Ethical Christianity

Preachers of The Age

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

J935

This book was digitized by Microsoft Corporation in
cooperation with Yale University Library, 2008. You
may not reproduce this digitized copy of the book for
any purpose other than for scholarship, research,
educational, or, in limited quantity, personal use. You
may not distribute or provide access to this digitized copy
(or modified or partial versions of it) for commercial purposes.

(J)reac0er0 of t$t (&$t

REV. HUGH PRICE HUGHES, M.A.

a— 4

KSSsW/n. a- /7S7.6-',. ~&rysi.(2 fl>.

ty ~, c-^ pQ?*-

^

.-— ./ ..-¦--  ¦¦;..-./ /{'-. fj.. ~'J/0l

<7-J,fc7^-ri'CT^

ETHICAL CHRISTIANITY

SERIES OF SERMONS

BY THE
REV. HUGH PRICE HUGHES, M.A.,
AUTHOR OF "SOCIAL CHRISTIANITY," "THE PHILANTHROPY OF GOD," ETC.

** He's true to God who's true to man ; wherever wrong is done,
To the humblest and the weakest, 'neath the all-beholding sun,
That wrong is also done to us ; and they are slaves most base,
Whose love of right is for themselves, and not for all their race."
Lowell.

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & CO.
31, WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET

H814

THIS VOLUME is
DEDICATED TO
THE SISTERS OF THE PEOPLE,
WHOSE LIVES ILLUSTRATE THE
ETHICAL CHRISTIANITY
IT ADVOCATES.

PREFACE.

Nothing is more remarkable and, from one point of view,
more encouraging than the fact that every attack which has
been made upon the Christian religion has been founded
upon a total misconception of its nature. In our own day
a great many persons, both educated and uneducated, have
imagined themselves to be opponents of Christianity. But
when their arguments and denunciations are carefully ex
amined, it is found that what they have rejected is some
perversion or caricature. Nothing is more common than
to hear persons talking about " giving up " Christianity who
have never had any real Christianity to give up; or, to
speak more accurately, who have never given up anything
really Christian which they were fortunate enough to possess.
A short time ago one of the great apostles of Positivism
astonished mankind by announcing that he had been a
Christian in his youth, and then proceeded with the utmost
naivete to disclose that by being a Christian in his youth
he meant that when he was a boy he held certain
metaphysical dogmas with respect to the creation of the
universe and the nature of the soul ! The most common
delusion of clever persons who imagine that they have
rejected Christianity, is to suppose that Christianity consists
in a creed, and especially in the acceptance of certain

vill PREFACE.
mysterious dogmas about which even Christian opinion is
divided. It is really quite surprising that any one could
honestly confound Orthodoxy with Christianity, because, as
John Wesley used to say in his emphatic and decisive
manner, you may be as orthodox as the devil and as
wicked. Not that I in the least underestimate the import
ance of orthodoxy or correct thoughts with respect to
spiritual facts. But every one ought to be aware that it is
possible to receive dogmatic formulae as a train of thought
in the brain without experiencing even an infinitesimal
trace of real Christianity.
I have said that the extraordinary delusion to which I
have referred is, from a certain point of view, very hopeful.
I mean that it would have been an exceedingly ominous
thing if sincere and intelligent persons had really con
sidered the claims of true Christianity and then rejected.
What many upright and ardent souls have rejected is a
misconception, a caricature, a subjective Christianity of
their own, a traditional delusion which no more resembles
real Christianity than the conventional Christ of the painted
Church window resembles Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It
is true that at this moment the great majority ofthe people
of this country never go to any place of worship, and this
is yet more the case on the continent of Europe. Does
it in the least degree indicate that the masses of the
European nations have weighed Christianity in the balance
and found it wanting? Nothing of the sort. The over
whelming majority of them have not the faintest conception
of what Christianity is. I myself have met a great number
of so-called " agnostics " and " atheists " in our universities,
among our working men, and in society, but I have never
yet met one who had rejected the Christianity of Christ.

PREFACE. IX
Many of the so-called unbelievers have a great deal to say
about the horrors and iniquities of ecclesiastical history,
the inconsistencies of Christians, and the immorality of
some doctrines that have been held by sincere but ill-
informed professors of the Christian religion. But all this is
utterly wide of the mark. As the learned and now sainted
Bishop Lightfoot was never weary of reminding us, Chris
tianity is Christ. " One. might have thought it impossible,"
he exclaimed, " to study with common, attention the records
of the Apostles and martyrs of the first ages, or of the saints
and heroes of the latter Church, without seeing that the
consciousness of personal union with Him, the belief in
His abiding presence, was the mainspring of their actions
and the fountain of all their strength." Precisely the same
truth is taught by Dr. Dale in the invaluable and most
timely work to which I refer in the thirteenth sermon in
this volume. Exactly similar testimony might be quoted
from the most remarkable work that ever proceeded from
the pen of the late Cardinal Newman, his Essay in Aid of
a Grammar of Assent. He proves to demonstration that
the only possible explanation of the triumph of Christianity
in the first centuries was the intense personal devotion of
living Christians to a living Christ. On this point all real
Christians of all schools are unanimous. But what oppo
nent or critic of Christianity has ever so much as examined
the personal testimony of all Christians to their personal
union with Christ, and in numerous cases to their conscious
ness of that union ?
Christianity aims at producing a particular kind of
life upon earth, and it declares the only way in which
that particular kind of life can be realized. What that
kind of life is I have tried to explain in this volume.

X PREFACE.
I do not believe that there is any honest agnostic or
unbeliever in the world who would object , to the sort
of conduct which is exemplified and advocated in these
sermons. All the noblest unbelievers have now accepted
the ethical teaching of Christ as the highest and best. We
are agreed with respect to the practical result at which we
ought to aim. Now, can that practical result be achieved
on a large scale in any way except in the Christian way ?
We appeal to the tribunal of history and declare that Christ
like men and women can be produced only by Christ ; and
He Himself can produce them only by entering into living
union with such men and women as are willing to receive
the Christ-like life from Him. Therefore we Christians all
agree with Bishop Lightfoot in the strong statement that
" the core of the Gospel does not lie " in " the moral
teaching and the moral example of our Lord. Its distinctive
character is, that in revealing a Person it reveals also a
principle of life — the union with God in Christ, apprehended
by faith in the present and assured to us hereafter by the
Resurrection." Nevertheless, it is of great importance that
all men should clearly understand what is the nature of that
Ethical Christianity which is the direct and inevitable
fruit of vital union with Jesus Christ. What that Ethical
Christianity is, this volume tries to explain.
HUGH PRICE HUGHES.
8, Taviton Street,
Gordon Square,
London,
September, 1891.

CONTENTS.

THE CHRISTIAN EXTRA.
PAGE
" What do ye more than others ? " — Matt. v. 47 ... .., 1

THE CHRISTIAN PROGRAMME.
" Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth." — Matt. vi. 10 17
THE CHRISTIAN IMAGINATION.
" Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream
dreams." — Acts ii. 17 ... ... ... ... 33
THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY.
" After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and maketh
a reckoning with them. " — Matt. xxv. 19 ... ,., 43
THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP.
"Whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath,
he cannot be My disciple.'' — Luke xiv. 33 ... ... 59
THE CHRISTIAN HOPE.
" I saw a new heaven and a new earth." — Rev. xxi. 1 ... 71
THE CHRISTIAN AUTHORITY.
" I also am a man set under authority." — Luke vii. 8 ... 79

xii CONTENTS.
THE CHRISTIAN ARISTOCRACY. PAGE
" Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." — Matt.
xx. 28 ... ... ... ... ... ... 93
THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY.
"The common people heard Him gladly." — Mark xii. 37 ... 105
THE CHRISTIAN CHARITY.
" To-day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is
a son of Abraham." — Luke xix. 9 ... ... ... 117
THE. CHRISTIAN USE OF EVIL.
"Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asfcetf to fiase you. [margin,. ' ob
tained you by asking '], that he might sift you as wheat : but
I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not : and do
thou, when once thou hast turned again, stablish thy brethren."
— Luke xxii. 31, 32 ... ... ... ... ... 129
THE CHRISTIAN ASPECT OF THE CENSUS.
' ' When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel according
to those that are numbered of them, then shall they give
every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou
numberest them ; that there be no plague among them, when
thou numberest them." — Exod. xxx. 12 ... ... 141
THE DECISIVE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.
" Until the day dawn, and the Day-star arise in your hearts." —
2 Pet. i. 19... ... ... ... ... ... 155
THE CHRISTIAN TRIUMPH.
" Be of good cheer ; I have overcome the world." — John xvi. 33 167

THE CHRISTIAN EXTRA.
" To make some work of God's creation a little fruitfuller, better,
more worthy of God ; to make some human hearts a little wiser,
manfuller, happier, — more blessed, less accursed ! It is work for a
God."— Carlyle.

B— 4

THE CHRISTIAN EXTRA.

"What do ye more than others? " — Matt. v. 47.
" What do ye more than others? " or, as the heart-search
ing question of the Great Teacher has been literally and
skilfully translated, " What do ye extra ? " Christianity is
an " extra." Not a substitute for, but a supplement to every
good thing already in the world. Christ came "not to
destroy, but to fulfil " ; to complete, to realize. Listen to His
greatest apostle : " Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are
true, whatsoever things are honourable" (or to be revered),
" whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are gracious ;
if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on
these things." 1 That is a most comprehensive and ex
haustive catalogue, claiming for Christian use and service
every form of heathen goodness.
First of all, then, let us realize, acknowledge, and lay on
one side every form of heathen, or, as we might better say,
Gentile goodness. By this process of exhaustion let us dis
cover the Christian " extra." For Christianity must possess
something more than others, or be utterly discredited. Now,
3.II that is best in the Gentile world may be summed up in
1 Phil. iv. 8, 9.

4 THE CHRISTIAN EXTRA.
two names, one European and the other Asiatic — Socrates
and Buddha. John Stuart Mill, in his famous and ever-
valuable essay on "Liberty," casually institutes a comparison
between Socratic and Christian morality. He assumes that
there is a contrast, if not an antagonism, between the ethical
teaching of Jesus Christ and that of the great Athenian. He
describes Christian morality as a negative and ascetic
reaction from paganism. There could be no more complete
and absolute delusion. In that statement John Stuart Mill
totally misrepresents ethical Christianity. What was the
Socratic morality, beyond doubt the highest "natural
goodness " of Europe ? The Socratic ethics are immortal
ized in the masterpiece of the golden thinker of Greece.
We turn to the " Republic" of Plato and find that his moral
teaching is summed up in the four cardinal virtues — wisdom,
courage, temperance, and justice. Does Christianity reject
any of these, or disparage any of these? Most certainly
not. Christianity gladly accepts them all. Christianity
declares that the man who is devoid of either of them is a
most imperfect and unworthy Christian. But when any one
professing and calling himself a Christian has accepted in
their noblest forms all the great Socratic virtues, the question
of Christ remains, "What do ye extra}" The slightest
historic investigation will show that these great and manly
virtues coexisted in Greece with slavery, militarism, and
the subjection of woman — three particulars in which even
John Stuart Mill would confess that the morality of Socrates
was immeasurably inferior to the morality of Christ.
We turn now to the highest " natural goodness " of Asia
embodied in the life and teaching of Buddha. Modern Europe
realizes that Buddha was morally greater than Socrates,
because he exhibited a gentle and gracious humanitarianism

THE CHRISTIAN EXTRA. 5
to which Socrates was a stranger. Let us exalt Buddha
as he deserves to be exalted, but he is still immeasurably
inferior to Christ, Sir Edwin Arnold himself being our
witness. His testimony is of peculiar value in consequence
of his excessive adulation of Buddha in " The Light of Asia."
He has done more than any one else to exalt Buddha in the
affection and reverence of the modem world. But he has
recently published another great poem, entitled " The Light
of the World." In that volume, which is a poetic version of
the life of Christ, he has made amends for his excessive
adulation of Buddha in " The Light of Asia." Thoughtful
Christians had a grievance against Sir Edwin Arnold,
inasmuch as that exquisite poem was calculated to mislead
the unwary. It would have been impossible for any man
to write "The Light of Asia" who was not saturated with
Christianity. The Buddha of the poem is a much better
person than the Buddha of history. It is an idealized, a
Christianized Buddha. In "The Light of the World" Sir
Edwin Arnold refutes the error into which some have
been betrayed by his extravagant praise of Buddha. By
a very ingenious poetic licence he represents the wise
men of the East, who visited the cradle of our Lord, as
Hindu Buddhists. One of them is described as returning,
in his extreme old age, three years after the Ascension
of our Lord, to inquire what had become of the young
King. He makes the acquaintance of Mary Magdalene.
The greater part of the poem consists of an imaginary
conversation, extending over a week, in which, in melodious
language, she describes to him the principal events of
the life of Christ. Now, the serious interest of this
poem lies in the fact that from time to time Sir Edwin
Arnold, who is one of the most careful and profound

6 THE CHRISTIAN EXTRA.
students of Buddhism now living, puts into the mouth of
the aged Buddhist confessions and acknowledgments of the
superiority of Christ. He points out what truths Christ
taught beyond those which Buddha taught. This testimony
from Sir Edwin Arnold is intensely interesting, because, as
I have said, he has done more to exalt Buddha in England
and in Europe than any other literary man. Here, then,
we have the apologist and the eulogist of the great Hindu
paying his tribute to the superiority of Jesus Christ.
In the course of the poem he mentions at least four
particulars in which Christ and His teaching are incom
parably superior to Buddha and his teaching. The first is
supposed to be uttered by the aged Buddhist —
" Truly, nowise have we known before
Wisdom so packed and perfect as the Lord's,
Giving that Golden Rule that each shall do
Unto his fellow as he would have done
Unto himself; for then this earth were heaven."
That is the first evident superiority of the Christian reli
gion. Its ethical teaching is plain and practical. There
is much that is mystical and inscrutable in Buddhism.
But any man who sets himself to understand the moral
side of the New Testament need have no doubt as to what
he ought to be or do. It is summed up in the profound
but simple Golden Rule that you should do unto others as
you would they should do unto you.
The next striking peculiarity of the Christian faith is
expressed in the following words : —
" Also, right joyous goes His doctrine ; glad
'Mid Life's sad charms and swift vicissitudes,
And Death's unshunned and hard perplexities
Which make us bear to live. But Buddha held
Life was long sorrow."

THE CHRISTIAN EXTRA. 7
To this Mary Magdalene replies —
" Oh, good Friend ! that soul
Hath done with sadness which knows Christ aright."
The second superiority of the Christian faith is its intense
joyousness. Buddhism is a gloomy, ascetic, pessimistic
religion; a religion of despair, which, in answer to the
question, "Is life worth living?" says, "No! it must be
devoted to getting rid of life." What an unhealthy contrast
to the true faith, which expresses itself in such words as —
"My God, I am Thine,
What a comfort divine,
What a blessing to know that my Jesus is mine ! "
Then comes the third superiority of the Christian
religion — "... Whence are words to thank
These words which teach me where thy Jesus filled
The leaf of wisdom in, and wrote for men
The name Lord Buddha would not say nor spell ?
Thou, reporting from thy Master's mouth,
...... doth inscribe
This mighty name of " Love," and biddest believe
Not law, not fate, not fore-ordained course
Hath moulded what we are, and built the worlds ;
But living, regnant Love."
The Christian religion, instead of leaving the Ultimate Fact
of the universe in darkness, in unspeaking mystery, tells us
in plain words that It is not the Unknown, the Unknowable,
or the Unspeakable, but a personal God whose nature is
Love. He who has not yet realized the true significance of
that Fact can have no conception what a revelation it was.
Until Christ came all lands were wrapped in gloom. In
Asia, as is the case to-day, men were in doubt whether there
was a God or not, whether the ultimate cause of this

8 THE CHRISTIAN EXTRA.
universe was a person or some blind, resistless force. Even
those who believed in a personal existence had a terrible
conception of the fury and ferocity of their God. Christ
comes, and tells us that God is Love ! This glorious fact
is the essential peculiarity of the Christian faith.
One more marked distinction between Christianity and
Buddhism is uttered in the following confession of the
Buddhist to the Magdalene : —
" Also, who enters — if I gather well —
Into this kingdom, in thy Master's train,
Hath, for its secret, not to love himself;
Nor seek to save himself; nor — lonely — wend
Over dead duties and affections slain,
Towards such Nirvana ; but to cherish still
His neighbour as himself ; and save his soul
By losing heed of it, in heedful care
That all his doings profit men, and help
The sorrowful to hope, the weak to stand."
Then he goes on to admit how immeasurably superior
Christianity is to Buddhism, because it seeks the way to
" selflessness "
"Not by hard stress of lone philosophies,
Nor scorn of joys, nor sad disparagement
Of life and living things as shadows vain ;
But — nearer road, and new ! — by heart to see
Heaven closest in this Earth we walk upon,
God plainest in the brother whom we pass,
Best solitudes 'mid busy multitudes,
Passions o'ercome, when master-passion springs
To serve and love and succour."
In other words, the Christian faith has for its supreme
quality its social character. The pre-eminent purpose of
the Christian man is not to save his own soul whatever may
become of his neighbour's. He realizes that it is impossible
to separate himself from his fellow-men, and that there is

THE CHRISTIAN EXTRA. 9
no way in which he can achieve his own salvation without
achieving that of his race. Instead of gloomy asceticism
which drives its victims from the ordinary intercourse of
human society, he realizes that he ought to mix with men,
enter into every healthy relation, and take his part in every
activity of life, proving, as S. John said, his love to God by
his unmistakable love to his fellows. These, then, on the
high and impartial authority of the great writer I have
quoted, are the four striking features in which our faith is
immeasurably superior even to Buddhism — (1) The ethical
teaching of Christianity is much more intelligible ; (2) it is
not gloomy and pessimistic ; (3) it does not involve the
nature of God in impenetrable darkness ; (4) it teaches that
we are to save our own souls by saving our brethren.
Nevertheless there are profound truths in Buddhism,
and Christianity accepts every one of them. Christianity
claims all the Buddhist virtues, and then s.iys, " What do ye
extra i "
So much for the best ancient systems of morality. Let
us come now to our own doors. We find beautiful and
touching " natural goodness " not only in the adherents
of the ancient ethical systems of Europe and of Asia, but
in the masses of modern heathen who are outside all the
Christian Churches, and who make no profession of religion.
Illustrations abound on every side. I recollect one which
deeply impressed me some years ago. A drunken, rough,
foul-mouthed navvy was at work in a railway cutting.
Suddenly an express train rushed round the curve at a
short distance from the spot on which he was standing.
In a moment the navvy realized that upon the line there
was a log which might turn the engine off the rails and
sacrifice the lives of innocent men, women, and children.

IO THE CHRISTIAN EXTRA.
There was not a second to be lost. The peril to himself
¦was enormous. But without the least hesitation, he dashed
upon the line, dragged away the log, and before he himself
could escape was flung into eternity ! Surely that was a
most Christ-like act. He deliberately laid down his life a
ransom for many. Yet he made no profession of religion,
and was in no sense a religious man. Let us realize his
heroic and disinterested self-sacrifice, and then listen to the
great question, "What do ye extra ? "
Let me mention only one other illustration of the splendid
virtue sometimes exhibited by the utterly irreligious. A
casual dock-labourer, after being out of work for a long
time, secured a few days' employment, and then, in order
not to reduce by one penny the miserable pittance which
would be available for his starving children, he himself went
without food for three days while he toiled wearily on.
On Friday afternoon he hastened to receive his pay, and as
he was stretching out his hand to take it, he dropped
down dead — starved in his desperate effort to obtain ample
food for his little children. These Christ-like episodes are
no embarrassment to Christians who believe that Christ
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. But what
a revelation they are of the amount of genuine — if occa
sional and intermittent — goodness outside the Christian
Church ! And what force and emphasis they put into the
great question, "What do ye extra V We Christians are
bound to practise every virtue manifested both by ancient
and by modern heathen, and then to supplement them all
by some distinctive Christian quality justifying the supremacy
which we claim for Christ.
But we have not yet exhausted the extraordinary
significance of our text. It reminds us that we must

THE CHRISTIAN EXTRA. II
surpass Jewish as well as Gentile goodness. Let us, then,
realize, acknowledge, and lay on one side the highest
achievements of Jewish goodness. These are summed up
in the Ten Commandments, which are immensely superior
to anything that either Buddha or Socrates ever taught,
because they place before the human conscience a plain and
divine morality illuminated and vitalized by the service of
the living God. In some respects the great Gentile teachers
approximated to the second Table of the Law. But they
taught nothing comparable with what was inscribed on the
first Table. The superiority of the Jewish code is shown
in the production of such glorious men as Isaiah and
Daniel. But the great point which we have to remember
is that we may be as good, not only as Buddha or Socrates,
but even as Isaiah or Daniel, and yet not be truly and
distinctively " Christian." When we have realized all that
these great saints did, the question still remains for the
humblest Christian, " What do ye extra ? " Even the Ten
Commandments, so superior to any Gentile code, are
shown in the very discourse from which our text is taken
to fall immeasurably short of the ethical standard of real
Christianity. They fall short in two respects. First of all,
they do not exhibit the inwardness of Christianity. In our
code, to look after a woman lustfully or to think of a man
murderously is to break the Law. Outward obedience does
not suffice. The very thoughts of our hearts must be
cleansed and brought into obedience to the captivity of
Christ. Again, the Ten Commandments fall short of the
outwardness of Christianity, because Christianity applies its
moral precepts not only to our own kith and kin, but also
to the entire human race. It is from the standpoint we
have now reached that our Lord's extraordinary conversation

12 THE CHRISTIAN EXTRA.
with the rich young ruler becomes intelligible. That
gifted and devout young man had kept all the Jewish
commandments from his youth up, and yet he was con
scious that he lacked something. Then Christ said to
him, " If thou wilt be perfect ; " that is to say, if he wished
not only to attain the highest Jewish goodness, but also to
be a true Christian, a real disciple of Jesus Christ, he must
do something which the Ten Commandments did not
demand of him, and which, I may add, is not found in
any ethical code except that which Christ taught and
practised. Now, what is this "extra"? What is the differentia,
the distinctive note of Christianity? The plain answer is
found where we should have expected to find it — in the
writings of S. John. Addressing His disciples on the eve of
the Crucifixion, Jesus Christ said, "A new commandment
I give unto you." Ah ! our long quest is about to succeed.
Now we shall obtain an answer to the inquiry we have so
often made. A " new " commandment ; a commandment
such as never fell from the lips of a great ethical leader
before ; a commandment in the teaching neither of Buddha,
nor of Socrates, nor of Moses, nor of Isaiah. What is it ?
Let us continue the quotation : "A new commandment I
give unto you, That ye love one another." That is not new !
Love, pure, sweet, heavenly love, has existed in all lands
from the very beginning. But we have not quite finished
the quotation. Let us complete and ponder that great
utterance : "A new commandment I give unto you, That
ye love one another, even as I loved you." x
Ah ! the great secret is out at last ! To be like Christ
— to love men as Christ loved them — that is Christianity,
1 John xiii. 34.

THE CHRISTIAN EXTRA. 1 3
and only that. Now I can understand a remark which I
heard some years ago in Scotland, and which perplexed me
at the time. Referring to an earnest and distinguished
Christian, one said, " He is a very good man, but somehow
or other he does not remind me of Christ." I thought,
" How strange ! How can he be very good without re
minding men of Christ? " I understand it now. He might
have reminded them of Buddha, or Socrates, or Isaiah, or
Daniel, but he did not remind them of Christ because his
life was not an incarnation of disinterested, all-embracing
love. So we come back once more to the conclusion we
have often reached and as often forgotten — a real Christian
is a Christ-like man.
Now, you call and profess yourself a Christian ? If a
religious census were tolerated in this country you would
unhesitatingly enter yourself "a Christian"? What proof
do you give of your Christianity ? You pay twenty shillings
in the pound? I am very glad to hear it. There are
some who call themselves Christians and do not. You live
a sober, chaste, and industrious life ? So did Buddha. You
tell the truth and are strictly honourable ? Socrates might
say the same. You go to the house of God, read your
Bible, say your prayers? So did Daniel. You observe
all the rites and ceremonies of your faith ? So does the
devout Mahometan. You give one-tenth and more of
your goods to the service of God ? That is most gratifying,
for there is nothing that the conventional Christian neglects
so much. But in this respect you are no better than the
Pharisee. When you have exhausted the entire category of
ordinary virtue the question still remains, " What do ye
extra ? "
Jews and Gentiles have done all these things, done them

14 THE CHRISTIAN EXTRA.
honestly and devoutly. You have not yet given any
evidence whatever of real Christianity. Let me put to
you a decisive question: "Are you in any degree like
Christ ? " That is impossible as an habitual fact, unless you
at least study His words and His life as keenly as a man
of business studies trade returns, and as a politician studies
the speeches of his political leader. Further, if you are
to be a true Christian, you must accept Christ as your
Teacher. You must acknowledge His infallible authority.
You must apply His principles of conduct to every phase
and aspect of life — to business, to pleasure, and to politics,
as well as to prayer-meetings and sacraments. Once more,
you must accept Him as your Teacher in the highest sense
by making Him your Model. It has been well stated that
Christianity does not say to us, " Sit and be convinced," but
"Arise and walk." Christ does not undertake to satisfy
our intellectual curiosity, but to direct our moral conduct,
And unless we practise His moral teaching as far and as
promptly as we apprehend it, we shall cease to understand
it, and the light within us will become darkness. In a
word, if you are to be a true Christian, you must place
yourself unreservedly in the hands of Christ. To use
His own striking and pregnant phrase, you must "abide"
in Him "as the branch abides in the vine." With man
this is admittedly impossible. But " with God all things
are possible." This Great Renunciation, this unreserved
and absolute self-surrender to Christ, is the very essence
of true Christianity. Until we intelligently and heartily
accept Him as our infallible Teacher, our all-sufficient
Priest, our authoritative King, our very Life, we are
Christians only in name and possibility.
It is because there are so few Christ-like Christians that,

THE CHRISTIAN EXTRA. 1 5
the majority of every nation in the civilized world is outside
the Christian Church. This is why Christianity is almost
stationary at home and abroad. What we want above
everything is a few Christ-like Christians. I say " a few,"
because it is unreasonable to hope for very many at once,
although all ought to possess the Christian " extra." But
a few would save the Church. As Dr. Newman pointed
out in one of the most famous of his university sermons,
the real work of Christianity has in all ages been done by
the few. John Wesley expressed the same great truth in
memorable words when he said, " Ten true Christians would
change the face of England." He meant ten thorough
going Christians, ten Christ-like Christians, ten men or
women animated by the Christian " extra." Will you be
one of the ten? It is an old Latin proverb that no one
becomes very wicked suddenly. It is equally true that no
one becomes very good suddenly. The sinner may be
converted suddenly, as I myself have witnessed a thousand
times. But a convert does not apprehend the Christian
" extra " at once. I appeal, therefore, specially to those
who have already repented of sin and trusted in Christ,
and had some experience of the love of God. You are
ready for the further and fuller consecration, for the higher
and better life. Will you accept it now ? Will you so give
yourself up to Christ, that His spirit may reproduce in you
the Christ-like "extra" — that disinterested, absolute, self-
sacrificing, suffering, all-embracing love, which is the highest
attribute of God, and the distinctive mark of the Christianity
of Christ ?

THE CHRISTIAN PROGRAMME.

' ' Shall we never listen to the words of these wisest of men ? Then
listen at least to the words of your children — let us in the lips of babes
and sucklings find our strength ; and see that we do not make them
mock instead of pray, when we teach them, night and morning, to ask
for what we believe never can be granted ; — that the will of the
Father, — which is, that His creatures may be righteous and happy, —
should be done on earth, as it is in heaven." — Ruskin.

C— 4

THE CHRISTIAN PROGRAMME.
" Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth." — Matt. vi. 10.
The text is taken from what is called " The Lord's Prayer."
But that is somewhat of a misnomer. The Lord's Prayer is
really found in the incomparable and unapproachable seven
teenth chapter of the Gospel according to S. John. The
prayer before us is the Lord's Prayer only in the sense that
it was taught by the Lord. Various attempts have been
made to derive it from the Zendavesta on the one hand,
and from the synagogue prayer-book on the other. But all
these attempts have failed. There is no doubt that it is an
absolutely original and unique composition of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and so may be called His prayer. But it was intended
for our use, and is appropriate for our lips and not for His
own. This prayer has certainly been more frequently used
than any other since the Christian era began. You and I
have repeated it a thousand times. I greatly fear it has
become a vain repetition. ", Too much familiarity with it has
blinded our minds to its meaning, and deadened our con
sciences to its moral. Who of us really understands the
petition I have just read ? Who of us honestly desires its
fulfilment ?
In the first place, it teaches us the real aim of life — to

20 THE CHRISTIAN PROGRAMME.
do the will of the Father. The most painful feature of the
lives of most men is their aimlessness. They drift to and
fro with the social current as seaweed drifts with the tide.
This is, I fear, especially the case with those among us who
are most privileged, and who are not under the blessed
necessity of toiling for their daily bread. Have you ever
gone into the Park at the height of the season and watched
those weary faces ? I believe that the reason why so many
of the wealthy and titled plunge into all the follies and
miseries of gambling is because they are at their wits' end
to "kill time," to destroy the intolerable ennui of their
aimless existence. Who that has a real purpose in life
cares to waste hours at the gaming-table ? But it is to be
feared that the great majority both of rich and poor have
no definite purpose here. Some of you will recall the
poetry of unusual earnestness and loftiness with which
Matthew Arnold was inspired when he visited the chapel
at Rugby and remembered his noble father —
" What is the course of the life
Of mortal men on the earth ?—
Most men eddy about
Here and there — eat and drink,
Chatter and love and hate,
Gather and squander, are raised
Aloft, are huii'd in the dust,
Striving blindly, achieving
Nothing ; and no one asks
Who or what they have been,
More than he asks what waves
In the moonlit solitudes wild
Of the midmost ocean have swell'd,
Foam'd for a moment, and gone.
' ' And there are some, whom a thirst
Ardent, unquenchable, fires,
Not with the crowd to be spent,

THE CHRISTIAN PROGRAMME. 21
Not without aim to go round
In an eddy of purposeless dust,
Effort unmeaning and vain.
Ah yes, some of us strive
Not without action to die
Fruitless, but something to snatch
From dull oblivion, not all
Glut the devouring grave !
We, we have chosen our path —
Path to a clear-purposed goal."
To which class do you belong ? Are you in the number of
those who spend their time in
" Striving blindly, achieving
Nothing " ?
Are you one of the crowd who
"... without aim ... go round
In an eddy of purposeless dust,
Effort unmeaning and vain ;
or are you one of the noble few who strive
"Not without action to die
Fruitless,"
who have chosen a path, a
" Path to a clear-purposed goal " ?
The text teaches us that the "clear-purposed goal" of
the Christian is to do the will of the Father. Christ was
the Ideal Man, and the whole object of His existence was to
reach that goal. "My meat," he exclaimed, "is to do the
will of Him that sent Me." ' And again, " I seek not Mine
own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." 2 And again,
" I am come down from heaven, not to do Mine own will,
but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the will of
1 John iv. 34. z John v. 30.

22 THE CHRISTIAN PROGRAMME.
Him that sent Me, that of all that which He hath given Me I
should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day." '
You remember how at the crisis of His life he cried, " O
My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from Me :
nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt." 2 That bitter
cry is a proof that it is not always easy and pleasant even
for innocence itself to do "the will of God." Therefore if
you sometimes find it hard and even dreadful to tread your
way to this goal, you are only repeating the experience of
Christ. Like Him you shall be made " perfect through
suffering." But as a rule the healthy Christian, like Christ,
"delights" to do "the will of God." Mark that phrase,
" the will of God." We are here to do " the will " of God,
not merely to obey " the law " of God. " The will of God "
is necessarily very different from " the law of God." Even
the Ten Commandments are a most imperfect expression
of " the will of God." " The letter killeth, but the spirit
giveth life." Law is necessarily expressed in general terms
and in human speech. General terms never exactly suit
every particular case, and human language has its inevitable
limitations. Hence the old judicial proverb that the
highest law is sometimes the highest injury. The strict
letter of the law does occasionally frustrate the very purpose
of the Lawgiver. Our Lord proved that again and again in
relation to the sabbatic law. The terrible blunder of the
Pharisees was to confound the "law of God" with the
"will of God," whereas Christ ever interpreted the "law"
in harmony with the "will." You remember how in relation
to the literal observation of the sabbatic law, when the
literal observation became a moral violation, Christ said,
" Is not a man better than a sheep ? " and with that one
1 John vi. 38, 39. 2 Matt. xxvi. 39.

THE CHRISTIAN PROGRAMME. 23
question swept away all the cobwebs of interpretation by
which the Jewish authorities had made the sabbatic law
inconsistent with the goodness and mercy of God.
Precisely the same ethical principle must be remembered
in discussing the temperance question of our own day.
Nothing could indicate a more profound ignorance of the
real spirit of the New Testament than an attempt to justify
the use of alcoholic liquors because, forsooth, it is possible
that Christ drank intoxicating wine at the marriage feast in
Cana ! What, in the name of common sense, to say nothing
of scriptural morality, has that to do with it? We are
no more required to imitate Jesus Christ literally in that
respect than we are required to wear a turban and sandals
because He undoubtedly wore them. To argue like that
is to abandon the intelligent and humane morality of the
Christian religion for the absurd literalism and inhumanity
of the Pharisaic code. We might say again with Christ,
"Is not a man better than a sheep? "or yet more perti
nently, " Is it lawful to do good or to do harm, to save life
or to kill ? " Our conduct in relation to the temperance
movement and every other must be determined by the
great principles of Christian humanity, and not by miserable
wrangles over the meaning of words, or the personal habits
of our blessed Redeemer under totally different social
conditions. But I refer to this question now simply as a modem
illustration of the immense difference between every kind
of narrow literalism and a rational loyalty to " the will of
God." Even when we are dealing with the Ten Command
ments, we must remember, as I have already said, that they
are a most inadequate expression of the will of God. Our
Lord pointed that out again and again, especially in the

24 THE CHRISTIAN PROGRAMME.
Sermon on the Mount, where He shows specifically that the
law against murder and the law against adultery fall im
measurably short of the requirements of ethical Christianity.
Reflecting on these facts, I increasingly doubt the wisdom
of printing the Ten Commandments above the communion
table in our sanctuaries. It tends to drag down the
Christian code to the level of Judaism. Would to God
that every one who professes and calls himself a Christian
honestly kept the Ten Commandments ! It would be a
great improvement on the existing situation. But, as a
matter of fact, it is a very doubtful procedure to introduce
the Ten Commandments into the Christian sanctuary.
God requires of us a great deal more than He required of
the Jews thousands of years ago, and there is some danger
that the young and inexperienced should imagine that the
Ten Commandments embody the ethical code of the
Christian faith.
This objection becomes even more weighty when we
notice that the prayer which Christ has put into, our mouths
refers not to the will of "God," but to the will of the
" Father." We have not to do the will of the Creator.
That belongs to the Gentile code. We have not to do the
will of the Judge. That belongs to the Jewish code. We
are called to do the will of the Father. That is the Christian
code. In our sanctuaries a disobedient man is regarded
not as a disloyal creature, or as a law-breaking citizen, but
as a prodigal son. The profound and miserable error of
the elder brother in the well-known parable was to regard
himself as one simply bound to keep the " commandment "
of his father, and under no obligation to do his father's
" will." The true explanation of his hard-heartedness comes
out in the words, "Lo, these many years have I served

THE CHRISTIAN PROGRAMME. 2 5
thee, and I never transgressed a commandment of thine."
When a son begins to talk not about the " will " of his
father, but about the " commandments " of his father, he
has already ceased to be a son in spirit ; he has lost the
filial attitude, and may well talk about " serving." For a
servant he is, and no longer a son. It is to be feared that
a great part of Christendom is still at the inferior Jewish
level. We are too apt to think of God as a Master whose
commandments we have to keep under threats of penalties.
We do not realize that Christ has taught us in this very
prayer to think of God as a Father whose will it is our
noble and glorious privilege to do. And yet the language
of the Lord's Prayer teaches us as emphatically as language
can teach that the one divine goal of the Christian life is
to do the will of the Father.
In the second place, the petition we are pondering
teaches us that this " will " is to be done " on earth." Not
in heaven, but on earth, here and now. Perhaps the most
fatal delusion that ever took possession of the Christian
Church was the delusion that the will of God cannot be
done on earth, that the Christian ideal is too high for
attainment here, that the programme which God has given
us must somehow or other be explained away. When the
first gush of love and enthusiasm began to ebb in the
hearts of men, the idea grew up that obedience to the will
of the Father was impossible in ordinary life ; and it was
assumed that it could be rendered only in the artificial life
of a monastery. When that broke down, it was assumed
that it could be accomplished only in the loneliness of a
hermit's cell. When the Reformation took place, our fore
fathers were much too well acquainted with ecclesiastical
history to be victimized by the old delusion that men or

26 THE CHRISTIAN PROGRAMME.
women could live the ideal Christian life in a monastery or
a nunnery or a lonely cell, better than in ordinary society.
As a matter of fact, the purely artificial life of those monastic
institutions was less moral and less satisfactory even than
the conduct of average Christians in the ordinary relations
of society. The Reformers, deprived of that method of explaining
away Christianity, found relief in another direction. They
positively transported the sphere of ideal obedience into
another world altogether ! So it came to pass that both
Catholics and Protestants concluded Christianity was too
good for this world ! Catholics, however, assumed that
the ideal life might be led in monasteries or in solitary
cells, but Protestants taught that the Christian life was pos
sible only in Paradise. They boldly expelled Christ-like
Christianity from this planet ! They argued vehemently
that man must sin, and Luther went so far as to contend
that a certain amount of sin was an advantage because it
taught men humility ! The two extremes, both Catholic
and Protestant, were due to the delusion which they shared,
that Christianity was too good for this world. They said in
effect, "We cannot do the will of God on earth in the
ordinary relations of life;" and the one added that it might
be done in monasteries and nunneries, and the other
asserted that it was possible only in Paradise. Yet all this
time they alike repeated the words, " Thy will be done, as
in heaven, so on earth." By our traditions on this subject,
both Catholic and Protestant, we have explained away the
New Testament as completely as the Pharisees explained
away the Old Testament.
For example, S. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says,
" Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into

THE CHRISTIAN PROGRAMME. 27
the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for
them that love Him."1 The ordinary modern Christian
imagines without hesitation that this passage refers to
heaven. I have often heard it quoted in prayer and in
the pulpit in relation to heaven. But anybody who reads
it with his eyes open will see that S. Paul is referring not
to Christian experience in another world, but to Christian
experience in this world, even in licentious Corinth itself.
But the most striking illustration of the strange perver
sion of Scripture now under our notice, is found in the last
chapters of the last book of the New Testament. In the
last two chapters of the Revelation, S. John describes the
city of God. How many thousands of sermons have been
preached about the city of God, and, so far as I know, in
almost every instance it has been assumed that it is the
city of heaven, and that S. John is describing what will
take place on the other side of the river of death in the
Great Hereafter ! Yet, in speaking of the city, S. John
describes it as "coming down out of heaven from God."
It would be impossible for him to declare more emphatically
that he is speaking, not of heaven, but of earth ; not of
some mysterious place in another world, but of London, of
what London ought to be, and what London will be when
her citizens are Christians. The " great voice out of the
throne" exclaimed, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is
with men," 2 and we read that " the kings of the earth
do bring their glory"3 into this city. But we have made
the Word of God of none effect by our traditions. We
have perverted the most obvious statements of Scrip
ture until the book has lost much of its interest for the
busy masses of men. This is the most dangerous form that
1 1 Cor. ii. 9. 2 Rev. xxi. 3. Ibid. 24.

28 THE CHRISTIAN PROGRAMME.
our " other-worldliness " has taken. We have deadened our
consciences and paralyzed our energies by explaining away
passages that refer to this present life, and by comfortably
assuming that they describe what heaven is and not what
earth ought to be.
What more startling illustration of this could we have
than the Lord's Prayer itself, which, strange to say, from
beginning to end, makes no request whatever about heaven !
If our only life were the life on earth, every petition of the
Lord's Prayer would still be appropriate for our lips. When
Christ responded to the earnest request of His disciples
that He would teach them how to pray, He gave them this
brief and comprehensive litany. But, observe, He did not
instruct them to offer one single petition in relation to
heaven. He concentrated all their thoughts and all their
requests upon the duties and privileges of this present life,
and upon the necessity of doing the will of our Father " on
earth." In the third and last place, He teaches us in the text
how the will of the Father is to be done — " as in heaven."
That is to say, it is to be done on earth always, everywhere,
by everybody. Mr. Herbert Spencer is quite right in his state
ment that we have at present two religions in this country.
One which we derive from the Old and New Testaments, and
one which we learn from the Greek and Latin authors. One
which for the most part we only " believe that we believe,"
and the other which we do unmistakably believe. One
which we profess on Sunday, the other which we diligently
practise during the rest of the week. Nothing is more
curious than the way in which men seem to divide their
lives into water-tight compartments like the different
sections of great steamers, so that one part of their nature

THE CHRISTIAN PROGRAMME. 29
has no connection whatever with another part. The
singular story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is founded upon
a great psychological truth. Most men live double lives,
and this duplicity is summed up in two leading particulars.
First of all, how often do we hear sincerely religious men
say that "religion is religion and business is business"!
By which they mean that the principles they profess on
Sunday are not applicable to the details of their business
life on Monday. We may be sure that if Jesus Christ had
to address the good men who do not apply their Christian
principles in the City and in the West End, He would
speak to them in some such terms as these : " Ye generation
of vipers, how shall ye escape the damnation of hell ? " This
attempt to establish a kind of water-tight compartment, in
which under the stress of modern competition we are to
do a hundred things inconsistent with Christianity, is as
diametrically opposed to the spirit of Jesus Christ as it is
fatal to the well-being of mankind. We can never be said
to do the Will of our - Father on earth as angels do it in
heaven, if we do that Will only at certain times and in certain
places. Ruskin is quite right in stating that if our religion
is good for anything it is good for everything.
The second way in which some very imperfectly in
structed Christians contradict the Lord's Prayer, is by
asserting that " religion has nothing to do with politics."
They try to construct a political as well as a commercial
water-tight compartment. That is the reason why the man
hood of Europe has been alienated from the Christian
religion. A profound instinct has taught the masses of the
people that if Christianity is not applicable to politics,
Christianity is an antiquated delusion. Principles which
cannot be obeyed by Society as well as the Individual are

30 THE CHRISTIAN PROGRAMME.
obviously so imperfect and so unsatisfactory, that the sooner
we are rid of them the better. The distinction which is so
commonly made between secular and sacred is a deadly
anti-Christian delusion. There is not a single passage in
the New Testament which justifies a man in acting upon
different principles on Sunday and on Monday. The
petition which we are now considering, and which Christ
has put into every Christian mouth, compels us to acknow
ledge that there is only one rule for the Christian under
all circumstances, and that he is under a divine obligation
to act upon Christian motives and considerations in business,
in pleasure, and in politics, as well as in prayer-meetings
and at sacramental services.
Have you ever realized how far S. John has carried
this secular conception of the Christian programme? In
the ideal picture of the city of God he actually exclaims,
" I saw no temple therein." x Think of it ! A Jew said
that. A Jew who had been accustomed to regard the
temple as the very heart and centre and crown of his own
great city. But in the ideal city of God to be erected on
earth, John saw " no temple." Religion, which in olden
times had been restricted to certain places and certain days,
and certain occasions and certain ceremonies, had in that
glorious vision become so extended and pervasive and all-
embracing, that there was no special building for divine
worship. But every house was a house of prayer ; and in
these houses, consecrated to God, the men were virtuous,
the women brave, and the children happy. It would have
been impossible for a Jew to bring home to us so
vividly in any other way his own deep sense of the fact
that the Christian religion was to be a religion of common
1 Rev. xxi. 22.

THE CHRISTIAN PROGRAMME. 3 1
life, and that its greatest triumphs were to be won, not in
far-off regions where sin had never wrought its fearful
havoc, but on the very spot where evil had once triumphed.
The ideal of the eternal love of God is to be attained in
the very world where Satan tempted, where man sinned,
and where Christ died. The will of the Father is already
done by angels in heaven. The Lord's Prayer is a pro
phecy and a promise that it shall yet be done on earth.

THE CHRISTIAN IMAGINATION.

" The virtue of the Imagination is its reaching, by intuition and
intensity of gaze (not by reasoning, but by its authoritative opening and
revealing power), a more essential truth than is seen at the surface of
things. ... It has no food, no delight, no care, no perception, except
of truth ; it is for ever looking under masks, and burning up mists ; no
fairness of form, no majesty of seeming, will satisfy it ; the first condition
of its existence is incapability of being deceived." — Ruskin.

r>— 4

THE CHRISTIAN IMAGINATION.
"Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream
dreams." — Acts ii. 17.
These words from the pen of the Prophet Joel were
declared by S. Peter to refer to the Christian era, which
was finally inaugurated on the Day of Pentecost. The
marked characteristic of this era is that those who promote
and represent it have visions and dreams of an ideal
state of happiness unattained but attainable. Instead of
accepting the existing situation as unchangeable, instead
of submitting to evil as inevitable, Christian men have
visions and dreams of a Golden Age in which sin and evil
and sorrow shall be no more. It has often been remarked
that one of the most striking differences between Christianity
and the classical religions of the south of Europe which it
superseded, is that they placed their Golden Age in the
dim and receding past, but Christianity places its Golden
Age in the bright and advancing future.
Some years ago Professor Tyndall delivered a remark
able address on the use of Imagination in Science. He
showed that this great faculty of the soul was simply invalu
able in a sphere of thought where superficial minds would
suppose there was no scope for its exercise. If I remember
rightly, one of his illustrations was the Luminiferous Ether

36 THE CHRISTIAN IMAGINATION.
which no one has ever seen, or heard, or felt, which is a
pure conception of the Scientific Imagination, but which is
now assumed to be a fact because its hypothetical existence
explains the phenomena of colour more fully and more
perfectly than they have ever been explained before.
Ruskin has in noble passages descanted on the use of
the Imagination in Art. In his vocabulary as in that of
Professor Tyndall the word is redeemed from all low
meanings. It represents not mere and groundless imagin
ings, but ultimate realities. Students of Wordsworth will
remember that great poet's description of unimaginative
Peter Bell—
_ "A primrose on the river's brim *
A yellow primrose was to him,
And nothing more."
Whereas to the imagination of Wordsworth even the humblest
flower discloses " Thoughts too deep for tears."
Indeed, it may be said that artists have two divine func
tions. The work of painters, poets, sculptors, musicians is
first of all to reveal to us the hidden meanings and beauties
of all that is— the Actual. As that great artist Browning
has so finely said — " Art was given for that ;
God uses us to help each other so,
Lending our minds out. . . . This world's no blot for us,
Nor blank ; it means intensely, and means good :
To find its meaning is my meat and drink."
But artists have an even nobler function. It is the
mission of the greatest and best of them, secondly, to reveal
the glory and blessedness of that which may be— the
Attainable. Now the faculty of the soul which apprehends the Beatific

THE CHRISTIAN IMAGINATION. 37
Vision both of the Actual and of the Attainable, is the
Imagination. This great faculty reaches its maturity and
achieves its noblest deeds in the service of religion, when
purified and illuminated by the Holy Spirit. Then it sees
visions and dreams dreams of " whatsoever things God
prepared for them that love Him." x My theme, therefore,
is the use of the Imagination in Religion, where its services
are even greater and more necessary than in the spheres of
Science and of Art. It is to this faculty of the soul that the
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews refers in his famous
eleventh chapter. You will observe that he there defines
faith to be " the essence of things hoped for, the proving
of things not seen." That is a very comprehensive and
abstract definition which includes a great deal more than
saving Christian faith. I trust you all know full well that
saving Christian faith is a personal trust in a personal
Saviour. But this writer gives us a much wider and more
general definition of faith. " Faith " in his vocabulary
expresses what I call "Imagination," the realizing of
"things hoped for" and "things not seen," the Attainable
and the Actual.
It was this Imagination which enabled the great saints
whom he marshalls before us to do their mighty deeds.
Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and all the prophets "saw
visions and dreamed dreams." They were not deceived
and paralyzed by " the things which are seen and temporal."
With the eye of Faith or Imagination they saw "the things
that are unseen and eternal," and in the strength of that
Beatific Vision they accomplished gigantic moral revolu
tions which lifted the whole human race to higher levels of
goodness and of happiness. The men of the Christian era
1 1 Cor. ii. 9.

38 THE CHRISTIAN IMAGINATION.
and their great Master possessed this faculty of Imagination
in the highest degree. S. Peter, in his Second Epistle, had
a vivid and overwhelming vision of "new heavens and a
new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 1 He imagined
this world, and even heaven itself, renewed, exalted, beati
fied ! S. Paul, again, dreamed dreams of the glorious
Golden Age when " in the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things
under the earth."2 His fearless and irresistible imagination
traversed the whole universe of God, and imagined it all
subject to the sway of Jesus Christ. I need not enlarge
upon the presence and exercise of this quality in S. John.
His apocalyptic vision of the earthly City of God closes and
crowns the Revelation.
But it may be necessary to remind you that this great
faculty existed in the most vigorous and vivid form in the
Master Himself. When the seventy evangelists returned
with their artless story of spiritual triumph, His eyes flashed
and He exclaimed, " I beheld Satan fallen as lightning
from heaven." s His imagination was so alert and so
penetrating, that in the first feeble triumphs of His emis
saries He saw the promise and potency of the restitution
of all things. Again, certain Greeks came to one of His
disciples and said, " Sir, we would see Jesus." When that
request was conveyed to( Him He exclaimed exultingly,
" Now is the judgment of this world : now shall the prince
of this world be cast out." 4 To His lofty imagination that
little group of obscure Greeks was the advance guard of
the southern races of Europe, of the Teutonic tribes, of
the great Churches of our own time, and of the greater
Churches not yet born. Christ, indeed, lived habitually in
1 2 Pet. iii. 13. 2 Phil. ii. 10. * Luke x. 18. * John xii. 31.

THE CHRISTIAN IMAGINATION. 39
the Unseen. He realized always that Great Future when
His disciples would sit upon twelve thrones judging the
twelve tribes of Israel, and when all the Gentiles would be
subject to His sway.
There is nothing which ordinary Christians lack so
much as this inspired Imagination. They do not see
visions. They do not dream dreams. You and I have
probably been too hard upon them. They have not lacked,
as we have been tempted to believe and say, religion or
faith, but — imagination. We have been indignant and angry
at their parochial ideas, at their grovelling hopes, at their
small satisfactions, at their dwarfish ambitions. But they
have not been unreal or unbelieving. Their dull, undeveloped
souls have not realized the divine possibilities. There are
human moles that burrow and grope in the darkness of
narrow boundaries, of subterranean passages ; and there are
human eagles that spurn the low earth and soar aloft into
the bright sunlight. Only eagles can see the vast horizon
of life and beauty. Are you a mole or an eagle? Do
you belong to the class of Christians whose imaginations
have never been roused and exalted by God, or to those
who see visions and dream dreams of glorious spiritual
victories ?
The ordinary Christian, with his unsanctified imagination,
is not perturbed by a half-empty sanctuary, or by a Christian
Church that is more dead than alive. He has no enterprise.
He has no enthusiasm. He holds that as it was in the
beginning, or is now, so it must be for ever and for ever.
He is indignant with his brother-Christian whose imagina
tion enables him to realize a spiritual prosperity yet un-
attained. The imaginative Christian sees the sanctuary
crowded with healthy, happy, united Christians. He sees

40 THE CHRISTIAN IMAGINATION.
all the great revivals and spiritual miracles of the past
repeated under his eyes. The unimaginative Christian is
affronted by such visions. He regards the man who
cherishes them as a dangerous " visionary," a foolish
" fanatic," a reckless " enthusiast." The real difference
between these two men is not that one is a Christian and
that the other is not; but that one has the eyes of his
imagination opened, while the other is still blind.
Again, in civic life the ordinary Christian citizen is well
satisfied if he discharges his own commonplace duties to
the rate-collector and to the municipal authorities. But
the Christian citizen whose imagination is inspired of God
dreams of social changes which would make it as easy for
his fellow-citizens to do right as it now is for them to do
wrong. What a dream of social reform has come to General
Booth in his old age ! That veteran of the faith imagines
social arrangements which will abolish pauperism, and all
the world wonders. There is no sphere of life in which
there is more scope for the imagination than in civic life.
Only at present there is no sphere in which it is so little
exercised. Nothing could be more dull, narrow, and brutish
than the ordinary conception of municipal life in our great
towns. Only here and there do municipal authorities begin
to realize how much could easily and cheaply be done to
beautify life, to ennoble it, to instruct and inspire it; and,
on the other hand, to repress both hideousness and vileness.
Some day, Christians will see visions and dream dreams of
a noble and glorious citizenship. Then the voice of com
plaining will no longer be heard in our streets.
When we rise to the sphere of patriotic or national life
we find the noblest scope for the Christian imagination.
The real patriot is ever dreaming of the good time when

THE CHRISTIAN IMAGINATION. 41
men will dwell together in peace and brotherly love. Think
of the glorious vision of peace which came to Isaiah ! He
dreamed of the nations " beating their swords into plough
shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks," and not even
" learning war any more." The dull, stupid man of the world
says that war is "inevitable." This ignoble sentiment is
not due to the fact that he is bloodthirsty, but to the
degraded condition of his imagination, which has never been
roused by the touch of the finger of God.
O, how shall we kindle the imaginations of men !
Nothing is so much needed to redeem life from its small-
ness, its narrowness, its abject impotence. Read Isaiah,
read the Revelation, read the four Lives of Christ, and first
of all realize this very hour what Christ can do for you.
Young men ! see visions of a noble and beneficent career !
Old men ! dream dreams of a life not wholly lost, of much
that may yet be done for God and for humanity ! How
glorious it is when young and old thus combine in
anticipating, and therefore in promoting, the Kingdom of
God which shall yet be established upon earth ! How
delightful when the daring and ardent vision of youth is
corrected and extended by the peaceful and serene dream
of old age ! Every one, at every period of life, may cherish
the Beatific Vision of the Christian world, the " new earth "
that is to be. Only so shall we rise above the tyranny
of the past and the despair of the present. Things are
not as they seem. Ancient evils are already tottering to
their fall. "The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." Nothing
is too hard for Him. The only real hindrance to the
progress of His kingdom is to be found in the narrowness
of our thoughts and in the parochial smallness of our
enterprises. Only let us emulate the sublime faith and

42 THE CHRISTIAN IMAGINATION.
the inspired imagination of the great men who founded
the Baptist Missionary Society. Let us, like them, "ask
for great things," and "expect great things." According
to our divinely inspired Imagination it shall be done
unto us.

THE
CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY.

" What are you doing in God's fair Earth and Task-garden ; where
whosoever is not working is begging or stealing?" — Carlyle.

THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY.
" After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and maketh
a reckoning with them." — Matt. xxv. 19.
The parable of the Talents has made so deep an impression
upon the English conscience that it has added a new
word to the English language. We speak of " a talented
man," or of "a man of talent," by which we mean one
possessing some special ability. It is obvious that in these
familiar expressions the word "talent" has lost its original
meaning, and has acquired a parabolic meaning as some
special endowment. But although we have naturalized the
word in this parabolic sense, it is not the correct parabolic
sense. That is to say, it does not convey as it ought
to convey an idea of special responsibility for the use
or neglect of special endowments. The employment of
this word is a striking evidence, as I have said, of the
impression which the parable of the Talents has made upon
the English mind. But the erroneous sense in which it
is employed indicates that the parable is not yet commonly
understood. This is much to be regretted as there is
nothing which the modern Englishman needs to realize
more carefully or more deeply than the essential warning
of this parable — the warning which is expressed in the
text.

46 THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY.
The framework of the parable before us is furnished
by a familiar custom of men of property in ancient times.
When they went away from home it was their habit to
leave their property in the hands of their servants, or
rather their slaves, who represented every occupation of
life. Some of these slaves were merchants, some were
mechanics and artisans, some were professional men, and
some were farmers. Now, the owner in the case before
us distributed his wealth among his slaves, "to each
according to his several ability ; " that is to say, to each
according to the ability which " severed " or distinguished
him from his fellow-slaves. In this sense the statement
in the American Declaration of Independence is profoundly
true, "All men are born free and equal." They are free
and also " equal" in the sense that each receives " talents"
appropriate to his " ability." In another sense they are
not " equal," for we come into the world with an incal
culable variety of abilities. The abilities with which we
are naturally endowed may be classified in various ways.
Perhaps there is no better method of classification than
that which distributes them according to our threefold
nature. We have physical ability, mental ability, and
spiritual ability.
Men come into this world with great varieties of
physical ability. Physical ability itself is twofold — muscular
and nervous. The muscular strength of our bodies, as
we know, varies very much. Some are exceedingly strong,
have never an ache or a pain, and are capable of pro
digious efforts. Others are scarcely able to make any
physical effort whatever. Again, the nervous system is
quite distinct from the muscular, and does not necessarily
vary with it. Some who have a comparatively weak

THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 47
muscular development have a magnificent nervous system.
On the other hand, some muscular giants are of a low
and coarse nervous type.
Secondly, we are endowed with great varieties of mental
ability. Some men are literary, some are artistic, some
are scientific, some have a great aptitude for business, and
others are evidently called to play a distinguished part
in politics or public affairs.
Again, it is equally evident, however much it may shock
some antiquated notions, that our spiritual ability varies
greatly. Some persons are much more amiable than others,
and find it very much easier to keep their tempers and
to treat every one with kindness. We may even go further,
and say that some persons are by nature much more
spiritually-minded than others. The devotional side of life
comes more easily and more naturally to some of us than
to others. Now, the great Master teaches in the parable before us
that He distributes talents, whatever they are — we shall see
presently — to each of us "according to our several ability."
It does, indeed, often seem to us that a round peg is
put into a square hole, and that it is the exception rather
than the rule to have " the right man in the right place."
But we must believe, on the authority of this parable, that
for the highest of all ends our Lord overrules all things,
so that every man has the " talents " of which he can, at
present and under existing circumstances, make the best
use. Please to observe the limitations in that statement —
"at present" and "under existing circumstances." Not
withstanding, therefore, the disadvantages of birth (which are
now felt more keenly than ever), and the fact that in this
sense " all men are " not " born equal," we are justified in

4B THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY.
drawing the optimistic conclusion that God in His overruling
providence so orders our circumstances that every man,
in this probationary life, does receive the " talents " which
accord with his abilities physical, mental, and spiritual.
But it is high time for us to ask, What are the " talents "
thus distributed ? As I have already explained, in common
speech we use the word in an obviously erroneous sense.
" Talents " have come to be synonymous with "abilities."
When we talk of " a man of talent," we mean a man of
ability. But this is evidently a mistake, for in the parable
before us we are told that God distributes to us talents
according to our several ability. Hence, if the word
" talents '' be understood to mean, as is commonly assumed,
" ability," we should read God " distributes ability according
to ability," which is absurd. No ! talents are not abilities.
They are evidently the Opportunities with which the abilities
do their work. I have just classified our abilities under
three heads. We may now classify our talents or oppor
tunities under four heads. There are four kinds of talents.
First, Money. When we become the owners of wealth
through no merit or effort of our own, we receive a great
talent or opportunity. Even when we have done something
ourselves to obtain wealth, and when we can honestly regard
it as in some degree the reward of our own industry, the
case is not so entirely different from inherited wealth as at
first appears. When we penetrate beneath the surface of
things, and inquire more particularly what are the circum
stances which occasion the accumulation of wealth, we shall
find that the millionaire who has apparently made his own
money is much more indebted to the industry of his neigh
bours and to favourable circumstances than he is to his own
ability. Let him transport himself, like Alexander Selkirk,

THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 49
to a solitary island, and try to make a fortune there. Then,
when he has utterly failed, let him acknowledge that he
owes even more to others than he does to himself for the
money he has accumulated. Money,, both inherited and
accumulated, is a great talent or opportunity. Nothing
astonishes me more than the fact that so many rich men
utterly fail to realize what an opportunity wealth gives them.
They go on heaping up useless wealth with which to curse
their children. As though the mere accumulation of money
was in itself a great gain ! As though heaps of gold could
protect them against all the ills to which flesh is heir ! I am
very glad that one millionaire — Mr. Carnegie, of Pennsylvania
— realizes that the best thing he can do with his money is to
get rid of it, and that the worst thing possible would be to
pile it upon the hapless heads of his children. There seems
to be in some respects even less public spirit among the
wealthy men of our own time than distinguished the heathen
patricians of old Rome. They delighted to spend their
wealth in dignifying and adorning that great city. It is
exceedingly surprising to me that the immensely wealthy
citizens of London do not use their millions to purify and
to beautify this great capital. It is even more astonishing
that those who profess and call themselves Christians toil on
and slave on, adding money-bag to money-bag, instead of
using this mighty instrument to facilitate and encourage the
evangelization of mankind. Nearly every Christian and
humanitarian organization is crippled for want of more
adequate resources. One of the greatest evils of the time
is the miserliness of the wealthy. They are preparing for
their children an awful retribution. The bitter and almost
implacable hatred ofthe wealthy, which is the most dangerous
social symptom of modern Europe, is the direct result of
e— 4

50 THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY.
the awful way in which the wealthy have neglected to use
their wealth for the public good. They are busily heaping
up wealth, but they are also heaping up wrath against the
day of wrath. They seem to have forgotten that wealth is a
talent, an opportunity, a glorious opportunity of serving God
by serving man.
The second kind of talent or opportunity, is Rank. This,
like Wealth, is not to be despised or under-estimated. If
rightly used, it may be made a most potent instrument of
human happiness. It is difficult to exaggerate what Rank
could do in an ancient country like this if all who pos
sessed it realized that it was a responsible opportunity.
The third great talent is Education, now happily within
the reach of many, destined soon to be within the reach of
most, and ultimately of all. In some respects true Educa
tion is a greater talent than either Wealth or Rank. It is a
source of illimitable influence, and may be used as a mighty
and almost irresistible weapon in the warfare against evil.
There is one other kind of talent expressed by the sig
nificant phrase, " Openings in life." These opportunities
are not altogether reserved for either Wealth, or Rank, or
Education, but in the mysterious providence of God come
to most men — tides that suddenly flow, and which, " taken
at the flood," lead on to highest service.
Now, these four things, Money, Rank, Education, and
" Openings in life," are the fulcrums of our levers, and tools
with which we work. The purpose of God with respect to
the distribution of these talents or opportunities is expressed
in the famous maxim which more than anything else ex
plained the triumph of the first Napoleon, " The tools to the
man that can use them." I have already admitted that it does
not always or even often seem that this is the rule. Talents,

THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 51
or opportunities, not seldom appear to be given to the very
man who cannot use them. But we are bound to conclude,
on the authority of One " to whom all hearts are open, and
all desires known," One who understands man better than
man understands himself, that these talents or opportunities
are after all distributed in the way which, if each man is
faithful, will at present and under existing circumstances
secure that they shall be best, because most effectively used
for the general advance and well-being of the human race.
The real reason why these talents or opportunities often
appear to be given to the wrong person is because those to
whom they are given do not improve them. Of that we have
startling evidence in the remaining part of the parable.
But first of all we deal with the case of the " good and faithful
servant," the man who makes the best use of the oppor
tunities which God has given him. Of him we read that he
" went and traded with the talents, and made other five
talents." That is to say, he made the very most of his
talents ; not of one of them or of some of them, but of all
of them. He lived up to his opportunities, and you will
observe that we are told he did this " straightway " (ver. 16).
That word is a happy improvement of the Revised Version
upon the ambiguous " then " of the Authorized Version.
" Straightway," that is, at once, without any delay, beginning
early and working late. Whatever he might have achieved
by desperate efforts in the later period of his life, it would
have been impossible for him to make the best use of his
talents if he had thrown away his youth and early manhood.
Thank God, men may be "saved" at the very end of their
life. But we dare not conceal from such persons that their
late decision is a sorry business at best. They can never
redeem the neglected opportunities. They can never gain

52 THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY.
back the lost occasions of highest service. None are " good
and faithful " in the best sense of the term except those who
" straightway," from the very first and perseveringly, trade
with the talents placed at their disposal.
We come now to our text, where we read that " after a
long time the lord of those servants cometh, and maketh
a reckoning with them." Every one of us must stand before
His judgment-seat, and there He will make a careful,
deliberate, and exhaustive "reckoning" with us. He will
inquire concerning our abilities. First, our physical abilities,
what kind of bodies we had, and whether they possessed
muscular ability or nervous ability, or both. Then He will
inquire into the precise nature of our mental ability, whether
it was literary, artistic, scientific, commercial, or political.
Lastly, He will investigate our spiritual ability, considering
whether we possessed any natural amiability or any special
disposition to the more spiritual side of life. Having
exhaustively "reckoned with" us respecting our abilities,
He will inquire what were our talents, our opportunities of
using those abilities. We shall have to give an account of
every penny that ever passed through our fingers. Our
position and influence in the social hierarchy will be care
fully noted. The exact nature of our education will be the
subject of investigation, whether we received an elementary,
a secondary, or a university education. Then all the open
ings in life that came to us will pass under review. Not
one of them will be overlooked.
Are you startled or shocked by this plain matter-of-fact
statement ? Does it seem to you scarcely consistent with
the dignity of that august tribunal ? Are you not rather the
victim of your own sentimental mysticism ? Have you not
been living in sftme theological cloudland of your own

,THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 53
invention? Pray consider the situation with becoming
gravity, and tell me whether any other method of investi
gation would be consistent with justice. There are the
Abilities which distinguish one man from another. There
are the Opportunities which in various ways are granted to
us. Surely those are the Facts upon which the verdict of
the Final Court will depend.
And now, if you prove to be "a good and faithful
servant," one who makes the most of his abilities and his
opportunities, what will be your reward ? You will be
invited to "enter into the joy of your Lord." And how
will you enter into the joy of your Lord? By being "set
over many things." His is the joy not of idleness, but of
work. Heaven, thank God, is not a Palace of Indolence,
but a hive of glorious industry; and the reward of
worthy service will be not eternal self-indulgence, but larger
responsibilities, wider spheres of usefulness, and greater
opportunities' of making others happy.
You will further observe that the servant who by trading
made five talents into ten, and the other who made two
talents into four, received precisely the same reward. This-
is obviously just, for each was equally faithful according to
his ability and opportunity. The sphere of work assigned to
each in heaven will be according to his capacity. Every man
having his most appropriate sphere, all will be equally happy.
We must turn now to the slothful servant. It is a
typical story. Listen to it. " Lord, I knew Thee that Thou
art a hard man, reaping where Thou didst not sow, and
gathering where Thou didst not scatter : and I was afraid,
and went away, and hid Thy talent in the earth : lo, Thou
hast Thine own."1 The unfaithful man is always full of
1 Vers. 24, 25. ,

54 THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY.
excuses. As is said in the truthful French proverb, " He
who excuses himself, accuses himself." You will observe
that he accuses his circumstances, his fellow-men, his
God. According to his own miserable story every one is
to blame except himself. See how God takes him at his
word, and shatters his refuge of lies. " Thou wicked and
slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed
not, and gather where I did not scatter : thou oughtest
therefore to have put My money to the bankers, and at My
coming I should have received back Mine own with in
terest."1 In other words, God at least expected His own
with "usury," or rather "interest." If he had not the
ability or opportunity to do as the others had done, and
to employ his talents in trading, he might at any rate have
deposited the money in a bank at interest. In other words,
if any man is incapable of original and heroic service, he
can at least join the Christian Church and do something
under the direction of others. The fact that you are
unable to do what John Wesley did is no reason why you
should not do something.
And now what was the punishment, the inevitable
punishment, of the slothful servant ? First the loss of the
talent which had been placed at his disposal. The oppor
tunity of service was' taken away from him. And surely
George Eliot was right when she said that there is nothing
in human experience more dreadful than to think of oppor
tunities of serving those we love that we have wantonly
thrown away for ever. The second punishment is the
" outer darkness," expressing the fact that he is self-exiled
from the society of Christ, the service of Christ, and the
happiness of Christ — the happiness of doing good. For
1 Vers. 26, 27.

THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 55
him nothing remains except " the weeping and the gnashing
of teeth." The weeping of speechless misery and the
gnashing of teeth caused by the knowledge that his terrible
fate is the result of his own deliberate folly and wickedness,
It is self-inflicted. It is suicidal. No other is to blame
for it. From first to last it is his own wilful and absolutely
unnecessary act and deed.
We are now in a position to sum up the solemn moral
of this parable. It teaches us, as I said at the outset, our
responsibility. No lesson could be more timely. As
Mazzini reminded Europe half a century ago, we have
heard enough of the Rights of man so fiercely an
nounced at the French Revolution, it is time for us to
realize the Duties of man. An eminent British statesman
announced long since in Parliament that " property has its
duties as well as its rights." He was speaking simply of
property in land. But the parable before us teaches us
that land is only one form of property. The healthy body,
the intelligent mind, the spirit conscious of God, wealth,
rank, education, openings in life, — all these things are also
property to which is attached responsible duty, and for
which every one of us shall give a strict account at the
judgment-seat of Christ. These abilities and these oppor
tunities are ours, not for self-assertion, or self-aggrandize
ment, or self-indulgence, but for the service of man.
Shakspere has taught in noble words that man is respon
sible for the humane and gracious use of his great gifts.
" What is a man,
If his chief good, and market of his time,
Be but to sleep and feed ? A beast, no more.
Sure, He that made us with such large discoures,
Looking before, and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused.'

56 ,^<THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY.
And again —
" Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,'
Not light them for themselves."
And again — " Spirits are not finely touched
But for fine issues : "
Surely, in the light of the parable we have now con
sidered, such truths as these have a tremendous significance.
It is impossible to exaggerate the gravity of the fact that
the only sin laid to the charge of the unhappy man before
us was his unprofitableness. He was not a drunkard, or
a gambler, or a cheat, or a blasphemer, or an impure man.
In all the relations of life, as usually understood, he was
innocent and blameless. But he was unprofitable. He
did not use his abilities and opportunities to glorify God
by promoting the well-being of man. He left the world in
the world's debt. He lived as though he belonged to
himself, and was under no obligation to use his abilities
and his opportunities for the good of others. He never
realized that he brought nothing into the world, and
would take nothing out of the world except the solemn
and awful responsibility of his trusteeship. Therefore when
the Great Lord of that man "reckoned" with him, it
appeared that he had left the world no better than he
found it. So he was inevitably condemned, and he passed
into the outer darkness, where are the weeping and the
gnashing of teeth.
On the other hand, how unutterably consoling it is to
remember that nothing more is required of any of us than
that we should be " faithful " ! God knows our abilities
and our opportunities, and all that is asked is that we

THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 57
should make the most and best of both. We cannot
promise to be rich, or clever, or eloquent, or successful
as the world counts success. But, according to our several
ability and opportunity, we can be " faithful " ; and if faith
ful we shall taste the joy and share the throne of the Son
of God Himself.

THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP.

' Yea, thro' life, death, thro' sorrow and thro' sinning,
He shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed :
Christ is the end, for Christ was the beginning ;
Christ the beginning, for the end is Christ."
F. W. li. Myers.

THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP.
" Whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he
cannot be My disciple." — Luke xiv. 33.
Party-politicians too often try to adapt their programmes
to the tastes and prejudices of the electors. False prophets
in all ages make plausible and bewitching promises to
catch the popular ear. But Jesus Christ, at the very
height of His popularity, checked and discouraged the
enthusiasm of the crowd, by claiming, as a sine qua non,
the complete renunciation of everything. Descartes de
manded as the first condition of true philosophy that we
should make a clean sweep of all our beliefs and start
afresh. Jesus Christ demanded as the necessary pre
liminary of true discipleship that we should renounce all
that we have, and place ourselves unconditionally and
absolutely in His hands. As we read in the twenty-fifth
verse, "great multitudes went with Him." At the very
moment when the great tide of popular enthusiasm was
setting in His favour, He turned round and said to them,
" If any man cometh unto Me, and hateth not his own father,
mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters,
yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." 1
The key to this hard saying is evidently the word
('disciple." To be a real "disciple" of Jesus Christ
1 Ver. 26.

62 THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP.
clearly means a great deal more than to be a " Christian,"
in the low conventional sense of that much-abused word.
There is probably no word in the English language that
is more misunderstood. There are a great many persons,
including some of our most eminent journalists, literary
men, and authors, who actually imagine that to be a
Christian is to hold certain controversial and metaphysical
opinions ! They constantly and unhesitatingly confuse
Christianity with mere orthodoxy. Whereas, to use the
plain but decisive language of John Wesley, you may be
"as orthodox as the devil himself" and as unworthy of
the great name of Christian.
An intelligent gentleman, who had been for many years
a communicant of a great Christian Church, tried to
persuade a young friend of mine the other day that to
be a Christian is " to believe in God and to do what
you think is right." Why, that definition of Christianity
does not attain the moral level even of Mohammedanism.
A devout Mohammedan would confess that true religion
consists not in doing what you think is right, but in doing
what God thinks is right. The man who uses such a
definition, even though he has been a communicant for
years, has not even entered the kingdom of God much
less become a disciple.
To be a " disciple," as I have said, evidently implies
being something more than an ordinary Christian. You
may notice a significant change of expression between the
twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh verses. In the twenty-
sixth verse the Great Master says, " If any man cometh
unto Me," that is for pardon, he must do certain things
if he would "be My disciple." And then in the twenty-
seventh verse He further declares that he who would

THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP. 63
be a true disciple must "come after Me," that is to say,
must imitate Him, which is a very different thing. To
come "unto" Christ is one thing, to come "after" Christ
is another and a much greater thing. No man can come
"after," or literally " behind," Christ who does not "bear
his own cross."
Have you ever come " after " Christ ? Do you say
to me to-day, as some Greeks said to the disciples of
our Lord two thousand years ago, " Sir, we would see
Jesus " ? Why do you desire to see Him ? What do
you want ? Do you want to be saved from hell ? Poor
wretch ! Poor wretch ! Why, the very devils desire that,
and would be glad enough to escape from their place
of doom if it were possible. Is this your idea of Chris
tianity — to be saved from punishment? Why, that senti
ment is shared by the most degraded of criminals. If
I went to the great convict establishment at Portland
or at Dartmoor and said that the gates were open and
that every convict who wished to avoid punishment was
at liberty to leave, the huge and hideous building would
be empty in a few minutes. There is no trace of goodness
in that desire.
But perhaps you say, " O ! I want more than that I
want to be admitted into heaven when I die." Poor
wretch ! Poor wretch ! All the base, the vulgar, and the
cruel share that desire ; for the word " heaven " in such a
sentence simply means freedom from pain and sorrow,
together with plenty of pleasure. Every scoundrel echoes
that aspiration.
But you say, " O ! I want more than that. I want to be
absolved from sin, to be forgiven, to escape the pangs of a
guilty conscience, to drink some Lethean draught which

64 THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP.
will enable me to forget the horrible past." That is well.
That is not so unworthy. But it is a very negative desire,
and is intensely and most unattractively selfish.
" I want more," you add. " I want to be saved from
sin." That is better, much better, very much better. But it
is still a purely selfish wish. Your thoughts, your hopes,
your aspirations, still revolve in an exceedingly narrow, self-
centred, and self-limited sphere.
" I want to be saved from sin in order that I may be
able to help Christ in saving my neighbour from sin." Ah,
we are now entering the pure air of heaven ! I hear in the
distance the songs of angels ! Your face is beginning to be
lit up with the glory of God ! Now, for the first time, you
have said something which seems to indicate that you
would fain be a " disciple " of Christ. For what, let me ask,
is a " disciple " ? A disciple is one who shares the thoughts,
imitates the deeds, walks in the footsteps, and continues the
work of his Master. But if all you desire is to escape
from hell, you cannot thereby be a disciple of Christ. He
has no desire to be saved from hell. He is not in danger of
hell. Again, if you can say nothing more than that you
wish to be admitted into heaven, there is still no trace of
discipleship here. Christ has no such desire. He is in
heaven. Heaven is His own place. Again, if you wish to
be forgiven, that is a sentiment which you cannot share with
Christ who has never done anything that needs forgiveness.
Once more, if your aspirations do not extend beyond a wish
to be saved from your sin, you are still in no sense a disciple
of Christ ; for He never had that desire, having never known
sin. But the moment you desire to co-operate with God
in saving your neighbour from sin, you have " the mind
of Christ." You desire now to share the work of Christ.

THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP. 65
You are beginning to be a " disciple " of Christ. I do not
for a moment deny that the lower motives are legitimate,
and indeed a necessary part of a sinner's repentance. But
they fall far short of Christian motive, and can be in no
sense a feature of Christian discipleship. The Christian
disciple is animated by an unselfish and God-like hatred
of evil as evil, and an intense desire to abolish it from the
earth. Now, if we are to be Christians at all is it not best
to be thorough-going Christians, to be Christ-like Christians,
to be His real disciples ? What an accursed thing is half-
heartedness ! How misleading it is ! How much worse
than useless !
What is involved in being a Christ-like Christian ? Two
things, which Christ expressed in parabolic form. If you
are to be a Christ-like Christian, you must* first build a
tower, and secondly, go forth to war. That is to say,
you must build up a Christ-like character, and secondly,
you must fight to the death against the devil and all his
works. But before you do this, says Christ, " count the
cost." Do not take a leap in the dark. Do not make the
Great Renunciation until you realize all that it involves.
Do not assume the sublime and awful title of " the disciple
of Christ " until you understand what it means. It means,
let me repeat, first of all a God-like, that is to say a Christ
like, life here— not hereafter, but here; not in the Third
Heaven or even in Paradise, but on earth, and everywhere
on earth. Consequently Christian discipleship means irre
concilable and implacable war against every form of evil.
What does this involve? In the first place, says Christ,
it involves being misunderstood and persecuted by your
own family, especially if your family is a Christian family.
No one dislikes the intense, enthusiastic, aggressive, Christ-
f— 4

66 THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP.
like Christianity so much as your commonplace, smug
Christian. You see it is such a painful, irritating reflec
tion on him. The unconverted man rather appreciates
it. He likes a Christian to be a real Christian, an unmis
takable Christian, a thorough-going Christian. Even if he
has no desire to be one, he honours the consistency and the
courage of the disciple of Jesus Christ. But the half-hearted,
lukewarm, inconsistent, worldly, self-indulgent Christian is
particularly embittered by the spectacle of a Christ-like
Christian, whose very existence condemns him so much by
exposing his unworthiness so vividly. On the other hand,
the disciple of Christ must positively " hate," must utterly
loathe the selfishness and the worldliness of half-hearted
Christianity. His foes are therefore " they of his own
household." Christ has come in this sense, as He Himself
declared, " not to send peace, but a sword." He introduces
terrible but inevitable strife and division into families ; and
it is the painful experience of nearly every fully conse
crated Christian, that when he wanted to give himself up
wholly to God those who offered the bitterest opposition
were his nearest and dearest relatives.
Again, if you would be a true disciple, you must hate
not only the half-heartedness of your fellow-Christians but
also your own life. You must make an absolute self-
surrender to Christ. You must imitate. Him, as He Himself
declared, by reproducing His meekness and lowliness : His
meekness the opposite of self-assertion, His lowliness the ,
opposite of self-trust. The finest lines that Tennyson ever
penned are two which occur in his dedication of "In
Memoriam " to Christ. Addressing Him Tennyson says —
" Our wills are ours, we know not how ;
Our wills are ours, to make them Thine."

THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP. 67
Truly, we cannot solve the problem of free-will. We cannot
say " how " we are morally free. Let metaphysicians who
have no better occupation for their time continue to waste
their lives in useless cogitation and strife. We do know
that we are free, and " why " we are free. We are free in
order that we may willingly and gladly place ourselves at
the absolute disposal of Jesus Christ.
In the third place, we must, as we read in the text,
renounce " all that we have." We must place all our
property, material, intellectual, and spiritual, in the hands
of Christ. In a word, we must put ourselves and all we
possess as absolutely at the disposal of Christ as the Jesuit
puts himself at the disposal of the general of his order.
Unless you do that you cannot be a " disciple " of Jesus
Christ. But you may say, " Is it right for me to make such an
absolute self-surrender." I answer unhesitatingly, " Most
certainly not, unless Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God."
It is degrading and horrible beyond description to make so
absolute a self-surrender to any fallible and sinful man.
But if Christ is what He claims to be, this self-surrender is
perfect freedom and glorious privilege.
You 'say that you are a disciple of Truth. But Jesus
Christ is the living Truth, and every other truth is but an
echo and shadow of Him. You say you seek the highest
Good and the perfectly Right. Both combine absolutely in
Christ. You say that you devote yourself to the Beautiful.
But Christ is essential Beauty. In Him all ideals are realized.
In Him every object of desire is perfected. All legitimate
pursuits are summed up in Him. And the profoundest
instinct of every human heart finds its complete satis
faction in worshipping Jesus Christ with absolute devotion.

68 THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP.
But perhaps you further say, " If this is right, is it
possible?" I answer at once — not in your own strength,
but in the power of God. Not by processes of ratiocination
but by divine illumination do you realize the claims and
the all-sufficiency of Christ. Neither by sacraments nor by
syllogisms are men saved ; but by abiding in Christ. No
man was ever argued into real Christianity, and no man was
ever argued out of it. But when Christ is pleased to reveal
Himself in us as He did to Saul on the dusty road to
Damascus, we cry out, " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to
do ? " When we say that, we have already begun to be
" disciples " of Jesus Christ.
I have enlarged upon the difficulties and the sacrifices of
this Great Renunciation. I have quoted terrible language
to illustrate the privations and sacrifices, the misunderstand
ings and controversies, to which the disciple, like his Master,
is exposed. But I must not close without pointing out the
result of discipleship. We have counted the cost, but it
would be unfair to end without also counting the gain. We
have enlarged upon loss, but something must be said of
profit. What is that ?
It is only recently that I have realized the close logical
connection between this chapter and the beautiful and
familiar fifteenth chapter which immediately follows it.
When Christ spoke of discipleship, "all" the publicans and
sinners gathered around Him, and in explanation of their
presence He told the threefold parable of the Lost Sheep,
the Lost Piece of Money, and the Prodigal Son, or, as we
should rather say, the Loving Father. Why was that fact
brought into such close connection with the text? In
order to remind us that if the disciple has to make the
Great Renunciation which the Master made, he shall alsg

THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP. 6g
receive the Master's reward, and like the Master be " wise
to win souls." He shall
" Minister to the mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory its rooted sorrow,
Rase out the written troubles of the brain,
And cleanse the stuffed bosom of the perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart."
You are full of the enthusiasm of humanity ? You are
ardent for social reform? You desire improvement,
remembering that "the soul of all improvement is the
improvement of the soul " ? Well, there is only one great
Teacher who can "improve" the soul. The power to
convert a sinner from the error of his way, to save a soul from
death, to cover a multitude of sins — that is the secret and the
monopoly of the Great Master. And to be able to do that
is the divine reward of discipleship. Without making the
Great Renunciation you may be very orthodox, you may be
learned in the Scriptures, you may be famous. But there
is one thing you cannot be. You cannot be a winner of
souls ; you cannot point to men and women who through
your instrumentality have been turned from darkness to
light, and from the bondage of sin to the freedom of the
sons of God.
On the other hand you may be poor and obscure and
ignorant, you may speak with a faltering tongue ; but if you
have made the Great Renunciation, if you have become
a true " disciple," then you shall be taught the secret of
the Lord, and shall experience the divine and unspeakable
happiness of saving men from sin. That is the reward of
discipleship ; and it is a reward so great that all who have
received it deem the richest prizes both of the Church and
of the State as dross and refuse in comparison with it.

THE CHRISTIAN HOPE.

' One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward ;
Never doubted clouds would break ;
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph ;
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
Sleep to wake. "
Browning.

THE CHRISTIAN HOPE,
" I saw a new heaven and a new earth." — Rev. xxi. I.
That was the last vision of the last prophet. From the
days of Abraham and Job, over a period of nearly two
thousand years, God had frequently lifted up the veil of the
future, and revealed to the purged eyes of His prophets
" the things that should come to pass." From age to age
the vision of the Coming Joy grew brighter and brighter and
brighter. The last of the long succession of inspired seers
was the disciple whom Jesus loved, and the last of his visions
was " a new heaven and a new earth." That burst upon
his view nearly two thousand years ago. There has been
nothing since, because there can be nothing greater or better
than that. The long panorama of the Divine Programme
was completed at last. "He that sitteth on the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new."1 That was the
explanation of it. The Carpenter of Nazareth, the Son of
man, the Son of God, who rose on Easter Day, is bringing
it to pass. That was what the Resurrection signified. The
empty sepulchre was the pledge of that.
What does it mean ? "A new heaven ! " What is that ?
We know very little of the old heaven. But it would seem
1 Ver. 5.

74 THE CHRISTIAN HOPE.
that heaven itself was blessed by the Resurrection as well
as the earth. There are vague and mysterious statements
in the writings of S. Paul about benefits won by the Cross
of Christ for angels as well as for men, for the whole
universe as well as for this little planet. But that is an
unexplored region of thought, and no man can explore it
yet. It is well for Christian ministers to confess that there
are some things in the Bible which they cannot explain,
and which they do not understand. But I think we may
venture to advance one step, and to say that when this
relation of the death of Christ is explained, it will remove
many difficulties about the Atonement which sometimes
trouble our ignorance now.
But a "new earth" ! We can understand that. Indeed
S. John himself confines his attention and his description
almost exclusively to that. All that even he can tell us
about the new heaven is that the city of God "comes down
out of" it from God to be established on earth. For the
rest, he devotes all his time and all his strength to describe
the " new earth," — and so the Bible ends.
If any one should say to us, " What do you Christians
mean by your outbursts of Easter joy," we would answer,
" We mean that a revolution has begun beside which the
French Revolution and all other revolutions are child's play.
We mean that a day is coming when this world will be so
changed, and so changed for the better, that its happy
inhabitants will have forgotten how to weep." " God shall
wipe away every tear from their eyes." What do you think
of that? This is a vale of misery now. Our poets are
poets of sorrow. All our newspapers are written within and
without with mourning and lamentation and woe. But a
day is coming on earth — mark that ! on earth — when

THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. 75
there shall be " neither mourning, nor crying, nor pain." All
these dark things are passing away, and the Risen Son of
God is making all things new. Ah ! little did men know
what that Syrian Carpenter was doing. As Sir Edwin
Arnold has reminded us in his latest poem the Divine
Peasant once saw all the glory and corruption of the Past,
when for a brief day He trod the streets of Tyre. Little
did her merchant princes realize Who stood silent and
watchful in the midst of them ! "Now, go by
Those thrones of Tyre — the old ill deeds and days —
Heedless and unaware ! seeing Him gaze
Wistfully from their Temple steps. No thought
How the mild eyes and silent steps have brought
End and beginning ! Yet hath come the End !
Hath dawned Beginning ! "
Yes ! the real End and the true Beginning. " The
End" struggles still, nineteen centuries later, with voice
and pen and arm, pleading for lust, for pelf, for privilege.
But it is smitten with a deadly disease, and all its apologists
and advocates do but prolong the agony of its dying. " The
Beginning" waxes more and more. Voices of humanity
are heard on every side. The rights of man as man, the
rights of womanhood, the rights of little children, the very
rights of dumb animals, are championed and vindicated
now ! Even the ancient glories of war are beginning,
in the new daylight, to look tawdry and rotten ! The last
are already first, and the " common people " are climbing
the thrones of power.
Let us pause and ponder what it all means. There are
nine ancient social evils —

76 THE CHRISTIAN HOPE.
Drunkenness, Lust,
Slavery,
Ignorance, Gambling,Pauperism,Disease,
Crime, and
War.
To these our special national wickedness has added three
more — The opium trade,
The torture of dumb animals, and
The sale of spirits and gunpowder to savages.
All these twelve colossal evils are marked for destruction as
a woodman marks the trees that are to be cut down. The
Resurrection means that they are all to go, to go absolutely,
and to go for ever. In a word, the Resurrection means
that there is no such thing as " a necessary evil." Whoso
ever uses that phrase deliberately, whether on the platform
or in the pulpit, proclaims himself a child of the devil and
a son of perdition. That phrase is blasphemy against the
Holy Ghost. It asserts in effect that the Holy Ghost is
so impotent that the devil must triumph for ever over the
Son of man ! God forbid that you and I should ever pollute
our lips with that fiendish expression except to spue it out
of our mouth with loathing and horror ! All sin and
all misery, the shadow of sin, are to be abolished from the
earth. The day is coming when justice and love and peace
will reign with unchallenged supremacy in every land ; and
when men will literally do the will of God on earth as
angels do it in heaven.

THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. yj
From this great and hopeful fact we may, we must, draw
two conclusions. First of all, sin need have no more
dominion over us as individual Christians. We are not
obliged to sin. I have this week heard one of the most
beautiful and delightful incidents of my ministry. Some
months ago a young Cambridge man, the eldest son of a
distinguished dignitary of the Anglican Church, came to
St. James's Hall, and afterwards reported the result to his
mother. He s:tid that he could not remember my sermon,
but it had fully convinced him that it was " not necessary "
for him to sin. O, blessed result of Christian preaching !
May God grant me many such results as the highest possible
reward of sincere, however unworthy, service ! I cannot
imagine anything nobler or more hopeful than that every
young Englishman,
" The heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time,"
should realize that it is not necessary for him to sin, but
that if he trusts in Christ he may be kept from sin, and by
the grace of His Holy Spirit may walk in His footsteps
and carry on His work until it is completed.
The second conclusion is this — having by faith in the
omnipotent love of God achieved our own redemption, we
must work hard for the redemption of the race. The
first condition of highest success is that we should fully
realize the gospel of the Resurrection. No compromise
with the devil. That is the main point. It is much, very
much, to have brought your own mind to regard all evil
as an unnatural anomaly, a monstrous anachronism. You
will then eagerly join the irreconcilable revolutionists of
Jesus Christ. No incident in the history of modern Europe
is more thrilling or more significant than the fact that when

78 THE CHRISTIAN HOPE.
the dissolute and tyrannous empire of Napoleon III. was
at the height of its apparent prosperity, there were three
Frenchmen who maintained in the National Assembly — the
only spot where freedom of speech was still tolerated — an
irreconcilable opposition. In vain did Napoleon and his
sycophants attempt either to bribe or to bully these three
men. They pleaded fearlessly, incessantly, passionately,
for truth, for freedom, for justice, and the conscience of
France responded to them so profoundly that the moment
the tide of war turned against Napoleon the Empire fell
for ever. It seemed for a long time as though it were a
hopeless duel of three men against all the resources of
France. But the three were faithful to duty and to one
another. They did not count their adversaries. They
were outvoted again and again and again. But they always
returned to the conflict. Every day they renewed their
demand for right. And so at last they won, and won a
decisive victory.
We are not in such a minority as they were. If we do
not paralyze our strength by useless and scandalous divisions,
we can soon become, if not a majority, at least a dominant
minority. In any case, if those three men defied the
Empire in the name of patriotism, surely we may defy all
social wrong in the name of God and Humanity. Let us be
brave. Let us be outspoken. Let us be absolutely irrecon
cilable. The hour of deliverance is at hand. Inspired of
God, we already see the new earth which S. John saw;
and Christ helping us, we will do all that in us lies to hasten
the coming of the blissful day when ttiat glorious vision
will be an accomplished fact.

THE CHRISTIAN AUTHORITY.

" Obedience is our universal duty and destiny ; wherein whoso will
not bend must break ; too early and too thoroughly we cannpt be
trained to know that Would, in this world of ours, is as zero to Should,
and for the most part as the smallest of fractions even to Shall." —
Carlyle.

THE CHRISTIAN AUTHORITY.
" I also am a man set under authority." — Luke vii. 8.
This verse has often perplexed me. I have found it
difficult to expound in harmony with the context. The
usual explanation is, " I am a man set under authority.
Thou art not set under authority. Therefore, if I can say
to this man, ' Go,' and he goeth, and to another, ' Come,'
and he cometh, much more, a fortiori, canst Thou employ
others to do Thy bidding." But this ordinary interpretation
is flatly inconsistent with the employment of the word
"also." "I also am a man set under authority." The
word " also " prevents us from assuming that the centurion
is contrasting his case with Christ's. It compels us to
believe that he is referring not to a difference but to a
similarity. One recent expositor makes a desperate effort
to escape from this difficulty by saying that "set under
authority " means " set with authority." But that will not
do at all. We cannot cut the Gordian knot in this reckless
fashion. It is not only most reverent, but most rational
always to assume that a speaker in Holy Writ meant what
he said, and that the difficulty is rather in our apprehension
than in any assumed inability on his part to express himself
correctly and intelligibly.
In this case I must believe that the centurion meant
G— 4

82 THE CHRISTIAN AUTHORITY.
exactly and precisely what he said. He had carefully
watched Jesus Christ, and observed that He "also," that
is to say, Jesus Christ as well as himself, was " a man set
under authority." Christ always and openly recognized the
authority of His Divine Father. He was not lawless, self-
assertive, insubordinate. He was one of a great social
hierarchy of authority and order ; an officer of high rank,
obedient to all above Him and to all divinely appointed
or divinely tolerated authority; but at the same time
having many subordinates under Him. The centurion in
like manner was an officer in the great military hierarchy
of Rome. He, therefore, concluded by analogy that as
he, in his official hierarchy, acted through others, so could
Christ. My main point now is the fact that Christ "also," Christ
as well as the Roman officer, was " a man under authority."
Doubtless to the Roman officer He was no more than a
man — one of the greatest and wisest and best of men, but
still a mere man. The centurion had probably never
realized that He was also the Son of God. To him Jesus
of Nazareth was literally " a man set under authority." But
it is only as Son of man that Christ is an example to us.
The centurion's limitation of view, therefore, does not in
the least degree hinder the lesson which we derive from
Christ's recognition of authority. On the contrary, it brings
the lesson within the range of practical life.
Nothing is more certain than the fact that Christ was
"under authority." In the first place and supremely, as
I have already intimated, He was under the authority of
His Divine Father. He said. " I came not to do My own
will, but the will of Him that sent Me." On another
occasion He declared with passionate earnestness that

THE CHRISTIAN AUTHORITY. 83
" My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me." Again,
in the strongest terms He asserted, "The Son can of
Himself do nothing." And once more, " I can of Mine
own self do nothing." He recognized the absolute authority
of the Father so completely that it seemed to Him morally
impossible to speak or to act except in conscious obedience
to the Father's will. We have all heard and read of the
tragical moment in dark Gethsemane when His breaking
heart cried out, "Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou
wilt." Even the cup of unspeakable and unimaginable
agony He will drink, and drink to the dregs if the Father
will. Thus at the close of His life He was able to say
literally, " I have finished the work which Thou gavest
Me to do." Not the work which He had chosen for Him
self, but the work which the Father had chosen for Him,
which He began to do with eager intensity even in His
very boyhood, and which He continued to do until it was
perfectly " finished."
Now, in all this He has " set us an example that we
should walk in His steps." To all of us in the Great
Invitation He says, " Take My yoke upon you." That
is, not a yoke which He imposes, but a yoke which He
bears. He says, " Share My yoke with Me. Be My yoke
fellow." The yoke to which He refers is the yoke of
absolute submission to the authority of the Father. He
illustrates this at once by naming the two moral qualities
which are essential to such submission. "I am meek and
lowly in spirit." His meekness was the opposite of self-
assertion. His lowliness was the opposite of self-reliance.
Never for one moment did He forget that He was under
the authority of God. He did not please Himself. He
did not even try to do the work of God in His own way.

84 THE CHRISTIAN AUTHORITY.
He was here simply and solely and at all times to obey
the Father, and He was "obedient even unto the death
of the cross."
For us the case is a little changed. At the close of
His life He said, "All authority hath been given unto
Me in heaven and on earth."1 Consequently we recognize
the authority of the Father by recognizing the authority
of the Son. Christ sits upon the throne of the universe
to-day, and the "Father hath given all judgment unto
the Son, that all may honour the Son even as they honour
the Father." It is for us to submit to the authority of the
Father by submitting to the authority of Jesus Christ.
This fact greatly simplifies and lightens our duty. It is
much easier to understand and to obey an incarnate God.
" Clouds and darkness are round about the Eternal." 2
He dwells in light unapproachable. Him no man hath
seen, nor can see.3 We are overwhelmed and perplexed
in His presence. But when He appears among us in the
gentle and homely guise of the Man of Nazareth we are
reassured. We can understand Him better. We can
obey Him more easily. This, then, is our duty — to obey
Christ. We are " set under '' His authority as He is " set
under" the authority of the Eternal. Have we realized
that? The age in which we live is one in which the principle
of Authority is in great danger of being despised. It is
always an exceedingly difficult problem to adjust an exact
balance between Authority and Freedom. In former ages,
even in so-cailed free countries, the balance has inclined
far too much in the direction of Authority. Now, for the
first time, there is in some directions an opposite danger.
1 Matt, xxviii. 18. J Ps. xcvii. 2. ! 1 Tim. vi. 16.

THE CHRISTIAN AUTHORITY. 85
Freedom is apt to be confounded with lawless licence.
All of us do not realize that true freedom is freedom
to obey those to whom obedience is due. An extreme
reaction from the tyranny of the past has affected even
our relations to God. I realize more and more that the
secret of very much of our Christian unrest and failure is
imperfect submission to Jesus Christ. The very essence of
real. Christianity is absolute, unconditional, uninterrupted
self-surrender to Jesus Christ.
Our obedience to Christ ought to be as prompt, as
unhesitating, as the obedience of the Roman legionaries
to their officers. It has often been noticed that some of
the most beautiful manifestations of faith in the New
Testament were on the part of Roman soldiers. Their
military discipline had taught them obedience. They were
" set under authority," and they had no difficulty in sub
mitting themselves promptly and heartily to the authority
of Jesus Christ. Nothing is more urgently necessary than
that we Christians should obey the " Captain of our salva
tion" as promptly and as loyally as every German soldier
obeys the young German Emperor who has just visited our
shores. Why is Germany at the head of the world to-day?
Because the whole German nation has accepted the
principle of Authority. One hundred years ago they were
a mob, and French armies rode rough-shod over them.
They were reduced to the lowest straits of national help
lessness and humiliation. Slowly they " learned obedience,"
and discipline, and the habit of acting together. Therefore
when the great crisis came they repelled the French
invaders by whom they had so often been trampled
under foot, and they placed Germany at the summit of

86 THE CHRISTIAN AUTHORITY.
human affairs. It is true that Freedom has been unduly
sacrificed in Germany to Authority, and that consequently
desolating militarism has dimmed the light of the German
universities, and paralyzed the ancient civic freedom of the
German race. But that, we may hope, is only a temporary
evil, however great. In any case that is an abuse, an
exaggeration, a corruption. It does not invalidate the
force of the illustration. It does not in any way contradict
the fact that the principle of authority is mighty, and
that submission to authority is a necessary condition both
of freedom and of progress.
At this moment the Christian Church in this country
is to a great extent paralyzed in its aggressive enterprises
because it is a mob rather than an army. We are fatally
divided. We are too much in the chaotic condition of
the ancient Israelites in the time of the Judges. Every
man does " what is right in his own eyes." We need
to be drilled into swift instinctive obedience so as to
stand shoulder to shoulder, and to make an irresistible
united attack upon all the forces of evil.
Oh that we had something of the sublime courage and
unhesitating devotion to duty which animated the Light
Brigade at Balaclava !
"Theirs not to make-reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die."
Why should men render to their human rulers and to
military authorities an obedience more prompt, more self-
sacrificing, than that which they render to Christ ? The
social evils that desolate and decimate our race are ancient,
wealthy, and gigantic. But we could scatter them like
chaff before the wind if we had the necessary self-suppres
sion and disciplined obedience to reasonable authority.

THE CHRISTIAN AUTHORITY. 87
The one secret of the Salvation Army is the reassertion
of the principle of authority. I do not say that we can all
approve of that principle in the precise form in which it
exists in the Salvation Army. But General Booth has made
the same great discovery that Oliver Cromwell made at a
crisis in our national history. There was endless talking,
and committees were perpetually sitting and wrangling and
doing nothing. It was high time that some strong and
devoted man should take the matter into his own hands
and invite his fellow-Christians to submit themselves willingly
to authority, in order that organized co-operation might
effect what lawless individualism, however sincere and how
ever enthusiastic, was absolutely impotent to achieve.
There is no way in which our want of discipline is more
painfully illustrated than in the long delays which frequently
occur before any combined attack upon evil is made. S.
Paul urges us to have our " feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace." But most Christians go about
unsandalled, and when the bugle-call of duty is heard, they
have to spend so much time in looking for their military
sandals, that the golden opportunity is past before they are
ready. Oh ! the miserable hesitation, the disastrous delay,
the slovenly negligence, the wretched half-heartedness, with
which so much of the work of the Christian Church is
nominally done but really undone ! What a contrast is
frequently presented between the way in which soldiers act,
or the way in which men of business in their great enter
prises act, and the way in which the work of the sanctuary
of God is done !
And yet the very word which we employ to describe the
most sacred services of the Christian Church ought to remind
us perpetually of the great truth which occupies our thought

88 THE CHRISTIAN AUTHORITY.
now. We call the initiatory rite of the Christian Church
the " sacrament " of Holy Baptism. We call the supreme
and perpetually renewed act of Christian worship the
" sacrament " of Holy Communion. Sacrament ! what is
that ? It is a Latin word, sacramentum, and it means the
oath of military obedience which was taken by every Roman
soldier — the oath in which he swore loyalty to the Emperor,
and declared his readiness to go anywhere, to do anything,
and if necessary to die for his sake. Every baptized person,
every communicant, in like manner takes the sacramentum,
the oath of military obedience to Jesus Christ, solemnly
declaring that he recognizes the authority of Christ so
absolutely, that he is prepared for His sake to do and to
dare, and if necessary to die. Let us, in the name of God,
live up to our " sacramental " obligation.
But it is necessary to observe that the obedience of
Jesus Christ was not limited to the Divine Father. It
extended to all authority sanctioned or appointed by the
Father. In the first place, He recognized the authority of
His mother Mary and of her husband Joseph. We read
that even after He became conscious of His divine origin,
" He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He
was subject unto them."1 No feature of modern English
society is more alarming than the widespread insubordi
nation of children. This is a reaction from the harshness
and unreasonable and arbitrary parental tyranny of the
past; but it nevertheless is a terrible evil. The way in
which parental authority is ignored or despised especially in
the great centres of population, ought to receive much more
careful attention both from ministers of religion and from
schoolmasters. 1 Luke ii. 51.

THE CHRISTIAN AUTHORITY. 89
Let it never be forgotten that the last promise and the
last warning of the Old Testament had reference to this.
Malachi declared that the great work of the forerunner of
Christ would be to " turn the heart of the fathers to the
children, and the heart of the children to their fathers." x
In that way only would it be possible to prevent the earth
from being smitten with a curse. Family religion and
subjection to parents are the necessary foundations of all
religion. Unless the heart of the fathers is turned to the
children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, there
can be no revival of religion, and it is impossible to establish
the State in righteousness. All children are by the ordi
nances of God " set under '' the authority of their parents.
Obedience to parents is placed by the Law of God on a
level with obedience to God Himself. The one cannot
exist without the other, and every form of undisciplined
self-assertion and lawless insubordination begins in the
nursery. If parents neglect to exert authority God will
hold them responsible for the wickedness and misery which
such neglect inevitably entails upon their hapless offspring.
Secondly, Jesus Christ recognized the authority of the
Church, even when there was so much in the existing con
dition of the Church that He strongly and unsparingly
condemned. In order that He might be able to bear His
share of the burdens of the sanctuary, and contribute to the
maintenance of the Temple He wrought a miracle, and
found a piece of money in the mouth of a fish. On another
occasion, in the very midst of fierce denunciations of the
hypocrisy and worthlessness and selfishness of the Scribes
and Pharisees He nevertheless said, " The Scribes and the
Pharisees sit on Moses' seat : all things therefore whatsoever
1 Mai. iv. 6.

90 THE CHRISTIAN AUTHORITY.
they bid you, these do and observe." J He recognized
their legitimate authority even when He denounced their
sins. He was a constant worshipper in the synagogue.
He devoutly attended the great festivals of His Church in
Jerusalem, and so even in the midst of the unfaithfulness
and worldliness of the Church He fulfilled all righteousness.
Once more, He unhesitatingly submitted to the authority
of the State. He even went so far as to say, " Render
unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's." He was an
intensely patriotic Jew, and the presence of a cruel foreign
despot must have been more galling and distressing to Him
than to any of His contemporaries. But while there was
no other authority in the land, He loyally accepted the
authority even of the heathen Caesar.
I am well aware that the truth I have now illustrated
at length is liable to abuse. It has been greatly abused
in this country. In former ages ministers of religion have
taught the odious, detestable, and anti-scriptural doctrine
of " passive obedience " to immoral and unworthy princes.
But the claims of Authority which I have now asserted are
strictly limited on every side by the equally sacred claims
of Freedom. What I have asserted to-day is only half the
truth, but it is the half which you and I are in most danger
of overlooking and neglecting. On the threshold of the
twentieth century we are not in much danger of an extra
vagant and superstitious submission to authority. But as
the sinful human heart is naturally servile, it is necessary
to utter a plain warning against a perversion of the whole
some truth we have pondered to-day.
Again and again in the history of States and Churches,
there comes a moment when men must say as S. Peter and
1 Matt, xxiii. 3.

THE CHRISTIAN AUTHORITY. 9 1
the apostles said, when they were full of the Holy Ghost,
immediately after the Day of Pentecost, " We must obey
God rather than men." : The authority of the Parent, the
authority of the Church, and the authority of the State are
always subject to the supreme authority of the Christ. Only
as His subordinates have they any authority at all, and
when either parents, or ecclesiastics, or statesmen do any
thing inconsistent with the plain and unmistakable teaching
of Jesus Christ, as they have so often done — then, like the
apostles, even at the risk of our lives, we must withstand
them to the face, defy them to the uttermost, and die
rather than be disloyal to the Son of God.
He who loves his parents, or his Church, or his country
more than he loves Christ, is unworthy of Christ and
cannot be a disciple of Christ. In Christ we have a per
petual safeguard against the abuse of authority, but, as I
have already said more than once, our special danger is not
in that direction. We rather need the warning of Carlyle.
Well did he declare that " obedience, little as we may con
sider that side of the matter, is the primary duty of man.
No man but is bound indefeasibly, with all force of obligation,
to obey." Carlyle, however, leaned far too much towards
authority. One extreme drove him at last to the other.
Nevertheless, he was quite right in declaring a thousand
times that we need the discipline of obedience. Even
Christ " learned obedience by the things which He
suffered." Perhaps there are certain forms of obedience
which can be learned in no other way. One of the most
blessed results of suffering is the check which it gives
to self-assertion and self-will. If Christ was " set under
authority," surely we need not hesitate to place our necks
1 Acts v. 29.

92 THE CHRISTIAN AUTHORITY.
under the same noble yoke. It was no humiliation to
Him. It was the glory of His perfect manhood. And
we too, as even impetuous and self-assertive S. Peter learned
at last, are " elect unto obedience." :
1 i Pet. i. 2.

THE CHRISTIAN ARISTOCRACY.

"A day is ever struggling forward, a day will arrive in some approxi
mate degree, when he who has no work to do, by whatever name he
may be named, will not find it good to show himself in our quarter of
the Solar System."— Carlyle.

THE CHRISTIAN ARISTOCRACY.
"Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." — Matt. xx. 28.
The incident which terminates with this great saying is one
of the most important although one of the least noticed in
the public life of our Lord. He was on His way to
Jerusalem for the last time. Salome, the mother of S.
James and S. John, expected that He was about to estab
lish an earthly kingdom, similar to that established by
David and Solomon. Moved by the natural impulse of
a proud and affectionate mother, she came to Him " with
her sons, worshipping Him, and asking a certain thing of
Him. And He said unto her, What wouldest thou? She
saith unto Him, Command that these my two sons may
sit, one on Thy right hand, and one on Thy left, in Thy
kingdom." She assumed that He was about to establish
this "kingdom" by expelling the Romans. But He
answered, "Ye know not what ye ask." You will observe
that He speaks in the plural — " what ye ask." James and
John, by their presence, shared in the request of their
mother. They and their mother had failed altogether to under
stand the tragical news which He had just given them. A
few minutes before He had announced that He was "going

96 THE CHRISTIAN ARISTOCRACY.
up to Jerusalem to be condemned to death, to be delivered
unto the Gentiles to be mocked, and scourged, and cruci
fied." But so preoccupied were they with their own
prejudices and selfish ambitions that even these plain words
did not disillusionize them. " Are ye able to drink the cup
that I am about to drink?" He exclaims, "'or to be
baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with ? " This
second question is added by S. Mark in his account of the
incident. " Are ye able to drink the cup of sorrow for sin
that is about to be pressed to My lips?" "Are ye able to
share My baptism of persecution from men and devils ? "
They say unto Him, " We are able."
It was a bold answer. It was an ignorant answer.
They did not understand Him, and therefore they did not
know what they were saying. Nevertheless the answer was
true. For Christ at once rejoined, "My cup indeed ye
shall drink." Although at that moment they had no con
ception of His meaning, the time would come when they
would understand it full well, and when by the power of
the - Holy Spirit they would in some degree share His
experience. He fully admitted that. He put the best
possible construction upon their answer. He took the most
indulgent view of their request and of their attitude. And
yet their petition could not be granted ; for, as He added,
"to sit on My right hand and on My left hand is not
Mine to give, but it is for them for whom it hath been
prepared of My Father." 1 Places of honour in His king
dom are not given by royal caprice or personal favouritism,
but are in every instance the rewards of meritorious service.
An autocrat, a despotic unconstitutional sovereign like the
Czar of Russia or the Sultan of Turkey, exalts' and
1 Matt. xx. 23.

THE CHRISTIAN ARISTOCRACY. 97
degrades men as He will. Posts of prominence and honour
are distributed without reference to personal merit. But it
is not so in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. In that hierarchy
of honour every man occupies the position to which he is
morally entitled. When the ten remaining disciples heard
this conversation, "they were moved with indignation;"
and their indignation proved that they were quite as bad
as the two sons of Zebedee, that they had the same low
thoughts, the same earthly ambitions, and the same utter
misconception of the grounds upon which places of honour
would be distributed in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. It
was necessary, therefore, that Christ should teach them,
the ten as well as the two, the principles which determine
preferment in His empire, the conditions of promotion
there, the constitution of His aristocracy — in one word,
the secret of true kingliness.
The very summit of human ambition is to be a king.
Even in this democratic age, or rather I ought to say now
more than ever, the kings of men are the observed of all
observers. Never did a great poet make a greater mistake
than when Tennyson asserted that
"The individual withers, and the world is more and more."
Never was the capable individual more conspicuous or
more influential than he is to-day. Never were the kings
of men more loyally recognized in all the walks of life.
In politics, in art, in science, in literature, in philanthropy,
in the Churches, in society the "kings" hold their heads
erect. Some men are "born to rule," are the natural
leaders of their fellow-men. And the progress of the ages,
instead of repressing them, tends only to remove the
artificial barriers and the conventional distinctions which
h— 4

98 THE CHRISTIAN ARISTOCRACY.
in former times hindered their rise and limited their
authority. Indeed, there is in every human heart a kingly instinct
and a kingly ambition. Caesar's famous sentence is echoed
everywhere. All can understand why he would prefer to
be " first in that village rather than second in Rome." In
a word, every man desires to be a " king " in his own
sphere. That kingly ambition is the divine heritage of our
race. We are the Royal Family of Creation. Nature
everywhere, animate and inanimate, acknowledges our
kingly birthright. " Thou hast made him but little lower
than God, and crownest him with glory and honour. Thou
madest him to have dominion'over the works of Thy hands ;
Thou hast put all things under his feet." J This is true in
some degree of every man. How shall we. satisfy this
kingly instinct ? How shall we walk worthy of our royal
birthright ?
First of all, Jesus Christ points out with startling plain
ness the way of the world, the usual method of those who
are called "kings." The withering scorn with which He
describes the manner of life of most " kings " has been
strangely overlooked. But what could be more emphatic
or suggestive than these sharp words : " Ye know that
the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great
ones exercise authority over them. Not so shall it be
among you " ! 2 The striking peculiarity of so-called " kings,"
says Christ, is " to lord it " over their subjects — striking
expression ! — and " to exercise authority over them." In
other words, he declares that the kings of this world are as
a rule dominated by the lust of Pride and the lust of Power.
To be a king is generally, He declares — and the history of
1 Ps. viii. 5, 6. 2 Matt. xx. 25, 26.

THE CHRISTIAN ARISTOCRACY.. 99
all nations endorses His declaration— to be supremely
selfish, to turn great privileges into opportunities of self-
aggrandizement and self-indulgence. " Not so shall it be
among you." In that short, sharp, decisive sentence Christ
condemns and dismisses nearly every ruler since the world
began. O ! how different is He from the so-called " his
torians " of the human race ! They have devoted countless
thousands of pages to flatter and to praise " kings " who
have "lorded it" over their fellow-men and "exercised
authority " over them. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, dis
misses that numberless procession of self-assertive, self-
indulgent men with one sentence. They have built
countless palaces and pyramids to their inglorious memory,
and over all those monuments of human pride and human
folly Jesus Christ writes the startling words, " Not so shall it
be among you"
Then He proceeds to give us an absolutely unpre
cedented and revolutionary conception of " kingship."
" But whosoever would become great among you shall be
your servant ; and whosoever would be first among you
shall be your slave." l " Shall be," as S. Mark yet more
exactly reports the Great Teacher, " the slave of all." 2
Here is an extraordinary definition of " greatness " ! Here
is an amazing method of qualifying to be " first," or, as
we should say, "Premier," or "Prime Minister"! True
" greatness " in His vocabulary and in His kingdom is
determined not by the number of those who serve you, but
by the number whom you serve ; and the highest place of
all is given to the man who serves the largest number of his
fellow-creatures, and serves them most completely. This
idea is so novel, so utterly opposed to current sentiments,
1 Matt. xx. 26, 27. 2 Mark x. 44.

IOO THE CHRISTIAN ARISTOCRACY.
that it has not been realized yet. There is no passage in
the New Testament which has been so constantly over
looked by commentators and expositors and preachers as
that which I am now minutely analyzing. •
Have you often or ever before heard a sermon on this
sentence? Have you ever pondered and really understood
the words of Jesus Christ now solemnly commended to your
profoundest attention? How true it is, as Isaiah discovered
long ago, that the " thoughts of God " are not our thoughts,
neither Hjs ways our ways ! For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways, and
His thoughts than our thoughts.1 Nowhere is that ancient
saying more fully exemplified than in the passage before us.
It is only by a violent wrench that we can so much as
bring our minds to understand what Christ is saying. This
doctrine of true greatness is so entirely opposed to almost
everything we ever see, or hear, or read, that at first it
completely takes our breath away. It seems as though our
politicians, and our philosophers, and our artists, and even
our teachers of religion had engaged in a vast conspiracy to
give us a false conception of greatness, and ofthe condition
of high preferment in the kingdom of God. To say that
the majority of Christians do not believe Christ's doctrine
on this subject is to say very little. The majority of
Christians have never so much as intelligently heard of it.
It has not entered their thoughts. Nothing so revolutionary
has ever been uttered by any teacher, ancient or mqdern.
Generatiops and centuries may yet elapse before it is
endorsed by public opinion and embodied in the legislation
of states. And yet the Great Master proceeds to state, in the text,
1 Isa. iv. 8, 9.

THE CHRISTIAN ARISTOCRACY. IOI
that He Himself attained His throne by the very same
means that He commended to His disciples. The passage
before us is a revelation, not, as is commonly supposed, of
His humility, but of His kingly ambition. He became the
" servant of servants " not because He desired an obscure
position, nor because He despised influence, nor because
He wished to be "little and unknown." No real man ever
wishes to be "little and unknown." He led His life of low
liest service because He wished to be the "greatest" of all.
But He knew that even He could become "great" only by
service ; and that He could become " greatest of all " only
by doing the utmost which even a slave could do — by giving
up His life. He "endured the cross," He "despised the
shame," " for the joy that was set before Him," x — the joy
of having all authority in heaven and on earth, and of
using that authority to promote the perfect happiness both
of heaven and of earth.
It was because His death had in it elements of self-
sacrifice and far-reaching service immeasurably greater
than any of which patriots or martyrs are capable, that God
has " highly exalted Him," and given Him " the name
which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus
every knee should bow."2 Jesus, once the Carpenter of
Nazareth, is King of kings and Lord of lords to-day
because His services and His sacrifices are the greatest,
that is the kingliest, of all. Even His own position at the
summit of the great social hierarchy of His kingdom is not
determined by caprice or by favouritism. It is His by
merit. It is His because He "came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for
many" (ver. 28). It is His because He led the kind of life
1 Heb. xii. 2. 2 Phil. ii. 9, 10.

102 THE CHRISTIAN ARISTOCRACY.
which He urged His disciples to lead. And because He
led it more completely, more successfully than they ever
could, He sits upon the throne of the universe to-day.
What is the great conclusion we have now reached ? It
is this. The two alternatives presented to every man are —
to be a slave, or to be a king. Every one who accepts
the ordinary conception of kingship is really a degraded
slave. Everybody, on the other hand, who becomes as
Christ became the slave of humanity — willing even to
wash the feet of the disciples — is a true king, and God
will highly exalt him. Every one who habitually yields to
the temptation which assailed the twelve apostles on the
occasion before us, is a slave — a slave of selfishness ; and
he walks on the high-road to hell. Every one, on the
other hand, who imitates Christ, and lives "not to be
ministered unto, but to minister," is a king; and a throne
awaits him in heaven. You may be, in the opinion of
this world, a " prince," a " king," an " emperor." But
if you "lord it" over your subjects, if you "exercise
authority " over them, if you think that privileges are yours
for your own self-assertion, self-aggrandizement, and self-
indulgence, you are in the judgment of Heaven a " slave,"
and the position of a slave awaits you in the world to
come. On the other hand, you may be, in the opinion of this
world, a crossing-sweeper or the poverty-stricken owner of
a coffee-stall at the windy corner of the street. But if you
have " the mind of Christ," if in that position, however
apparently obscure, you are unselfish and brotherly, and
if you use your scanty opportunities in order to promote
the well-being of others, you are a "king." You may
receive no homage on earth, but when you die angels will

THE CHRISTIAN ARISTOCRACY. 103
salute you as one of a royal race, and you will wear a crown
in heaven. Dives was clothed in purple and fine linen. He
enjoyed himself hugely, and his obsequious fellow-citizens
bowed to the earth before him. But he was a selfish, self-
centred slave ; and when he died no place could be found
for so abject a slave in the Paradise of God. But Lazarus,
even in his rags and misery, was a " king." When he died
a royal escort led him to the palace of God. Every man,
however poor, however unprivileged, may be a " king '' in
the true sense of that much-abused word. Every man is
capable of a kingly, that is a Christ-like, life. " Ye were
redeemed," exclaimed S. Peter, " not with corruptible
things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life
handed down from your fathers; but with precious blood,
even the blood of Christ." *
Is that redemption accomplished in your case ? Are
you emancipated from the " vain manner of life," admired by
wicked men ? Is your mind cleansed from the mischievous
nonsense with which the children of this world hide from
themselves the conditions of true greatness ? I have said
that the great doctrine of this passage is not yet understood.
But a glimmering of its meaning has begun to dawn upon
the Christian conscience. Slowly, intermittently, here and
there, men are beginning to realize that all the great
privileges of birth, and rank, and wealth, and culture are
given to men, not for their selfish personal gain, nor for
the aggrandizement of their families but as the trustees of
the bounty of Heaven, in order that they may joyously and
effectually serve the unprivileged and the outcast. The
great Son of God Himself came into this world without
1 1 Pet. i. 18, 19,

104 THE CHRISTIAN ARISTOCRACY.
any of the ordinary trappings of royalty. He never wore
the purple, in order that we might never confuse the acci
dent with the essence, the symbol with the reality, the
outward sign with the inward fact. But by many words,
and especially in this passage, and by many deeds, and
especially on the cross, He taught us the conception of king-
liness which prevails in heaven, and which, by His grace, is
destined some day to prevail on earth. Then there will be
no more war, no more civic strife, no more class hatreds, no
more sectarian controversy. But all men will dwell together
in peace and in brotherly love ; and. the days of human
misery will be ended.

THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY.

"Why should we thus hate one another ? What benefit have we
derived from this mutual hatred ? Have we not sprung from a common
root? Are not our wants and faculties the same? Is not the sign of
brotherhood stamped upon the brow of each ? Has not nature inspired
us all with the same yearning towards higher things? Let us love one
another ! Human creatures are born to love. Let us unite : united,
we shall be stronger." — Mazzint,

THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY.
"The common people heard Him gladly." — Mark xii. 37.
We read of Him in ancient prophecy that He was " despised
and rejected of men." But it is evident, in the light of this
text, that the well-known prophecy must be understood
with large limitations — must be understood of the leaders
and representatives of men rather than of the rank and file
of the human race. In every age " the kings of the earth
have set themselves, and the rulers have taken counsel
together, against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords
from us." 1 But it is a notable and striking fact that the
masses have never rejected Christ. They may have
rejected some of the ministers of Christ, and of the organi
zations which profess to represent Christ ; but Christ Him
self they have never rejected. The " uncommon people "
have too often despised and rejected Him, but the " common
people" have always "heard Him gladly" when a real
opportunity of hearing Him has been given to them.
It was not the common people who cried, " Crucify
Him ! " " Crucify Him ! " That mob consisted of the
servants and hirelings and hangers-on of the wealthy
1 Ps. ii. 2, 3.

108 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY.
and titled. It is a gross injustice to suppose that the
common people, who had received Him with loud hosannas
of welcome, were His murderers. I repeat that, as a matter
of historic fact, the common people have never rejected
Christ. How could they ? He was essentially the champion
of the common people. He lived the life of the common
people. He made His home among the common people.
He formed His friendships among the common people. His
own life was essentially the life of the common people. He
was the Son of a poor village girl. He was born in a
stable, and cradled in a manger. For twenty years He
lived the uneventful and obscure life of a village carpenter
or wheelwright, spending His time in mending ploughs and
harrows, and making yokes for oxen. To the end of His
days He was very poor. He wore the cheapest and
roughest clothes. He fed upon the cheapest and coarsest
food. His very appearance was so homely, that when He
began to assert His divine prerogatives, those who knew
Him best cried out with honest indignation — Is not this
man the village carpenter ? And are we not on the most
familiar terms with His mother and His brothers and His
sisters ? How dare He assume these airs ? *
Indeed, there are very few of us whose lives have been
so entirely commonplace as His. He was very homely
and very friendly with everybody. His chief acquaintances
were humble fishermen and poor village women and little
children. Oh, what a contrast between this Teacher and
the great teachers of Greece ! One of them naturally, and
without exciting the least public surprise, indeed with
entire public admiration and approval, inscribed over the
portals of His residence these words : " Let no one who
1 Mark vi. 3.

THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 109
is ignorant of mathematics enter here." But Jesus Christ
said, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and
forbid them not." Such was the difference between the
friend of the common people and the aristocratic philoso
pher. Jesus Christ was the first and only great Leader of
men who made Himself the patron and champion of the
common people. He discovered that —
"Mankind i' the main have little wants, not large."
He discovered that the real and the great "benefactor"1
is not the man who feeds the pride, the lust, or the ambi
tion of the Few, but the man who satisfies the humble
needs of the Many. Until Christ came the Many had
always and everywhere been sacrificed to the Few. If that
is no longer the case, the revolutionary social change is due
entirely to the teaching, example, and influence of Jesus
Christ. It is astonishing how men succeed in deceiving them
selves by means of words. Some of those, for example,
who in these . days reject Christ, or rather imagine they
reject Christ, talk eulogistically and enthusiastically about
the " republics " of classic antiquity. " Republics '' indeed !
Let us take the greatest and best and most glorious of
them — the republic of Athens. Why, nineteen-twentieths
of the citizens of Athens were slaves, the absolute
property of their masters; and the greatest philosophers
of Greece argued that this hideous social arrangement was
necessary, in order that the small minority of citizens who
had the impudence to call themselves republicans might
have leisure to compose speeches and poems in praise of
Freedom ! The truth is that those proud despots had no
1 Luke xxii. 25 (R.V.).

IIO THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY.
conception of Freedom as we understand that glorious
word. And the democratic ideas which are now every
where in the ascendant are entirely due to the teaching
and work of Jesus Christ. He was the first who ever lived
to love and comfort the common people. He came to save
the dim, incoherent, helpless multitude. It is a remarkable
fact that on almost every occasion on which the evangelist
states that Jesus Christ saw a "multitude," he adds that
Jesus Christ "had compassion" on them. All modern
history is a record of the slow revolution by which Jesus
Christ is giving the common people their due. The very
extension of the franchise which has taken place in our
own time, is a direct result of the doctrine of Jesus Christ
that personal rights are more sacred and precious than
property rights, and that man as man is immeasurably
greater than rank or wealth can ever make him.
We do not really and fully believe that doctrine yet. In
the month of August, when friends meet at the corner of
Piccadilly, they will say to one another, " How empty
London is ! Everybody is out of town." Mark the familiar
phrase ! The profoundest revelations of what we really be
lieve are slipped out thoughtlessly in proverbial expressions
which pass from mouth to mouth. Men are off their guard
when they speak thus. They utter their true self. What a
saying the one I have quoted is ! London " empty " when
there are still five millions of human beings in it !
" Everybody " out of town when the streets are still
crowded with such dim multitudes of men as the world has
never seen before! What does it mean? It means that
"everybody" who is supposed to be "somebody'' is out
of town — say two hundred thousand privileged persons at
the outside estimate. So few, indeed, that if they did not

THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. Ill
return again no one who did not know them would ever
miss them. It would not appear to the eye of a visitor that
any one was absent. But in the common speech of West
London the two hundred thousand count for more than
the five millions who never go away to the seaside or the
moors. Now, if Jesus Christ had lived in West London, and
had spoken to a friend in August, it would have been
morally impossible for Him to say that London was then
"empty," and that "everybody" was out of town. For
Jesus loved the common people. They were as dear
to Him and as constantly in His thought as the un
common people. But such , expressions as that which I
have just quoted are still freely used, because we have
not yet fully received the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Take one other too familiar phrase which my colleague,
Mr. Mark Guy Pearse, sometimes brings under our notice.
Have you not often read in Christian biography that such
a one was born of " poor but pious parents " ? What a
significant word that "but" is ! I have never read that a
man was born of " rich but pious parents," though that
would be a legitimate expression, for Christ Himself has
warned us that the rich are exposed to such perils that " it
is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." x It would
therefore be quite legitimate, by the use of the word " but,"
to intimate our delight that rich parents were pious. But
why should any one think it in the least surprising or
strange that poor parents should be pious ? Ninety-nine
out of every hundred — we might, I think, safely say, nine
hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand — Christians
1 Matt. xix. 24.

112 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY.
are poor. In all ages the gospel has been " preached to
the poor," and loved by the poor and accepted by the poor.
Why, then, should any man talk about poor " but " pious
parents ? The real reason is the one I have given. We
have never yet entered into " the mind of Christ," never yet
grasped His intense and peculiar sympathy with common
people. Let me give only one other illustration from the
words we use. If I met you suddenly at the corner
of the street and asked you how much So-and-so was
"worth," you would immediately think of his account at the
banker's. It would never occur to you that the number of
money-bags at a man's disposal is no indication of his true
"worth," has nothing to do with it. Real worth is deter
mined by moral and mental gifts, by character and intel
lectual ability. But who of all your acquaintances would
ever imagine that you were referring to a man's character
when you asked what he was " worth " ? The more you
ponder this familiar expression, the more you will realize
how deep and wide a gulf yet separates us from Jesus
Christ. A recently started and widely circulated London news
paper had the courage in its first issue, when announcing
its programme, to say, " Our politics will be the politics of
the washerwoman." It meant that it would contemplate
legislative proposals from the point of view of the washer
woman, and of the effect projected legislation would have
upon her hard industrious life. That was a profoundly
Christian sentiment. If all our politicians could be induced
to contemplate legislative and administrative proposals from
the point of view of the hard-working wives and daughters
of the poor, that would be more likely than in almost any

THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 113
other way to bring their conduct into harmony with the
teaching of Jesus Christ.
Of one thing I am certain. If Jesus Christ were to visit
London this very night and then to return to Paradise, He
would not report and describe there the resorts of pleasure
or of business which most London visitors frequent, and by
which they are impressed, but He would utter to distressed
angels words like these —
' ' Such eyes I saw that craved the light alone,
Such mouths that wanted bread and nothing else,
Such hands that supplicated handiwork —
Men with the wives, and women with the babes ;
Yet all these pleading just to live, not die ! "
The disadvantages, the temptations, the privations, the
miseries, of the common people would preoccupy Him. Ah !
the day is coming when statesmen will love the common
people as Christ loved them. Then we shall see some
strange and wonderful sights. There are some things,
indeed, which we shall no longer see. We shall not see the
liquor-shop at the corner of every street. We shall not
see immoral men welcomed in drawing-rooms. We shall
not see the memorials of sanguinary wars on every side.
Neither shall we see vice and misery in every street. But
we shall live in the midst of a healthy, contented, and happy
people. It is interesting to notice, before we close, the quality
which specially endeared Jesus Christ to the common
people. It was not what superficial persons would imagine.
It was not some peculiar gentleness. On the contrary, it
was fearless moral courage. In the passage' immediately
following our text He denounces, in startling, flaming, terrible
terms, the selfishness, the greed, arid the hypocrisy of un-
i—4

114 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY.
worthy ministers of religion. There is nothing that the
masses of people value so much as plain bold speech with
respect to all evil. They are quite willing to be told their
own faults and their own sins by any true prophet of God
who is equally ready to denounce the follies and crimes of the
great and privileged. There was nothing that so impressed
our ^Lord's contemporaries as His moral courage. You
may remember the remarkable passage in the x\cts, where
the magistrates " took knowledge " of Peter and John " that
they had been with Jesus." 1 They had caught something
of the spirit] and tone of their Master. They reminded the
magistrates of Him. What was it that was so Christ-like in
their demeanour? Not their gentleness, but, as S. Luke
declares, "their boldness," their unhesitating and unfaltering
moral courage. Nothing is so rare, nothing so valuable, as
moral courage. No man must ever expect to influence the
masses of people if he lacks that. The two qualities which
are essential to leadership in this democratic age are, first,
disinterestedness, and secondly, moral courage.
But now, before I close, let me ask you, Are you an " un
common person"? Do you think, therefore, that I have
been bearing rather hardly upon you and upon your small,
privileged, and select class ? If you do you have entirely
mistaken me. At any rate, clearly understand that Jesus
Christ never rejected any uncommon person who wished to
come to Him, and you are heartily welcome.
But in what respect are you an uncommon person ? Do
you possess personal beauty? No one but a fool would
despise or disparage that. Personal beauty in all ages and in
all ranks of life has been one ofthe most potent of forces. It
is so potent that in many respects it is an awful and a fearful
1 Acts iv. 13.

THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 1 1 5
gift. But you may thank God for it, and use it for the
highest ends.
Or are you uncommon in the possession of genius ?
Have you some great gift of music, of poetry, of eloquence,
of thought? This is even more precious. Bring your
genius to Christ.
Above all, are you endowed with moral gifts ? These
maybe most blessedly employed in the service of God and
man. Whatever you do, never forget that Jesus Christ,
although He loved the common people, was Himself a
most uncommon person. He belonged essentially to the
Classes, although on the highest and most divine ground
He made Himself one of the Masses. He used Plis great
gifts in order to serve the ungifted. Uncommon qualities
are no barrier to the highest service. Indeed, all the
greatest benefactors of common people have themselves
been singularly uncommon. There is nothing more
unanimously taught by history than the fact that special
gifts, both of body and mind, instead of disqualifying, are
essential qualifications for the highest public service. We
should, therefore, regard all these gifts, not as occasions for
pride or domineering, but as opportunities for wider and
greater service to others less gifted than ourselves.
But perhaps you are a common person ? There is
nothing particular about you ; nobody knows you, and you
therefore assume that nobody cares for you. You are deeply
mistaken. Jesus Christ is intensely interested in you, as
intensely as if you were the Prime Minister of England, or
the Queen herself. And why is He so interested in you ?
Because He can discern the latent qualities of your soul.
There is something in common people which, by the grace
of God, may make them very uncommon. The authors of

Il6 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY.
these Gospels— S. Matthew, S. Mark, S. Luke, S. John—
at first to all outward seeming were very common persons
indeed, unlettered, obscure, poor, and yet they have become
some of the most uncommon benefactors of the human
race. Why? Because they yielded themselves to the
magic influence of Jesus Christ. The sculptor sees hidden
in depths of rough and shapeless marble, soft forms of
immortal beauty, which in due time, with much hammering
and smoothing, he will exhibit to an admiring world. In
like manner you may seem to yourself, or to us who have
only a superficial knowledge of you, a very commonplace,
unattractive, incapable, and useless person. But Christ
looks into the depths of your soul, and knows that, if you
are willing, He can manufacture you into a God-like saint.
And when that splendid work is done, this shall be your
highest, your most divine service — like your Great Master
you shall love and save " the common people."

THE CHRISTIAN CHARITY.

"For all right judgment on any man or thing, it is useful, nay
essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad." —
Goethe.

THE CHRISTIAN CHARITY.
" To-day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a
son of Abraham." — -Luke xix. 9.
You have often heard a sermon on the conversion of
Zacchseus. I have frequently preached about it myself.
But there is one aspect of this beautiful episode to which I
have never referred, and to which I invite your special
attention now. I want you to ponder the way in which
salvation came to Zacchaeus. It came by appealing to all
that was best in him,
There is no doubt that Zacchseus had been a very wicked
man. The publican of our Lord's time, as is well known,
was a tax-gatherer. The Roman government then practised
the same rotten system of collecting the taxes that is
practised in Turkey to-day. The taxes were farmed out to
the highest bidders, who took good care not only to collect
all that the government required, but a good deal more,
which they retained for themselves. Every kind of extor
tion was practised. In addition to the disreputableness of
the occupation as it then existed, a Jew, by entering it, was
a traitor to his fatherland, and utterly degraded himself by
making money out of the oppression and the humiliation
of his fellow-countrymen. It is not surprising that the
publicans as a class were despised and hated. But I

120 THE CHRISTIAN CHARITY.
think there are many evidences that like the modern
publicans, the liquor-sellers of our own time, they had one
excellent virtue — they were very hospitable. I notice, for
example, that when Matthew the publican was converted
he made a great feast. He went and gathered all his
friends together in order that they might hear from the lips
of Christ the great message which had redeemed his own
life. Now, when Christ met Zacchseus He laid hold of Zac-
chaeus's one good quality. He made that the fulcrum of His
lever. I am afraid there was not much else to which He
could appeal. When Zacchseus said, " I give to the poor," he
did not mean, as some benevolent expositors have tried to
explain, that it was his regular practice to give to the poor.
The context clearly indicates that what he meant was, " I
will give ; I will now give — now as the result of my con
version, and as a practical proof of the genuineness of my
conversion." But if there was no other good quality in
this man, there was at least a generous, hospitable disposi
tion, and Jesus Christ appealed to that. He most delicately
and graciously asked a favour at the hands of this wealthy
outcast. He trusted this despised renegade.
The more I think of that the more it impresses me.
Christ did not preach at him, or upbraid him. Suppose
Christ had said, " Zacchseus, you are a desperate sinner, a
liar, a cheat, an extortioner ; you deserve the general hatred
which dogs your steps, and unless you repent you will go
to hell." Ah ! if Christ had addressed him thus, how hard
his face would have become ; how he would have clenched
his teeth, and yielded himself finally to misery and despair !
But what did Christ say? He said in a voice gentle,
courteous, beseeching, " Zacchseus, make haste, and come

THE CHRISTIAN CHARITY. 121
down ; for to-day I must abide at thy house." And Zacchseus
did make haste. That electric appeal to his better self
transformed him. Christ trusted him! That saved him
suddenly, completely, for ever.
We often speak of trusting Christ. Here is the obverse
side of the great fact. Let us for once try to realize how
Christ trusts us. Such trust even from man to man has
often produced the most stupendous results. Who can
ever forget the overwhelming influence of Nelson's signal
to the British fleet? — " England expects every man to do
his duty." That thrilling sentence inspired every seaman
with an intense desire to prove worthy of the confidence
which his country reposed in him. We have all also heard
the famous saying of the Rugby boys, in the days of their
great head-master : " We must not tell Arnold a lie. He
would believe us."
I had under my notice quite recently a beautiful illustra
tion of the way in which confidence begets a noble resolve,
a new ideal, and the triumph of a man's better self. A
friend of mine had occasion to buy a horse. He went to
a horse-dealer and described the kind of animal he wanted.
The horse-dealer said, " I can get you exactly the kind of
horse you want. It will cost thirty pounds." " Very well,"
said my friend, bringing out his cheque-book, and proceeding
to write the cheque for thirty pounds. " Here is the money ;
send me the horse as soon as you can." The dealer
positively gasped for breath ! He was bewildered for a
moment. He began to perspire. At last he gasped out,
" But — but — but you have never seen the horse." " O ! "
said my friend, "what of that? I know nothing about
horses. You know everything. I trust you. You will do
the best you can for me." The man burst into tears.

122 THE CHRISTIAN CHARITY.
It was the first time in his life he had been trusted in
that way. The appeal to his better self was irresistible.
He grasped my friend's hand and said, "Sir, I will take
good care that you have not trusted me in vain ; " and he
sent an admirable horse, which more than satisfied the
description he had given and the expectation of my friend.
Now, the horse-dealer, like many of his class, had not
been an over-scrupulous man in business transactions. He
had constantly been guilty of sharp practices, and if my
friend had displayed the usual suspicion of his honesty, the
horse-dealer would have tried to overreach him. But when
that gentleman trusted him, and placed himself unreservedly
at his mercy, the better nature of the man asserted itself,
and he instantly resolved to be worthy of the confidence
reposed in him.
Your smart, suspicious man of business is really a great
fool, and constantly outwits himself. How often have I
heard him say, and pride himself for saying, "I treat every
man as a scoundrel until he proves himself honest " ! What
is the result ? That every one who has dealings with him
suspects him also, does his best to outreach him, and as a
rule justifies his suspicion. But if, like my friend, he
adopted a totally different policy, he would find that men
would respond to his appeal as Zacchseus responded in
Palestine, and as the horse-dealer responded in England.
Unfortunately, "preternatural suspicion," as Carlyle
called it, pervades our whole life. The organization of
society is largely founded upon fear and distrust, and so
far the organization of society is utterly rotten. The wise
among us are beginning to discover the dead failure -of a
mere police regime and of our prison system.
The Rev. Egerton Young, the well-known missionary to

THE CHRISTIAN CHARITY. 123
the Red Indians in the far west of Canada, once made an
extraordinary and memorable statement in a public meeting
at which I was present. He said that when he went among
the Red Indians he found they had no locks and no keys
in their houses. He necessarily followed their custom.
The doors, windows, drawers, and boxes of his house were
always open. The Red Indians, further, have a way of
walking in and out of a friend's house without notice or
ceremony, without knocking or ringing, just when the fit
takes them by day or by night. Moreover, in their moc
casins they came and went as noiselessly as cats. Notwith
standing all these circumstances so peculiarly favourable to
thieving, during the whole of the time he lived among them
he did not lose one single article. But the very day he
returned to what is grimly regarded as the region of
" civilization," the very day the policeman appeared, the
very day he once more found himself in a society that used
locks and keys, some valuable trinkets belonging to his
wife were stolen!
Where suspicion and distrust abound, men sink to the
level that is expected of them ; whereas among the Red
Indians mutual confidence is the common policy, and men
prove themselves worthy of it. After all, there is a profound
truth underlying the one-sidedness of Count Tolstoi's para
doxical exposition of our Lord's great doctrine, " Resist
not evil." John Bright was right: "Force is no remedy."
The security of life really depends neither upon soldiers nor
upon policemen. And when the rulers of men succeed in
emancipating themselves from the delusions and superstitions
of the past, and make their appeal to the better selves of
their subjects, it may be hoped that white men will attain
to the moral level of red men.

124 THE CHRISTIAN CHARITY.
Another illustration of the great Christian policy of
overcoming evil by good and trusting men rather than sus
pecting them, is found in the well-known early history of the
great state of Pennsylvania. For sixty years after the
establishment of that Quaker colony the colonists went
about unarmed. What was the result ? Not a single drop
of human blood was shed during that period, although the
Red Indians were incessantly at war with every other
colony and with one another. Unfortunately, after sixty
years of Quaker legislation, the Pennsylvanian colonists
began to imitate the emigrants in other colonies and went
about armed. From that moment disputes sprang up and
war broke out.
The fact is that our prison system and our military
system are both utterly rotten. The day is assuredly
coming when man will trust his fellow-man. Then all will
be well, and the hideous criminal and military systems of
the past will be regarded by our wiser children as incom
prehensible delusions of a night of misery which has passed
away for ever.
With respect to the more directly religious aspects of
this principle of Divine Charity, you will observe that the
religious classes were very much shocked and horrified at
the way in which Christ trusted and honoured Zacchseus. I
am sorry to say that the religious classes generally are
shocked and horrified by this principle. They have been,
I blush to admit, among the most vehement advocates of
force and suspicion and penal enactments. Too many of
them have believed, like the detestable Duke of Alva, that
men are ruled by fear — a doctrine as false as it is repulsive.
Probably our most easily besetting temptation is to have
too low an opinion of outsiders, of the unconverted, of those

THE CHRISTIAN CHARITY. 125
who have not yet made a religious profession. This dangerous
tendency of good men was painfully illustrated by Abraham
thousands of years ago. You remember that when he went
into Egypt with his wife, he assumed that Pharaoh would
be influenced by evil motives, and would not hesitate to
do wrong. Abraham therefore persuaded his wife, Sarah,
to join with him in acting a disgraceful lie. What was the
result? Pharaoh turned out to be a better man, a far
more honourable and devout man, than Abraham supposed.
And so the great patriarch brought upon himself the painful
humiliation of receiving a well-merited public rebuke from
one whom he had so mistakenly regarded as a religious
inferior, incapable of lofty morality.
From the days of Abraham until now, orthodox and
religious men have been constantly exposed to the same
danger. They have greatly over-estimated the extent to
which ordinary, men are under the influence of evil, and as
greatly under-estimated the extent to which ordinary men
are capable of responding to lofty motives. But that divine
" love " which is the very essence of true Christianity
" thinketh no evil."
Let us henceforth imitate the example of Jesus Christ.
Let us in business, in social intercourse, in politics, and in
the promotion of Christianity, appeal to the best in men.
Have you ever realized the tender charitableness of God,
when He put into our mouths such a confession as this,
"All we like sheep have gone astray"? Like sheep, not
like wolves ; not deliberately, as the result of malice prepense,
but foolishly, thoughtlessly. Those who know most of the
poor think least evil of them. What is the testimony borne by
the Sisters of this Mission as the result of their daily inter
course with the destitute poor in the slums of Soho ? They

126 THE CHRISTIAN CHARITY.
tell us that they are more and more impressed by the fact
that the sin they encounter is generally the result of thought
lessness and of physical misery rather than the outcome of
a deliberate love of evil. Sister Agnes, for example, one of
the most competent and experienced of our district Sisters,
says that those whom she visits are generally people who
" have not seen the light rather than those who reject it,"
and that the hapless crowds in the back streets are " more
weak than wicked." Her ceaseless, I may add most
successful effort is, as she says, " to find the spark of the
divine in every soul " she visits, and then to fan that spark
into a flame with the breath of Christ-like sympathy and
truthfulness. All who adopt that method, the method which
Christ practised with Zacchseus, are astonishingly and delight
fully successful.
Browning has well said —
" God be thanked, the meanest of His creatures
Boasts two soul-sides ; one to face the world with,
One to show a woman when he loves her."
You must often have been struck, as I have, at the way
in which some pure and noble woman has lavished her
priceless love upon an apparently worthless wretch. He
has seemed to us utterly unworthy of such love, and, indeed,
positively repulsive. But she had seen " the soul-side " that
no one else — except God — has ever seen. Why should
that " soul-side " be shown, as is so often the case, only to
one particular woman? Let us also by love and tenderness
manage to get a view of it. Let us especially try to show
our own better " soul-side " to those whom we wish to serve.
That will more than anything else bring their better " soul-
side " to light. Jesus Christ sees the better " soul-side " in
every one. He sees it in you. He sees that there is some-

THE CHRISTIAN CHARITY. 1 27
thing very lovable in you — will you not trust Him? He
has faith in you — will you not have faith in Him ? He
knows that you are still capable of divine goodness.
He delicately and graciously invites Himself to your house.
He can make a splendid man of you, my brother. He can
make a noble woman of you, my sister. O ! welcome
Him at once publicly, joyfully, as Zacchseus welcomed Him.
Then go forth to proclaim His love to others, especially
to those who are sitting in the valley of despair.

THE CHRISTIAN USE OF EVIL.

" Never a sigh of passion or of pity,
Never a wail for weakness or for wrong,
Has not its archive in the angels' city,
Finds not its echo in the endless song."
F. W. H. Myers.

THE CHRISTIAN USE OF EVIL
" Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you [margin, ' obtained
you by asking *], that he might sift you as wheat : but I made supplica
tion for thee, that thy faith fail not : and do thou, when once thou hast
turned again, stablish thy brethren." — Luke xxii. 31, 32.
Nothing could be more unscientific or unphilosophical
than to doubt the existence of Satan, a personal spirit of
evil. To talk about a "principle of evil" is to talk mean
ingless rubbish, and to use sounds absolutely devoid of
sense. Principle of evil, indeed ! Who ever heard of such
a thing? Who can really imagine such a thing? All
moral good and all moral evil of which we have any
conception is always, and must always be, personal.
The existence of Satan positively relieves the difficulty
occasioned by the existence of evil. The evil in this world
did not originate here or in our own hearts. How Satan
became evil is another matter, and must be left for the
present. The external origin of evil lessens the sinfulness
and heightens the prospects of the human race.
Again, we see at present only a part of the field in
which the destinies of the human race are being worked
out. Events on earth are influenced by events elsewhere,
and events elsewhere are influenced by those on earth.
From this standpoint much that was before inexplicable
begins at once to be explained.

132 THE CHRISTIAN USE OF EVIL.
Our text, for example, throws quite a flood of light upon
the temptations, duties, and privileges of all who profess
and call themselves Christians. We should notice carefully
the Revised Version, which here, as elsewhere, is so much
more exact and intelligible than the Authorized Version.
The text is a sudden volcanic outburst. What caused it ?
Why did Christ burst into such vehement and passionate
speech ? The context shows that it was because His dis
ciples had just been wrangling with one another "which
of them" should be "accounted greatest." They were
fiddling while Rome was burning. At the very time that
they were indulging in these wretched rivalries they were
unconsciously and swiftly approaching the greatest ordeal
and the most tragical crisis of their lives. Their faith was
about to be tried as it had never been tried before. But
instead of preparing and watching for the terrible onset of
the foe, they were miserably quarrelling with one another
for the pre-eminence.
This strange passage teaches us how Satan renders an
undesigned and unwilling service to God and man. He.
appears in the same character in the great drama of Job.
Then he asks, "Doth Job fear God for nought?"1 The
sufferings of Job were permitted tp refute the insinuation
of Satan, and to prove before all heaven that man is capable
of unselfish and disinterested goodness.
We have a similar reference in the Revelation 2 to the
unwilling part which Satan plays in the redemption of the
human race. " I heard a great voice in heaven,'' says S.
John, "saying, Now is come the salvation, and the power,
and the kingdom of our .God, and the authority of His
Christ : for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which
1 Job i. 9. 2 Rev. xii. 10,

THE CHRISTIAN USE OF EVIL. 1 33
accuseth them before our God day and night." That is the
Satanic role— "the accuser of our brethren." His great
object is to create or to perpetuate a breach. between God
and man. He accuses God to man, as in the ever-lament
able case of our mother Eve, when he would fain persuade
her that God did not mean what He said, and was not
influenced by a benevolent purpose in relation to man.
Again, he accuses man to God. Always, " day and night," as
S. John says, he is accusing good men before God, and the
accusation which he brings against them is the accusation
which he brought against Job. He says that they do not
serve God for nought, that they are all selfish, and that
they obey God for what they can get.
Now Christ and His disciples were deliberately handed
over to Satan, as Job had been of old, in order that he might
test the truth of his accusation. God was not afraid to
expose His children to the ordeal. No refutation of that
subtle and hideous accusation could be so decisive, and so
advantageous to men and angels, as that good men should
be exposed to all the assaults of cunning selfishness and yet
pass triumphantly through the terrible ordeal.
First of all, Christ Himself was tempted, we are told, " in
all points like as we are." x When the military police broke
upon His privacy at midnight in the Garden of Gethsemane
He said to them, " This is your hour, and the power of
darkness." 2 And how impressive is His account of the
fiercest encounter of all, when Satan made his most desperate
attempt to discover in Him, as he had discovered in all
others, some root of selfishness ! " I will no more speak
much with you, for the prince of the world cometh : and
he hath nothing in Me ; but that the world may know that
1 Heb. iv. 15. 2 Luke xxii. 53.

134 .THE CHRISTIAN USE OF EVIL.
I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment,
even so I do. Arise, let us go hence." x How significant is
the name which He gives His deadly adversary ! — "the
prince of the world : " the representative and the ruler of all
whose lives are founded upon selfishness, of all who accept
self-seeking as the master-motive of their existence. But this
" prince of the world " " hath nothing " in Christ. He found
in Him no root of selfishness. Christ was absolutely un
selfish and disinterested. His life was so wholly "hid in
God," that in His presence every temptation fell powerless
to the ground. He and He alone of all the sons of Adam
passed absolutely scathless through the Satanic test.
But when "the accuser of our brethren" turned to the
disciples he found in them, as in all other men, a fulcrum
for his lever, a tendency to selfishness of which he made
fearful use. Christ knew their weakness, and He watched
the approach of their tempter with deep concern. Again
and again and again He tried to rouse them from their
infatuated indifference. When He had reached the place
of prayer on the Mount of Olives He said, " Pray that ye
enter not into temptation." 2 Again when He came to
them, in the midst of His agony, and found them sleeping,
He said with deep distress, "Why sleep ye? rise and
pray, that ye enter not into temptation."8 But all His
warnings were in vain. All His entreaties were thrown
away upon them.
Then came the awful testing-time without that prepara
tion of prayer which He had urged, and which would have
made so great a difference. They were sifted " as wheat,"
"like as corn is sifted in a sieve," 4 so that the worthless
ch aff might be riddled away and nothing but the solid grain
1 John xiv. 30, 31. 2 Ver. 40. 3 Ver. 46. * Amos ix. 9.

THE CHRISTIAN USE OF EVIL. 1 35
remain. One of them, the " son of perdition," failed utterly
in that fierce testing, and " went to his own place." How
terrible is the language of S. John! "During supper, the
devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot,
Simon's son, to betray Him." x And again, " After the sop,
then entered Satan into him," and he " went out straightway :
and it was night." 2 Alas, alas ! the double night of nature
and of treacherous and deadly selfishness. Judas Iscariot
failed utterly under the Satanic test ; and it " would have
been a good thing for that man if he had never been born."
At the first shock all seemed to fail under the test.
"They all forsook Him and fled." But all, except Judas
Iscariot, returned and retrieved their character. Why did
they return ? The answer to this question is found in the
astonishing and unparalleled prayer recorded by S. John in
the seventeenth chapter of his Gospel. Referring to that
awful crisis, our Lord, in the course of His prayer, says,
" Holy Father . . . while I was with them, I kept them in
Thy name which Thou hast given Me: and I guarded
them, and not one of them perished, but the son of per
dition ; that the Scripture might be fulfilled." 3 Christ
"guarded" them, and so, notwithstanding their momentary
failure, they were brought back again and triumphed over
the tempter. Christ prayed for them all, and He prayed
specially, as we read in the text, that S. Peter's faith might
not fail. Observe the exact language : " Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan asked to have you" — that word is in the
plural; it means all the disciples — "but I made supplica
tion for thee" — that word is in the singular; it means
S. Peter only — " that thy faith fail not : and do thou, when
once thou hast turned again, stablish thy brethren."
1 John xiii. 2. 2 Ibid. 27, 30. 3 Ver. 12.

136 THE CHRISTIAN USE OF EVIL.
God generally uses a human instrument for the accom
plishment of His purposes among men, and on this occasion
He chose as His instrument the last person in the world
whom we should have imagined under the circumstances
He would have chosen — the man who apparently was the
most unfaithful of all the eleven. Observe the precise
nature of the Lord's petition. It was that the " faith " of
Peter might not fail. Much in Peter, Christ knew, would
fail, must fail. It was useless to pray that Peter might
not yield to temptation. It was inevitable, under the cir
cumstances, that he should fail under the test. And he
did fail, although not in the way that is usually assumed.
When we read, for example, that he began "to curse
and to swear," we must not, as is commonly supposed,
imagine that he began to use blasphemous language, and
was guilty of profane swearing. Literally, this phrase might
be rendered, "He put himself under an anathema, and
made a solemn affirmation." He did not "swear" in the
popular, but in the judicial, sense. He "took an oath"
as do witnesses in courts of justice. It is true that so
doing he perjured himself, and that his conduct was
shocking and scandalous. He was guilty, however, not of
profanity but of perjury.
Now observe that Christ prayed that his " faith " might
not fail. That is to say, his faith in the power and willing
ness of God to save him in spite of his perjury and back
sliding. His self-trust, his self-assertion would fail him,
must fail him. But Christ prayed that he might not lose
his confidence in God, and in the willingness of God to
heal all his backslidings.
A very common mistake which we make after our con
version is to expect that we shall be perfect at once. The

THE CHRISTIAN USE OF EVJL. 1 37
change which takes place when first we really trust in Christ
as our own personal Saviour is so vast and so glorious,
that we are tempted to believe we shall never be seriously
harassed by sin again, and certainly shall not yield to it.
This delusion is largely shared by others, especially by our
unconverted relatives, and by those who are constantly
associated with us in business. Indeed, they seem to
expect perfection from us even more than we do ourselves.
Under these circumstances, when we fall short of our
ideal, when the force of old habits begins to make itself
felt, when familiar temptations return, when former asso
ciates perplex us, when we find ourselves failing and actually
fallen, then we are in danger of yielding to the counsels
of despair, and abandoning all attempt to reach the high
level of goodness at which we aimed in the first glow and
gush of a happy Christian experience.
Now, Christ foresaw that this would be Peter's danger
in a very aggravated degree. After he had denied his
Lord on oath, publicly and under most humiliating and
disgraceful circumstances, his distress would be so great
that he would be tempted to say, "It is useless for me to
try to be a Christian." Therefore Christ prayed that even
in the darkest hour of his denial Peter might not yield to
that paralyzing thought.
When we come to contemplate Peter's fall dispassionately
and carefully, when we submit it to scientific diagnosis, we
discover — startling as it may sound — that his perjury really
did not make him a worse man than he was before. It
only revealed the evil that was within him. The temptation
of Satan was a drastic kind of medicine which brought to
the surface of his soul the symptoms of an internal disease.
It did not create an evil which had no previous existence.

138 THE CHRISTIAN USE OF EVIL.
But it brought it out into broad daylight. For what was
Peter's easily besetting sin? It was the easily besetting
sin of all the natural leaders of men — self-trust. Now,
his public and shameful fall did at any rate knock the
bottom out of that, did undoubtedly make such ignorant
self-trust impossible for the future. That terrible public
denial cured him completely of his boastful self-reliance.
You remember how Christ said to him significantly,
" Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these ? "
How that phrase, "more than these," tortured his soul!
Before his fall he was ready to declare that " although all
men " forsook Christ he would never do so. He drew the
most boastful comparisons between himself and the other
disciples. James might forsake Christ, John might forsake
Him, Andrew might forsake Him; but he, Peter, would
never do so ! Now, however, that his self-trust has received
so terrible a blow, he passionately deprecates any comparison
between himself and others. All that he dares now to
assert is that Christ, who knows the human heart, knows that
he loves Him. We see in this moral change an astonishing
illustration of the way in which God makes the wrath both
of man and of Satan to praise Him. " O the depth of the
riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God ! how
unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past tracing
out I"1
Satan is unconsciously and unwittingly a minister of
God to us. His temptations reveal our weak points and
expose our faults. Of course there is a more excellent way.
It would have been immeasurably better if Peter and the
other disciples had accepted the instructions and the
warnings of Christ. But as they refused to be put upon
1 Rom. xi. 33.

THE CHRISTIAN USE OF EVIL. 1 39
their guard, and as they neglected to pray, there was nothing
for it except to allow Satan to administer a knock-down
blow which they could never forget.
We are now in a position to understand how wisely
Christ, in His prayer, selected Simon Peter as the fittest man
to comfort his brethren. I have already admitted that at
first sight Peter seems to be of all men the most unsuitable.
But, from the point of view we have now reached, it is
evident that no man could reassure their failing hearts
so well as he. When Christ's prayer on his behalf was
answered, when he had refused to yield to despair, when
he had shaken off the deadly temptation that it was useless
for him to try to be a Christian, how irresistibly he could
appeal to his fellow-disciples, who had not fallen so publicly,
so scandalously, and so disgracefully as he ! He might go
to each of them, in the darkest hour of their discourage
ment, and say, " See ! even I who perjured my soul, who
denied my Lord with oaths and curses, have been forgiven
and restored. You must not doubt. You must not hesitate.
If the Great Spirit of God can rehabilitate me, the most
impulsive, the most inconstant, the most unfaithful of you
all, how much more may every one of you, even though
you forsook Him and fled, return to Him in the full assurance
of humble faith ! " And we know, as a matter of fact, that
the prayer of Christ was so fully answered, that from the
morning of the Resurrection S. Peter was first and foremost
in the apostolic band, boldest in confessing his Lord, and
most resolute at every crisis in strengthening their hearts
to fear neither men nor devils. Under the influence of
his example and teaching the self-trust and self-seeking
which the disciples had so disgracefully and so frequently
exhibited, utterly disappeared. They no longer contended

*4° THE CHRISTIAN USE OF EVIL.
with one another which should be the greatest, but they
were all " of one heart and soul," and were filled with such
invincible moral courage that they became
" A sect, which hath no dread of death,
But will spend life and breath, and gold and pains,
To succour any wretch ; because they hold
This Christ did die for him."
Under the impulse of the heroic example set by the apostles
and pre-eminently by the "converted" and restored Simon
Peter, the primitive Church passed triumphantly through the
ten bloody persecutions of the Roman Empire. And the
heroism of their faith has survived in many noble forms,
in many lands, to this very hour. " Satan asked to have
thee, that he might sift thee as wheat." God granted Satan's
request, for He knew that in the rough and terrible sifting-
time the chaff of their selfishness would be swept away for
ever, and nothing would remain but the golden grain of
Christ-like selflessness. Such is the unwilling service which
" the accuser of our brethren " is ever rendering to the
children of God.

THE CHRISTIAN ASPECT OF
THE CENSUS.

' Our country hath a gospel of her own
To preach and practise before all the world, —
The freedom and divinity of man,
The glorious claims of human brotherhood."
Lowell.

THE CHRISTIAN ASPECT
OF THE CENSUS.
" When thou takest the sum ofthe children of Israel according to
those that are numbered of them, then shall they give every man a
ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou numberest them ; that
there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them." —
Exod. xxx. 12.
This is the first census of which we have any recorded
history. It took place more than three thousand years ago.
To-night, as you know, the British census will be taken in
this city and in every part of this kingdom. I need scarcely
dwell upon the grave importance of making an absolutely
truthful and conscientious return in every case. Not merely
because the just penalty of any deception, if discovered, will
be a fine of ^5, but because the whole of the information
that must be put to-morrow morning into the census-paper
by the responsible head of every household is of the greatest
value for social, political, medical, and religious purposes.
For social purposes because the distribution and varieties of
employment will furnish us with invaluable information in
dealing with the great problem of pauperism. For political
purposes because in a democratic age like this power must
more and more follow the distribution of the population.
For medical purposes because the light that will be thrown

144 THE CHRISTIAN ASPECT OF THE CENSUS.
upon some of the most distressing physical afflictions of our
countrymen will be very great. And also for religious pur
poses in dealing with the great problem of evangelizing the
whole land in the name of Jesus Christ. I am very sorry that
we do not, as a nation, realize the immense practical impor
tance of the census. We ought to have a census at least
every five years, and the census we take ought to be much
more full and complete than that which will be taken
to-night. It seems to me that on this census night, which
will not recur in the history of many of us — for there are
scores, and perhaps hundreds, in St. James's Hall who will
be dead and forgotten before another census-paper is dis
tributed in this country — it is specially appropriate to
remember the religious aspect of the census ; and that we
find in the record of the first census described in my text.
It was taken in the wilderness, when the children of
Israel were escaping from the house of bondage in Egypt,
more than three thousand years ago. The verse which
immediately follows the text describes, in a graphic and
picturesque way, the precise manner in which that census
was taken — very different from that in which we shall take
the census to-night. "This they shall give, every one that
passeth over unto them that are numbered : half a shekel,
after the shekel of the sanctuary; half a shekel for an offer
ing to the Lord." All the tribes were gathered in groups,
and every man of twenty years of age and upwards was
called out, and left the crowd of men and women and
children in which he had been standing, and "passed over"
to the crowd which was being formed on the other side—
the group of those who were " numbered." It is significant
that at that time they did not count the women and the
children. They were not much considered then, and they go

THE CHRISTIAN ASPECT OF THE CENSUS. 145
for little still in every country which is not under the influ
ence of Jesus Christ. We men owe more than language can
describe to Christ ; but women and children owe even more
than we. In the census-paper to-night you will have to put
in the names of the women and children, even of the babe
born this day, quite as much as the name of the most
venerable patriarch among you. In this respect our census,
being a Christian census, is very different from the original
census, in which, according to the barbarous ideas of the
time, it was not necessary to take account of any except
grown-up men. You will observe that when these men had
"passed over" to the group of those who were "numbered"
and whose number was solemnly recorded, every man who
passed over to that group had to pay a half-shekel, which
was used for the purpose of carrying on the work of God in
the Tabernacle. It was, like the tithe, devoted to religious
purposes. Now the question I wish to ask you to-night is,
Why had they to pay the half-shekel ? You will have to pay
nothing when your name is entered in the census-paper.
But then every one had to pay a small sum of money,
about isia7., by the express command of God. Why?
Because the census was the solemn recognition of the
separate individuality, the true personality, and therefore
the responsible manhood of every full-grown Israelite.
You will observe that for this reason there was no respect
of persons in the census. In the fifteenth verse we
read " the rich shall not give more and the poor shall
not give less than the half-shekel." All had to give
precisely the same amount on that occasion, which was
made small that all might be able to give it. Therefore,
the census, from the religious side, was a very solemn
national recognition of the Divine Equality of all men. For
l— 4

146 THE CHRISTIAN ASPECT OF THE CENSUS.
the purpose of that census all men were declared equal, and
all were equal. That census, in other words, was the official
recognition of man as man, apart entirely from all the
artificial distinctions which, under other circumstances,
divided them. That feature of the ancient census, taken
more than three thousand years ago, will be retained in the
census taken in London to-night. The Prince of Wales, the
Prime Minister, and the Archbishop of Canterbury will
each count for no more than the lodging-house tramp or the
aged pauper in the Union. Every man will be one man —
that and nothing else. The census, when you think of it, is
really a very rigid and extreme application of the popular
political formula — " one man, one vote." It reduces us all
to our primitive and fundamental similarity. It is, to use
Carlyle's famous phrase, a removal of all the " clothes "
which distinguish us. You may remember that Carlyle, in
" Sartor Resartus," grimly observed that if you were to lance
the veins of a prince and the veins of a peasant you would
find similarly constituted blood in each of them. And the
census which absolutely ignores for purposes of numeration
all class distinction, is a national declaration of our common
humanity, and therefore ofthe solidarity of our interests.
Why, under these circumstances, the ransom of half a
skekel ? Everybody when he went over to the official group
was called specifically as a man of twenty years of age and
upward. Well, what of that? Let us see. Strip away
wealth. Strip away learning. Strip away rank Strip away
fame. Reduce us to our natural nakedness. What is left?
Nothing but a sinful man ; nothing but a sinful man. There
are four moments in our ecclesiastical life when we are all
reduced to this naked simplicity, to this fundamental
similarity. At the moment of our Baptism, the minister

THE CHRISTIAN ASPECT OF THE CENSUS. 147
receives into his arms — literally following the example of
our Lord — "this child," not this prince or this peasant.
Again, at the moment of our Marriage. I remember that
many years ago, when the Prince of Wales was married
and I was a mere boy, I was struck by the fact that the
Archbishop of Canterbury turned to the Prince of Wales
and said, " Wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded
wife ? " not " this Princess of Denmark." And then to the
woman he said in effect — we know nothing of the heir to the
British throne in the House of God, wilt thou have " this
man " to be thy wedded husband ? I was much impressed
even then at the way in which the most exalted were
reduced to their simple humanity. Again, at the Holy
Communion, such as was celebrated in this Hall this
morning, all men are absolutely equal. There is in the
House of God only one Table for rich and poor. I
remember a beautiful incident in the life of the Duke of
Wellington when he was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports,
a position occupied by the late Earl Granville, whose death
we all so much lament. The Iron Duke was in church
and about to receive the Lord's Supper, when a peasant, who
had not noticed the Duke, kneeled down at his side. Dis
covering who he was, and being much terrified, the peasant
was getting up, when the Duke put his hand on his shoulder,
and said, " Don't move ; we are all equal here." Wisely
said, profoundly true. There is one other moment when
we are all equal — the moment of Death. If any mighty
monarch is fortunate enough to be a Christian, the utmost
the Christian minister will say at his burial is this, "We
commit the body of our dear brother to the dust." Our
brother, nothing more. As there are four moments in our
ecclesiastical history when we are reduced to our common

I48 THE CHRISTIAN ASPECT OF THE CENSUS.
humanity and to our absolute similarity; so there is one
moment in our civic history, and that moment is to-night,
perhaps the only time in our life, when we are absolutely
on an equality with the greatest in the land. This is why
in that old theocracy every man who was numbered in the
census had to pay a tribute to the Tabernacle. When
nothing is left except our common humanity, surely then we
must make our common confession, "All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own
way ; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
You may be a duke. You may be an Oxford graduate.
You may be a millionaire. But all these are superficial
distinctions. At bottom you are a sinful man needing the
mercy of God as much as the rest of us. Therefore, when
for one moment all social, artificial distinctions ceased, each
man paid his half-shekel to the Tabernacle as an acknow
ledgment of his obligation to sue for the mercy of Heaven
and to do the will of God. This explains that remarkable
incident which I read as a lesson. What a strange thing
it was that Jesus Christ should have had that conversation
with Peter; that He should have hesitated to pay temple
tribute ; and that He should do what He had never done
before and never repeated ! x Why did Christ object to
pay the tribute which Peter declared He would pay? It
was not the Roman tribute, or Christ would have carried out
His principle of paying to Csesar what was due to him.
It was the half-shekel which had gradually become an
annual payment. Now, that payment was made by man
as man, because he was a sinner in the sight of God;
and when he was reminded of his humanity he must be
reminded of his need of Divine mercy. But Jesus Christ
1 Matt. xvii. 24-29.

THE CHRISTIAN ASPECT OF THE CENSUS. 149
was not a sinful man, and, therefore, He was free. He was
not under the moral obligation under which the rest of His
countrymen were. He needed no ransom. His hesitation
to pay the tax was due to the fact that He was not involved
in the original obligation. There was no sin in Him. And
yet, partly to prevent misrepresentation and partly to save
Peter who had committed himself in the matter, Christ paid
the tribute.
Now, when you fill up your census-paper to-morrow
morning, or when your name is inserted in a census-paper
which somebody else has to fill, remember its religious
aspect. Remember that you are a sinful being before you
are anything else, and more than you are anything else.
You will be entered in that record every one of you to-night,
but you will be entered simply as a man or woman or a
child ; and as a human being you need the mercy of God as
much as I do. You will not be numbered as rich or poor,
as wise or ignorant, as famous or unknown, but simply as a
human being, with all a human being's awful capacity of
creating for yourself a heaven or a hell. What tremendous
possibilities of happiness or misery are wrapped up in the
totality of your being ! Oh ! my fellow-mortal, do you not
realize the necessity of paying the half-shekel, of ransoming
your soul ? Are you not conscious of your need of the
mercy of God ? If not, I might as well talk to that wall as
to you. Dwelling the other day upon some of the learned
and plausible attacks made upon Christianity, I thought
how absolutely useless it was to argue with anybody who
was not conscious of sin. What an amount of paper and
ink zealous Christian apologists have wasted in trying to
persuade men who were morally unable to comprehend
them ! Christ said, " I am not come to call the righteous,

ISO THE CHRISTIAN ASPECT OF THE CENSUS.
but sinners to repentance." If you can do for yourself —
very well. If your attitude is that of the prodigal son ; if
you wish to go your own way ; if you are self-centred ; if you
are, in the terrible language of Byron, " lord of yourself " —
for the present it is useless to argue with you. You cannot
understand me, and I can scarcely understand you. It is
more than a quarter of a century since I was in that state
of mind, and, perhaps, I did not grasp it then. My memory
of that time tells me I had an aching void I could never fill.
But I am scarcely in a position to put myself in the place
of a man who is self-righteous and willing to take the actual
burden of his life upon his own shoulders. There is a great
gulf between you and me. But if the time should ever come,
after illness or disappointment, or some great joy, when
your eyes are opened, and you realize the solemn fact which
was emphasized by the method of taking the Jewish census ;
when you may cry out with S. Augustine, " O God, we were
created for Thee, and we have no rest until we come to
Thee ; " when you believe the most profound proverb of my
native country, " Without God, without anything ; God, and
enough ! " — then I think I shall know something to your
advantage, and I should long to have a conversation with
you. I know something that will suit you exactly when you
come to realize that you are a sinner, and are conscious of
your ignorance and misery. But until then it is useless
to argue. There may, however, be some in this Hall who
have come to themselves and whose eyes are open now.
To each of them I would say, My friend, this census which
will be taken to-night is a very solemn and awful reminder
that if a man should gain the whole world and lose his own
soul it will profit him nothing. For most assuredly when
the last record that the State will ever take of you is made

THE CHRISTIAN ASPECT OF THE CENSUS. 15 1
and some registrar of deaths carelessly enters your name,
and writes that you died on such a day in such a place,
then, indeed, all your artificial "clothes," to use the Car-
lylean phrase, will be taken from you. Stripped of these
distinctions, you will stand a naked man, as you were at
your birth, face to face with God, to give an account of the
deeds done in the body. You would find it very difficult
to avoid being entered in the census to-night if you tried.
Even in a large community like this the meshes of the net
are so small that few will escape, however much they might
desire that. But although it is conceivable that some one
may escape this census, there is a certain registrar-general
of God named Death, whom no one has ever yet been
known to escape. When he sets out to find you, and to
present you before God as a human being, there is no place
in this city where you can hide. Think of that, and think
of that now.
There is one other thought, and that a much brighter
and more delightful one, which is expressed in our census,
and which was equally conspicuous in the Jewish census.
That is, the solidarity of our interests. When you look
over the census-paper, you will find a great many questions
which will not benefit you, but they will benefit your
neighbour. Why all these questions, now for the first time
introduced, about employers and employees, about physical
defects, and about the number of rooms you occupy at
home ? Because it is a most solemn fact that we are all
bound together in the bundle of life. No man liveth to
himself. If one part of the body-politic is sick, the whole
is prejudicially affected. It is impossible for the rich and
privileged to isolate themselves. If there is a disease in
Whitechapel, it will find its way to Belgravia. If there is

152 THE CHRISTIAN ASPECT OF THE CENSUS.
misery anywhere, it will smite the greatest as well as the
poorest. The Comtist theory of a body, of a living organism,
is very ancient. It was exceedingly prominent in the
teaching of S. Paul. But the Comtist body had no head.
Christ is our Head. All humanity is one great organism,
one colossal man, as Pascal said, of whom Christ is the
Head. No one can say, "I am so insignificant it does not
matter whether I go to the devil or not." It matters un
speakably and incalculably. Nothing is more awful than
the extent of the mischief which the most degraded person
may do to multitudes. Some who are very low can drag down
those who are very high. Our powers of good and evil are
immeasurable and eternal. I pray you, whoever you are, to
have mercy upon yourself, and also to have mercy upon me
and upon all humanity. We are so bound together in the
closely-knit bundle of life that many yet unborn must be
influenced by the decision you reach to-night. You young
men and young women, it may seem to you that you are
insignificant and unknown, but I tell you that the decision
you make to-night will influence ages to come. I appeal
to you most solemnly — for your own sake and for the sake
of thousands who, directly and indirectly, are affected by
you, mark the signs of the times, recognize the significance
of the census to-night, and humble yourself before God.
Lastly, there is one feature of the census which is
specially encouraging. While, in one sense, the census may
be said to drag down the important and famous and privi
leged, it may in another sense be said, and be better said,
to lift everybody up. A beautiful feature of it is the
fact that nobody in all the six millions of London will be
left out because he is too poor or too wicked. You notice
how in the Jewish census they left all the women and all

THE CHRISTIAN ASPECT OF THE CENSUS. 1 53
the children out. But what an advance since then ! We
now include, not only all women and all children, but all
outcasts. I suppose the police are instructed to find those
who are sleeping out of doors. Nobody is so poor, no
tramp so despicable and worthless, that the officials of the
Government would pass him by unnumbered. When Jesus
Christ shed His blood on Calvary it was shed for every one
of us. The poorest, the most ignorant, the most worthless,
those who apparently have no friends, are all dear to God.
The most unhappy woman who walks the lowest street of
London to-night is as dear to God as the Queen of England.
The most worthless felon in a convict prison is as dear to
God as the Archbishop of Canterbury. We do not believe
that yet ; we do not yet act upon that fact. However, the
blessed sense of our common humanity is growing apace
and is making revolutions everywhere. You may think that
some of us who are sitting on this platform and are called
to conspicuous office in the Christian Church, are more
important than you and have easier access to God. But it
is not so. It is difficult to have an audience with our Queen.
I am told, however, that there are certain days when any
body may walk into the White House at Washington, and
shake hands with the President of the United States. The
habits of a democratic community are not favourable to
class distinctions. The American custom represents better
than our English custom the fact that every man has freedom
of access to Jesus Christ. It is a great mercy that there are
no ecclesiastical officials whose permission you have to
gain before you can see Christ. Judging by ecclesiastical
history, some of us would have a poor chance in that case.
But when Jesus, the Son of God, died on the Cross, the veil
of the Temple was rent from top to bottom, to signify that

154 THE CHRISTIAN ASPECT OF THE CENSUS.
from that hour all men might come straight to God. No
one stands, and no one can stand, between you and Christ.
I am sure of that, for I myself came straight to Christ. We
are all equally dear to God. He is able and willing to save
every one of us to-night. May we all accept His mercy
now !

THE DECISIVE EVIDENCE
OF CHRISTIANITY.

' ' Whoso has felt the Spirit of the Highest
Cannot confound nor doubt Him nor deny :
Yea, with one voice, O world, tho' thou deniest,
Stand thou on that side, for on this am I.
'¦ Rather the earth shall doubt when her retrieving
Pours in the rain and rushes from the sod,
Rather than he for whom the great conceiving
Stirs in his soul to quicken unto God.
" Ay, tho' thou then shouldst strike him from his glory,
Blind and tormented, maddened and alone,
Even on the cross would he maintain his story
Yes, and in hell would whisper, ' I have known.' "
F. W. H. Myers.

THE DECISIVE EVIDENCE
OF CHRISTIANITY.
"Until the day dawn, and the Day-star arise in your hearts." —
2 Pet. i. 19.
For the last three Sunday afternoons I have examined the
real ground of a Christian man's faith ; and I have specially
referred you to the book which Dr. Dale has recently
published, entitled "The Living Christ and the Four
Gospels." There is no more timely or interesting book for
the thoughtful young men and young women of our own
time. In that book, as I have explained, Dr. Dale points
out that the scientific and critical attack upon Christianity
has produced no appreciable effect upon those who are
Christians. He admits that it has created in the minds
of non-Christians many apparently insuperable difficulties.
But so far as we Christians are concerned the attack has
been going on for half a century, and it has had no influ
ence upon us whatever. As Dr. Dale says, that is not due
to the fact that Christians are all fools who know nothing
and are unable to appreciate scientific and critical diffi
culties. We have in our ranks men of scientific and literary
culture equal to any on the other side. But the real reason
why these attacks fall powerless is the fact that whatever

158 THE DECISIVE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.
may have been the original grounds of our faith, that faith
has been verified in our personal experience. Our faith in
Christianity has not been manufactured by argumentative
efforts, but is a matter of personal consciousness. Dr. Dale
names six separate particulars of personal consciousness,
which, so far as Christians are concerned, are entirely
beyond the reach of critical or scientific attack, (r) There
are multitudes of us who have experienced the power of
Jesus Christ to deliver instantaneously from an evil habit.
These cases are very striking, and are worthy of the careful
attention of everybody who professes to be scientific.
There are men in this Hall now who have been suddenly
delivered from the power of drunkenness. The yoke was
broken in a moment, and it has never been upon their
shoulders since. Others have been delivered from swear
ing, lust, gambling, greed, and bad temper. Now, you
might argue for ever, but no argument could affect their
consciousness that in a moment, in response to a cry to
Christ, they were so delivered. (2) In numerous other
cases the deliverance has been gradual, but none the less
real. (3) In the third place, there are many who have
been delivered from an intolerable sense of guilt. Their
experience is expressed in lines of which at the time of my
conversion I was very fond —
' ' Thy sins are forgiven, accepted thou art ;
I listened, and heaven sprang up in my heart."
(4) In the fourth place, the Christian man has a conscious
ness that he "has passed into the Divine and eternal
order." He looks no longer at the things which are seen
and temporal, but at those which are unseen and eternal.
(5) Again, he has a positive consciousness of fellowship
with Jesus Christ, and he is as certain of that as he is at

THE DECISIVE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. 1 59
summer noonday that he is basking in the sunlight. (6)
Lastly, he is conscious of life not only through Christ, but
in Christ, to Whom he bears the same relationship (not
metaphorically, but really) as the branch bears to the vine.
As a simple psychological fact he can say, " I live, and yet
no longer I, but Christ liveth in me." Now, as Dr.
Dale shows, such faith in Christ " rests upon foundations
which lie far beyond the reach of scientific and historical
criticism." It is not because we are ignorant or indifferent
to such criticism that it produces no effect, but because the
foundations of our faith are such that they are beyond
discussion. When we say that, we are of course exposed to the
objection that these experiences are the "creation of a
fevered brain," that they are hallucinations, subjective
delusions, for which we are, perhaps, to be more pitied than
blamed. But there is a very awkward fact for those who
would in this easy way get rid of my experience — the fact
that it is shared by so many other people. It would be easy
enough to believe that I am deluded, that I am the victim
of some strange monomania. But if so, I am a monomaniac
in very interesting and desirable company. I go back two
thousand years. I read the New Testament, and I find
every Christian described in this book had the same experi
ence. I go all through the nineteen centuries of Christian
history, and from a thousand Christian biographers I learn
that in this respect the best and healthiest representatives of
all Christian communions, however widely they differ on
theological or ecclesiastical questions, are absolutely agreed.
To come into the modem period, and to take only two
most conspicuous names, the names of the two men who
have influenced modern Britain more than any others —

160 THE DECISIVE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.
Wesley in England and Chalmers in Scotland. Now, the
lives of these men are written in large characters, which he
who runs may read. The wayfaring man, though a fool, can
scarcely miss the "significance of their lives. We are
familiar with what took place in this city a hundred and
fifty years ago, when John Wesley suddenly realized that
his sins were blotted out for Christ's sake. Then began
that great religious movement which made modern England
politically and socially as well as spiritually, as all competent
authorities now admit. If you cross the Tweed the case
of Thomas Chalmers is, if possible, even more striking.
For Thomas Chalmers was in the front rank of the theo
logians, scholars, political economists, and orators of
Scotland before his evangelical conversion, before he
entered into the conscious enjoyment of salvation described
in Dr. Dale's book. That change in Thomas Chalmers
revolutionized Scotland. It was the cause of the disruption
of the Scotch Church, when the flower of Scotch clergy
abandoned their livings and their homes rather than submit
to the tyranny of the State. So long as these ministers did
not enjoy peace with God they might submit to political
servitude. But the man who can say, " My God, I am
Thine," is not the sort of man to have his religion dictated
to him. The result of the conversion of Chalmers was that
Scotland was raised to a higher spiritual level. One of the
most glorious moments in the history of the Universal
Church was when the Scotch clergy forsook everything for
Jesus Christ and made modern Scotland. You cannot get
rid of these things by saying that Thomas Chalmers was
a monomaniac and John Wesley a fool. If you do I shall
be glad to be placed in the same category. But we have
plenty of witnesses still living. As I have often reminded

THE DECISIVE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. l6l
you, there is no more striking evidence of this than our
services at St. James's Hall. Ministers and laymen of all
Christian Churches come here every Sunday. I see a
distinguished minister of a Church in New York in the
congregation now. If some one under conviction of sin
went into the inquiry-room behind this platform I should
have no scruple in asking my new American acquaintance
to go and talk to him. He would give to the man under
conviction precisely the same advice as Mr. Nix or I would.
Do you not see that, in such circumstances, there could be
no collusion ? I and Mr. Nix and a few other cunning
people might get up a conspiracy and invent something ;
and then having agreed beforehand exactly what we would
say, we could tell an apparently consistent story. But I
have no opportunity of making arrangements of that kind
with Christians in all lands. The thing is too absurd. No
one could suspect that, for it is impossible. And yet,
although we differ on many points, men and women coming
from all parts of the world find themselves in absolute
agreement about this one glorious fact — the Son of man has
power on earth to forgive sin. We know it is a Fact,
because He has forgiven ours. And the number of
witnesses is ever increasing. While you were examining
witnesses we should be manufacturing many more. We
have never had a Sunday of services without conviction of
sin and conversions. Every Sunday men and women are
converted. Many of them are sitting in this Hall now- I
can see it in their twinkling eyes all over the building.
" The witness in himself he hath,
And consciously believes."
It is all summed up in words I have often quoted —
M— 4

162 THE DECISIVE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.
" What we have felt and seen
With confidence we tell."
But to-day I wish to meet one more objection which
has, no doubt, occurred to some of you. When we speak of
our Christian experience, somebody will say, as Dr. Dale
anticipates, that the adherents of false religions can make
the same appeal to consciousness ; that Mohammedans, for
instance, enjoy a similar experience. It is a curious thirig
that when I did mention Christian experience in The Times
some one at once wrote in reply that the Mahdi's followers
had the same_ experience. Nothing is easier than to say
that, or to write a letter to The Times asserting that ; but let
these gentlemen produce their Mahdist witnesses for cross-
examination. ,,My absolute conviction is that no false
religionist ever professed to have such an experience as
ours. Nothing is easier than for an Englishman to imagine
what their experience is. .- But how do you prove it?
Produce your Indian ; produce your Mohammedan. It is
astonishing how different evidence is under cross-exami
nation. -You and I know exactly what Christian experience
is. - But it is impossible to argue that a Mohammedan has
the same experience that we have. There is no proof of it
at all. , At any rate, I refuse to believe it until the Moham
medan appears in person. I am convinced that when he
does come his experience will amount at best to this— a
deep and placid conviction, of the one great tenet of the
Mohammedan faith that "Allah is Allah," a conviction, that
is, of the unity and omnipotence of God; and that we
Christians believe as well as he. There his experience and
ours agree. But it is a very defective and inadequate
experience. It realizes only one aspect of the Divine nature.
It is true that, having this deep conviction that there is only

THE DECISIVE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. 1 63
one God, the honest Mohammedan may proceed to infer
that as Mahomet taught him so great a truth, Mahomet must
have been a prophet of God. I should not care to argue the
point with respect to that one great truth. But if he argued
that because Mahomet was right on that issue he was right
in everything he wrote in the Koran, I should say it does
not follow in the. least. Moreover, the Christian conscious
ness does not witness to a truth, but to a living Person,
which is quite a different thing. The Mohammedan might
be convinced that there is only one God. But that is an
abstract truth. The Christian does not testify to an abstract
truth, but to the presence and influence of a living Person,
to the actual impact of that Person upon his life. Yes, to a
personal union with that Person. I have already quoted
the words of S. Paul, " Christ liveth in me." No Moham
medan ever said, " Mahomet liveth in me." That sort of
idea never occurred to a Hindu or a Chinaman, or a native
of Japan, or a savage in Africa. As Sir Monier Williams
says, the idea of personal union with our God is distinctive
and unique. You have no trace of it in the ancient religions
of Asia. Remember that this particular consciousness is
not an inference from experience, but is given in experience.
Otherwise there would be room for error in the deductions
we make. But it is a conscious fellowship with the living
Christ. It is more intimate, more unbroken, more abiding
than any union I can ever have with any other person. To
the intelligent and properly instructed Christian, Christianity
is Christ. Hence the decisive evidence of Christianity —
mark it well — is my personal consciousness that Christ lives
in me and I in Him. It does not matter how the books of
Moses assumed their present shape, or whether the Book of
Isaiah was wholly written by that prophet or no. All these

1 64 THE DECISIVE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.
are very interesting and important, but they do not touch
the vital essence of the Christian faith. Of the essential
fact to which I have referred the Holy Communion is the
sign and pledge. Have you ever been struck by the
circumstance that such a religion as ours, which is so
spiritual and which has renounced outward signs, should
still retain this particular symbolism ? Surely the object
is to drag into eternal prominence the central truth, the
fundamental experience of the Christian faith. As my
colleague and I went over this Hall this morning, distribut
ing the elements to our fellow-Christians, what did we say ?
¦ — " The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for
thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life. Take
and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and
feed on Him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving." And
then we said, " The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto ever
lasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ's Blood
was shed for thee, and be thankful." And they ate the
bread and drank the wine to signify that as they assimilated
these with the tissues of their bodies, so, mystically and
spiritually, the body and blood of Jesus Christ were com
municated to them. Christ lives in us and we live in Him.
There is nothing even remotely resembling this in Moham
medanism or Hinduism, or any false religion. It signifies
an inner, conscious, personal experience, a blessed " fellow
ship," which puts the reality of our faith beyond all criticism
and all possibility of doubt.
And now, in conclusion, let me show how all this is
confirmed by the Apostle Peter. Turn to the passage which
I read as the lesson. It is a very remarkable one. " We,"
said S. Peter, " did not follow cunningly devised fables

THE DECISIVE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. 165
when we made known unto you the power and coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ " (or, as it is better rendered in the
margin, "the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ"), "but we
were witnesses of His majesty. For He received from God
the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice
to Him from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased ; and this voice we ourselves
heard come out of heaven when we were with Him in the
holy mount." S. Peter looks back to the Mount of Trans
figuration when Christ was transfigured before him, and
when he made the fatal mistake of supposing that either
Moses or. Elijah would be necessary when Christ was there.
"We have the word of prophecy made more sure." In
other words, that great revelation of Jesus Christ confirmed
for Peter the former revelations which were made in rela
tion to Jesus Christ. It was when Peter began to enjoy the
conscious salvation of which I have been speaking that he
said, " We have the word of prophecy made more sure." I
am reminded of an eminent member of one of our Uni
versities who wrote a commentary on Isaiah. During the
period he wrote the first part he was without this personal
consciousness of salvation, and although the scholarship
was faultless, there was a coldness about it which every
evangelical Christian noticed. My distinguished friend Dr.
Moulton told me that when the second volume appeared he
was perfectly amazed. There was a warmth, an evangelical
fervour, of which he had seen no trace in the first volume.
The fact is, that in the interval the great scholar had been
converted ; and when he experienced that change, of course
he saw the evangelical prophet with other eyes. The
prophecy was made plain by that experience, " Whereunto
ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in

166 THE DECISIVE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.
a dark place, until the d.iy dawn, and the Day-star arise
in your hearts." Study your Bible, especially your New
Testament, until the "day dawn and the Day-star," the
herald of the dawn, " arise in your hearts." In other words,
study the Bible until your own personal experience floods
your soul with the morning glow, until you are full of light,
until the " Day-star arise in your hearts." Go on studying
your Bible until you understand it because you have had
that living experience without which you cannot understand
it properly. The Bible does not attempt to prove the
existence of God. It takes it for granted. I know myself
that every stage in the growth of my own spiritual experi
ence has been the outcome of a better understanding of
the Bible. Some parts of this book which were Egyptian
darkness to me are beautifully luminous now. I have that
inner personal experience which enables- me to interpret the
meaning of the Word of God ; for, after all, these things
are " spiritually discerned." I cannot close this series' of
Conferences better than by quoting the well-known verse
which explains the great change that we may all experience,
and which illustrates it from an incident in the life of S.
Peter, That verse expresses the decisive experience of
millions, and explains why no advance either of Science or
of the Higher Criticism can ever shake their faith in
Christ :— " Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's night ;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray :
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light ;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee."

THE CHRISTIAN TRIUMPH.
"Surely He cometh, and a thousand voices
Shout to the saints and to the deaf and dumb ;
Surely He cometh, and the earth rejoices,.
Glad for Ilis coming who hath sworn, I come."
F. W. II. Myers.

THE CHRISTIAN TRIUMPH.
" Be of good cheer ; I have overcome the world." — John xvi. 33.
These are the last words of instruction and counsel and
encouragement which our Lord spoke to the disciples before
His mortal agony began. What did he mean by "the
world " ? Certainly He did not mean this earth on which
we tread. He had no occasion to overcome that. That was
absolutely subject to His sway. " The very winds and
waves," the most turbulent and intractable of forces, obeyed
His voice at once. This beautiful world is His, radiant
with His presence, tremulous with His breath. Neither did
He mean the human race as a whole, for that " world " He
loved so well that He gave up His life for it.
By the "world" in this and all similar passages He
meant human society so far as it is organized on an anti-
Christian, that is to say, a selfish basis. He came to this
earth in order to substitute Brotherliness for Egotism.
That was his Social GospeL But when He came Egotism
was supreme both in the State and in the Individual.
Selfishness was the basis of life. That is the very essence of
worldliness, and that still continues to be the basis of anti-
Christian society.

170 THE CHRISTIAN TRIUMPH.
When the first Whitechapel murder took place a working
man explained the fact that such an outrage could be
perpetrated in the midst of a crowded neighbourhood with
out discovery, by using the following significant terms :
" It's every one for hisself here." He meant that every
one living in that district was so selfish and so preoccupied
with his own affairs and own interest that he took no trouble
to notice anything out of the common, to listen to a woman's
screams or to pursue a murderer.
But this conviction that Society is founded upon selfish
ness is not peculiar to East End costermongers. It was
recently expressed in memorable words on the judicial
bench by one of the most enlightened of our judges. He
went so far as to say that if any man appeared before him
in the witness-box and asserted that his master-motive was
not selfishness, he would not believe that witness on his oath,
so deeply convinced is that clever man of the world that
selfishness is the basis of life. Indeed, it is commonly
assumed as self-evident by many who write on social
questions that " enlightened self-interest " is the ultimate
motive of conduct.
The devil was the original political economist of that
school. He appeared long ages ago in the drama of Job,
arguing that " skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he
give for his life." 1 The drama of Job was written to refute
that blasphemous lie, and men are at last beginning to realize
how gigantic and mischievous a lie it is. The example and
the influence of Jesus Christ are gradually undermining the
very foundations upon which the Satanic doctrine rests. Mr.
Herbert Spencer, the greatest of all non-Christian scientific
students of Society, announces in the" Data of Ethics" that
1 Job ii. 4.

THE CHRISTIAN TRIUMPH. 171
human society is so constituted that no man can really
achieve his own happiness except by seeking the happiness
of his neighbour; that Altruism, not Egotism, is the real
motive of a healthy and successful life.
Mazzini, again, the most philosophic of religious states
men, has asserted in glorious language that there are no
antagonistic national interests ; that the principle of brother-
liness is as applicable to national relations as to private life ;
and that neither men nor peoples can achieve their real
welfare by yielding to selfishness.
Indeed, this great social truth has made far wider
progress in the convictions of mankind than is commonly
realized. When a Father Damien in his unselfishness be
comes a leper and dies a leper for the sake of saving lepers,
the whole world thrills with emotion. When General Booth
in his old age conceives the vision of a magnificent plan for
abolishing pauperism, it is received with admiration and
gratitude in the most unexpected quarters.
Whatever power of persecution the " world " as I have
now defined it, still retains, is mere child's play in comparison
with the tortures experienced by the eleven men to whom
the text was first uttered. " " In the world," said Christ, "ye
shall have ' persecution." Yes ! assuredly, they .would be
despised, rejected, starved, exiled, imprisoned, scourged, and,
with one exception, all of them put to a cruel and igno
minious death.' But the temper of the world is not changed.
The awful words of S. John are still true, " If any man
love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." l
And let us never forget what worldliness is. One of the
most stupid and mischievous delusions that ever took
possession of evangelical Christians is the eccentric idea
1 I John ii. 15.

172 THE CHRISTIAN TRIUMPH.
that worldliness consists in dancing, card-playing, and
going to the theatre ! Whereas I have known many men
and women who have never indulged in either of these
controverted amusements and yet have been intensely and
utterly worldly to their heart's core. The essence of
worldliness is not the indulgence in particular amusements,
but selfishness — selfishness which may take a gross or a
refined shape, which may be vulgar or artistic, stupid or
highly intellectual. But its essence is always the same ;
and the very moment you accept Christ as your Saviour
and Example the world declares war against you, for you
have become its deadliest foe. You have rejected the very
foundation upon which it rests all its hopes ; and the world
would persecute you as it persecuted Christ and His
disciples if it were as strong to-day as it was then. Between
real Christians and the world there is inevitable and irre
concilable war. Listen to the stern words of Christ : " I
am come to send not peace, but a sword." Between
Christianity and the world no compromise is possible. You
cannot serve God and mammon. You cannot at the same
time obey what is called "enlightened self-interest" and
the principles of Christ. Every Christian must accept the
implacable hatred and the fierce opposition of the world.
But to every Christian Christ exclaims, " Be of good cheer ;
I have overcome the world ; " and we are to be of good
cheer, because what Christ has done we can do, or rather,
to speak quite correctly, He can do in us. What is the
secret of victory over the world? Christ overcame the
world. How? That is the great question, and to that
question we must give a threefold answer.
In the first place, He overcame the world by not fearing
its wrath. He "counted the cost" -and cheerfully braved

THE CHRISTIAN TRIUMPH. 173
the worst. Listen to His words : " I say unto you My
friends, Be not afraid of them which kill the body, and after
that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you
whom ye shall fear : Fear Him, which after He hath killed
hath power to cast into hell ; yea, I say unto you, Fear
Him." L
Aristotle said that " courage " consisted in being afraid
of the right person ; and if your courage fails, remember that
it is much less dreadful to excite the wrath of man than to
excite the wrath of God. If the worst comes to the worst,
the world will kill your body — that is all. Even the Nihi
lists of Russia are not afraid to die. That is why the
vast might of the Czar trembles before them. The first
condition of overcoming the world is fearlessness. As
Lamenais said, "All that Christ asked of the world was
a cross on which to die." Therefore He overcame the
world. O, how rare, how precious, how irresistible is
moral fearlessness ! No man ever exerted so great an
influence in any land as John Knox exerted in Scotland.
You feel his presence to-day in every city and in every
village of that great country. Why was Knox so mighty,
so invincible ? Because he " did not fear the face of
man." Why should you fear anybody except God ? Man
can starve you, or kill you in some other way more
expeditiously. But what is man? And what is death?
Be of good cheer. The martyr's crown is worth something.
" The light affliction we endure " now is but " for a moment,"
and is not worthy to be mentioned in comparison with the
" weight of glory " reserved for us in heaven. But there
is little probability that you will actually be required to die
for Christ. Your worst probable fate will be poverty. For
1 Luke xii. 4, 5.

174 THE CHRISTIAN TRIUMPH.
the world does not bestow its gold upon such as you. But
even then you will not be so poor as Christ was.
Secondly, Christ overcame the world by not courting
its favour. He knew that a man's "life consisteth not in
the abundance of the things which he possesseth." There
fore He was quite indifferent to wealth and all that wealth
could buy. The foxes had holes, and the birds of the air
had nests, but the Son of man had not where to lay His
head. Satan offered Him all the wealth and pomp and
glory of the world. But that temptation never stirred His
blood. "What shall it profit a man," He said, "if he gain
the whole world, and lose his true life ? " He cared neither
for money nor for fame. He made Himself of no reputation.
The bribes of the world were to Him as impotent as its
threats. He cared for the praise of God more than for the
praise of man. He was incorruptible because He was
absolutely disinterested. " The prince of this world cometh,"
said He, " and hath nothing in Me." The devil was utterly
checkmated and undone because Christ at once rejected
all his bribes. Happy the Christian who shares the
disinterestedness of Christ.
"This man is freed from servile bands
Of hope to rise, or fear to fall ;
Lord of himself, though not of lands,
/ And having nothing, yet hath all."
But there was one other quality by which Christ over
came the world. He overcame it, 'thirdly, by loving it,
and so loving it that He died for it. When the world
crucified Him He said, "Father, forgive them; for they
know not what they do." That is what distinguished Him
from the Stoic and Cynic of antiquity, and from the
Pessimist and the Nihilist of our own day. He did not

THE CHRISTIAN TRIUMPH. 175
despise men like the Cynic and the Nihilist, and He did
not despair of men like the Stoic and the Pessimist. The
root of His indifference was not pride but humility. He
overcame evil by good ; 'and He overcame not merely to the
extent of saving Himself, but to the extent of saving the
world. Many might accompany me while I speak of not
fearing the world and not courting its favour. But the
great test is the third quality by which Christ overcame the
world — His passionate, divine love for it. Cynics and
Pessimists talk much about resisting both the bribes and
the threats of the world. But they are immeasurably
inferior to Christ, because they do not love the world. They
never have overcome the world, and they never can over
come it ; because the supreme condition of overcoming it is
all-victorious love. -, , , .
Your great work, O Christian, is not to save your own
soul, but to overcome the world as Christ overcame it : to
overcome it by loving it, and ultimately saving it. How ?
" With man it is impossible. But with God all things are
possible." Repent of your selfishness. Trust Christ with
all your heart. Christ will, by His Spirit, live in you,
reproduce His own life in you, and make you what you
never can be either by merit or by effort. "In Me," He
said, and the phrase is pregnant with vital significance^-
" in Me," in living union with Me, like the union of the
branch and the vine, like the union of the members and
the body, "ye may have peace." The peace not of pride
nor of despair, but of disinterested and triumphant love.
Let us renounce all laziness and all cowardice. Let
us never again yield to the subtle and deadly charms
of selfishness. Let us in the strength of God overcome
the " world " which flourishes upon the damnation of the

176 THE CHRISTIAN TRIUMPH.
young, the ignorant, the helpless, the friendless. It is
time that all this devilry should cease ; and that the
ears of a tender-hearted God should no longer be filled,
morning, noon, and night, with cries of agony and despair.
It is time that human society should be reconstructed
on a Christian basis, that brotherliness should take the
place of selfishness, and that the kingdom of Jesus Christ
should be established in every land and in every heart.
Let us lay aside all forms of Satanic selfishness. Let us
put on the whole armour of God. Let us fight against
the "world" with the utmost energy of our nature. To
cheer us in the conflict, the Son of God reminds us that
He too has fought and won upon the same glorious field
of strife. And He gives us the inspiring promise, " To him
that overcometh will I give to sit down with Me in My
throne." Yes ! that shall be our sufficient and our eternal
reward, the greatest which God Himself could bestow — we
shall be for ever with Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The Atheist Shoemaker. 1889. Hodder and Stoughton.
Social Christianity. First Edition, 1889 ; Second Edi
tion, 1889; Third Edition, 1890. Hodder and Stoughton.
Philanthropy of God. 1890. Hodder and Stoughton.

LONDON I PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS-

N — 4

3 9002 08844 7058