social pleasures, into
business, into politics and all the rest of it, with extra
ordinary zeal to make up for years of lost time. He is
the man who mistakes^gladness for gratitude, and dis
places thanksgiving with "eager enjoyment".
Many are the modern imitators of this man. Per
haps you are one of them. God gives them health and
they abuse it by intemperance of various sorts, by dissipa
tion and carelessness, all with the idea of using it to the
full. He gives them wealth, and they are so occupied
with pleasure seeking, or with multiplying their personal
comforts, or with society and travel and study and a
thousand-and-one other things, — yes, in many cases
they are so entirely engrossed with the mere necessity
of caring for their wealth, — that they forget all about
God and his service. God gives them vigor and enthu
siasm and youthful vitality, and they expend these in
frivolity and selfish pleasure. There is gladness without
limit; but there is no expression of gratitude to the
heavenly Father. The fortunate possessor of a happy
disposition often flatters himself that he belongs to a
different order of being from the chronic grumbler;
yet he may be his twin brother in ingratitude.
You turn indignantly to No. 4. " Are you, too, un
grateful, that you hurry away so fast with never a word
of thanks to your benefactor? " you exclaim. "Ungrate
ful! No indeed! " he replies. " However it may be with
others, I at least am truly grateful, and by and by I shall
return and make a suitable acknowledgment. Just
now, however, I cannot go back, for I must go to the
priests. Then I ought to go to my family and friends
whom I have not seen, except from a distance, for a
long time. A great many who formerly knew me will be
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Ten Times One Are Ten

eager to learn about my wonderful cure. I will return
to give thanks to the Nazarene tomorrow."
Do you not recognize in this man a type of that
numberless host who know that they ought to serve God,
and to accept Jesus Christ as their leader, and who mean
to do it at some future time? There is a goodly com
pany of that regiment in every community, and in every
gathering for worship. Is that gratitude? Js it Chris
tianity? No. The gratitude that delays is ingratitude.
The confession of tomorrow is the base denial of today.
With all his good intentions for the future, No. 4 belongs
today just where he is, namely, in the company of the
ungrateful. Now question No. 5. Why does he not turn back?
Why does he repress his gratitude? Because he is
afraid of popular criticism or ridicule. Why, what is
there to ridicule in an honest expression of gratitude for
a great blessing? Nothing at all. It is a manly act, a
noble act; but a scorner will ridicule anything from the
bald head of Elisha to the Christ on the cross, and for
fear of him many a soul has been guilty of unmanly
silence. " Ridicule is the test of truth," says the proverb
which is itself an untruth. So far from being a test of
truth, there is nothing so true, nothing so good, nothing
so sublime or pure or lovely, that it has not been made a
subject of ridicule. What the most fiendish persecution,
or the most terrible inquisition has failed to accomplish
in stopping the mouths of those who would gratefully
acknowledge their allegiance to the Christ and his cause,
the tongue of the scorner has achieved with fatal ease.
The curl of a lip, the sidelong glance, the thoughtless
jest, — before these many a Peter has quailed and
uttered a cursing denial of his Lord, when he would have
faced fire and sword, thumb-screw and rack, without
flinching. As Carlyle expresses it, — " Certain mouth-
fuls of articulate wind will be blown at us, and this what
mortal courage can front? " Genuine gratitude forgets
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
all about criticism and ridicule. That we stay for a
single moment to think of these things brands us at
once as ungrateful.
Now where is No. 6? Will he not turn back to give
thanks? No, he goes with the others. Is he, then,
utterly ungrateful? Oh, no! He feels truly, yes, pro
foundly grateful; much more grateful no doubt (in his
own estimation) than the Samaritan: but his gratitude
is so profound that he cannot hope to give it fitting
expression. A shallow, demonstrative fellow like that
Samaritan, who really has little sense of the fitness of
things, may lightly run to offer his praise without
thought. Not so this sensitive and cultured soul. He
realizes that he is not a gifted speaker. Were he a
Paul or a Demosthenes or a Cicero, he would come to the
Great Physician and pour forth a torrent of eloquent
thanksgiving commensurate with the occasion ; but he is
" slow of speech " and equally slow of thought. Better
say nothing than to offer to so great a person and for so
great a gift his stammering and ill-expressed thanks.
This has been a standing excuse for the neglect of
plain duty, from the time of Moses to the present day.
It was the excuse of the man with one talent, and men
of many talents offer it today. They christen it
"modesty"; God names it "ingratitude." They write
themselves " humble "; God writes them " unfaithful "
or " dishonest."
Little, is it, that you can do or say? Then fill that
little with greatful love. Make it large with desire and
willing consecration. Rejoice that God will accept even
your weak endeavor and will reenforce it with his infinite
power, that he will measure your gratitude in units
of purpose rather than achievement, that he will correct
your mistakes and overrule your failures until at length
you shall be able to serve him fittingly.
Do not delude yourself with the notion that you are
grateful to God so long as you are too humble to express
your gratitude. True thankfulness forgets self wholly,
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Ten Times One Are Ten

forgets even to be humble, in the glad appreciation of
God's love.
?- No. 7? He would return, but he fears that Jesus will
make some demand upon him in return for the gift of
health. He may say to him, as he has said to Peter and
James and John, " Follow me." He may require him
to preach the gospel, or to go about healing the sick, or
to take up some mission, so that he will have no leisure
to enjoy his restored health. Still, if he could be sure
that nothing would be required of him beyond what he
was perfectly able and willing to do, he would go back
and thank his benefactor.
But just think! — if he should be commanded to give
up society, now that for the first time in years he is able
to enjoy social life; if he should be bidden to go and
carry the gospel to other lepers; or if he should be
expected to proclaim his allegiance to this religious
teacher who is so unpopular with the priests and Phari
sees and all the best people ; or if, — or if, —
No, he cannot do it. He is deeply sensible of the
goodness of Jesus, he is grateful for the blessing which
that goodness has bestowed on himself, but such dread
ful possibilities of sacrifice and service are quite out of
the question.
Does this man stand for any of us? Is he your reflec
tion, my reflection, in the mirror of history? Do we
never halt or draw back from the unconditional surrender
that gratitude demands lest God should demand from us
some impossible sacrifice? Do we never say in our
hearts, " If I were sure that God would not require me
to give up this pleasure or renounce that idol, I would
declare my allegiance to him? " However it may have
been with this leper, I know it is so with multitudes of
men today who will not come to the Christ with manly
expressions of gratitude and pledges of service for fear
of the demands he may make on their consecration.
But we are pausing too long with this ingrate. If we do
not hasten with our quest the others will escape us.
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
No. 8, — where is he? Hurrying on to the priest, and
then to his home. Will he not come back to Jesus?
Has he no thanks to offer? Not he. Why not?
Because he is a scrupulously honest man. He is no hypo
crite. If there is anything in this world that he utterly
scorns, it is hypocrisy. He will not make a great show of
thankfulness while, after all, there is really very little
gratitude in his heart. He will do a great injustice rather
than run the risk of doing a very small one.
Have you never met this man, the man who strains
out the smallest gnat of hypocrisy and swallows whole
camels, yes, whole menageries of ingratitude? He is
everywhere. And he is forever boasting of the fact
that, whatever else he may do, he certainly does not
profess to be any better than he is. It seems never to
occur to him that ingratitude or open sin may become
even worse than false professions of love and service.
At last we come to No. 9. What does he say to us?
Is he, too, utterly ungrateful? Oh, no. What then?
Is he really grateful? No, he is not. Well, if he is
neither grateful nor ungrateful, what is he? In point of
fact he is not anything? He simply goes with the crowd.
Why did he not return to give thanks? Because there
was only one returning, and he a Samaritan. Eight
respectable Jews were going the other way; and he
always goes with the majority.
Who does not know this man? His name is Legion.
There are so many of him that you must use a plural
pronoun. They go with the multitude that keeps holy
day, or they follow a multitude to do evil. Anywhere,
anything, only let it be with the multitude. They attend
church because the majority of respectable people do so.
They do not give themselves in hearty fellowship and
service because the multitude does not. Limited and
general conformity to Christian ideals and customs is
popular, therefore they fall in with it. Specific confes
sion, whole-hearted consecration and gratitude are very
rare. Leave them to the Samaritan, the eccentric
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Ten Times One Are Ten

person, the peculiar ones in society. There are thou
sands, aye millions, who would rather go to perdition
with the majority than to heaven with one, especially
if that one were a Samaritan.
Can any honest soul escape the moral challenge which
this miracle story flings to every reader? The last
faint echo of wonder has long since died away. That
matters little. Down through the ages comes with
undiminished clearness that plaintive cry of disappoint
ment, " Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the
nine} "
You have studied the nine portraits and you recognize
them all as drawn from life. More than this, you
heartily despise every one of them. The only real man
of the ten is the Samaritan. Rude he may be, and quite
uncultivated. There may be little about him person
ally that is attractive; but he is a man for all that.
He has acted the manly part in returning to Jesus to
express his thanks for restored health. He alone is
worthy of our imitation.

193

CHAPTER XXIII
Christianity a Religion of Power
TWO BLIND MEN RECEIVE THEIR SIGHT
Matt. 9 : 27-31
Text. — " Believe ye that I am able to do this? " — Matt. 9 : 28
THE challenge of power is the ultimate test of
religious values. To this test Christianity freely
offers itself. Not the beauty and perfection of its
ideals, not the sublimity or the mystery of its doctrines,
not the majesty or impressiveness of its forms, are the
measure of its worth, but the efficient power, the practi-'
cal utility, that is embodied iri these. A powerless
religion is a worthless religion, however lofty its ideals
or sublime its doctrines. Any gospel worthy the name
must be dynamic. It must embody living, aggressive,
all-conquering force.
" Yes, spiritual force," you say; and no rational
person will dispute your assertion. The force of religion
is always spiritual, but a spiritual force may sometimes
produce very material results. An exercise of faith
may make a sick man well. A religious revival may
result in a crusade of street cleaning or some other
important sanitary or philanthropic activity. We must
not forget, however, that between the active spiritual
force and the manifest physical or material result there
is a necessary link, itself spiritual, and often unseen.
It is related of Jesus that on one occasion two blind
men followed him, crying out, and saying, " Have mercy
on us, thou son of David." And Jesus said to them,
" Believe ye that I am able to do this? " They an
swered, " Yea, Lord." Then he touched their eyes,
saying, " According to your faith be it done unto you."
And their sight was restored. And Jesus sternly com-
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Christianity a Religion of Power
manded them to say nothing of their cure to any man.
But they went out and spread the story in all that region.
Winnowing out the chaff of the dead past, the oriental
setting, the incidental details, the unusual conditions, I
find this measure of wheat for present consumption:
Christianity is a religion of power; the Christ is the
embodiment of power. We join our lives to him with
links of power, and when thus joined to him our own lives
are charged with power.
Christianity, I say, is a religion of power. Read the
Gospels carefully and see how often the word is used,
and how much more often the idea of power is emphati
cally presented. Jesus is declared to be the Son of God
" with power." His whole life is a revelation of spiritual
power hitherto unimagined, and this power he promised
to impart to all who should follow him. More than this,
his immediate disciples are commanded to wait until
they should receive power before they undertook any
work. Again, I say, the Christ is the embodiment of power.
Note the challenge with which the Master meets the plea
of the blind men. — " Believe ye that I am able to do
this? " " Do you recognize me as a repository of divine
power? " And it was their ready confession of this that
called forth the display of that power in opening their
eyes. The entire series of miracle stories, whatever our
view of them from most absolute literalism to the baldest
mythical theory, attests the impression of spiritual power
that the life and work of Jesus made upon the hearts of
those who were most intimately associated with him
throughout his ministry. His " mighty works " loom
large above the horizon of their thought, and yet the
physical element in these works is ever subordinate in
their memory to the spiritual lessons involved in them.
Once more, ive join our lives to him with links of power.
The words, " I am able " are balanced over against the
query, " Believe ye? " The moral power of faith is the
link that joins the human life with the divine. It was
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
the link that joined the life of Jesus with the life of God.
Even as the life of Jesus, when thus bound to the life of
God, was charged with spiritual power, so the life of
any man anywhere and at any time will be charged with
divine power the moment it is linked by faith with the
living Christ.
Too often we think of " faith " as a mere system of
lifeless beliefs. We speak of " the faith once delivered
to the saints." We sing —
" Faith of our fathers, holy faith,
We will be true to thee till death,"
and for most of us that word " faith " suggests only, a
creed or theological formula. The faith of which Jesus
spoke could not be expressed in a creed, nor comprised
in a volume of theology. It was a living force. It
was conduct and character growing out of a strong confi
dence in the power and goodness of God. One may
believe the Gospels from beginning to end, he may be
perfectly orthodox in his notions of Christ and of God,
he may accept all the teachings of the church without
question or doubt, and yet his life may be without one
scintilla of moral power. Not what we believe about
the Christ, but how profoundly we believe in him; not
what we think about God, but how unreservedly we trust
him in the common affairs of life, is the measure of our
faith. This faith alone is the channel through which
divine power can flow into any human life.
Now I see in this miracle story the expression of an
eternal truth, of a truth which illuminates all the great
moral and spiritual problems of our life. Every healing
of human ills, whether individual or social, is achieved
by a working partnership between God and men. In
Christ's healing acts he is in complete and unreserved
partnership with God ; and every true disciple of Christ
is surrendered to God in some degree of partnership.
The measure of our Christianity is not the fervor of our
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Christianity a Religion of Power
professions, or the correctness of our beliefs, but the
completeness of our partnership with God in the great
work of redeeming the world, beginning with our own
lives. Today, as always, the supreme ills of life are moral,
not physical. In many cases the two are closely related;
but in all such cases the moral evil is fundamental and
demands first attention. Hence the crucial question of
the present hour is, " Believe ye that I am able? " It is
a question of practical confidence in the potency of
spiritual and moral forces, in other words, a question of
belief in the power of the living Christ; for only as men
really believe in the efficiency of that power will they
surrender themselves to its influence and cooperate in
its use.
The great need of the Christian life in the present world
crisis is the need of spiritual power. We need power to
conquer the evil tendencies within ourselves. We need
power to overcome sinful habits and appetites and
passions. We need power to free us from the petrifac
tion of the material and the slavery of the conventional.
We need power to develop in us the positive qualities of
true manhood and womanhood which often seem so far
above our reach. But what is far more important, far
more essential than any of these, we need power for
unselfish service. We need power to leaven society and
to bring order out of the chaos in which humanity seems
to be involved.
Every disciple of Jesus needs power. Learning is
good; culture is excellent; personal purity and holiness
are indispensable. Yet we may have all these and be
utterly useless, wholly wanting in power for good. Only
the power that comes from genuine partnership with God
through faith in the Christ can make any life efficient in
overcoming the evils that beset our social life, and in
solving the dark problems which seem to be growing into
armed hosts in every land, like the dragon's teeth of
the old myths; and that power is within the reach of
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
every disciple who accepts the challenge of a true and
rational faith.
The Christian Church in this twentieth century
needs power. We have everything else. Never was
the Church so well equipped as today. She is wealthy
and cultured. The moral life and intelligent activity of
her membership are keyed to a higher pitch than ever
before. Her preaching is the best the world has ever
heard, from an intellectual standpoint. Her services
are attractive and unimpeachable. Her organization is
well-nigh perfect. But what of results? Are they not
pitifully meager by comparison with the outlay? Are
not very many of our churches living and working year
after year without exerting any perceptible influence
upon the character of the communities in which they
are located?
In a land like ours we rightly expect the Christian
Church to be the all-potent influence, leavening every
element and phase of life, shaping politics, molding
society, swaying commerce, commanding the loyal
allegiance and service of all intelligent persons, easily
overmatching all unchristian forces.
Are such expectations fulfilled? Far from it. But
why not? Because, with all her equipment "of wealth
and machinery, with all her purity and culture, with all
her prestige and persistence, there is not sufficient
spiritual power in the Church to make these fully effec
tive. Many of our churches are like factories splen
didly built and furnished with the most perfect of modern
machinery, but having neither steam-engine, water-
wheel nor dynamo; so, I say that the Church needs
power that she may lead men not only to admire but to
practice righteousness. She needs power boldly to
withstand and overcome the forces of evil. She needs
power to turn the tide of low ideals and unworthy motives
into nobler and more Christly channels.
Over against this meager reality place the glory of the
divine ideal. " Ye shall receive power," is the Master's
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Christianity a Religion of Power
promise. Jesus never meant the spi-itual achievements
of his Church to be monopolized by a rare saint here and
there, or by one church in a thousand. He never aimed
at a culture that should fear religious enthusiasm and
frown upon the development of spiritual power. He
would have every church a spiritual powerhouse, every
gathering of Christians a spiritual dynamo, every disciple
a live wire. Not to save self, not to escape from the
temptations and evil associations of the world, not to
provide a fold for comfort or a snug harbor for safety,
was the Church established, but for work, for aggressive
and effective warfare against all the hosts of evil. And
for every one of us entrance into the fellowship of the
Church should mean enlistment in this service.
A man or a woman may be upright, spotless, clean of
hand and pure of heart; but if this purity and holiness
be centered in self, if the entire thought and care of life
be devoted to " keeping himself unspotted from the
world," to developing a higher type of personal character,
such a person has not understood the true meaning of
discipleship or of membership in the Christian Church.
All purity and all righteousness that exert no saving
power are essentially heathen. Christian purity is
pungent, pervasive. The true disciple of Jesus is not
merely a purified soul. He is a purifying influence, a
power to help other lives, to season all society in which
he moves.
Now all this thought concerning the manifest lack of
spiritual power is the direct and inevitable reaction of
Jesus' challenge to the faith of the blind men, " Believe
ye that I am able to do this? " Lack of moral power
results from unbelief in the efficacy of that power. If
the Church, of today is without spiritual power, it is
because Christian people do not believe in the adequacy
of that power to cure the ills of society and to overcome
the forces of evil which are so strongly entrenched in the
life of mankind.
The concluding paragraph of our miracle story is no
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
less significant than that which goes before. We are
told that Jesus sternly charged the two men, saying,
" See that no man know it." " But they went forth and
spread abroad his fame in all that land." And there is no
hint that Jesus ever reproved ihem for disobeying his
injunction. Here is a further slant light on the subject of power.
It is the irrepressible witness of a blessed experience.
Jesus did not reprove their disobedience because he
knew he had required a task beyond their power. They
were impelled by the spiritual force of overflowing grati
tude. To obey would be to stifle the noblest impulse of
their souls. It was a truly thankful spirit overriding the
demands of formal obedience. Theirs was the spirit
expressed later by two apostles, when bidden to silence
by the civil authorities, — " We cannot but speak the
things which we saw and heard." How sharp the con
trast between them and the nine lepers who formally
obeyed the Master's injunction to go and show them
selves to the priests but in their very obedience proved
their utter want of gratitude for the great blessing
bestowed upon them. The tenth turned back, post
poning his obedience that he might first express his
gratitude, and he alone received commendation.
The irrepressible witness of a blessed experience : —
does not that suggest an explanation of our manifest
want of power? Is the Church of today a witnessing
Church? Do the rank and file of nominal Christians
manifest a resistless impulse to publish abroad the mes
sage of the gospel? Are the religious convictions of
disciples a controlling force in their social or commercial
or civic life? If not, why not? Almost always the
lack of readiness to bear witness to the value and power
of the spiritual life indicates a lack of personal experi
ence of these. A popular statesman of the past genera
tion, whose religious life, though he was a church mem
ber, was a negligible quantity, once spoke of " those
topics of personal religion concerning which noble
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Christianity a Religion of Power
natures have an unconquerable reserve." He might
have said more truly, " concerning which most of us are
deplorably ignorant."
It is by no means uncommon to hear preachers,
clerical or lay, exhorting their hearers to " bear their
testimony for Christ." And when the responses are few,
they redouble their urging, as though the lack of witness
ing were the result of diffidence or unwillingness. As a
matter of fact, it is as a. rule the result of a lack of
spiritual experience. True witnessing is spontaneous,
at once natural and irresistible. The man- whose eyes
have been opened, or whose life has been transfigured
by the power of the living Christ, will feel no uncon
querable reserve about speaking of the fact. Rather
will he feel an irrepressible impulse to share the blessing
with others, and by his testimony to lead them to the
source of a like blessing.
Life is a search after power. And no man has really
understood the meaning or discovered the value of the
gospel of Jesus Christ until he sees it as " the power of
God unto salvation to every one that believeth," the
force which alone can overcome the power of evil in the
individual life and can transform human society, and
from the apparently hopeless materials at hand can
build the kingdom of God on earth.

201

CHAPTER XXIV
Seeing Men as Trees
THE BLIND MAN OF BETHSAIDA
Mark 8 : 22-26
Text. — "I see men; for I behold them as trees, walking." —
Mark 8 : 24
HE who knows, and knows that he knows, finds that
knowledge is power. He who knows, but knows
not that he knows, is powerless despite his knowl
edge. He who knows not, and knows that he knows
not, may hope to obtain knowledge. But he who knows
not, and knows not that he knows not, is a hopeless
know-nothing. The story of the cure of the blind man at Bethsaida
is unique among the miracle stories of the Gospels, in
that it records a gradual process of recovery, involving
two stages. We cannot positively assert that all the
other cures were instantaneous, yet that is the natural
impression made upon the mind of the average reader of
the narratives; for this reason Mark's account of the
miracle at Bethsaida has a distinctive character and
speaks a message all its own.
Let us refresh our minds with a review of the incident
as the evangelist has sketched it for us.
Jesus is walking about the country with his disciples,
teaching as he goes, and ever ready for works of mercy
and healing. Just as they are about to enter the village
of Bethsaida, friends lead a blind man to the Master and
urgently plead for a healing touch. With his customary
readiness Jesus at once takes the blind man by the hand,
leads him a little farther away from the village that they
may not attract a crowd of wondermongers, lays his
hands upon the sightless eyes, at the same time moisten
ing the eyes with spittle, and asks him, " Do you see? "
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Looking up, the man replies, " I see men, but not dis
tinctly; for I behold them as trees, walking." Then
Jesus lays his hands a second time upon the eyes, and the
man, looking up once more, sees all things clearly.
Now, as a mere case of blindness cured by the direct
application of divine power, this is but one among many
similar instances, and conveys no individual impression.
But when we note that we have here a second stage in
the process healing, we get an entirely fresh and distinc
tive reaction. This reaction is produced by the words of
the half cured man, " I see men; for I behold them as
trees, walking." Here the story touches life at a new
point, and in the case of every thoughtful reader, it
calls forth a response from the deepest spiritual nature.
At the first imposition of hands the man saw, but he
did not see clearly, and he knew that he did not see clearly.
More than that, he declared that he did not see clearly,
and his confession of incompleteness paved the way to a
perfect cure.
Doubtless there were some among those whose eyes
were opened by the Great Physician who never saw
clearly. At the first word of the divine Healer, at the
first touch of his hands, they looked up and saw indis
tinctly, but were not aware of the indistinctness; and
because they did not know that their vision was imper
fect, they went on through life satisfied but hampered
with purblindness. It may even be true that some,
though partially conscious of the incompleteness of the
cure, would not acknowledge the fact in their eagerness
to proclaim a miracle, and so condemned themselves to
lifelong imperfection.
However that may be, it is certain that, in the case
before us, the realization and confession of an imperfect
cure were the direct means of obtaining perfect sight.
And this fact suggests a message of vital import in the
moral and spiritual development of men. In brief, it is
this : — the first condition of satisfaction is a sense of
need. The one hope of future perfection is the knowl-
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
edge of present imperfection ; the consciousness of present
ignorance is the only sufficient spur to the attainment of
knowledge; the confession of weakness may open the
door to true strength.
Here is one of the fundamental laws of life, a necessary
key to all true progress, all high attainment, all worthy
success. It is the law of spiritual demand and supply.
" Blessed are they that hunger and thirst," says our
Lord, " for they shall be filled." And the secret of a
great life has been summed up in the words, " I count
not myself yet to have apprehended."
I see in our miracle story, first, a portrait of two types
of men whom one meets in connection with every great
movement in human society; and second, a description
of the two (yes, of the many) steps in the experience of
every earnest and honest seeker after truth.
First, I say, we have here a portrait of two types of
men. They are the visionaries and the men of vision.
The difference? This: the visionary is the man who
sees, but not clearly, — yet he knows not, or will not
confess that he sees imperfectly; the man of vision is
either the man who sees clearly, and knows that he sees,
or he is the man who, not seeing clearly, confesses his
imperfection and seeks for clearer light. The visionary
sees men as trees; the man of vision is not content till he
sees men as men and trees as trees. The visionary sees
objects, facts, ideals, but has no just sense of relations;
the man of vision notes the proportions of his facts, the
perspective of his ideals.
In the business world, we call him a visionary who
conceives great enterprises, but has no thought for the
details of labor and administration by which alone such
enterprises can be successfully carried out. In civic or
social life, he is a visionary who plans ideal measures or
systems, but fails to reckon with the very un-ideal men
and women by whom these measures must be realized,
these systems worked. The visionary in religion is the
enthusiast who looks upon faith as a substitute for fact,
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Seeing Men as Trees

the fanatic who rides his hobby amuck as though there
were no other entries in the field, the rainbow-chaser who
runs after every new cult or 'ism, sure, with each fresh
start that he has at last found the golden store of ulti
mate truth. These all see men as trees, walking; and
few of them ever seek that second touch of the Master
which would make them see all things clearly.
Every age has its Don Quixote, who rides full tilt
against the revolving arms of some great windmill only
to be sent sprawling upon the earth for his pains.
In the Middle Ages came Peter the Hermit, who
glimpsed a great mission, but stayed not for a clearer
vision, ¦ — had not, in fact, the slightest notion that his
vision was lacking in clearness. To wrest the Holy
City from the power of the infidel and to rescue the Holy
Sepulcher from his desecrating hands was his ideal, and
to him this was an aim no less sacred than was the quest
of the " Holy Grail " to the knights of poetry. Yet in
the inception of this quest he was actuated by the blind
est and most unchristly passion, and in seeking its ful
filment he led men in methods and deeds which might
well have made even the heathen blush with shame.
What wonder that during the two centuries of the
Crusade ideal more than five million precious lives were
sacrificed to a mere will-o-the-wisp? For, when the
Crusades were ended, everything that had originally been
sought and everything that had been temporarily won
was wholly lost; and so far as the primary purpose of
the movement was concerned, yes, so far as any purpose
in the minds of those who made the sacrifice was con
cerned, the result was utter failure. How could it be
otherwise, when an enterprise of such vast proportions
and depending so largely upon military knowledge and
efficiency was oftentimes under the leadership of men
who knew nothing of the art of war and had no training
in military science? They saw men, indeed, but they
saw them as trees, walking.
Over against Peter the Hermit, a visionary, place
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
William Carey or Adoniram Judson, men of vision,
pioneers of the great missionary movement of modern
times. Seeing clearly not an ideal merely but also the
spirit by which it must be actuated and the means by
which it must be realized, they have led the Church in a
crusade of spiritual conquest which has girdled the
globe with miracles of blessing. Our missionary leadeis
of the present day, not content with the vision of the
past, are continually seeking clearer light, that they may
make their efforts more effective and their work more
fruitful. John Brown was a visionary. Even though we honor
his name and reverence him as a national hero, we realize
that the vision of liberty for the slave which he cherished
was wanting in clear perspective and a true sense of the
relation between freedom and law. Abraham Lincoln,
a man of vision, caught the clearer, larger ideal, and hold
ing fast to that which he saw clearly, waited patiently
but with never failing faith for the time when the ideal
might be realized without disregarding other ideals
equally important. It was his clear sense of proportion
and perspective which enabled him to bring about the
triumph of the ideal without subverting any other vital
principle of national life.
The nations of the world today are being rocked and
rent by a multitude of conflicting social ideals. Num
berless individuals or groups of men and women have
been touched by the hand of idealism and their eyes
have been opened. They have seen possibilities of
better things, conditions improved, opportunities en
larged, life expanded and uplifted, but the vision is not
steady. Men and trees are confused. The righteous
ness of the ends sought is obscured by the unrighteous
ness of the means advocated and practised. In the
effort to secure right relations from one point of view,
life is thrown out of perspective from many points of
view, consequently the peace and happiness which are
sought lose themselves in the bitter strife of hostile
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Seeing Men as Trees

opinions and conflicting aims. A second touch of the
divine hands would work wonders for many of our
would-be reformers.
A friend cf the writer was for many years a radical
socialist, giving himself by word and deed to the advocacy
of that ideal. Later he severed his connection with
socialism and the socialists and returned to a more
conservative position. Being asked if he had changed
his views with regard to socialism and had abandoned
that ideal, he replied, " Oh no, I am as firmly convinced
as ever that the fundamental ideals of socialism are true
and worthy, but they won't work yet." In other words,
he had lost nothing of his idealism, but he had come to
see what he had not seen before, that a perfect ideal of
society requires perfect men to realize it, and that, while
he might carry out the principles of his ideal in his own
life and conduct, there was much to be done by way of
preparation before he could hope to see that ideal
accepted by society as a whole. Formerly he had seen
the ideal itself, but had no sense of its relation to existing
facts and the deeply rooted notions and customs of the
great majority of the race. In the school of trying
experience his eyes had been opened, and he had a clear
vision of proportions and perspective.
Again, let us turn to our common work-a-day life,
and ask, What is the bane of modern industry? Is it
not the workman with the imperfect vision, the man with
a very incomplete understanding of his work? Our
young men and women are impatient of thorough prepa
ration for the work of life. They want short courses
of study, brief periods of apprenticeship. In fact,
nobody really learns his trade in these days; he just
picks it up in passing, absorbs it like a sponge and with
about as little intelligence. And this army of smatterers
is a more deadly foe to honest and successful industry
today than even the agitator and the malcontent.
The most appalling feature of the situation is the fact
that many of those who know least about their work
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are wholly unaware of their ignorance. They imagine
themselves to be capable workmen and fit for leading
positions with high salaries, when they are really incom
petent to do good work themselves, — much less compe
tent to direct the work of others. A prime condition of
success in any calling or trade is a thorough understand
ing of its methods, conditions and underlying principles.
There is but one way to obtain such knowledge, and that
is by first realizing and confessing one's ignorance, and
seeking knowledge from those who are wiser.
But our miracle story gives us not merely a portrait of
two types of men; it embodies also a description of the
two steps (or better still, of the many steps) in the
experience of every honest and earnest seeker after
truth. How many of us, as we look back over the experience
of past days, are profoundly conscious that there was a
time when our religious ideals were exceedingly crude
and distorted? Our eyes had felt the touch of the
Christ, but sight was still imperfect. We saw men,
indeed, but we saw them as trees, walking. Our notions
of the gospel were vague. Many non-essentials were
magnified out of all just proportion, while many an
essential truth seemed of comparatively slight impor
tance. Perhaps some of us realize that such is our
condition at the present time. If so, let us not pretend
that we see perfectly ; let us not imagine that this is the
best the Christ can do for us. Above all, let us not hope
to make up for lack of assurance and clear vision by
positiveness of assertion and denunciation of those who
see the truth differently.
One of the most valuable legacies that has come down
to us from the Pilgrim Fathers is the spirit manifested
in the words of pastor John Robinson, as he urges his
people to keep their minds and hearts open to the teach
ing of the divine Spirit, — " God hath more truth and
light yet to break out of his holy word." And this
spirit of open-mindedness, this constant sense of spiritual
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Seeing Men as Trees

incompleteness impelling us daily to seek fresh revela
tions of truth and clearer visions of duty, is an absolutely
indispensable condition of all progress in the Christian
life. If we are honest with ourselves, honest with the world,
honest with our Lord, we shall not pretend that we see
clearly. We shall frankly confess our ignorance and dul-
ness of vision. We shall even dare to say, when ques
tioned regarding many things that have not come into
our personal experience, " I do not know." But we will
not rest contented in ignorance of truth. Again and
again, if need be, we shall come to the Great Physician
for the touch of enlightenment, and he will surely
respond to our appeals. With every touch the vision
will become clearer, the outlines of truth will be more
perfectly defined, until it shall be true of us, as of the
man at Bethsaida, — " He was restored, and saw all
things clearly."

209

CHAPTER XXV
A Problem Transfigured
THE MAN BORN BLIND
John 9
Text. — " Who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be
born blind?" — John 9 : 2
THE problem of physical evil is as old as the race.
Only fools think it is easy of solution. Pain can
not be explained away by glittering generalities,
nor privation by specious argument. Suffering and sick
ness are painful realities which no hocus-pocus of words
can make less real, and to reality is added perplexity
when we consider their unequal distribution. How can
sickness and pain find entrance into a world created
and controlled by Omnipotent Love? A difficult ques
tion indeed; but far more difficult the question that
inevitably follows: Why does one suffer continual tor
ment or privation, while his brother, no better than
himself, enjoys perfect health and comfort?
If all were afflicted equally, or if there were any dis
coverable ratio between suffering and personal sin, the
problem would be greatly simplified; or show us a con
stant relation between physical disease and moral
development, and a ray of light would shine through our
darkness. But when we see a wicked man living in
health and prosperity, while his saintly neighbor writhes
in pain or falls overwhelmed by adversity ; or when trial
seems to confirm men in sin, or to render them selfish,
envious and bitter quite as often as it chastens character
and ennobles life, we are sometimes impelled to exclaim
with the prophet of old, — " Verily thou art a God that
hidest thyself! "
The common thought of mankind has ever been prone
to attribute all sickness to sin in a general fashion. More
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A Problem Transfigured

than this, the well and the strong have not been slow to
trace all the pains and disabilities of their less fortunate
fellows to specific and personal wrong-doing of which
these are the punishment. What is far worse, not a few
sufferers look upon their own trials as tokens of divine
wrath or neglect or injustice, and permit their lives to be
blighted by that which might become a minister of high
est blessing.
The true message of the book of Job has been under
stood by few of its readers in either the ancient or modern
times, and fewer still are they who move upwards from
the foothills with Job to the mountain top with Jesus.
The majority of men in every age and land still abide in
the valley of darkness with the censorious neighbors of
the patriarch. Yet the Gospel has a message at once
more helpful and more hopeful for all.
That many cases of physical ill are directly traceable
to the wrong-doing of the sufferer, or of some one closely
connected with him, is self-evident. The bodily pains
that men bring upon themselves and their families by
sensual indulgence are legion. The poverty and disease
directly resulting from drunkenness, the frightful mala
dies caused by licentiousness, the shame, and sorrow that
follow in the wake of crime, evils that sometimes cast
their shadow upon several successive generations, are
now universally recognized.
Equally clear is it to any but a narrow and super
stitious mind that many suffer pains and afflictions for
which they are neither directly or indirectly responsible.
Accidents befall men in the path of duty apparently as
often as in the pathway of sin. Diseases attack men
whose lives offer no rational explanation of their appear
ance. These are truisms, but they embody a perpetual
riddle. The crude philosophers in Jesus' train accepted the
current theory of their time. To their minds every
malady betrayed the sin of the sufferer or of some near
connection. Hence, when they see a man blind from
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
birth, their first question is, " Rabbi, who did sin, this
man, or his parents, that he should be born blind? "
That his blindness is a divine punishment for some spe
cific and heinous sin they take for granted. No other
solution of the problem offers itself to their minds.
Jesus, on his part, instantly and utterly repudiates
the popular notion. Without a moment's hesitation he
answers, " Neither did this man sin, nor his parents:
but that the works of God should be made manifest'
in him." Observe that the Master does not pronounce
the man sinless, nor his parents without taint of wrong
doing; he simply asserts that this blindness is not a
token of special sin, nor its purpose that of punishment.
It is rather a circumstance which, though afflictive in
itself, may be turned to good account. It enfolds within
a tough and prickly husk a kernel of opportunity for the
sufferer to experience the power and love of God in a sig
nal manner.
Does the Master, then, solve the problem propounded
by his disciples? Not at all. He merely answers their
question regarding this particular case. They suggest a
problem ; he points to a privilege. They open wide the
door for discussion or dogmatism; he leads directly in
the pathway of kindness. His abstract and somewhat
obscure statement is quickly interpreted by a concrete
illustration. Moistening a little clay, he puts it on the
eyes of the blind man and bids him go wash in the pool
of Siloam. Obedience on the part of the man is rewarded
by the immediate gift of perfect sight.
The key to this particular story, its spiritual message
for you and me, lies in the question of the disciples and
the answer of the Master. It is the eternal contrast
of problem versus privilege. The disciples saw only the
problem involved in the case; to them it was one of the
mysterious riddles of Providence. Jesus saw it first and
supremely as the incarnation of privilege, the opportunity
for special blessing both for the man himself, and for all
who should witness the miracle or read the story of it.
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A Problem Transfigured

Often enough have "we viewed such cases from the
standpoint of the disciples. For a few moments let us
try to look at this case through the Master's eyes. What
is the first thing that impresses us? A manifestation of
divine Providence, doubtless. But what are the ele
ments of that Providence? A man born blind, no matter
what the cause of his blindness, is brought into contact
with the power of God, and receives the gift of perfect
sight. This is a distinct and characteristic work of God.
We are not concerned to explain the method or philosophy
of it at the present moment. Enough to know that joy
and blessing are brought into a needy life. It is such a
work as always reveals the Christ. Here, the helpless
beggar, having never enjoyed the experience or even the
expectation of seeing; there, the loving Saviour, the
incarnation of divinity, whose sole work is to relieve such
distresses as this, to bring light and happiness into
stricken lives. Healing, restoration, blessing, — these
are ever the works of God for man.
.Note further, that while the evil has been limited to
one plane of life, and that the lowest, — the physical, —
the blessing is not so limited. The gift of sight to one
born blind was a boon of measureless value. Had that
been all of the story, it would be well worth the telling,
and would witness with unmistakable clearness to the
beneficence of the Christ. Pain and privation are not
wholly vain if they kindle sympathy and call forth the
exercise of power. The Christian spirit of compassion
and kindly effort embodied in asylums for the blind are
some compensation for blindness ; I am not sure but they
fully justify its existence.
But this is not the whole of the story. The privation
was physical, and only physical: but the blessing is first
physical, then moral and spiritual. The work of healing
brings the man into conflict with the religious authorities
at the Temple. They, confront him with serious moral
questions, and hurl at him new problems regarding the
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
character of his benefactor which he is unable to solve.
Denouncing Jesus as a sinner, they try to wring a similar
denunciation from the man whom he has blessed. It is
a moral question of real gravity, and this man is not
accustomed to deal with such questions. He has had no
preparation of study, he has no resources of skill or logic
with which to meet the argument of the accusers.
In such an emergency the physical experience fur
nishes a personal refuge from the moral dilemma. "This
man is a sinner," say the Pharisees. " Whether he is a
sinner, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I
was blind, now I see," is the reply. Thus the physical
blessing becomes an effective foil to the metaphysical
argument, an impregnable fortress from which subtleties
of logic can by no means drive him. Personally this
man, though ignorant and unskilled in matters of relig
ious casuistry, is safe; no attack of skeptic or scoffer
can reach him. Experience, even the most meager, is
proof against the thrusts of sophistry and ridicule.
From mere self-defence to positive attack is but a step.
The bodily healing, that has at first supplied a refuge
from carping criticism, quickly becomes a weapon for
aggressive service. Growing bolder, as he realizes
more clearly the deep significance of Jesus' work in him,
the man turns upon his questioners with the assertion,
" We know that God heareth not sinners. ... If this
man were not from God, he could do nothing." His
physical experience furnishes the ground-work upon
which to build a great spiritual conviction. Our erst
while blind man is making rapid progress, and from his
very simplicity he has forged a weapon with which to
overcome the sophistry of his enemies. Nothing is left
for them but violence, the perennial argument of the
defeated, and they cast the poor man out of the
synagogue. But the end is not yet. The climax of the story is still
to come. Jesus meets the man as he goes forth, and
challenges him with the question, — " Dost thou believe
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A Problem Transfigured

on the Son of God? " Eagerly the man replies with
another question, — " Who is he, Lord, that I may
believe on him? " He has recognized his Healer, and he
is ready to accept him as his Teacher. When, therefore,
Jesus answers, — " Thou hast both seen him, and he it is
that speaketh with thee," we are not surprised at the
immediate response, " Lord, I believe," nor at the rever
ent worship with which he confirms his declaration.
So, you see, a case of congenital blindness, that sug
gested to the disciples only a perplexing problem of
physical evil, has been transformed by the Master into
a source of privilege both physical and spiritual, a means
whereby the works of God might be made manifest.
To the blind man it has brought a remarkable experience
of healing, it has furnished a weapon for moral victory
over narrow-minded critics, and finally it has led to the
discovery of, and faith in, the Son of God.
To be sure, the belief and worship are probably of a
very elementary character, but they evince true disciple
ship which doubtless led to higher conceptions of truth
and nobler forms of service in after years.
If, now, we have rightly interpreted this story in its
original relation to the actors in the scene, we are ready
to ask, — What is its permanent message? Separating
this particular story from others of its class, what is its
specific lesson for you and for me? The answer has not
changed with the passing of the centuries; to us, as to
the early disciples, the little drama emphasizes the antith
esis of problem and privilege.
Was there ever an age when life presented so many
problems as at the present? Every turn of the way is
marked with an interrogation point. We are perpetu
ally asking, " Why? " or " What? " or " How? " The
Christ, by contrast, waives the problem and seizes upon
the privilege. Without staying to ask, — " Whence
comes this evil? " or " Why is it here? " he first turns all
the enginery of love and power to effect a cure, or to
transform the seeming evil into a means of highest good.
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The problem of physical evil is deep, mysterious, diffi
cult; perhaps it will never be solved. But the privileges
which it brings in its train are manifest to all. Not a
sickness or a pain or a trial of any sort but opens the way
for the exercise of Christly sympathy and helpfulness.
Well were it for the world today if Christian workers
spent less time mulling over the cause of evil, and put
forth more earnest and practical effort for its cure.
What? Should we never trouble our minds about the
problems involved in all evil, whether moral or physical?
Of course we should. But these should not take the
first place in our thought; still less should they wholly
absorb us. Our first duty is to manifest the works of
God through these evils, to seize the opportunities which
they embody for the exercise of kindness or the demon
stration of divine power.
Every individual case of evil embodies an opportunity.
Every problem has its reverse side of privilege. The
most commonplace physical privation may prove the
gateway to most uncommon spiritual blessing. Famines
have prepared the way for missions, and pestilences
have opened the door for the preaching of the gospel.
No less true is it that every case of bodily suffering in our
own communities hides a kernel of privilege beneath
its tough and thorny shell of problem. Not a suffering
one beside your pathway but offers you the privilege of
manifesting the works of God in sympathy, in love, and
in such help or comfort as you can bestow. The disciple
should ever be, as his Master, on the alert to discover the
privilege and to use it for highest blessing.
Now shift the view-point once more. Look at the
scene through the eyes so wonderfully opened. Study
the theme of suffering from the angle of the sufferer.
For the blind man, no less than for the Saviour, his
blindness was the embodiment of privilege, and he, too,
may unfold for us a message of blessing. We all have
our pains and our privations; into every one of our
liyes evil comes in some form. What shall be our atti-
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tude toward these experiences? What shall be their
effect upon our lives?
Two courses are open. We may make of every pain a
problem, darkening life and dwarfing the soul. We may
go about whining, — " Why am I allowed to suffer thus?"
Or we may find in each seeming ill a privilege of personal
enlargement and discipline. The philosophy of our
ills is unimportant, even for ourselves; their possibilities
of blessing are all-important. Not an evil that afflicts
us but may become the minister of divine blessing if we
permit. Many of the noblest characters the world has
known have owed their greatness to suffering and disap
pointment and failure.
Carlyle gives this thought striking expression. He
has been speaking of the trials amid which the poet
Dante wrought his masterpiece, and he adds, — " We
will not complain of Dante's miseries. Had all gone
right with him as he wished it, he might have been Prior,
Podesta, or whatsoever they call it, of Florence, well-
accepted among neighbors, — and the world had wanted
one of the most notable words ever spoken or sung.
Florence would have had another prosperous Lord
Mayor;, and the ten dumb centuries would have con
tinued voiceless, and the ten other listening centuries
had no Divina Commedia to hear! We will complain
of nothing. A nobler destiny was appointed for this
Dante; and he, struggling like a man towards death and
crucifixion, could not help fulfilling it. Give him the
choice of his happiness! He knew not, more than we do,
what was really happy, what was really miserable."
Did time permit, we might speak of the hymns of
Miss Havergal, composed for the most part on a bed of
pain; or the life of Helen Keller, wonderfully developed
by her threefold privation. But that were unnecessary.
You see, it is not primarily, if at all, a question of the
mere removal of the malady whether by miracle or by
medicine. A blind beggar is gifted with sight. But an
apostle Paul, praying for release from some annoying
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infirmity, receives the answer, " My grace is sufficient
for thee, and my strength is made perfect in weakness."
The thorn in the flesh remained, but was transfigured.
So should it be with all our ills. They are messengers
of God's love, sent for our good. It is our privilege to
seek for their removal by means human or divine. Yet
will not our seeking in this direction be always successful.
What then? Darkness and sorrow and repining? No.
Sufficient grace to discover the privilege and power which
these ills embody, that they may bless our own lives by
making them a greater blessing to others.

218

CHAPTER XXVI
In Darkest Jericho and the Way Out
BLIND BARTIM^US AND HIS COMPANION
Matt. 20 : 30-34; Mark 10 : 46-52; Luke 18 : 35-43
Text. — " Be of good cheer: rise, he calleth thee." — Mark 10 : 49
THE city of Jericho is an historical paradox. Im
mortalized by its fall at the blast of Joshua's
trumpets, and its most famous citizens a harlot, a
Herod, a publican and a blind beggar, can we wonder that
its name has become a popular byword the world over?
Yet this city, cursed by Joshua after its destruction, has
been forever hallowed by Jesus, and inseparably con
nected with his gospel by three golden links, — a parable,
a miracle, and a convert. Our present thought centers
upon the miracle.
Jesus is passing through Jericho on his way to the final
scenes of his earthly ministry at Jerusalem. As he enters
the city and as he goes out from it, a multitude accom
panies him, curious to hear his words and to witness his
wonder-working. At the wayside sit two blind men begging. One of
them, Bartimaeus by name, is well known in all that
region. The other is nameless, obscure. The noise of
the passing throng attracts their attention and awakens
their curiosity. " What means this eager, anxious throng,
That moves with busy haste along? "
is the question voiced by Bartimaeus.
" Jesus of Nazareth passeth by,"
is the answer of one who hears him. Instantly he raises
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
a cry, echoed by his companion, " Thou son of David,
have mercy on me! "
How presumptuous! Two beggars addressing a great
Teacher and Physician! " Hush! Hush! " cries the
crowd, indignantly rebuking them. " Thou son of David,
have mercy on me! " cry the beggars more loudly and
insistently than before. Bind the lightning with tow.
Defy the Atlantic with a mop. But do not think to
repress the rising hope of a Bartimaeus with words of
rebuke. The crowd is annoyed; not so that wondrous person
about whom the crowd is gathered. The crowd rebukes;
the Christ encourages the petitioners. " Call ye him."
With mingled surprise and curiosity the word is passed,
and with it a bit of shame-faced encouragement. " Be
of good cheer; rise, he calleth thee." What need to thus
repeat the invitation? Bartimaeus, quicker of ear and
action than his fellow, casts off his outer garment,
springs to his feet, and comes to Jesus.
" What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? " is the
Master's question. " Rabboni, that I may receive my
sight! " is the eager response. " Go thy way, thy faith
hath made thee whole," replies the Great Physician.
" And straightway he received his sight, and followed
Jesus in the way," are the concluding words of the
narrative. Three versions of our story, from three independent
witnesses, by their variations of detail furnish bait for
the critics. Matthew; alone speaks of two blind men:
Mark and Luke mention but one. Matthew and Mark
connect the incident with the departure from Jericho:
Luke connects it with the entrance into the city. Mark
names one beggar as though he were well known: Luke
suggests an obscure personage in the words, " a certain
blind man." What is the verdict? " Irreconcilable
contradictions! " cry the savants. " Trifling variations
easily attributable to the personal equation of the
writers! " say others equally wise. In any case, these
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In Darkest Jericho and the Way Out
details are but chaff. Not a grain of spiritual nourish
ment do they embody. We are seeking wheat, so let us
move on.
Whether we will or no, we find ourselves following
Mark because of his vividness. It is easier to get a
mental picture of Bartimaeus than to photograph " a
certain man." The second figure falls into the back
ground of our thought. He is simply the shadow of a
stronger personality, the echo of a clearer voice.
Bartimaeus is our teacher, he is our object lesson; and
this is his theme, — "In Darkest Jericho, and the Way
Out." Listen to his first words. " Jesus, thou son of David,
have mercy on me! " Note the pronoun, — first person,
singular number. Who would experience a miracle
must come into personal contact with the source of
miracle working power. The personal appeal to the
Christ is the first step out of darkness into God's glorious
light. Miracles of blessing are never wrought for
thoughtless or careless multitudes. The world's Re
deemer must become my Redeemer if I am to be specifi
cally and largely blessed. Into the gospel of grace we
must read the first personal pronoun, " God be merciful
to me the sufferer, to me the sinner."
See that multitude surging round. Were there no
needy ones there? No other hearts that craved a bless
ing? No lives that felt a want? Perhaps no other blind
men were present; but surely there were other needs,
other blemishes, other weaknesses, and Jesus could have
healed them all ; yet these people were content merely to
watch and to listen.
" Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." How much that
means, or how little! To the multitude, little; — curios
ity gratified, wonder excited, feeling stirred, something
to remember and to talk about. To Bartimaeus, much;
because he links himself directly to the Healer with a
personal pronoun. " Have mercy on me! " At that
word, " Me," general interest is transmuted into specific
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
blessing. In an instant his whole life is illuminated and
exalted. Have conditions changed with the passing of the
centuries? Not at all; human nature is much the same
today as it was twenty centuries ago. Memory recalls
a story of marvelous healing by one of the modern cults.
The narrator told how a man with whom he was inti
mately acquainted, once helpless with paralysis, had been
made perfectly whole by faith in that particular form of
teaching and treatment. Yet he, himself, had been
crippled for years with a similar disease, and had never
sought relief by the method which had been so effective in
the cure of his friend! And such instances of unques
tioned belief coupled with personal inaction are by no
means rare.
" If not so frequent, would not this be strange?
That 'tis so frequent, this is stranger still."
What mean these gatherings from week to week in the
house of God? Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. Yes,
that is literally true, and we come to see and hear, but
how many of us either expect or receive a blessing? We
are interested in the words he speaks. We would be
delighted to see him work a miracle of grace in the con
version of some hardened or blinded sinner, or • in the
healing of some enfeebled body. We admire his teach
ing, we rejoice in his healing work, but there is no definite
blessing for ourselves. Of course there is not. We do
not insert the first personal pronoun in our gospel story.
We do not link ourselves directly with the living Christ
in an eager prayer for some particular gift. Do that and
instead of being a mere spectator of blessing, you will
become a sharer of God's greater gifts, and your own life
will be enriched.
Now turn the kaleidoscope and observe the new group
ing. At the first cry of Bartimaeus " many rebuke him,
that he should hold his peace." Did he heed them?
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In Darkest Jericho and the Way Out
No: " but he cried out the more a great deal, Thou son
of David, have mercy on me! "
A check to the half-hearted is but a spur to the really
earnest soul. The obstacle in the pathway of the weak is
made a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.
That which the indifferent makes an excuse for failure is
to the eager a reason for success. Had mere curiosity
inspired Bartimaeus, the rebuke of the multitude would
have silenced him at once. But, urged by the dreadful
consciousness of his privation on the one hand, and lured
by the glad hope of relief on the other, he is irrepressible.
The efforts of others to silence him only make him the
more noisy and determined.
Always there is the multitude following the footsteps
of the Christ, listening to his words and observing his
works, yet not coming to him for personal blessing and
help, this multitude often being a most serious obstacle
to individuals who really desire a personal blessing.
The influence of conventionality is almost immeasurable.
Thousands of men and women dread the satirical smile
of a friend, whom no threat of an enemy could terrify.
The average person will continue to suffer for years, yes,
for life, the unsuccessful experiments of " regular "
physicians rather than brave the frowns and jests of
their neighbors by appealing to some unpopular school
of medicine or some new method of healing practice.
Again, men will stifle the deepest longings of their souls
and remain in spiritual darkness, because they fear the
remarks and ridicule that would be flung at them by the
church-going crowd should they make any definite and
public effort for a closer fellowship with the Christ.
Am I doing an injustice to our present-day Christianity
when I say that the congregation in any one of our
" best " churches would be seriously vexed, not to say
scandalized, should any person interrupt the discourse
of a popular preacher with a direct appeal for spiritual
light in his own darkness. I think not. On the other
hand, I am sure that when a soul becomes really con-
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scious of its need and opportunity, when the heart
hungers deeply for a larger vision, opposition and diffi
culty only strengthen determination. No voices of
earth can hush its cry, but every rebuke and sneer
redoubles the earnestness of its prayer.
Here is an infallible test of earnestness : — does the
opposition of men act as a check or as a spur to our effort?
if rebuke causes us to hold our peace, desire is but half
hearted. Apply this test to your own prayers. You
wish some blessing from God, some grand experience in
your own life, or some great awakening to higher life
in the community. Do you constantly and fearlessly
express your desire, or does the influence of the crowd
hold you in silence?
Timid friends sought to restrain the great Luther from
going to the Diet of Wurms, but every plea made him
the more determined. " I will go to Wurms," he ex
claimed, " though there were as many devils there as
tiles upon the house-tops." What blessing for himself
and for the world resulted from his going! Had he
yielded to the reproofs and clamors of timid friendship,
his own life would have been condemned to spiritual
darkness and the world might yet be waiting a champion
of religious freedom.
Advisers counselled Abraham Lincoln to omit a single
sentence from one of his campaign speeches, saying that
it might cost him the Presidency. " That statement is
true, has always been true, and I will leave it as it is at
whatever cost," was his reply. And it was his absolute
frankness that gave to Mr. Lincoln his wonderful hold
upon the hearts of the American people.
Well-meaning church members rebuked young Moody
when he made his first attempts to speak for Christ.
What if he had kept silence? A great soul would have
sat in blindness and spiritual poverty, the nineteenth
century would have wanted its greatest preacher, and the
name of Moody would have been unknown except in
some small circle. 224

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The lesson is a simple one. Its appeal is direct and
emphatic. Will you let the rebukes of the multitude
hold you back from seeking the fulfilment of your own
highest desires? You are conscious of some need in your
life which the Christ can satisfy; it may be physical, it
may be spiritual. Will you permit yourself to be kept
from him by the clamor of public opinion, or by the
thoughtless jests of those who have no desire for blessing?
Unquestionably the voice of public opinion is always
opposed to individual aggressiveness. It is ever raised
in rebuke of those who transgress conventional rules and
try new and independent methods. But he who would
receive the divine light must not hold his peace for such
rebuking. Rather must he cry out more earnestly and
persistently till the blessing comes.
But the panorama moves on, and we must move with
it. Jesus bids those about him to call the blind man,
and at once those who had just rebuked Bartimaeus
begin with, confusion to speak words of cheer and en
couragement. And what of Bartimaeus? "He, casting
away his garment, sprang up, and came to Jesus."
Prayer always implies action. He who prays to the
' Christ for blessing must come to the Christ in acknowl
edgment and service. Cast away the garment, thrust
from you everything that might impede your progress,
put out of your life even those things that seem essential
and good, if they hinder closest approach to the Master,
and come quickly to his very feet.
This act of the blind man calls forth a question from
Jesus. " What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? "
" Rabboni, that I might receive my sight," is the response
of the poor beggar, and it is sight that he receives.
The gift of the Christ is determined by the desire of the
seeker. Bartimaeus sought a physical blessing, and it is a
physical blessing that he receives. Zacchaeus desired a
spiritual blessing, and Jesus said to him, "This day is sal
vation come to this house . ' ' The company gathered in the
upper chamber sought the outpouring of the Holy Spirit,
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
and the Pentecostal baptism came. So always, " What
wilt thou? " is the Master's question. If our gifts are
few, it is because our desires are limited. If you are not
saved from your besetting sin, it is because you do not
really wish to be saved. If I am not filled with the
Spirit, it is because I do not supremely desire spiritual
fulness. There is no escape from the logic of this. We bemoan
our weaknesses and lay the blame wherever we choose,
but the fact remains that our own wills determine the
real condition of our lives. Jesus says, " Ye will not
come unto me that ye might have life." That we will
not come to the Christ and urge upon him our specific
needs is the all-sufficient explanation of our failure to
receive his blessing. The Father is as ready to bless us
as he is to bless others. The Christ of today is as potent
for good as was the Christ of old.
The eager utterance of Bartimaeus is followed by the
immediate response of the Great Physician, " Go thy
way; thy faith hath made thee whole." The evangelist
adds, " Straightway he received his sight, and followed
him in the way, glorifying God." The light has come.
The blind beggar has become a new man, his lifers trans
figured, his soul is filled with joy and gratitude. What
does he do? Two things: — he follows Jesus, and he
glorifies God.
Do we read that the disciples urged him to enlist in
their ranks? Did they tell him that it was his duty to
praise God? Of course not. His following was not a
matter of constraint, nor his testimony forced, — all
was natural, spontaneous. Jesus never asked for testi
mony from those whom he had healed. Several times he
bade the restored ones keep silence, but few, if any of
them, obeyed the command; to do so were well-nigh
impossible, and we notice that Jesus never rebuked any
one of these for his disobedience. When one has received
a great blessing, when his life has been transformed and
renewed, he finds it exceedingly difficult to refrain from
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In Darkest Jericho and the Way Out

publishing the fact to all whom he meets. , So today, if a
life has been really blessed, if a soul has been truly
renewed by the incoming of the divine Spirit, following
and glorifying will be spontaneous.
Why is it necessary, in modern preaching, to lay such
stress upon the duties of following the Christ and wit
nessing for him? The answer is not far to seek. It is
because there are so few miracles of enlightenment and
healing. Little sympathy have we with the common
notions about " professing religion." There has been
in the past and there is still not a little nonsense preached
on that subject. No argument, however, is needed, to
prove that a soul conscious of great blessing will be eager
to publish its joy. Following the Christ in the public
fellowship of his Church, and glorifying God in word and
deed, will be spontaneous and irrepressible results of
blessing whether physical or spiritual.
Today the truth comes to us as significantly and as
blessedly as it came to the blind men of Jericho, — "Jesus
of Nazareth passeth by." Now, as at first, he comes with
power to meet every highest aspiration and every deepest
need of the heart, to satisfy every worthy craving of the
soul. He is the world's Redeemer. Is he your Redeemer
and mine? If not, then let us away with multitudes and
plurals, and with the first personal pronoun let us link
our lives to the life of the Christ, and into our hearts
shall shine a new light, into our souls shall come a new
joy, into our lives new power.

227

CHAPTER XXVII
Study of a Spiritual Spectrum
THE PALSIED MAN OF CAPERNAUM
Matt. 9:1-8; Mark 2 : 1-12; Luke 5 : 17-26
Text. — " That ye may know that the Son of man hath authority on
earth to forgive sins {he saith to the sick of the palsy), I say unto
thee, Arise, take up thy bed, and go un'o thy house." —
Mark 2: 10, 11
THE succession of rainbow tints produced by rays of
light passing through a prism of glass is a familiar
sight. Scientists call it a "spectrum," and have
studied it for ages, but it is scarcely more than a century
since one of these students observed that these bright
strips of color are intersected by thin, dark lines. Later,
Joseph Fraunhofer discovered that the dark lines were
caused by vapors through which the light passes before
entering the prism. More than this, he learned that
different vapors produced different lines, while the same
vapor always produced the same lines.
By means of these Fraunhofer lines, as they are called,
we are able to discover the elements of which the sun and
stars are composed. For example, if we find in the solar
spectrum lines corresponding to those which we can
produce by sending a light ray through hydrogen vapor,
we know that there is hydrogen in the sun ; and sodium
lines in the spectrum of Siiius prove that there is sodium
in the Dog-star. So the spectrum analysis of earthly
substances easily within our ken is the one sufficient key
with which we may unlock the secrets of even the most
remote of the heavenly bodies.
By the same token, the only sure method of discover
ing the great facts and laws of the spiritual world is by
tracing their analogues in the facts and laws of the natural
world. We know God only by our intelligent study of
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Study of a Spiritual Spectrum
man; the heavenly life will be an open book to us when
we have come to a clear understanding of the present
earthly life. The true starting-point for the religious
life, therefore, is right here on this earth, among men of
the same nature and habits as ourselves, in the midst of
the common temptations and difficulties, the everyday
tasks and trials and experiences which fall to the lot of
every child of Adam. Only as we prove the power of
faith in these familiar and exceedingly commonplace
relations shall we make any real discoveries of its value
in the higher relations of the spirit, or in the remoter
fields of the life to come.
Now it goes without saying that multitudes of men
and women reverse this order both in their thinking and
in their action. Have you not known many who think
they are trusting God for the salvation of their immortal
souls, yet who dare not trust him for a weelowith the
care of their bodily needs and business interests? They
rejoice daily in the hope of a glorious resurrection, and are
perfectly assured of a place in the " many mansions ";
but they are not ready to square their lives by the Ser
mon on the Mount amid present industrial and social
conditions. They believe that God has forgiven their
sins; but they do not believe that he will give them
daily victory over their temptations and strength for
worthy service. It is always easier to say, " Thy sins
are forgiven," than to say, " Arise and walk " ; always
easier to glow with sentiment than to rejoice in sacrifice ;
always easier to persuade ourselves that we trust God in
things spiritual, than to prove by our daily conduct that
we trust him for things material. The spiritual and the
eternal are unquestionably the matters of supreme
importance; nevertheless there can be no genuine faith
regarding these, if it be not built upon a foundation of
trust that is continually ripening into experience concern
ing things material and temporal.
In every age there is a tendency among religious
teachers to dogmatize regarding things remote and
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
intangible, and to treat things near at hand very gingerly.
The Pharisees of our Lord's time were no exception to
the common rule ; they were no worse in this regard than
the majority of religious leaders in our own day and
land. But the tendency is so directly opposed to the
spirit of real godliness, so fatal to genuine faith, so pro
ductive of bigotry and fanaticism, that the Christ contin
ually seeks to uproot it. A notable illustration of this
fact is seen in the healing of the paralytic at Capernaum.
No need to review the story as a whole. It is not more
wonderful than others. Let us come at once to the
crucial point where the moral reaction of the witnesses is
revealed. The action of the four friends in bringing the
helpless one to the Healer, in mounting to the roof when
they were crowded away from the door, in removing the
tiles and letting down the patient into the midst of the
company, indicate earnestness, faith, persistence, —
all the necessary conditions for receiving the divine
blessing. Instantly Jesus turns from his self-satisfied
audience to this eager group, and says to the sick one,
" Son, thy sins are forgiven."
" Thy sins are forgiven! " The words surprise us,
coming at such a moment. They surprised the original
hearers, the sick man and his friends no less than the
others. Here is one who has come for bodily healing.
He has said nothing about his sins, has uttered no prayer
for forgiveness. Probably he did not suppose that
Jesus had authority to declare forgiveness. Why,
then, does Jesus say anything about his sins? Why does
he tell him that he is forgiven?
Two reasons quickly suggest themselves in response to
our inquiry. First, with regard to the sick man, the
declaration may have had an encouraging and inspiring
effect that would materially assist in the miracle of
healing. And, second, with regard to the spectators,
these words taken in connection with what followed
would expose their false religious ideals and correct their
religious perspective. 230

Study of a Spiritual Spectrum
It is quite possible that there was some special con
sciousness of sin in the sick man's mind that called for
such a word of reassurance. Paralysis is a disease that
is peculiarly susceptible to mental and moral influences.
It may be that his malady was the direct result of a
sinful life, and was recognized as such. Or it may be
that the words were naturally suggested by the subject
under discussion at the moment of the interruption.
In any case, they would lay a foundation of hope and
confidence in the heart of the sick one, and be the best
preparation for what was to follow.
' ' A merry heart is a good medicine :
But a broken spirit drieth the bones."
Hope and joy have therapeutic value.
Even more important, however, than the effect of the
words upon the patient, is their purpose with regard to
the spectators. That is made quite clear in the progress
of the narrative. To the bigoted reasoning of the
scribes, "Why doth this man thus speak? He blasphem-
eth. Who can forgive sins but one, even God? " Jesus
responds, " Why reason ye these things in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins
are forgiven, or to say, Arise, take up thy bed, and walk?"
Then he flings out his challenge of authority, — " That
ye may know that the Son of man hath authority on
earth to forgive sins (he saith to the sick of the palsy),
I say unto thee, Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto
thine house." And the narrative concludes, " He arose,
and straightway took up his bed, and went forth before
them all."
What a complete reversal of all the conventional
modes of religious thinking! The scribes were accus
tomed to dogmatize about the unseen, and from these
assumptions to reason to the seen. Jesus would have
them learn that we must reason from the seen to the
unseen, from the tangible to the intangible, from the
material to the spiritual, from man to God.
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
These teachers of the people really believed themselves
to be the favored custodians of truth specially revealed
by God, through men peculiarly inspired in a manner
wholly supernatural. They did not perceive that the
only knowledge of things spiritual and divine has come
to men by projecting human life and experience upon the
larger plane of infinity and perfection. All clearly de
fined and reliable knowledge of the heavenly life must be
discovered through the spectrum of the earthly. The
lines of God's character we can see only in the spectrum
of man's character. The lines of spiritual law appear
nowhere but in the spectrum of natural law.
Do you ask what was the precise meaning of Jesus'
action and the argument based upon it? That is quite
simple. Whatever may have been the circumstances of
this particular case, the religious philosophy of the
Jewish teachers assumed that all misfortune or sickness
or disaster was the penalty of sin either in the sufferer
himself or on the part of someone closely connected
with him. It was a token that the wrath of God rested
upon him. From their point of view, therefore, here was
a man suffering the punishment of some sin. When
Jesus declared the forgiveness of sins, they scouted his
authority. He then healed the disease, so removing the
penalty, and (according to their reasoning) demonstrat
ing the fact of forgiveness for the sin which brought on
the disease. For those of us who look at sickness and
suffering from a wholly different view-point, the argument
or demonstration carries far less weight; but for those
Pharisaic critics it was absolutely inescapable. It is
easy enough for any priestly charlatan to pronounce
absolution; to demonstrate the reality of absolution for
sin by release from its results is not so easy. But he who
will set any man free from sin and its consequences, need
not hesitate to proclaim the message of divine forgiveness.
Even now, after nearly two thousand years of Chris
tian teaching and experience, it is much easier to say,
" Thy sins are forgiven," than to say " Arise and walk."
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Study of a Spiritual Spectrum
Consequently, we find the great emphasis of religious
teaching still rests upon the element of forgiveness,
while the practical demonstration of liberated and trans
formed lives is all too rare. In the minds of very many
intelligent Christians, salvation means forgiveness of
sins here and heaven hereafter, a very easy gospel to
believe and to preach, since it is susceptible of neither
proof nor refutation.
Now forgiveness of sin, even with heaven in view, is
not salvation. He who is forgiven is little better off
than before. The declaration of forgiveness did not
heal the paralytic. Although assured of pardon, he was
still helpless. At most he was only better prepared to
accept the word of healing.
So with you and me, to believe in the forgiveness of
sin is only to recognize a fact that has existed from the
beginning. What we need is not so much forgiveness as
freedom, not pardon but power. It is not the wrath of
God that troubles us (if we have escaped the superstitions
of heathenism), but the presence of sin in our hearts, the
dominion of sin over, our lives. Let us but get rid of the
sin and we need fear nothing from the wrath. That is
for the most part a bugaboo of the theologians. Gospel
salvation is this, — the assurance of pardon with the
power to conquer sin, to break the fetters of evil habit,
to escape the influence of impure thought, to gain the
ascendancy over unhallowed appetite and sinful passion ;
in short, it is to enjoy the " liberty of the glory of the
sons of God." It is well to believe in the forgiveness of
sin. It is .unspeakably better to experience the cure of
sin. " Be always ready," says the apostle Peter, " to give
answer to every man that asketh you a reason concern
ing the hope that is in you." Now the only sound reason
for believing that God can or will do anything for us in
the next life is the fact that he is doing something for us
in this life. We can know many of the laws which
operate throughout the infinite universe. We can even
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
tabulate the component elements of the most remote suns
and planets, from observations taken upon our little
earth, but we could know none of these things did we not
first discover their presence and note their working in our
own sphere. The analogy holds in life. We can know
just so much of the conditions and possibilities of the
life eternal as is definitely foreshadowed in this life and
no more. Our knowledge of heaven must be obtained
through the earthly spectrum. All else is speculation,
theory, superstition.
I have been told that the writer of one of our most
popular " Gospel Hymns," after being twice treated by
the Keeley Cure, finally died of the delirium tremens.
Yet he sang of the glories of heaven like one inspired.
Now tell me, ye who believe in a future salvation, if God
could not save that man from the power of strong drink
here, what ground had he to hope he would save him from
any sin with its consequent hell hereafter? Little benefit
to him that his sins were forgiven, so long as the tyrant
appetite held him by the throat. Apparently he was a
believing Christian in the ordinary sense of those words,
— i. e., he believed in God and in a future heaven, — ¦
but is he saved? No man knows. One thing is certain,
he was not saved when he passed from earth, for it was his
sin or infirmity that killed him.
This sin-enthralled world is crying out for a knowledge
of God and salvation. The Church, through the mouths
of the majority of her preachers, is answering this cry
with the delusive message, " Thy sins are forgiven thee."
" Delusive message," I say, for the message .is delusive
when it stops short of demonstration in the practical
life of men. Thousands of disciples in every land meet
together Sunday after Sunday to praise God for their
salvation, and then go forth to live in conscious daily
bondage to sin and evil in every form, hoping that in the
world to come conditions and laws will be so completely
changed that what is now a pitiful pretense will then
become a blessed reality. 234

Study of a Spiritual Spectrum
What wonder if the masses of busy, over-burdened
men and women turn a deaf ear to the Church and her
message? What wonder if they question the value or
doubt the truth of her assertions? What wonder if they
run after the most absurd promises of rival cults? A
remote and future salvation is of no immediate interest
to men who are weighed down with the burden of present
difficulties and sorrows.
Ah, it is easy, fatally easy, to say to such men, " Your
sins are forgiven." The message is true, but they are
not convinced of its truth. How shall we convince
them? There is but one way. We must bring religion
into vital contact with life; we must demonstrate not
merely the good will but also the power of God in meeting
present needs. That men may know that we have
authority to proclaim the divine forgiveness of sin, we
must say to the sick ones, " Arise," to the foul ones,
" Be clean," to the sin-enslaved, " Be free."
When the Church of Jesus Christ shall burst the bonds
of conventionalism, when her preachers shall displace
glittering generalities and abstractions with the practical
gospel of a present salvation, when in the boldness of a
rational faith Christians shall face the most difficult
tasks and challenge the most searching tests, then will
come wondrous revelations of divine power, and the
multitudes, not in one little village, but throughout the
wide world will glorify God, saying, " We have seen
strange things today."

235

CHAPTER XXVIII
Faith's Flowers in Flanders Fields
THE CENTURION'S PALSIED SERVANT
Matt. 8 : 5-13; Luke 7 : 1-10
Text. — " I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." —
Matt. 8 : 10
" In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row."
THE ghastly scenes of carnage and death are trans
figured by the beauty and the glory of Nature's
fresh life. Symbols they are of spiritual blossoms
which may beautify even those lives that have been
lived amid the horrors of murderous combat and the
rudeness of military camps.
War is hell. Fighting is devilish work. The soil of
every battlefield bears bumper crops of sin and crime.
Naturally, therefore, we do not expect that a military
life will be favorable to one's moral development, or to
the cultivation of the fruits of the Spirit. What concord
hath Mars with the Christ? Or how can a devotee of
war be a true disciple of the Prince of Peace? The riddle
may not be easily solved ; yet we know that many noble
lives and beautiful characters have sprung from the soil
of bloody strife. The poppies do blow in Flanders field.
Do you ask for illustrations? They are numberless.
The inspired Psalmist of Israel was a man of war;
because of this fact a prophet forbade him to build the
Temple. Yet, after his son had built the Temple, David's
songs supplied the noblest element in its worship, and
to this day we find in them fit expression for our highest
Christian praise. Even those psalms that breathe the
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distinctively warrior spirit often stimulate us to noble
service for God and our fellowmen.
It is related of Martin Luther that, in the stormy days
of the Reformation, when dangers were thickening and
the outlook grew dark and full of discouragement, he
would often say to his friend Melancthon, — "Come,
Philip, let us sing the forty-sixth psalm! " And when
they had sung it in his characteristic version,
" A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing,"
their hearts would be wonderfully strengthened.
The greatest apostle of the early Church drew many a
type of Christian life and service from the trappings of
war, the qualities of the true soldier, the essential condi
tions of victory. And these figures, chosen from the
battle-scarred legions of Rome, are not a whit less fitted
for spiritual instruction than are his illustrations drawn
from the athletic sports of the Greeks, or even his sym
bols taken from the stately temple service of Israel.
We need but to turn the pages of any good church
hymn-book to discover how large and how vital a con
tribution the warrior spirit has made to Christian wor
ship. Such hymns as the following, —
" The Son of God goes forth to war,
A kingly crown to gain,"
" Onward, Christian soldiers,
Marching as to war,"

' Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
Ye soldiers of the cross,"
' Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of the coming of the Lord,"

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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
and others like them, have set the pace for many a for
ward movement in the Church of Jesus Christ.
Even our Lord himself did not hesitate to make the
dilemma of a warring king a parable of the Christian life.
Aye, more, in the course of his healing ministry he
awards the palm of greatest faith to a heathen soldier,
and it is this incident which claims our attention at the
present moment.
The soldier is the central figure of a miracle story.
And, since he receives from the Master himself an attesta
tion of faith summa cum laude, he is surely worthy of our
acquaintance, of our study, of our imitation. Let the
evangelist Luke introduce him to us, for his personal
sketch is more complete than that of Matthew.
How does he announce him? " A certain centurion."
Behold, then, a soldier; but not a private soldier, —
a captain in the Roman army. He is set over a hundred
men. At once we draw back a little, for we expect
arrogance, conceit, tyranny, — a sort of " top-sergeant "
air. But no, he is a kind man, with a fellow-feeling for
his underlings. " His servant who was dear unto him,
was sick and at the point of death." You see, even his
slave was " dear unto him! " As that slave is suffering,
be bestirs himself to find a competent physician. " And
when he heard concerning Jesus, he sent unto him elders
of the Jews, asking him that he would come and save his
servant." Sends others, does he? Is he, then, too proud
to come himself? Quite the contrary. He is too humble,
and thinks himself unworthy to appeal in person to so
great a healer.
" And the elders, when they came to Jesus, besought
him earnestly, saying, He is worthy that thou shouldest
do this for him: for he loveth our nation, and himself
built us our synagogue." Two pretty good qualities
for a Roman soldier, are they not? He loves his enemies,
and he is generous to them.
Of course Jesus went with them. And now Luke adds
another line to his character sketch, " When Jesus was
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Faith's Flowers in Flanders Fields
now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends
to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself:
for I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my
roof : wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come
unto thee : but say the word, and my servant shall be
healed." Think of it! A soldier, - — a heathen soldier, speaking
with such confidence, such perfect faith as that! Among
those who had come to Jesus from time to time for
instruction, for help or for healing, were not a few of the
most favored sons of Israel, religious leaders, officials
of the synagogue or Temple, " children of the kingdom "
by centuries of godly inheritance and by virtue of careful
training. Yet not one of them all had expressed such
spontaneous and absolute confidence in his power.
What wonder that Jesus exclaims in amazement, "Verily
I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not
in Israel."
Is not this a remarkable harvest of the fruits of the
spirit to be gathered from Roman battlefields, — kind
ness, humility, love, beneficence, faith? I tell you, this
centurion, this heathen soldier, puts to shame that vast
army of unspiritual Christians who excuse their many
shortcomings on the ground of the earthly nature of their
occupations or the utter unspirituality of their asso
ciations. But this is not all. The best is yet to come. Our
Roman captain not only evinces great faith, but he tells
us where and how he developed that faith. He teaches
us a lesson in spiritual culture, the value of which is
equalled only by its simplicity.
Note carefully his line of reasoning. " Say the word,
and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man
set under authority, having under myself soldiers:
and I say to this one, Go, and he goeth; and to another,
Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and
he doeth it." In other words, he simply takes the every
day experiences of his own camp life, the relations and
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
conditions with which he is most familiar, and upon these
he builds a strong faith in the power of Jesus. So it
comes to pass that war, with all its evil associations and
brutalizing influences, becomes a means of grace to this
officer. To use St. Paul's phrase, war is his " school
master," bringing him to the Christ with a humble,
unquestioning confidence in his good will and beneficent
power. Right here we find the first message of the story. Of
all the evils that curse this world of ours, war, for which
man himself is alone responsible, is perhaps the worst.
Not only does it breed in itself all manner of wrong, —
cruelty, dishonor, lust, hate, and the like, — but it also
brings in its train orgies of crime and terror and woe.
It hardens men's hearts. It inflames every evil passion.
It distorts the sense of right and wrong, and excites the
love of power and glory.
Yet, closely enfolded within these enormous forces of
sin lies many a germ of nobility which, if sedulously
cultivated, will fruit in a most virile type of character
and a life worthy of admiration. In fact certain of
these elements, which we may call the by-products of
war, are of such value that Professor James speaks of the
" moral equivalents of war " that must be supplied by
some other means if the realization of peace is not to
weaken the moral fibre and emasculate the manhood of
the race. In war, as in all other spheres of life and
activity, the balance of power between good and evil
lies in the hands of each man for himself. After all has
been said, the conditions of soldier life are but materials
from which the individual soldier must fashion heroism
or cowardice, glory or shame, honor or dishonor, curse
or blessing, humility or arrogance, faith or faithlessness.
Which product comes out of the furnace depends, not
upon the molten metal, but upon the mold into which it
is poured. Identical circumstances make for patriotism
in a Washington and for treachery in an Arnold.
But enough of war and its warriors. Let us consider
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Faith's Flowers in Flanders Fields
some of the broader implications of our story, its message
to the civilian in every calling or walk of life. What
has it for the average man in business, for the woman in
the home, for the youth in the school? What for any
one who is seeking a firm foundation of faith upon which
to build nobility of character and a structure of service
that shall be truly worth while? The answer almost
speaks itself.
As the Roman centurion developed a practical faith
from the observed facts of his military . experience, so
for every one the pathway to all that is highest and best,
the pathway to the kingdom of heaven, begins from his
own doorway. The seeds of all religious knowledge and
attainment, the germs of all true manhood and woman
hood, lie buried in the soil of the most secular and un
spiritual tasks of our earthly life. Only by the cultiva
tion of these can we arrive at a vital faith in ourselves
or at a true knowledge of God. Yet there are now, as
there always have been, two ideals of religion contending
for supremacy in the life of men. Bishop Butler speaks
of them as " Natural " and " Revealed " religion. We
seldom hear the old phrases nowadays, but the religious
ideals for which they stand are still with us. What is
the difference? It may be well illustrated by comparison
with the two sciences of Astrology and Astronomy.
Astrology is a study of the heavens based for the most
part upon purely arbitrary theories and assumptions of
men who lived in ages long past. Upon this foundation
is reared a structure of teaching regarding the influence
of stars and planets and their relative motions or_ posi
tions upon human life and destiny. The entire science,
so-called, is a system of groundless dogmatism, fascinat
ing to certain imaginative minds, and depending for its
acceptance upon superstition or a false reverence for
antiquity. Now there is a great deal of religion, calling itself
Christian, that, in like manner, is founded solely upon old
dogmatism and reverence for antiquity. At its base he
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
petrified systems of old-time theologians or fantastic
interpretations of ancient and obscure prophecy. It is
not open to the tests of reason, and often outrages the
moral sense. Men talk about " the faith once delivered
to the saints," as though that were some body of doctrine
handed down from prophets and apostles, which must
be accepted blindly without question or test, — even
though it contradict the clearest facts and principles of
our daily life. Such religion should be classed with
Astrology, as a science " falsely so called."
Astronomy, on the other hand, bases its study of the
heavens upon conditions, facts and experiences familiar
to our earthly life, and that are open to the most search
ing tests. We may easily verify our astronomical discov
eries in the celestial field by experiments in the familiar
area of the terrestrial. For example, we know that the
sun contains sodium because the solar spectrum shows
the same sodium lines that appear when we pass a ray of
light through sodium vapor in the laboratory. We esti
mate the distance from our earth to Jupiter or the sun in
precisely the same way that an engineer measures the
distance to an object miles away without going outside
a ten-acre lot. Every established fact of Astronomy, I
repeat, is open to the most searching tests by all who
desire to apply them.
The challenge of all true religion is, like the challenge
of Astronomy, an appeal to experience and experiment.
— "Oh taste, and see that the Lord is good! " " If I
do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if
I do them, though ye believe not me, believe the works."
" Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."
" Believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits." " Be
ready always to give answer to every man that asketh
you a reason for the hope that is in you." And it is
only in so far as a man's religion can fully meet all these
tests that it is of any value to himself or to the world.
Is this, then, the conclusion of the whole matter?
Not quite. For completeness of its message, the narra-
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Faith's Flowers in Flanders Fields
tive of Luke needs to be supplemented by phrases taken
from Matthew's version of the incident. Matthew tells
us that, as the Great Physician is about to seal his com
mendation of the centurion's faith by the act of healing,
he turns to the bystanders with these words, — "I
say unto you, that many shall come from the east and the
west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and
Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: but the sons of the king
dom shall be cast forth into outer darkness."
Is not the truth of this solemn warning being demon
strated every day throughout the Christian world?
Discoveries of practical faith in persons whom the Church
has dubbed " unbelievers " often astonish us. While we
and our fellow Christians have been groping about in
darkness, enthralled by the fetters of conventional relig
ious belief or approved interpretations of doctrine, these
outsiders, aliens from the Christian commonwealth, have
come straight to the truth by a sort of intuition and the
blessing we have missed through doubt or hesitation
they have enjoyed without questioning.
It is a self-evident fact that there are in all our churches
multitudes of nominal Christians, church members in
good standing and children of the Kingdom by inheri
tance, whose religion is not of the slightest value to them
selves or to anybody else. It gives them neither happi
ness, character, nor help in time of need. If it has any
effect at all upon them, it is a source of unrest, for it con
tinually suggests possibilities which it fails to satisfy.
In most cases its only supposed value is its illusive assur
ance of bliss for the life to come. But it is kept Host
carefully at a distance from the affairs of the life that
now is.
Vital faith, on the other hand, always reveals itself
in the very warp and fibre of the present life. Did you
ever notice how the Great Teacher always represented
the kingdom of heaven to men in terms which appealed
directly to their individual experiences and relations in
the performance of their daily toil? To the fisherman he
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
said, " I will make you fishers of men." To housewives
he described the kingdom by a parable of bread-making.
To the farmer he spoke of a sower, sowing seed. To a
merchant he said, " The kingdom of heaven is like a
merchantman." To a vine-dresser his figure was this, —
" I am the vine; ye are the branches."
By the same token, the spontaneous upreach of the
soul is from the ground of familiar experience. A shep
herd, David, pours out his soul in praise to God, and lo!
" The Lord is my Shepherd." But does the centurion
think of Jesus as the Good Shepherd? No, indeed. He
looks to him as the " Captain of his salvation." His
own words indicate that. Just how clearly he grasped
the ideals and work of the Master we cannot say. " In
fact it makes little or no difference. Enough that he
linked his own life to the life of the Christ by means of
certain good principles in a calling for the most part
evil, and so procured a blessing that the priests and
Pharisees and many pious ones had missed. Even so
must you and I, when we find our living Christ, grapple
him to our souls with hooks of faith forged on the anvil of
our daily experience. In no other way shall we find our
place in the kingdom of heaven. And there is no calling
in life so materialistic, no sphere of service so con
taminated by evil associations, but may furnish the
essential conditions for the development of saving faith
in the soul that is upward striving. For even
" In Flanders field the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row."

244

CHAPTER XXIX
Authority in Religion and Life
THE HEALING AT BETHESDA
John 5 : 1-14
Text. — " He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up
thy bed, and walk." — John 5:11
SOLOMON is often quoted as an authority on child
training. But if I had a dozen children to train, I
would not seek advice from the father who brought
up (or failed to bring up) Rehoboam. Solomon was a
wise man in many respects, no doubt, and said many
wise things: but in matters of child training he was an
ignoramus, not an authority. '
What constitutes a valid claim to authority? When
we say that a person is "an authority " on a given sub
ject, what do we mean by the phrase? Do we mean
that he has written voluminously and in a pleasing
manner upon that subject, or that he can discourse
eloquently upon it? Not at all. Voluminous writing
and eloquent speech are often a mere camouflage, an
attempt to disguise the lack of profound knowledge.
To the wise man, he is an authority upon a subject,
and only he, who is thoroughly familiar with that sub
ject, yes, who is absolute master of it, and has proven
his mastery by successful application to practice. The
true test of authority, therefore, is not glibness of speech,
readiness to advise or instruct, large pretensions, or
insistent claims; but profound understanding acquired
by much personal experience and demonstrated by suc
cessful achievement.
Do you wish to consult an authority on business
matters? Beware of the man who, having failed in
some business venture on his own account, sets himself
up as an efficiency expert to teach others. Seek him,
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
rather, who has steered his own commercial bark safely
through stormy financial waters, and has reached the
haven of assured success. Needing advice on matters
agricultural, pass by the man who talks fluently about
phosphate, rotation of crops, and the like, and go to him
who raises the most and best potatoes to the acre.
Gauge a physician's authority on medicine, not by his
familiarity with the technical phrases of the profession,
but by the number of difficult cases successfully treated.
Following the same principle, do not account any man
an authority in religion because he makes a great show of
acquaintance with the original tongues used by the sacred
writers, or displays marvelous ingenuity in expounding
Scripture, or plumes himself on his absolute loyalty to
the teachings of the past. He only is worthy to be recog
nized as an authority in matters religious who is able to
help men in the solution' of their moral and religious
problems, and to illustrate in his own life the power of the
gospel to overcome the lower manhood by developing the
higher. Now what has all this talk about authority to do with
the miracle story of the healing at Bethesda? Every
thing, to be sure! It is the crux of the entire incident,
the one kernel of wheat hidden within its husk. All its
rays of detail focus at this point. This is its only
permanent moral reaction. Suppose we analyze the
narrative found in the first fourteen verses of the fifteenth
of John, what do we discover?
First, as a matter of course, there is the chaff in which
the kernel is wrapped. Several enticing bypaths of
detail open on either side of the way, with glimmering
suggestions of light which many, following, have found
to be mere will-o'-the-wisps, leading hither and thither,
but always eluding the pursuer and landing him at the
last in a bog of endless argument.
For example, — the statement that it was " a feast of
the Jews " that brought Jesus to Jerusalem at this time
at once suggests the question, ever debatable, never
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Authority in Religion and Life
answerable, "What feast?" Then, too, we have the
pool called Bethesda, near the sheep gate. Can we
identify that pool with any modern fountain? Or how
about the story (in the Authorized Version) that an angel
came, from time to time, and troubled the water? Shall
we believe it or not? If not, how shall we explain the
phenomenon described? Finally, just what did Jesus
mean to imply when he said to the healed man, " Behold,
thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing
come unto thee? "
Chaff! I say. All these details are mere chaff, and
we have no concern with them save to winnow them out
as quickly and completely as possible. Who, by discus
sing the feast, can add one millionth part of a psyche-
meter to his spiritual stature? Or who, by identifying
the pool, can slake the thirst of his soul for an hour?
If the superstition of the angel, by the belief of it, re
lieved many a poor creature of sufferings, real or imagin
ary, why worry about the folly of it? And why should
we ask whether some personal, and perchance heinous
sin, had been the source of this man's long years of suffer
ing? That was a matter between himself and his Lord.
" The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger
doth not intermeddle with his joy." Surely these trifles
of mere speculation have already attracted to themselves
too much time of preachers and teachers that were much
better expended upon things that really matter.
The salient points of the story are these. — Jesus comes
to this famous pool and finds there a multitude of sick
ones, among them a man who had been helpless for thirty-
eight years. Poor fellow! he was so utterly discouraged
that his face betrayed him. " Jesus saw him lying, and
knew that he had been now a long time in that case."
Knew? How did he know? From the look of utter
hopelessness and defeat in the man's eye. The whole
sad story of hope deferred, of disappointment, of pro
tracted suffering, of gradually deepening despair, was
written as with a pen of iron upon the man's counte-
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
nance. Seeing this, the Great Physician makes no appeal
to his will, for that is paralyzed as truly as his body.
Coming close to the man, so that he alone may hear,
Jesus asks, not " Wilt thou be made whole? " but
" Wouldest thou? " as more accurately translated in the
Revised Version. Even this qualified appeal calls forth
from the sufferer no hopeful expression, but rather a
declaration of his hopelessness. " Sir, I have no man,
when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool:
but while I am coming, another steppeth down before
me." Then, without any further attempt to awaken
either desire or faith , Jesus speaks with a tone of author
ity, — " Arise, take up thy bed, and walk." And the
authority expressed in that command called forth all the
sick man's remaining moral forces in obedience. " And
straightway the man was made whole, and took up his
bed, and walked."
Is that the end of the story? Oh, no. Were it the
end, the story would scarcely have been worthy of record,
much less of thoughtful study; for thus far it adds little
or nothing to the group of similar stories. Wonderful
enough it is, to be sure; yet not so wonderful as many an
incident of our own time (e. g., the stamping out of the
yellow fever from Havana). But this is told that it
may lead up to what follows. The happy man is hurry
ing off, bed on shoulder, when he is hailed by certain
Jewish leaders with the reproving exclamation, — " lt is
the sabbath, and it is not lawful for thee to take up thy
bed ! ' ' Scarcely pausing in his rapid stride, he flings back
the reply, — " He that made me whole, the same said
unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk."
Do you not see how the entire narrative converges
upon this declaration of the healed paralytic? The
exact statement regarding the long standing and chronic
nature of the case, the vivid word-picture of the man's
hopeless condition, his paralysis of will, his self-pity, his
immediate and complete cure in response to a word of
command, which inevitably involved a conflict between
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Authority in Religion and Life
the ideal of Jesus and that of the Jewish teachers, —
all these details would be without significance, had they
not been followed by the actual challenge of the new
authority by the old, and also by the man's immediate
recognition of the authority of manifest and beneficent
power as superior to that of fussy and baneful impotence.
Here was no repudiation of the sabbath law as given
by Moses, but a very distinct repudiation of the rabbini
cal interpretation of that law in favor of Jesus' interpre
tation. In short, the man acknowledges the paramount
authority of Jesus in this matter at least, because that
authority has been demonstrated by power and benefi
cent purpose, whereas the authority of the rabbis was
founded solely upon tradition, and had no record of
worthy achievement to justify their claims.
So our story ends, as it is written, in the past tense.
But it has a sequel, and that sequel is being written in
the ever present tense of living men and the Christ of
today. Doubtless we all approve the revolutionary
attitude of the restored paralytic of Bethesda, or think
we do. Doubtless, too, for most of us that approval is
superficial and limited. Let us indulge in a little self-
examination. Do you realize that this individual question, regarding
a single incident of long ago, enfolds within itself the
whole broad, ever present question of Jesus' authority
as a moral and religious teacher, and the grounds of that
authority? Do you realize further, that you and I must
answer that question, each for himself, before we can
claim any place in the vital Christianity of the times in
which we live?
We are today face to face with the same conflict of
authority in religion and life that was rife in our Lord's
day, and it grows out of precisely the same differences of
mental or moral attitude. On the one hand there is the
appeal to an infallible Church, an infallible Book, or a
great teacher of some bygone age; on the other is the
eternal challenge of living truth and present worth.
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
As Protestants have discarded the " infallible Church,"
let us take first the infallible Book. What is our attitude
towards the Bible? A professor in one of our leading
theological seminaries, lecturing to his class on the
choice of texts, said, "It is usually wise to choose
inspired words for a text." Instantly a student, who
held fast to the teachings of- his home, threw out the
challenge, — " Professor, do you mean to imply that
there are any wwinspired texts in the Bible? " After
the manner of Jesus, the professor countered with this? —
" Mr. — , would you preach from the words of Satan in
the book of Job, and say, Thus saith the Lord? " At
that moment a new light dawned upon the mind of the
student. Yet there are many who have not seen that light.
He who says, " Every statement in the Bible is true
and vital, because the Bible is the Word of God," has
put the cart before the horse, and can make but indiffer
ent progress in his religious thinking. The natural order
is this. — "I believe the Bible to be the Word of God,
because, or in so far as, its teachings are true and living
and of vital importance." And the ultimate proof of its
authority is the truth and value of the book, and not any
traditional claim of divine origin or churchly approval.
When a preacher first challenges attention and
acceptance on the ground that he believes the Bible to
be the very Word of God, and then deliberately juggles
with that Word, twisting its meaning, misinterpreting
its teachings, playing fast and loose with its language,
his preaching should be rejected at once as without
authority. And the Church of today is overrun with
a host of preachers of this kidney. Catching the
popular ear by frequent references to " the good old
Book," " the Bible of our mothers," and many more
empty phrases of the same kind, they really make the
Book a plaything of their unbridled fancy or a stalking-
horse for their pet hobbies, instead of bringing its plain
and self-evident truth to bear upon the needs, the prob
lems and the sins of our everyday life.
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Authority in Religion and Life

A trite anecdote tells how Queen Victoria was once
asked by a pagan prince the secret of England's great
ness. " It is found in this book," was her majesty's
reply, as she handed him a copy of the English Bible.
If the story be true, the Queen's words embodied far
stronger and more convincing proof of the divine origin
and inspiration of the Bible than all the dogmatic asser
tions of the theologians.
In no other way can we prove the authority of Jesus.
On one occasion the chief priests and elders challenged
him, saying — "By what authority doest thou these
things? and who gave thee this authority? " This
challenge he parried with a counter question. Why?
Because it was based upon the assumption that authority
is not inherent but bestowed. In point of fact, he had
on several occasions declared the ground of his authority,
namely, the transparent truth of his words and benefi
cence of his works. The Christ never claimed any dele
gated authority. He did not demand obedience to his
precepts or acceptance of his doctrine on the ground that
he was the Son of God. On the contrary, he asked men
to believe in his divine sonship on the ground of the
manifest truth of his doctrine and holiness of his life.
If you and I do not find in the life and teachings of Jesus
a power for the development of divinity on our own lives,
it is vain for us to repeat the words of the ancient creed,
¦ — "I believe in God, the Father almighty; and in Jesus
Christ his only Son, our Lord."
The authority of God himself rests upon no other basis
than this : — holiness of character and beneficence of
spirit and action. Intelligent minds have never really
acknowledged the authority of Milton's infinite Kaiser,
with his harsh rule of omnipotent autocracy. Men,
fearing the consequences of disobedience, may render
formal submission to his supposed commands, but they
cannot give him true loyalty or reverent worship.
Theirs is a religion of slavery, not the glorious liberty of
the sons of God. The God of Moses or Mohammed or

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Calvin or Milton might compel homage by his omnipo
tence, but only the God who is manifest in the words and
works, in the life and character of Jesus the Christ can
command our willing and reverent acceptance as the
supreme authority in religion and life.
Was there ever an age when so many creeds and cults,
so many fads and fancies, laid claim to our allegiance
with their assumptions of authority, as this age of ours?
In the midst of this discordant clamor our souls are often
weary and perplexed. On every hand we hear the cries of
" Lo, here! " and " Lo, there! " as we seek some court of
final appeal in matters of life and conduct. So this old
miracle story, despite its quaint setting and its element of
supernaturalism, comes into closest touch with every life
today in a most practical and helpful manner. It solves
our problem, not in abstract and general terms, but in a
concrete utterance pulsing with new-found life and
health. Is it not refreshing to turn from the strife of tongues
and the war of rival claims to this picture of the restored
paralytic? As the scandalized traditionalists exclaim,
" It is not lawful for thee to take up thy bed! " he replies
with such healthy vigor, — " Not lawful? And why not?
What have your prohibitions, your precepts, your
restrictions, ever done to bless mankind? Did they
ever give me a moment's relief in my well-nigh forty years
of suffering? Did they ever help anybody? A fig for
your traditions, your laws, your authority! What are
they to me? The only authority that I recognize is
omnipotence working through love for human weal.
And he that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take
up thy bed, and walk."

252

CHAPTER XXX
Left-Handed Souls
THE MAN WITH THE WITHERED HAND
Matt. 12 : 9-14; Mark 3 : 1-6; Luke 6 : 6-10
Text. — " There was a man there, and his right hand was withered." —
Luke 6 : 6
CURE-ALL medicines are the hall-mark of quack
doctors. Likewise stock phrases betray superfi
cial preachers. Your genuine physician does not
have one common specific for all ailments, nor does your
true evangelist have a common answer for all enquirers.
Jesus Christ was at once the Great Physician and the
Great Evangelist. Study his methods. He diagnosed
each case, whether physical or spiritual, by itself, and
prescribed for each its particular remedy.
To a group of lepers he said, " Go and show yourselves
unto the priests." And as they went, they were healed.
At another time, when a leper came to him for healing,
he touched the man, saying, " I will, be thou made
clean." When he would cure a man blind from birth, he
first mixes clay with spittle and anoints his eyes, then
bids him, " Go, wash in the pool of Siloam." To blind
Bartimaeus he simply said, " Receive thy sight; thy
faith hath saved thee."
So, too, he had an individual answer for each seeker
after moral healing or spiritual help. To the self-
satisfied Pharisee, Nicodemus, thrusting out a feeler of
unquestionable orthodoxy, he replies, " Except a man
be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
To an ignorant woman, asking about the proper place for
worship, he answers, " God is a Spirit, and they that
worship him must worship in spirit and in truth," so
turning her thought from matters of place and form to
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
the higher matters of spirit and life. To Philip praying,
" Lord, show us the Father," he says, " He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father."
For every questioner he had a personal answer, and for
every sufferer his distinctive remedy. His methods
were never " cut and dried," but always instinct with
fresh life. The parallelism between the physical and the
spiritual cures of Jesus is remarkable. More than that,
it is suggestive and practically helpful. Let us see what
it can teach us in a single instance.
The theme of our present study is the healing of the
man with a withered hand. The details of the story are
commonplace enough, yet significant. Notice first of
all that it is the right hand that is withered. The right
hand! That is the symbol of power and practical
efficiency. With the normal man the right hand is the
principal working instrument, the bread winner, the
defender of the body, the trusty servant of eye and brain.
Cripple the right hand, and though the rest of the body
be perfect, its perfection and strength are perpetually
handicapped. Perchance the brain is gifted with the
artist sense ; but what power has the inborn genius to
express itself when the hand that should hold the chisel
or the brush hangs helpless? The massive frame may
have possessed the strength of a Samson, but with the
right hand withered all efforts to use that strength are
like the attempt to pour Niagara through a two-inch
pipe. The man may have had many dependent upon
him, large opportunities may have fallen to his inheri
tance; but with all his diligence, with all the stimulus
of dependent lives or great opportunity, his achievement
must ever be a poor, left-handed, lop-sided thing.
For once the part is greater than the whole. The
weakness of a single member outweighs the strength of
the entire body. Though far less striking than many
another case recorded in the Gospels, it was a terrible
affliction to the crippled one and could not escape the
eye of the Great Physician. Others are watching with
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Left-Handed Souls

unfriendly eyes, eager to use this man's infirmity as a
tool for their own evil purposes. But Jesus, looking
upon him with eyes of divine compassion, rejoices that
he may make the healing of a left-handed body the
possible means of restoring some left-handed soul. As
a first step towards his cure Jesus bids the unfortunate
man, " Stand forth! " It is important that the exact
condition and facts be known to all in order that there
may be no question as to the precise work done. The
act of healing was a deed of mercy to the sufferer, but it
was also our Lord's answer to the challenge of his
critics. No sooner does the man step forth into the full gaze
of the assembled company than there follows a second
command, " Stretch forth thy hand! " The first com
mand, " Stand forth," was easily obeyed. The second
is infinitely difficult. The hand is lifeless; long ago the
man had lost all power over it. Yet he is bidden to
stretch it forth. In other words, he is commanded to do
the impossible. Is not this always the method of the
miracle? The dumb man is bidden to speak; the
impotent man is bidden to take up his bed and walk;
the apparently dead is called to come forth from the
tomb; always, it is in the very moment of doing the
impossible that the miracle of power is revealed.
Obedient to the word of command, our paralytic
reassumes control of his withered hand; and we read,
" He stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, as
the other." Is not this the necessary conclusion of the
story? What other ending would satisfy the conditions?
What else would give to the man a perfectly sound and
complete body? Suppose some substitute had been
offered. The left hand might have been developed so
that it would have rendered almost as efficient service
as the right. Some mechanical device might have been
invented to take the place of the withered limb. Yet
though such device had been most perfect, there would
still be the hand withered and helpless to mark the man
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
a physical cripple. The command of the Christ is
direct, specific. The work of trie Christ is complete.
Now this story of the healing of the man with a
withered hand, taken as a mere incident of physical
healing, has no individual significance. Other and more
striking cures overshadow it in interest, and surpass it
in illustrative value. Even its more immediate message
regarding the spirit and purpose of the sabbath law is
expressed with at least equal clearness in other miracle
stories. Where then shall we find its individual message,
its unique lesson? For we are not asking, mind you,
" What general truth can we find in this story, even
though that truth has been told as well or better by other
similar stories? " We are asking, " What special truth,
peculiarly its own, justifies its claim to our attention,
even though we have studied all the other miracle
stories of the Gospels? " And I find my answer to this
question in the direct relation of treatment to disease and
its moral reaction upon all forms of Christian life and
service. To my mind, this is made very clear by com
paring the miracle of healing with another incident in
Jesus' ministry.
The man with the withered hand has his exact spiritual
counterpart in the rich young ruler who came to Jesus
asking, " What must I do that I may inherit eternal life?"
The one is a man with a left-handed body, the other a
man with a left-handed soul. Both appear to have
been sound at all but one point, and that a point of
supreme importance. Furthermore, both are conscious
of their weakness, the first as a matter of course, the
second as implied in his question. Had he enjoyed the
consciousness of a complete life, he would not have come
to Jesus at all.
The young ruler's riches were the right hand of his
soul. Through them he could most effectively bring his
upright character to bear upon the world for good. They
were the channel of his opportunity and his power. Con
secrating them freely to beneficence, to sacrificial service
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Left-Handed Souls

for his fellows, whether through direct gifts to the poor
or any other form of helpfulness that offered, his life could
find its fullest and most worthy expression. But, with
ered by the blight of avarice, his wealth was a drag upon
him. His social position, his moral character, his clear
intellect, could not exert their natural influence upon the
world nor bring to himself the satisfaction that should
be his. He clearly felt that, with all his conscious
purity and uprightness, there was something lacking in
his life. For this reason he came to the Master and
sought his advice.
What does the Master say to him? Does he say,
" Believe on me, and you will be saved "? No. What
then? Does he assure the young man that he is a sinner,
foul and utterly lost? Not at all. What does he say?
" Keep the commandments." And the youth meets the
challenge fearlessly. " All these have I kept from my
youth." His is not the boastful conceit of the Pharisee.
It is the manly confidence of Sir Galahad. He is con
scious of perfect soundness in his moral life, and justly
so. His absolute sincerity and absence of boasting is
attested by the declaration that " Jesus looking upon him
loved him." Instantly Jesus sees where the young
man's weakness lay. It is his love of money that cripples
his life.
He has brought the young man out into the light, and
his malady is evident. The weak spot discovered, he
applies the remedy at that point. " Go, sell whatsoever
thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven: and come, follow me." You see,
Jesus had discovered that the right hand of the young
man's soul, his giving faculty, was withered. Hence his
command was just another form of " Stretch forth thy
hand." In former times theologians used to talk about "im
puted righteousness " as the ground of human salvation.
By that they meant that God accepts the righteousness of
Jesus Christ as a substitute for our righteousness, and
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
by this means we are saved. Now imputed righteous
ness would no more save a soul than a wooden arm would
have made the cripple whole. So Jesus did not say to
the rich young man, " You must believe this or that,"
" You must accept the atonement or some other theologi
cal scheme," and so escape the necessity of personal
holiness. He knew that the youth longed for personal
completeness, wished that he might honestly say of
his whole life what he said of the Commandments.
He was justly conscious of wholeness with reference to
the Decalogue; but he was equally conscious of incom
pleteness at some other point. For him there was no
possible inheritance of eternal life, no enjoyment of the
kingdom of God, until the weak member was made
strong, and the restoration of his withered faculty lay
with himself, — it could be accomplished only by obe
dience to the Master's command. Had he obeyed, the
result would have been precisely parallel to that in the
case of the man with the withered hand. By such
obedience his moral and spiritual life would have been
made complete; he would have entered at once into the
experience of that eternal life for which he longed. In
his life would have been wrought the wondrous miracle
of salvation; for Whittier has truly said, —
" To be saved is only this, —
Salvation from our selfishness."
In the light of this comparison is not the story of the
restored hand exceedingly suggestive? Human society
abounds in left-handed souls. The Christian Church is
hampered in its work by many disciples of this type.
Men and women they are of high moral character and
approved standards of life, who are recognized by their
neighbors not merely as good citizens but also as good
Christians. Were it not for some one lack they would
rejoice in the conscious experience of the life eternal.
But the one thing lacking is the vital element upon which
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Left-Handed Souls

the efficiency and satisfaction of life depends. The right
hand of the soul is withered; they are spiritual Benja-
mites. The pages of history depict many such characters.
Moses is at once the greatest and holiest man of his age,
and of many ages, yet his lack of self-control, according
to the biblical record, shuts him out of the Land of
Promise. King David is declared to be "a man after
God's own heart "; but passion withers his moral sense,
crippling his whole life and destroying his influence for
good among his people, until by a thoroughgoing repent
ance he is cleansed and restored to completeness of royal
manhood. In the early days of our own national history two
figures stand out in bold relief, — Aaron Burr and
Benedict Arnold, — two men of heroic mold and splen
did gifts. But, in both, the moral right hand of patri
otism was withered by jealousy and disappointed ambi
tion, so making of their great opportunities only poor,
wrecked lives. By contrast, the famous temperance
reformer, John B. Gough, bringing to the Master the
right hand of his soul withered by strong drink, found
complete restoration for a life of fruitful service for God
and his fellow men.
Is not this the true moral reaction of our miracle
story? — The withered hand a type of ihe besetting sin,
the . sin that weakens the whole life and paralyzes its
efforts for good, the sin that exasperates and disheartens
you in the midst of your very noblest plans and hopes
and purposes. " Oh, the little more, and how much it is,
And the little less, and what worlds away! "
What a terrible word is that, — " One thing thou lack-
est." To know that you really long for worthy service,
that you sincerely wish to accomplish great things for
God and man, that your life is truly consecrated and
saintly at all but one point, and that point the pivot upon
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
which it all turns, so that all your aspirations and efforts
are brought to naught, and you still want the experience
of the complete, the eternal life.
And the cure of this moral left-handedness? That is
as specific as the malady. Today when men ask, "What
must I do to be saved? " we are wont to give them some
conventional and all-inclusive answer, — Usually that of
Paul, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." Not so the
Great Physician. He did not say to the man with the
withered hand, " You are a complete paralytic," or
" You are foul from head to foot with leprosy," and then
prescribe some general method of cure. Instead, he
prescribes a remedy along the line of the specific ailment.
When he dealt with moral and spiritual maladies, he was
equally specific. He had no spiritual panacea, no
general and all-inclusive prescription; he made a careful
diagnosis of each case to learn the precise weakness that
needed treatment. He put his finger at once upon the
tenderest spot in the whole life; he seized upon the
dearest treasure and said, " This must be surrendered."
He pointed to the impossible task, and said, " This must
be done." He made it very plain that there could be no
completeness of the soul-life without a sacrifice or an
effort that touched the most vital spot.
Total depravity is the exception, not the rule. For
every one life that is wholly given over to evil, there are
hundreds, yes thousands, of lives crippled in one mem
ber. It is the besetting sin, the idol you daily worship,
the selfish interest absorbing your affection, that mars
your life. Until that is removed your manhood can be
neither complete nor satisfactory. If, therefore, you
would be morally and spiritually whole, if you would
know here and now the blessed experience of eternal
life, bring" forth to the light that one crippled member,
take it to the Master for treatment. In his power the
impossible must be done, the difficult must be accom
plished; and in the doing or the achieving the miracle
is wrought, the life is made whole.
260

CHAPTER XXXI .
Touching versus Thronging
THE WOMAN WITH AN ISSUE OF BLOOD
Matt. 9 : 20-22; Mark 5 : 25-34; Luke 8 : 43-48
Text. — " Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou,
Who touched me? " — Mark 5:31
THE man who could not see the forest because of the
trees is a classic figure. He had a twin brother who
could not see the trees because of the forest. The
vastness and glory of the far-stretching woodland so
engrossed his attention that he took no thought for the
oaks and the maples and the firs of which it was com
posed. Still less did he notice any single tree with its
special graces or deformities.
Now this brother embodies a marked characteristic
of men in every age and land, of men in our own age no
less than in any other. Today the multitude oft ob
scures the man. The needs of the race, the wrongs of the
masses, the sins of the classes, so completely absorb our
attention that we scarcely heed the needs and wrongs and
sorrows of individual men and women. The " brother
hood of man " is such a glorious vision that it quite
dazzles us, and we cannot perceive the ties that bind us
to our kinsfolk and neighbors. Worst of all, we often
lose sight of our own individuality in the tide of human
ity which surges around us.
Quite true to life as we see it daily is an ancient tale
told by three of the evangelists. You recall the story:
Jesus is on his way to the home of Jairus, where the little
daughter of the household lies at the point of death.
The fame of his kind acts has spread abroad, and his
marvelous gift of healing has become widely known;
we are not surprised when we read that " a great
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
multitude followed him, and they thronged him." It is
simply a vast mob of men and women, impelled by idle
curiosity, crowding and jostling him on every side,
their one thought being to see or to hear some new thing,
some miracle of healing or some revolutionary doctrine.
A mob, I say, for the sense of individuality is lost in the
crowd-consciousness. Men have lost themselves in
the multitude.
All of them? No; there is a single exception. One
timid woman, holding fast to her own personality, is
moved by an individual purpose and thrilled by a great
hope. She is afflicted with a malady of long standing.
For twelve years she has been going about from physician
to physician, suffering many things, spending all her
substance, and all the while growing worse instead of
better. Clearly, the recognized medical practice of the
times has nothing for her ; the verdict of repeated failure
apparently dooms her to a life of wasting invalidism.
Just at the moment of utter discouragement, however,
the fame of the Miracle-worker reaches her ears, and,
perhaps unexpectedly, she finds herself in the midst of the
crowd that throngs him.
Here is One who has healed many others as hopeless as
she. He has given sight to the blind; he has raised
paralytics from their beds ; he has cleansed the foulest of
lepers. Even now he is on his way to save a dying
child. It may be that he can heal her; at all events she
will make trial of his power.
So, separating herself, in spirit, from the multitude,
slowly and with difficulty making her way across and
even against the current of humanity that eddies about
him in a purposeless manner, she comes close behind
Jesus and touches the hem of his flowing robe. " For
she said, If I touch but his garments, I shall be whole."
The result must have surprised her, notwithstanding
her faith, after the many disappointments of the past
years. For we are told that, " straightway the fountain
of her blood was dried up ; and she felt in her body that
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Touching versus Thronging

she was healed of her plague." The hemorrhage of
twelve years was stanched in a moment.
Mark you, no word has been spoken to the Master,
or by him. The woman has taken great care to avoid
observation; for, despite her eager desire for healing, she
is modest and timid. But she cannot be concealed.
The Great Physician perceives amid the thronging and
the crowding that gentle touch of personal yearning,
and at once he asks, " Who touched my garments? "
In amazement, the disciples exclaimed, " Master, the
multitudes press thee and crush thee, and sayest thou,
Who touched me? " Quietly, but with undiminished
assurance, Jesus replies, " Some one did touch me, for I
perceived that power had gone forth from me."
The disciples saw the crowd, and that was all. The
vastness of the multitude and the rudeness of its crush
ing so impressed them that they altogether failed to
notice this poor woman in her need. Not so the Christ.
Amid all that rough jostling of the multitude the gentle
touch of'one earnest soul was not unperceived by him.
The pressure of the crowd was meaningless ; the touch of
the one was significant.
Who is there so blind that he cannot see the moral
suggestion of this story? It lies upon the very surface.
It is manifest to the simplest mind. The multitudes
press and crush with little or no benefit ; the one reaches
out timidly and is healed. To jostle even the Christ
brings no blessing; yet even the slightest brushing of his
garment's hem may work a miracle of renewing. Heaven-
wide is the difference between the contact of mere
curiosity and the approach of purpose, between the
thronging of the masses and the touch of the earnest
individual. This is the pith of the whole matter, — •
the multitude in contrast with the woman, the crowd
over against the one, thronging verses touching.
Now do not imagine that the crowd was disappointed.
Doubtless those people went to their homes wonderfully
well satisfied with themselves. They had received a
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
crowd's blessing. They had witnessed a marvel of
healing, and had a wonder-story to tell to their neighbors.
More than this, they had heard divine teaching. Per
chance they had absorbed some truth, had received some
slight uplift mentally or spiritually. It may be that their
outlook upon life had been broadened, their ideals of life
somewhat expanded and exalted, their purpose and
spirit somewhat purified : but it was all very general and
trifling. The woman, on the other hand, had received a dis
tinct blessing, a great blessing, a personal blessing. She
had entered upon a new life. Her whole being was
transformed. She was a new woman from that hour.
Nearly nineteen centuries have passed since this little
drama in real life was enacted at Capernaum; yet even
now it is being repeated daily in every land with a marvel
ous identity of personnel and circumstance. The Christ
still lives and walks our streets with all of his old-time
grace and power. — Yes,
" — warm, sweet, tender, even yet
A present help is he ;
And faith has still its Olivet,
And love its Galilee.
" The healing of his seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain ;
We touch him in life's throng and press,
And we are whole again."
As truly as of old, his gospel is the power of God for
salvation in all the wide sweep of that word, — for the
transformation of human lives, for the leavening of hu
man society, for the deliverance of the sin-bound, for
the healing of the sick (aye more, for the annihilation of
disease itself) , and for the comfort of the sorrowing.
Also, today, as of old, the multitudes throng the Christ.
Despite all pessimistic complaints of the neglect of the
church, the fact remains patent to all that men and
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Touching versus Thronging

women everywhere crowd to hear great preachers and
religious teachers, not only when they make the element
of healing prominent in their ministry, but when they
confine themselves to themes purely moral and spiritual.
Our Roman Catholic churches are filled by several suc
cessive congregations each Sunday, Christian Science
churches are thronged, Spurgeon, Moody, Beecher and
Brooks have their successors in the present generation
who seldom see an empty seat at their services. Evan
gelists of the " Billy Sunday " type often build special
tabernacles that they may have room enough for the
multitudes who come to hear them. Preachers of the
" Pastor Russell " cult have little difficulty in filling the
average theater. And every summer countless thou
sands flock to the camp-meetings and religious conven
tions that are held in all parts of our country. But now,
as in the olden time, the vast majority of these receive
only the crowd's blessing. They are instructed, up
lifted, interested or amused for the time, it may be.
But they never experience that miraculous healing of
either body or soul, that immediate and permanent
transformation of life which comes from vital contact
with the Christ.
The vast majority of those who are found in all
religious gatherings in our own day closely resemble that
throng in Judea. They enjoy the presence of the Christ;
they find a certain pleasure or satisfaction in listening to
his teachings, and they permit those teachings to exert
a conventionally limited influence over their lives and
conduct. They are amazed at the blessed transforma
tion manifest in some lives about them as a result of
this spiritual influence. They even rejoice when some
sin-bound soul is set free from its bondage and filled with
a new and joyous life. Especially are they interested
when some sick one is made well by the power of faith.
They hope to witness many such miracles ; but it never
seems to occur to them that they may share these wonder
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
How often have you and I formed a part of this great
company, following the Christ with a very general and
impersonal interest, living conventional Christian lives,
expecting little for ourselves, scarcely conscious of any
personal needs, or if conscious of some real need never
thinking to satisfy it by a direct appeal to the Christ?
And what does this sort of religion do for us? Very
little indeed! Week is added to week and year to year,
yet we do not receive any great or distinctly personal
blessing. We see others healed of sickness, it may be,
or set free from some besetting sin. Now and again
one stealing past us in the throng reaches out the finger
of true faith, and his life is transfigured; but we remain
the same. We have not touched, we have only jostled
the Christ.
Now the power of the Christ never goes out in response
to mere careless crowding. Miracles are not wrought to
gratify popular curiosity. For healing, whether physical
or spiritual, there must be the purposeful touch of the
individual soul. The Great Physician neither cures nor
saves men in platoons; all his dealings are with the
individual, the man or the woman, " some one." It is
through the individual that society must be regenerated,
the race saved. Through men and women humanity
must be redeemed. All the soul sicknesses, perhaps all
the bodily infirmities as well, of that vast multitude
might have been cured if each human unit therein had
touched the Lord of life with the same definiteness of
purpose that was manifested by the one suffering woman.
She, too, has her counterpart today in the compara
tively small number of individuals whose definite and
personal longings separate them from the multitudes
and single them out for blessing. The old miracle
is being repeated before our very eyes with all its original
glory and under precisely the original conditions. Here
and there an individual comes to the Christ with a clear
consciousness of personal need and seeking a definite
blessing from him. Timid he may be, and weak, but
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Touching versus Thronging

that makes no difference; through the crowd he presses,
and, stretching out the hand of eager desire and faith,
touches the garment's hem of divinity. And behold, a
wondrous transformation! His weakness disappears,
and he is made strong; his disease is cured, and he is
made well ; his sin is overcome, and he is made pure and
Christly; his selfishness is relaxed, and he becomes kind
and benevolent; his narrowness and bigotry are cast off,
and he is made broad and tolerant. In a word, he is
saved. His life is changed almost in a moment. Old
things are passed away, and all things are made new.
The regeneration of a Saul or an Augustine or a Jerry
McAuley is so marvelous that even Christians are slow
to believe in its genuineness.
Now, just what was it that distinguished this woman of
the Gospels from the others in the multitude? This, was
it not? Her act implied a distinct personality and a
definite purpose. Of course, every man and woman in
the multitude had a distinct personality, but for the time
that personality was merged in the impersonality of the
crowd. We hear a great deal nowadays about "mob
psychology," a tremendous force for good or evil. What
is mob psychology? It is the strong and clearly defined
will of a few purposely imposing itself upon the weaker
wills of the many and so multiplying its moral force by
the momentum of numbers. And it is the merging of the
individual in the multitude that closes the channel of
individual blessing.
This is an age of great gatherings and mass meetings.
Religious effort is tending more and more to express
itself by means of evangelistic campaigns with great
crowds. Many persons eagerly rush from crowd to •
crowd, hoping to " get religion," to be healed of disease,
to be set free from some moral tyrant or to develop
spiritual life, in short, hoping to be swept into the king
dom of heaven upon a tide of popular excitement, with
out any particular effort of their own. Such hopes
always end in disappointment. The most that a crowd
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
can accomplish is to attract attention, kindle enthusiasm,
or develop spiritual momentum for some great effort.
Miracles of healing or redemption are wrought only in
response to individual purpose and .action.
It is by no means unlikely that the multitude following
him first attracted the suffering woman to Jesus. From
one and another, as they walked along, she heard wonder
ful stories of his work as a healer, but that was all she
received from the multitudes. lit was her own individual
effort and purpose which brought her into personal
contact with the Healer, and wrought the cure.
The same law manifests itself today. Mass meetings
have their value as means of attraction, as fountains of
enthusiasm, as sources of momentum in religious work
as in all other enterprises ; but no soul was ever borne on
the tide of a multitude's enthusiasm to victory over
besetting sin, or the attainment of a deep and permanent
spiritual life. If you wish to become " shouting happy,"
join some noisy multitude that throngs the Christ and
deafens his ears with religious rag-time. But if you
desire a great and lasting personal blessing, moral
freedom, spiritual transformation, separate yourself
from the crowd, and with definite, individual purpose,
touch ihe Christ.

268

CHAPTER XXXII
The Irrepressible Witness
THE DEAF MUTE OF DECAPOLIS
Mark 7:31-37
Text. — " He charged them that they should tell no man: but the more
he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it." —
Mark 7 : 36
WE are about to study a moral by-product.
As you know, many of our leading industries
derive their profits not merely from the princi
pal product to obtain which the industry was first estab
lished, but also from certain other results of the process
of manufacture known as by-products. In the iron and
steel industries of our country, for example, we have as
by-products copperas, flue-dust, gas and slag. In the
year 1900 the copperas product alone amounted to over
twenty-seven million pounds, and in 1910 more than
seven million barrels of Portland cement were made
from the slag.
In some cases the by-products have come, after a
time, to outvalue .the principal products. This has
occurred in the manufacture of charcoal, in which process
for many centuries the by-products were allowed to go
to waste. But in our time such by-products as acetate
of lime and wood alcohol have become principal products
through a new method of manufacture, their value
amounting to millions of dollars annually.
Following this analogy, we may say that certain of the
miracle stories of the Gospels are valuable chiefly for
their by-products. In other words, their value as mere
records of physical healing or what not is quite over
shadowed by some occurrence or discussion or other
matter which is wholly incidental to the healing. This
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
is due in large measure to the frequent repetition of
similar miracles, and the monotony of details resulting
from that fact. A deformity cured furnishes a by
product of homily on the use and meaning of the sabbath
that is of unspeakably greater value than the mere
bodily cure. The story of the palsied man at Capernaum
and his healing is chiefly significant because it leads to
a discussion of sin and forgiveness. The restoration of a
dropsical man leaves as its permanent message' the truth
that the wonder of the miracle is, after all, merely a
tribute to the greater wonder of manhood.
Now we come to the incident of the deaf man of
Decapolis. About the story itself there is nothing strik
ing, very little that distinguishes it from a number of
other miracle stories. " They bring to him one that was
deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they
beseech him to lay his hand upon him. And he took
him aside from the multitude privately, and put his
fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue;
and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him,
Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And his ears were
opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he
spake plain. And he charged them that they should tell
no man: but the more he charged them, so much the
more a great deal they published it. And they were
beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all
things well: he maketh even the deaf to hear, and the
dumb to speak."
If this story stood alone, the only one of its kind in the
Gospels, it would be significant in itself, the miraculous
healing would stand out clearly as its chief spiritual
message. But because that message has been already
spoken no less clearly more than a score of times, we
must seek elsewhere for its specific moral suggestion,
and the story has its by-product, which is not wanting in
moral value. After the cure has been wrought and the
multitudes are filled with wonder, Jesus, we are told,
" charged them that they should tell no man. But the
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The Irrepressible Witness

more he charged them, so much the more a great deal
they published it."
This is one of six different occasions on which it is
recorded that the Great Physician enjoined silence
regarding miracles that he had performed. On at least
three of these occasions his injunction was unheeded;
yet not once did he utter a word of reproof for the disobe
dience! Is not his silence significant? Is it not a tacit
approval of their action, a recognition of the impossibility
of compliance on their part?
Has it ever occurred to you to notice that Jesus never
solicited testimony from those whom he healed? That
he never urged any man to speak of what had been done?
"What?" you say, " how about the Gerasene demoniac?
Did he not say to him, " Go home to thy friends, and tell
them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and
hath had compassion on thee "? To be sure. But re
member, the healed demoniac himself had first asked that
he might go with Jesus as he journeyed about the
countryside teaching and preaching; he was eager to
tell his story to everybody. Jesus merely turned him
from the public work to a less conspicuous field of wit
nessing which would be better for the man, and at the
same time more fruitful in its results.
Surely, then, here is a valuable by-product that we
may salvage from our miracle story. It is this : — -All true
spiritual expression is spontaneous and irrepressible.
I say first, that all true spiritual expression is spontane
ous. Even education cannot make a genuine preacher
of the gospel. Did you ever observe that the " schools
of the prophets " mentioned in the Old Testament never
graduated either prophet or seer? Elijah, Amos, Isaiah,
and all the great "prophets of the Bible were called to
their work from many different homes, but not one of
them was a product of the schools. Their visions were
the result of personal consecration and fellowship with
God, and their prophecies were the spontaneous utter
ance of truth as they saw it. Theirs was the resistless
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
compulsion of a great experience or a profound convic
tion. The same is true today. Preachers are not made in our
theological seminaries and universities. Doubtless a
thorough education is of great value to any preacher,
but unless one feels in his own soul the impulse of a deep
spiritual experience or of a mighty conviction of truth
and duty, his most scholarly harangues will be fruitless.
The crudest blunders of ignorance are not more blight
ing to the work of the Christian Church than are the
polished and eloquent utterances of men who lack depth
of conviction and reality of personal religious experience.
If I were asked to name the most vital need of the
Christian pulpit today (or in any age for that matter) I
would answer, The supreme need of the pulpit is reality
in Christian preaching; by that I mean, the spontaneous
utterance of convictions born of personal experience.
For one preacher who has a real message there are ten
who only preach sermons, who deliver homilies that
are born in the library, grow up in the brain, and blossom
in the pulpit, but, — not being fertilized by the pollen of
personal experience or conviction, — never come to
fruitage in the lives of the hearers. Your Wesleys,
your Beechers, your Brookses, your Channings were
thoroughly educated men, and their education greatly
augmented their efficiency; but it did not make them
what they were. Their greatness and their power were
due primarily to the genuineness of their own spiritual
life and the depth of their personal experience. It was
this inner compulsion that vitalized education, natural
gifts and whatever else came to hand, and made these
contributory to the highest ends.
What is true of our pulpits is equally true of our social
meetings, whether of adults or young people. Listen
to the addresses or " testimonies " in almost any of these
meetings, and you cannot fail to note the frequent repeti
tion of certain set phrases and Scripture quotations, the
distinctive character of these being determined by the
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The Irrepressible Witness

patois of the sect or cult represented. Now this use of
stock phrases is the mark of the religious parrot, the
infallible token of unreality in speech. Mark, I do not
say that it betokens insincerity, conscious insincerity,
but unreality. In other words, it indicates a lack of that
deep experience-born conviction which expresses itself
spontaneously in the language of everyday life. The
worst thing about it is that many of these speakers are
men and women of perfectly sincere intent who have
been brought into the captivity of a very bad habit by
the unwise exhortations of their leaders.
This is notably characteristic of most of our young
people's meetings. Required, as they often are by their
membership pledge, to " take part " in every meeting,
and realizing that the true fulfilment of that pledge calls
for remarks, testimony or prayer, they yield to this outer
compulsion (as a matter of conscience many times) in
lieu of an inner compulsion which is wholly lacking.
The result of such speaking is the development of
Phariseeism instead of true faith or enlarged spiritual
experience. Memory recalls a society of young people,
the gravest defect of which was that its meetings were
looked upon as models. The pledge was kept by nearly
one hundred per cent of the members, and the testi
monies and prayers were correct in every particular ; in
fact, they were altogether too correct. One felt the
atmosphere of unreality in every meeting. Those boys
and girls were preaching, every one of them, and they
did it uncommonly well. Could they have thrown off
the shackles of a pledge-begotten conventionality and
given spontaneous utterance to their own experiences or
desires in the same language that they used in school
or at their work, the product would have been less
correct no doubt, but of far greater value to themselves
and their fellows.
The supreme peril of this unreality is its effect upon
the speakers themselves, whether in pulpit or in the social
meeting. That which begins in a mistaken sense of
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
duty may develop into a source of pride and self-satisfac
tion, yes, even of hypocrisy, till one becomes like the
man whom Tennyson describes in his Sea Dreams, ¦ —
" With all his conscience and one eye askew,
So false, he partly took himself for true;
Whose pious talk, when most his heart was dry,
Made wet the crafty crow's foot round his eye."
We cannot emphasize too strongly this truth, that all
genuine spiritual expression is spontaneous. It does not
need the compulsion of a pledge nor a corkscrew of
exhortation to bring it forth; it is as natural as laughter,
as inevitable as breathing. But " spontaneous " is not
the last word on this subject.
True spiritual expression is not merely spontaneous,
it is irrepressible. Bind the lightning with threads of tow!
Drive back the tides of the Atlantic Ocean with Dame
Partington's mop! But do not. attempt to repress a
great emotion or to shackle a marvelous experience in
the soul of a true man! Expression there must be, or
explosion and disaster there surely will be.
You recall what our Lord himself said on another
occasion. He was riding in triumph into the Holy
City, " and the whole multitude of his disciples began
to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the
mighty works which they had seen; saying, Blessed is
the King that cometh in the name of the Lord : peace in
heaven, and glory in the highest! And some of the
Pharisees from the multitude said unto him, Teacher,
rebuke thy disciples." What was his answer? " I tell
you that if these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry
out." You recall, too, the answer of Peter and John when
forbidden by the high priest and elders at Jerusalem to
speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus: — " Whether
it is right in the sight of God to hearken unto you rather
than unto God, judge ye: for we cannot but speak the
things which we saw and heard." 274

The Irrepressible Witness

In the fifteenth century Savonarola came to Florence
with his burning message of moral reform, and his fear
less denunciation of the vices of the pope and clergy of
the Romish Church. When bribes failed to silence him,
he was forbidden to preach and threatened with excom
munication, but the undaunted monk continued to
preach, and more violently than ever. Then they
threatened his life, and still he would not repress the
stern indignation that filled his soul to overflowing.
At last the preaching of Savonarola was silenced on the
scaffold, in his forty-fifth year, but the gibbet that
hushed his voice sent the message and the name of
Savonarola down through the centuries as a perpetual
witness against a corrupted church.
More than a century later, Galileo aroused the wrath of
ecclesiastics by announcing his great discovery of the
motion of the earth. When, impelled by fear of death,
he made public recantation of the discovery, he was still
unable to wholly repress the truth, and muttered to a
friend, " It does move, nevertheless."
So always, truth will out. Deep feelings, strong
convictions, great experiences must find adequate expres
sion. When confined they are, like steam, violently
explosive. Yet often when curbed and rightly directed
their expression is by that means made the more effective.
Is there not, therefore, a profound significance in
this statement that Jesus charged the multitudes that
they should tell no man : but the more he charged them,
so much the more a great deal they published it? He is
like the skilful horseman who, by keeping a firm hand on
the reins, only encourages the spirited steed to better
running, holding him true to the course and averting
many a bad fall. As Joshua of old confirmed the people
in their determination to serve God by saying to them,
" Ye cannot serve God: for he is a holy God; he is a
jealous God," etc., so Jesus, by enjoining silence, made
the witness of the multitude the more effective. He was
wise in his request. The multitudes and individuals
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
were right in disregarding the request. It is an admoni
tion best obeyed by apparent disobedience.
So this wonder-story comes down to us not merely to
record the healing of a deaf-mute in Decapolis some two
thousand years ago, —
" A dead fact stranded on the shore
Of the oblivious years; "
but chiefly to speak its living message of The Irrepressi
ble Witness. And this spiritual by-product utters a
direct challenge to every disciple of Christ at the present
time. In this age of greatest need, this time of per
plexity and world agitation, have you no visions, no
convictions or experiences which cannot be repressed?
Have you no message that the world needs to hear?
Opinions, snap-judgments, crude notions, you doubtless
have in abundance. It may be that you are getting some
glimpses of the light, that you see men " as trees walk
ing." If so, in the Master's name I charge you tell it to
no man. But when, by prayer and earnest effort, you
have wrought out some worthy experience or reached
some clear conviction of truth that cannot be repressed,
then go forth and give your message to the world and so
do your part to help other burdened and perplexed souls.

276

CHAPTER XXXIII
Jesus' Estimate of a Man
THE MAN WITH THE DROPSY
Luke 14 : 1-6
Text. — " Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a well,
and will not straightway draw him up on the sabbath day?" —
Luke 14 : 5
Cf. Matt. 12 : 12. — " How much then is a man of more value than
a sheepl "
WHICH is greater, a miracle or a man? We often
imagine that the miracle is greater. Jesus
always recognized man as the supreme miracle.
We make miracles the witnesses of divinity. Jesus made
them tributes to humanity. Every miracle of healing or
help that the Master wrought bears implicit testimony to
his regard for humanity. And greater than any miracle
of healing is the miracle of teaching by which our Lord
brought into being a new conception of the supreme
dignity and worth of man as man and wholly apart from
any accidents of special inheritance, acquirement, or
action. More than one of the miracle stories is little beyond a
preface to some lesson regarding the surpassing value of
essential manhood. Without such a sequel, the story
of the man with the dropsy would have little significance
or interest. On its miraculous side it adds nothing to the
suggestions already made, and more effectively, by other
similar narratives. In fact it is not necessarily a miracle
story at all. The miracle is merely a matter of inference ;
for nothing is said as to the method of the cure. But
from the side-light thrown upon the vastly more impor
tant subject of spiritual values there comes to us a mes
sage that is individual and essential.
Jesus is dining with a ruler of the Pharisees on a sab
bath. With apparent intent to entrap him, a dropsical
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
man has been included among the guests ; and all present
are watching, with either curiosity or malice, to see
whether the Master will heal him. Perceiving their
spirit and waiting not for any overt action on their part,
our Lord himself throws down the gauntlet. — " Is it
lawful to heal on the sabbath, or not? " The silence
that follows his question proves the insincerity of his
critics, and he takes another step. Turning to the sick
man, he heals him and sends him forth from the assembly.
Then comes his coup de grace: — "Which of you shall
have an ass or an ox fallen into a well, and will not
straightway draw him up on a sabbath day? " After
that the silence deepens and the story ends.
Plainly the climax of the incident is the concluding
question. And the crux of the question is the assumed
superiority of a man to a beast. The argument is
identical in essence with that expressed on another
occasion in the words, " How much then is a man of
more value than a sheep! " It shifts the emphasis of the
story from bodily healing or wonder working to the
spiritual value of manhood. It calls our attention to the
inherent majesty and transcendent worth of human na
ture as a fundamental principle to be recognized in all
moral and spiritual effort.
I have said that this insistence upon the supreme glory
and worth of manhood is a new idea, a discovery of the
Christ, and peculiar to Christianity. True, we may find
glowing tributes to the dignity of man prior to and out
side of Christian teaching: but these are invariably
uttered in a spirit of poetic exaggeration, or they refer
not to man as such, but to certain classes of men dis
tinguished from the common herd by accidents of race,
genius, or power. Illustrations of this fact are familiar
to us all.
The Psalmist of Israel sings, —
" Thou hast made him (man) a little lower than God,
And hast crowned him with glory and honor."
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Jesus' Estimate of a Man

But he is speaking only of Hebrew man. In the Hebrew
system man, as such, had a value ascribed to him
unknown elsewhere, and that value was independent of
wealth, social distinction, mental superiority, civic
honor, or any other mere accident of birth or circum
stance. His nativity might be obscure, his resources
limited, his achievements trifling, but if he were a child
of the chosen race, or had become incorporated therewith
as an accepted proselyte, all promises were his, the entire
theocracy was established and administered in his behalf.
This recognition of human worth was, however, strictly
limited by the one sharp line of demarcation: it was
Hebrew nature, rather than human nature, that pos
sessed this intrinsic grandeur.
In all Greek thought men fell into two widely divergent
classes, — Greeks and barbarians. Yet even so, the
Hellenic conception was not precisely parallel to that of
the Hebrews; for it was to the accident of genius, or of
special accomplishment, not to the original endowment of
nature, even of Greek nature, that the Greek rendered
homage. One of the most significant facts regarding
even the highest Greek philosophy is its want of esteem
for man as such, its regard only for the rare and the
cultured. What of the two great religions of the Orient, Brah-
manism and Buddhism? Neither of these systems
recognized any intrinsic value in human nature. Brah-
manism at its best does not exalt man as man, but only
men, separated from the mass of mankind, who have
been quickened to discern in nature the mere play of
illusion, and to contemplate directly the world-soul.
A man of this class has, in the Brahmanic philosophy, a
special and supreme value. By knowing God he becomes
God, but the rest of mankind are as dust and ashes
beneath his feet.
In contrast with all the previous ideals of philosophy
or religion the gospel of Jesus Christ comes as an abso
lutely new discovery of the exaltation of man. Alike in
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
miracle and in parable and in every relation of life, he
paid tribute to the transcendent value of human nature,
speaking always of that nature in its unadorned sim
plicity. He never honored its accidents or embellish
ments. As Dr. H. E. Fosdick has said, " The real self,
the invisible, spiritual personality made in the image of
God, intended for his character, and sure to live forever,
was so infinitely valuable in the thought of the Master,
that he tried continually, by every manner of statement
to make his disciples feel with him that everything else
in life must be subordinated to the interests of this
supreme treasure."
A few of his utterances stand out with especial dis
tinctness. Here are some of them: — " If God doth so
clothe the grass of the field , which today is and tomorrow
is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe
you? " " Ye are of more value than many sparrows."
" How much is a man of more value than a sheep! "
" The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the
sabbath." Always the supreme value for which Jesus lived and
taught and sacrificed was human personality, the very
essence of our common manhood. True, that man
hood was often defiled and despised; nevertheless man
was the child of God, loved by his Father and destined
to immortality. All the service of his ministry, all the
sacrifice and suffering of the cross was endured because of
his sense of the dignity and worth of manhood. He died
for men because he knew that they were worth dying for.
But it is not merely by direct statement that this new
conception of manhood's supreme value finds expression.
It is enfolded by implication in every appeal of the
gospel. From the first, that appeal pays its homage to the
absolute sovereignty of the human will. It addresses
man as a free agent and urges him to exercise his divine
power of self-determination under the influence of a
subtle spiritual force proceeding from God himself.
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The military officer disregarded the will of his soldiers.
The rich patrician did not permit its exercise on the part
of his slaves. The law of the emperor recognized no
individual will on the part of his subjects. But Jesus of
Nazareth never sought to enforce his principles by
autocratic authority, compelling the obedience of men.
He never represented God as exercising such authority.
On the contrary, he always appealed to men for a free
assent and did not overbear them even by heavenly
force. Faith must never be forced. Consecration is
the highest exercise of personal liberty. Every man's
destiny turns upon his own free choice. The real sover
eignty of a will to be determined from within, not to be
controlled from without or above, is always recognized
in our Lord's teaching.
In addition to this recognition of a free will, Jesus
assumed as a self-evident fact the conscience of right to
which instruction, rebuke, and precept were properly
addressed, and which must respond to manifest right
eousness, however bitterly passion, or habit, or desire, or
personal interest might be opposed to this.
Furthermore, this religion of the Christ took for
granted an intellectual nature in man, which, though it
might be rudimental in development and utterly uncul
tured, was yet capable of apprehending great truths as
taught by an accepted teacher. It did not despise even
the crude mentality of the Galilee fishermen, the woman
of Samaria, the jailor of Philippi, the slave in the market;
but discovered in that mentality such lofty aspirations
as would leave it undaunted in the face of mysteries
unfathomable, and inspired only by truths so tran
scendent that for the present it could not grasp them.
But the crowning revelation of the gospel is that of
man's intrinsic capacity for love, — love towards God
himself as revealed in Jesus Christ, and love towards all
men as revealing, however imperfectly, the divineimage.
In this revelation Jesus recognizes a capacity in man
hitherto unsuspected, unsounded; and the highest
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
tribute is paid to the possibilities of his nature. This
love towards God and man is declared to be in itself the
very essence of holiness. And the noblest eulogy on
human nature ever pronounced finds its expression in
the words, " Ye shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father
is perfect."Regarding this eulogy, the late R. S. Storrs has said, —
" We cannot rival God in power; the angels cannot; or
in the measureless infinitude of his knowledge. But in
that which is grander than power or knowledge, in
the character, of sovereign and unspeakable glory, to
which all else in him is subordinate, men are required by
this religion to rival God ; through perfect love to be as
holy as himself: as the single drop, in its crystal sphe
ricity, is as perfect as oceans; as the single sun-ray,
slanting through the crevice, is as perfect in its intrinsic
splendor as measureless floods of solar effulgence."
The scandal of Jesus' life, in the eyes of scribe and
Pharisee, was his utter indifference to the mere accidents
and accessories of human life, the gifts, natural or in
herited, of learning, intellectual force, social distinction
and influence, religious reputation, personal charm and
supremacy. He associated with all classes on equal
terms, and responded to the appeals of degradation and
ignorance and superstition no less readily than to those
of approved piety and highest intelligence. The only
things he would not endure were insincerity, intolerance,
exclusiveness. Choosing those who should take up the task of carry
ing on his work, he gathered about him an apostolate of
fishermen, tax gatherers, peasants and the like, and as
these went out with their gospel message, they gathered
into their following men and women of all classes and
races. Servants, mechanics, soldiers from the ranks,
runaway slaves, outcast women, wealthy patricians,
proud Pharisees, and learned teachers bowed together
in penitence and joyful worship before darkened cross and
golden cloud. 282

Jesus' Estimate of a Man

What of the centuries that have followed, with their
spreading of the Christian ideal over the earth ? Slavery
has been banished from human society, tyrannies and
autocracies have succumbed one after another to the
growing spirit of democracy; and today, wherever the
teachings of Jesus have obtained a foothold, there is a
growing recognition of the equality of ultimate manhood
of all classes and races. Christian democracy is not a
process of leveling down all men to the lowest, but of
leveling all up to the highest. To exalt the essential
nature of common manhood is its aim. The declaration
of the old prophet, " Ye are sons of the living God,"
is recognized as true not of one race or class merely,
but of all men coming into the world. " Sons of God," —
not the Anglo-Saxon or even the white races only, but
also the Mongolian, the Indian, the Negro, all, all, sons
of ihe living God, and that not as a result of any religious
attitude or intellectual attainment or personal conquest,
but by virtue of birth.
This great Christian ideal, I say, has spread over all
the earth, and has wrought great changes in society and
in religious and national life. But do we all accept it
today? Does the entire Christian Church accept it?
Not by any means. Even now, after these many cen
turies of Christian teaching and activity, much of the
old spirit remains. Christian churches are selective and
exclusive. Christian society has its classes and its
castes. We still estimate the value of a man more by
what he has than by what he is, more by his accidents
than by his essential manhood. We talk of the " inferior
races," referring not merely to the lack of culture or
learning or civilization, but to an imagined inferiority
of species, something between the brute and the full-
orbed man. And at the other extreme are those who
talk of the " super- man."
Thank God we are getting away from that miserable
unchristian religion which once delighted to sing and
speak of men as " worthless worms of the dust." But
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
there are still many among us who refuse to recognize any
but " professing Christians " (or even particular brands
of Christians), as sons of God. Would Jesus' words,
" How much is a man of more value than a sheep! "
have had any meaning if man were but a worm? And,
mind you, the Master "was not speaking of Christian
man, or even of Hebrew man, but of man as man. And
this is one vital element of the gospel, one fact that goes
to prove its divine origin, that it" brought to the world a
new conception of the transcendent dignity of manhood.
In the spirit of the Master, Carlyle declares, — " We are
the miracle of miracles, the great inscrutable mystery
of God."
So to me this miracle story speaks not the common
place message of a case of dropsy cured, however wonder
ful the method of it, but rather a message of the intrinsic
worth and glory of man. It is the same message which
the apostle John expresses in the words, —
" Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not
yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if
he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall
see him even as he is."

284

CHAPTER XXXIV
The Calmness of True Courage
THE HEALING OF MALCHUS
Matt. 26 : 47-56; Mark 14 : 43-50; Luke 22 : 47-53; John 18 : 3-13
Text. — " He touched his ear, and healed him." — Luke 22 : 51
THERE is a retired spot not far from the town of
Lucerne, Switzerland, where rises a perpendicular
cliff of gray rock. Cut into the face of the cliff
about one-third of the way to its top is a grotto con
taining the colossal figure of a lion. The huge creature,
lying on his side, with the broken shaft of a spear through
his body and the agony of death on his face, was chiseled
from the living rock. And this noble work of art is the
fitting memorial of a heroic deed.
It was the summer of 1792. All Paris was in a tumult.
The mob, thirsting for blood, attacked the palace of the
king. The Swiss Guard alone remained faithful. While
they held the frenzied people in check, the monarch
escaped, and sent back an order to his protectors to cease
firing. Fatal order! Obedient to the last, but defence
less because of that command, the men of the guard
were overwhelmed by the mob and laid down their lives
every one at his post. Well does the smitten Lion of
Lucerne represent this sublime courage, this uttermost
sacrifice, for the pain on his face is the pain of death.
The essential symbolism of such a work of art is not
limited to the single incident which it was designed to
commemorate. It symbolizes the permanent moral
quality which underlies the incident, and so leads the
mind outward over the broad field of the moral life, and
gathering in one all great heroisms, all revelations of that
highest moral courage which, in the face of hostile legions
and under the very shadow of Calvary crosses, calmly
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
sheathes the sword of conflict and trusts for victory to
the all-conquering power of divine love.
As I read Thorwaldsen's sermon in stone, its message
seems to have been born not one century ago, but
nearly twenty centuries ago. The picture that rises be
fore my mind is located in Judea, not in France. The
tumultuous streets of the great city are displaced by the
quiet shadows of an olive-garden. Instead of the Swiss
Guard of the emperor's palace, I see a little band of
Galilean peasants clustered about their Teacher in the
darkness, and in place of the howling mob is an orderly
company of Roman soldiers coming with torches and
arms to seize him.
Seeing the purpose of the soldiery, the peasants eagerly
ask, " Lord, shall we smite with the sword? " And one,
more impulsive than his fellows, having a sword, draws it
and aims a blow at the head of the high priest's servant,
but succeeds only in cutting off his ear. Instantly the
Master checks his impetuous disciple, and touching the
ear of the wounded man, heals it. This deed of kind
ness done, he turns to his would-be defender and says, —
" Put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that
take sword shall perish with the sword. Or thinkest
thou that I cannot beseech my Father, and he shall even
now send me more than twelve legions of angels? How
then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must
be? The cup which the Father hath given me, shall I
not drink it? "
There is the sublimity of courage, courage that will
not resist force with force, but stands serene and unafraid,
conscious of invincible power, yet refusing to exercise
that power for self-defence lest by so doing the cause to
which life itself has been consecrated shall suffer injury.
Standing amid the shadows of that midnight scene, we do
not think of Jesus as " the Lamb of God." Rather are
we impelled to exclaim, " Behold, the Lion of the tribe of
Judah! " There he stands, like the great stone lion of
Lucerne, pierced through with sharpest sorrow, the
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The Calmness of True Courage
shadow of death already falling upon his face, the agony
of pain in every feature, — there he stands, I say, not a
picture of helpless weakness, but the impersonation of
moral strength, of highest courage, a figure commanding,
royal, divine.
Courage is by universal consent the essence of all true
heroism. In every age men have admired its mani
festation; but we are wont to think of courage as a very
human quality. We do not often associate the heroic
with the divine. To religion we attribute the milder
qualities; and for this reason the gospel often fails to
attract virile minds. In reality, courage is an indis
pensable element of all noble life, running the entire
gamut from the bestial to the divine, and the mental
and moral progress of the race is accurately gauged by a
growing appreciation of the higher forms of courage.
Primitive courage is brutal. It is the heedless despera
tion of the wild beast fighting for its life, or for the
safety of its young. Of the same order is the courage
of the gladiator or the prize-fighter, who is spurred on to
his conflict by excitement or anger or some form of neces
sity. Much higher than this is the physical courage sym
bolized by the ideal soldier, but manifested no less
gloriously in times of peace and in the sphere of indus
trial service, — the courage that finds frequent expres
sion in the work of our police or firemen, and that may
spring from the consciousness of physical strength or the
impulse of momentary excitement, or may have a deeper
source in the sense of duty or the spirit of self-sacrifice.
Higher yet is the courage that faces danger without
any stimulus of excitement or fellowship or popular
acclaim, but alone and in the quiet, inspired only by
consecration to a high purpose, awaits the oncoming of
danger, suffering or death, or, what is more terrible than
either, the possibility of ridicule or failure. From such
courage the element of brutality has been wholly elimi
nated. It is no longer mere physical courage, but has
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
taken on a moral quality, has become truly spiritual,
profoundly religious.
Man at his lowest estate admires the bulldog with his
deathless persistence and brute courage; and few of us
are wholly indifferent to the appeal of the plucky game
cock. Even twentieth century America reads with
eagerness the daily record of the champion boxers, and
delights in other sports that savor of primitive brutality.
The world is just coming to the point where its best
minds can fully understand and estimate at their true
value the higher exhibitions of courage, seeing in them the
type of a heroism nobler than that of the prize-ring, the
bull-fight, or the battlefield, a manliness all the more
manly because it reveals a certain kinship with the
divine. And this highest ideal of heroism finds its
perfect Exemplar, its most effective Teacher, in him who
calmly said, as he faced the Roman soldiery in the dark
ness of Gethsemane, " Put up again thy sword into its
place. . . . The cup which the Father hath given me,
shall I not drink it? "
The true interpretation of any historic incident,
whether found in the Gospels or elsewhere, depends in
no small degree upon perspective and the sense of just
proportion. A single incident must not be detached,
but must be studied in its natural relation to the narra
tive of which it forms a part. We must have a complete
picture before we can catch the exact significance of
single details.
Here is the story of the betrayal and arrest of Jesus,
which we may treat as a distinct and complete picture
in the Gospel drama. What place shall we accord to it
in the literature of the world? I answer, It is one of the
hero tales of the ages. Its key-note is courage, sublimest
moral courage. Its central figure reveals in himself at
once the meekness of the lamb and the boldness of the
lion. His is the heroism of perfect self-mastery, the
majesty of complete self-surrender, the glory of an
all-conquering love. 288

The Calmness of True Courage
But what shall we do with the wonder story, the ele
ment of miracle that is interwoven with it? Do? Why,
we must do with it just what the evangelists have done
with it before us. We must relegate it to a very sub
ordinate position, make it a mere incident or detail of the
larger picture, and wholly secondary to the one great
lesson of that midnight drama.
Let me recall to your minds, briefly but very clearly,
the facts regarding this subordinate narrative, or inci
dent in the narrative. All four of the evangelists record
the Gethsemane drama with greater or less fulness of
detail. All four mention the cutting off of Malchus' ear,
and three give us the words of the Master rebuking Peter
for his rash haste. Only one, Luke, says anything about
the healing. Surely the intelligent interpreter would
not give the place of honor and emphasis to that which
receives such scant notice from the original historians.
Now consider the relation of these several historians
to the incident recorded. Luke was not an eye-witness
of the scene, not being present with Jesus in the garden.
On the other hand, Matthew and John were both there,
and Mark, though not there himself, is commonly be
lieved to have been, in the writing of his Gospel, little
more than an amanuensis of Peter, who, next to the
Master himself, is a central figure in the tragedy, and
upon whose mind every detail of the by-play must have
been indelibly impressed. Furthermore, Luke's Gospel
was written years after the event, and, as tradition as
serts, it was written under the direction of Paul who also
was not present as a witness of the event. Surely a state
ment so remarkable as this, which rests wholly upon
hearsay evidence, necessarily has less significance than
other incidents which are confirmed by eye-wit
nesses. Am I trying to discredit Luke's story, and to eliminate
the miraculous element from the record? Not at all.
That were a matter of historical criticism — mere
chaff. I simply wish to emphasize the fact, clearly
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
manifest to the most casual reader, that the abiding
moral impression of this night's experience, for those
actually present and participant, turned upon the general
attitude and spirit of Jesus as he stood face to face with a
great crisis, and not at all upon the miraculous act of
a moment. You see, we are brought back to the thought with
which we set out, the illumination and interpretation of
this night scene amid Gethsemane's olives by the sym
bolism of Thorwaldsen's Lion of Lucerne. See how
all the lines of the picture, whether natural or miracu
lous, converge upon this one idea of heroism. The per
fect calmness of the Master while others rage or tremble;
the quiet rebuke to his over-hasty friend, coupled with a
word of eternal truth ; the compassionate relief of one
who was suffering in hostile service ; the confident assur
ance of legions of angels ready for his defence; the
perfect subfnission to the will of his heavenly Father; —
all these lines focus at one point, they emphasize one
noble ideal, and that ideal is courage.
Let him who will talk about " the moral equivalent
of war." Here is the moral transcendent of war. The
sublime heroism of the Christ of Gethsemane as far over
tops the dashing courage of the six hundred at Balaklava
or even the self-restrained fortitude of the Swiss Guard
in Paris, as these surpass the exploits of the gladiator or
the daring of the bull-fighter. True, war has been the
matrix of many and noble heroisms which have per
manently enriched the moral life of man; yet the moral
grandeur of history's most chivalrous battlefield is far
removed from the spiritual glory of Gethsemane. Per
haps the nearest approach to that is the dramatic scene
on board the ill-fated Titanic, when scores of strong men,
having voluntarily yielded their places in the life-boats
to weaker or more fearful ones, calmly waited while the
ship's band played, " Nearer, my God, to thee! " and the
gigantic vessel, slowly sinking, dragged them all to
certain death. But even these had the inspiration of
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The Calmness of True Courage
fellowship to nerve their souls, while the Christ " trod
the winepress alone."
Do we not need today this lesson of highest spiritual
heroism? Does not the world need it always? Mere
matters of bodily healing and wonder working, impor
tant and interesting as they may be in their place, are
never paramount; they are, after all, mere ripples on
life's surface, not its deep, strong tide. Yet we are slow
to understand this, and slower still to accept the truth.
Nearly twenty centuries have passed since that lonely
soul set up in Gethsemane a new standard of heroism,
so sounding the challenge of new and higher ideals, and
still the world is amusing itself with the trivial elements
of truth, with the wonders and surprises, with the
material benefits and outward shows. We have not
yet learned to grasp the deep things of the Spirit. Our
eyes are not open to behold the angel legions, while with
submissive faith and courage we refuse to call them to
our aid, and to discover the sources of spiritual power.
Here is the eternal rebuke of all lower forms of courage,
the apotheosis of courage in its superlative manifesta
tion, — moral courage, "All they that take the sword
shall perish with the sword." Brute force is useless in
the battles of God's kingdom. Violence is always reac
tionary. No cause was ever yet established by might.
" Who overcomes
By force, hath overcome but half his foe."
But he who conquers self has won the first skirmish in a
battle that never fails of final and glorious victory.
It matters not what form our cause may take, whether
it be religious, industrial or social, the resort to arms can
never secure permanent triumph or tranquillity. Modern
navies and standing armies may compel outward quiet,
but they can never secure that inward peace which alone
is stable and abiding. Fear is ever the tap-root of force;
faith makes us quiet, trustful, loving, gentle and unafraid.
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
The vision of infinite power ready for the defence of
righteousness steadies us and enables us to wait patiently,
knowing that the victories of force must be transient and
incomplete; while the victories of love, though they be
long in the winning and costly in terms of self-sacrifice,
will be perfect and eternal.

292

CHAPTER XXXV
The Contagion of Character
MANY SICK ONES HEALED BY A TOUCH
Matt. 14 : 34-36; Mark 6 : 53-56; Luke 6 : 17-19
Text. — " As many as touched him were made whole." —
Mark 6 : 56
A NOTED scoffer is quoted as saying, " If I were the
Creator, I could improve upon this world in at
least one point: / would make health catching
instead of disease." That saying, if authentic, betrays
the ignorance of the speaker. More than that, it voices
a popular error. At the present time we are just begin
ning to suspect what we shall know with certainty in the
future, that health is and always has been far more
contagious than sickness. The forces which make for
life and growth always outweigh those that work for
death. Were it not so, the race would have been swept from
the earth ages ago. Read the story of the great plagues
of history, and see how many times it has happened that
when multitudes were being swept away by the infection
of fear some strong and healthy soul has stood boldly
between the living and the dead, and by the contagion
of his health and courage has stayed the plague.
To be thus contagious, health must be strong and
positive. Mere negative or feeble health is not con
tagious. A prominent educator and college president,
recently deceased, has said that health may be compared
after the manner of an adjective: — positive, Health,
i. e., a bare holding of the balance against sickness;
comparative, Vigor, which makes work easy and pleas
ant, does not require constant watchfulness, and is
conscious of sufficiency for all ordinary demands made
upon it; superlative, Vitality, abounding health, " life
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
more abundant," not barely sufficient for its own needs
but overflowing to others, sharing itself without loss.
According to the same authority, this superlative
degree of health is not wholly physical. It involves
something of the spiritual. It comes from above, and is
the inflowing of the life of God into the life of man.
Without this spiritual element, this sharing of the divine
life through communion with God, the highest degree of
physical health is impossible. It is when physical vigor
is reenforced by right spiritual conditions, when through
faith the whole being is brought into harmony with the
divine will, that health passes over from the negative
to the positive, is raised to the superlative degree,
becomes not merely self-sustaining but contagious,
potent. From one who is ill with the smallpox or similar
disease there goes forth continuously a poisonous infec
tion; but not all who come within the sphere of that
poisonous influence are smitten with the disease. Physi
cians come daily into sick-rooms where the air is laden
with germs of disease, yet they seldom catch the disorders
which they are called upon to treat. Why is this?
Because the effect of contagion depends in part upon'
the condition of the person whom it attacks. One in
vigorous health is comparatively safe in the presence of
disease. There are also numerous medical antiseptics
and disinfectants which serve as protective armor
against the shafts of sickness. There is, however, some
thing better still. Reenforce physical vigor with spirit
ual health, let there be such faith that fear and evil
passion are banished, in short, let the whole being be
filled with positive health and good, let there be not
only vigor but overflowing vitality, and the defence
against disease is strengthened manifold.
Does not this reasoning explain Jesus' immunity in
the presence of the most infectious disease and also his
power to overcome sickness in others? He could touch
the leper or the fever-stricken one with absolute impunity
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The Contagion of Character

because his perfect health of body, reenforced by com
plete spiritual harmony with God, left no weak or un
guarded spot for the entrance of disease.
Moreover, his superlative vitality was not merely
impregnable, it was triumphant. From him radiated a
contagion of health that was irresistible; and those who
yielded to him in a spirit of obedience and faith simply
" caught " his health. Just as careless or ignorant
persons, suffering from some infectious disease in a
light form, often start an epidemic by traveling about
and giving the disease to those who touch them either
directly or indirectly, so Jesus of Nazareth, as he jour
neyed about Judea and Galilee, touched many sick and
helpless ones and imparted to them the wholesome
contagion of his divine health.
In addition to those who came to the Great Physician
with personal appeals for healing, we are told that many
found release from their ills through the touch of faith,
of which touch Jesus himself was in some cases appar
ently unconscious. The Saviour was so filled with
divine life and power, he was so highly charged with
this health-giving influence, that it needed no words or
even conscious thought on his part to work a cure. As
many as came in contact with him in a spirit of desire
and faith, though he knew them not, were made whole
of whatsoever disease they had. In a word, the conta
gion of health was emanating from the Master in such
measure that it needed no spoken words nor any overt
acts to make it effective.
Think of it! The mere presence of Jesus was fraught
with blessing. His entire personality was radiant with
cleansing and life-saving power. Wherever he went, he
carried with him a healing, purifying atmosphere.
There was refreshment and inspiration in the slightest
contact with his divine life ; to have him in the home was
a joy and a comfort; to meet him on the way was a
benediction. It was refreshing simply to pass him in
the crowd. Just as the violet gives out its perfume, or
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
as the sun radiates its light and heat, so Jesus gave out
his strength and life to those around him, gave out the
fragrance of his divinity, the warmth of his love, the
purity of his holiness.
What was true of Jesus the Healer was equally true of
Jesus the Saviour. Not bodily sickness alone, but
spiritual disease as well, was overcome by the contagion
of his presence. As many as touched him spiritually
were made spiritually whole. How many an unknown
Magdalene was lifted from a life of pollution far worse
than leprosy by the touch of his purity! How many a
nameless Levi felt the hard grasp of covetousness relax
under the influence of his sacrificial love! How many a
profane and traitorous Peter was melted into repentance
by a single glance of his sorrowing eyes! The contagion
of the divine character was even more markedly trium
phant over sin than was the contagion of Jesus' physical
vitality over bodily sickness.
Now the implications of the evangelic narrative as to
the possibilities of a spiritualized vitality in the mainte
nance of health and the cure of disease are direct and
unescapable. Even those of us who cannot accept the
teaching of certain modern healing cults must neverthe
less recognize the fact that the contagion of health is
always manifestly more potent than the contagion of
disease and is an essential factor in the physical life of
humanity. But the contagion of physical health is not
the supreme thought in this Gospel story. Far more
important is the implied suggestion, — the contagion of
character. We recognize the fact of this moral or spiritual con
tagion at once when it is brought to our attention,
although we may even then neglect it in our living.
In every soul there lies the power to affect other souls
for good or evil without any immediate action of the
will, a power that we possess merely by being what we
are and letting the influence of our being exert itself.
One meets you on the street or chats with you at some
296

The Contagion of Character

social gathering, and you instinctively feel that your
soul has been tarnished. He may be a model of courtesy
and politeness, his appearance may be faultless, his
language carefully refined, but he always leaves you
with a sense of defilement. Your mind is not quite so
pure, your heart is not quite so simple and honest, your
life is not so clear and transparent as before you met
him, although you cannot recall any particular words
that he has spoken or any specific act that was open to
criticism. What is it? It is the contagion of an impure
and unworthy personality.
There is another, bright, hale and jolly, who always
makes you feel better when you meet him, even though
you do not exchange a word. His is one of those strong,
healthy natures, bubbling over with vigorous life which
comes like a fresh breeze from the ocean on a hot July
day, bringing new life and courage wherever it blows.
To meet him in the morning is inspiration for the day.
Yet others there are whose presence is always a delight
and a blessing in some deeper sense. They come to us
without any sage words of reproof; yet in their presence
all evil thoughts and unhallowed passions flee away.
Any mists of impurity are scattered by their coming
as the fog vanishes at the rising of the sun. With them
we cannot be fretful or unkind or discouraged. It is not
anything they consciously try to do. It is just the
natural contagion of their purity, their strong faith,
their courage, their hope, their broad and loving life.
Everybody you touch exerts upon you this silent
influence of one sort or another. You are made better
or worse, you are healed or hurt by the contact. The
contagion of character is universal. What follows?
This, does it not? You exert an influence upon others
in the same way, unless they are immune. You uplift
or depress, you inspire or discourage, you strengthen or
you weaken, you bless or you blight every soul that
touches you as you go about your work or your pleasure.
Whether you will or no, a certain influence is going forth
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
from your life continuously, an influence just as real and
as potent as that which went out from the life of Jesus.
" My lords," said Lord Salisbury, addressing the
English House of Peers, " the reforms of this century
have been chiefly due to the presence here of one man —
Lord Shaftesbury." And another adds, " So long as
Shaftesbury lived, England beheld a standing rebuke of
all wrong and injustice. Iniquities shriveled up in his
presence." Someone said of William Pitt, England's
distinguished statesmen (and the words have been re
cently quoted as equally true of a faithful minister in
one of our smaller states), — " No one went forth from
his presence without being a braver man."
So it is always, everywhere. The world's life and
progress are determined by the contagion of character.
We think to save the world by institutions or laws or by
carefully planned effort, but after we have done all that
we can in such ways the result is pitifully meager. We
have spoken to but a few, and not many of those have
heeded our words. Even fewer are those whom we have
taken by the hand and turned into the right way; but
all the while the spontaneous power of moral contagion
has been at work, and multitudes have felt its force.
What we are has left an impress far deeper and more
lasting than what we do or say. As George Eliot phrases
it, — " Ideas are often poor ghosts; they pass athwart
us in thin vapor and cannot make themselves felt. But
sometimes they are made flesh; they are clothed in a
living human soul, with all its conflicts, its faith and its
love. Then their presence is a power, then they shake
us like a passion, and we are drawn after them with a
gentle compulsion, as flame is drawn to flame."
What wonder that Jesus laid such stress upon the
dignity of manhood? He knew the value of truth in the
abstract. He did not underestimate the worth of
right teaching, earnest devotion, and active effort in
redeeming men: but he knew that more effective than
any or all of these is the contagious influence of a noble
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The Contagion of Character

character, the uplifting power of a pure life. He knew
that even the gospel must be incarnate, that it must be
embodied in human love and human life before it could
accomplish any far-reaching work.
He whose life so perfectly illustrated every truth he
taught that he could say of himself, " I am the way,"
" I am the truth," would have every disciple not merely
a teacher of the gospel, but a gospel incarnate. He left
no written word to perpetuate his teachings, but he
touched twelve men with his spiritual vitality and sent
them forth to transmit the contagion of that vitality to
all succeeding ages. And the true apostle is not he who
merely repeats the words of Jesus, however faithfully,
but he who lives the life of Jesus, however humbly.
In these days we have too much religion that is more
vocal than vital. Its prescriptions are mildly beneficial,
but its contagion is deadly. I have heard men preach the
gospel of peace in such fashion that I was seized with an
overmastering desire to fight. I have heard men sing
" Praise God from whom all blessings flow," whose
manifestly ungrateful lives made their doxology a perni
cious lie. I have heard persons descant in public upon
the joys of the higher Christian life, whose frowning
faces and disagreeable manners in private acted as a wet
blanket to dampen the zeal of all young disciples who
came under the spell of their influence.
Now what the world needs is a religion that shall be,
not less vocal, perhaps, but certainly more vital, —
a religion that shall reenforce its homeopathic^ pellets
of truth with the resistless contagion of abounding and
healthy life. Not all are gifted with eloquence^ of
speech, but this greater gift is a universal possession.
In all our toil and activity we are brought into close
contact with our fellows. We touch elbows with them
in the factory or the counting-house or the school or the
home or on the street, — everywhere. Scarcely a
moment of the day, from morning to night, but other
souls are touching ours, and there is going out from us to
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
them this imperceptible but potent contagion of charac
ter. Can it be said of you and of me, as it was said of
Jesus, — " As many as touched him were made whole "?
It may be true. It ought to be true. Each one of us
should create a healthy moral and spiritual atmosphere
wherever he goes. It should not be possible for a soul
to touch ours for a single hour without being made better
by the contact. Oh, shame, thrice shame upon us if it
be otherwise!
As the centuries have passed, the Christian Church has
made great strides in matters of organization, method
and variety of practical effort. More and more have
individual disciples endeavored to perfect themselves in
numberless lines of Christian activity and service. But
neither the Church as a body nor the individual members
of the Church will be one hundred per cent efficient until
we fully appreciate the force represented in this conta
gion of character; until every Christian goes forth day
by day to the manifold contacts of life breathing from
his heart the prayer of one of our veteran missionaries : —
" May every soul that touches (mine),
Be it the slightest contact, get therefrom some good,
Some little grace, one kindly thought,
One aspiration yet unfelt, one bit of courage
For the darkening sky, one gleam of faith
To brave the thickening ills of life,
One glimpse of brighter sky, beyond the gathering mist,
To make this life worth while,
And heaven a surer heritage."

300

CHAPTER XXXVI
Sympathy and Service
THE WIDOW'S SON OF NAIN
Luke 7 : 11-17
Text. — " When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her.'
Luke 7 : 13
THE Roman sentinel stood helm'd and tall
Beside the gate of Nain. . . .
. . , 'Twas now high noon.
The dull, low murmur of a funeral
Went through the city — the sad sound of feet
Unmixed with voices. — There was one,
Only one mourner. Close behind the bier,
Crumpling the pall up in her withered hands,
Followed an aged woman. Her short steps
Faltered with weakness; and a broken moan
Fell from her lips, thickened convulsively
As her heart bled afresh. The pitying crowd
Followed apart, but no one spoke to her.
She had no kinsmen. She had lived alone —
A widow with one son. He was her all —
The only one she had in the wide world —
And he was dead. They could not comfort her.
" Jesus drew near to Nain as from the gate
The funeral came forth. . . . The pitying crowd
Followed the stricken mourner. They came near
The place of burial, and, with straining hands,
Closer upon her breast she clasped the pall,
And with a gasping sob, quick as a child's,
And with an enquiring wildness flashing through
The thin gray lashes of her fevered eyes,
She came where Jesus stood beside the way.
Jle looked upon her, and his heart was moved.
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" Weep not! " he said; and as they stayed the bier
And at his bidding laid it at his feet,
He gently drew the pall from out her grasp,
And laid it back in silence from the dead.
. A minute's space
He stood and prayed. Then taking the cold hand,
He said, " Arise! " And instantly the breast
Heaved in its cerements, and a sudden flush
Ran through the lines of the divided lips,
And with a murmur of his mother's name,
He trembled and sat upright in his shroud.
And, while the mourner hung upon his neck,
Jesus went calmly on his way to Nain."
Such is the vivid word-picture with which the poet
Willis has paraphrased the gospel narrative of the
restoration of the widow's son. Let us note the signifi
cant details. Two groups or processions meet near the
gate of a little city called Nain. From without comes
the Master with his train of eager disciples. From
within emerges a funeral cortege on its way to a place of
burial. The circumstances are more than usually sad.
On the bier lies the body of a young man, the only son of
his mother, and she was a widow. As she thus follows
toward the grave him who was to have been the stay of
her declining years, a large concourse of her neighbors
and friends accompanies her, desiring to manifest their
sympathy and to afford what little comfort they may in
her hopeless grief.
The scene is one that touches to the quick the tender,
loving heart of the Saviour. He, who in the moment of
supreme agony on the cross could forget his own suffer
ing, as he commends his weeping mother to the care of the
beloved disciple and friend, is keenly sensitive to the
grief that wrings this widowed mother's breast. Deeply
significant are those words of the evangelist, " When the
Lord saw her, he had compassion on her." In them we
find the key to all that follows. It is the simple, natural
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pity of one human being for another in great sorrow, a
revelation of purest human love and kindness.
We might imagine the Master seeing this concourse,
and saying to himself, " Here is an excellent opportunity
to impress on the multitude a lesson of divine power. I
will work a miracle surpassing any hitherto wrought by
me, and surely the people will believe that I am indeed
the Son of God." Can we not even fancy a sort of pro
fessional interest in the case prompting our Lord? It
was a part of his mission as the world's Redeemer to heal
the sick and restore the dying. For the first time in
his ministry, as is generally believed, there has come to
him an opportunity to test and display his supreme power
over the most apparently hopeless results of disease.
Would he not, then, be filled with the emotion which often
springs up in the heart of a skilful physician in his conflict
with some peculiarly difficult case? Or would he not be
moved by a feeling akin to that which stirs the soul of a
great general when about to measure swords with an
adversary of reputed valor and skill?
Nothing of this sort appears, however, in the scene
before us. Not a word of the narrative suggests any
self-conscious . purpose on the part of the Christ. All
is spontaneous, self -forgetful. The one strong and all-
compelling emotion of the hour is compassion, — a
feeling of genuine and overflowing sympathy with the
mother in her affliction.
The first words are spoken to her. How informal and
tender they are! " Weep not! " No cold questionings
of her faith or desire, no religious platitudes, no carefully
chosen phrases too well put to mean anything. Only
such an utterance as we might expect from a child to
some friend in distress, — "Don't cry!" Just the
unstudied outgoing of direct and almost childlike sym
pathy. But do not those simple words express more
genuine human feeling than any elaborate consolation
could have done? Can we doubt that they brought real
comfort to the sorrowing heart? 303

Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
First, a word of consolation, then a work of restora
tion. First the manifestation of sympathetic human
personality, then the revelation of divine power. This
is the true order. It is a great mistake to suppose that
if we have power to help the distressed no expression of
personal sympathy is called for.
I once knew a wealthy and benevolent woman who,
whenever she heard of any distress in her little village,
at once sent a liberal check or other similar gift, but who
never on any occasion manifested the slightest degree of
personal interest in the needy one. She never called on
the sick or uttered a word to the sorrowing, to make them
feel that she had a common feeling with them in their
trials. In her mind the first and only thought seemed
to be for the recouping of losses. If this could be fully
done, nothing more occurred to her as necessary; if it
could not be done, nothing else appeared to her to be
worth while.
How different was the attitude of Jesus! Though
conscious of power to relieve the need or to comfort the
sorrow, his first approach is along the line of tenderness
and sympathy. After this he proceeds to helpful action.
Words of comfort to the mother are followed by words of
power to the son. Approaching the bier and staying its
course, he addresses him who lies thereon. " Youth, I
say, Arise! " is his brief command. " And he that was
dead sat up, and began to speak."
The Master's words are few. Only six words are
spoken by him (see the original Greek) during the entire
incident; but they are pregnant words. Every syllable
is full of meaning. There is no attempt to make an
impression upon the surrounding multitude. In fact,
our Lord seems to lose all thought of the multitude in his
sympathy for the grief-stricken mother. The great
deed is wrought quietly. Not even when it is done does
he make any use of it to convince the witnesses of his
divinity, — the scene is altogether too tender for such a
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use. The feelings awakened are too sacred for public
exploitation, even in the best cause.
How quietly and how fittingly the record concludes
with the words, — "And he gave him to his mother"!
That was the sole purpose of both words and work, —
to comfort the mother and to restore her son. This
done, the Great Physician goes on his way doing good to
others as he has opportunity.
Little wonder that " fear," i. e., a deep sense of rever
ence and awe, came upon all present, and that they
glorified God! Here was indeed a miracle of kindness.
Here was a manifestation of divine love in its highest
form. The incident that began with a word of emotional
sympathy ended with a deed of practical helpfulness.
And while we marvel at the miracle of restoration, we
may well question whether the gift of divine compassion
were not an even greater miracle.
Pausing for a moment with the story itself as a his
toric record, we note the fact that this is the first of a
group of three miracles standing somewhat apart from
all others. They form a natural climax to the record of
wonder working, whatever may be our interpretation of
them from either the critical or physiological point of
view. Other miracles of healing deal with disease in its
various forms and stages, sometimes severe and of long
standing, sometimes comparatively slight and of brief
continuance; not a few the result of mere hysteria.
The group of miracles introduced by the present
narrative is of a class more striking than any of these.
" While there is life, there is hope," is a saying common
even among those who do not believe in miracles.
Though we may be well-nigh disheartened by the viru
lence of a disease, yet we feel that so long as death delays
there is at least a possibility of recovery. When such
recovery takes place, even though it were a case of
malignant cancer, or tuberculosis in its last stages, we
do not think of attributing that recovery to a miracle.
But with the coming of death, hope vanishes, and we say
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that nothing but a miracle will then restore the lost one.
For this reason the three restorations, viz., that of the
widow's son at Nain, of Jarius' daughter, and of Lazarus
of Bethany, — occupy a unique place among the wonder
stories of the Gospels.
Now this very fact of their supremacy in the realm of
miracle may seriously detract from their spiritual value,
— will surely do so if we give it the central place in our
thought. As the eyes are temporarily blinded by gazing
directly at the sun, so the spiritual vision may be dazzled
by too much pondering upon mere marvels. Their
singularity removes them from the sphere of our common
life, and renders us blind to everyday truth and duty.
In the incident before us the miraculous element, the
restoration of the young man, looms up so large that in
many minds it completely overshadows the grace of
divinely human sympathy which it should illuminate.
In comtemplating the marvel of the youth rising up from
his bier, we lose sight of the compassionate Saviour.
We exalt deeds above feelings. We clamor for cures
rather than for sympathy. We write in large capitals, —
" HE THAT WAS DEAD SAT UP," and in tiny
" brilliant " that other phrase, " He had compassion
on her."
Are we right in thus emphasizing the miraculous? I
think not. Is it not, rather, for us the least important
of all the elements of our story? Is not compassion a
greater blessing than the raising of the dead ? Is not love
greater than the greatest miracle ever performed?
Surely, then, the supreme value of the story lies in its
revelation of the spirit and character of Jesus.
Remember this: — the miracle of restoration, however
we interpret it, was but a temporary blessing at best.
The youth of Nain, the daughter of Jairus, and Lazarus
of Bethany, all died at some subsequent time, and there
was no second restoration. The material or the physical
is always the temporal, — must be so from its very
nature. The spiritual alone is abiding.
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It is, therefore, on its spiritual side that this story
brings Jesus nearest to us and offers him to every soul
in a much-needed relation. Today the world is full of
sorrow, and numberless hearts are in daily need of the
ministry of consolation. Countless superior individuals
stand ready with their panaceas, religious or other, for
every ill; but they are all too few who feel deep and
genuine sympathy with every sufferer, who are ready to
manifest personal compassion and love to those in need.
If, however, we think at all deeply on the subject, I am
sure we shall come to see that even perpetual miracles
of healing and restoration cannot cure the sorrows of
mankind, were these miracles unaccompanied by the
manifestation of human sympathy.
" Lengthened breath
Is not the sweetest gift God sends his friend."
Better, far better, and more to be desired than the
greatest miracle of healing, is the spirit of Christly love
which utters its sincere word of consolation, and does its
best to administer help and comfort.
For my own part, if it came to a choice between even
extreme pain and insensibility, I would praise God for
the jumping toothache, and sing hallelujahs to the gout.
Should one offer me immunity from grief at the cost of
sympathy with and from my fellows, I would answer, —
" The price is too great: I cannot pay it." The gravest
charge made against a prominent healing cult of our times
is not that it fails many times in its attempted cures, but
that it paralyzes the spirit of sympathy in many of its
votaries. When, to a little child, weeping because of
some painful accident, I hear a mother of that cult say, —
" Stop crying, you are not hurt. There is no such thing
as pain," I want to say to her, — " Foolish woman!
you are paying too dear for your whistle."
In the midst of life's hurry and work, we are chary of
this self-giving. We often make light of " mere feeling,"
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
and think that if we can do nothing, it is a waste of time
and strength to offer words of consolation, and that if we
can do something, words of sympathy are not needed.
Yet there is often more true Christianity in " the sympa
thizing tear " than in the richest of material gifts. It is
the precious ointment which Mary pours out with loving
hand, filling the house with the sweetness of its perfume,
while Martha thinks of nothing but her cooking.
We seldom realize to how great a degree the sum of
human happiness is indebted to this one grace of sym
pathy.. The substantial good, the effectual relief that
men extend to one another, is comparatively trifling;
but God has given to the weakest and the poorest of us
power to contribute to the common stock of gladness and
to minister not a little comfort in the common sorrow.
The child's smile and the child's tear are mighty spiritual
forces in this unspiritual world. Were this its one and
only spiritual product, I believe that all the suffering
of the ages has been fully justified by the spirit of loving
sympathy generated by pain and grief in hearts that
else were hard and selfish.
As we read this old story from the Gospels, many of
us feel that in the miracle of restoration Jesus is far re
moved from us. But in the ministry of consolation he
draws very near to us all. How often do we stand
baffled and disheartened beside the bier of some young
man or maiden, vainly wishing that we might have
authority and power to call back the departed soul!
But while we cannot restore the dead, a higher ministry
is ours, — to comfort and strengthen the living, to mani
fest the grace of human sympathy, to glorify the dark
clouds of sorrow with the radiance of divine love; and
in so doing to become ourselves more Christlike.

308

CHAPTER XXXVII
An Interrupted Miracle Story
THE RESTORATION OF JAIRUS' DAUGHTER
Matt. 9 : 18-26; Mark 5 : 22-43; Luke 8 : 41-56
Text. — " The child is not dead, but sleepeth." — Mark 5 : 39
CONVENTIONAL interpretation is one of the most
dangerous pitfalls in the pathway of the Bible
student. The written word has become over
grown with a mass of unwritten tradition. Much that
passes for gospel teaching is littla else than a palimpsest
in which churchly interpretations have been engrossed
upon a neglected and hardly decipherable evangelic
record, and the original truth has faded from memory.
Strange, is it not, yet true beyond dispute, that few
tasks are more difficult for a person trained in a Christian
home and educated in Christian schools, than to approach
the Bible with a perfectly open, unbiased mind and to
interpret its teachings as fairly and as intelligently as he
would those of any other book? Strange, too, that the
Scripture reading in our most scholarly pulpits registers
the frequent repetition of false emphasis and mistaken
inflexions which are the inheritance of generations of
error, carelessness or ignorance.
Many a student fancies himself to be voicing his own
interpretation of some passage from the Bible, when he is
in fact merely repeating parrot-fashion the interpretation
with which he has become familiar by frequent reitera
tion in the Sunday-school, the home, or the class-room.
Of course an interpretation long and widely accepted
deserves respectful attention, since it has the endorse
ment of many thoughtful minds through many centuries,
and is therefore likely to be correct. To differ from it
demands courage and savors of presumption; neverthe
less traditional interpretations are not always correct,
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
and every earnest disciple of the Master will be con
stantly alert to discover new meanings in old utterances,
or to recover the old meanings in utterances that have
been misinterpreted and made to speak a false message*.
The story of Jairus' daughter furnishes a telling illus
tration of our thought. Your conventional expositor
in every age interprets it as recording the restoration to
life of one who had actually died. The following words,
of a scholarly writer of our own time, express the view
of the average student and preacher of the age. " We
have ample proof," he says, " of the reality of the death
of the child in the present case. The poor father's
impression when he went away; the words of the messen
gers that met him ; the* considerable time that must have
elapsed — for the minstrels and mourners already
occupied the room; above all, the scorn with which his
(Jesus') words were received by those who supposed
them to be literal." — {John Laidlaw, D.D., in The
Miracles of Our Lord, p. 342.)
Thus unconsciously do Christian interpreters of the
story join the company of scoffing, unbelieving mourners
in rejecting the plain statement of Jesus, — " The child-
is not dead, but sleepeth." Clearly those who heard the
words of our Lord believed them to be spoken literally;
and when we study the incident without bias of previous
training, what reason have we to think otherwise?
That the father supposed the child to be dying when he
sought the Master is self-evident. Equally clear is it
that the messengers who intercepted the company sup
posed the child to be akeady dead. The presence of the
mourners testified to the belief of the family. Over
against these suppositions place the positive assertion of
our Lord, " The child is not dead, but sleepeth." If we
believe the other witnesses, the child was dead. If we
believe the Master, it was a case of coma, or suspended
animation, from which she could be aroused by use of the
proper means.
But what shall we say of the phrase that follows in the
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An Interrupted Miracle Story
narrative? " They laughed him to scorn, knowing that
she was dead." Only this, that we all " know " a great
many things that are not so. In other words, we feel
perfectly assured in our own minds of things that have
no basis in truth. We are ready to assert in the most
positive manner that we know, when, in point of fact,
we do not know. The phrase, " Knowing that she was
dead " suggests this sort of knowledge, since the persons
referred to would hardly be in a position to know in the
absolute sense.
Now what is the point of this little digression? Is it to
insist upon a particular interpretation of the facts in
volved? Not at all. That were mere chaff. But
there is a grain of wheat, — the warning against a mani
fest danger of rejecting the word of God that we may keep
our tradition. Having salvaged this by-product, let us
review the story as a whole, that we may thresh out its
larger message.
As Jesus is teaching by the seashore, a prominent
Jewish official named Jairus comes to him, and, falling
at his feet, entreats him in the most piteous manner to
come and heal his daughter who is lying at home " at
the point of death." The extremity of her condition is
indicated by his words as recorded in Matthew's account,
— " My daughter is even now dead," words quoted
directly, no doubt, from the broken utterance of the
father, and well expressing the hyperbole of a distracted
mind. Such an appeal never fails with our Lord. We are
quite prepared, therefore, to read that " He went with
him." We can even imagine that he caught something
of the feverish haste of the anxious parent and pressed
forward with all speed. Yet he is not permitted to
pursue his way without interruption.
A multitude follows him, and in the multitude a
woman suffering from a malady of long standing. She
learns the purpose of his journey, and into her mind
flashes the question, Why should I be a mere witness
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
of another's relief? I, too, am in need. Why not seek
this healing power for myself? — But the Healer is in
haste. A ruler of the synagogue has bespoken his aid,
and the case is urgent. She must not hinder him. She
must not intrude her insignificance when his attention
is demanded by so great a personage. She must not
delay his progress; so she makes no outcry or demon
stration, but quietly, timidly, she steals up behind Jesus
in the crowd and touches his robe.
The touch of faith is not in vain. The woman is
healed. And she would fain steal away as quietly as she
came, unobserved, unknown, leaving the Master to hurry
on unhindered to the bedside of the dying girl. But no,
the incident is too important to pass unnoticed. Not
withstanding the urgency of his journey, Jesus pauses to
call the woman from her shrinking concealment and to
make her a witness to his power and his love.
The delay, though brief, is apparently fatal in its
consequences to the sick child. While he is still speaking
to the woman, messengers come from the home of
Jairus, saying, "Thy daughter is dead; why troublest
thou the Teacher any further? " Is Jesus disturbed by
this message? Not for a moment. Without waiting
for any expression from the father he reassures him with
the words, " Fear not: only believe, and she shall be
made whole." Then, sending away the crowd and tak
ing with him none but the three most trusted disciples,
he continues his journey to the ruler's house.
There he finds the mourners already gathered, and
the usual tumult of an Oriental household in preparation
for funeral services. Quietly dismissing the noisy
throng with the words, " Give place: why make ye
this tumult and weep? The child is not dead, but sleep
eth," he takes the parents of the maiden, with the three
disciples, and enters the sick room.
Now all is quiet. The confusion and din of mourning
are hushed. The sorrow of the father and mother gives
place to hope. The disciples, who have witnessed
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An Interrupted Miracle Story
many a wonder of healing, are in a mood of expectancy.
The Healer himself is calm and confident. Approach
ing the bedside and taking the hand of the girl, he speaks
in a tone of resistless authority; — " Damsel, I say unto
thee, Arise! " And immediately the child arose and
walked. The father's faith has been fully rewarded.
His daughter is restored to him. •
After warning the household not to make this extra
ordinary restoration a matter of public talk, Jesus com
mands them to give the girl food that her strength may
be completely renewed ; then he goes on his way to teach
and to heal others.
As a record of fact, this story of physical restoration
possesses unusual interest. As a message of spiritual
truth it is of permanent value and importance. We
cannot, however, get this larger moral reaction unless we
study the incident in its peculiar relation to the larger
narrative with which it is interwoven.
Have you ever noted this unique coupling of two inci
dents in a single complete narrative? And if so, have
you ever considered its significance? All the synoptic
writers report the occurrence, and there is a remarkable
similarity in the order of details, — a similarity which,
if it characterized the Gospels as a whole, would lay the
writers open to grave suspicions of collusion in their
work. In each of the three narratives the incident of
the woman touching Jesus' garment is thrust into the
very midst of the story of Jairus and his daughter.
Now the mere fact that both of these stories are recorded
by three writers is by no means unusual ; but the identity
of arrangement in the three records is unique, and for
that reason it is also significant.
With this thought in mind, let us review the circum
stances once more. J arius has come with a most urgent
plea. The call is not merely for help, but for haste as
well. His child is desperately sick, yes, dying. Clearly
this man, prominent in Jewish circles, has tried every
other means for her recovery before he is willing to come
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
to Jesus. This is a last resort, deferred till everything
else has proved unavailing, and death is imminent.
True, as Edersheim says, the ruler of the synagogue
must often have heard of the " mighty deeds " commonly
reported of Jesus, and the Master had doubtless spoken
many times at the synagogue with his consent and even
by his invitation; yet the influence of Pharisaic preju
dice was strong, and only the courage of despair braced
this conservative official against it. The case, therefore,
calls for the utmost despatch, and Jesus responds
immediately. On the way, however, comes the woman and touches
him. Now Jesus might have continued his journey
without a moment's delay; for the woman, being healed,
would gladly have gone as quietly as she came, and
remained forever unnoticed and unknown. Yet the
Master pauses, inquires who has touched him, calls the
woman forth from her timid seclusion, commends her
faith, and makes her an object lesson to the surrounding
multitude. All this takes time, — precious time. A
child is dying! Never fear: here is a soul needing help.
A ruler of the synagogue waits! What of that? This
poor woman's faith must be established and her deeper
needs satisfied. Thus, while on his way to answer one
urgent appeal, Jesus pauses to attend to another.
Was this miracle by the way an interruption? Not
necessarily. Who can say how essential to the success
of the original purpose of his journey was the inter
polated miracle and its public avowal? Jairus beheld
this miraculous cure. Perchance he saw the woman's
modest touch approaching the Healer's garment. He
saw the abashed look with which she shrank from
exposure to the public gaze. He heard the words of
Jesus, " Someone hath touched me," and readily dis
cerned the great principle that the only touch which
reaches God is the touch of faith. It is not, then, a
matter of mere probability, it is a matter of certainty
that the soul of Jairus was made more receptive than
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An Interrupted Miracle Story
before, that he must have walked with a more hopeful
step, that he must have heard with less dismay the
announcement of the messengers, — " Thy daughter is
dead," — that the words, — " Fear not: only believe,"
must have come to him with deeper meaning and must
have been received with more implicit trust than would
have been possible had Jesus not paused to complete the
healing of the woman.
Have we not, then, in this apparent interruption; a
most significant spiritual message from our miracle story?
"Apparent" interruption, I say; for there has been
no real interruption. The journey has been delayed
for a time, but the spiritual processes have moved
steadily onward. The delay is in itself an element in the
miracle-working force. The Master performs the greater
task successfully because he completes the minor task
perfectly. We, his disciples, often fail in great service
because, in our very eagerness for success therein, we
neglect some other and less attractive service that meets
us on the way, the performance of which is essential in
the preparation for the larger work.
How many a heavenly vision has fled, how many a
sublime possibility has been blighted before it matured
into a possession, because of our disregard of some
commonplace opportunity lying in our pathway! I
believe it is Ruskin who says, — " Every duty we omit
obscures some truth we might have known." With
equal truth we may say, Every opportunity we neglect
weakens us in the performance of some more glorious
task which beckons us onward.
There is no discord in the kingdom of God. For the
single-minded follower of the Christ there is no conflict
of duties. Conflicting duties betray cross-purposes.
The fulfilment of one God-given service never hinders
the doing of another helpful task, nor excuses its neglect.
On the contrary, every service that we render in the true
spirit of discipleship strengthens us and fits us to do more
effectively that which follows. The more duties you
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
do, the more you are fitted to do. What you lose in
time by attending to the minor task, you gain in strength
and experience for the major undertaking.
Read this story, then, not as an isolated incident, but
as a part of the greater whole. Read it till you are able
to subordinate its elements of wonder to its purpose of
instruction and helpfulness. Learn from it to see the
true relations of life as well as its individual duties and
achievements. Fear not to give your sympathy and
aid to the appeal of today lest your strength be exhausted
before you reach the greater task of tomorrow. Do the
duty that lies nearest you, respond to the plea that
meets you by the way. So shall you be fitted to work the
miracle that waits, to accomplish perfectly the task that
lies before you as the goal of your journey.

316

CHAPTER XXXVIII
Stones Rolled Away
LAZARUS OF BETHANY
John 11 : 1-46
Text. — " Take ye away the stone." — John 11 : 39
LITTLE keys open large doors. God has given the
keys of his infinite treasure-house into the hands of
men, and no door of blessing will swing open for us
until we turn the key in the lock. Beneficent displays
of divine power and love often hinge upon some simple
exercise of human energy, some trifling condition of
human obedience to the manifest bidding of the divine.
The miraculous ever waits upon the commonplace.
Jehovah will quench the thirst of his people from a rock
in the wilderness, but the man, Moses, must first smite
the rock with his staff. The Almighty, by the hand of
his prophet, will work a miracle of healing upon the
leprous captain of the king of Assyria, but a captive
maid must bear the message, and Naaman himself must
first wash in the Jordan. The Lord will bring to Isfael
a wonderful deliverance from the Persian power, but the
woman, Esther, must first intercede with the pagan king.
The compassionate Saviour will feed the waiting and
hungering thousands, but an unknown lad must con
tribute his few loaves and the disciples must distribute
them to the hungry ones. Jesus is ready to speak the
potent word that shall call forth Lazarus from the tomb,
but the bystanders must first roll away the stone from
the tomb's mouth, or the sleeping one will not hear the
divine call.
Thus the greatest miracle is ever the reward of simple
obedience to some divine command. The most wonder
ful work of God is his response to some trifling effort of
man put forth in harmony with his will. Ours the
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
pressure of some insignificant button; God's the revela
tion of limitless electric force. Ours the adjustment of
some clumsy wheel; God's the sending of the mighty
mountain torrent that energizes the great factory. Ours
the prayer of helplessness and faith; God's the healing
of the sick one or the recovery of the lost.
That was a moment of intense interest to all concerned
when Jesus stood at the tomb of Lazarus, and the inci
dent which occurred there marks a notable epoch in our
Lord's ministry. The air is fairly a-tingle with sup
pressed excitement. Grouped about the Master are his
disciples, eagerly watching to see how he will meet this
supreme challenge of his power. Close by are mourning
hearts waiting to be comforted, and with them is a goodly
company of friends and neighbors who have come, some
out of sympathy with the bereaved sisters and some
from idle curiosity regarding the great Miracle-Worker.
But in all these groups the train of thought runs upon
the same track. A common question shapes itself in
every mind somewhat in this fashion.
This man has wrought many wonders already. He
has healed the sick. He has restored to life at least two
persons who were apparently dead. But this case is
more hopeless than any of these, for four days have
passed since the body was laid in the tomb, and doubtless
decay has set in irretrievably. What will this Healer
do in the face of such conditions? Certainly the situa
tion presents apparent difficulties sufficient to tax the
faith of his most intimate friends, and to arouse the
hope of failure in the hearts of his enemies, while at the
same time it would raise to the highest pitch the curiosity
of indifferent wonder-chasers and village gossips.
Under such circumstances, what is the attitude of the
Master? We might expect him to manifest anxiety or
hesitation, but he is wholly undisturbed either by the
difficulties of his task or by the critical curiosity of the
crowd. His only manifested feeling is that of sympathy
for the bereaved friends. His first utterance is common-
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Stones Rolled Away

place enough, yet it is a necessary prelude to the extra
ordinary work that is to follow: — " Take ye away the
stone! " After the command spoken and obeyed, a
prayer of thanksgiving — ' ' Father, I thank thee that
thou hast heard me." Then the summons to the sleeper —
" Lazarus, come forth! "
Now what moment, think you, was the most critical
moment in the progress of this story? The moment after
the utterance of the words, " Lazarus, come forth! "?
Doubtless it so seemed to the spectators. We can
imagine them standing with bated breath, wondering
whether there would be any response to the summons.
Can you not almost see that cynical smile on the face of
doubting Pharisees? thati ook of startled wonder and
trembling hope struggling with sorrow in the features of
the loving Mary? that eager astonishment depicted
in the eyes of the most faithful of the disciples? And
when the man whom they supposed to be dead came
forth as though awakened from a refreshing sleep, what
astonishment and awe filled every heart!
But Jesus manifests neither anxiety before the appear
ance of Lazarus nor astonishment afterwards; he knew
that the critical moment was passed already. It was
not after the sleeping one came forth, but after the living
ones removed the stone, that he cried with grateful
assurance, — "Father, I thank thee that thou hast
. heard me! " In that moment the miracle was practically
accomplished ; for the only possible obstacle to its accom
plishment was removed.
An ingenious critic has propounded the theory that
this story of the restoration of Lazarus of Bethany is but
a variation of the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus,
and the mere suggestion is sufficient to set scores of
would-be scholars to threshing chaff with the utmost
vehemence. Yet, with all their labor, they get only dust
and chaff; not a single grain of wheat rewards their
effort. The only moral reaction for the mind of today, the
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
only spiritual wheat for the feeding of present life, comes
to us from the story just as we have it. Whether con
sciously or unconsciously, the writer of the Fourth Gospel
has revealed very clearly both the intellectual interpreta
tion and the spiritual impression which came to him from
the incident as recorded. And these reactions, emphati
cally religious, are widely different from the reactions of
the parable recorded by Luke, which were largely socio
logical in their bearing.
With John's intellectual reaction we are not particu
larly concerned. He is at some pains to make it clear
that, to his own mind at least, this is a case of the restora
tion to life of one who was actually dead. And we are
faced at once with this dilemma : — if we accept his
interpretation of the incident, immediately we throw it
out of alignment with present-day life and experience.
If, on the other hand, we interpret the incident differently
in order to harmonize it with modern thought, we add
nothing to the spiritual value of the story. In fact, a
change of interpretation does not in the slightest degree
affect its moral reaction. The spiritual impression of the
devout reader will inevitably coincide with that of the
evangelist, and that spiritual impression centers upon the
simple act of obedience which is the necessary prelude
to the miracle of restoration.
Let us make this point very clear. The men who
rolled away the stone could not have called Lazarus back
to life. But refusal or mere neglect on their part to
.remove the stone at his bidding would doubtless have
made it impossible for Jesus to have called him back.
It is matter of record that the Great Physician was
unable to perform any significant miracle in his home
town for lack of cooperation on the part of the towns
people. Always the divine operation depends upon human
cooperation. This is one of the eternal laws of the
spiritual life.
The method of the divine government is not autocratic
but democratic. It is a government " of the people, by
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Stones Rolled Away

the people, and for the people." Certain great forces
are placed at our disposal, certain great laws eternal and
unchangeable are clearly revealed to us, and by our use
or neglect of these we must work out our own destiny as
individuals and as a race. Through these have all the
miracles of the ages been wrought ; and without them no
miracle has been wrought, no most commonplace work
has been accomplished. We are workers together with
God. This is true not alone in what we know as "relig
ious work," but in every department of life and effort.
It is true in the social life, in the life civic, industrial,
national and international.
Of late we have begun to think in terms of the larger
life. Even the most insignificant of us are beginning
to realize something of our relation to society and to the
world. We have witnessed great things in our time, and
we have come to expect great things. We have been
told that the age of miracles is past, yet somehow we can
not escape the impression that the age of miracles is
always with us. Although disbelief in miracles is peren
nial, perennial also is the desire for miracles and the need
of miracles.
Today, as never before, the world is longing for the
miracle of an established world peace. During the
terriffic struggle through which we have so recently
passed, a great deal was said about making it a war that
should end war. But the echo of the cannon had scarcely
died upon our ears before men began to talk about prepa
ration for future wars. He spoke not for himself alone
but for thousands of others who said, — " Do not talk
of this as the last great war. God will have to change
human nature before we can discuss such a thing.
There will be other wars, and America to keep them from
her shores must build up her strength. . . . We must
have forces to prevent war as well as to wage interests.
.Indeed, if we do not speed, this great war may be fought
here. ... If we want principle and freedom, we must
be ready at all times to fight for them."
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
Utterances of this sort sound very much like echoes of
the old " Copperhead " song of our Civil War days
adapted to the new outlook : — M
" The Prince of Peace is dead!
Let us put him in his coffin
And hammer down the lid."
The hopelessness of Martha is reenforced by the cynical
sneer of Pharisees, and Lazarus sleeps within the tomb
while a great stone lies at its door.
" God will have to change human nature." %Yes, that
is just what God is waiting to do. All the power and
will necessary to restore to life the sleeping Prince of
Peace are ready at our hands, but at the door of the
tomb lies a great stone olfear. Costly armaments, great
navies, large standing armies, what are these but the
materializations of fear? " Preparedness " is the watch
word of suspicion. Each nation suspects her neighbor
nations, classes suspect other classes, individuals suspect
their neighbors of hostile or selfish intent, and so they
must be "on their guard."
Today the voice of the Christ is saying, as of old,
" Take ye away the stone! " He will work the miracle of
restoration, but we must first put away from our life this
haunting fear, this all-pervading suspicion. And this
we can do. How? By cultivating the acquaintance and
friendship of those whom we fear. Suspicion and fear
are the offspring of ignorance. " I don't like the
Japanese, they are so sly," said a good lady to her
friend. " What reason have you to call them sly? "
queried the friend. " Why, I can't understand a word
they say," was the conclusive reply. There you have it
in a nutshell, — ignorance and suspicion walking hand
in hand. If you would cease to fear your neighbor,
cultivate his acquaintance, secure his friendship, and
then God will call forth the sleeping spirit of peace.
Remember, however, that acquaintance can ripen into
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Stones Rolled Away

friendship and peace only when you manifest in yourself
that sincerity of purpose and spirit of peace which you
seek in others. There is eternal truth in the words of
Lowell, — " Be noble! and the nobleness that lies
In other men, sleeping, but never dead,
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own."
Another miracle for which the Christian Church has
long been praying is the miracle of a true and living
Christian unity. Under the stress of the Great War this
miracle was witnessed in a narrow area on Flanders
Field, and many began to hope that the wonder of that
hour might become the permanent joy of the Christian
world. Inspired by this hope, the Christian leaders of
America launched the Interchurch World Movement in
response to the divine call. But that Movement, which
began with such great promise, ended in confusion and
disappointment. What was the reason? Simply this:
at the door of the tomb lay the great stone of bigotry.
It was the old story, — " We forbade him, because he
followeth not with us." The voice of the Christ, " Take
ye away the stone," was unheeded, and the Christian
Church waits in vain for the miracle. Ecclesiastical
schemes and adjustments, church unions and federations,
however valuable in their place, are utterly powerless to
restore a living unity in the Church of Christ until
churches and Christians together with united strength
roll away this great stone of bigotry from the door of the
tomb. Another stone that lies at the mouth of many a spirit
ual tomb is inertia. We are not indifferent. Oh, no,
we realize our own need and the need of others. We wish
for manifestations of divine power, miracles of divine
achievement; but we have fallen into certain fixed habits
of life and action, and it is not easy to change them.
Translated into plain Anglo-Saxon, inertia means
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
laziness; and some one has truthfully said that " Moral
laziness is our original sin."
Too often we think of miracles as wholly uncaused
and unrelated manifestations of divine power. The
story of Lazarus' restoration has been of little value to us
if it has not impressed upon our minds and hearts the
necessary interdependence of the divine and the human
in all miracle working. The Arabian Nights tales of
magic and uncaused wonders have been a source of moral
anaemia to the peoples by whom they are most read;
whereas the miracle stories of the New Testament have
furnished inspiration for all highest endeavor, because
all beneficent displays of divine power are made to hinge
upon the cooperative effort of those who would profit
by them.

32 1

CHAPTER XXXIX
The Crowning Miracle
THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS
Matt. 28 : 1-20; Mark 16 : 1-19; Luke 24 : 1-53; John 20 : 1-21, 23
Text. — " Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but
is risen." — Luke 24 : 5, 6
THE Resurrection story is the climax of the gospel.
The Resurrection itself is the crowning miracle of
the ages. Other miracle stories are wonderful;
the story of the Resurrection is stupendous. Its chal
lenge to human faith is the most uncompromising, its
moral and spiritual implications the most far-reaching.
On the other hand, the details of the incident are more
fully given and its claims are the best attested of any
similar event in all history. The accepted records are
marvels of self-restraint. Their sanity and transparent
sincerity have commended them to thoughtful minds in
every age.
We do well, however, to remember that, as mere
literary or religious products, these stories, wonderful
though they be, are after all only gospel chaff. In
themselves they represent no spiritual value, they afford
no soul nourishment. Even the question of their abso
lute historical truthfulness is not of great importance.
The divine life in the soul of man is not sustained by the
fruits of a dead past, but by the freshly reaped harvests
of the living present.
What to us are forty days more or less in the life
history -of Jesus of Nazareth? If that be all that the
Resurrection implies, then the oft repeated Easter story
is of trifling significance, and the annual spring festival
of Christendom a monumental farce. It is only when
from the husks of legend and symbol we thresh golden
grains of living truth that even this miracle of miracles
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
enriches and blesses our life. Clearly, then, the value of
these stories lies not in their literary character nor
in their historic accuracy, — no, nor even in the particu
lar incidents which they describe, — but in the moral
and spiritual reactions which they awaken in every de
vout soul, and which have become a part of the religious
heritage of the race.
The first of these reactions is the profound and growing
conviction that Jesus lived after his crucifixion, — that
the apparent triumph of his enemies did not make an
end of his life and work. Notwithstanding the destruc
tion of the physical body, the spiritual personality,
the essential Jesus still lived. If we take the stories just
as they come to us, even though some of us may doubt
minor details, we cannot escape certain implications
that grow out of these statements, certain undesigned
and naive self-betrayals of the writers which are worthy
of notice.
For example,- — it is unmistakably evident that all the
disciples recognized the risen One as the same Jesus who
had been crucified. Although they make it very clear
that they were not expecting the resurrection, and each
successive announcement of witnesses was met with
fresh expressions of doubt and even unbelief; although
at times those to whom the Lord appeared failed to
recognize the visible form, yet in every case the identity
of Jesus was made clear by some spiritual manifestation.
Mary, looking with tear bedimmed eyes upon the out
ward features mistook him for the gardener. But the
name, " Mary," spoken in tones of love and tenderness
such as none but Jesus had ever uttered at once identified
him, and she cried out joyfully, " Rabboni! " As the
risen Lord walked with two disciples on the road to
Emmaus, they thought they were talking with a stranger.
It was the spiritual act of blessing the broken bread that
" opened their eyes " so that they knew him. The
discouraged fishermen of Galilee did not recognize
their Master as he called to them from the shore in the
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The Crowning Miracle

early morning. A repetition of the miraculous draught
of fishes revealed the miracle-working Jesus, and John
passed the word to Peter, " It is the Lord! " Thomas,
stoutly refusing to believe the testimony of his fellow
disciples that Jesus had appeared to them, instantly
recognizes " the marks of Jesus," i. e., not the nail print
and spear wound, but the divine magnanimity and loving
concession to his obstinate skepticism. It is the mani
fest spirit of the Christ, and not the visible scars, that
calls forth the reverent confession, " My Lord and my
God! " And so it came to pass that during the forty
days of his post-resurrection ministry every shadow of
doubt was removed from the minds of his disciples, not
by ready recognition of physical sight, but by the unmis
takable evidence of the spiritual sense; and the convic
tion was unanimous that no impostor was deceiving them,
and that there was no mere illusion in these appearances,
but that the very same Jesus with whom they had con
sorted so long was with them still, — a living, potent
personality. (Pause a moment for a single thought in passing.
" If our bodies are not raised, how shall we recognize our
loved ones in the future life ?" is a perennial question
of sorrowing hearts. Do we not find a complete answer
in the undesigned testimony of the evangelists? Bodily
vision is often deceptive. Outward appearance is
frequently misleading, but spiritual recognition is
instant and unerring. The unveiled spirit of a loved one
can never elude our search.)
Again, these witnesses to the resurrection ministry
testify quite unintentionally that although the spiritual
personality of the risen Christ was identical with that of
Jesus, that which was seen during the forty days was not
identical with the body that was laid in the grave.
With a single exception, the references to the post-
resurrection appearances indicate an absolute change.
Previous to his crucifixion and burial, Jesus' body was,
like all human bodies, material and subject to all the
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
laws of a material body. Jesus walked or rode from place
to place, even as you and I. His body was subject to
fatigue, pain, hunger, and thirst. During that period
he never " demonstrated " any unreality of matter, but
entered houses by doors, came and went in ordinary
human fashion. After his resurrection, however, he was
freed from these necessities. Although he walked at
times in company with disciples, yet he appeared and
disappeared instantaneously and with no visible depar
ture. He flashed into the presence of companies of men
gathered in secluded apartments with closed doors.
And, finally, he vanished into the air at the last, and was
seen no more.
Now whatever any one may think of the passing inci
dents as thus related by the evangelists, these reactions
are manifest to every reader ; and they are of permanent
significance. The question of the ages, " If a man die, shall he live
again? " and the hopeless problem expressed by the old
Persian poet in the familiar quatrain, —
" Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who
Before us passed the door of Darkness through,
Not one returns to tell us of the road
Which to discover we must travel too,"
both find their most convincing answer in these stories.
Call them folk-tales, myths, illusions, if you will, the fact
still remains, irrefutable, inescapable, that we have here
a body of testimony so dignified and virile in its content,
so naive and unpremeditated in its presentation, so con
vincing and permanent in its reactions that it makes the
claims of modern spiritism appear vapid and childish
by contrast, and carries greater weight with even
scholarly and thoughtful minds than the most serious
investigations and conclusions of a Sir Oliver Lodge or a
Professor Hyslop.
The post-resurrection utterances of Jesus are no mere
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The Crowning Miracle

twaddle or meaningless platitudes, such as we hear
today in pretended communications from departed
spirits. On the contrary, they constitute a distinct
and advanced stage in his teaching ministry, a fitting
conclusion to his otherwise incomplete life work. And
his parting message, — " Lo, I am with you always, even
unto the end of the world," has come down through the
centuries as a significant factor in all Christian service,
a potent force for continuous progress and victory.
A second reaction from these stories of Jesus' resurrec
tion is the new and deeper conviction — yes, the ever
growing conviction — of immortality as the universal
birthright of humanity. Belief in the resurrection of
Jesus has always carried as its inevitable corollary the
noble assurance —
" Christ rose, and I shall surely rise."
Not that belief in immortality originated with the teach
ings or resurrection of Jesus. Ages before the coming
of Jesus, profound and reverent thinkers had discussed
the question of a future life, and had propounded various
theories regarding its nature and conditions. With
many theory had crystallized into a more or less clearly
defined hope, " a grand Perhaps." The resurrection of
the dead was a tenet of the more spiritual Jewish teachers
of our Lord's time. But however we may explain the
fact, or fail to explain it, no one familiar with the history
of Christianity will for a moment question the claim that
somehow the doctrine of resurrection and immortality
at once took a leading place in Christian preaching, and
the apostles staked the success of their mission upon it.
It is a fact worthy of note that in all his teachings
Jesus said little about the future life except in its moral
phases. He took immortality for granted, as is manifest
in his declaration, " God is not the God of the dead, but
of the living." No detailed descriptions of the joys
and glories of the life to come, such as are found- in the
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
teachings of Mohammedanism and kindred religions,
ever appear in the Master's utterances. He speaks only
of the spiritual conditions that are necessary for the
attainment of that life. Our mental pictures of heaven
are taken from the apocalyptic visions of John, not from
the sober teachings of Jesus. He tells us nothing about
" golden streets " and " pearly gates." He only assures
us that the way to a blessed immortality is the way of the
cross, — the way that he himself trod ; and his one
descriptive phrase regarding that life is embodied in the
words, " In my Father's house are many mansions."
Yet through the Christian centuries the progress of
the gospel has been marked by a deepening conviction of
personal immortality; and this Christian thought of
immortality implies, as the late Dr. Storrs has said, —
" not mere existence prolonged, and modelled after the
earthly fashion, but life in a fuller, intenser sense, . . .
full of vision, gladness, happy fellowship with illumined
souls, noble service exhaustive of no power, communion
of spirit with God himself." And while there are still
multitudes in the fellowship of the Christian Church
who are beset with doubts and perplexities upon the
subject, the growth of spiritual experience through
Christly service has ever proved the most effective
solvent of such doubts and questionings.
Only one whose soul had been tested and refined in the
crucible of a heart-rending experience could have
written these verses which come to us from the pen of
John Oxenham, —
" In every soul of all mankind
Somewhat of Christ I find,
Somewhat of Christ — and thee;
For in each one there surely dwells
That something which most surely spells
Life's immortality.

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The Crowning Miracle

" Beclouded oft, and oft obscure,
In peril oft of forfeiture,
And lost in many a plicature,
Yet in each one there is
Such hope of soul recoveries,
Such grace of soul discoveries,
That in each life the seed there lies
Of high immortal destinies.
" And so, for love of Christ — and thee,
I will not cease to seek and find,
In all mankind,
That hope of immortality
Which dwells so sacramentally
In Christ — and thee."
By no means least important of the reactions to the
story of Jesus' Resurrection is the concept of the Resur
rection life as a present experience of the devout soul.
St. Paul was the first to give expression to this ideal.
You recall his words: — " If ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above." " If ye be risen
with Christ! " — Immortality is not altogether a matter
of future ages and other worlds. If we understand it
aright, immortality begins here and now. It is a quality
of being as well as a measure of existence. " With such
simple and lowly beings as first appeared in the primor
dial seas," says a recent writer, " growth and reproduction
was probably a matter of a few brief hours or even of a few
brief minutes." We do not speak of a man as " old "
until he has passed threescore years and ten. What is
the essential difference? Is it merely a matter of time?
Not by any means. The length of life in each species is
determined by its quality. Each species has a definite
cycle of life and activity, and the hours, days, weeks,
months or years attained by the normal individual of
the species represent the time required for the fulfilment
of its cycle. To the degree in which he enters into
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
fellowship with the Resurrection life of Christ, man
realizes that even the centuries of a Methuselah cannot
suffice for the completion of his cycle. He requires
eternity — immortality. So ihe proof of immortality
is the practice of immortality. It is the development of
immortal aims and qualities and ideals.
Fellowship with the crucified and risen Christ is the
dynamic of a higher spiritual life. To be risen with
Christ, — what is it? This, is it not? — To live above
the sin and strife and selfishness of the world. To
live for others. To live for God. To do all this through
the power of the divine life pulsing in our souls — the
indwelling Christ. Remember, it is not the Christ of
Nazareth and Galilee, the Christ of Calvary and the
open tomb, the Christ of an age long past that saves you
and develops in you this eternal life. That was the Christ
who made Jesus immortal. You must be saved by the
Christ of today, the present and living Christ, — Christ
in you the power for victory over sin, Christ in you the
motive force of a higher and nobler life, Christ in you the
inspiration for fruitful service, Christ in you the hope
of eternal glory.
This is the life immortal whose beginnings may be
clearly discerned in our present experience, and whose
necessary completeness is in that " Life to come,
Which martyred men have made more glorious
For us who strive to follow,"

332

CHAPTER XL
The Promise of the Miracles
THE EVER-PRESENT CHRIST
Matt. 28 : 16-20; Mark 16 : 14-18; John 14 : 1-14
Text. — " Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. ' ' —
Matt. 28 : 20
THE Gospels do not give us the complete story of the
Christ life. Only the introduction of that life is
recorded by the evangelists. The successive
chapters have been written in the progress of the Chris
tian centuries, are being written in the achievements of
Christendom today: and the volume will not close, the
last chapter will not have been written, until the king
doms of this world have become the kingdom of our
Lord and of his Christ, and his reign shall be completely
established. For us the period of supreme importance in this divine
life is the present. The Christ of today is the Christ of
our gospel. That is no gospel which deals wholly with
the past, or which is merely a promise for the future.
The gospel, if it be indeed a gospel, must be written in
the present tense. To believe that a man lived centuries
ago in Judea who revealed God to men in a series of
wonderful works and sublime teachings may arouse a
certain degree of interest in our ¦ minds. To cherish a
fond hope that in the more or less distant future Jesus
of Nazareth will reappear on earth in bodily form, may
afford not a little emotional satisfaction to a certain class
of disciples. But, after all, the question which takes
precedence of all others is this, — Is God revealing him
self in the life of man today? Is he able and willing
to incarnate himself in the life of every man at the
present time as fully and as potently as in the life of
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Spiritual Messages of the Miracle Stories
Jesus nearly twenty centuries ago? May we live in daily
fellowship with him, and discover the secret of his
power? In a word, — Is God as near to us here and now
as he was to the people of Palestine during the lifetime
of Jesus, or as he will be at some future time when we
have passed into another state of existence?
To this question in its various forms comes the answer
of our Lord, " Lo, I am with you always, even unto the
end of the world." Thank God for the " I am! " It is
the assurance of an ever-living Christ, a continuously
present revelation of God in the life of men, in our life.
It takes the gospel story out of the grave of the dead
past and brings it to us all aglow with the life of the
present. Our gospel, then, is not a lifeless book, a
religious mummy. It is a living, breathing personality,
touching elbows with us, a vital message coming direct
and fresh from the Father to his children, as new, as
clear, as full of power and promise as though it had never
before been heard by man.
To catch this living message, to come face to face with
the Christ of today, should be our constant aim when we
study the New Testament or when we unfold its teachings
to others. In religion, as in other matters, we may well
" Let the dead past bury its dead."
Our concern is with the present. To bring every inci
dent, every doctrine, every truth up to date is the only
way to give it full value. The problem of religion is
always a problem of " present worth."
The parables, for example, are of comparatively tri
fling significance to us as mere pictures of ancient Jewish
home life, or as exposures of Pharisaic unbelief and
bigotry; but as reflectors of twentieth century foibles,
or as guide-posts to the duty of today, they are priceless.
So of every phase of the New Testament narratives;,
whether historic or didactic, whether doctrinal or practi
cal, we must find its interpretation in terms of present-.
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The Promise of the Miracles

day experience and need, or it is valueless. So, too,
of the gospel as a whole : we must make it speak, not in a
dead language, but with a living tongue; not with a
foreign accent, but with the very idiom and cadence to
which we were born and which we use in our daily speech.
To do this with the individual miracle stories has been
our aim in the preceding chapters. We have sought the
present moral and spiritual reactions of each incident in
detail. We have taken the narratives separately, as an
artist might sketch the individual trees in a forest,
bringing out minute points of leaf or trunk or branch.
As the same artist might afterwards give us a picture of
the forest in its completeness as a part of the more
extended landscape, so let us now turn our thought to
the miracles as a class of divine works, as a distinct
element in the gospel story, and let us ask, — What is
the message of the miracles as such to modern minds?
What bearing have these stories, when taken collectively,
upon the life and work of the Christian Church of today?
What reaction do they stimulate in your spiritual life
and in mine? And our answer to this manifold question,
the answer which each disciple discovers for himself, the
answer which finds its expression in his life, will deter
mine the ultimate value of our study.
Surely the first and most natural impression made
upon our minds by this larger and more general view,
this grouping of the New Testament miracles, is that of
God's immediate and active participation in the affairs
of human life, of the availability of divine power to meet
the extreme needs of men. The contemplation of such
a series of mighty works gives us a vivid conception of the
nearness of the heavenly Father to his earthly children.
We have read the miracle stories of the Gospels in vain if
we have failed to discover that the reign of law, absolute
and changeless though it be, does not imply an absentee
God or necessitate the bondage of the Creator to his own
creation. For a long time the Christian Church as a whole,
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particularly the Protestant Church, has excluded^God
from all intermeddling with his world unless it be in
matters supremely and solely spiritual, and has banished
him to heaven, like Napoleon at St. Helena. According
to the most orthodox teaching, men may accomplish great
results by manipulating the infinite forces and laws of
nature. They may play force against force and law
against law to produce wonders both real and fraudulent ;
but God himself must not presume to use the same means,
even for purposes the most benevolent, lest by so doing
he should overturn scientific principles or lead men to
religious extravagances.
What wonder if frantic extremists have arisen under
various names, seeking to restore the banished Sovereign
to his throne and his kingdom? They may have a
mission of God to chasten and restore the Christian
Church, even as the ancient Babylonians and Persians
and other heathen peoples had in relation to apostate
Israel. It were well if Christian workers, instead of
fighting against these messengers or instruments of the
Almighty, should give heed to the message which they
bring and see if it be not, when calmly weighed and rightly
interpreted, the word of God to us. Need had never
been for these schismatic developments had the church
read aright the first message of the old miracle stories,
which is simply this : —
God is in his world. He is now, as ever, the immediate
personal director of all events. What we call natural
laws and forces are but the continuous manifestation of
his divine presence and activity. They reveal omnipo
tence working with perfect freedom, yet with absolute
uniformity and precision. Whatever is done, God does
it. He can create, and he can destroy. He can hurt,
and he can heal. He can hear and answer the prayers
of his children today and always.
Spiritual forces are the supreme forces. They are
not naturally antagonistic to material or physical forces,
nor is there. any discord or friction in the working of the
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different forces when they act in obedience to the will of
the Creator. Spiritual forces are as truly amenable
to the reign of law as are all other forces ; yet when two
forms of force are opposed, the spiritual forces are sure
to triumph, for they are higher and mightier than the
physical. All forms of force should work together for
most perfect results. We may not neglect the use of any
force or agency within our reach; but when material
instrumentalities and physical forces are exhausted, the
spiritual forces still remain at our call. God can heal
the " incurably sick," he can relieve the distressed, he
can feed the hungry and give sight to the blind, speech
to the dumb, hearing to the deaf, without stultifying his
nature or introducing discord into the music of the
spheres. The miracle stories are a sort of divine promise to all
succeeding ages. We have just as good reason to expect
these manifestations of divine power and spiritual
energy in America and Europe and other lands today
as had the people of Palestine to believe in them in the
days of Jesus of Nazareth. More than this: their
promise has been and is being daily fulfilled, and wit
nesses to this fulfilment are numberless. The record of
George Miiller's work in Bristol, England, or of the
Fulton Street prayer meeting in New York City are just
as reliable as are those of the Gospels.
" That healing gift he lends to them
Who use it in his name;
The power that filled his garment's hem
Is evermore the same.
" For lo! in human hearts unseen
The Healer dwelleth still,
And they who make his temples clean
The best subserve his will."
We should not expect all sick ones to be healed now,
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for not all were healed then. The sacred narrative
contains frank acknowledgment of failures on the part
of Jesus and his apostles. The marvel is ever the excep
tion, or it would soon cease to be a marvel.
Right here let us be on our guard against a common
mistake: in the popular mind the word " miracle " is
chiefly suggestive of a method of working, and that
method always occult. The word should rather suggest
the spirit of the worker and the results of his work.
It is a great mistake to suppose that the significance
of these miracle stories of the New Testament hinges
upon the method of Jesus' working. On that point
opinions have always differed, but concerning the spirit
manifested and the results achieved there can be no
disagreement. Both are worthy revelations of divine
love. A second impression which comes to us from the reac
tion of modern experience upon the ancient miracle
stories is that of progressively miraculous works wrought
by the cooperation of human effort with divine power.
According to the writer of the Fourth Gospel, Jesus
publicly declared, — " He that believeth on me, the works
that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these
shall he do." Now whatever value critics may assign
to these words as a part of the evangelic record, they
certainly embody a promise, the literal truth and divine
authority of which have been demonstrated by nearly
twenty centuries of progressive miracle working, each
successive generation doing greater works than its
predecessors, and the present generation eclipsing all
others in works as marvelous as they are beneficent.
If we speak of the " Nature miracles," word comes to
us that forty-five millions of persons in China are threat
ened with starvation. Instantly the command is heard
in Christian America, " Give ye them to eat," and the
vast majority of the suffering ones are saved from starva
tion by disciples, few of whom will ever see any of those
Whom they have rescued by their gifts. Is not that a
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greater work than the feeding of five thousand as recorded
in the Gospels?
Again, the pastor of a New England church, sitting at
the telephone in his study, distinctly hears the proceed
ings of a church meeting in the state of Washington
which result in extending him a call to the western
pastorate. Can any miracle of the New Testament
exceed that in wonder?
We are told that Jesus walked upon the Sea of Galilee;
but modern aviators have crossed the Atlantic without so
much as touching its surface.
If we turn to the miracles of healing, the records of
many a modern hospital will outrival the miracle stories
of the evangelists both in the number of cases and the
greatness of their achievements. Even the restorations
of the dead are not necessarily exceptional to the uniform
experience of the race. Why should we accept the
records of the New Testament as unquestionably true
and then deny off-hand and without investigation the
stories of numerous other restorations found in the
writings of the early Church and attested by as many
and as trustworthy witnesses? Why take it for granted
that al) modern instances are merely cases of suspended
animation, while those of the Gospels must be accepted
as involving actual death and restoration?
Was not the scientific victory over yellow fever at
Havana and New Orleans a greater miracle than the
cure of Peter's wife's mother? And the marvels of
surgery in the late war, the reconstruction of mangled
bodies, restoring lost skin and bones by grafting, replac
ing entire organs such as noses, ears, lips and jaws by a
like process, — do not these far overshadow the restora
tion of Malchus' ear?
Of course, many will say that these illustrations are
not in point since they are aside from the direct course of
our thought, and that we are now dealing with incidents
of a nature quite distinct from the miracles of Jesus. I
insist, however, that the distinction commonly made
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hinging as it does wholly upon the method of working,
is false and artificial, not real and natural, and that we
may rightly compare these mighty works of our own day
with the miracles of the Gospels, recognizing the fact
that they transcend the latter in their intrinsic value and
glory, according to the Master's promise.
No position could be more absurd or irrational than
that of certain extremists who say, — "I prefer to take
the Lord for my healer rather than to be cured by men."
What do they mean? Simply this, that for every case of
sickness whether grave or trifling they demand the direct
appeal to spiritual power without any use of material
medication. Equally reasonable would it be to insist
upon using a trip hammer or a pile driver every time
they have occasion to drive a carpet tack.
We need to readjust our sense of proportion, to see how
really insignificant is this question of method, and to
place the emphasis of miracles — Jesus' miracles or any
other — upon the spirit which they reveal and the results
achieved. Love, and love alone, works true miracles,
brings divine gifts to men ; and that love is revealing it
self wondrously today, healing, helping, blessing, enrich
ing our human life in numberless ways.
We have studied these miracle stories in vain if we do
not emancipate ourselves from the bondage of tradition,
from the worship of wonder and of power, and discover
the deeper, nobler purpose which lies behind all others,
the revelation of that which is the essence of perfect
humanity and of true divinity, the spirit of love.
Why were these mighty works wrought by the Saviour?
To show that God was with men, living, working, striving
for their good, seeking ever to lead them to the fullest
enjoyment of their divine inheritance.
Why was the story of them written down- by the pen
of the recording angel and preserved for all succeeding
generations? It was that this manifestation of divine
love might not be limited to the activity of a single
individual for a few months, and to an area of a few
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square miles in an obscure corner of the earth, but that
wherever this gospel is preached there might be a con
tinuous revelation of love and power in the healing of
sickness, the comfort of sorrow and the relief of distress.
So the stories have come down to our own day with their
message of hope and promise :
" To tell that God is yet with us,
And love is still miraculous."

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Yale Divinity Library
New Haven, Connecticut