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By
Rev. GEORGE H. FERRIS, D. D.
Author of
** The Formation of the New Testament "
"Elements of Spirituality"

*

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THE GRIFFITH AND ROWLAND PRESS
PHILADELPHIA
BOSTON ST. LOUIS LOS ANGELES
CHICAGO NEW YORK TORONTO

Copyright 1917 by
GUY C LAMSON, Secretary

Published October, 1917

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CONTENTS

Paos
I
The Soul's Christmas  i

II
The Wise Men  15
III
The Might of the Meek  29
IV
What Think Ye of Christ ?.  43
V
Above Every Name  57

" THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS "
" Until Christ be formed in you." — Gal. 4 : 19.

"THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS"
WHO would venture to write the history of
Christmas ? The manger has shed a radiance
on humanity never seen there before. The bright
ness of its glory has descended into cheerless abodes
and haunts of misery. It tamed the rude soul of the
barbarian. It kept alive a spark of kindness in the
darkest ages. It predicted for the lowest a destiny
of which the highest dared not dream. It shone
through the spirit of Chivalry, in its dedication to
the cause of the weak,, the injured, the oppressed,
the unprotected. Where, in all literature, is there
anything more beautiful than that weird little Christ
mas dream of the common people, which Shake
speare, with exquisite skill, has brought over to us
from the age of superstition?
Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long :
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,
No fairy takes nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.
Go to Pompeii, and walk through those streets,
where, amid volcanic ashes, there has been preserved 3

4 THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS
for us a picture of life as it was lived before Christ
came. Show me one building to which you can
point and say, " Here was a home for the bent and
aged ! " or " Here was a retreat for the maimed and
deformed ! " or " In this structure was a shelter for
orphaned children ! " or " In yonder walls manu
scripts were kept for the perusal of the poor ! " or
" Behind these doors the unbalanced mind was
studied and trained in the hope of dawning intel
ligence ! " Not a hint of these things will you find
anywhere. If this city of ours were buried under ashes
to-night, and in two thousand years some archeol-
ogist were to resurrect it from the silent mounds,
what a different story he would tell. Again and
again, as the trenches ran along the ancient streets,
he would happen upon a building with a history. ,
" The power that erected this structure," he would
say, " began in the cradle of a manger. It mani
fested itself first in Galilee. It went through fish
ing villages, teaching the ignorant, comforting the
downhearted, forgiving the erring, encouraging the
weak, and ushering in a kingdom of undying love
and joy. Through ages dark and lands desolate it
lived on, manifesting its might by its power to re
generate the lives of men."
The birth of Christ in the soul is the heart of
the message of Paul. There is a vein of mysticism
in the Christianity of Paul. He tells the Colos-
sians that Christ is " in us, the hope of glory."

THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS 5
His wish for the Ephesians is " that Christ may
dwell in your hearts by faith." He assures the
Romans that " if Christ is in us, the flesh is dead."
He is doubly serious, as he says to the Corinthians :
" Ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me." It is
Christ " who is our life." " We have the mind of
Christ." The love of Christ " constraineth " us.
The word of Christ is to " dwell in us richly." If
we have not the spirit of Christ, " we are none
of his." Even the " foolish," " bewitched " Gala-
tians, who " ran well," and then were " hindered,"
who would have " plucked out their eyes " for him
at first, but later listened to the voice of the
slanderer, drew from him the words we have
chosen for our Christmas text, " Until Christ be
formed in you."
He believed that Christ is born and brought up in
the soul of the individual. He believed that there
is an inner Christmas, a new incarnation, a sub
jective enactment of the Bethlehem story, every
time a human being yields to that mysterious Spirit
that somehow stirs amid our deepest affections, and
whispers its messages to our waiting souls. He be
lieved that when we cross the threshold into the
kingdom of truth, and wake the drowsy faculties of
repentant enthusiasm, the hosts of God enter the
heart, singing the song of peace and good will.
Just as Christ was born in humility, and lived
among the poor, and carried the power of his com
passion to the lowest depths of social wretchedness,

6 THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS
so the new Christ is born a struggling and helpless
impulse, away down in the turbid depths of our
selfishness and our sin, striving to purify and beau
tify the darkest portions of our lives. Just as
Christ was surrounded by the wild and towering
forces of human ambition and pride, by the em
pires built on force and the systems upheld by
ignorance, so the new Christ, in the soul's Bethle
hem, has numberless powerful enemies of greed,
of appetite, of prejudice, of ambition, of self-
interest, and of sloth, who are ever striving to
crush or crucify their new-born King.
To be sure Paul is not always clear or consistent
in his treatment of this strange thought of an inner
Christmas. To be sure he leaves the thought far
more vague and indefinite than we have made it this
morning. Sometimes he calls these impulses our
own; sometimes he calls them God; sometimes he
calls them Christ. In this he simply takes his place
among the truest prophets and noblest spiritual
thinkers of the ages, who have ever been ready to
confess their darkness as to the exact place where
our own soul leaves off, and the power of God
begins. It was Emerson who wrote of Love,
Draw, if thou canst, the mystic line
Severing rightly his from thine,
Which is human, which divine.
What better name can we find for this spirit,
than to call it " Christ " ? What better description

THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS 7
can we give to this new life in the soul than to
call it an " inner Christmas ? " Let me give you
what to my mind is the best definition of the divinity
of Christ to be found in modern theological litera
ture. The writer has been speaking of this visit
of God to the soul. " If, in Christ," he says, " this
divine margin was not simply broader than else
where, but spread till it covered the whole soul,
and brought the human into moral coalescence with
the divine, then was God not merely represented
by a foreign and resembling being; but was per
sonally there, giving expression to his spiritual
nature, as in the visible universe to his causal
power." This is the Christmas thought. It is God filling
a human life. It is a radiant vision of the per
sonality of truth. It is a new revelation of the
possibility of righteousness. In a world so full
of imperfect ideals, was it not fitting that at
least once in history God should not simply cross
the threshold of a soul, but take complete possession
of it? In a world whose models of manhood are
forever mingling genius with selfishness, tolerance
with cowardice, heroism with ruthlessness, belief
with bigotry, pity with weakness, was it not essen
tial that once there should be a balanced character,
where God could manifest himself in such a manner
that nothing opposed to his divine will and love
could enter that realm of untarnished purity and
unfaltering faith? Do you complain that this is

8 THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS
not clear? I answer that it is as clear as we can
be, until we no longer " see as in a mirror, darkly."
This is " the mystery of godliness." Tell me how
the heart of one man can embrace the world. Tell
me how a soul, fit to lead the ranks of heaven, can
enter into the sorrow and needs of the lowest social
misery. Tell me how a being, hounded, hated, and
tortured, can pray for the ungrateful, and maintain
a sweetness and purity as unsoiled as the rays of
the dawn. Tell me how any mind can so compass
the belief in the infinite worth of a man that it keeps
constantly before it the vast difference, the eternity,
that separates the darkness of wickedness from the
darkness of sorrow. Tell me all this, and I will
admit that you have explained Christ.
To be able to give a history of his preexistence
would merely satisfy my metaphysics. To know
exactly the scale of his rank in the heavenly forces
would be an interesting bit of information, ap
pealing to the curiosity of my understanding. But
when I hear the story of his lowly birth, and feel
the power of his aU-conquering love, then is Christ
mas repeated in my soul. When I see him breath
ing into ostentatious and tyrannical systems a defer
ence and tender respect for humanity, then I see
God in every cradle, and hear Christ speaking in
" the least of these." When I see his spirit working
in history, substituting the sacred tie of brotherhood
for brutal institutions founded on cynicism and un
belief, then, within the heavenly heights of my soul,

THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS 9
the angels sing " Good will to men." Let me have
the inner Christmas, and you may have all the
speculations of the Platonic philosophy as to the
exact creative agency of the preexistent Logos.
" And the child grew," says the record. Growth
is the charm of childhood. Christ did not descend
from heaven full-orbed and glorious. He grew,
" and waxed strong in spirit." He went from lower
to higher. His thought unfolded, his purposes
ripened, his life reached out in widening influence.
The conquest of the world was merely the expand
ing power of his spirit. It was a simple story of
love, that took wings, and flew beyond the Caucasus
Mountains and the wild forests of Scythia. The
fanatical Thracian, the uncultured Celt, the fierce
Breton, the nomadic Berber on the steppes of
Africa, began to feel the power of his influence.
Still it went ringing through the world when Stoic
and sophist had ceased to teach, when the mys
teries of Mythra were but a memory, when the
cross was seen over the Temple of Vesta and the
Pantheon. A spring gushes forth in the midst of a dead
pool. The water of the pool is full of silt and
leeches, is slimy with duckweed and decayed vege
tation, is covered with iridescent tints of vileness.
The seeping waters of the spring force it to find
an outlet. It begins to sparkle with new life. It
goes bounding down a declivity. It leaps with
merry laughter over rocks and obstacles. It fer-

IO THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS
tilizes the banks of a meadow. It gathers tributaries
to itself, from the right hand and the left. It turns
the wheels of industry. It purifies the centers of
population. It performs a thousand benevolent
deeds, before it reaches its rest in the everlasting
sea. When first the spirit of a pure, authoritative, dis
interested, and divine affection enters the soul it
is a mere struggling and helpless tendency, an
obscure and insignificant germ of promise. We are
ever tempted to despise it. We are ever crowding
it out of the inn. Weak it is, as the maple-seed
that is carried on the wings of the wind. Unin
teresting it is, as the babe in the barn of a tavern
compared with the pride of Greece and Rome.
O Truth ! O Freedom ! how are ye still born
In rude stable, in the manger nurst !
What humble hands unbar those gates of morn
Through which the splendors of the New Day burst ! —
We stride the river daily at its spring,
Nor, in our childish thoughtlessness, foresee
What myriad vassal streams shall tribute bring,
How like an equal it shall greet the sea.
His birth attracted less attention, caused less
tremor to pass through the world, than the robbery
of a caravan in Nubia, or the revolt of a village
in Gaul, or the burning of a ship in the harbor
of Ostia. Even a wretched country khan found
" no room " for him. There was room for a grain-
merchant from Csesarea. There was room for a

THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS II
pedler of pearls from Damascus. There was room
for two or three servants of a rich publican from
Gaza. There was great excitement in the inn when
the sheik of a wild tribe of nomads of the desert,
below Hebron, came rattling into the court. For
the strong, the proud, the prosperous, the great
ones of the world, there was plenty of room. It
was only the truth that was crowded out. It was
only the riches of God that was spurned in that
vulgar inn.
A few years ago the world witnessed the birth of
a real king. While the young men of Russia were
perishing on the plains of Manchuria, and little
ones all over the empire were shut up in hovels, a
king was born. Amid pealing of bells, and shouts
of joy, the infant Czarevitch was baptized. The
baptismal procession was a blaze of barbaric gold.
The infant, pillowed in a fluff of rarest lace, and
covered with a mantle of imperial purple, was car
ried in the arms of a princess, in a chariot drawn
by eight milk-white horses, with outriders and walk
ing grooms. The font at which the baptismal party
gathered was encrusted with jewels and gold. The
holy oil with which the great Metropolitan anointed
the little one had been compounded in solemn
secrecy amid the splendors of the Kremlin. And
so, while the world looked on, the infant was named,
" Grand Duke Alexis Nicholaevitch, future Czar
and Autocrat of all the Russias, Czar of Poland,
Grand Duke of Finland," and much more. To add

12 THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS
a touch of unutterable sarcasm to the whole per
formance, it was done in the name of .the son of
a carpenter, who was born in the stable of a
country inn.
God forgive us for our blindness! We are ever
tempted to despise the commonplace. The simple
act of service, the humble gift of love, the word of
witness, the deed of gratitude, are crowded out
of our lives because they wear homespun. What
was there in the birth of a common child to attract
attention in Bethlehem? Nothing, save the fact
that God was entering the world once more. What
is there in the deed of self-forgetting generosity to
cause us to give up our ease and pleasure to per
form it? Nothing, save the fact that Christ is
born once more in the soul when we yield to it.
See him there in the manger! What does he
know of the vast machinery of law, of the stormy
power of ambition, of the moving of armies, the
creeping of caravans, the intrigues of courts, or of
any of the forces that send their embassies rumbling
or rushing through the highways of earth? With
no knowledge or experience to guide him, he lies
there the very picture of helplessness. But there
comes a time when he gathers into the sphere of
his influence the last vestige of the dynasty of the
Caesars, and rules Europe from the far Caspian to
the stormy shores of Caledonia.
So with that impulse of generosity and tender
ness, that angel song of good will to men, that was

THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS 13
born in your heart but a moment ago. You can
no more leave it alone, and expect it to prosper,
than Joseph and Mary could forsake the Christ-child
in the desert, and expect him to care for himself.
You must nourish it. You must encourage it. You
must carry it in your arms for a time. You must
obey its behests with loyal love, and protect it
from every encroachment of brute selfishness. Your
pride will devour it; your sloth will starve it; your
anger will trample on it; your indifference will
smother it ; unless, with true and faithful spirit, you
care for it and guard it.
Oh, the delight of watching this first feeble desire
for a better life grow up from its Christmas morn
in the soul ! Its healing ministry is first manifest in
quieting mad passions, and soothing the hurts of
disappointment. It gathers about it its little band
of impulses, its twelve disciples, bound together by
the solidarity of a common hope. Then it begins
the conquest of the soul. It feels its way trium
phantly over the surface of a province. It runs
into other regions of our life, along the Roman
roads of habit. It establishes its centers of in
fluence, its communities of kind desires, everywhere
it goes. It reaches out with its influence, to em
brace every force and faculty of our life. It carries
a message of peace and good will, until, at last,
from a mere echo in the heights of the soul, life
becomes one grand symphony of God, and Paul's
wish comes to pass — Christ is formed in you.

II
THE WISE MEN
" Lo, the star . . . went before them." — Matt. 2 : 9.

II
THE WISE MEN
THE marvel of the story of Jesus is its unfailing
freshness and simplicity. It does not seem
to grow old with the altering circumstances and
changing factors of human progress. Like the star,
it " goes before." Ever advancing, ever new, grow
ing as humanity grows, losing no luster with all the
increase of knowledge and the march of discovery,
it shines before each generation with added bril
liancy and power. Something is here which the
world cannot overtake — something which reflects
man's scattered thoughts of God.
For a time, this Christmas season, let us listen to
the words of the wise men. Letting- our own ex
perience and our own belief fall into the back
ground, let us assume the role of auditor, while
others bring their word of witness. What we seek
is not the different theories of the person of Christ.
We do not ask for any man's opinion as to the
historicity of the Gospel narratives. We come with
but one question: How does this life, reflected in
the ancient records of Christianity, impress those
men who haVe been the world's teachers, the mas
ters in things of the #mind ? For this we will go
far afield, gathering from every source, wherever
B 17

l8 THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS
we can find a frank confession that comes from a
candid soul.
Let us begin in a strange quarter. We will take
the witness of a Jew. In the seventeenth century
there lived a very learned man, who had been edu
cated in the Old Testament, the Talmud, the Jew
ish commentaries, and the scholastic writers of
the Middle Ages. He stood on the. threshold of the
modern age. Excommunicated from the sacred
precincts of the little synagogue in Amsterdam, he
was forced to take up his residence in the sacred
precincts of God's universe. Grinding glasses in a
little shop for a living, he filled the ages with his
name, and became known as the " God-intoxicated
man." I would like to know what he thinks of
Christ. In one place Spinoza declares that our
very knowledge of good and evil comes from the
" Eternal Son of God, i. e., the eternal wisdom of
God, which has manifested itself in all things, and
especially in the human mind, and most of all in
Jesus Christ." " Christ," he says, " communed with
God, mind with mind, but this spiritual closeness is
unique " (quoted by Martineau, " Types of Ethical
Theory," I, 254, 315).
Let us now take the professional critic. I would
like to know what a man thinks of Christ who has
analyzed his own thought, ridiculed superstition,
stood stanchly for intellectual honesty, cried out
to be shown the " facts," until every word of un
reality fills his soul with horror. I feel sure that

THE WISE MEN 19
this man will weigh his words when he comes to
speak on a question, around which so much of
the thought and passion of mankind has centered
for nearly sixty generations. I know one such. He
was so honest with himself that he would not say
that he believed in a God. As near as he ever
came to such a conception was belief in " some
Power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness."
Yet I find this man saying that " Jesus Christ came
to reveal what righteousness really is." " Nothing
will do," he says, " except righteousness ; and no
other conception of righteousness will do except
Jesus Christ's conception of it: his method and his
secret" ("Literature and Dogma," page 335 ).
When I hear this I say, " All that Matthew Arnold
knew about God, he found in Christ."
Let us listen to another man. To him the world
is the theater of elemental forces, the battle-ground
of moral struggles of titanic grandeur. He takes
delight in flaying shams, overthrowing conventions,
and dragging the mask of pretense from the face
of common fallacies. He sneers at the self-con
gratulations of his age. He is the essence of rugged
and tyrannical honesty. What does Carlyle think
of Christ ? In one place he speaks of " the most
important event ever transacted in this world," and
declares it to be " the life and death of the Divine
Man in Judea, at once the symptom and cause of
innumerable changes to all people in the world "
(" Heroes and Hero-worship," Lecture II). " The

20 THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS
greatest of all heroes," he cries, " is One whom we
do not name here ! Let sacred silence meditate that
sacred matter; you will find it the ultimate perfec
tion of a principle extant throughout man's whole
history on earth" ("Heroes and Hero-worship,"
Lecture I).
Let us now turn to one whose intellectual proc
esses lie at the antipodes from those of Carlyle.
Carlyle had no faith in democracy. This man's
thought almost amounts to a deification of the com
mon people. Carlyle wrote contemptuously of
" The Nigger Question." This man stood in awe
of a black man, as of one who bore the very image
of God. Carlyle was so violent in his arraignment
of the sins of society that he constantly drifted into
pessimism. This man's soul never lost the serenity of
a glowing and expanding hope. I would like to know
what he thinks of Christ. Does the elevation of the
common level make the summit seem less glorious?
Listen to William Ellery Channing : " The sages and
heroes of antiquity are receding from us, and his
tory contracts the record of their deeds into a
narrow and narrower page. But time has no power
over the name and deeds and words of Jesus Christ.
From the darkness of the past they shine forth
with sunlike splendor " (" Jesus Christ the Brother,
Friend, and Saviour," ed. A. U. A., p. 995).
We will take a totally different man now. We
will go out into the region of utility. We will con
sult a man whose philosophy has been called " the

THE WISE MEN 21
extract of selfishness." His doctrine of " happi
ness " called forth storms of protest from Carlyle.
His work " On Liberty " is an intellectual declara
tion of independence, which strikes at the despotism
of public opinion. A more virile, bold, radical
thinker on philosophical and religious questions
England has never produced. He says in his Auto
biography : " I am one of the very few examples in
this country of one who has not thrown off religious
belief, but never had it. I grew up in a negative
state with regard to it. I looked upon the modern
exactly as I did upon the ancient religion, as some
thing that in no way concerned me" ("Autobiog
raphy," Holt & Co., p. 43). I would like to know
what this man says, when he stands in the presence
of Jesus. Let us hear the testimony of John Stuart
Mill : " Nor, even now, would it be easy, even for
an unbeliever, to find a better translation of the
rule of virtue from the abstract into the concrete,
than to endeavor so to live that Christ would ap
prove our life " (" Three Essays on Religion," Holt
& Co., p. 255).
We will now turn to one, the subtle charm of
whose writings captivated the intellectual world for
a whole generation. He was a strange character.
Moral enthusiasm, the horror of evil that is born
of intense conviction, never seem to have been his.
He saw nobility and baseness in mankind with great
clearness, but always seemed to look upon them
as one would view a beautiful or broken statue.

22 THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS
Yet, to this day, the world is buying and reading
his " Life of Jesus." No better criticism of that
book was ever given than the words of Amiel, that
it portrayed a " white-marble Christ " (" Amiel's
Journal," p. 240). Let us turn to that book and
find the pages that follow the account of the cruci
fixion. For a moment Renan seems to be carried
away by the majesty of his subject. He exclaims,
" Thy divinity is established." He cries, " A thou
sand times more living, a thousand times more loved
since thy death than during the days of thy pilgrim
age here below, thou wilt become to such a degree
the corner-stone of humanity, that to tear thy name
from this world would be to shake it to its founda
tions " (" Life of Jesus," ed. Brentano's, p. 291).
There is another, vastly different from Renan.
This man had back of him the martyr blood of
Huguenots. He had all the boldness, all the seri
ousness, all the high spiritual vision of those first
Protestants, who were hounded from France for
their faith. The ancient spirit of independence, re
maining in his blood, drove him into revolt against
the stifling formalism, the idolatry of literalism, the
resurrected tyranny of authority, which he found
in the Protestant communions of his day. So radical
were his criticisms, that, despite his broad sym
pathies and deep devotion, he was accused of " un
belief." How truly he deserved this accusation we
may be able to judge, if we stand with him for a
moment in the presence of Christ. Says James

THE WISE MEN 23
Martineau: " The pure image of his mind, as it has
passed from land to land, has taught men more of
their own hearts than all the ancient aphorisms of
self-knowledge; has inspired more sadness at the
evil, more noble hope for the good that is hidden
there ; and has placed within reach of even the igno
rant, the neglected, and the young, severer principles
of self-scrutiny than philosophy had ever attained "
(" Endeavors After the Christian Life," p. 147).
There is another, still different. Martineau dis
dained the title " rationalist." This man boasted of
it. Martineau believed in miracles, and even laid
great emphasis on them. To this man a belief in
the miraculous was the sign of an undeveloped
mentality. He. entered upon a historical investiga
tion into the unfolding of the moral consciousness
of Europe, through a period of eight centuries, and
produced a work that, because of its tireless research
and impartiality of judgment, has become a classic.
It chances that the period of his investigation is that
of the rise of Christianity. I would like to know
what this man will say, when he confronts the char
acter of Jesus. Let us listen to Lecky : " The moral
progress of mankind can never cease to be dis
tinctively and intensely Christian as long as it con
sists of a gradual approximation to the character of
the Christian Founder. There is, indeed, nothing
more wonderful in the history of the human race
than the way in which that ideal has traversed the
lapse of ages, acquiring a new strength and beauty

24 THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS
with each advance of civilization, and infusing its
beneficent influence into every sphere of thought
and action " (" History of Rationalism in Europe,"
Vol. I, p. 312).
Let us take one more. In the realm of historical
science he stands the foremost scholar of our day.
The result of his researches is felt in the teaching
of the schools of every branch of Christianity. Men
of the most widely divergent opinions acknowledge
his leadership. A quotation from him is frequently
used to bolster up a theory, or an article, that other
wise might fail to convince. To catch him in a
mistake is the dream of many a young scholar in
the German universities. It is surely worth our
while to listen to the witness of such a man. Let
us hear what Adolf Harnack says : " Where can we
find in the history of mankind any similar instance
of men eating and drinking with their master, seeing
him in the characteristic aspects of his humanity,
and then proclaiming him not only as the great
prophet and revealer of God, but as the divine dis
poser of history, as the ' beginning ' of God's crea
tion, and as the inner strength of a new life! It
was not thus that Mohammed's disciples spoke of
their prophet" ("What is Christianity?" p. 167).
So runs the witness of the " wise men." The
nature of their testimony is significant. Each one
sees in Christ that which seems to him to be per
manent, virtuous, ideal, divine. If life has for
him any worthfulness, any secret of spiritual

THE WISE MEN 25
majesty, any power of imperishable influence, he
finds that thing reflected, in its highest form, in the
life of the Son of man. Christ is the moral example,
the revealer of righteousness, the expression of
the eternal wisdom, the supreme picture of the
heroic, the mirror of hope and guilt, the corner-stone
of humanity, the ideal that has made history. These
are not the opinions of rapt mystics or sentimental
saints. They come from men who have molded the
thought of their generation, from men who have
built their names into the intellectual structure of
the race. Accustomed to measure their words, they
are not easily swept into extravagant statement.
Another thing to be noticed is the wide diversity
they present in mental approach, in spiritual vision,
in social ideals, in philosophical theory. On what
other subject can you find such an agreement?
Search diligently in their writings, and find some
thing else on which their testimony is so united.
Ask them for an opinion of the function of the state,
the rights of property, the methods of education, or
the limits of knowledge. They are not even agreed
over the question of the existence of God, but with
out exception they admit that Christ is the highest
expression of , human thought in that direction.
They hold the most widely divergent views on the
fundamental moral principle, but they agree that
whatever that principle is, it is found in its highest
form in Christ. They interpret history from stand
points that are utterly irreconcilable, but the in-

26 THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS
fluence of the spirit of Christ in history they all
admit to be exceptional and marvelous. So they
come together. Doubter and dreamer, critic and
seer, utilitarian and idealist, scientist and litterateur
for a moment are at one. Each, in the light of the
truth and hope that is in him, brings to Christ a gift
more precious than " gold, and frankincense, and
myrrh." Before we leave this matter let us notice that this
is just what we find when we open our New Tes
tament. There too, we are furnished with a great
variety of testimony. In the synoptic Gospels, be
hind certain minor differences, we find a descrip
tion of One who brings the Glad Tidings, who heals
the diseases of men, who is the friend of the outcast.
He is the great Messiah, whose kingdom shall flash
upon the world as the lightning shineth from one
part of the heaven to the other. When we enter
the Fourth Gospel we are in a different atmosphere.
We now feel the influence of philosophy. Christ is
the " Logos," the Eternal Word, the infinite Reason
dwelling within God, who was before all time, and
by whom all things were made. Above all human
limitations, free from the power of opposition, he
is a majestic and divine Character, who can cry,
" Before Abraham was, I am." If we turn to the
Epistles of Paul, we find the thought somewhat dif
ferent. Christ is there a supernatural and preex-
istent Figure, who emptied himself of his divinity
and became incarnate in sinful flesh, that by his

THE WISE MEN 2"J
death and resurrection he might bring men freedom
from the consequences of sin. Still other concep
tions are found. The Epistle to the Hebrews thinks
of him as a great High Priest, " after the order of
Melchisedek." The Apocalypse pictures him as a
Lamb upon a throne, to whom is given all dominion
and power and majesty."
Here too, we find the same agreement. If there
was anything beautiful, anything majestic, anything
imperishable, anything divine in the hopes and ideals
of men back there in the first century, they found
that thing in Christ. He was great, beyond their
loftiest conceptions of grandeur ; lovely, beyond their
fairest imaginings of beauty. He was the chief
among ten thousand, the captain of salvation, the
Alpha and the Omega, the Redeemer who for our
sakes became poor. How beautifully this thought
has been put in the little poem by Goethe :
From heaven descending Jesus brought
The holy writ's eternal thought.
To his disciples day and night
He read the word that works with might.
Then took it back the way he came,
But they had rightly caught its aim.
So, step by step, each one declared
The way its sense within him fared,
Each different. That's of no account,
In wit they varied and amount ;
Yet Christians find in it to stay
Their hunger till the Judgment Day.

Ill

THE MIGHT OF THE MEEK

"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the
earth."— Matt. 5 : 5.

Ill
THE MIGHT OF THE MEEK
ONE of the "hard sayings" of Jesus is,
" Blessed are the meek : for they shall inherit
the earth." If he had said, " Blessed are the dread-.
noughts," we might have understood. If he had
promised dominion to the resourceful, to the ener
getic, to the ambitious, he would have expressed our
ideal. On the other hand, if he had changed the
latter part of the beatitude, and had promised the
meek certain inner and mystical rewards, we might
have assented more readily. If he had said,
" Blessed are the meek, for they shall have peace,"
or " they shall have contentment," or " they shall
have the approval of God," the promise would have
seemed reasonable. But to offer them this old
world, where bluster and brute strength count for
so much, where civilization is carried forward on
the end of a gun, where competition drives men
to such extremes of heartlessness, where science
makes so much of the doctrine of " The Struggle for
Existence," is to make an assertion that risks the
charge of absurdity. We believe in meekness as an
occasional virtue, but not as a law of life. We do
not doubt that there are times when it is better to
put patience before wrath. We are willing to admit 3i

32 THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS
that on certain occasions more can be accomplished
by forbearance than by violence. But at the basis
of all our social relationships lies the great principle
of law, and law is ineffective without a firm and
hard hand.
Let me ask you to recall this beatitude in the
rush of a busy day. It may be that you do not
feel its incongruity on the Sabbath. In the quiet of
the hour of devotion it perhaps expresses just the
ideal you expect. You have grown accustomed to
hearing this sort of thing in church. But amid the
hurry of the street, while crowding into a car, in
the busy office, rushing through the railroad sta
tion, in the great manufactory where the mammoth
machinery groans and heaves with the burden of
incessant toil, or in some commercial center where
you are surrounded by the hum of human voices,
stop and repeat the words, " Blessed are the meek :
for they shall inherit the earth." Ask yourself if
all that life of throbbing activity is to be ultimately
under the control of the mild and submissive char
acter. Picture to yourself, if you can, that entire
realm of rumbling ambition ruled over by one who
is never irritated, by one whose unresentful disposi
tion has never been ruffled or provoked.
If you will do that, you will be almost tempted
to quote Jesus against himself. You will begin to
talk about the whip-cords, with which he cleansed
the temple. You will repeat his withering words
concerning the deeds of the " hypocrites." You

THE MIGHT OF THE MEEK 33
will deny that his character was all mildness and
submission. You will see the flash of his eye, the
majesty of his moral indignation, the fearlessness
that caused men to try to fling him over the brow
of a hill. Then, suddenly, it may occur to you that
perhaps you have misunderstood the true nature of
meekness. On this assumption I propose to proceed. I do
not mean to abandon either element of our paradox.
I shall cling to the story of the cleansing of the
temple, and to the essential truthfulness of this
beatitude. I shall admit the terrible nature of the
anger of Christ, and shall insist on calling him
" meek." In this way I hope to redeem the word
" meekness " from all suspicion of inanity, of lan
guid passivity, of sheeplike submission, that it may
be lifted to its royal position as the king of the
Christian virtues.
The first element of meekness, I am convinced, is
the conquest by a soul of itself. It is such a com
plete victory over anger and passion and pride and
vindictiveness that we are left free to devote all our
energies to the triumph of principles and the en
thronement of truth. Jesus never fought for him
self. When men reviled him, he suffered it. When
men heaped the greatest indignities on his person,
he was mute. When his enemies made absurd
charges against him, he " answered not a word."
But when he saw pious men " devouring widows'
houses," and " for a pretense making long prayers,"
c

34 THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS
the manly indignation of his soul flashed forth like
lightning. When he saw the place of prayer turned
into a " den of thieves," he drove the swarm of mer
cenary hypocrites into the street. Such indignation
is deliberate, purposeful, heroic, divine. Anger is
noble just in proportion to its unselfishness. Indig
nation is only " righteous " when it is disinterested.
On the basis of this conclusion let us attempt a defi
nition of meekness. Meekness is a sinking of our
own personal desires for the sake of certain un
dying interests of the great cause of righteousness
and truth, which reign supreme in the heart.
This will enable us to differentiate meekness from
certain other qualities, like subserviency, mendacity,
chicanery, and lying diplomacy, which wear its garb,
but do not possess its spirit. The slave is not meek
when he calls some tyrannical master a " blessed
benefactor " in order to keep his head on his shoul
ders. The politician is not meek when he lays aside
his conscientious scruples in order to stand in with
the heads of some powerful organization. The so
cial parasite is not meek when he laughs so heartily
and inordinately at the poor jokes of the millionaire.
The college boy is not meek when he goes up to ask
the professor a question after the lecture in order
to pretend that he is interested. The merchant is
not meek when he allows the man on the other side
of the counter to say anything to him, if only he
can get his trade. All these things are done from
calculation, from self-interest, from fear, from

THE MIGHT OF THE MEEK 35
shrewdness. If these people were genuinely meek,
according to our definition, they would be likely to
take a course directly the opposite of the one
chosen. If they were willing to sacrifice their own
interests on the altar of some great cause, they
would fight. Their meekness would drive them into
battle. The slave would see before him a great
ideal of freedom. The politician would sacrifice his
own future to advance the welfare of his country.
The society man would see in the act of truckling
to wealth a blow at the virtue of sincerity. The
student would feel that pretending to be interested,
when he was not, was to play the traitor to truth.
The merchant would cling to certain treasures of
the soul that were worth more to him than a trade.
Just because these men were meek, just because they
had subordinated their own interests to the price
less principles of God, just because they had learned
to say, " What am I, when placed in the balance
with liberty or right or truthfulness or honor ? "
they would be driven forth to battle.
I know there is a subtle issue here. If we hate
our neighbor, it is very easy to find that a great
principle is at stake. Does not justice demand that
wrong be righted? Does not duty command us to
rebuke sin? Indeed, how can piety prosper, if its
friends are cowardly? As faithful servants of God
we are commanded to go forth and give our neigh
bor a drubbing. Ask the Christians of Toledo why
they despoil the Jews of their property. They will

36 THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS
answer that the property is endangering the im
mortal souls of the Jews. It is tempting them to de
struction. God wants it put to pious uses. Ask
the Turks in Asia Minor why they are butchering
the Armenians. They will answer that God com
mands it. The Armenians are obstinate. They re
sist the truth. The rule of God must be established
over all the earth.
Where shall we draw the line? Where shall we
find the place where cowardice leaves off and toler
ance begins? where zeal fades into persecution?
Where shall we discover the touchstone that shall
solve for us this everlasting jangle between our duty
to compromise, and our responsibility to right? I
know of no answer to these perplexing questions,
save that to be found in the word " meekness."
Only the man, who, in loving obedience to truth,
has laid aside his prejudice, and renounced his own
personal desires, has any right to go forth as God's
warrior. He can fight if he is meek. But that gen
erally takes the fight out of us. As soon as we
begin to look into the matter we find that our
boasted zeal for the truth, our great desire to
advance the cause of God, was nine-tenths self-
exaltation and personal prejudice.
The knight in the Middle Ages, when about to go
forth into the world to do battle for the helpless,
the oppressed, the weak, the downtrodden, brought
his sword to the great cathedral, and laid it on
the altar, dedicating it to God. So the champion

THE MIGHT OF THE MEEK 37
of truth, before he plunges into strife, must take
that conviction of his, and bring it reverently and
unselfishly into the presence of God, renouncing all
personal glory. Indeed he must be ready to pray,
" Lord, I will renounce the conviction itself, if it
be thy will."
'Up. among the Highlands of the Hudson there is
a little tributary, called the " Rondout River," that
possesses the peculiarity of flowing north, until it
meets the mightier stream of the Hudson, going
south. In this way it makes progress by going
backward. A channel was cut in the mountains,
back in the dawn of things, and the river, so pliable,
so gentle, so patiently persistent, willing to go
around any obstacle, willing to bend before any
barrier, willing to give up anything but its great life-
purpose of finding the sea, yielded to the unusual
circumstances in the midst of which it found itself,
and so at last accomplished the supreme desire of
its life.
Now, if you imagine such a thing, suppose this
river had been unwilling to yield an inch to-day
that it might gain a mile to-morrow. Suppose it
had possessed the human ability to deceive itself,
and of wanting to have its own way, regardless of
ultimate consequences. Suppose it had mistaken
self-will for honesty, pride for sincerity, prejudice
for loyalty, and so had become convinced that to
compromise with its surroundings meant to give up
a great principle. What would have been the re-

38 THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS
suit? Of course the river would have given up a
far greater thing.
We see this in the case of a river. Does it not
hold equally true of a church? What mean these
wrecked organizations? What means our divided
Protestantism? Somebody proposes to be honest.
Somebody is not willing to be wheedled into acts of
compromise. Somebody intends to cling to his prin
ciples. Evidently there is a mistake as to the place
where principles leave off and prejudices begin. It
is all right to cling to " essentials," if we do not
forget the one great essential, which is to bring
back every prodigal to the house of the Father.
Paul said, " Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that
I might gain the Jews." This principle has not
found many followers in the history of organized
Christianity. It is too meek to accord with the
worldly ambitions of a militant church. To con
quer the world for God has been equivalent to con
quering it for the church.
As long as the world lasts men will not cease to
look through the pure eyes of Jesus, and feel his
horror at those who compassed sea and land to make
a proselyte, and when they had made him, what
was he ? Their anxiety to build up an organization
had run away out beyond their gentleness and com
passion. They did not realize that the latter is the
only building power that has any right to be called
" religious." Here is the secret, and just here we
have departed most from the ideal of Jesus. To

THE MIGHT OF THE MEEK 39
conquer the world for God we must organize, but
as soon as we do that we forget the reason of our
coming together, and begin to try to conquer the
world for our organizations. In other words, we
have not had the faith to believe that " the meek
shall inherit the earth."
There have been men who said that Jesus was
not a masculine character. His emphasis on the
passive virtues, his principle of non-resistance, his
doctrine of limitless forgiveness, his trust in the
power of affection, have all been pointed to as signs
of effeminacy. The question is an interesting one.
It touches the heart of our subject. Before we
attempt to solve it, let us turn to the pages of his
tory, and look at the type of character Jesus has
produced by his influence. Let us turn to those
who have studied his teaching most closely, and
copied his example most faithfully. Look at Luther,
defying the power of an empire that covered half
the civilized world. Look at Huss, standing in the
cathedral at Konstanz, facing the decrees of a hier
archy, before which kings trembled. Listen to the
prayer of Cromwell on the night before he leads his
Ironsides into battle. Follow Wesley, and stand at
his side, when he faces the infuriated mob on the
bleak moor near Burslam. Are these effeminate
characters ? Evidently there is moral trenchancy in
the Spirit of Christ as it has manifested itself in
his followers. Surely some manly vigor must be
attributed to Him, whose influence, for two thou-

40 THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS
sand years, has rebuked every iniquitous law, cen
sured every enthroned evil, championed every cause
of the oppressed, in the name of God and humanity.
In fact, this charge of " effeminacy " is born of
an old feeling, which our humanity has inherited
from its brute ancestry. I refer to the feeling that
every manifestation of affection is a sign of weak
ness. We shall solve our paradox of meekness if
we assume that directly the opposite is true. We
shall understand our beatitude if we can be brought
to see that every great character whose influence
has counted for the regeneration of humanity, has
been gentle and tender. Garibaldi was as sensitive
and as compassionate as a woman. Gordon the
intrepid, Gordon the iron-hearted, was a bundle of
affection, a great friend of children. Who has not
been touched by the last words of the dying Nelson,
" Kiss me, Hardy ! " Count me over the men who
have lived and died for a cause, whose names sing
in the ideals and hopes of the race, who have left
behind them an influence that has lifted society to
higher levels of purity and honor, and you will find
them to be men of gentleness and love.
We face here the crux of the whole matter. In
asmuch as the supreme object of our existence
on earth is conquest, not alone of nature, but of
human nature, we must eventually decide just how
this conquest is to be accomplished. I believe that
Nietzsche is right. We must choose between Napo
leon and Christ, Nietzsche prefers Napoleon,. He

THE MIGHT OF THE MEEK 41
is the superman. He is the hero. He is the ideal
of manhood. Is that true? I have stood in the
tomb in Paris, and looked down into the crypt,
where the sarcophagus is surrounded by the torn
and grimy battle-flags. Before ever I read Nietzsche
I asked there, " Who is the man of power? " I saw
the hero, as he was followed by grim armies and
enthusiastic throngs. I saw the smoking cities, the
red trail, the provinces and kingdoms gathered into
the one mighty embrace. Then I saw it all end,
and I heard the pitiful wail on the lonely island
in the sea. I asked myself, " What did he leave
behind him ? "
From this I turned to another picture. I saw an
influence creeping into the world from a gallows
set against a Judean sky. I heard the prayer of the
wild Berber on the steppes of Africa. I saw the
Scythian forsaking his brutal practices. I heard
the hymn of praise, as it stole from the hovel in
Rome to mingle with the shouts of sensuality on
the street. I saw the power of a story of love, as
it went to the millions of the Anglo-Saxon world,
carried by the monk Augustine. Over mountains,
across seas, to far islands in unknown oceans, like
the rays of light pressing out from a burning center,
I saw the expanding power of this life. Then I
heard the words, " I am meek, and lowly in heart,"
and I understood the beatitude, " Blessed are the
meek: for they shall inherit the earth."

IV

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?

"What think ye of Christ? wihose son is he?"— Matt.
22 : 42.

IV
WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?
JESUS does not ask this question concerning him
self. He refers to an ideal Personality, looked
for by the Pharisees themselves, to the ancient
dream of a Being who is to be the incarnation of
divine Power, the Restorer of lost relations be
tween God and man. He is talking to men who
represent the scholarship of the age. He wants to
know where they put their emphasis. Whose son is
the Christ ? You say, " The son of David." Do you
fancy you can arrive at a great spiritual expectation
by digging around in ancient genealogies? David
himself bowed in adoration before that Ideal. The
trouble with you rabbis is this, you know so much
about it that you have lost it.
That is the way I read the passage. I propose to
ask the old question over again. " What think ye
of Christ ? " The question seems to possess a pecu
liar pertinence at just this time. Not long ago I
heard an address that sounded like an assignment in
spiritual bankruptcy. The writer declared that we
can never know the exact historical background of
the Gospel narratives. We may as well abandon
the attempt. Scientific criticism has come to the
end of a blind alley and faces the wall. That such 45

46 THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS
a person as Jesus lived is probable. But the story
is so mingled with Messianic hopes, with popular
myths, with influences drawn from contemporane
ous thought and theory, that we can never disen
tangle the fact from the fancy. With this declara
tion, he stopped. He seemed to assume that nothing
was left. He was ready to go out of business.
It seemed to me to be a rare opportunity. I con
cluded to buy the business and try to start it up
again. I took a New Testament to see what was
left. As I read, it seemed to me that a figure rose
from its pages, in clear and glorious outline. It was
something so simple that it could be grasped by the
intelligence of a child. The mind of the untutored
savage could comprehend it. There was nothing
vague about it. If there was an indefiniteness it was
to be found in the mind of the man who had tried
too hard to define. If there was any lost Christ
it was not the Christ of the Gospels, but the Christ
of this very sophisticated gentleman who fancied
he had found the facts.
The same thing was true of the Christ of the
Epistles. Most of them were written by a man who
never saw the historic Jesus. Indeed, he was not
interested at all in the events of the career of
Jesus. As far as we know he never saw any docu
ments describing that career. Yet he has something
to say. Sometimes with poetic fervor, sometimes
with rabbinic analysis, sometimes in language that
confuses us because of its mystical ecstasy, we find

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 47
him endeavoring to tell the story of how he was
found one day by the conquering love of Christ.
He cannot insist too much on the fact that that love
was undeserved. It sought him when he knew it
not. It paid no heed to his moral worth. It did
not even wait on his recognition. From the realm
of light and goodness it came, breaking in on the
scene of his struggle and his toil, restoring to him
a hope that was wavering and a faith that had
failed. Was this experience nothing?
The fact is that the gentleman who fancied Chris
tianity had come to its end was the victim of a
method. He had overemphasized the importance of
the scientific spirit. He had been trying too hard to
understand something, that he would have under
stood with perfect clearness if he had never tried.
Perhaps I can make my meaning clear by a parallel
case. I read an article not long ago entitled " The
Real Saint Francis." The impression it left on the
mind was that of a mild, medieval fanatic, whose
reputed miracles were the outgrowth of popular
fancy, and all whose acts could be explained from
the " world-view " common to the men of his day.
The excellent historian who wrote this article
fancied he had entered into the region behind the
legends, and had found the Man. In very truth this
was just what he missed. When I finished the
article I said : " This is not the real Saint Francis.
This is not the man who set a whole generation
dreaming of a divine and stainless life. There is

48 THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS
more truth in the legendary tales than in this
account." From this I learned a lesson. To understand
any character that has exerted an influence on the
world we must be able to enter into the principles
and ideals of which that character was an expres
sion. Let no man attempt to write about the
" real " Caesar, or the " real " Luther, or the " real "
Lincoln, or the " real " anybody else, until he can
enter into the loves and resolves called up from the
hidden regions of the human soul by the magic
of the personality he is describing. If a man lives
in the hopes, the dreams, the desires, of great mul
titudes of his fellows, that existence is just as real
as any described by a carefully sifted table of facts
and statistics.
Let us take a concrete instance. The historian
must be able to understand what was in the minds
of the sailors who, in an hour of panic and terror,
were told that they " carried Caesar and his for
tunes," or he will utterly fail to comprehend what
took place. How did the " real " Caesar convince
men that he was something more important and
powerful than wind or wave? Do not tell me that
the story is a " myth." I expected that. I refuse
to get into a discussion over a side-issue. I grant
that it is a myth. I insist that " myth " and " lie "
are not synonyms. The myth that idealizes a man's
character may tell more truth about him than a
diary that records what he had for breakfast. In-

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 49
deed, certain forms of ideal truth demand the myth
as a vehicle. Now, the fact is that this myth we
have been considering describes the effect which the
" real " Caesar had on the men of his day. If you
would understand the difficulty of carrying out such
a part, try it. Go out in a bark on the ocean, and
then, when a storm comes up, tell the sailors not to
fear, because they carry "Robinson and his for
tunes." The fact is that in all the records of an
tiquity there is no better explanation of the founding
of the Roman Empire than that contained in the
story of a wild storm on the Mediterranean, of a
ship tossed about in helplessness, of panic-stricken
sailors and despairing passengers, when, amid the
terror and the gloom, there suddenly rises the
majestic and commanding figure of Caesar.
I have read somewhere, in an old document, these
words, " No man can say that Jesus is Lord save
by the Holy Spirit." I confess that there have been
many times in the past twenty years when I have
come short of that. I have been greatly interested
in our modem attempts to find the " real " Jesus.
I have read many, many books, like " The Life of
Jesus," by Holtzmann, and Bousset's " Jesus," and
Arno Neumann's "Jesus," and Warschauer's
" Jesus : Seven Questions," and Wernle's " Sources
of Our Knowledge of the Life of Jesus," and
Schweitzer's " The Quest of the Historic Jesus,"
and many more. I admire the critical scholarship
of these men. As a general thing, I find myself in
D

50 THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS
agreement with them. I believe they have done ex
cellent work along scientific lines. But the valuation
of Jesus is not a scientific exercise. When I am
through with these men I feel that the secret of
Christianity has not been touched by them.
The " real " Jesus refused to allow religion to be
buried in the past. He became a great hope, a divine
ideal, a future expectation, a goal of spiritual at
tainment, a realization of the yearnings of the soul.
By identifying himself with these things he con
vinced his contemporaries that his spirit was iden
tical with the Spirit of God. That was no small
part to play. The age passed, and the belief grew.
Nearly twenty centuries have come and gone, and to
this day multitudes read the story and say, " Jesus
is God." I wonder if this has anything to do with
the "real" Jesus?
" But," you say, " I do not believe in miracles. I
cannot adopt the world-view of the first century.
I doubt this, and disbelieve that." Wait a moment.
Let us not get into a discussion over side-issues.
The question I wanted to answer is this : " Has your
disbelief grown until that judgment is impossible to
you, which is the heart of the Christian message ? "
If so, you are most unfortunate. In the primary
department of every Bible School there is some
little philosopher who can take you by the hand and
lead you onward in the quest of the real Jesus. No
pursuit of a false light was ever more pathetic
than the scientific effort to find Jesus. It begins

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 51
by saying that we cannot understand him unless we
look at him in the light of the age in which he lived.
It ends by missing the whole thing just because it
cannot enter into the faith and love of early Chris
tianity. The " real " Jesus came to a weary, doubting,
worn-out world, and gave it a new incentive. He
transformed its impulses. He filled it with a new
social passion. He put belief into its skeptical
philososphy. He raised the fallen and disheartened
elements in society to a new level of existence.
" This," men said, " is God's attitude toward the
world." They found in Christ God's valuation of
humanity. It was a question that only faith and
love could answer. We love persons, not theories
or things. Character is only inspired by character.
Will is only aroused by will.
Christ accomplishes the same results to-day.
Multitudes turn to the Gospel story and are moved
by his purity of purpose, his strength of moral
conviction, his wealth of conquering affection. They
do not believe that these things are the product of
our mortal and sinful life. They are something ex
ceptional, something heavenly, something divine.
This power of Christ is to them a matter of experi
ence first and theory afterward. He gives them
higher estimates of the value of existence. He fur
nishes them with tasks of service and ideals of social
purity. He quickens their impulses of sympathy
and elevates their standards of righteousness. He

52 THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS
redeems them from the gross and sensuous elements
in their nature. He brings them hope, resolve,
loyalty, a trust in their fellow men, a new vision of
life's meaning and destiny. From this they draw a
conclusion, " Jesus is God."
I raise a question : " What right have we to speak
of God at all? What do we mean by that word? "
I find a very suggestive statement in a recent book
by a Unitarian friend of mine. " The Universal,"
he says, " does not attract us until it is housed in the
individual." When I read those words I felt like
adding to them. I would say that the Universal
does not command us, or inspire us, or guide us,
or redeem us, or do anything else worth mentioning,
until that happens. Indeed, what do we know about
the Universal, anyway? We reason toward a Uni
versal. We grope our way slowly and blindly out
along certain universal inferences and ideals. We
catch glimpses of faint suggestions and glimmerings
of paths that lead to a Universal. But that is all.
The thought is vague. Those who will not say,
" Jesus is God," must tell us what they mean when
they use the word " God."
To be sure, conceptions change. We cannot
cramp our thought within the forms of any bygone
age. The forms alter, but the belief remains. That
Jesus is God is the permanent content of Chris
tianity. It is a belief that is ever new, and that
ever evades the proudest thought of man. It is a
belief that all types and classes of men come to by

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 53
paths peculiar and diverse. It is a belief that each
age seeks to bolster up with speculative proofs, in
volumes that gather dust and are burnt by some sub
sequent age. It is a belief that, despite its baffling
of the mind, leaves it eager in the quest. From all
this I conclude that it is something too vast for defi
nition, but too clear for denial. Like the belief in
immortality, it is something that we do not believe
because we have ever demonstrated it; but we are
always trying to demonstrate it because we believe
it. It is a spiritual message. It is an inspiring truth.
It is a transforming conviction. It is something
that can only be understood by those who have ex
perienced it. This is what the New Testament
writers mean by the assertion that Jesus can only
be known by his own.
An old proverb says, " No man can paint a tree
unless he first becomes a tree." That is the same
as saying that the artist must become a sort of a
dryad. He must find the secret of the object he
would reproduce. He must have a sympathetic ap
preciation that takes him behind the vail. Let me
quote from memory the words of a recent lecture
on art to which I listened : " Raphael and Velasquez
were the world's greatest portrait painters, because
of their complete absorption in the character of
the one they were painting. This is the artistic gift
of sympathy." Yes, the artistic gift ! Right here we
will find the difference between a painting and a
photograph. The photograph endeavors to repro-

54 THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS
duce the exact details of the external appearance of
an object. The painting tries to find the spirit be
hind the manifestation.
Let me apply this principle in a higher realm. I
will assume that we all believe in God. If there is
such a Being, how can he reveal himself to man?
The most natural answer would be : " Let him be
come a man. Let him enter into our life problem.
Let him show to us the possibilities of our humanity.
Let him disclose his nature in some being who shall
be the universal man, the human prototype, the
farthest fetch of our spiritual existence." We are
not saved by depersonalized principles. Let us re
peat it. The resolves and affections of our nature
do not surrender to abstractions. To command our
energies, arouse our sympathies, renew our hope,
and conquer our faith, the divine Power must be
incarnate. Perhaps you ask, " Could not any great spiritual
hero do this as well as Christ? " That is a question
I cannot answer in the abstract. I know a better
way of answering it. I merely ask, " Does he ? "
Has Christ any rival in this matter? For my part,
I admit that other men have captivated me. I am
often carried away by the story of the last hours
of Socrates. There are incidents in the life of
Luther that stir the heroic in me to its very depths.
But somehow I never think of comparing the in
fluence of these men with that of Christ. He seems
to me to be something inexhaustible, something su-

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 55
premely good, something beyond which our human
ity cannot go. They never seem that.
Here is the wonder of it all. Though the blood of
the most exclusive race the world has ever known
flowed in his veins, he has become the property of
all lands and ages. His words can be translated
into any language, and instantly they seem to be
indigenous. His character can be transplanted to
any country, and at once he seems to be a child of
that land. He is the world's great cosmopolite.
He is at home in the schools of Greece. The wild
Berber on the desert plains of Africa approaches
him as a brother. German professors write endless
volumes about him. The men gathered in labor
conventions doff their caps at the mention of his
name. In the Mahabharata there is a story that contains
an element of deep suggestiveness. There was
once a maiden who was to choose her lover from
a gathering of heroes. She knew that in the assem
bly there was to be found the one whom she truly
loved. But when the time came for the choice, she
was perplexed and greatly distressed. There were
five beings just like him. Four of the gods loved
her, and, in the hope of influencing her choice, im
personated her lover. Then she prayed them, with
great fervency and power of persuasion that they
would resume their divine form. They did so.
They stood before her shining and glorious. Their
feet did not touch the earth. Their garlands were

56 THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS
as fresh as if newly gathered. Not a stain of dust
was on their garments. Then the maiden, to their
surprise, turned to her dust-stained lover. He was
more to her than the immaculate gods.
Let criticism do what it will with the Gospel
records. It may be that it will convince us all some
day that Jesus of Nazareth was not like certain
abstract, lofty, generalized conceptions of God,
whose feet do not touch the earth. But in the
hour of its triumph, it will meet with a surprise.
The heart of humanity will speak. The world will
turn to its dust-stained Christ, who walks our streets
to-day as truly as he did the streets of old Caper
naum. There will be a cry of devout affection, as '
men turn once more to follow him in the long, long
quest of "the city which hath foundations, whose
builder and maker is God."

V

ABOVE EVERY NAME

" God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name
above every name." — Phil. 2 : 9.

V
ABOVE EVERY NAME
CONTRAST this proud declaration, " God hath
highly exalted him, and given him a name
above every name," with that presented by our very
familiar Christmas picture. We see the barn of the
humble inn. We look upon the beasts of burden
tied there, belonging to the pilgrims who are jour
neying to their home city. We stand by the cradle
of straw, and note the conditions that crowded him
out of better quarters. What is there in this to war
rant such extravagant words as those of the apostle ?
It is seemingly the most ordinary of all events.
It is simply the entrance into the world of another
peasant child. Who could believe that he would be
exalted above all the great of earth ? Great leaders,
law-givers, rulers, poets, prophets, and warriors lent
luster to the history of his people. Could any one
suspect that this child would be known and revered,
until his name should eclipse that of Abraham, of
Moses, of David, of Solomon, of Isaiah? Indeed
there were scribes and rabbis, like Elieser, Joses,
and Akiba, whose names were authority in settling
the disputes that abounded in religious circles.
Whisperings of the plots of the Herods, and of the
plans of the Roman commander in Antioch, filled 59

60 THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS
the air till it was heavy with suggestions of the
workings of political and military power.
If we take a broader look the contrast becomes
still more striking. In the Imperial City the second
Caesar is just closing his long and brilliant reign of
forty-five years. It is an age that marks the sum
mit of Roman power and splendor. Great com
manders, like Drusus, Tiberius, and Germanicus had
brought the most distant provinces under the do
minion of the Roman arms. These were the names
that were " above every name." It was the crown
ing age of Latin literature and art. Virgil, Horace,
and Ovid had immortalized their native tongue.
These men were destined to be renowned through
all the centuries. The world still feels the charm
of their names. But above these, in the judgment
of the day, was the greatest of all men, the patron
of literature, the head of the armies, the ruler of
the lands. Of his glory the others were but re
flections. He was destined to give his name to the
age. It was Augustus, whose name was " above
every name." He was " the divine Caesar." A
hundred years pass and we find the most careful
and far-seeing historian of antiquity recording the
events of this age as if nothing of consequence had
happened in Palestine. Tacitus but gives a passing
notice to Him who was born in the manger. He
speaks of him as the founder of a " pernicious
superstition." Christ is only mentioned at all be
cause his followers, who were " hated for their

ABOVE EVERY NAME 6l
wickedness," arid belonged to the class that be
lieves in things " vile and shameful," were accused
of the burning of Rome.
Another interesting contrast presents itself.
Tradition says that Paul wrote this Epistle to the
Philippians while chained to a soldier in the city of
Rome, during the reign of Nero. Let us turn once
more to Tacitus, and take his description of what
was happening to Paul's fellow disciples. " They
were wrapped in the hides of wild beasts," he says,
" and torn in pieces by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or
set on fire, and when day declined were burned to
serve for nocturnal lights." Whether it be true or
not that Paul wrote these words under such condi
tions, the contrast is not altered. It was the loath
some Nero whose name was " above every name."
The poets of the age were assuring him that there
was not a deity in heaven who would not esteem it
an honor to give place to him. They told him that
he must occupy the center of Olympus when he
died, or the equilibrium of the universe would be
destroyed. They called him the " Savior of the
World." Think of the faith of Paul, writing these
jubilant words in such an age. It took spiritual in
sight to see how small a part the Golden Palace
played in the purposes of God.
Time has vindicated Paul's judgment. On the
very spot where stood the circus and gardens of
Nero there now stands a little Christian temple.
Here, every day, prayer goes up to Him, who, to

62 THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS
Tacitus, was just a criminal, put to death " in the
reign of Tiberius." The influence of his name, scat
tered through the lands and centuries, has continu
ally manifested itself in nobler deeds, happier homes,
purer customs, gentler impulses, and all the fruits
of a redeemed humanity. This is the charm and
power of Christianity. This is its badge of au
thority. This is its ideal. " Unto the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ," it says. Whether
the preacher stands, as did Chrysostom, in a mag
nificent temple, like Saint Sophia, proclaiming his
message to the court and ruler of the capital city of
the world, or whether he goes afar off, as did the
Benedictine monk Augustin, to the half-savage
Anglo-Saxons, to tell the story to King Ethelbert
and his subjects, the source of his influence and
authority is found in the name that is " above every
name." So our Christmas story tells of a Man of Poverty,
who brought the real riches to earth. It tells of One
who found his followers, not where the gifts of
life were most profuse, but where they were most
meager; not in senate-chambers of successful am
bition, but among the fainting and oppressed. " Not
many mighty" were called. The first converts to
Christianity were among the lowly. A few were
found in the palace of the Caesars, but it was
mostly the dwellers in dungeons and galleys who
felt the power of the Name. A cultured Greek,
Celsus by name, describes it as a movement that

ABOVE EVERY NAME 63
spread chiefly among weavers, tanners, and cobblers.
Indeed, this was its boast. Its mission was to min
ister arid serve. Those who were crushed by the
hard hand of oppression ; the ignorant whose souls
were filled with vague longings that they could not
understand; the discouraged, from whom happiness
and hope seemed fast slipping away — these all found
a friend in the Nazarene. It was this that exalted
his Name.
When I turn to the Gospels, it is not the miracles
that impress me. The most miraculous thing about
Jesus was his power over persons. He takes captive
all types and -conditions of character. He vftits the
home of a dishonest and mercenary publican, and
the man is suddenly filled with a resolve to restore
fourfold for all he has wrongfully taken. He calls
to discipleship a skeptical and calculating man, and
so fills him with the heroic that he exhorts his fel
lows to follow the Master to Jerusalem to " die with
him." He calls forth elements of purity and
strength from the character of a woman of the
town, who had touched the lowest levels of social
degradation. He appeals to a cursing and impulsive
fisherman, and there comes a time when his rugged
nature rises to heights of majestic resolve and divine
vision. From these things I can draw but one conclusion.
I know that man is only changed by some Power
above or beyond himself. All our moral advance is
through a spiritual energy that is above what we are

64 THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS
in ourselves. A new content comes into life. We
are transformed. It is an inward operation, to be
sure, but accomplished through a spiritual power
superior to any human capacity. When I see Christ
accomplishing this, not only in his own day, but
repeating it all through the centuries, I conclude that
he was more than human.
As for his relation to the Absolute, I see little
need of trying to settle that just now. It is sufficient
for me that in him I find a revelation of God beyond
the measure of any experience to which I have yet
attained. To appropriate that more fully is to me
the essence of discipleship. I shall never know,
therefore, just how completely Christ is the expres
sion of God until I have overtaken him. As that
seems to be a somewhat remote possibility, I am
content to leave my Christology unformulated. It
is in the making. I can only say, " It will be finished
when I come to ' the measure of the stature of the
fulness of Christ.' "
He is the circled completeness of the Christian
life. In him we find it in all its fulness and perfec
tion. He stands at the beginning to guide our tot
tering footsteps, and he stands at the end to put
the laurel wreath upon our brow. There is no task
so lowly that we cannot find him hiding behind it ;
there is no goal of faith so lofty that he is not there
when we reach it. No man is so sinful that he
cannot find him ; no man is so perfect that he does
not need him. In all history there is not another

ABOVE. EVERY NAME 65
who so broods over the highest heights and lowest
depths of human life. He is "the chief among
ten thousand." He is " the first and the last."
Think of what all this means. Would any fol
lower of Immanuel Kant venture to say that he
uttered the last word in philosophy, and that with
him all speculation as to the limits of reason came
to an end ? There have been " Neo-Kantians," and
" Kantian revivals," and a " right and left wing of
the Kantian school," but among all the devotees
of the Konigsberg philosopher there never has been
one who had the temerity to make such a claim.
Would any disciple of Wagner risk the ridicule
that would follow the declaration that the measure
of music was filled up when the great master ceased
to compose? There have been extravagant claims
made for him. The tourist who would secure a
seat in the immense auditorium at the Wagnerian
Festival -in Beyreuth is often told that he must
apply a yeai^ in advance. And yet, among all the
thousands of pilgrims who pour into that little
German town, there is not one who would make
such a statement.
Yet we find the apostle saying that the goal of
human life is "the measure of the stature of the
fulness of Christ." In this declaration he is joined
by many of the wisest, the proudest, the purest of
mankind. These men have said that Jesus Christ
was a perfect man. They have said — which may
be the same thing — that he was the very highest
E

66 THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS
revelation of the spirit and nature of God which
it is possible for humanity to receive. There is a
place near Interlaken, in Switzerland, which is re
nowned because it is such an excellent point of
vision from which to look at the Jungfrau. Some of
the noblest of the human race have rejoiced to take
their own glory, and their own achievements, and
use them as an opportunity to point men to Christ.
He fulfils our hopes, meets our needs, answers our
problems, inspires our efforts. Into his life, as
into a mirror, all classes and conditions of men have
looked, and have seen there a reflection of the
desires and aspirations of their own souls. He is
the realized dream of faith.
What better proof of the finality of the Christian
religion do I need than this? Can I find a higher
testimony than the record of what Christ has done
for the world ? Is it not enough that wherever his
Spirit touches the earth, tyranny begins to tremble,
violence vanishes away, the power of slavery is
broken, the light of love replaces the darkness of
sin, the voice of conscience is heard above the cries
of passion, and all the blossoms of brotherhood be
gin to revive? There are some who talk as if this
evidence were inferior to the testimony of the
creeds. On the contrary, the creeds are but feeble
efforts to put this cumulative witness into words.
For my part, I would as soon doubt the testimony
of my senses, I would as soon question the existence
of an object before my eyes, as to refuse to accept

ABOVE EVERY NAME 67
this. The strongest of all arguments for the Chris
tian religion is the record left by Christ of hearts
mellowed, of lives made happy, of bitter experiences
sweetened, of sorrows turned into joy.
I will take another step. I will challenge you to
take this away from me. Show me anything that
will do more, any influence better fitted to uplift the
heart and purify the life of humanity, any teaching
or example that makes higher provision for the
strengthening of our spiritual nature, and I will
accept it. Though you find it in the hut of a savage
on the island of Nunivak, though you dig it out of
the cave of a troglodyte in the mountains of Cap-
padocia, I will gladly make it my religion. Prove
to me that the Puranas of Brahmanism teach it, and
I will become their disciple. Show me that the
Lamaism of Tibet reveals it, and I will adopt that
cult. It is not prejudice that makes me a Christian.
I have no desire to cling to anything in the face
of the light of experience, or the testimony of time.
I will count it a happy day when I am rid of every
atom of superstition or unfounded belief.
These are days of universalism in thought.
Knowledge runs to and fro in the earth. The par-
tizan is despised. And, yet, on this Christmas Day,
it is a joy to me to tell just what it is that makes
me a Christian. When I see a succession of wit
nesses coming down through the centuries, all re
peating the same story from a thousand different
experiences ; when I hear a testimony coming from

68 THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS
the prison, the hospital, the retreat for the aged, the
famine-stricken land, all agreeing that the deed of
love was inspired by Him; when I see men ex
changing the greed of gain for the joy of service,
and turning from the restless pursuit of unworthy
aims to the high calling of a child of God, all
through the influence of a sublime Personality —
what conclusion shall I reach? Above all, when I
find this verified in my own experience and discover
that the Spirit of God in Christ helps me triumph
over difficulties, face hard problems, and meet the
uncertainties of life with unfaltering faith — what
shall I say ? This I will say. / By a law as enduring
as that which guides the very stars of night I am
compelled to declare that Christ is " the power of
God and the wisdom of God."
I am told that Christmas is simply an old pagan
festival. It is the myth of the return of the sun-
god. What care I for that? I am still enough of
a child, or a poet, to find that this discovery of its
origin makes it all the more significant. Let me
explain. We have passed the shortest day of the
year. The sun has started back toward the zenith.
How many cold days we shall yet have before the
winter begins to feel the influence of spring ! Bitter
winds, night frosts, chilling storms, drifting snows
will delay and hinder for a long time the final
triumph of light over darkness, of sunshine over
cold. Even after the first flowers have begun to
blossom in southern lands and life, with its bursting

ABOVE EVERY NAME 69
buds and green fields, commences its steady march
up over the grim domain, there will be days that
seem to retard the progress, and prolong the period
of bleak desolation. But of the end there can be
no doubt. The sun has started back. The winter
is doomed. Wild winds must eventually lose their
harshness. Sere and barren fields must some day
be clothed in green. Bluebells and forget-me-nots
must climb the rugged sides of the mountains. This
much I can learn from the old myth of the sun-god.
This I can learn from the Christmas sfories.
Christ is the light of the world. The triumph of the
Sun of Righteousness over the cold winter of sin
and selfishness has begun. What though the ages
move slowly! What though frosts of cynicism and
doubt retard the life that is struggling into tender
beauty ! The outcome is sure. That I cannot doubt.
Wild forces of wickedness may reign for a time.
Cruelty and intolerance may hinder the longed-for
summer of belief. I cannot despair. I know that
the brightness of his love will yet conquer the cold,
and scatter the forces that now render desolate the
lands of earth. The new life, the life of brother
hood, the life of sympathy and helpfulness, will
manifest itself in splendor. Our social deserts will
blossom as the rose. In a real sense Christmas is
the breaking of the light of heaven into human his
tory through a life that shall go on to nobler con
quests, until throughout the whole earth his name is
" above every name."

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