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Gift of
Mrs. Charles H. Merrill
1924

The Pilgrim Spirit,
and other essays.

By G. M. JANES, A. B., B. D.
WAYSIDE SKETCHES (our or print.)
THE PILGRIM SPIRIT,
AND OTHER ESSAYS, $1.00.
SUN PRINTING COMPANY,
Pittsfield, Mass.

The Pilgrim Spirit
and other essays

GEORGE MILTON JANES

PiTTsriEiD, Massachusetts
SUN HUNTING COMPANY
1904

Copybight, 1904.
By Geobge Milton Janes.
all rights besebved.

FOREWORD.

This volume of six essays is the result of the writer's
thought on the idea of the growth of humanity towards
nobler moral and spiritual ideals, and a common purpose
runs through the entire book. The aim has been to think
things through to their ultimate foundation and to build
on the rock. The search for truth is the highest vocation
of man; he who seeks will find. Truth is not a "deposit,"
but a spring of living water for the refreshment and re
vivifying of man's spiritual nature.
The essays are published at the request of friends,
and. the hope of the writer is that they may be helpful to
all seekers of the truth which makes men free.
Geobge Milton Janes.
Becket, Mass., November, 1904.

To My Mother
AND
To My Wife
this little book is
affectionately dedicated.

CONTENTS.

I. The Pilgrim Spirit, . . . . 11
II. Personality, . . . . .29
III. A Modern Gamaliel, . 39
IV. The Hebrew Prophets, . . .51
V. Character Through Struggle, ... 65
VI. Theological Views, 79

I.
The Pilgrim Spirit.

''' 'The old gods pass,' the cry goes round,
'Lo! how their temples strew the ground';
Nor mark we where, on new-Hedged wings,
Faith like the phoenix, soars and sings."
Richard Le Gallienne.

"Progress — man's distinctive mark alone,
Not God's and not the beasts.
God is, they are:
Man partly is and wholly hopes to be."
Robert Browning.
"Identify yourself in youth with some righteous,
unpopular cause." — Whittier.
"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make
you free." — John viii. 32.
"All the great beneficial movements among man
kind have been the work of determined minorities."
— J. A. Froude.

THE PILGRIM SPIRIT.

The progress of humanity is in cycles. One age
seems preeminent in its influence and, like the ocean, a
period of storm and stress is followed by one of quiet
ness during which the fruits of revolutionary periods
are gathered into permanent form for the benefit of
succeeding generations. Each age has its individual
characteristics and these are summed up in what the
Germans call the Zeitgeist, or spirit of the age. But
whatever the character of the times there has always
been in the world a larger or smaller number of men
imbued with the idea of progress, — that tomorrow
must be better than today, that humanity is slowly toil
ing upward into purer manners and nobler laws, that
man may have his feet on earth, but his head should
be in heaven. Progress, like a spiral thread, winds
backward and forward but constantly rises and ad
vances. There is a divine unrest in all men which bids
them climb and do their best. This great impulse may
well be called the Pilgrim Spirit; it is stronger than
bayonets, it shapes the world and changes the destiny
of mankind. The Pilgrim Spirit, then, is another way
of spelling intellectual, political, moral, and spiritual
progress. Abraham, the first Hebrew and the first great Pil
grim, went out, not knowing whither he went. Leav
ing Haran and his kindred he looked for the city which

14 THE PILGRIM SPIRIT.
hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
A larger veiw of truth saved him from the sacrifice
of his son Isaac, while to the problem of moral evil
he replied: "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do
right?" The hero of faith is always a Pilgrim stand
ing for a brighter and better day.
Paul was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,
but forgot the things which were behind and stretched
forward to the things which were before. The law
gave place to the Gospel, burdensome rules to the prin
ciples of faith, hope, and love. The Macedonian cry
for help fell not on listless ears and the more excellent
way of love was carried to the Greeks, the Romans, and
the Barbarians. Not Saul, the Pharisee and persecu
tor, but Paul, the apostle and missionary, lives in his
tory, for Paul was always greatest when a Pilgrim,
seeing the unseen and believing that the things which
are not seen are eternal.
The ancient world placed at the Pillars of Hercules
the inscription, "No more beyond." There was the
limit to human vision and the stormy waters of the
Atlantic held tightly the secret of the mighty continent
beyond. The thoughts of men were also limited in
vision and only to a few daring souls came a glimpse
of the immensity of the domain of truth. Medievalism,
however, was supplanted by the Renaissance, the new
birth of the brain and spirit of humanity. Petrarch
was the herald of the revolt against authority, for he
put investigation and criticism of truth in place of
blind credulity. Voight well says that Petrarch's name
shines as a star of the first magnitude in the literary
and intellectual history of the world. The invention of

THE PILGRIM SPIRIT. 15
the telescope and the mariner's compass brought the
heavens near and made navigation sure and safe. Then
came the revival of Greek literature and learning,
accelerated by the downfall of Constantinople and the
consequent scattering of classical manuscripts and
scholars. The invention of printing made possible the
cheap production of books and a wide diffusion of
knowledge. Copernicus had shown that the world is
round and not flat. Columbus sailed into many golden
sunsets animated by the same purpose as Ulysses of
old and singing in his heart,
"My purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles."
The result was the discovery of the hidden world
kept unknown until needed by humanity for its better
growth and freer development. It was the morning
hour in Europe ; the Pilgrim Spirit was in the ascend
ant, and the cry was, "More beyond."
Martin Luther, another great Pilgrim and an epoch-
making man, woke the slumbering ecclesiasticism of
Europe with a trumpet call to liberty. His fundamen
tal doctrines were justification by faith and the in
dividual responsibility of every soul to God; it was
the keynote of Protestantism, the right of private
judgment. The effect was the breaking of the chain
of authority and tradition at its strongest link. Man
is ever greater than any institution or dogma. Ex-

16 THE PILGRIM SPIRIT.
communicated by Leo X. and summoned to appear at
Worms at a Diet of the German Empire by Charles
V. Luther went under the promise of a safe-conduct
to stand up for his ideas before the world. On the one
side, the pomp, wealth and glory of Charles V. and the
Holy Roman Empire and, on the other, the faith and
belief in the power of truth and the worth of the in
dividual. After a preliminary appearance Luther final
ly came before the Diet on Thursday April 18, 1621,
about six o'clock in the evening after a wait of two
hours in the outer hall. Coming before the Emperor
and his councilors in the Diet, Dr. Eck, the representa
tive of the Emperor, began by reproaching him and
then asked him, "Wilt thou defend all the books
acknowledged by thee to be thine, or recant some
part?" Luther answered firmly that those on which
all agreed he could not retract, that the attacks in the
corrupt laws and doctrines of the Papacy were true,
also the attacks on all supporting Papal tyranny and,
oppression. The only refutation he would allow was
evidence from the Bible and, if that was forthcoming,
he would be convinced of his error but not otherwise.
Darkness had come on and the hall was lit with
torches and the demand was for a plain answer "with
out horns". The answer was given in plain words as
serting the supremacy of Scripture, reason, and con
science over Popes and Councils that had erred and
contradicted themselves many times. Then gathering
himself together, the great-hearted Reformer gave
voice to his inmost conviction: "Here I stand, I can
do no otherwise. God help me. Amen."

THE PILGRIM SPIRIT. 17
"Luther is dead; old quarrels pass;
The stakes' black scars are healed with grass;
So dreamers prate * *
But Luther's broom is left, and eyes
Peep o'er their creeds to where it lies."
Truth is not a deposit from antiquity, but a living
spring whose waters are for the healing of the nations.
Stationary truth is a contradiction in terms for truth
without the inherent principle of growth and develop
ment ceases to be truth. The heterodoxy of one gen
eration becomes the orthodoxy of the next, the thought
of one the sentiment of the following century. John
Wesley asserted in 1768 that if we give up belief in
witchcraft, we must give up the Bible. Likewise a
modern evangelist linked together the survival of
Christianity and the literal interpretation of the story
of Jonah. But the Bible and Christianity are still in
the world, regnant in the minds and hearts of men
and will remain as long as man is what he is, a spir
itual being. Without the power of change, any creed
or institution brings to pass in the lapse of time the
saying of Isaiah that "the bed is shorter than that a man
can stretch himself on it; and the covering narrower
than that he can wrap himself in it;" for truth is in
finite while creeds are finite; institutions are made for
man and not man for institutions; new wine demands
new bottles.
The English Reformation was more a political than
a religious one. Henry VIII. not that he loved the
Pope less but Anne Boleyn more, wrenched loose from
Rome. The Pilgrim Spirit, however, through the Pur
itan in England and the Pilgrim in Holland and Amer-

18 THE PILGRIM SPIRIT.
ica voiced the moral ideals of the Reformation, pro
tested against tyranny, affirmed the worth of the in
dividual, and stood for civil and religious liberty. Such
great ideals are spontaneous and win their way by
force of inward conviction.
Previous to the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the Lol
lard preachers carried Wiclif's translation of the Bible
into every town and hamlet of England. Then many
were driven by persecution to the continent and at
Geneva came under the influence of the mighty spirit
of John Calvin, the organizer and logician of the Re
formation as Luther was its road-breaker. When per
mitted to return, they carried back to England new
ideas of religious and political belief. Calvinism as a
theology or philosophy dominant over the minds of men
is a thing of the past, but its religious and political ef
fects were far reaching and its waters have not sub
sided to this day. Humanity had thrown off the tor
por induced by the long night of the Dark Ages, and a
new spirit of inquiry was beginning to move the minds
of men. It was a time which had such writers as
Shakespeare and Bacon and Rare Ben Jonson; a time
when English sailors were pushing the prow of their
ships into unknown seas ; a time when a new spirit of
nationalism had been aroused by the defeat of the
Spanish Armada; a time when England was becoming
Protestant not only in name, but also in fact.
The Puritans at first wished to purify the existing
church and thus in London about 1564 received their
nickname which appellation of scorn, like many an
other, soon became a badge of honor. The more rad
ical ones became Independents or Congregationalists,

THE PILGRIM SPIRIT, 19
believing that any body of believers worshiping ac
cording to the dictates of conscience constitute a church
without the intervention of any pope, bishop, or king.
The idea behind them being as quaintly expressed by
Robert Browne in the title of a book: "Reformation
without tarrying for Anie." The first known modern
Congregational church completely and formally organ
ized was established in London in 1592; being pre
ceded, however, by similar movements in 1580 and
even as early as 1567. The great growth of Congre
gationalism came in New England and in Cromwell's
England and it was designated as the New England
Way. "These churches," says John Fiske, "aside from
the religious influence which they exerted, constituted
one of the most effective schools that has ever existed
for training men in local self-government." Thomas
Jefferson, it is said, found a picture of American self-
government in a church ruled by Congregational
principles. The ideas of equality, the rule of the ma
jority, the priest-hood of all believers of the Pilgrim
churches led to the central principle of modern democ
racy, that the just powers of government come from
the consent of the governed.
The ideas of reform soon led to trouble with the
ruling order. Any penalty for speaking against uni
formity in political or religious life is a hard thing to
realize in these days of free speech; but at that time it
meant a great deal. The hand of persecution was raised
heavily against these pioneers of religious liberty; John
Greenwood, Henry Barrowe, and John Penry in 1593
were the last martyrs to suffer death, but many were
imprisoned and made to suffer in many ways. They,

20 THE PILGRIM SPIRIT,
however, voiced "truths that wake to perish never,"
and, with that moral idealism, which is the most per
sistent fact in the history of man, they never flinched.
"Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the
throne, —
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim
unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above
his own."
For a time persecution relaxed somewhat, and
when James I. ascended the throne in 1603, he invited
the Puritans to confer with him and the bishops con
cerning changes in church usuages. During the dis
cussion he lost his temper, stormed and fumed. The
mention of the "Presbytery" stung him into fury by
recalling to his mind how he had been restricted by it
while king of Scotland. Then, breaking into speech,
he said : "A Scottish Presbytery agreeth as well with a
monarchy as God and the Devil. Then Jack and Tom
and Will and Dick shall meet, and at their pleasures
censure me and my council, and all our proceedings.
Once you the bishops were out, and they in, I know
what would become of my Supremacy, for no bishop,
no king. Stay, I pray you, for one seven years before
you demand that from me, and if then you find me
pursy and fat, and my windpipes stuffed, I will per
haps hearken to you. Until you find that I grow lazy,
let that alone." The King in ending said fiercely: "I
will make them conform, or I will harry them out of
the land, or else do worse."
The result of King James' conference was the be
ginning of persecution anew, and resistance on the part

THE PILGRIM SPIRIT. 21
of the persecuted and thus the beginning of the strug
gle between absolutism in church and state and liberty
of thought and action. The little band of Pilgrims es
caping various persecutions and hindrances went in
1608 to Holland, the only country at that time in which
political freedom and religious liberty were regnant.
"Contemporary writers in other countries looked at
such freedom with scorn. 'All strange religions flock
thither,' says one; 'It's a common harbor of all her
esies, and a cage of unclean birds,' says another; 'the
great mingle mangle of religions,' says a third."* The
Pilgrims were members of the church in Scrooby, Eng
land, gathered in 1606; they went to Holland under
the leadership of their pastor, John Robinson, and set
tled finally at Leyden in 1609. There for eleven years
they lived together "in love and peace and holiness"
and among a people who believed not only in freedom
for themselves, but were willing to share it with others.
It was they who, when the Spanish armies came to
subjugate them, said : "We will cut the dykes, giv.e the
land back to the ocean, but Holland must and shall be
free." Little Holland, with her glorious history, re
ligious toleration, and love of liberty was a good coun
try to live in ; but the Pilgrims did not wish to become
Dutch and thus lose their English heritage, so in 1620
they came to America. Other men have done great
things, "But bolder they who first offcast
Their moorings from the habitable past,
And ventured chartless on the sea
Of storm-engendering liberty."
•Beginnings of New England by John Fiske, p. 74.

22 THE PILGRIM SPIRIT.
Such were the men of the Mayflower who crossed
the trackless sea to find on the rock-bound shores of
New England a haven where they could worship God
according to the dictates of conscience. "They were,"
says Lowell, "the most perfect incarnation of an ideal
the world has ever seen."
Previous to their landing at Plymouth the Pilgrims
drew up in the cabin of the Mayflower their celebrated
Agreement for their better government and preserva
tion. The cabin was small but it saw the birth of a
great political document next in importance to Magna
Charta, for it embodied the idea of self-government.
The document was signed by all and among the names
are those of common sailors and servants. "This was
the birth of popular constitutional liberty," says Ban
croft, "for in the cabin of the Mayflower humanity re
covered its rights, and instituted government on the
basis of 'equal laws' for the general good." The Agree
ment was undoubtedly an extension of their religious
principles to political life, the church covenant suggest
ing the civil one. The Pilgrims instituted democracy
and exerted a strong influence in the development of
American constitutional government. The equality of
all men before God leads to civil and religious liberty.
The Pilgrims had left Holland for the New World
as an advance guard and, if the venture was a suc
cess, the other members of the church at Leyden were
to follow. The animating spirit during the years was
that of the Pilgrim and in no one of their number does
it appear more strongly than in John Robinson. His
farewell address at Delfshaven to the departing mem
bers of his flock brings out the inner soul of the man.

THE PILGRIM SPIRIT. 23
A quaint account of the same is thus given by Winslow :
"We were now ere long to part asunder, and the Lord
knoweth whether ever he should live to see our faces
again; but whether the Lord hath appointed it or not,
he charged us before God and his blessed Angels, to
follow him no further than he followed Christ. And
if God should reveal anything to us by any other in
strument of his, be as ready to receive it, as ever we
were to receive any truth by his ministry. For he was
very confident the Lord had more truth and light yet
to break forth out of his Holy Word." Robinson was
a prophet and did not believe that God had revealed
his whole will to either Luther or Calvin. The Pilgrim
pastor was the real founder of Congregationalism.
Affairs in England continued to grow worse and
the Pilgrims were joined by many Puritans who finally
in 1628 came to Massachusetts Bay. They preferred
to be God's free people in the wilderness, rather than
slaves to tyranny in England. The Puritans wished to
purify the Church of England and did not wish to be
come Separatists as had the Pilgrims. The words
attributed to Francis Higginson, as the shores of Eng
land faded from sight, may be supposed to voice their
views: "We will not say, as the Separatists are wont
to say at their leaving of England, 'Farewell, Babylon I
Farewell, Rome!' but we will say, 'Farewell, dear
England! Farewell, the Church of God in England
and all the Christian friends there.' We do not go to
New England as Separatists from the Church of Eng
land, though we cannot but separate from the corrup
tion in it; but we go to practice the positive part of
church reformation and to propagate the gospel in

24 THE PILGRIM SPIRIT.
America." The logic of events, however, was too
strong for them and they became Congregationalists
like the Pilgrims. The Pilgrim Spirit is stronger than
any ism and ever demands new forms and ways.
The Pilgrim Fathers were neither Puritans nor per
secutors and believed thoroughly in religious and civil
liberty. The Puritans persecuted the Quakers, ex
pelled Roger Williams, and hung witches, but the Pil
grims at Plymouth never persecuted any one, and did
not impose even a religious test for the right of suf
frage. "Tolerance," Phillips Brooks once said, "is the
willing consent that other men should hold and ex
press opinions with which we disagree, until they are
convinced by reason that those opinions are untrue."
This the Puritans would not allow; liberty was for
only those who thought as they did. As the theological
professor said, "Orthodoxy, that's my doxy; hetero
doxy, that's the other fellow's doxy." A priestly caste
whenever and wherever found is always intolerant, for
such men hold the idea that all truth is comprised in
their own system of belief. The iron of Puritanism
always needs the refining temper of the Pilgrim Spirit
for the Puritan becomes truly great only when he be
comes a Pilgrim. The Pilgrims, as well as the Puri
tans, were a picked body of men and, with their de
scendants, were "the leaven of the 'New World' " ac
cording to the happy phrase of Laboulaye. The names
of such Pilgrims as John Robinson, William Bradford,
Edward Winslow, John Carver, William Brewster,
Miles Standish, and John Alden come readily to mind
suggesting ideas of liberty and progress.
The Pilgrim Spirit makes not only for religious but

THE PILGRIM SPIRIT. 25
civil liberty as well, and while the Pilgrims and Puri
tans were working towards a nobler ideal of life in the
New World the fight was on in Old England. Charles
I. had succeeded his father and had inherited also his
ideas of absolutism in state and church. The struggle
on the part of the people was led by such noble souls
as the three Johns, Elliot, Hampden, and Pym, and later
by Cromwell and Sir Harry Vane. The Petition of
Right was wrung from the obstinate king and, with
its condemnation of taxation without the consent of
Parliament, arbitrary imprisonment, billeting of sol
diers on the people, and martial law, was an epoch-
making document. But Charles dissolved Parliament,
threw the opposition leaders into prison, put to work
the Star Chamber and Court of High Commission with
their extraordinary legal powers, and instituted the
policy of "thorough" in church and state. The case of
the ship-money brought out the protest of the daunt
less Hampden, and finally after years of misrule the
Pilgrim Spirit arrayed itself in arms against tyranny,
and brought the head of the despotic Charles to the
block. Cromwell, the great Puritan captain, became
the greatest ruler England ever had. The victories
of Naseby and Dunbar were crowned by the victories
of peace at home and abroad. The Jews were protect
ed and the persecuted Waldensians succored. It was
Cromwell, the Pilgrim, who said, "Sir, the state in
choosing men to serve it takes no account of their
opinions." The government was made just, capable,
and efficient, and in foreign affairs England was raised
to the highest pitch of glory. His legislation antici
pated the wisest reforms of the last two centuries. The

26 THE PILGRIM SPIRIT.
death of Cromwell brought back the Stuarts, but the
Pilgrim Spirit was the leaven which eventuated in the
bloodless revolution of 1688 and the accession of Wil
liam and Mary and it has continued in English history
to this day, bringing about many needed reforms.
The Pilgrim Spirit neither slumbers nor sleeps and
in the New World led to American democracy, liber
ty, and equality. Cromwell, the Puritan, was the spir
itual father of Washington, the Cavalier, for their
swords were bathed in heaven and the dream of one
became an enduring fact through the other — equal
rights and a just government. The same spirit ani
mated the soul of Patrick Henry, the impassioned
orator of liberty, led Sam Adams, the man of the
town-meeting, and stood by the side of Jefferson when
he wrote the immortal Declaration of Independence,
helped draft the Constitution, and later through Wil
liam Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips demanded
the abolition of slavery, stood for "the higher law"
with Seward and at last through Abraham Lincoln
wrote the Emancipation Proclamation and declared
that "a government of the people, by the people and
for the people should not perish from the earth".
The Pilgrim Spirit does away with sacerdotalism
and obscurantism and looks at the sun of truth with
a clear and fearless eye; it declares with Horace Bush-
nell that the child has the capacity for Christian nur
ture, with Henry Ward Beecher that God is the .father
of all mankind and that his nature is love, with Phil
lips Brooks that man needs more and abundant life,
expression and not repression; it also says clearly that
life is superior to creed or dogma or institutions; it

THE PILGRIM SPIRIT. 27
identifies itself with the righteous, unpopular cause,
and looks for a brighter and better day for all
humanity. Taking the Platonic doctrine of ideas as a con
venient symbol the Pilgrim Spirit assumes that the
eternal idea as a pattern of human things is always
larger and better than its embodiment in any human
institution and forever calls men to the appreciation
of truth of which the eternal is the prototype. The
Pilgrim Spirit, as its name implies, is a spirit, an eth
ical force or power making for righteousness; it is
never a merely reasoned system of belief. At Ply
mouth there is a monument to the memory of the heroic
Pilgrims who there founded a settlement based on lib
erty and justice. It is surmounted by a colossal statue
of Faith, the apotheosis of the Pilgrim Spirit — Faith
in God and faith in man. Standing there facing the
east, as if to catch the first bright gleam of morning
sunshine, it teaches the lesson that idealism conquers
the world, that spirit is stronger than matter, that truth
is eternal and must prevail.
"New occasions teach new duties; time makes ancient good
uncouth;
They must upward still, and onward, who would keep
abreast of Truth;
Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! we ourselves must
Pilgrims be,
Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the des
perate winter sea,
Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-
rusted key."

II.

Personality.

"And a man shall be as an hiding place from the
wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of wa
ter in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a
weary land." — Isaiah xxxii. 2.
"Remember them that had the rule over you, which
spake unto you the word of God; and considering the
issue of their life, imitate their faith." — Hebrews xiii. 7.
"A superior and commanding intellect, a truly
great man, when Heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is
not a temporary flame; burning brightly for a while,
and then giving place to returning darkness. It is
rather a spark of fervent heat, as well as radiant light,
with power to enkindle the common mass of human
mind; so that when it glimmers in its own decay, and
finally goes out in death, no night follows, but it
leaves the world all light, all on lire, from the potent
contact of its own spirit." — Daniel Webster.

PERSONALITY.

Truth gains tremendously by becoming incarnated
in a person. Abstract truth has little power. There
are great libraries containing many books which are
of little value to the world, because what truth they
have has never been connected with a life. Personality
rules the world. Marble, gold, and granite may perish,
but personality lives on and is immortal. The path
way of the centuries is strewn with the ruins of em
pires, monuments, and buildings, yet man ever youth
ful is still regnant. Not the telegraph, the Atlantic
cable, the Brooklyn bridge, the electric light, or the
many great buildings or monuments in the world,
but the personalities who invented, planned, and con
structed them are the real marvels. Personality is the
greatest thing in the world.
What then is personality? It may be defined as
the essential character of a person as distinguished
from a thing. Individuality is the particular as op
posed to the general, and is another aspect of the idea
of which personality is the larger and inclusive term.
Existence as a self-conscious being is another expres
sion for personality. Man is a living creature, a person,
and personality means unity, the entire man. Personal
ity, in a limited sense, is the outward marks by which
one man is distinguished from another ; it is the persona

32 PERSONALITY.
or mask, the outward peculiarities of form and fea
tures; but, on the other hand, it is the possession of
spiritual qualities such as intelligence, justice, courage,
temperance, truth, sympathy, love. The marks of
personality are consciousness or the possession of life,
character, or the possession of moral and spiritual
qualities, will or the power of determination. The
latter makes life and the possession of moral and spir
itual qualities effective, and thus produces character
which differentiates man from the animal world on the
one hand and the inanimate world on the other. As
Locke says, "A person is a thinking, intelligent being,
that has reason and reflection, and can consider itself
as itself, the same thinking thing, in different times
and places."
Science tells the worth of personality by declaring
that self-conscious personality is a development of all
life, that life itself is a tendency towards individua
tion; that progress consists in the gradual develop
ment of personality; that personality is the end and
goal toward which nature, in all its changes and strug
gles, has always been tending. The supreme product
of the Creator's work is man endowed with person
ality. As the great poet makes Hamlet say : "What a
piece of work is man 1 How noble in reason ; how in
finite in faculty, in form and moving how express and
admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension
how like a god, the beauty of the world, the paragon
of animals." Compared with the great forces of
nature, such as the wind, the fire, and the earthquake,
man is puny and insignificant, but as Pascal well says,
"Man is but a reed, but he is a thinking reed." The

PERSONALITY. 33
possession of thought, mind, personality, lifts man
above the brutes and led the Psalmist to exclaim,
"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,
The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
And the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him but little lower than God,
And crownest him with glory and honor.
Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of
thy hands;
Thou hast put all things under his feet."
The field of history is an illustration of the influ
ence of great personalities. The great man theory may
neglect the influence of forces and surroundings which
determine to a certain extent the trend of a man's
¦work, but after all has been said determinism is not
a true philosophy of history. Man changes his sur
roundings and directs opposing forces towards worthy
ends. A forward movement needs leaders to make cur
rent the new ideas among the masses. "Personality,"
says Bunsen, "is the lever of history." Biography is
another name for history. The golden period of Greek
history centers about Pericles, that of Rome about
Augustus. Moses was the law-giver, prophet, and
leader of Israel. The edicts of Pope Gregory VII. rule
the Roman Church to this day. The mighty spirit of
Oliver Cromwell, the hero and incarnation of English
Puritanism, animated his soldiers fighting for liberty,
and thus gained the victories which are the founda
tion stones of modern democracy. The brave Hol
landers, reduced almost to subjection by the Spaniards,

34 PERSONALITY.
would not give up, but inspired by the noble person
ality of William the Silent exclaimed: "We will cut
the dykes, give the land back to the ocean, but Hol
land must and shall be free." Russia of today is the
extended thought of Peter the Great, while united
Germany came into being under the guiding hand of
Bismarck. Protestantism is the extended shadow of
Martin Luther. The name of Garibaldi is synonymous
with Italian political unity. Washington and Lin
coln, the one the father and the other the saviour of
our country, impressed their personalities in letters of
gold on the pages of American history.
The reader may say that historical writers today
pay more attention to the development and influence of
institutions than did their predecessors and that the in
fluence of institutions over the thoughts of men must
be taken into account. It is true that cause and effect
are seen to be at work in society, and a blind recital of
names is no longer dignified' by the name of history, for
the people and not their kings are the true factors of
history. But at the same time, institutions, laws, and
customs are made by men, and personality in the last
analysis is the important factor. Bismarck and Moltke
were supported by the patriotism and resources of
forty millions of Germans, but their leadership made
Germany an actuality and not a dream.
The realm of the moral life affords numerous ex
amples of the influence of personality. The Reforma
tion was promoted by the scholarly work of Erasmus
and others, but not until the idea of justification by
faith took hold of the fiery spirit of Martin Luther did
the ideal of a purified church become a fact. The road-

PERSONALITY. 35
breaker for new ideas showed his true personality
when he said to the Diet at Worms, "Here I take my
stand, God helping me, I cannot do otherwise, Amen."
The American anti-slavery movement of the last cen
tury, which gave freedom to a race, was brought forth
by a few great hearts; it was a grand moral move
ment inspired by noble souls; Garrison was its incar
nate moral logic; Whittier, its poet; Mrs. Stowe, its
novelist; Sumner, its statesman; Frederick Douglass,
its race orator; but its most eloquent advocate and
prophet was Wendell Phillips. The temperance move
ment has found fit expression in the personalities of
John B. Gough and Frances Willard, while the single
tax and such ideas of social betterment are identified
with the name of Henry George. Moral movements
become effective only when they are capitalized by per
sonality. The domain of literature is especially dominated
by personality. All books may be roughly divided
into books of knowledge and books of power,
the former are scientific treatises and the great
mass of books published every year, which soon be
come out of date and obsolete, and need either
to be rewritten or destroyed. The books of
power are those which have the saving salt of per
sonality, and so last forever. "A good book," says
Milton, "is the life blood of a master spirit stored up
on purpose for a life beyond life." Ideas change, men
come and go, but the writings of Homer, Virgil,
Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe, and Tennyson find
a response in the minds and hearts of men. The Bible
is especially a book of power, for its truth comes

36 PERSONALITY.
through personality, and therefore speaks and appeals
to personality. Criticism does not change its essential
truth, which came through personality, and its power
is shown by its influence.
The home is a place for the development of person
ality. The relations of husband and wife, father and
mother, brother and sister, lift men into the region of
love and self-sacrifice. The prolongation of infancy
in man, as compared with other animals, makes the
home what is is, and allows for a greater development
of personality than would be possible otherwise, for
the helpless infant demands care, and its education and
development extends through a long term of years.
Every child repeats the biological history of the race
in its growth and development, and the length of time
from birth to maturity is a great factor in making man
what he is. The home is a place for the making of
character, the development of manhood and woman
hood, and the strength and value of family ties come,
not from precept but from example, the moral influ
ence of personality; that familiar painting by the artist
Hovenden called the "Breaking of Home Ties" is an
example of the pervasive influence of personality and
the power of the home. George Eliot in her story of
Silas Marner shows the power of the love of a child
to shape and mould a man's life.
Science, philosophy, literature, and the varied ac
tivities of man tell of the value of personality, but the
supreme worth of personality is seen only through
religion. "For unless above himself he can
Erect himself, how poor a thing is man."

PERSONALITY. 37
God is a person in the sense of possessing such at
tributes of personality as will, intelligence, justice,
truth, love, and is revealed through nature and man.
Nature is an ordered whole, and speaks through its
visible forms of a controlling force or power. Man is
made in the moral image of his Creator, and shows his
kinship through personality. "The kingdom of God
is within you," said the greatest of all teachers, and the
great glory of Christianity is its affirmation concerning
the supreme value of personality. Buddhism is a ne
gation of personality, while Christianity is its apothe
osis. Christianity is the revelation of God in terms of
personality, and is based on the personality of Jesus
Christ, the supreme personality of all history. The
founder of Christianity was a religious teacher who
lived what he taught; he appealed to life and taught
truth in terms of personality. Back to Christ is the
cry of the theology of today, and the endeavor is to re
late belief to life and personality. Not abstract but
living truth is the end and goal of Christian thought.
Man is a religious animal, with eternity set in his
heart, and he cannot live by bread alone.
The inherent worth of man comes through person
ality, which is the moral image of God in man. Life
is a school and man's varied activities are the discipline
for the development of character. S.elf-conscious per
sonality is the development of all life, the goal toward
which nature's work has always been tending, the end
and aim of creative energy, and because of this, per
sonality is immortal; for otherwise nature's work
would amount to little, life would be a riddle without
any meaning, and character would be denied time for

38 PERSONALITY.
coming to a full and beautiful fruition. The supreme
personality is God, the creator and sustainer of all life.
"Thou wilt not leave us in the dust,
Thou madest man, he knows not why;
He thinks he was not made to die,
And thou hast made him; thou art just."
Man then is the crown of creation and personality
is the greatest thing in the world. "I think, there
fore, I am," said the great French philosopher Des
cartes. Men, however, grow and develop, and are not
so much persons as candidates for personality. Life is
a field for the growth of personality, the development
of men into full orbed persons. The influence of great
men, like the swell in the wake of a steamer, is seen
and felt after they are gone, and though dead they
yet speak. Great personalities, dominant intellects,
moral heroes, and spiritual leaders are sent by God to
lead the race in its onward march.
"So much one man can do
That does both act and know."

III.

A Modern Gamaliel.

"I have loved truth." — L. L. Paine.
"Love .... rejoiceth with the truth." — Paul.
"The true criticism of Dogma is its history."
— D. F. Strauss.
"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make
you free." — Jesus.

"In the degree that we become true Christians, we
shall discover more brethren." — A. Sabatier.

"I am a 'lew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought
up in this city, at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed ac
cording to the strict manner of the law of our fathers,
being zealous for God, even as ye all are this day."
—Paul.

A MODERN GAMALIEL.

As Paul sat at the feet of Gamaliel and was in
structed in the law of his fathers, so more than a gen
eration of young men studying for the Christian min
istry sat at the feet of Levi Leonard Paine, Waldo
Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Bangor Theo
logical Seminary, Bangor, Maine, for thirty-two years,
and were impressed and influenced by his love of teach
ing, enthusiasm for knowledge, devotion to truth and
genuine Christian character. Garfield's much quoted
saying is particularly applicable, "A log in the forest
with a boy sitting on one end and Mark Hopkins on
the other would be university enough," for in Pro
fessor Paine's class-room the student sat opposite a
great teacher.
Professor Paine was a New Englander in every
fibre of his being and was born in Holbrook, Mass.,
October 10, 1832. He studied at Phillips Andover
Academy and graduated at Yale College in the class
of 1856— a class numbering among its members Sen
ator Depew, Justices Brown and Brewer of the United
States Supreme Court, and other prominent men, with
all of whom he was intimately associated. He gradu
ated from the Yale Theological School in 1861 and was
settled as pastor of the Congregational Church of
Farmington, Conn., for nine years. In 1870 he went

42 ¦',£ MODERN GAMALIEL.
to Bangor Theological Seminary as professor of church
history and taught continuously for thirty-two years.
He was dean of the faculty of the seminary for many
years on account of his seniority of service. From
1888 to 1894 he was president of the Maine Mission
ary Society.
History to Professor Paine is God's great providen
tial teacher of men and in that spirit he taught his suc
cessive classes. , He said, "Through history man is
helped to read himself and his religious relations and
duties in the lives and conduct of his fellow men. The
history of the human race becomes as if an enlarged
moral consciousness in which, as in a glass, every
faculty and aspect of man's moral life is displayed in
every possible form of human working and develops
ment. Hence history has a vital religious function. —
One that has hitherto been sadly neglected. Nature
and history together, embracing everything outside of
man's own subjective moral consciousness, are the two
great avenues of the revelation of God himself."
Again, "History, which gathers up the total individual
experience of the human race, speaks in clear tones for
the theistic doctrine, and it is history that forms the
bone and sinew of the new theology. — History indeed,
is our true idealist. Its idealism, however, is not that
of a Platonic or Hegelian metaphysic, but that of
a historical Baconian induction." — "Surely the long
er one studies history, and the more deeply one
enters into an understanding of its hidden laws
and forces and movements, the more clearly does one
apprehend its truly divine function as a revealer of
God's providential plans and purposes concerning this

A MODERN GAMALIEL. 43
world, and also as a continuous panorama of human
events, unveiling as the years go by, the progressive
revelations of his truth and love and grace." History
brings man into closer fellowship, with God, promotes
optimism, and gives inspiration for truer and nobler
living. Professor Paine believed that the slightest bit of
historical research is of more value than many years of
metaphysical meditation and ratiocination. The meta
physician builds on a vacuum, and is hoisted by his
own petard. Keep close to the facts is the motto ever
before the true historian, for as Strauss well says, "The
true criticism of a dogma is its history." Truth is
never stationary; creeds and institutions grow and de
velop ; the thoughts of men are widened with the years,
and so "the only science of a being in a constant state
of development is its history."
The German historians and theologians have made
great contributions to human knowledge during the
past century, but Professor Paine told his students that
they would bear watching. The advancement of the
German professor depends on his making some new
contributions to the sum of human knowledge and the
demand creates the supply seen in the promulgation by
many German scholars of what eventually turn out to
be merely fine spun figments of the mind without any
historical foundation. He held that the present French
school of historians is superior to the German one be
cause their treatment of a subject is apt to be on a
broad scale, their theories, if any, are the result of a
wide range of induction, and, finally, however one may
differ from a French writer, one does not have to ask

44 A MODERN GAMALIEL.
his meaning after even the first reading of his work.
The results of Prof. Paine's many years of study
appear in his Evolution of Trinitarianism, a critical
study of the doctrine and its outcome in the New
Christology. The successive chapters take up Atha-
nasianism, the Pseudo-Athanasian Augustinianism,
New England Trinitarianism, the Trinitarian Outlook
and Result, the New Historical Evolution, the De
mands of the Historical, Religious, and Intellectual
Spirit, and the eventuation of these in the New The
ology. The study is an historical one and Prof. Paine
says in his preface, "It is scarcely necessary to say that
my object has been throughout to give the results of
an unbiased historical and critical study of the subject.
My aim has been first to ascertain the exact historical
truth concerning this most important chapter of Chris
tian theological thought, and next to state all the facts
thus gained with the utmost candor, sincerity, and free
dom." The book, however one may differ from its
conclusions, is a thoroughly readable one, the style is
clear and forcible, and it has yet to be answered or
controverted on its own historical ground.
The Ethnic Trinities is a companion volume to the
Evolution of Trinitarianism and extends the survey to
the whole field of religious thought concerning the
trinity. The Hindoo, the Zoroastrian, and the Greek re
ligions are treated of in relation to trinitarian ideas.
An interesting section is devoted to New Platonism
and the ideas of Plotinus. Says Prof. Paine, "Scholars
are coming to realize — what until recently has been
little appreciated — that Plotinus was the most original
and acute philosophical thinker since Plato and Aris-

A MODERN GAMALIEL. 45
totle, and that his influence today has eclipsed that of
his great masters." An unsatisfactory review of the
book in the Christian Register questions this statement,
but does not accompany the same with any evidence or
argument. The question naturally arises whether the
reviewer had made as thorough a study of Plotinus
and his writings as Professor Paine. The book in
treating of the idea of mediation makes the prediction
that, if that idea is carried out to its logical conclusion,
Mary, the mother of Jesus, will ultimately be included
in the Trinity by Roman Catholics and even some
Protestants. Professor Paine applied the inductive method of
study to all fields of knowledge. Theology is no ex
ception and needs a right view of man as well as of
God, and should move from the known to the unknown,
from the seen to the unseen. Man, nature, God is the
true order. Not dogmatic theology but inductive the
ology is to be the theology of the future.
The power of growth was a distinguishing char
acteristic of his nature. He prepared every lesson as
carefully as any student in his classes, although he had
been over the ground many times during his many
years of teaching church history. His lectures were
not old and musty, but always new and fresh and pre
pared especially for the hour and occasion. He gave
of his very best to his students and the animated eye,
the significant gesture, and dramatic delivery added
force to the truth given forth out of the creative force
of his mind. He never arrived at the end of truth and
believed man's comprehension of truth must be ever
growing and expanding. Teaching was his work and

46 A MODERN GAMALIEL.
he threw himself heart and mind into it, and did not,
like many instructors in our colleges, make it a mere
adjunct to some other interest. This thirst and search
for truth kept him ever young and demonstrated the
power of an endless life.
The Rev. Hugh MacCallum, pastor of the First
Congregational Church of Derby, Conn., speaks thus of
the work of Prof. Paine with his students: "Only he
who has been privileged to sit at the feet of Professor
Paine of Bangor can truly appreciate his genius as a
teacher. The air of the class-room was his native ele
ment, and it was always as fresh and pure as heaven
could make it. Fresh air, a moderate temperature, an
armful of books, a keen, penetrating mind, a never-dy
ing enthusiasm, a magnetic personality, and a receptive
body of men — all these were found in Professor Paine's
class-room. He lived for his 'boys.' Neither plat
form nor pulpit could draw him away from them, and
they received the very best that he could give. Some
have feared the influence of his views and many have
looked upon his teachings as theological utterances
rather than historical interpretations. 'Orthodoxy,' he
often said, 'is my doxy.' One thing, however, is cer
tain, his heterodoxy was not of the heart. 'Gentlemen,
it is a fine thing to study theology and church history,
but when you get out into the world and come into
touch with men you must preach something else.'
These were his words. Even the sparkle of his eye,
which told of victory, and the gesture so familiar to
all who were his students have a significance which, for
us at least, shall never die. Many a man in the min
istry today has reason to thank God for the privilege

A MODERN GAMALIEL. 47
of coming into touch with one who as a teacher had
but few equals."
In an article in the Congregationalist on "Professor
Paine as a Teacher", President Hyde of Bowdoin Col
lege bears this testimony: "His students got from him
not merely the winnowed grain of doctrine or ritual,
but the sap and fiber of the sturdy stalk as it grew in
the rich soil of human passion, toughened itself in the
winds of controversy and ripened under the sunshine
of Providence. They went forth not so much with
final results in their heads as with fire in their hearts
to take up the struggle for truth and righteousness
where historic evolution leaves it, and continue the
fight in the spirit in which the fathers fought, rather
than rest idly in the victories they won. In his own
judgment his books were to be his chief contribution.
But the return from printed books is quick and visible
and easily overestimated. The influence over suc
cessive generations of students is more like nature's
slow and silent processes, and for that very reason
more sure to bring forth in the end thirty, sixty and a
hundred fold. Whatever may be the fortune of his
fame, his influence, which is the substance of which
fame is but the shadow, will rest on his incomparable
skill in the distinctive work of the teacher — the making
of some portion of God's great truth live anew in an in
dividual mind and bring forth fruit in a personal life."
The teaching of Professor Paine led his students
not so much to a belief as to a method of arriving at
truth, not a rule but a principle. He created a thirst
for truth, the living truth. He told his students not to
follow any man, not even himself, unless he built upon

48 A MODERN GAMALIEL.
a rock foundation. Every man's thought must be tested
even as by fire. He instilled a profound respect for
the actual and said : "I can go along with a man as
long as he keeps one foot on the earth, but not when
he takes both feet off."
Prof. Paine was a profoundly religious man whose
faith was in God and not in dogma. He told his stu
dents, "I trust more, because I love more. If I grow,
in grace, I ought to love more; it is Christ's dictum —
Love one another." — Faith to him was always a moral
act, a movement of the free will. Christ's parable of the
prodigal son was the essential key to Christianity for
him. He believed "that religion was based on two fun
damental principles : a faith in God as the loving Father
of mankind, and a faith in all men as the common chil
dren of God and heirs of his grace and mercy." Love.
to God and love to man are the two great command
ments. Man is a free moral agent and God draws him
not by force but by love. Christ's gospel is that of love
and he believed with Sabatier that "in the degree that
we become true Christians, we shall discover more
brethren." The students of Professor Paine esteemed him not
only for his work's sake, but loved him as a friend. He
was always interested in his "boys" and rejoiced in
their intellectual and spiritual growth and transforma
tion during their three years at the Seminary. Then
his sagacious advice and keen analysis of a difficulty
placed many a young man on his feet. He hated a
sham and was keen in detecting one and appealed to
only the best in human nature and so brought out the
best in his students. He was kind and genial by

A MODERN GAMALIEL. 49
nature, yet dignified, and woe to presumption
which was not accompanied by insight. The latch-
string of his home was always out and there the stu
dent caller exchanged the desert of the monastic dormi
tory for an oasis of domestic life. Every man's home
is his castle and its privacy should not be invaded, but
there Professor Paine gained the strength for his daily
work. He practiced what he preached and his atmos
phere was love, joy, and peace.
"His life was gentle and the elements
So mixed in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, 'This was a man!'"
Death is the debt the body pays to Nature, and so
on a spring day in 1902 the silver cord was loosed, the
golden bowl was broken and the spirit of Professor
Paine left its frail tenement of clay and took the main
traveled road to that brighter and better country where
the last problem of the religious principia and of life
finds a solution and an answer. The things which are
seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen
are eternal. The ideal becomes the real and
"Life, like a dome of many colored glass,
Stains the white radiance of eternity."
This world is poorer and the spirit world richer be
cause of his departure. His life was an exemplifica
tion of Christian character, of good deeds and not
cant, of truth and not hypocrisy. "He was a man,
take him for all in all, we shall not look upon his like
again." He lives in the hearts and minds of his stu-

50 A MODERN GAMALIEL.
dents and although he has joined the choir invisible he
yet speaketh. He loved truth, he followed the gleam,
and was a true knight in the cause of truth and liberty
of thought. These words of Browning are an epitome
of his life:
"One who never turned his back, but marched breast for
ward;
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."

IV.

The Hebrew Prophets.

"Moral theism is the creation of the Hebrew proph
ets." — G. A. Gordon.

"The historian is the prophet looking backward."
— Schlegel.
"Prophecy is the expression of an ideal truth, which,
just because it contains an eternal law of the order of
the world, also finds ever new fulfilment in all times."
— Pfleiderer.

"This is the covenant that I will make with the
house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will
put my law in their inward parts, and in their hearts
will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall
be my people." — Jeremiah xxxi. 33.
"And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made
thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be
thy prophet. Thou shall speak all that I command
thee: and Aaron thy brother (prophet) shall speak unto
Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel go out of his
" — Exodus vii. 1-2.

THE HEBREW PROPHETS.

The fruit on the tree of today comes from the blos
soms of yesterday, which in their turn are rooted in
the past. The life of today is made up from many
strands and the endless web of events has been woven
in the roaring loom of time under the guiding hand of
God. Every race has made its contribution. The Greeks
gave the world the idea of beauty in the varied forms
of art, literature, and sculpture. The Greek language
being the most flexible and harmonious of all lan
guages, was the fit instrument for the expression of the
thought of Plato, of the logic of Aristotle, and the
poems of Homer and Pindar. Christianity was given
to the world by means of the Greek language which at
the time of Christ was the universal tongue. The New
Testament was written in Greek. Modern architecture
gains in beauty through its heritage of the stately Greek
pillar. Painters and sculptors still go back to the noble
examples of Greek art and receive true inspiration.
After the Greek idea of beauty came the Roman idea of
law. To the Roman, "Order was Heaven's first law,"
and with his legions he brought the world under the
sway of law. Anarchy was repressed and the world
first began to learn the blessings of peace. Roman cit
izenship in those days was the equivalent of kingship
in an earlier period. All roads led to Rome; the boun
daries of countries were broken down and race preju-

54 THE HEBREW PROPHETS.
dice done away with, by the bringing of all nations
under one imperial sway. Roman courts dispensed jus
tice in all parts of the empire, and every citizen could
appeal from them unto Caesar. Then the idea of the
solidarity of the race, the oneness of mankind became
apparent and thus prepared the way for Christianity
with its message of the brotherhood of man. Along
with and also before the Greek idea of beauty and
Roman idea of law, came the Hebrew idea of duty.
Israel, hewn out of the rock, was one of the greatest
forces in the world's history. No true history and no
true life forgets the fact that in Palestine was the cradle
of Jesus the Christ. The Semites are essentially re
ligious and their contribution to the world has been a
religious one, for from them has come Judaism, Mo
hammedanism, and Christianity. Conduct was to the
Hebrews the important thing and if we believe with
Matthew Arnold that conduct is three-fourths of life,
we do well to heed the message coming to us from
Israel. That message is one God, one law, one element,
righteousness, truth, justice, love to God, and love to
man. The command in the words of Amos was, "Let
judgment roll down as waters, and righteousness as
a mighty stream."
The peculiar feature of the Hebrew religion was its
prophets. Other religions have priests and altars, but
none prophets in the Old Testament sense. The Old
Testament is made up largely of the writings of the
Hebrew prophets. What then is a prophet? Says
George Adam Smith, "In vulgar use, the name prophet
has degenerated to the meaning of one who foretells
the future. Of this meaning it is perhaps the first duty

THE HEBREW PROPHETS. 55
of every student of prophecy earnestly and stubborn
ly to rid himself. In its native Greek tongue, 'prophet'
meant, not 'one who speaks before,' but 'one who speaks
for, or on behalf of, another.' It is in this sense that
we must think of the prophet of the Old Testament.
He is a speaker for God. 'The sharer of God's coun
sels,' as Amos calls him, he becomes the bearer and
preacher of God's word. Prediction of the future is
only a part and often a subordinate and accidental part
of an office whose full function is to declare the char
acter and will of God." The best definition that I have
been able to find is that in Second Peter which speaks
of the prophet as a speaker, a preacher of righteous
ness. Renan says that "the Jewish Prophets were fanat
ics in the cause of social justice, and. that the sight of
a bad man dying old, rich, and at ease, kindled their
fury." Israel's seers burned with anger over the abuses
of a badly governed world. The supreme difference
between Greece and Israel was that while with the
former religion was an elegant plaything, with the lat
ter it led to deeds of heroism, and a grand awakening
of humanity. Moses was the earliest of the prophets, but before
speaking of him let us briefly review the early history
of Israel; for the understanding of prophecy depends
in a large measure upon a knowledge of the outward
history of the people. The forefathers of Israel, under
the guidance of Abraham, wandered from Haran in
Mesopatamia into Palestine where they stayed for some
time and, after many adventures, went down into
Egypt, settling on the pasture-lands of the eastern
Nile-delta. Here they were tolerated at first but final-

56 THE HEBREW PROPHETS.
ly were heavily oppressed by the "new king over Egypt,
which knew not Joseph" till under the guidance of
Moses, who was of the tribe of Levi, they succeeded in
throwing off the Egyptian yoke. Moses changed a
band of slaves into a people and was their leader and
guide. He was their prophet and messenger from God
and to them he spoke the message of morality and re
ligion. The idea of prophecy is brought out in the
scene where Aaron becomes the prophet or spokesman
for Moses, The verse says, "He shall be thy spokes
man unto the people: and it shall come to pass that
he shall be to thee a mouth, and thou shalt be to him
as God." A prophet, then, is a spokesman or speaker
for God. Did Moses think that himself only could be
a prophet ? The answer is given in the eleventh chap
ter of Numbers. Moses ^had chosen seventy elders to
assist him in the administration of government. All
but two of these came to the tabernacle ; then the Lord
took of the Spirit that was upon Moses and put it upon
them and they did prophesy. Eldad and Medad, the
two absent ones, also felt the Spirit and began to
prophesy, doubtless praising God. A young man
eager for propriety and formalism, ran and told Moses
of the fact. Joshua hearing of it said, "My lord Moses,
forbid them." But Moses believing that all truth
wherever found is from God said unto him, "Art thou
jealous for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's
people were prophets, that the Lord would put his
spirit upon them !"
The call is to all, for
"Great truths are portions of the soul of man;
Great souls are portions of eternity."

THE HEBREW PROPHETS. 57
The prophet traces all things directly back to God.
What we call conscientious convictions were a "Thus
saith the Lord to him." In God he lived and moved
and had his being. The impressions of conscience were
God's hand laid heavily upon him. The impulse to
speak was a burning fire shut up in his bones. The
call to prophecy or speak is heard like the roaring of a
lion. Monitions of conscience are the voice of God.
Moral enthusiasm is the nature of the prophet.
The prophets have not all been men, for we find
after Moses in the time of the Judges, Deborah the
prophetess. "The rulers ceased in Israel, they ceased,
Until I Deborah arose,
That I arose a mother in Israel.
They chose new gods;
There was war in the gates :
Was there a shield or spear seen
Among forty thousand in Israel?"

After asking this question, the heart of Deborah goes
out to Israel and she praises the Lord because she be
lieves that Jehovah is on the side of Israel. In this
spirit "The kings came and fought;
Then fought the kings of Canaan,
In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo;
They took no gain of money,
They fought from heaven, .,
The stars in their courses fought against Sisera."

58 THE HEBREW PROPHETS.
Samuel continues the line of speakers from God.
Given to the service of God from his earliest years by
his mother, he continues at Shiloh the seat of worship.
The name of "seer" is attached to him, that being the
name at that time of a prophet. Samuel felt for the
distresses of his country and sees a way out of oppres
sion and misery under the leadership of Saul of the
tribe of Benjamin. The heroic soul of Saul is aroused
and Samuel gives him the religious consecration that
supports him on his way.
In David's time comes the familiar figure of
Nathan the Prophet. David had committed a grievous
sin and Nathan told him of his sin putting it in the form
of a parable. Then was David's anger kindled, and he
said to Nathan, "As the Lord liveth, the man that hath
done this is worthy of death: and shall restore four
fold, because he had no pity." Then comes the home
thrust, the application of the truth. "And Nathan said
to David, 'Thou art the man.' " Nathan was indeed a
preacher of righteousness.
Elijah is the first prophet on a grand scale. The
figure of Elijah the Tishbite is one of the greatest in the
Old -Testament.
"As some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form,
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm,
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head."
The time in which Elijah lived was a time to try men's
souls and his personality must have been a tremen
dous one in order to leave the impression it did. No

THE HEBREW PROPHETS. 59
doubt legendary elements enter into the stories connect
ed with him, but where there is so much smoke there
must be a good deal of fire.
What were the times during which Elijah lived?
Israel and Judah, which had been united during the
prosperous reigns of David and Solomon dissolved
their relationship after the death of Solomon, because
of the oppressions of Rehoboam his successor. Then
in 937 B. C. Jeroboam became king of Israel and Reho
boam was left with the kingship of Judah alone. The
division was an element of weakness and led ultimately
to the downfall of both kingdoms. Ahab was king of
Israel during the time of Elijah. In 876 the year previ
ous to Ahab's coming to the throne, an Assyrian army
had penetrated for the first time as far as Lebanon and
the Mediterranean Sea, and had laid Israel under
tribute. The neighboring kingdoms of Damascus had
also been victorious. It was a time of trouble. Ahab
had married Jezebel, a Tyrian princess, who was a
worshiper of Baal, and in her honor erected a temple
in Samaria to the Tyrian Baal. Elijah protested against
this idolatry and recalled the people in these words,
"How long halt ye between two opinions ? If the Lord
be God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him."
Then in the test which followed the prophets of Baal
were put to route. Ahab besides being idolatrous, com
mitted crime in the taking of Naboth's vineyard. It
seems that Naboth had a vineyard in Jezreel hard by
the palace and the king wanted it for a garden of herbs.
Naboth, however, did not wish to part with it although
offered a better vineyard or the equivalent in money.
Who knows but it may have been the family home-

60 THE HEBREW PROPHETS.
stead, hallowed by loving associations! The matter is
ended for Ahab, but Jezebel hearing of it says to him,
"Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel ? I will
give thee the vineyard of Naboth." False witnesses
testify against Naboth for blasphemy toward God and
the king; he is stoned to death and his goods confis
cated. Then the king goes to take possession of the
vineyard, and is met by Elijah, who says in a voice of
thunder, "Thou who didst sell thyself to work wicked
ness! thus saith Jehovah: T have yesterday seen the
blood of Naboth and of his children in the vineyard
and I will requite thee in this plat.' " Govetousness
brought ruin to Ahab, the same as it does to every man.
Elijah had a noble and spiritual idea of God, for he be
held God not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire
but in the still, small voice. In what does the import
ance of Elijah consist? Says Prof. Cornill, "Elijah is
the first prophet in the truly Israelitic sense, differing
from the later prophets only in that his efficacy was
purely personal and in that he left nothing written. He
saw that man does not live by bread alone, nor nations
through sheer power. He considered Israel solely as
the bearer of a higher idea. If the people became un
faithful to this idea, no external power could help
them; for the nation bore in itself the germ of death.
Israel was not to become a common nation like the oth
ers: it should serve Jehovah alone so as to become a
righteous and pure people."
The mantle of Elijah fell upon Elisha who is dis
tinguished by the fact that, according to the Biblical
record, he is the only prophet summoned to that high
office by another. Through Elisha, the cavalry officer

THE HEBREW PROPHETS. 61
Jehu is called to the throne of Israel and in smiting
the house of Ahab brings retribution for the taking of
Naboth's vineyard. At this time the principle was fully
established that no other God but Jehovah should be
recognized in the land.
Prophecy for the first time becomes written during
the eighth century and each prophet is thus able to hand
his message down to posterity. The additional ad
vantage is also gained that each prophet can build on
the foundations of those who went before him, thus
carrying the truth to loftier and nobler heights and
making its effects more cumulative: Amos who ap
peared at Bethel about 760 B. C, was the first of the
writing prophets. They wrote sixteen of the books
which go to make up the Old Testament. Who are
they, and what is their message?
Amos is the Prophet of Righteousness and his
prophetic word is "Let judgment roll down as waters,
and righteousness as a mighty stream."
Hosea is the Prophet of Love. Mercy, and not
sacrifice or burnt offerings, is what God requires from
men. In him we begin to get a view of the Gospel.
Isaiah is the Prophet Statesman guiding the people
by the divine compass through a rough and stormy
period. God to him is the ruler of the universe, the
force behind all force, the maker and unmaker of na
tions as well as men.
Micah is the Prophet of the Poor, for he believes
that God loves the common people. Why? Because,
as Abraham Lincoln once said, "He made so many of
them." Religion to Micah is summed up in the ques
tion, "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do

62 THE HEBREW' PROPHETS.
justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy
God?" Jeremiah has been called the Prophet of the Dis
persion. The times were stormy and ended in the cap
tivity in Babylon. The life of Jeremiah was one long
protest against crime and folly. A living principle was
his message, for the Lord said to him, "I will put my
law in their inward parts, and in their hearts will I
write it." God is indeed the God of individuals.
Ezekiel is the Prophet of the Captivity, some have
called him the Prophet of the Church. Ezekiel
was "a watchman over the house of Israel" and united
the exiles by the spiritual bond of religion. His mes
sage was an ecclesiastical one, the organization of re
ligion into the church. "He was," says Professor Cor-
nill, "pre-eminently churchman and organizer: as such,
the greatest that Israel ever had.
The Second Isaiah, sometimes called the Great Un
known, the author of the latter half of Isaiah beginning
at the fortieth chapter with the words, "Comfort ye,
comfort ye my people, saith your God," was one of
the most spiritual of all the prophets. "The book itself
must be accounted the most brilliant jewel of prophetic
literature," says one writer. The message is one of
hope, deliverance, the theme, self-sacrifice through love,
the means. The life and death of Jesus the Christ was
the completion of that message.
And what shall I more say? For the time will fail
me if I tell of Zephaniah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Haggai,
Zechariah, Malachi, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Daniel,
who all did their part in bringing out the truth that

THE HEBREW PROPHETS. 63
•God is a spirit and must be worshiped in spirit and in
truth. "God sends his teachers unto every age
To every clime, and every race of men,
With revelations fitted to their growth
And shape of mind, nor gives the realm of Truth
Into the selfish rule of one sole age."
Revelation is progressive. Men's thoughts are wid
ened with the process of the sun. God reveals himself
through persons. It is the prophet and not the priest
who has given to the world its highest form of relig
ion. The tree which sheltered Moses has grown and
under its shade is room for all the sons of men. The
message of the prophets was the everlasting reality of
spiritual religion, their words were fitted to theume
and place, but because they were true to God and them
selves, their message is an eternal one.

V.

Character Through Struggle.

"The fiend that man harries
Is love of the Best."
R. W. Emerson.
"What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing
but the first step to something better.". — Wendell
Phillips. "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after right
eousness: for they shall be filled." — Matthew v. 6.
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall
find; knock and it shall be opened unto you: for every
one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth;
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."
— Matthew vii. 7-8.
"Clearly, for strong and resolute men and women
an Eden would be but a fool's paradise. How could
anything fit to be called character have ever been pro
duced there? But for tasting the forbidden fruit, in
what respect could man have become a being of higher
order than the beasts of the field?" — John Fiske.

CHARACTER through struggle.

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become-
one of us to know good and evil ; and now lest he put.
forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and
eat, and live forever: therefore the Lord God sent
him forth from the garden, of Eden, to till the ground
from whence he was taken. — Genesis iii. 22-23.
These words are found in the third chapter of the
book of Genesis in the form which that book took after
the return of the Jews from the captivity at Babylon.
They are the climax of the story in which the wily
serpent is represented as giving advice to the Motheir
of Mankind to eat of the fruit of the tree in the midst
of the garden and in so doing, to have open eyes, be
coming as gods knowing good and evil. The whole
story represents a profound truth, for man is ever go
ing through temptation to virtue. Innocence is the
state of childhood, knowledge that, of manhood. As
Paul says, "When I was a child, I felt as a child, I
thought as a child: now that I am become a man I
have put away childish things." Childhood passes into
manhood and ideas change. Eden is left never to be
regained. Innocence is beautiful, but character is bet
ter and more enduring. Then the Lord God is repre
sented as saying : "Behold the man is become as one of
us," that is to say, one of the Elohim or heavenly host,.

68 CHARACTER THROUGH STRUGGLE.
who know the good and the evil. "So he drove out
the man" from the Garden of Eden to work out his
destiny in the age long conflict between the opposing
forces of good and evil.
This poem, legend, or allegory typifies the begin
ning of progress, the movement toward's the "one far
off divine event, to which the whole creation moves."
The legend is more an epitome of the history of the in
dividual than of the race. One might almost say that
it is a recognition of the individual, that it marks the
transition from tribal to individual ethics; that is to
say, man is brought, for the first time, face to face
with the eternal reality that character comes through
struggle and not otherwise; that man, if he fell, fell
upstairs; that ever and always God in his mercy and
love is continually driving men out of their Edens of'
ease and contentment into the world of activity; that
Paradise Lost means manhood gained — victory through
defeat. Divine discontent being ever the lever of
progress, the law of life.
The world of nature, the world of nations, and the
world of individuals afford ample evidence of this
truth. Looking at the world of nature, we see that the
Creator has endowed it with abundant stores for the
uses of man, but the wilderness must be subdued,
coal and other minerals must be uncovered, the land
must be tilled in order to secure a harvest, the forces
of steam and electricity must be harnessed before
nature becomes the servant and not the master of
mankind. Out of the struggle with the elemental
forces by which men are surrounded, the thought, the
strength, the skill, and the character of mankind are

CHARACTER THROUGH STRUGGLE. 69
developed. It is an interesting fact that the colder
climes are the seats of progress compared with the
tropical ones, for the countries of the Temperate Zones
represent the most advanced civilization. Germany,
a land of clouds, is' the home of a people who defeated
the Romans, enervated by their Eden of ease, — a coun
try, also, which has given to the world such thinkers
as Kant and Hegel, such poets as Goethe and Schiller,
such religious leaders as Luther and Schliermacher.
England, sea-girt and with rugged coasts, has been a
prolific mother of the leaders of men and has stood for
civil and religious liberty, during many a dark hour of
the world's history. "We must be free or die, who
speak the tongue that Shakespeare spake; the faith
and morals hold, which Milton held." Palestine, no
larger than one of our smaller American states is a
bleak, rocky, and sterile country, hewn out of the rock
as it were, but from her have come the uplifting forces
of religious and spiritual enlightenment which are the
heritage of all men today. Little Switzerland, among
the Alps, is immortal in song and story for her love
of liberty. Geneva, her chief city, was for many years
the home of John Calvin and from that centre went
forth influences whose waters have not subsided to
this day. Brave little Holland, made out of the very
bed of the ocean by the struggle of her inhabitants,
gave the world the first great example of religious
toleration. Liberty, not only for themselves, but all
men, was their belief and practice. Their unconquer
able love of liberty comes out in the story that when
driven almost to despair by the armies of Spain, they
were led by the inspiration of their noble leader, Wil-

70 CHARACTER THROUGH STRUGGLE.
liam of Orange, to cry, "We will cut the dykes, give
the land back to the ocean, but Holland must and shall
be free." No Eden of slavish ease appeared to their
minds to have any worth. Our own New England in
some respects is rough and forbidding, her soil is hard
to till and meagre in harvest, the largest crop is rocks
judging by their abundance. Her glory, and the great
est glory of any state, is brought out in the reply to
the traveler who asked, "What do you raise here?"
"We raise men," was the answer.
Struggle is the law of life, for through struggle
comes development and growth. One scientist goes
so far as to propound the theory that all vital func
tions, as digestion, respiration, the circulation of the
blood, began in the dimly conscious efforts of the or
ganism. All forms of life have developed and what
they are today depends on struggle in the past. Agi
tation which is another name for struggle is necessary
< to keep pure the water of oceans and lakes, whose per
fect tranquility would breed disease and death. The
thunder storm purifies the air, revivifies the face of
nature, and is followed by the beauty of the rainbow.
Nature is indeed another name for struggle and in
combat with the forces of the natural world, man gains
character as well as victory.
The world of nations is governed by this law of
struggle. Compare the political map of the world of
today with one of a hundred, two hundred, or three
thousand years ago and note the difference. Gone are
the ancient nations of Nineveh, Babylon, Media, Per
sia, Parthia, Greece and Rome because they lost step
with the onward march of humanity and sank into

CHARACTER THROUGH STRUGGLE. 71
Edens of ease, pride, selfishness, greed, and pleasure.
The nation which is perfect, like the man who
knows it all, is an enemy to progress. The good is ever
the enemy of the best. China was a nation and had a,
civilization of its own, when the people of Europe had
not yet emerged from barbarism. To the Chinese the
world is indebted for the first idea of printing and for
the invention of gunpowder. China, however, has been
satisfied with her past and almost until the present
day has been an Eden of complacency, fenced about by
walls excluding new ideas. Now all is changed. The
allied armies have captured Pekin; Russia and Japan
are at war in Manchuria, and by the inevitable force
of events, the Chinese will be driven out of their Eden
of complacency; the walls encircling them will be
broken down; the barriers burned away; China, like
Japan, will begin a new career of progress by struggle
with modern conditions.
Divine discontent both with nations and individuals
is better than slothful ease. Progress comes not from
contented minds. Some years ago Pope Alexander VI.
gave "of his mere liberality" to Spain and Portugal
all the land thenceforth to be discovered. Portugal
since has become a forgotten nation while Spain with
her glorious past dwells in an Eden of pride. The
once wealthy and powerful nation of Europe whose
name struck terror to the hearts of her enemies has
sunk into a lethargy of pride over past achievements;
out of which the guns of Dewey at Manila and Samp
son at Santiago have failed to rouse her.
Political life in all countries is kept pure by agita
tion, by public opinion. An effective opposition is nee-

72 CHARACTER THROUGH STRUGGLE.
essary in a democratic form of government for an
Eden of unrestrained power brings corruption. Pres
idential elections are worth, as a means of popular
education, all that they cost in time and money. Wen
dell Phillips believed that a democratic form of govern
ment needs great men to arouse the ideals of truth
and righteousness latent in all men. Agitation is ever
the secret of progress, for, if a monarchy is like the
Alps, cold and serene, a democracy is like the sea rest
less but ever free, and the secret of its purity lies in
its continual agitation.
War is a method of struggle necessary at times in
the world of nations, for Edens of repose and peace
protect wrongs many times. "War with its attendant
horrors should be avoided at all times," say some, but
we should remember that there are worse things than
war — for example, injustice and slavery. Cromwell
and his troopers through the fortunes of war put an
end — so far as Englishmen were concerned — to the
doctrine of the divine right of kings; the patriots of
the American Revolution achieved not only their own
liberty, but that of Englishmen as well; Napoleon,
though selfish in his policies, spread the thoughts of
the French Revolution, — Liberty, Equality, and Fra
ternity, — throughout Europe ; the Civil War put an end
forever in America to the buying and selling of human
beings as chattels, and- all the wealth and all the life
the war cost is offset by the gain to humanity, even if
not equaled by the two hundred and fifty years of
wealth amassed by the blackman's labor; the Mace
donian cry of little Cuba to come over and help her was
heard by the American people and the results are be-

CHARACTER THROUGH STRUGGLE. 73
coming apparent. The deaths in Havana in 1898 were
eighty-five to each thousand of the population. The
death rate in 1901 was reduced to a little more than
twenty-two to the thousand. Yellow fever is being
stamped out and will soon be no longer the menace that
it was to Cuba or this country. War is indeed rough
surgery with its terrible suffering and death, but in its
wake comes health and permanent peace. From seeing
ill comes good and through struggle the human race is
not only chastised but it moves onward.
"See! In the rocks of the world
Marches the host of mankind,
A feeble, wavering line.
Where are they tending? — A God
¦ Marshall'd them, gave them their goal —
Ah, but the way is so long!
Years they have been in the wild!
Sore thirst plagues them, the rocks,
Rising all round, over-awe;
Factions divide them, their host
Threatens to break, to dissolve, —
Ah, keep, keep them combined!
Then let us fill up the gaps in our files,
Strengthen the wavering line,
Stablish, continue our march,
On, to the bound of the waste,
On to the city of God."
It is, however, to the world of the individual that
we look for the exemplification of victory through
defeat, power through struggle. Wrestling Jacob is
an example for humanity. "There wrestled a man
with him until the breaking of the day. ...... And

74 CHARACTER THROUGH STRUGGLE.
he said, 'Let me go, for the day breaketh.' And he
said, 'I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.' And
he said unto him, 'What is thy name?' And he said,
'Jacob.' And he said, 'Thy name shall be called no
more Jacob, but Israel ; for thou hast striven with God
and with men, and has prevailed.' And Jacob asked
him, and said, 'Tell me, I pray thee, thy name.' And
he said 'Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my
name?' And he blessed him there."
Samson, a mighty man of strength, gave up the
secret of his power for a supposed Eden of peace and
quietness. Betrayed into the power of the Philistines
his eyes were put out and he was brought down to
Gaza where he was bound with fetters of brass and did
grind in the prison house. By and by his strength re
turned to him and when brought before his enemies
to make sport for them , he leaned upon the pillars
whereupon the house rested. "And he bowed him
self," says the story, "with all his might; and the house
fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were
therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were
more than they which he slew in his life."
Jeremiah, like many another prophet of righteous
ness, was held up to mockery and derision until he was
persuaded to refrain from speaking the truth ; but there
was a burning fire shut up in his bones and he grew
weary with forbearing and could not contain himself.
There is a divine unrest in all men that bids them climb
and do their best.
The Pilgrims "ventured chartless on the sea of
storm engendering liberty" leaving their old homes to
find a haven where they could worship God according

CHARACTER THROUGH STRUGGLE. 75
to the dictates of conscience. No Eden of ease se
cured by conformity to what they deemed wrong had
any power over them. "They were," says Lowell,
"the most perfect incarnation of the ideal the world
has ever seen."
Washington after eight years of hardship in the
service of his country during which time he had vis
ited his home but once for a few hours bade farewell
to his companions in arms and retired to Mt. Vernon
to end his days in peace and quietness. But the years
immediately following the Revolution have been well
called the "critical period of American history", for it
seemed as if all the struggle of the long years of war
would go for nothing. It was no time for Edens of
ease for any patriot and Washington did his part in
bringing about the Constitutional Convention, left Mt.
Vernon to become its presiding officer, and when its
work was finished became through its results the first
president of the country he had done so much to estab
lish. Franklin at the breaking out of the Revolution was
an old man, wealthy, and one who had received many
honors from the crown. He had everything to lose
and nothing to gain, but he turned his back on his
contemplated Eden of ease for his old age and devoted
himself to the service of his country giving time and
money without stint, crossing the ocean to secure the
favor of France, and finally at eighty-one sat as a mem
ber of the Constitutional Convention.
Paul fancied he could find repose and security for
his own beliefs by the persecution of those differing
from him; but the heavenly vision to which he was not

76 CHARACTER THROUGH STRUGGLE.
disobedient changed him from a persecutor to an
apostle and led him to exclaim, "Woe is unto me, if I
preach not the gospel." There were no struggles too
arduous, no difficulties too great, but in labors abun
dant, in prisons abundant, in stripes above measure,
in deaths oft, in perils of rivers, in perils of sea, in
danger of robbers, in labor, in hunger and- in thirst
did he testify to the love of Christ which animated his
soul. Paul speaks of the law of the flesh warring
against the law of the mind and in this struggle the
ascendency of spirit over flesh. For as many are led by
the spirit of God, these are sons of God.
The most perfect example of the law of struggle
and of victory through apparent defeat is shown by
the life of Jesus. He came unto his own and his own
received him not. The temptation of hunger, of spirit
ual pride, and love of power were met. The Eden of
Galilee was left for Jerusalem and there in the su
preme hour when the world needed a loyal Master,
Christ was true and in the thrice repeated prayer in
the garden, "O my father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass away from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as
thou wilt," showed the greatness of self-sacrifice. Then
from seeming defeat, the death on the cross, Chris
tianity became regnant as the redeeming force of the
world. But now you say all this is true. I recognize
struggle and its need in nature, in the world of affairs,
and in the lives of saints and heroes. Jesus Christ is
our master, through his struggle with the forces of evil
even to giving up his life for the sake of truth. But
is there not some way I can escape from the necessity

CHARACTER THROUGH STRUGGLE. TI
of struggle, some way to escape into ease and lassitude ?
No. Character comes only through struggle and the
making of character is the end and aim of life. The
family relation is not so much to make men happier as
make them better. Parents can be helpful to their
children but cannot remove from them the necessity
of struggle. Financial independence does away with
a certain kind of struggle but with it comes the ques
tion whether wealth shall be a means or an end; does
the money own the man or the man the money? The
story is told of a father who shielded his son from
struggle, solved all moral questions for him, would not
allow him to enlist in the War of the Rebellion, be
came in fact, an arbiter and judge for all his son's acts.
What was the result? Thrown on the world to shift
for himself after his father's death, his undeveloped
will, moral sense, and ideals were not strong enough
and he died a disgraceful death. Not slothful ease and
contentment, but sacrifice, effort, and struggle is the
law of life. Religion gives its sanction, for by means
of struggle upward do we become children of God.
The history of the world and man's spiritual life
begins with a garden and ends with a city, — the holy
city of new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven
from God and accompanied by the declaration that the
tabernacle of God is with men — the fitting culmina
tion of long ages of struggle and aspiration, the
domination of the spirit over the flesh, of mind over
matter, of the unseen over the seen, of the eternal
over the temporal. Difficulty, struggle, progress is
the law. Ever on and upward to higher and nobler
ideals. No dead fact stranded on the shore of the ob-

78 CHARACTER THROUGH STRUGGLE.
livious years, but living truth gained by struggle is
the permanent aspiration of humanity. Paradise lost
means manhood gained — victory through defeat, for de
feat is nothing but education ; nothing but the first step
to something better, struggle being ever the law of life.
God in his love and mercy drives men out of their
Edens of ease and selfishness into the world of strug
gle and thus into the achievement of character.
"Better to stem with heart and hand
The roaring tide of life, than lie
Unmindful, on its flowery strand,
Of God's occasions drifting by!
Better with naked nerve to bear
The needles of this goading air,
Than in- the lap of sensual ease, forgo
The godlike power to do, the godlike aim to know."

VI.

Theological Views.

"The heart makes the theologian." —
"He at least believed in Soul, was very sure of
God." — Browning. "The man
That could surround the sum of things, and spy
The heart of God and the secrets of his empire
Would speak but love. With love the bright result
Would change the hue of intermediate things
And make one of all theology." — Chalmers.
"And no man putteth new wine into old wine-skins;
else the wine will burst the skins, and the wine per-
isheth, and the skins: but they put new wine into fresh
wine-skins." — Mark ii. 22.

THEOLOGICAL VIEWS.

(Read to Ordination Council, Congregational Church,
Whiting, Vermont, December 2, 1902).
"Man, with the eternal fire of youth in his eyes,
has created gods in the past, and will create new> ones
in the future," is a statement in the realm of religion
that man is the measure of all things. Men may differ
as to what emphasis should be' put upon this statement,
but as a man thinketh so is he. Show me your man
and I will show you his god; or show me a man's god
and I will show you the man. The important ques
tion then in all religious thinking is, What is man?
Man, in any true sense of the word, is a unit, and must
be viewed as such; but, for purposes of analysis, man
may be said to be a physical being, a social being, an
intellectual being, and a spiritual being.
As a physical being, man comes into the world,
lives and dies; and in these facts is like all other ani
mals. He is not a creature by himself, nor does he be
long to a separate order or class from other animals.
As a physical being he is a vertebrate, a mammal,
and a primate, who has developed from a common
stock of primates, back to which we may trace the con
verging pedigree of monkeys and lemurs. Thus man
is a product of development, of evolution. But the
emphasis should be laid on what he is, not on what he

82 THEOLOGICAL VIEWS.
was once. As Dr. Courtney says, "I was an an
thropoid ape once, a mollusc, an ascidian, a bit of
protoplasm; but, whether by chance or providence, I
am not now. When I was an ape, I thought as an ape,
I acted as an ape, I lived as an ape ; but when I became
a man I put away apish things. Man's moral nature
is what it is, not what it was." Man and the ape then
are from a common ancestry, but one developed and
stayed an ape, while man became man, and is still de
veloping. The early history of man was almost wholly phys
ical. The struggle for existence taxed all his energies
and resources, and only the fittest survived. Scientists
tell us that from the earliest beginnings of life physical
variations went on, and that from the pectoral fin of
a fish developed the jointed fore-limb of the mammal
with its five-toed paw, and thence with slighter varia
tion the human arm with its hand, while the rudimen
tary pigment spot of the worm by the development
and differentiation of successive layers gave place to
the variously constructed eyes of insects, mollusca,
ahd vertebrates. Man still repeats the history of the
race, for the human embryo at certain stages of growth
is like that of various animals, and cannot be differ
entiated from them. The child in infancy, youth, and
manhood develops, and stages of savagery, barbarism,
and civilization can be easily traced.
Man then is a physical being, but he is also an in
tellectual being. As we have seen, man at first was
but an animal, and might have remained such but that
changes in the brain became more important and help
ful in the struggle for existence than mere physical

THEOLOGICAL YIEWS. 83
changes. Even at the present day, the physical dif
ferences between men are very slight, but intellectually
many men are as wide apart as the poles. Brute
strength is no match for intellectual power. The at
tribute that makes man superior to all other animals
is the power of thought. As Pascal well says, "Man
is but a reed, but he is a thinking reed; a blow may
crush him, but he unlike the animals knows from
whence the blow falls." Through the power of
thought man's life becomes an ordered one, the uni
verse is seen to be a coherent whole, the world and its
varied phenomena are reduced to unity. Man is cap
able of thinking God's thoughts after him. ,
Man is not only a physical and an intellectual be
ing, but also a social being. Man's association with his
fellows has been a strong factor in his development.
We are indeed members one of another. Man is natu
rally gregarious, and the home, the state, and the
church are the embodiment of this principle. One of
the great causes of man's intellectual and moral growth
was the lengthening of infancy and the consequent
increase of brain surface. Among many animals the
young are born, live and die within a comparative
short period of time, and their special aptitudes, ten
dencies, or instincts are born with them; but it is not
so with man, who comes into the world almost help
less, and continues to develop through a long period
of infancy reaching into years before the individual
becomes a mature man.
Two results of this prolonged period of infancy in
man are important. First, the prolonged period of
development means that the brain of man is plastic for

84 THEOLOGICAL VIEWS.
a long period of time, and is thus susceptible of devel
opment through education. The child is father of the
man, but years are needed to bring the promise and
potency to full fruition. Man is born not so much a
person as a candidate for personality. The second
result of prolonged infancy in man is the need of
parental care from birth to maturity, and from this
need written by God in the constitution of man came
the home. "Resting on earth, but leading up to heaven,
Like Bethel's ladder, home to man was given;
First ray of love in self's benighted life,
The care of other self in maid and wife.
Then pity quickened for the crying child,
Last, duty, and the man that roamed the wild,
Chief brute in cunning, but with death his goal,
Breathed on by God became a living soul."
Out of the family life, the care for others than one's
self have came morality, love, self-sacrifice, and with
out their ennobling influence man is but a brute. In
dividual selfishness gave place to altruism, and from
the home came the state, the church, and civilization,
as we see them today.
Man besides being a physical, an intellectual,
and a social being is also a spiritual being.
"For unless above himself he can
Erect himself, how poor a thing is man."
Man remains today what he always has been
and always must be by his constitution — a religious

THEOLOGICAL VIEWS. 85
animal. Whether the Greek "anthropos" etymolo-
gically signifies or not "one who looks upward," it in
that sense rightly designates man. Man in the dawn
ing of consciousness was differentiated from the ani
mal, for as we read in Genesis, "God created man in
his own image, in the image of God created he him."
The Platonic view of the soul as a spiritual substance,
an effluence from Godhead, which under certain con
ditions becomes incarnated in perishable forms of mat
ter, is another way of stating the same truth, "From
rudimentary beginnings through countless ages the
soul life has become the predominating element in
man," says John Fiske, "and whereas, in its rude be
ginnings, the psychical or soul life was but an ap
pendage to the body, in fully developed humanity the
body is but the vehicle of the soul." In the words of
Paul, "Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but
that which is natural, then that which is spiritual."
The fact that development becomes intellectual,
social, and spiritual shows that nature's work from the
beginning has tended towards the development of per
sonality, the greatest thing in the world, that man is
a self-conscious moral being, a person and not a
thing; that as a person man is endowed with con
scious free will and reason ; that he has physical, men
tal, social, and spiritual characteristics; that behind all
force and all appearance is a conscious purpose and
end; that evolution is God's method of work, that
through the study of man and the world we come to
God, the Maker, Creator, and Preserver of all life.
Theism is the only key, the only rational explanation to
the facts presented by man and the universe. Athe-

86 THEOLOGICAL VIEWS.
ism is a confession of intellectual and moral despair,
and makes the world a chaos and not a cosmos.
The ultimate end and explanation of all thought
and life is God. There is a power not ourselves which
makes for righteousness. Back of all movement there
must be a mover. Every house has an architect, and
the architect of the universe is God. Human thought
may transcend for a while the limits of time and space,
but as an ultimate fact it must postulate — "in the be
ginning God." The most sublime definition of God is
that of Jesus Christ to the woman of Samaria, "God
is a spirit." God is transcendent and immanent, in the
world and above it. He is the Creator and Source of
all life, and is infinite in wisdom and power. The
power that wells up within us in consciousness is
the same power that keeps the planets in their orbits
and controls the farthest atom of star dust, for in him
we live and move and have our being; nearer is he
than breathing, nearer than hands and feet. He is not
an absentee or idle God, but is active in the world and
among men, for there is "one God and father of all,
who is over all, and through all, and in all."
God reveals himself through nature. The green of
spring, the golden of summer, the purple of autumn,
the snow of winter, the recurrence of seed-time and
harvest, the ebb and flow of the tides reveal the work
ings of an orderly purpose. The universe is every
where the expression of intelligence,

"For the world was built in order,
And the atoms march in tune."

THEOLOGICAL VIEWS. 87
There is an underlying unity which is the result of
rational purpose, and is capable of being understood
because man is a rational being, and capable of think
ing God's thoughts after him. Through nature we
come to nature's God.
"The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament showeth his handy-work;
Day unto day uttereth speech,
And night unto night showeth knowledge."
God reveals himself to the conscience of man.
"There are two things," said Immanuel Kant, "which
fill me with awe because of their sublimity — the starry
heavens above us, and the moral law within us." God
is not the God of the dead, but of the living, and is
constantly revealing himself to his children. The
Quaker doctrine of the inner light is the expression of
a great truth, for God comes to us as to Elijah of old
not in the wind, the fire, or the earthquake, but in the
still small voice.
The Bible contains a revelation of God. It is not
the revelation itself, but the record of it, for the revela
tion was made through persons. The revelation is a
progressive one, for "first the blade, then the ear, and
then the full corn in the ear." Abraham gets a larger
glimpse of God than his neighbors, rises up out of the
mire of heathenism, and becomes the father of the
faithful. Gradually men come to a larger and nobler
idea of God as shown by Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, and
the other prophets. Job and the Psalms are the ex
pression of a widening and deepening thought. Then

88 THEOLOGICAL VIEWS.
the New Testament gives us the revelation of God
through Christianity. The truth of the Bible is not
true because it is in the Bible, but it is in the Bible be
cause it is true. The Bible is true because it makes
men true. The movement of Biblical interpretation is
from the letter to the spirit. In the words of noble
John Robinson, "The Lord hath more truth and light
yet to break forth out of his holy word."
Another revelation of God comes through literature,
and especially through the thoughts of the great poets.
The poems of Whittier entitled the "Eternal Good
ness" and "Our Master" strike a deep spiritual note ;
Tennyson's "In Memoriam" is an expression of faith
in spite of doubt. Browning's optimism is the ex
pression of his belief in the living God.
"God's in his heaven,
All's right in the world."
All inspiration is one, and differs not in kind but in
degree. The poets are the prophets of today.
"Slowly the Bible of the race is writ,
And not on paper leaves or leaves of stone,
Each age, each kindred adds a verse to it,
While sings the sea, while mists the mountains shroud,
While thunder's surges burst on cliffs of cloud,
Still at the prophet's feet the nations sit."
History shows there is a providence that directs
the affairs of men. The fact that the world is a moral
order is brought out in letters of gold on the pages of
history. Napoleon believed that God was on the side

THEOLOGICAL VIEWS. 89
of the heaviest artillery, but even he failed as soon as
he fought only for his own aggrandizement, and the
establishment of a Napoleonic dynasty. The lonely exile
at St. Helena must have realized that the stars in their
courses fought against Sisera. Babylon, Egypt, and
Rome have been weighed in the balance and found
wanting. Tyranny and moral deceit brought Charles
I. to the block. It was no accident that the Puritans
and not the Spaniards settled New England. Wash
ington and Lincoln were leaders raised up by God for
great needs, as were Moses and Joshua of old. There
is a providence in the history of nations and individuals
which shapes their ends rough hew them how they
will. God reveals himself then through nature, the moral
conscience of man, the Bible, literature, and especially
poetry, and the movements of history, but beyond and
above all these God reveals himself through person
ality. The supreme revelation of God is through the
person of Jesus Christ. "He who hath seen him hath
seen the father." "Love is God. Christ is our highest
and completest historic expression of love. Therefore
Christ is the Son of God, our interpreter of the divine,
our vision of the Father." Christ brings man to an at-
one-ment with God, and the value of his life and death
lies in its moral efficacy, it being a revelation of God,
showing his love, purpose and character as the Father
of all mankind. I reject the idea of a substitutional
or sacrificial atonement as dishonoring both to God and
man. The saving power of Christ consists in his
manifestation of the Father's love. The prodigal son
had no go-between between his father and himself,

90 THEOLOGICAL VIEWS.
for when he came to himself he went directly to his
father, who fell on his neck and kissed him. Jesus
Christ taught his disciples direct access to God, his
Father, their Father, and our Father. Christianity is
doctrine of a person, the power of an endless life. The
world is full of truth, men know the difference be
tween good and evil, but the great need is some dy
namic, some power to translate theory into fact,
ideals into character. Jesus Christ came that men
might have life and have it more abundantly. The
transcendent power of a divine life showing men the
love of God and redeeming their lives from sin is seen
in the person of Jesus Christ. Through him the fa
therhood of God and the brotherhood of man are made
a living reality. The life of Jesus Christ is the life
for all men to lead. We can follow him, for Christ
differs from other men in degree and not in kind. All
divinity is one, man is made in the image of God, and
contains a spark of divinity. Christianity, however, is
not a theory, a speculation, or a philosophy, but a life
and a living process. The true Christian is
"Not he that repeateth the name,
But he that doeth the will."
Jesus Christ is the supreme revelation of God the
Father, because he exemplified in his own life the
character of love. We repeat with the poets :
"O thou great Friend to all the sons of men,
Who once appeared in humblest guise below,
Sin to rebuke, to break the captive's chain,
And call thy brethren forth from want and woe.

THEOLOGICAL VIEWS. 91
We look to thee! thy truth is still the Light,
Which guides the nations, groping on their way,
Stumbling and falling in disastrous night,
Yet hoping ever for the perfect day.
Yes; thou art still the Life, thou art the Way
The holiest know; Light, Life, the Way of heaven!
And they who dearest hope and deepest pray,
Toil by the Light, Life, Way which thou hast given."
"Through him our first fond prayers are said
Our lips of childhood frame,
The last low whispers of our dead
Are burdened with his name.
O Lord and Master of us all!
Whate'er our name or sign,
We own thy sway, we hear thy call,
We test our lives by thine."
Salvation is of two kinds, social and personal, and
the strands of both are mixed together as in the pattern
pf a cloth. To change the figure they are the two sides
of the same shield. We are all dependent one upon
the other. Our standard of living, our thought, and
our religion are determined to a great extent by our
surroundings. The welfare of one is the welfare of
another. The failure of Baring Brothers in England
produces a money stringency in America. War in
China reduces the demand, and thus the price for cot
ton cloth. The boy brought up in the slums amidst
degrading influences tends to become a criminal; the
boy brought up amidst educational advantages tends to
become a scholar. The Chinaman tends to be a fol
lower of Confucius, the Turk a Mohammedan, and the

92 THEOLOGICAL VIEWS.
Italian or Spaniard a Catholic. No man liveth to him
self and no man dieth to himself. Society is a vital
organism and not a mere aggregation of mechanical
parts. There is a solidarity of the race and humanity
is being slowly lifted to nobler intellectual, niorai, and
religious heights. The home, the church, the school,
and the state are all working together for the elevation
of the race. All factors are needed, for from brute to
man, from savagery to civilization is a long cry, and
there is yet much to be done. The climbing of man
out of animalism into some "measure of the stature of
Christ" shows us, however, that
"Through the ages one increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of
the suns."
On the other hand, salvation is also individual.
Man has the power to change his surroundings, and to
a great extent makes his own heaven and hell.
"I sent my Soul through the Invisible,
Some letter of that After-life to spell;
And by and by my Soul return'd to me,
And answered 'I myself am Heaven and Hell.' "
Jesus Christ came to redeem men from their sins,
to show them a more excellent way, and to fill them
with love so that they will return unto their Father.
The prodigal son after spending his inheritance in
riotous living had a hard time of it, but the punish
ment was remedial and brought him to himself. "The
way of the transgressor is hard." Punishment must

THEOLOGICAL VIEWS. 93
continue as long as sin exists, for God hates the sin
while loving the sinner. God unites justice and mercy,
and we must say as of old, Abraham said at Sodom:
"Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" Other
wise we cannot account for all the good in the world,
or hope and work for the ultimate triumph of good
over evil. "Who fathoms the eternal thought?
Who talks of scheme and plan?
The Lord is God, He needeth not
The poor device of man.
The wrong that pains my soul below
I dare not throne above;
I know not of His hate . . .1 know
His goodness and His love.
And so beside the silent sea
I wait the muffled oar;
No harm from Him can come to me
On ocean or on shore.
I know not where His islands lift
Their fronded palms in air,
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care."
Salvation is by character and not otherwise. Any
effort to get a man into heaven is of little worth except
heaven be got into the man. Life is a school for the
training of character after the likeness of Jesus Christ.
Death is but a shifting of the scenes, and the same
moral law must hold in the next world as in this. God

94 THEOLOGICAL VIEWS.
is. behind the race, and his purpose must be a redeemed
humanity, for he has made us and not we ourselves.
If God is for us, who then can be against us? Any
other belief is the royal road to atheism.
"0 yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill.
To pangs of nature, sins of will,
Defects of doubt, and taint of blood;
That nothing walks with aimless feet,
That not one life shall be destroyed,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete."
From the foregoing belief as to God and man comes
a belief as to immortality. Man is made in the moral
image of God, and life is a school for the develop
ment of character. Self-conscious personality is a de
velopment of all life, the end and goal toward which
nature's work has always been tending. We expect
immortality for it, because as Professor T. H. Greene
well says, "A system providing for the development
of personality cannot be expected to issue in the ex
tinction of personality." The belief that personality is
the end and aim of creative energy, compels the belief
that the soul's career is not ended with this life. Other
wise life is a riddle without any meaning. Character is
denied time for coming to a full and beautiful fruition,
for our days here are as swift as a weaver's shuttle in
their going, and we bring our years to an end as a tale
that is told. The coming of Jesus brought immortality
to light, and gave the world a higher and nobler view

THEOLOGICAL VIEWS. 95
of life, and consequently of destiny. The propulsive
power of an endless life radiated from his personality,
and inspired his disciples after the seeming defeat of
all their hopes and aspirations by the crucifixion of
their Master to go out and preach unto all the world
not a dead but a living Christ. The old view of mingled
hope and doubt comes out in the words of Socrates:
"The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our
ways, I to die, and you to live — which is better, God
only knows." The Christian note of hope and faith is
thus struck by Paul, "For me to live is Christ, and to
die is gain. I am now ready to be offered, and the time
pf departure is at hand to be with Christ, which is far
better." Man then is a religious being, for God is our fa
ther; Jesus Christ is the spiritual leader of the race,
our image of the Father ; life is a school for the build
ing of Christian character and the home, the state, and
the church are institutions instituted by God for that
purpose; eternal life begins here and now, for God is
not the God of the dead but of the living. Man is not
what he is, but what he aspires to be. "Thou hast
made us for thyself, O Lord," says Augustine, "and
We are restless till we rest in Thee." Men come and
go, ideas change, thought is enlarged or narrowed,
nations wax old and perish, but behind and beyond all
change God remains; theology changes, but religion
abides. "Our little systems have their day,
They have their day and cease to be;
They are but broken lights of Thee,
And Thou, 0 Lord, art more than they."

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