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THE DIVINE FORCE IN THE
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The Divine Force in
the Life of the World
[Lowell Institute Lectures]

By
Alexander tylcKenzie
Author of
"A Door Opened," "Christ Himself," " Some Things
Abroad," " Cambridge Sermons "

VTCRESC1I

f

Lamson, Wolffe and Company
Boston, New York, London
MDCCCXCVIII
Copyright, 1S9S,
By Lamson, Wolffe and. Company
All rights reserved

S. J. FARKHILLl CO., BOSTON, U.S.A.

TO MY WIFE
WHOSE COUNSEL AND ENCOURAGEMENT
ARE MY CONTINUAL HELP

PREFACE
The contents of this book were recently given
as a course of lectures before the Lowell Insti
tute. They are now published by the request
and advice of many persons whose judgment is
with authority. No change has been made in the
substance of the lectures, and very little in their
form. Some passages which were omitted in the
reading are now printed in their place, and here
and there a sentence has been added.
The purpose of the book will be evident to any
one who reads it. I claim no novelty for this ; but
I cannot too strongly assert my conviction of the
profound importance of the one truth which has
controlled me from the beginning of the pages,
which I offer for the cheer and comfort of the
serious days in which we are living.
Alexander McKenzie.
The First Church in Cambridge,
October, 1898.

CONTENTS

PAGE
I. The Creation and Man  1
H. The Course of Man in the Oldest Literature . 51
HI. The Son of Man in early Literature . . 115
IV. The Purpose and Method of Christ . . . 165
V. The Cause of Christ in the Hands of Men . 219
VI. The Christian Forces  277
Index  327

I
THE CREATION AND MAN

THE CKEATION AND MAN

; It was by a somewhat singular process of
self-restraint that one whose life had been that
tif a parish ' minister undertook to treat the
themes of religion without preaching; to sep
arate them from feeling and appeal, from per
sonal experience and desire, and to regard them
simply as vital and interesting truths. Yet this
is possible. It is certainly necessary, lest the
truths of religion should become * too closely
identified with our own thought and habit of
thinking ; with advantages which we propose to
derive from them; with cherished ideas and
vested interests; with institutions and constitu
tions to which, in our suggestive phrase, we
" belong."
'While in its most serious meaning religion is
related to experience, if it is trustworthy we should
be able to stand on the outside of it, and to examine
it, and the evidences which attend it, in the light
of reason and conscience, of spiritual thought^ of
history, oil influence, and with the highest intel-

4 THE CREATION AND MAN
lectual and ethical honesty. If it appeals to
faith, as it must do because of its relation to
the unseen, it is a faith which rests on intelli
gence, and can justify itself with truth.
It is proposed to consider certain elements of
religion; and not the forms which have been
given to them. A truth, if it remains among
men, finds a body formed around it, with members
and organs, with structure and weight. The
form has its honor and its use. But it may come
to pass that this is more conspicuous than the
truth which is in it, which must shine through it,
with its light, perhaps, colored and diverted on
the way ; as a ray from the sun is shattered by
the prism which is thrust in its path. Yet it
should not be very hard to find the truth and to
regard it by itself. The universal interest in that
which may be termed religion is promising. The
gathering of materials belonging to it will be fol
lowed by the construction of the Temple. It is
the usual order, though not invariable in this kind
of building. If I may cite an ancient writer,
whose name I do not know, there are signs which
suggest " the removing of those things that are
shaken, as of things that have been made, that
those things which are not shaken may remain."
Others have spoken and written upon the vari
ous departments of religious thought and life,

THE CREATION AND MAN 5
and their words are with us, rich in learning, and
the more instructive because their breadth per
mitted depth. It were as dull as it would be
useless for me to attempt to do again what has
been done well. It were better that I should
recognize what has been said, and make use of it
so far as it will assist my design. As I look
toward the westering sun, whose slant beams fall
on many years which have been spent among
these things that we have in mind, I hold it for
myself, and for those who trust me, to be well de
termined that there is a permanent reality called
religion; with spirit and form, with word and life;
and that without extraordinary effort thoughtful
men and women can have it, and rejoice in it.
This must certainly be so, if there is the reality.
For in its nature religion must be universal, and
hence in its elements readily comprehended. It
is not, in its principles, subject to our control.
It expresses the true relation of man to God, and
that we have to learn and accept and employ.
It is given to us as the light is, and cannot itself
be changed in our hands.
When we have gone beyond the first principles
there is room for diversity of belief and statement,
and no one can complain that the room has not
been occupied. There is a variety of opinions,
reaching as far as thought can go ; affected by

6 THE CME'ATroNAND' MAN
lands arid times arid conditions, 'bymental traits
and desires, and appalling ¦ in character and
amount. Can we get away far enough to be free
from conditions, and find the comfort which is for
those who live "in the familiar thought of1 the
eternal years " ?
I shall refer frbm< time to time to the earliest
chapters of the Bible. i'Let me say once for all
that I do this, not because they are in the Bible,"
but because they are our oldest literature, which
entitles them to respect ; and they give a concise
and connected account of the times of which we
have no better record. They furnish an excellent
statement of early events. They assert a further
claim upon our regard, but that T shall not
press. There is a point at which, with full consent,
our . thought begins. I like the superb organ
tones of those primal words of the primal book,
" In the beginning, God." There reason and
imagination rest. The mind may wish to venture
on, but this is the last solid ground. Shall we
meet there, and, unable to gd farther north, come
down into the world of to-day ?
I see the difficulty of this method. It would
seem easier to start from our streets and ascend
until we ¦> come to' God in his solitude. But is it
not best to begin with the simple, and is not God

THE CREATION AND MAN %
clearer than the world ; concealed, confused, con*
tradictory to us who are in the midst of it, and
whirling around with it ? It is better to begin in
the mystery than to end in it. . The world is
plainer when we stand with God and look upon
it than is God when we stand in the world and
lift our eyes to Him. We cannot know Him per
fectly ; but the knowledge to which we can attain
illumines the earth. Mysteries are merely truths
which are not yet disclosed, and they are opened
before us in the light of his presence-
Religion in any intelligent use of the term must
confess a supreme mind and will, which can be
known and ought to be obeyed. It is more, 'than
knowledge and obedience, for its home is in the
deepest nature of man, where in its allegiance to
the true and its devotion to the right it governs
the life. We seem to be coming toward a service
able agreement concerning these things. : A prom
inent teacher of philosophy, not identified . with
the common religious thought, closed an address
not long ago with the remark, " I am certainly
disposed to insist that what the f^ith of our
fathers has genuinely meant by God is iden
tical with the inevitable outcome of a reflective
philosophy." Religion is in the highest sense personal, for it is
the worship, the loyalty, of ¦ the spirit who is man,

8 THE CREATION AND MAN
responding to the divinity of the spirit who is God.
If we ask what upon our side is the source of
religion and the religious idea, the answer is
prepared. THey. .have their source within the
life of man, and are inseparable from it. For the
life must, be lower than it has anywhere been
found to be devoid of the principle of religion.
But what is the source of the life of man which
brings religion within it? The answer again is
obvious. At the first, before all things, or ever
creation had issued into the void of space, was
the Eternal, the Almighty. " In the beginning,
God." I do not know when they were first
written, or spoken, or thought, those four words.
They come from a realm into which no discoverer
has penetrated. They keep their place in our
thought because they are true. They are at the
opening of the oldest book in use. It is accounted
a book of religion, but that should not lessen its
authority. There are the words, with unrecorded
centuries upon them. It is of more than ordinary
interest, to think of a man whose name and land
we do not know, of whom we have no sign but in
these syllables and the sentences which follow
them, finding his way into his undetermined
past, and telling to his children, and through
them to the world, this simple, massive truth, and
relating the deeds which in grandeur stand

THE CREATION AND MAN 9
within it. The first chapter of the Book needs
no name to give it majesty. Whence itr eame bq
one can tell.
Here I might rest, so far as this is concerned.
If I add a fifth word, the universe starts into
being: . . . " In the beginning God created."
Here an entirely new word appears, and a new
fact. Language and history are enriched in one
event. Science receives a stupendous endow
ment. Alone in his eternity He dwelt and all
life was his. It is beyond our thought, but not
so far beyond as would be the denial of it. We
willingly allow our thought to flow out; to the
Eternal and there to rest among the mysteries
which do not weary us. What resources for
Companionship the Creator had in his own being
we need not now inquire. From the fellowship
in our own nature we infer with confidence of
reasoning the perfect fellowship within his infi
nite being, and of this many things have been
written. I am concerned here only with the
presence of the life, whose reality is the earliest
truth. By his will, through his power, He made
that to be which was not, and could not other
wise become. " The Universal Cause, itself un
caused," by its living will summoned creation.
He must have delighted to create. How
readily we use the new word, failing to think

10 THE CREATION AND MAN
of the fathomless mysteries which it contains !
Creation! Who shall describe it? Its results
we perceive ; but by what process have they
come? Creation is not the combining of mate
rials, for there were no materials.. It is not the
erection of a building, or the construction of a
mechanism. Creation is the outreaching of en
ergy, thought, will, life, into forms which they
had not i known. But when and how did this
come to pass ? With the advance of our knowl
edge this constantly recurring question is not
more easily answered. We have many things
relating to the world, and the worlds, and their
life, but they have kept this secret. If we. no
longer imagine the Almighty upon some day
which is a little beyond our calendar making a
universe and sending it on its course; if we
cherish the later announcement that it was by
almost interminable processes that the universe
was produced, — the nebular dust with no discov
erable motion gathering itself into stars, and the
jetsam and flotsam of chaos stretching themselves
in unmeasured planes to make the earth, — still the
time, and the way, refuse to declare themselves.
But earth and sky, and air and sea, confess the
divine hand that made them, and with their
thousand voices utter their praise.
I have fallen into the old way in saying the

THE CREATION AND MAN 11
divine hand. They were not hand-made. But
the language has very high authority and is "con
venient. It is hard to describe what no one has
ever thoroughly told.
" In the beginning, God." He was all the life.
Religion and science are in accord. Many have.
spoken of life. The last official utterance which
has come to my notice was made by one who is,
I suppose, as well entitled to speak as any one in
the world. In the distinguished medical congress
in Moscow last year Professor Virchow, of Berlin,
gave an address upon " The Continuity of Life."
" Life," he said, " had no other origin than from
Life itself, and this is one of the truths which the
labors of the pathologist and biologist of the
present century have established beyond the pos
sibility of doubt." We knew that before. But
it is well to hear it again from time to time. He
thought it necessary to call it to the minds of the
hundreds of physicians who had flocked to the
Kremlin. He closed' with the hope " that the
final mystery of life might be solved through
similar studies. It is in their laboratory that the
key will be forged which shall unlock the door
which still holds us back from full knowledge of
the processes of life." I cannot think there is the
remote probability that this learning will ever be
acquired. Meantime we shall continue to live.

12 THE CREATION AND MAN
We are confirmed in our knowledge of the one
origin of life. In this is our hope, nor does
science " waft us home the message of despair."
"In Him was life." He was the life. In that
life, with it, of it, for it, He created. The pur
pose to create was in the beginning, an eternal
thought. In that sense creation was eternal, for
his purposes do not change. It could then, in a
large measure, have its value for Him. His idea
was the reality. It is easiest to retain the ordi
nary conception and to think of the creation as an
event in time.
From another point of view it has been reasoned
in this way : God is spirit, and it is the essence
of spirit to manifest itself ; and creation " is the
eternal self-revelation of God." He was not
dependent upon it, yet creation was certain to
come. At any rate, its coming was reasonable
and desirable. To have this shut Up in his inten
tion could not have been permanent ; for, in the
first place, creation was to be for others also ; and,
again, it was to be his delight to call the others
into being, that they might enjoy the earth and
the heavens, and receive his love which needed
true hearts for its home, and return it in their
love which must needs be the free and personal
offering of a real soul. The Almighty, as it
were, went beyond Himself. The terms are sadly

THE CREATION AND MAN 13
inaccurate — his thought reached away, his will
carried his life out, and gave it larger being and
form. What the first forms were is of little con
sequence in comparison with the fact that they
were ; that the created was in the presence of the
eternal. It is for the students of life and form to
find out what this beginning was, and to tell us
who are busy with other things. " If the whole
body were an eye, where were the hearing ? "
Science has been tardy, but it has come to our
help at last. We shall not let it go till it has
blessed us, and its full blessing no one of us shall
see. Science is prophet and psalmist, proclaim
ing truth, and teaching us to rejoice and be glad
in it. I believe it has been called the handmaid
of religion. The term is not accurate. Religion
has no handmaid. It is the associate, the friend,
of religion. They work for one end — the
knowledge of God, to the intent that He may be
worshipped. Science without religion lacks its
true and highest purpose. Rehgion without
science is likely to be sentiment, and not virtue.
It is now evident that the first created forms
were simple. There was a force working for
their enlargement and continuation. What was
needed was a starting ; a living seed,, which hi
the ages that were plentiful might be made a
tree, a grove, a forest. We find it difficult to see

14 THE CREATION AND MAN
the beginning. It would have been difficult then
to see the end. Indeed, we do not see it now.
But the result was to be accomplished, and not
by some power tnade inherent in things. This
which had been made had not been cast off in its
infancy, to live if it could. The divine life was
to continue to be its life. The shears did not
come near the thread. " That cruel Atropos "
was not yet invented. The one life was to be
the reason and ground of its existence. The
presence of the Creator was to be in all things.
He coUld not be identified with them. They were
not God. He could withdraw his life and care,
and they would vanish away. They were not so
much as the form or the raiment of the Creator.
They were his works, and He was before them,
in the strength and glory of eternal being. They
Could be multiplied without limit. Other things
might be set in their places. But in and after all
changes He Would remain the same, administer
ing his " undisturbed affairs." He was not all in
the things he had made, restricted by them, em
bodied in their bounds. If I may vary the iitnage,
the ocean is in every bay and harbor along the
coast: This is the Only and sufficient ground of
their being. If the ocean should withdraw, they
wotild: all cease to be. The tides of the ocean
are felt oh the shore. It is a poor illustration.

THE CREATION AND MAN 15
The ocean is in the harbors, but is not dependent
upon them. They are utterly dependent upon the
ocean. It wears away the shore and makes new
harbors for itself, but it does not imprison its
waters. The Atlantic rolls to-night about Minot's
Ledge, but it is three thousand miles to Fastnet
Rock, and the ocean reaches all the way. No
meridian makes a mark upon its waves. So is it
with the divine life. It is the ocean flowing into
the bays. We must recognize " an omnipresent
energy, which is none other than the living God."
"The one eternal and ultimate reality is the
absolute life of God."
We are reminded of the youth of our present
views of the creating of the world when we find a
man as recent as Plato describing the disorder of
sensible things, and the Deity as making each
thing harmonize with itself and with other things,
and then out of them constructing the universe.
We are not troubled by this simplicity. After all
there is the Deity. If we have Him, " sensible
things " come readily, and are obedient. No one
has yet traced the intermediate steps between the
Eternal and the world as we have seen it. But
the main facts are clear, and it is these which
impress us. We are driven to the use of our own
language when we speak of God, and the language
is riot adapted to such service. Yet it does its

16 THE CREATION AND MAN
best; and if we have imagination, and are at
liberty, the assistance is real. It is in this spirit
I hazard the remark, that it was a supreme
moment with the Almighty when He gave to his
eternal design the form which was named crea
tion. It was the free, glad, ready outworking of
his wisdom and power. We can almost think his
delight when for the first time " the morning stars
sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for
joy ; " and the content with which He " saw every
thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very
good." Life is generous, munificent. It gives
itself. He was generosity, for He was love ; and
this became creation. The divine thought rejoiced
when it was literally born into the world. We
connect the Creator and creation, and properly.
Each is disclosed in the other. God is revealed
in his works, and the meaning of. the works is
found in Him. We know nothing completely,
but we nurse the incompleteness of our knowledge
when we sever it from that to which it is vitally
united, and regard it altogether by itself. The
heavens declare the glory of God and God declares
the glory of the heavens. They have their real
value in the shining through them of his light.
Nature is a convenient and elastic term, and all
that it contains deserves our notice. But in its
connection with the unseen, divine original it has

THE CREATION AND MAN 17
its permanent meaning. It has been honored in
many ways ; but the most graceful tribute ever
paid to it is at the opening of the earliest record,
where in a single brief sentence, without a break,
the Eternal stands with his works. His glory
reaches over, and draws the worlds to itself and
holds them there. Not even a comma separates
God and the created. "In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth." Astronomy,
Geology* the whole science of nature has never
written a more majestic line. " In the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth." These
are the words of the record which throughout is in
accord with them. The account is unparalleled for
the combining of scientific and religious truth ; or,
rather, for stating religion in the terms of science
and giving to science the spirit of religion. In
this it differs essentially frOm all other ancient
stories of creation.
Many writings which have come to be associ
ated with it maintain this fellowship between God
and his works. They are under his control, are
used in his service, are clothed with his power.
His truth is continually illustrated by means of
his works. Not poets only, prophets, apostles,
join God and his works in their thoughts. The
great Teacher made all things, even the grass at
his feet, explain the ways of God. He made the

18 THE CREATION AND MAN
facts of nature illustrate and assist the truths of
human life. He pointed out the " natural law in
the spiritual world." Thus we have our book of
religion and it is a book of nature. The heavens
bend over its pages, the ocean rolls around them,
and the fields bloom with providence. Mountains
and hills tower above the lines, and rivers run
through them ; among them rise trees in whose
branches birds build their nests. Trace these all
back, from book to book, from age to age, arid
you come at length, you are glad to come, to those
earliest words, so compact with meaning, so rich
with information, so full of scientific truth, —
the august, lasting verities of the universe.
I do not propose to read the weighty statements
which follow that upon which I have delayed.
For me there is a wonderful charm in the first
pages of the first book. So far as I am acquainted
with literature there is nothing to compare
with them in the magnificence of their themes
and the grandeur of their treatment, and the
tremendous hold they get on thought and life.
I have given to the record no name. I have
asserted no claim for it, except that it is a
writing, and that it has reached us from an
illimitable past. Sorne one made it. There is no
reason to question his belief that he was telling
the truth. Whence he gained his knowledge and

THE CREATION AND MAN 19
assurance he does not tell. His sentences are
strong and clear, and it is very remarkable that
they so well anticipate what could not be known
by observation for a great many centuries. I
think there is nothing in the history of thought
more surprising than the general agreement of
our later scientific knowledge, acquired by long
and progressive study, with the condensed state
ments of this man to whom all that we name
science was unknown, undreamed. The vexed
question how Shakespeare could have written
the plays which bear his name is nothing com
pared with the question how this man, who did
not even put his name to his work, could have
written the first chapter of the book " commonly
called Genesis." To ascribe the book to Moses
does nothing to resolve the matter,, for the
account itself is evidently from a much earlier
time. To call it tradition is of no service, for
tradition is the thought of men as really as if it
were written. And where did the tradition come
from ? No system of ancient cosmogony can be
compared with this in value, as this has been
determined in recent years. I am not using the
account to teach either science or religion, but as
an excellent statement of events which antedate
history. It .could not well be. improved for sub
stantial accuracy, for simplicity, directness, rever-

20 THE CREATION AND MAN
ence, modesty, and the poetic beauty and grace
which at once enlist and inspire the imagination.
The old record was not made for a text-book in
natural history. It was to present God as the
Creator of all things, and this it does. It has
been placed at the opening of a series of books
whose design is to show the ways of God with
men. It does efficiently what it was made to do.
But beyond this we have a remarkable agreement
with our later knowledge, in the thought of the
Creator, the progress of events, the advance from
the simple to the complex, from lower to higher
forms, by indeterminate periods. It is not of
vital importance that it should be in close and
perfect agreement with all which is now known.
If our knowledge were more complete, I think the
coincidence would be even more astounding than
it is now.
There are moments which are of startling inter
est. I had these things in mind when a few
weeks ago I met on the street a very eminent
geologist, the head of a scientific school, who told
me as the result of his study that he believed
the first living creature was a fish. Others have
reached the same conclusion, but it came to me
then with special force. I opened my Bible as
quickly as I could, and found that a man far away
in the wilderness of the ages had written as the

THE CREATION AND MAN 21
first words in his catalogue of living things, " And
God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly
the moving creature that hath life." Was that a
lucky guess, or a flash of genius, or the fortunate
achievement of a poetic imagination? Who was
this peerless man ? Where is his successor ?
Our respect for Adam is variable. But for this
man, who traces day by day, age by age, the form
ing of the heavens, the building of the earth, the
peopling them, by slow gradation, with fish that
swim, and birds that fly, and cattle that roam the
meadows, — who can have less than a proud admi
ration for him? What else of his period has
lasted ? Yet here are the words that come from
antiquity, once written, once spoken, and never
lost ; which we read in the light of to-day and do
not care to change; which expand under our
eyes, but are never affrighted by our search.
They are like notes upon the sheet, whose melody
has not been discovered until now, when men
whose brain and fingers are full of music wake
the silence into sound.
There are other separated accounts of the
former things. They serve to mark the sublimity
of this. They resemble one another, and all
reach into a time when things were not as we
behold them. They find a beginning, and the
stages of advance, and at times they give us the

22 THE CREATION AND MAN
story of creation in attractive forms. But they
do not commend themselves to our judgment.
They do not begin with the Creator. Usually
they start with chaos, out of which emerge even
the gods. With discordant beginnings, the course
and the meaning of nature could not be the same.
Yet the other systems are of interest. But
they are complex, mechanical, making much of
the apparatus for constructing worlds. They
are in bold contrast with the dignity and sim
plicity and quietness which pervade the descrip
tion which comes to us from the Hebrews. The
account which we have deserves the more praise,
if, besides being formed, it has kept the integrity
of its life when all besides has suffered change.
One is almost compelled, and quite permitted,
to think that this account of events which no
man saw had a divine origin, and was preserved
-and transmitted under special care.
I do not wish to claim too much for one man,
as if he alone possessed this archaic information
which, by another route, has now reached us.
Probably there was a common body of tradition,
or belief, among the peoples of Western Asia. If
this is so, it was given to the writer, or writers, of
the first chapters of Genesis to receive the tradi
tion, to kriow its value, to separate from it the
degrading ideas which are found in other systems,

THE CREATION AND MAN 23
— polytheism, nature-worship, and all which he-
longed with them, — and to transmit the knowl
edge in a form worthy of its character. In this
the Creator is before all things, and He is to be
worshipped, and not the works which He has
made. The simple, spiritual, divine tone pervad
ing the record is unexampled in those times, un
surpassed in any time. No one will understand
me to say that these writers had any idea of that
we call science ; any intuitions of our discoveries,
and foregleams of our theories. But they knew
that God was first, and that He created, and that
life ascended to the highest form they knew,
which is the highest form we know. We are not
able elsewhere to reach so far into the past. We
read the story of nature in the rocks, turning the
leaves and spelling out the words. But the
broken record is legible only about " half way
down in the history of organic events," and it is.'
not likely that the earlier pages will be recovered.
An eminent naturalist states it in this way : " The
dead past has not only buried its dead, but has
quite effaced the burial places."
Our account of the creation is remarkable, also,
for what it does not say. Compare the traditions,
still preserved in books of stone, which made the
learning of other peoples, only to admire the
clearness and reasonableness of these unstudied

24 THE CREATION AND MAN
annals. Of method nothing is detected. Order
is declared with surprising intelligence, but no
bounds are set around the working of the Eter
nal, who has the ages in his keeping, with a
thousand years, a thousand centuries, for a day.
It has been left for men to find out the ways of
the Creator, and to study his works; to match
life with life, and age with age ; to search the
rocks and bring their hidden treasures to the
light ; to explore the heavens and learn how stars
and suns were made ; how the bands of Orion
were woven and the sweet influences of the Plei
ades are distilled. The argument from design to
the Designer has been contested, but the principle
survives. Might it not be made to include the
obscurities among which we live, which give to
the mind good exercise and fine training ? The
pearl may have been placed at the bottom of the
sea to give the diver the excitement of plunging
into the deep and rising with his prize. There is
•thoughtfulness in leaving the world's making un
written, save in its deep lines, that we might have
the pleasure of finding it out; hunting its mean
ings and methods, and profiting by the mental
athletics. What privation it would have been to
discovery and research, if the written account had
been complete ! If getting truth is better even
than having it, the world is well adjusted to our

THE CREATION AND MAN 25
advantage. It is to the credit of scientific and
philosophic study that its results are so liberally
confirmed by the words of strange origin which
begin our literature. Learning is far from com-
pletej as we gratefully confess; but the grand
truths which it now presents with enlarging en
terprise have high sanction in the laden sentences
which so long revealed and so long concealed the
heaven and the earth. It is a large world which
lies about us ; which has come forth from those
far-off events. I have not tried to count them,
but I have been told there are now upon "this
globe a million, or a million and a half, species of
animals and plants, — the margin is liberal, — and
that there have been a hundred times as many, in
inconceivable variety. We look up, and millions
of suns shine in the firmament we call our own,
and beyond this are thousands of firmaments with
their bright worlds moving in grandeur and splen
dor, in order and quietness, by a force no optic
glass can discover, while the careless centuries
watch their flight. We see so little ! We know
so little ! There are both wit and wisdom in the
comment of Cardinal Baronius : " The intention
of Holy Scripture is to teach us how to go to
heaven, and not how the heavens go." We can
not bring creation into the terms which describe
our own work. Yet it, is instructive to find the

26 THE CREATION AND MAN
laws which rule in lesser matters prevailing in the
larger. Even analogy and similitude have their
value. It was interesting to have one who had
been President of Harvard College argue for the
reasonableness of miracles from the law of the
parabola; and to hear our American mathema
tician say that " the laws of mathematics are but
the expression of the thoughts of God ; " and that
the mathematician must cling to "the spiritual
view of the origin of the universe." It was a
Christian who wrote, "There is one Lawgiver."
The beginning of all is found in the strong lines
which are the record of creation, with the recur
ring refrain which marks the periods which have
no boundary lines, " And there was evening, and
there was morning, one day."
But the crown of creation we have not yet
reached. We have kept in the order of nature.
A few words complete the history we have
admired. It is a moment for stillness. The
earth stretches around us. The stars are over
us. The fishes range the seas. The birds are in
the air. Life moves silently in its work. There
is no one here to think of this, and to enjoy it, on
all the hills, over all the fields. It is virtually an
untenanted world; not deserted, but never in
habited. Rest for a moment, and think on the
first man whose foot pressed the earth, whose eye

THE CREATION AND MAN 27
looked through the trees. Human history has
felt no words more eventful than these : " And
God created man in his own image." , Where
did the writer we are coming to trust learn that?
Where he learned the things he had told before.
If he had written more fully ! Perhaps his hand
was held, and not impelled as some have
imagined. It is certain that he was nearer our
own time in his thought than most have been in
the years between us. There is a modern rather
than a mediseval tone in his entire narrative. It
is steadily progressive, and there are no breaks in
it. God in the beginning. Light, earth, sea;
seed, grass, trees ; sun, moon, stars ; living, mov
ing creatures in the sea, and on the land, and
above the earth, — it reads like a family history;
and the increasing life reaches its consummation
in man. The love which He is called for man,
for some one to be loved ; for one to enjoy life
and delight in God.
It is natural to suppose there was a relation
ship among all things which had received life
from the one source of life. The distinct
periods, whose limit our author appears not to
have known, would give time for the life to take
on its higher forms, on its way to the highest.
What are the stages for, unless it were this?
" There was evening and there was morning, one

28 THE CREATION AND MAN
day. And there was evening and there was
morning, a second day." The original record has.
a kindly look toward the scientific beliefs which
now prevail. If the ancient annalist knows how
long we have been in reaching them, I am not at
all sure but he smiles at our laggard ways. The
connection of man on his physical side with the.'
world he lives in and with other forms of life
seems to be demonstrated. Those who have
given the most attention to this matter, and are
the best qualified to have an opinion, are agreed
that this is true. We are indebted to them. for
the pains they have taken to make1 us. intelligent
concerning ourselves and our, past. They startled
us at first, and there seemed to be reason for
alarm. But that is over; and the principle, vari
ously modified and defined, appears ¦ to be estab
lished- among thoughtful men. This has come
about rapidly enough. It is wise to be careful,
that is, conservative, in affairs of importance,
especially those with which we are not familiar.
If a discovery, or a new theory, has any virtue it
will be willing to wait till its credentials can be
examined. There is little danger at present that
scientific discoveries will be kept waiting longer
than is for their good. The things which have a
right to live will live. There is no need of saying
now — I am sorry there was ever need of saying

THE CREATION AND MAN 29
— that the new views to which I have alluded,
which concern the life of men, do not in the least
separate the world from God. If there is any
difference to be imagined, it would appear that
the continual presence of the Creator would be
even more necessary through the gradual rise of
man from a humble origin than in a sudden crea
tion. "In the beginning God" is firmer than
mountains and all hills, or "the great globe it
self." " The living will " must endure, and move
in all things. There are more things to be studied
and known than before, but the truth we knew
before remains. It is not all an open country-
traversed by wide roads. But the way is clearer
than it was. The increase of our knowledge of
God's ways should enlarge our confidence in Hirn.
There is in Genesis another account of the. cre
ation of man of which we. know no more than of
the first. Somewhere, at some time, by some one,
it was. beheved, and told, and written, and at
length placed beside the first. This writer did
not describe creation in general. He may have
seen the earlier description or tradition, or have
heard of it. He began by saying that "the
heaven and the earth were finished, and all the
host of them." This lacks the grandeur of the
other. . Then he described the seventh day, the
hallowed, day. of rest; the day made for man,

30 THE CREATION AND MA%
who, even to this time, does not know the bless
ing that is in it. While in many things we
have advanced, we have lost ground in regard to
this. A few words of the first watering of the
earth ; and he wrote his account of the creation
of the man. " And the Lord God formed," — '
that is much like the other, "God created," —
" formed man of the dust of the ground," — the
other writer had shown the dust, — " and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life; and man
became a living soul." This may have been
by one act, or by a long-continued bestowal of
life. The important truth is that it was done, and
a man was "a living soul;" not merely "a living
soul," but one constituted by the breath or life of
the Creator. Our fathers read this, and learned
its principal truth — God made man. They knew
that as well as we do. But how was the dust
gathered up into the shape we bear ? They did
not know. If at this time any one knows, he is in
hiding. The drawing by the vanished hand is so
strong that it cannot be mistaken for portraiture.
The story is well guarded. The meaning cannot
be missed. I think there is nothing more daring
and realistic than this. Indeed, I do not think of
anything in all the books more bold and impres
sive. I cannot even try to imagine it, for the
attempt to give it form would take from its sub-

THE CREATION AND MAN 31
limity. This is the daring picture which makes us
silent. The Almighty pressed his lips against the
nostrils of the man who was made of the dust of
the ground, and breathed in his own breath, and
man became " a living soul," a divine soul, with
the breath of the Creator for its highest life. It is
a picture, a sculpture, a description ; but the one
vital truth which cannot be missed or misinter
preted is this : the breath of God unchanged
became the breath of man to whom it was given ;
man received life of the life of God. With this
divine life he was a living soul. At that moment
rehgion became possible. For the first time there
was in the new earth a person whom God could
love ; upon whom He could lavish his love, in the
blessedness of loving, and one who could respond
with love. If it was a delight to make a world,
it was much more a delight to make a man who
could enjoy it. It was a new earth when a man
had come to live in it, and a new heaven when he
watched the courses of the stars. It was Godlike
to make a man. Love imparts itself and needs a
man to receive it. Love gives joy, and a man
loved of God will live in joy, and love gives him
being. Love is in the divine life, and in the life
which is born of it, and by reason of his life of
love man can live in the joy of God. Thus love
interprets life at its beginning.

32 THE CREATION AND MAN
Here is the mystery of life. We have it, and
do not know what it is. There are no words to
make it clearer. Alone in its presence we are
silenced. I recall an impressive hour long ago,
when an eminent naturalist uncovered the heart
of the smallest bird. It was only a description,
but the listeners were hushed as in worship,
when the point of life was reached, revealecL un
veiled. He parted the soft feathers, divided the
delicate skin, opened the fragile framework ; and
there was the tiny heart, quietly beating through
it all, its hidden forces working uncomplainingly,
and holding the fair creature in being, with a skill
and strength which all the cunning of the world
could not imitate. It was a moment which has
never lost its awe, when I saw the life of the
Eternal throbbing in the heart of a humming
bird. " And man became a living soul." This is lit
eral. This is the important fact in creation, and
is more easily understood than the events which
surround it. The picture is simpler than the
frame, and less showy. A very strong outline
was drawn, and it was left for men of a later time
to fill it in. Man was essentially allied with the
Carth, and with forms of life other than his own.
He came by slow degrees from a very simple con
dition to the estate which he has held for the more

THE CREATION AND MAN 33
recent centimes, *ffis we are taught. He was
also especially, allied with God by his life, and
particularly by his spiritual life, in which was
his likeness to the Creator. What was the hving
soul which man became ? By this he diverged
from the: hving creatures around him, not disown
ing the relationship, but going away in paths of
his own. It was the spiritual, to use the common
term; the psychical, to use the word endeared
to, philosophy, which was to have control, and to
be advanced. This was the man, who of his supe
rior endowments, was to have rule over his humble
neighbors. This is the man for whom religion is
possible. I am especially desirous to emphasize the fact
of Ufe. I intend to do this all the way. It is the
continuous thought of these pages. I might have
entitled them One Life. In the beginning God.
There was no life but God. Of his own life He
created all that liyed. The process of creation is
not disclosed. In its nature it is "unthinkable."
Some things are known which entered into it,
and we may discover more. But we shall never
comprehend creation. Things did not come'
forth, from God, out of his, own being, as fruit
comes from a tree, as light from the sun. He
created, and to all that lived He gave life ; gave
of. his own life; or, if one thinks He gave aU infe-

34 THE CREATION AND MAN
rior life, that must have come from his life and
have been like it. Only life gives life and there
was no life but God. The vital point, then, the
meaning, is this, that all things live by the life
of God. We are startled, silenced, when we
think that the oak and the ivy are one life ; the
Cedar of Lebanon and the " primrose by a river's
brim ; " the angel and the man ; the archangel
and the primrose ! Of course life could be given,
and was given, in higher and finer measure to a
bird than to a bush ; to a man than to the un
discovered form next below him. It was so very
much more, and in a form so very much higher,
that we may well call it a different life. I have
wished to point out the one origin of life, and it
is only as it relates to the life of man that we
are now interested in it. There is his common,
lower relationship, in being, existence, vitality.
Then comes the higher, in thought, affection,
will, and tins is man's. Man, only man upon
the earth, received directly the breath of the
Eternal, and became a living soul, and was in
the image and likeness of his Maker. He is man
by virtue of this which allies him with God, not
by that which gives him kindred with the life
that is in the world. He received as the greater
gift, the divine gift, which was to belong to him
and to no other, the life of his Creator in its

THE CREATION AND MAN 35
highest forms, spiritual and eternal. With this
creation was completed. The life would need to
be continued by Him who gave it. The divine
gift of life would not be withdrawn. "The
greatest contribution of modern science to human
thought " is " the idea of the continuity of caus
ation "-^-.such is its own claim. Man's chief inter
est is in his new life which makes him the child
of God. He may not disown the physical, but
he must be constantly mindful of the spiritual
life. He must look up. He must and can live
in God, with thought, affection, purpose, con
duct. If we think of God as immanent in all
that lives, as regards man He -is also transcend
ent, above, beyond, to be trusted and worshipped.
The divine image must be steadily enlarged by
thinking of God, conversing with Him, abiding
under his influence, under the spell of his per
fection, changing his desire into thought and
deed, growing up "in all things into Him."
No limit is to be discerned. "Godly" is an
eternal word. It is the largest term which can
be applied to man. To be " like Him " is the
brightest vision of the New Testament. The
reason of it is here, in this divine nature whereby
a man is the child of God.
If I have wandered, I could not. help it. Let
us return. The breath of God is the true life of

36 THE CREATION AND MAN
man. It is the Man. We call it the Soul. It
were better to call it the Man. This, not less
than this, is his distinctive character.
But when was the soul given ? When did man
begin ? I turn to the old record which has proved
its right to respect, but it does not commit itself,
though a single word would have told us all1 the
writer knew. It looks as if man was made of the
dust, and that when this form was completed and
endowed with common life, the Hving soul was in
a single act breathed into it. This has been a
common theory and has not been disproved. One
purely scientific view sees in the soul a develop
ment of faculties which are recognized in the
associated forms of life. It traces the process of
the increase through the gradual appearance of
spiritual life. But in this method there is oppor
tunity for special additions of spiritual life at any
time when the advance needs to be promoted, and
the final result hastened. The belief that this was r
a distinct gift, added to all that was before it, is
most in accord with the usual, continuous thought
of men, and is naturally suggested by the narra
tive in Genesis. It is a fascinating study, but we
have to do with it now only so far as to assure
ourselves that man has a spiritual nature and that
this is the gift of God. It is preeminently the
life of God which is given only to man. It is a

THE CREATION AND MAN 37
very old question, in what way man received his
soul. Traducianism and Creationism are obsolete
terms ; but time was when they were names to
fight for. Tertullian in the Western Church
taught that the. soul was once for all created and
then by natural generation propagated with the
body. Later, Augustine is found wrestling with
the problem, and offended, by Tertullian, turning
to Jerome with a cry for light. " Teach me there
fore, I beg you, what I should teach, what I should
hold ; and tell me if it be true that souls are made
now and separately with each separate birth;
. . . not all from the one soul, of the first
man, but for every man a separate soul, like that
one for Adam." The question was of importance
by reason of its connection with other doctrines.
Some held that for each individual a new soul
was created and added to -the body and its life.
While still others,, among them Origen and many
in the Eastern Church, accepted' the teaching of
Plato, that human souls existed from the begin
ning, and through the birth of a child attained to.
their actual and personal life. I touch on these
theories, which once were alive, that we may mark
how little of novelty there is in the subjects of
thought. "Whence came the soul we no more
know than we know whence came the universe,"
is the remark of a teacher among us. The com-

38 THE CREATION AND MAN
parison is good. If we no more know, we no
less know. Pardon me if I let another, at once
philosopher and historian, tell us how, in his
opinion, the case stands to-day. " The Platonic
view of the soul, as a spiritual substance, an
effluence from Godhood, which under certain con
ditions becomes incarnate in perishable forms of
matter, is doubtless the view most consonant with
the present state of our knowledge." " The Lord
God breathed irito his nostrils " is the primitive
form of the more elegant expression, " an effluence
from Godhood." Thus extremes meet; Genesis
and to-day's philosophy. It is to the credit of
both. Nothing since Plato, on the essential truth !
All I am concerned with is that the soul hfe is
from God and of God, and must always be related
to Him; for He must sustain what He has be
stowed. It was a most notable event when man,
the being with a soul, appeared. May I let other
masters speak ? " The law of generational advance
has in man undergone a sudden, indeed we may
say a paroxysmal, alteration. . . . Our own
species appears, from the point of view of its
supreme success, not only most exceptional, but
absolutely alone in the history of this sphere.
. . . If to-morrow man should disappear from
the planet, there is no reason to suppose that by
any process of change a similar creature would

THE CREATION AND MAN 39
be evolved, however long the animal kingdom
continued to exist." The appearance of man
opened " an entirely new chapter in the mysterious
history of creation." "Not the production of
any higher creature, but the perfecting of
Humanity, is to be the- glorious consummation
of Nature's long and tedious work."
We cannot fail to notice the dignity of man in
this light which is thrown upon his history ; his
increased worth by reason of the patient care
which has advanced him in power; and the
greater assurance that he will continue to be the
object of the divine love, which will spare itself
nothing that its work may be perfected. Man's
history is prophecy. His experience is promise.
His way leads upward. It doth not yet appear
what he shall be. If any one is curious to know
Man, I cannot point even now to anything more
interesting than Plato's account of the soul. We
recall it ; that there is in man a divine nature of
which God is the artificer, and that the junior
gods were set to produce the mortal nature.
The mortal body was made as if turned in
a lathe, and in this was placed the immortal
principle. The two natures had different parts
of the body, with the neck as an isthmus be
tween. It is strengthening to read his estimate
of the real soul of man : " After the gods, the

40 THE CREATION AND MAN
most divine of all his possessions as being most
his own." The body is "according to nature
ruled over by the ruling soul." The soul is a
goddess, ever taking mind as an ally. The soul
is to be honored "in the second rank after the
gods." It is to have care in the present, and for
all time. "The danger would appear to be
dreadful if one should neglect it." This is
wholesome reading. Is it true now as the wise
old Greek wrote, that " Not one, so to say,
honours his soul properly"? Let these serious
words stay in our minds.
When we think who man is we are not sur
prised that in all places he is aware of God.
What is this but that the undivided life of God,
being in a man, is conscious of the life which
has not been imparted, and is in God alOne ?
Why should not the part feel the whole to
which it belongs ? We cannot be surprised at
such expressions as " that immediate knowledge of
God " which is our " normal state of existence,"
the " quickening, life-giving God-sense," and the
almost divine talent for knowing God. The last
biographer of Jonathan Edwards relates that
"the God consciousness was the deepest sub
stratum of his being," and that in him was "a
divine and supernatural light." The same
divine consciousness is ascribed to men like

THE CREATION AND MAN 41
Thomas Erskine and Frederick Maurice. The
words of Dr. Mulford are vigorous and clear
when he writes that " man is conscious of the
being of God, and lives and acts in this con
sciousness, and the reahty of the being of God
so comes to him. The being of God is the primal
truth. It is primitive in human thought ; there
is nothing before it, nor apart from it, from which
it is to be derived. Thus the being of God has
not its foundation in the life of humanity, but
humanity has its foundation in the hfe of God."
I venture to like my own way of stating it, crude
and formal as it is ; the portion of the life of God
which is in a man is conscious of the whole Hfe in
which it belongs.
It is true, as we are told with wearisome and
perhaps needless repetition, that we are not able
to conceive absolute being with an approach to
completeness. We cannot grasp the infinite.
Yet within the limit of our powers we can secure
and retain a knowledge which shall be larger than
we can bound, and can be thoroughly trustworthy.
Our thought of the Absolute Being, for whom
God. is the accepted and sufficient name, will be
more distinct at certain times and in certain per
sons than in other minds and under different con
ditions. But the consciousness of his being is
fixed in our nature and cannot be removed, nor

42 THE CREATION AND MAN
long suppressed. " The manifestation of the un
knowable " is to be found in all things. Then it
would seem that so far He is not the unknowable,
if we give to words their usual significance.
Reality and degree are not identical, and we know
in part. "The belief in a Power of which no
limit in Time or Space can be conceived is that
fundamental element in ReHgion which survives
all its changes of form." " This inexpugnable
consciousness, in which Religion and Philosophy
are at one with Common-Sense, proved to be like
wise that on which all exact Science is based."
The " necessary datum of consciousness " sustains
the confident appeal which is made to it. I have
repeated the word and thought of Spencer. He
did not approve the conclusion of Marisel, which
he quotes ; yet in view of all which has just been
said, while confessing the Hmits of intelHgence
and of obligation, in our ordinary manner of think
ing and speaking it does not seem too much to
assert, that " It is our duty to think of God as
personal ; and it is our duty to believe that He is
infinite." The belief in powers greater than man, in
nature or beyond it, though often dim and rude,
hardly to be discerned, is apparently nowhere
entirely wanting. The universal and persistent
instincts which stand in our creation are with

THE CREATION AND MAN 43
authority. The religions of the world, various
as the tribes of men, confess a divine presence.
The Greek saw a Father in Zeus, whom he ad
dressed as Father of gods and men. Upon Mars'
HiU St. Paul appealed to the Athenians whose
city was crowded with altars, and declared the
unknown God who made the world and all things
therein, in whom we live and move and have our
being, and confirmed his teaching by their own
poet, Aratus :
With Zeus begin we. Let no mortal voice
Leave Zeus unpraised. Zeus fills the haunts of men,
The streets, the marts. Zeus fills the sea, the shores,
The harbours, — everywhere we live in Zeus.
We are his offspring too.
Men worship Him, the First, the Last.
Their Father — Wonderful — their Help and Shield.
They were " somewhat superstitious," the
courteous preacher remarked; but from their
superstition he attempted to lead them in rational
ways to God. The argument for his being
which is found in marks of design can never
lose its force. The common mind will trace
the signs of thought and plan, and cannot be
persuaded from it. It will find "a permanent
guiding influence." The eye is the witness to
the design which was in its making, and the star

44 THE CREATION AND MAN
whose light it catches ; the Hly, and the child's
fingers closing around it.
When Vanini, burned as an atheist, was asked
if he believed in God he took a straw from the floor
and made it his answer. Not convincing, possi
bly ; but after this method men wiU reason to the
end. The habit leagues itself with the native
feeling of the soul, and looks up to God. It
takes a finer form, and the love of nature which
distinguished the Aryan people rises till it finds
the answering love beyond. But who shaU meas
ure " the Great Necessity " ? Asa Gray saw the
presence of design in the " exquisite adaptations "
in which he deHghted; and he believed that
"without the impHcation of a superintending
wisdom nothing is made out, and nothing credi
ble." He liked to watch the changing forms of
life as it was led along "beneficial lines." His
innocent, " indefatigable hours " were rich in the
thought of the God whom he loved.
It is an impressive moment when a man feels
himself in the presence of his Creator. The deeps
of his nature are moved. AH that is divine re
sponds to the divine life which touches, encloses,
arouses it. Such moments are not very rare. In
some degree they are even common. They
might be more common and to our great advan
tage. I call to mind as I say this one whose pop-

THE CREATION AND MAN 45
ular fame among us began with his " Lectures on
the Plan of the Creation." His voice hesitating
with a strange language, his hand skilful to draw
what he could not tell, his new learning, his mag
nificent countenance, carried him quickly into his
deserved and sustained renown. Yet there were
few times in his long life when the man was seen
so grandly as on the day when he opened his sum
mer school at Penikese. The island barn had
been made ready, the swallows whose nests were
undisturbed flew in and out, the breeze from the
sea came pleasantly through the open doors, the
scholars who had gathered for the rare privilege
of learning from him waited for his voice. He
was not the teacher, not yet ; the peace, the light,
the young Hfe, the surrounding waters, the out
lying world and worlds, appealed to his sensitive
heart, and he could not teach. He could only
pray, and bid the rest pray with him. Into the
Hght, into the spirit which was closer than the
air, to the Creator among whose works they stood,
silently he breathed out his prayer. He had not
thought to do so, probably; he felt the divine
presence, and he had to speak to it in adoration,
before he spoke to men of its works. Thus life
confessed the fellowship of life. He was drawn
aside, drawn and impelled. Nothing in all the
history of his schools is finer than the sight of

46 THE CREATION AND MAN
that great soul exchanging thought with its
Maker. He is renowned in the scientific world
for "classification." He classified himself with
God. After that it was little to write that " A physi
cal fact is as sacred as a moral principle." For a
physical fact is a moral principle. Whether a
divine thought is expressed in stone or statute, in
the descent of a glacier or the framing of a law,
it witnesses to its origin. " Our own nature de
mands of us this double allegiance," he said. This
double allegiance ruled in the old astronomer,
who looked at night from among his sheep into
the nearer sky, and sang of the stars and Him
who lighted them ; " The heavens declare the
glory of God." Then he lost sight of the stars,
and still he sang, " The law of the Lord is perfect,
restoring the soul." His whole being thrilled
with the glory and perfection, visible and invisi
ble, till he longed to be in harmony with the
beauty around him. "Let the words of my
mouth and the meditation of my heart be
acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and
my redeemer." Here, again, was the life in a
man claiming kinship with the divine life which
it felt.
To come nearer, one of the most sublime places
on which I have ever stood was the upper bridge

THE CREATION AND MAN 47
of a large steamer in mid-ocean and at night.
The ship with her hundreds of souls was quiet
beneath, while driven onward by the hidden forces
within her. The throb was felt, the power was
concealed. Around stretched the sustaining sea,
in the dimness unpeopled. Above were the silent
heavens, pointed with Hght, and closer than the
world, clearer to the sight than the deck over
which the shadows of men flitted. It was, in its
feeHng, almost to be away from the earth and
among the stars. Then the gray-haired officer
turned his optic glass to a planet thousands of
miles beyond, and caught its light, and learned
from it where we were upon the waste of waters.
A sailor stood with a lantern that the telltale
figures might be registered. There was no sound.
Solemnity as of another world rested on the Httle
group of men. To my unaccustomed heart it was
more than easy to feel the life which filled the
limitless space, to see the fingers which marked
their courses for the stars, to be aware of God.
For it was life answering to life.
How delightful, how superb, for man to know
God, to be assured of his presence ; to know him
self, also ; to be conscious of his life, to feel the
fellowship of his breath with the breath from which
it was breathed, and the intercourse of soul with
soul! I do not know that it is demonstrated!

48 THE CREATION AND MAN
Perhaps it is better. The best things are rather
felt than proved.
The conscience, too, speaks for God. It repre
sents Him in the human soul. It recognizes its
sovereign, and declares only its derived authority.
All the provinces of the right acknowledge Him.
The moral order of the world calls for a moral
orderer ; a power ruling for righteousness ; insur
ing the good of those who do right, and with
judgment visiting the evil-doer. We may find on
every side, without, within, the " indelible marks
of a morally constituted world, moving, toward
righteous ends." Kant was reasonable in his
argument that in another world the deserts of
men, delayed here, must be meted out to them,
and that this means God. "For right is right,
since God is God." Even beyond the thought of
results, of reward or loss, truth and right claim
our allegiance. With authority and high sanc
tions does duty address itself to us and command
obedience. Turn where we will, in the mind of man Hes
the necessity for God, the Eternal, the Perfect,
the Almighty. We like the simple description
which Victor Hugo gives of the old woman : " A
pious creature, poor, and charitable to the poor
and even to the rich, who could just write her
name, ' Marguerite,' and beheved in God, which

THE CREATION AND MAN 49
is knowledge. There are many such virtues down
here, and one day they will be up above, for this
Hfe has a morrow."
I am not trying to demonstrate the existence
of God, as if to those who do not know it. I
am not ignorant of the replies that are spoken
after our reasoning. There is sadness in them all.
It would be a terrible thing to Hve in a world
without God. It is a fearful thing to live and
not see Him. " I will not leave you orphans,"
the Teacher said. After all replies men still
know there is God. It is man who knows it;
who feels it in himself, sees it in the world,
reads it in history, discerns it in experience,
perceives it in the moral order which encloses
him, finds it when he sounds his deepest intui
tions; the feelings, principles, aspirations, which
underlie his life. If to any one it seems too
bold a thing to say that man is a necessity, it
is not much too bold. For akin to the need for
God, if any life is to be, is his need of one to
know Him; to receive of his Hfe and love; to
braid the thread of divine thought which encom
passes him with the thread of human thought
which, unbroken, reaches the Eternal. Life
must create. It is its nature and pleasure ; and
creation is the larger name of man. It is a
stupendous truth that man knows his Maker and

50 THE CREATION AND MAN
is instructed to call him Father, for that is his
Name. I have spoken the two words which are at the
opening of our study — God, Man. In the begin
ning God, afterward man ; and the Hfe of God is
the Hfe of man. "The descent into our own
souls is the ascent to God." " To penetrate the
secret of man is to discover the truth of God."
"He hath made everything beautiful in its time;
also He hath set eternity in the heart of man."

II

THE COURSE OF MAN IN THE OLDEST
LITERATURE

THE COURSE OF MAN IN THE OLDEST
LITERATURE

The new world had its tenant. He was iri the
image and likeness of the Maker of both house and
householder. It was fitting that it should be so, if
the world was to fulfil its design, and there was to
be agreement through the whole plan and in the
method of its working out. Neither man nor
world was a mechanism which could run, or was
desired to run, by its own force, or after its own
skill. The power which had made was the power
which was prepared to keep. Between God and
the earth was man. By steps which we cannot
measure, or describe, he had come to his estate ;
and to all which made him like the Hving creatures
over whom he had a delegated dominion, and who
answered to the names he gave, was added the
spiritual endowment in which he was like his
Creator. The union of the two kinds of life was
exact, but the difference between them was infi
nite. The words under which so many have passed
into the sacred quiet of Mount Auburn remind us

54 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
in our most thoughtful mood of a separation which
was distinct from birth: "Then shaU the dust
return to the earth as it was ; and the spirit shall
return unto God who gave it." The part which
was " contextured in the Loom of Heaven," as
Carlyle describes it, is to be laid aside. But the
spirit ascends. " Well said Saint Chrysostom,
with his lips of gold, the true Shekinah is Man."
In him God's presence is manifested to our eyes
and hearts. To tell precisely where the line
which divides must be drawn is beyond the wit of
man. I think that we prefer to have it so. But
man was created in the " image of God." The
description is exalted. There is no stop, no pause
even, on the way. The likeness reaches the Cre
ator. By no stretch of the imagination could
man be said to be in the Hkeness of anything
which had been made. How completely aH
thought of an origin less than divine is ruled out
by such a word as " image " ! The greatness of
man proclaims the greatness of his Creator. But
is the word " image " proper ? Evidently it is.
If man is not an accident, a chance appearance,
the thought which he has fulfilled belonged to one
greater than himself. To be able to think man,
and to give him being, required God. Man is to
be accounted for. No way has been found but
this. That man is able to think of God and does

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 55
think of Him, is suggestive of his origin and
descent. Pascal's familiar words are heavy with
meaning : " Man is but a reed, the weakest in
nature, but he is a thinking reed. Were the
universe to crush him, man would still be more
noble than that which kills him, because he knows
that he dies, and the universe knows nothing of
the advantage it has over him." The fathers felt
the divine creative presence. They certainly did
not worship " an absentee God, sitting idle ever
since the first Sabbath, at the outside of his uni
verse." They believed in providence, in a special
providence, and felt there was a power around
them and beyond them to be worshipped and
loved. They lived in his light, died under his
shield, looked for his reward. They were " made
of the same stuff of which events are made." It
is not difficult to trace in man the likeness to his
Maker which is his grand distinction. He thinks,
reasons, recalls ; he has conscience, will, freedom ;
he can govern and judge himself ; he has visions
of the future, with aspirations and ambitions
which resemble foreknowledge ; he feels his end
less life. With this he knows his Creator, listens
to Him, speaks to Him, obeys Him, loves Him, by
virtue of the response of his nature to the life
which gave it and maintains it. In a phrase
written long afterward, he is a " partaker of the

56 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
divine nature." In the revised version a psalmist
is made to say that man was made "but little
lower than God." We prefer the epistle which
shows him "a little lower than the angels."
We have not come upon that word until now,.
for it is not in our present purpose, and I do not
know where the angels should enter in. Before^
man, doubtless, but in the same order of intelH
gence, for we can hardly think of the vast spaces
as uninhabited save by the Eternal, or of his
countless years as giving Him no fellowship be
yond. Himself. There is room for aU that we
wish to imagine, and imagination has neither
neglected nor overstepped its opportunity. What
we read of angels enhances the dignity of man as
of one esteemed worthy of such ministries as are
ascribed to the celestial beings, whose appear
ance is in dazzling light and gleaming robes,
when some rare event caUs for their presence.
Yet their service is with discrimination.
Ruskin's remarks will be in place here : " You
will always find that, in proportion to the earnest
ness of our own faith, its tendency to . accept a
spiritual personality increases ; and that the most
vital and beautiful Christian temper rests joyfully
in its conviction of the multitudinous ministry of
living angels, infinitely varied in rank and power."
Instances of their ministry, as we all know, are

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 57
frequent in our sacred records, and in the annals
of other peoples. They had their part in the one
grand purpose which moves in our Scriptures.
But it is a significant fact, which carries evidence
of the sincerity of the writers of the Gospels, and
of the restraint under which they held them
selves, that when Christ came angels were at the
manger, but that at the end they were not at the
Cross. Legions might have been summoned, but
not one brightened the darkness by the shining of
his wings.
Few truths could be of more service in bring
ing man to' the right apprehension of himself,
and of his place in the universe, in quickening
a high self-respect and a regard for his splendid
possibilities in character and achievement, than
that which at once declares and continually
asserts his relation to the Eternal. We have
grown so accustomed to low views of humanity
that our reckoning is at fault. We are like ships
that have lost their place and can get no observa
tion by reason of thick clouds and broken instru
ments. Dead reckoning is a poor reliance. Who
is responsible for the inaccurate, dishonoring
opinions which prevail concerning man it were
of no use to inquire, unless possibly we should be
led to see the truth with our own eyes and judge
with our own mind and heart. But it is only

58 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
just to say that the Bible is not to be charged
with this misleading, for it labors to persuade
men of their greatness, and to induce them to
make this actual, to regain their birthright, to lay
claim to all which is designed for them. The
writers depict men as they find them, and the por
trayal is sad; but they do not stop on this.
Their design is not to make us aware of our
misery, but to bring us out of it. They set forth
the beginning and the true end. They deal with
the present, but they pronounce this neither the
beginning nor the close. They declare it a
departure, and reach out a hand to guide men in
the right way. They cover reproaches with
promises. As at the first, the evening and the
morning make the day, and the morning lasts.
The Bible has suffered at the hands of those whom
it has sought to help, when they have refused to
read its teachings through to the closing
sentences, with an intelligent thoroughness, but
have made selections, according to their inclina
tion and disposition, and have missed its spirit,
and the steady trend of its instruction, the
glorious uplift of its truths. " O Israel, thou
hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine
help. . . . O Israel, return unto the Lord
thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity ; "
thus the Hebrew prophet summoned his people

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 59
to their place. Repent, Return, are characteristic
words. " Remember from whence thou art fallen,
and repent, and do the first works," is one of the
latest calls of the New Testament, with the Good
News of God. The teaching is not that man's
ascent, while real, is too slow, and needs to be
aided and hastened ; but that there should be a
turning, a returning, and then an advance. The
word of Christ to the Jewish ruler is as full of hope
and promise as of counsel — " Except a man be
born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
The man saw the meaning of the words, as his
answer shows. But the call and promise were
renewed and with added force.
It is in the light of these teachings, at once
profound and subhme, holding the past and the
present in their view, that President James
Walker's words find their significance : " The
Gospel is a Divine dispensation of encourage
ment." If any one bases his low estimate of
man and his estate upon the Bible, it is because
he has not read it. No book which deserves
reading can be read by disconnected portions.
Sometimes in our impatience with the deliberate
movement of a book we take the last pages before
their time, to see how things " come out." I
think if men had taken this method with the
Bible they would have been less offended by the

60 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
events through which the history moves steadily
toward its consummation. I do not say- that the
last should be read first, but that it should be read.
Seeing we have the end, it may be well sometimes
to begin there. The final view of man is good
enough to satisfy any one. But the Hne is un
broken from the beginning. One ray of Hght
connects the earth and the sun, and shows us
both. Nor is the depressed and depressing view of
man to be so much charged upon the theologians
as some have hastily said. They have indeed
many times drawn in dismal colors his condition
and his destiny. They have at times aroused
more fear than hope, which was not Script
ural. But they have not failed to remind men
from what a height they have fallen, nor to point
out the way of recovery. They have had a high
idea of the value of a man, although their views
conflicted with their opinions on other subjects.
If they have limited expectation under the stress
of their philosophy, they have still declared the
origin of the race and drawn in weary lines its
departure. It may be, and it may not be, strange
that readers have missed the better part of their
teaching through the offence of the other portions.
This has not been fair, but the blame for the im
pression they have left Hes not altogether at the

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 61
door of the old divines. I am not called to defend
them. They belong in their time. They had
their work and did it, and exceeded it. They had
the approval of strong men. They made strong
men, who thought and dared and achieved. The
old systems lacked gentleness, but they abounded
in vigor. If they were not encouraging, they
were robust. We see defects in their philosophy.
Let us not overlook the witness which was in
thenr, or their conserving nature, or the special
place which was assigned to each in the proces
sion of theologies. What has been said of one of
the greatest of the old masters might be said of
others : that in their intense desire to exalt God,
and to have Him seen in his sovereignty, man
was made to appear small. He was nothing, that
God might be everything. It is against that con
clusion I have been contending. If one makes
comparison of man with' his Maker,' man must of
necessity be small and of slight account. We are
not caUed to such a contrast. While, on the
other hand, the greater God is, the greater is he
who is made in his likeness ; and the greater man
is, the , greater is God who is his Maker, and
whose image he bears. Father and child stand
in common grandeur, even while the grandeur of
the Father is infinite. Indeed, a part of the
greatness of a man, a sign of his worth, appears in

62 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
the unbounded reverence wherewith he stands,
kneels, before his Creator.
An attempt has been made by a great preacher
to show the " dignity of human nature from its
ruins." He finds in pieces of paved road and an
tique milestones, in broken walls and fallen
columns, witness to the greatness of perished
cities and empires. So he discovers "the true
majesty of human nature itself, in the tragic
grandeur of its disorders." In the worst passions,
in hopes and fears, in false reHgions and gropings
for light, in spiritual intelligence astray from
truth, in the blind, uncertain thought of God, he
discerns the marks of a higher estate. This is
ingenious and interesting, and has its value.
But we reach the same end by a shorter path as
we mark the dignity of human nature as shown
by its origin. Whatever has come in since, the
start was noble. It could not have been better.
In the despoiled temple we imagine the Parthenon
in its integrity. If we had the plans of the
architect, from which it was constructed, and
knew his design, we might reach even a higher
estimate of its majesty. This advantage we have
when we study man. The order of events is the
true order of history. In the beginning, God;
then man, whose life is the divine breath, and the
end toward which creation slowly moved. The

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 63
summit was reached. The world had come to its
meaning. In man the Creator was in affectionate
and intelligent connection with the world. It
was not to be ruled by power, but governed by
love. The response of the world to its Maker is
from the heart of man. We do well to appreci
ate the divine intent. Speaking after our own
manner, if God was to keep the world He must
keep man. He was the one point at which God,
who is spirit, could enter the world's Hfe. If He
lost man He lost the earth. It is not self-praise
if, standing here, we exclaim, How magnificent is
Man ! How fine his nature, the thought, the
will, the love, the conscience, the choice, the
divine life ! What may we not look for as the
powers of man come into use, grow by exercise,
prove themselves in conduct, construct character,
reveal the Eternal in whose likeness they have
their being !
There is one life; of that life is the life of a
man. It is to be kept true to itself ; to be in him
what it was before he knew it. The higher
nature is to rule the life. I give a rough illus
tration. I fill my cup from the brook by the
way. The water is not changed in the transfer.
The brook is in the cup. The breath of the
Creator is not changed by entering the nostrils of
the man, and is not to be changed beyond them.

64 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
If we consider who and what man was at the
first, it is clear that his business in the world, up
to the Hmit of his powers, was to be like his
Maker; to think, choose, live like Him. By
being like God he was to preserve himself and
justify his appointment as the crown of creation
and the head of the world. Surely there is
something superb here. With all his ambition
and pride and glory, no man has ever esteemed
himself highly enough. Many have made wrong
estimates, and have been conceited and foolish.
But no one has put too great value upon his
birthright in having for his daily life the breath
of the Eternal. Pride would exalt itself, if it
would become rational and ascend into ReHgion.
If there is honest comfort in self-respect, here is
its boundless opportunity. Godly, Godhke, is
not a word merely, a well-sounding adjective,
but the honest expression of all that is becoming
in that divine life which is man. It would be
truth in the inward parts corresponding to the
eternal truth. It would not be imitation, but
the natural expression of being. Nothing could
be more explicit than the requirement of Christ,
which we may well accept as the privilege of the
beginning, "Ye therefore shall be perfect, as
your heavenly Father is perfect." St. Peter
quoted from Leviticus, " Be ye holy, for I am

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 65
holy." He added that " divine power hath granted
unto us all things that pertain unto life and god
liness, through the knowledge of Him that called
us by his own glory and virtue."
The time has come for another new word. We
are advancing in philology. There is a term
which is essential to moral character, that is, to
manhood. No one would hesitate to say that
the man ought to preserve his life in its purity
and divinity; ought to keep the divine breath
which he has received like the breath of which it
was an inseparable part. He cannot improve it ;
let him preserve it. Even without a command
ment, the propriety of this is evident. There
is obHgatioh, responsibility ; the words grow as
we think. As defining the man's relation to
himself and to his Maker "ought" is a serious
word. It carries a theology in its letters. It is
a covenant and a sacrament. In its principles it
is as firm as gravitation, or anything which in
our poverty we call " law." It is character, it is
life. • It holds honor and well-being. It is re
ligion. It connects man with the Universe and
the Creator. When we call conscience " the vice-
regent of God " we write " ought " in large let
ters. We have " the inflashing " upon the con
science of that which we must do, arid we. assent
to this, and meet Without complaint the result

66 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
of our misdoing. This is our original nature.
What is the ground of this authority over us ?
It has been said to be in our creation. We
do not feel this, for our making was not of
our desire. Nor do we feel that strength
gives the right to rule, nor does experience of
results content us. We get farther back into
the nature of the Creator. He is perfect. To
be like Him is to be perfect. We know that the
best should be enthroned, and that our allegiance
should be given to it. This reason declares, and
conscience, and nature. Here we have the best
in stability and strength. Say " God is love," and
no more is to be desired. To require the man to
be like his Maker is to ask him to be his best,
the best man he can be. " Our chief want in Hfe
is somebody who shall make us do what we can,"
the philosopher said. Duty is that friend ; unob
trusive to the willing, but unswerving as the
poles. There is often a comfort in this fact. When
we are bewildered among questions of conduct,
we come back to this with assurance. Here the
ground is solid. It is a strong passage in the Hfe
of the soldiprly English preacher, Frederick Rob
ertson, when there came to him accumulated
trouble — the ruin of a friendship, the breaking
of his health, deep darkness which buried the

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 67
light in his soul — and his early faiths were shat
tered ; one truth remained and to that he clung,
and with it fought his way to safety. It was this,
"It must be right to do right." Good! But
what is it to do right? What is right? "Be
true," he said, "be true." True to what? The
eternal answer is in the beginning, is here, is
everywhere, is forever. Be yourself ; and yourself
is of God's self. Be Hke Him. Think, desire,
will, with Him. " Thy will be done." Religion
needs this vigor of right conduct; to be robust
in virtue. The point is well made, that religion
is not morahty touched by emotion, but emotion
touched by morality. If the life were obedience,
it would be in liberty, for there is no other obe
dience. It would be glad, for it is the thought of
the eternal gladness, and as natural as the fra
grance of flowers, the song of birds. I do not
know that this had any name at first. In the time
of Moses, when conduct had taken on more form
it was called Love, and no better name was found
when Christ defined it. He connected this with
life when He bade his disciples, " If ye love me
keep my commandments." It was in all its course
delight, blessedness responding to blessedness, in
a rivalry of pleasing. This was at the first. It
seems to have continued. It is one of the uni
versal traditions, that the first dwellers upon the

68 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
earth knew an " Edenic happiness," which means
truth, lightness, obedience. "This belief in an
age of happiness and of innocence in the infancy
of mankind may be found among all peoples of
the Aryan and Japhetic race ; " and " this is one
of the points where their traditions find them
selves most evidently on common ground with the
Semitic stories which we find in Genesis." The
Egyptians had their golden age to which they
continually, looked back. It was the time of Ra,
" who inaugurated the existence of the world and
of human life," and who ruled the earth. To
assert the superiority of anything above aU that
could be imagined, it was sufficient to say that
" its like had never been seen since the days of the
god Ra." We move on ; but I canriot attempt to
describe the various views of the students of man
and his history. There is no need of doing it
here, nor does it concern my design.
Man is presented by one school ' as " the crown
and glory of the universe and the chief object of
divine care, yet still the lame and halting creat
ure, loaded with a brute-inheritance of original
sin, whose ultimate salvation is slowly to be
achieved through ages oi moral discipline." But
sin and salvation are here diverted from the usual
and natural meaning of the terms ; yet even thus
there is " a struggle between his lower and his

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 69
higher impulses, in which the higher must finally
conquer; " and there is claimed to be in this "the
strongest imaginable incentive to right living."
Or, again, we are told that " man rises out of the
animal stage and becomes a man," and thus
comes under the law of God, "the law of right
and wrong."
It is of importance to mark that the idea of the
right, of duty, of the ought, holds its place in
this method of regarding life. The persistence of
that truth is to be always in mind. What I have
to insist upon is this, as a part of the larger
truth, that in some way, at some time, " man be
came a living soul," a soul like the divine life, and
that in the 'course of time there was one walking
the earth who had the faculty we name " Con
science," which binds a man to his Maker in a
common nature, with a community of purpose
and conduct. There was a person who ought.
Infinite and finite are words easily spoken ; but
let us not fail to notice that, with all the distance
between them, they are in the same line.
We are brought now to the real and vital ques
tion : what, under the conditions of his life,, this
person would do. In some way man came to be
irian. Let all the time which is thought neces
sary be taken for this. It is certainly not unrea
sonable, but to be expected, that this coming of

70 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
age should be attended and followed by a time of
true manhood, upright, honest, godly; and that
unbroken happiness should prevail. What fol
lowed does not make this irrational. From the
time when man found himself he may well have
lived in gladness until the time when he lost him
self. That he pushed down, or pushed up, into
another estate is clear.. But he may have paused
on the way from an innocent animal to whatever
came afterward, and paused long enough to enjoy
the rest. From this he may have made a new
start. I am well aware that this view is hot in accord
with the independent opinions which are cherished
by many students ; that they see no space for
paradise with a -true and righteous manhood;
no pause in life into which it could have been
set. The emergence from a lower condition is
constant, and constantly forward. By slow
degrees man acquired higher qualities, and
ascended to his true estate. There is no reason
why this doctrine of ascent should not include
the happy condition which the traditional litera
ture we possess clearly describes. The weight
cast into the scales of opinion by a few pages
of unknown origin may not be great, but it
would seem to be heavy enough to move the
beam which is held by an impartial, uncom-

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 71
mitted hand. If we are left to inference, cer
tainty is impossible.
Man was not alone in the world. He touched
Hfe on every side. It is not easy to define his
relation to it in definite terms. The alliance of
man with the life around him and beneath him
is deHcate and mysterious. It is real; but the
process of advance from it is not perfectly clear.
Much of our reasoning seems to do discredit to
the less endowed creatures, to depreciate the
inferior life by comparison. It is true that what
is proper in them may be wrong in a man. Yet
they live out their best nature. If man had done
so, the story of the world had been very different.
In this connection it is impressive, instructive,
to observe the care of God for the humbler
creatures whom He had made, and their recogni
tion of his goodness. Classical literature knew
nothing of this, but in the Hebrew Bible it has its
place. The Hebrews were a people of less culture
and taste than the Greeks, but they' had a fuller
idea of God. Their account of the attendant
providence is far in advance of the other descrip
tions. Let me read a verse or two from an unknown
Hebrew writer: "The young lions seek their
meat from God. These all wait upon Thee, that
Thou mayest give them their meat in due season.
Thou openest thine hand, they are satisfied with

72 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
good." It would be difficulj;to match this thought
in the poets of other nations. When we attempt
to adjust our relations with these companions in
other orders of life they are at a disadvantage
which is insuperable, in that they cannot speak
for themselves. If only our poor relations could
tell their thoughts ! Who looks into the eyes of
a fine dog, down into the deeps of his life, and
does not pity him that he cannot speak ? Perhaps
it was meant that our fellowship upon that side
should not be very close, lest we forget whose
children we are. But we do not smile at the poor
Indian's thought of the continued companionship
he shall have in " that equal sky."
There is something natural, kindly, helpful, in
the friendship of man with his less favored
kindred. I do not know that this can be taught
or learned. It seems to be nature's assertion of
itself : life reaching down somewhat as it reaches
up. Kinship makes itself felt. I can readily
imagine the delight of St. Francis of Assisi in
preaching to birds. " My little sisters, the birds,"
he said, and he bade them praise their Creator
who had given them liberty to fly about every
where ; and had given them the air to live in, and
had fed and clothed them, and preserved them in
the ark. The birds listened, bowing their heads
and spreading their wings, and by their songs

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 73
showing that the Father had given them joy
exceeding great.
He spoke and they sang. It were a pity to ask
if they knew what he said, and answered it. They
had life in common with him. They were " the
clothed form " and spirit of the air. Their pres
ence, found him and his presence moved them.
They enjoyed this, and it was pleasant to him.
Let us leave something for imagination and fancy.
The preaching, at least, was real ; whether it was
heard and heeded is another matter. But it
is pertinent to say, that if the hearing and
responding are essential to preaching, much
which goes by that name has a questionable
title to it.
We are learning to be more than kind to those
who are more than faithful ; yet one holds his
friend " better than his dog " and " dearer than
his horse." I believe that the form next below
us has not yet been found. If he were I do not
think we should care for him. He would be " so
near and yet so far " that we should prefer our
dog. I think it is well that we have never
made his acquaintance. We are not detained
here. Nearly all the voices bid us go on, —
hope, aspiration, ambition, religion, — and life
itself. After all, "our citizenship is in heaven."
The difference of opinion in regard to other

74 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
things is not essential to the purpose we have
now in hand. We have more important questions.
Would man, when he had been made a man,
consent to be godly ; to live as God did, by the
will of God ? Of ability there was no lack. . That
was essential to manhood. The divine breath,
which was the soul's life, held that unchanged.
It was a matter of will, of choice, in the use of
liberty. Let us not be confused by differing
views of his history up to this place. He came to
this estate. Whatever else was true, there he
was, at the point where he was to make up his
conduct. He was free, or it would have been
trifling to describe him as in the image of God.
It was not a liberty in which he might choose
what should be right. That was utterly out of
his reach. As weU choose the time when the
sun should rise, or the tide come in. His divine
nature, before it was his own, had determined the
right. Richard Hooker's words, often repeated,
carry no marks of time : " Law has her seat in
the bosom of God ; her voice is the harmony of
the world." Mr. Emerson taught that the weight
of the universe presses down upon the shoul
ders of every moral being to hold him to his
place. It is a heavy load, but there is no escape
from it. We make it easy by keeping at our
post cheerfully, and standing erect, holding the

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 75
universe. Atlas can bear the world if he stands
straight. The liberty resided in the power to say
whether he would do that which he ought, or
would disown it, and do — something else.
That for a time he chose to do the right is proba
ble. How far this continued we have not been
told; we have not a tradition, even. Docu
mentary evidence is scant, but what we have is
easily read. Can it be trusted? The ancient
writing has been so well confirmed, as far as we
can trace elsewhere the occurrences which it de-
scribesj that it seems irrational to leave it here.
Up to this point the results of later studies are in
remarkable agreement with it, as we have seen.
Why should the tradition, if it is that, suddenly
fail us ? We have the two records, but the parts
have one editor. These writings are certainly
convenient in their simple narrative and cannot
be lightly esteemed. In referring to the early
chapters of the Bible, I made use of them as a
statement of events with which science has to
do. I now use them as a statement of events
with which history has to do. They are useful
for this purpose, and have at least the authority
which belongs to early literature, confirmed so far
as it may be from other sources. The literary, or
scientific, presumption is that having been true
up to this point they continue to be true.

76 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
The transition from man obedient and happy to
man wrong and ashamed is very abrupt in the
Hebrew story. Longer time may have been taken
than the brief narrative suggests. We are read
ing of the innocent dehghfc of the man and woman
in their safe and beautiful, life, when, without
warning, we come upon this : " Now the ser
pent." The writer goes on to tell of a change ;
of the time when man chose not to be like God,
when his Hfe swerved and went its own way. He
is soon discovered in this estate, at variance with
the divine nature which has been given him.
Now I stand beside the brook and look into the
cup, and the water in the cup is not like the
water in the brook. Of this, unhappily, no proof
is required. The daily papers keep it before our
eyes. The voluminous histories of all times force
it upon our notice. It is in drama and poetry ;
in law and legislation. We see it wherever we
turn, and feel it within us, and trace.it as far as
history runs. No man who knows God can think
He made the world of men to be what it is. The
gift of liberty, essential to manhood, has been
found a perilous endowment. Account for it a$
we may, here are the facts: explanations are of
less consequence.
Who does not observe the change from the
first days — a change in human thought since the

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 77
Hfe of the Eternal became the life of man?
Let it not be forgotten that many regard the evil
of history and experience as belonging in the
lower life from which man has imperfectly
escaped ; — " Very imperfectly," an observer would
remark, — that he is thought to have risen greatly
and to be slowly ascending. Give him time, and
of this there is enough, — what need to be parsi
monious when we have centuries at our command,
— give him the ages, and he will be a credit to
himself and them. This is an explanation seri
ously made, and it is to be seriously regarded. In
this view the divine life was of such a nature, and
was given by such degrees, that it was not able
quickly to overrule the lower life to which it was
joined. This would reduce obligation to an
inconsiderable force. The result, instead of
being a defect, would be an approach toward
an increasing victory, and from this much
might be hoped. I have no occasion to dis
cuss this, for I am concerned with man after
he has reached the stage of moral life, or obli
gation. I see the advance of man and his im
provement in many ways, material, intellectual,
social, and perhaps moral. But I cannot make
the long course of the world, as it is working by
the natural forces within it, a movement toward
the Creator, and the recognition of itself as

78 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
his world. I do not see that man untaught is
finding himself as the child of God, whose spirit
is divine, and wills to be divine ; who is governed,
sustained, comforted, by " the power of an endless
life." If man of his own nature is on his way to
a divine life, the road is terribly long. And, oh,
the pain and sorrow and cruelty and dying all the
way, from a time no one has discovered ! It
seems like Napoleon's retreat from Russia, infi
nitely extended. Are God and Nature then at strife,
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life.
It is very well to say that in some other world
man will attain to himself. That is poor comfort.
Is this good world to go for nothing? Are count
less generations to suffer, that thousands of years
hence there may be one wherein a man knows who
he is, and begins to live as a man ought to Hve ?
I don't believe it. It seems to me not like God,
and not like man. Improvement, progress, devel
opment, — I grant them all. But this is man
himself ; whose interests are as real now as they
ever will be ; for whom to-day should have its
full value as truly as any coming day ; for whom
the right is as right as it will be aeons hence ; to
whom ought has its full significance, even to the

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 79
possibility, and, alas ! the- reality, of the wrong.
But let me interpose the thought, and ask special
attention to it, that even if the steady improve
ment of man is provided for, and will go on unto
perfection, there is nothing to prevent the Creator
and Father from assisting, hastening, securing, the
movement in any way which He chooses. He
may do this by a new and special bestowment of
spiritual life ; or by great men, prophets, and" the
like ; or in the Son of Man. Indeed, seeing how
much is involved, both for Himself and for the
world, the natural advance is so deliberate as to
be almost a promise of added help.
The Hebrew description is in accord with all
that we know of the conditions, and in agreement
with history and constant observation, as it has
reached us in a few simple sentences out of the
shadowy past in which some facts stand up like
mountain peaks. There came a time, whatever
preceded it, when man was to choose whether he
would live according to the higher nature which
was his ; that is, according to the will of the
Creator whose Hfe was his ; or Hve in another
way, after other desires. The thought came to
him, was given to him, — to the woman who had
joined him, and then to the man, — of a new
knowledge, wherein they should be as God. They
were to be like God by becoming unlike Him. It

80 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
is all foolish, of course. Sin is always foolish.
But the new desire prevailed. This has been
termed " The Fall." I do not remember that the
Bible uses that word in describing the event.
Some one caUed it " a faU up." But " a fall up "
is a fall down. The idea that this was merely a
step in ethical growth is queer, or seems so.
It is hard to be rid of our questioning, which
returns upon us: When did man come to the
place where he began to live ? Or has he reached
it yet? There is no ethical life till man can
choose for himself what he will do. Has he not
yet reached that point? What becomes of
Abraham if we are still fiercely and with slender
hopes struggling with our brute inheritance, and if
this explains our wars and fightings and envyingS'
and confusions ! ¦ No. The old account is the best.
we have, short as it is. Let the lower nature of
man be granted. Already he knows his higher
nature, and he knew it in the garden we call
Eden. The story is very brief, but is like the
annals of which it is a part. Regarded as history,
parable, allegory, picture, there it is, and it is
consistent in its whole extent. It is a simple
world which is presented, and simple Hves are
lived upon it. The narrative of the second
chapter is ; properly connected with the first.
A garden describes in pleasant form the abode

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 81
of men, and keeping it was their occupation. The
life around them was fearless and friendly.
About them frisking play'd
All beasts of th' earth, since wild.
Days were not wearisome in their healthful
employment, and nights were the repose of inno
cence. The joy of life was theirs, and
In their looks divine
The image of their glorious Maker shone.
The commandment which stated their duty is
in the language of the garden : " Of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of
it." The meaning and design were plain to those
to whom the words were spoken. We have in the
narrative an illustrated account of things as they
were. There is a philosophy in the imagery
which has contented very sensible men. These
were the conditions, so far as they have been
disclosed, under which the departure began, and
the departing took its form from them. It is well
to mark the simpHcity here in comparison with all
other accounts of this part of human experience':
" When the woman saw that the tree was good
for. food, and that it was a delight to the byes,
and that the tree was to be desired to make one
wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat;
and she gave also unto her husband with her, and

82 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
he did eat." Thus the will of God and the will
of man were opposed. The Hfe of man departed
from the life of God in desire and deed, in motive
and direction. These words, and this representa
tion, once had meaning, and they have meaning
still. They bear signs of the primitive times in
which they first had their place. The truth which
the simple picture was designed to preserve and
to transmit has not been outgrown and set aside.
I have no occasion now to read these compact
sentences as the theologian must. They did eat
of forbidden fruit. The fact is all which is here
of concern to us, and that remains whatever con
struction is given to the words. The symbolism
also remains, however it may be translated. If
we do not like the terms " tree " arid " fruit," we
are at liberty to make any substitution which
scholarship permits. There is no reason why we
should be offended or bewildered. The narrative
in all its pictorial, representative, symbolic charac
ter is harmonious throughout. There is no con
fusion in the rhetoric or its images. The garden
is natural in the story of creation. The garden
readily suggests the trees. How should we de
scribe this in a poem ? We should not put the man
and woman in a palace, or on a ship, or make the
testing question one of money or office. The
.garden is the right place for a home and for

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 83
the proving of life. The serpent offends us most,
but he is often in a garden, and he is in his place
in this picture. He has a considerable place in
the religious symbolism of the ancients. Some
times he stands for that which is helpful ; but in
all mythologies he personifies "the nocturnal,
hostile power, the evil principle, material dark
ness, moral wickedness." The question of the
Indian concerning the delay of his destruction
waits for an answer. It is evident that whatever
the serpent stood for has not been killed. In the
Apocalypse we read of " the old serpent which is
the devil and Satan." There are many things in
the history of the world which are like the things
the devil would do, if there were a devil. Per
haps there is ; or whose footprints are these all
over the world? He appears in the New Testa
ment with the same characteristics which are
found here. We do not like him. We do not
Hke any part of the events in which he moves. But
the whole story would be harmless if we could
undo the facts it expresses. We can tear it from
our Bibles, but only the volume would be changed,
the paper and binding. We cannot undo the long
history which takes us back to that place, or to
one no better, unless we boldly deny that man's
true life began in the image and likeness of his
Maker, or at least attained to it and then began.

84 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
I do not claim to be impartial. The habit of a
lifetime forbids that. But may I say again, that
reading as fairly as I can, reading the narrative
as it was meant to be read, I have seen no record
of this departure which is more to be esteemed
than this, for its reasonableness, and the comfort
and courage which come with it ? • ¦ The accounts
are all very hard reading. Explain as we may,
they are very hard reading. ,
The narratives which have their place in our
Bible and its teaching, as we have Seen, present
to us two persons who have come to the estate
of man and woman, who are well grown up,
and mature enough to be put in charge of the
newly made earth, to have dominion over every
living thing that moves upon the earth, or in
the sea and air. The man is wise enough to
be trusted to give names to all which Hves
about him. He is mature enough, weU-endowed
enough, to receive the commandment of God. He
stands well in all the first portion of his history.
There is a royal character which shOws his origin.
He is not born of earth. He moves like a god.
There comes a change and he moves unlike a god.
What God wills he wiUs not. By some road he
comes to the parting of the ways, and he departs
from the way of God. It is fearfuUy sad. A
man has been ridiculed for weeping because he

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 85
sinned in Adam; yet one might be pardoried a
tear as the fairness of Eden fades away; fades
into the Common light.
But ' why did they — the man and woman of
the world — why did they, and thus readily,
become false to themselves and their only friend,
their Creator, in whose hand their life was, whose
Hfe was their life ? There has never come any
one to teU us. They could do it, or they would
not have done it. But to have been unable
to do it would have deprived their obedience
of its worthiest quality, ¦¦ the . freeness of it.
An automatic virtue would have been the virtue
of trees and birds, extended a little way. I
believe it was Huxley who said he should be
willing to be wound up every morning like a
clock, if it would insure his going right all day.
I should not. We would almost prefer to do
wrong now and then rather than never do right.
Liberty was a genuine gift and held the hazard.
Manhood required liberty. In its freedom the will
finds what has well been terriied '« its inalienable
prerogative." The assertion of liberty and the
appeal to it pervade our Scriptures. Indeed, the
Bible would scarcely be necessary without it.
" Come unto me," " Ye will not come unto me,"
are repeated in a thousand forms. To explain
this use of the liberty by the stress of temptation

86 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
is but to throw the unresolved mystery farther
back. The fall of angels is even harder to account
for than the fall of man. Moral evil was created
out of nothirig. Goodness could not evolve it, for
there was no germ to be developed. Man made it
for himself, as it had been made before. It was
the act of the will which needs no material. The
modern explanation is reasonable, and it suits
itself to the picture of the elder time : that man
had two natures, that which allied him with the
earth and the life upon it, and that wherein he
was the child of God. The lower nature warred
against, the higher, and prevailed. It was not
properly his animal nature, as some imply; for
the thought was of his mind, and concerned a
new knowledge, which was attractive. Plato
accounted for it in this way : " The divine portion
within them became extinct through admixture of
the mortal nature. Then they began to exhibit
unbecoming conduct." The Hebrew account is
more graphic. It is a. translation, and we can
make our own. The desire for the fruit and that
which belonged with it, knowledge and power,
overcame the commandment, and the authority of
conscience. Strange? There are things we do
not understand; but the man is peculiar who
does not know a conflict like that. St. Paul
knew it. Has the battle always gone in the same

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 87
way ? Which way ? Experience gives most men
reason to believe that they are born of some one
like Adam.
Let us read the story a little farther. There is
some relief in the thought that in the instance
before us the suggestion of wrong came from with
out. They were guileless, those children of the
garden, untaught, unlearned in evil, unsuspicious,
and they. had never heard a lie. They did not
know that one could lie, and seek to thwart the
will of the eternal goodness. In the childish
habit of beHeying, they believed. It is a sign of
immaturity, but things well-nigh as strange have
happened since. We have been too often sur
prised to be utterly and permanently staggered
by the first evil choice. Experience might now
fairly be expected to stand in the place of inno
cence for the routing of temptation. Does it?
The result was in keeping with the deed and its
conditions. Shame and fear, and the dread of the
one friendly presence, came at once. The garden
had lost its dehght. There is not much left to
part with when one has lost himself. They had
gone through the gate into the strange outer
world. Driven out, the record says. But they
were out. " The mind is its own place." More
than a flaming sword turning every way kept the
way of the tree of life. Yet it is of profound

88 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
interest to find that they had not lost their confi
dence in the One they had wronged. Out of the
garden, when the mother had in her arms the
first-born of woman, the mother-heart in joy held
up the child, while she let her thought ascend to
God, and her voice raise the song of thanksgiving,
the oldest psalm preserved to us, " I have gotten
a man from the Lord." Are not these the first
rude notes of the hymn sung afterward in Judah :
" My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit
hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath
looked upon the low estate of his handmaiden"?
There is something grand in the first Magnificat.
It is a prelude to the second. It is beautiful to
mark the penitence and faith and joy of the first
mother as these are preserved in a few lines. Her
heart is still with God, and his goodness she
confesses. It is apparent that she tried to bring
up her two boys in the fear of the Lord. One
resisted her influence and rejected her teaching.;
but the other believed her and obeyed the voice
of God. In him was promise of better things.
But he died ! Died at his altar. The return was
not then.
I am grateful that I am not asked to explain
the terms of this ancient chronicle, to distinguish
what is the literal fact and what the form in
which it appears. I cannot think that any man is

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 89
able to do this perfectly. There was a new start,
less assuring than the first. There are few clear
pages in the later history. Whatever was meant
by death, it has come in. Not that men were to
live always, and in this method of life ; but we
must believe that the change which advanced
them to other worlds would have had no sadness.
Why should it ? " The gloom, the knell, the pall,
the bier," would not have belonged with it. These
have come, and all they signify ; and the beginning
was so fine ! What might have been ! But why
think of that, unless even yet it may be gained ?
There are other accounts of these things, as
has been said. But they have not gained a place
among us. There has been no reason why they
should. Yet they are worth reading, if only for
the sake of contrast.
The Aryan nations had a conception of their
own, of four successive ages of the world. Cre-.
ated things, including man, were to last through
twelve thousand divine years, each one of them
comprising three hundred and sixty of the years of
man. The ages were to be marked by a gradual
degeneracy which could be expressed in the names
of the metals — gold, silver, brass, and iron. " Our
present human condition is the age of iron, the
worst of all, even though it did begin with the
heroes." It was in India that this scheme was

90 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
most fully worked out. Among the Parsees there
is a different account. They had the twelve
thousand years in four equal periods. They gave
a natural and weighty emphasis to the distinction
between the light and the dark, which passed
easily into the distinction between good and evil,
where it is still found convenient and expressive.
Ormuzd, Ahura Mazda, the highest divinity, was
the creator of the good, and dwelt in the perfect
light. Ahriman, Angra Mainyus, created an evil
universe, and had his seat in the deepest darkness.
The two opposing powers were thus apart, with
an empty and neutral space between them. Into
this intervening space the earth was lowered
when Ormuzd had made it, and there it hung
" as a kind of outpost." Ahriman saw what was
done, and was roused to action. He bored a hole
through the earth, and came out upon its surface,
where he destroyed the two inhabitants, as he did
those who were set in their place. Thus the
earth became the field of contest between good and
evil. It is impossible to tell with any approach
to certainty when or in what place the great
prophet and leader of this faith was born, Zoro
aster, otherwise Zarathustra, who was valiant
against the forces of evil, and worked toward
the final triumph of the good. For " at last the
powers of good will win the victory by the aid of

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 91
Saoshyans, the deliverer who is to come." Then
"Ormuzd will gather the whole human race into
the eternal light where he dwells." Thus the
Parsees, burning the sacred fire, and reverencing
the Avesta, their most sacred book,- lived in the
presence of unseen forces, paying homage to many
divinities, to things in heaven and things on the
earth, believing in practical goodness, expecting
the judgment of molten metal, and waiting for
immortality. To describe all their belief in de
tail would be impracticable here, if it were not
impossible. Nor does the modern occidental mind
receive much light from their explanation of the
mysteries before us, while it reads them with re
spectful interest. In this matter of the departure
of man from God, to which all history bears wit
ness, the accounts are more elaborate, but not more
satisfying. That Ahriman was stronger than men
is no help to us. How came he to be stronger ?
How came he to be at all ? Evil is pushed one
degree farther back, and from the serpent is
found in the god. But the relentless "Why?"
has no answer.
One thing, never to be lost sight of, which
marks the account in Genesis in lines which can
not be effaced, to which our whole moral sense,
our rehgious intuition, our profoundest convic
tions, assent; before which Conscience stands,

92 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
throwing its entire force into approbation and
admiration, is this — that evil did not begin with
God ; did not and could not. It came in rebel
lion against his commandment, in revolt against
his will, in defiance of his penalty. To the credit
of the account which bears no name, and in its
pictures commits itself to our intelligence, let
this be borne in mind. All our ideas are con
fused, and our deepest sentiments are put to rout,
unless the Eternal is one and good. When all
is said, do we not return with satisfaction to the
condensed statements in Genesis, aware of the
unfolding which is needed at every point, seeing
room for theories and explanations, and wiUing to
have them arise in many forms ? Are we not
content with the conclusion of an old writer:
" Behold, this only have I found, that God made
man upright ; but they have sought out many in
ventions " ? I have not forgotten that aU these
things were long ago, and I have assumed our
relation to them. We were brought up in that
way. Was not the shorter Catechism — shorter,
but quite long enough — pronounced in regard
to it ? I do not mean that we can join our family
line to the first man who ever was. Yet we must
be descended from him, or from some first man,
or first men, who received of the life of his
Maker. I see no reason for disturbing the com-

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 93
mon behef . The condition of things around us
and behind us began somewhere. We have seen
a rational beginning, and it is easy to trace our
relationship. I shall not try. to bridge the cen
turies. Theologians are not agreed about much
except the piers. From a small beginning has
come a great family, many families, with a common
nature which is of greater moment than all which
separates us into tribes and riations.
I see no advantage in making excursions into
unknown lands. It will be found that the relig
ious history which opens ^rith these unadorned
pages is in sad agreement with them in all its
lengthened course. Perhaps we shall be more
reconciled to the beginning when we approach
the end. Men increased. They scattered ; when,
we cannot tell. They went their ways, and long
afterward are found in different places, and with
many differences of condition, but in thought
and life separate from themselves and from God.
Wherever they are seen they have a rehgion,
that is, a belief in powers beyond themselves
and mightier than they. It is plain that religion
is a part of the common nature. In many other
things the separated peoples are unlike, but
Plutarch's statement was true in his time, and
if we give it a wide meaning remains true : " A
city without a temple or an altar, or some order

94 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
of worship, no man ever saw." There is some
thing in the man which demands a rehgion and
finds it or makes it. Centuries pass, but the
need remains and bears witness to the reason
which is in it. We cannot mistake the' meaning
of this flowing on of human thought. It calls to
mind the reasoning with which Nansen encour
aged himself when his theories were at fault and
his way through the ice was undiscovered. He
had studied it all out in advance. He expected
to find a shallow polar sea and a current which
would easily move him upon it. He came to the
polar sea and there was no line on board the
" Fram " long enough to sound the waters troubled
by his daring. His theory of the current was not
sustained. He recalled the experience of an older
voyager, that Columbus discovered America by
means of a mistake made by another, and then
he wrote : " Heaven only, knows where my mis
take will lead us. Only I repeat once more,
' The Siberian driftwood on the coast of Green
land cannot lie, and the way it went we must go.' "
I am not called upon to define the varying relig
ions which the world has known. The study is
most interesting ; it has drawn -many students to
itself, and the results of their study are in our
hands. With all this instruction we can answer
the inquiry which arises at this point, an inquiry of

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 95
intense significance in view of the untold millions
over whom these religions hold sway : What light,
what help, do they offer to bring men back to
themselves, and to God, their Maker ? Out of the
confusion comes no answer to create a certain hope.
The problem is this : Man was Hke God. Man
is unlike God. Can he again be like God?
Whether men have come up to this place, or have
come down to ¦ this place, here they are. Can
they attain to the fulness of life ? Lest our prog
ress should in any way be hindered by this con
cise statement, let us regard man as now without
a proper Hkeness to his Creator, whatever be the
history of the divergence, and inquire if there is
a way in which he can become, or can be made,
like God. If there are forces working within him
to this end, can these be enlarged, quickened, and
guided by a new divine force ? Is this new
force to be found? That there is truth in the
world's rehgions, and that there have been devout
souls, more than the few whose names are pre
served, who have found their way back, and have
made for themselves lives of virtue and beauty
and piety, every one should be ready to admit,
and with gratitude. But is the way of return
open to all people, and what is the help which
seeks them and finds them, and what is the high
way up to the approval of God? -After all our

96 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
reading we are checked with the question on our
lips. The answer would not come to us very
readily in any case. It is by no means easy to
understand the religion of our neighbor when it dif
fers from our own. To clearly comprehend the re
ligion of another nation, parted from us as the East
is from the West, with a method, and expression,
and experience, and a habit of mind and heart,
quite unlike our own inheritance, and fashioning
themselves in forms which to us are strange and
confusing and unattractive, is an improbable at
tainment, if it be not quite out of our reach. Let
all this and more be conceded. StiU, a way of
life which is to serve a nation should be discerni
ble even to Gentiles. Certainly, if it is pointed
out to us, we should be able to see it. If its Gos
pel is translated into our own tongue, its precepts,
if not its mysteries, should be disclosed. That a
system of recovery which suits and serves the
Oriental docs not commend itself to us, in this
cooler clime, is not of much account. Is there
a system which serves him, creates hope, quickens
andi rewards desire, secures the rising and advance
of Hfe, delivers it from bondage, fosters the spirit
ual nature which is his birthright, as it is ours,
and all men's, brings him into the peace of his
own conscience, and changes his fear of God into
love ? This is the real inquiry, and where shaU

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 97
we look for an answer? Anywhere, for all the
world is open before us, and men are religious
everywhere. We cannot range the earth at once.
But we cannot hastily pass by the thoughts of
men whose nature and need are as our own, and
who have felt the desires which we know so well.
No One can enter into the life of the world, into
the things which are concerned with life and
destiny, without being profoundly impressed, con
fused and saddened. "Then Job answered and
said, Of a truth I know that it is so ; but how
can man be just with God ? " There is no land
where the question has not stayed; often, most
often, in a poor, blind, broken, fearful shape.
The question is a part of the common nature, and
there should be an intelligent answer. Is there ?
Where is it ? If we reply, " It is here," here is
but a narrOw canton of the world. Is it else
where ? The history of that instructive question,
and of the replies which men have fashioned, is
not easily read. The scroll which holds it is
wrinkled and torn, and the writing is not always
legible. In such studies as are suggested by these brief
considerations we soon find that, as in the records
of the rocks, there are wide spaces to be filled.
We have the beginning, of which we are assured,
and then comes a break in the story, while there

98 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
must have been continuity in the life. Quite
naturally the mind, turns to India, where the
people are very religious and nearly all the chief
religions have had a field, and an opportunity to
manifest their power and defend their authority.
It is impressive that while so much has taken
place there, political and rehgious, India is a land
almost without a history. We are ready to send
out the wealth of the Indies, that we may bring
home the wealth of the Indies, as we are required
to do. But the ships do not come back with
Plimsoll's line against the water. It is by no light
expenditure, and. through no simple process, that
we can secure what the land of the Ganges has
to offer us of faith and thought. We soon leave
dates behind us, for they are modern. In that
land of mystery everything seems old. Unfortu
nately things are not old enough. The time of
Brahma, the creator, the supreme inteUigence
dwelHng in deep contemplation, is far away, but
not so far that we can read a simple story of his
life. His work was soon completed, and Vishnu
and Siva, his allies, then received the greater
honor. The preserver and the destroyer were
worshipped, with a multitude of divinities of
many sorts. There was small promise of help for
the world. Under this teaching sacrifices have
abounded, but they have been . offered in weari-

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 99
ness of the world, where time and the things of
time have ceased to be of interest, and in the
presence of illusion. Even in this dreariness the
people could not stand together, dividing the
burden of their dismay, and sharing whatever of
good any one chanced to realize, but they sep
arated themselves into the rigid castes which
have remained in their power to hinder and
oppress. There was need of a reformer, and he came.
It was in the latter half of the sixth century be
fore Christ that Siddhartha, the prince, who came
to. be known as Buddha, or the Buddha, was
born. He early felt the miseries of life and fled
from them, and devoted himself to the deliver
ance of mankind. He found no content in the
teachings of the Brahmans. He practised austeri
ties, but they brought him no rest. At length,
after a prolonged meditation, he learned the way
of rescue which he had sought. Then he went
forth to preach, and he made many disciples, and
when he died, eighty years old, Buddhism was an
established rule of life, which in time extended
over India and beyond, and it is said bore sway
over a third of the people of the earth. Buddha,
the illumined one, who saw and knew the truth,
gave to men a person whom they could admire,
whose teachings were more definite than they had

100 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
known, whose spirit and life drew the credence of
needy hearts. There is a lasting charm in the
story of this life which has kept it familiar. It
is not strange that he holds his place among his
followers as " the chiefest among ten thousand."
In view of all things it is, perhaps, not strange
that so large a part of the world should call itself
after his name. What better name had they?
He could not be shielded from the sight of evil.
It was at the door of his house and waited beside
his path. He looked beyond and saw evil and
misfortune extended in endless returnings. If he
could break up the clinging to hfe he would set
men free. If he could teach men the emptiness
of all earthly things, and induce them to renounce
that in which they found delight, their deliver
ance would be accomplished. Into what they
were to escape he did not make clear. Nirvana
has commonly been regarded as the final end of
living, though it may not be this. StiH, a change
so complete as it promised would be the end of
such life as men had known upon the earth. In
many discourses he taught his doctrine and
offered his help. He made great account of man,
differing in this from the teachers whom he dis
placed, who made God everything. He set his
mind on time, when the Brahman aspired to
eternity. By acts of faith, and obedience, and

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 101
charity he would bring men into a better estate.
The result was, again, disappointing. Unques
tionably there was truth in Buddhism. But it
was not itself the truth. It taught virtue, but it
was patience rather than action, endurance and
not enterprise, which it commended. It treated
woman better than other Eastern religions, but it
did not set her free, in her own place. It could
not hold its ground in the country in which it
was first knowm It has been clearly pointed
out that the radical fault of Buddhism was in
its selfishness. " It rests on pure individualism ;
each man's object is to save his own soul." It
was overthrown in India, but it left its influence
oni the country and on the older religions, and
it found a home in other neighboring lands^
where its beHevers have been innumerable and
its influence immeasurable. But neither in India
nor elsewhere has it made, or can it make, such a
country as we wish the world to resemble. Budd
hism is sadness. It could not establish men
in comfort, nor constitute a state. The world
needed God, the Maker and Father of men,
and He was not seen there. Men knew nothing
of his love, of his sympathy and help, and had no
thought that they could walk with Him, even in
this world which He had made for them. In
isolation, egotism, selfishness, there was no escape

102 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
from their sorrow, and the evil which produced
it. This is not reasoning. It is not a homily.
It is a result. Man's effort to find God and be at
peace with Him had failed, and he was himself
the sign of its failure. There was no hope appar
ent, unless God should come to men and raise
them to Himself. .Would He do this ? Who
should say ? Buddhism was not in itself a relig
ion. It recognized the gods who had been
known in the land, but it had no worship for
them. It was willing to worship Buddha, and
to see in him the sovereign of life. He was
Intelligence, the Enlightened One, and by many
such names we may call him. But he was not
the Light ; a beautiful Star, but not a Sun ; not
even a planet of the first magnitude, by reason of
his lack of light. I must conclude these hints,
happy that no more is needed. Yet I shall bridge
the way before us with the words of Maurice,
whose learning and fair dealing aU men respect :
" I ask nothing more than the Hindoo system and
the Hindoo Hfe as evidence that there is that in
man which demands a revelation — that there is
not that in him which makes the revelation." I
have been interested in the statement in a letter
just published, from one of the leading advocates
of Oriental belief, that the principal representative
in this country of the religious thought of India is

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 103
not a Buddhist, and that the Vedanta has been
taught " as a system of philosophy which might
underlie Christianity as well as the rehgion of the
Hindoos." I am not attempting a history, or even a sketch,-
of the religions of the world or any one of them.
If I were, I should, of course, give a much fuller
account of Buddhism, which has admirers among
us, and I should go to other nations. It would be
of value to study the effect of Buddhism away
from its home. It is not unlikely that in its
course it received aid from Christianity. Its
effects can be traced in Japan, where it helped to
raise the people from their low estate. But its
work there reached its bounds. That the Japanese
have made a great advance upon many lines is
evident. A few men have felt in good measure
the outer influence which has appealed to their
own striving, and wrought with it, and by them
the nation has been moved forward. But there is
no content in this. Man has not found his true
self as the child of God, nor come to the knowl
edge of his wiU, in its grace and truth. The
nations aU bear strikirig witness to the need of a
light which is not of men.
We can form our own judgment. Even with
the charm, the spell, of Oriental mystery upon us,
we can be sane. I am quite sure I express

104 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
the common assurance, based upon knowledge,
that it is not to India we are to look for the
world's enlightening and delivering faith. Not to
India with all her own resources, with the benefits
of Mohammedanism, even with the influence of
England, with the presence of the foreigner in
her seaports, with any natural advance which can
be discovered, with the teaching of a few Chris
tian missionaries, can we look for the faith which
is to strengthen manhood, liberate and exalt
woman, promote robust virtue, restore the fuU
divinity of life. When we seek Hfe for the
wOrld, it is not there. If not there, where is it ?
I wish before I turn from these hurried thoughts
upon religious systems to say a word of respect
for them, and, if I may, to make them tributary
to my main design. Nothing which so deeply
concerns the heart of man, and has a real part in
his life, can be rudely handled or Hghtly regarded.
We must all feel the justice of these words of a
thoughtful teacher: "Nor do I think any man
of modesty or thoughtfulness wiU ever speak
contemptuously of any religion in which God has
allowed one good man to die, trusting ; " and fur
ther, " You will always measure your neighbor's
creed kindly, in proportion to the substantial
points of your own." Let us recognize with
gratitude the efforts of men in the expression

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITER ATURE 105
of the rehgious sentiment and in the attempt to
make this of service to the world. There is here
a truth of the largest significance. It is not the
result alone, but the attempt itself, which1 con
cerns us. We cannot fail to notice, in the
theories and professions at least, the insistence
upon morality, the assertion of the authority of
the right. The appHcation often offends us, but
there is a thought, a feeling within, which deserves
regard. " God is no respecter of persons ; but in
every nation he that feareth Him and worketh
righteousness is acceptable to Him." The study
of the world's religions is becoming popular, and
with good reason. They have been too long
neglected and too little esteemed. We should
be informed regarding each one, and the relations
between them, and any advance which can be
found in their thought and influence.
Whatever else they may be, the religions of the
world are a revelation of man. They disclose his
need and his spiritual:, nature. If they do not
declare a capacity for intercourse with the Divine
Being, they do make known his ability to look
beyond himself and beyond the world, and to find
principalities and powers filling the spaces which
enclose the stars. He sees a spirit in nature. If
he confounds this with the things he looks upon,
and sends his adoration out into the light, or even

106 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
makes images to represent it, — images which are
quite sure at last to detain his thought upon
themselves, — this is something of account. It is
much when men believe in that they cannot see,
and are aware of a life above their own ; differ
ent from ' theirs, but sufficiently like it for com
munion, and some community of interest. They
may admire the forces and authorities about
them and above them, or only fear them and
dread their approach. What they do is of less
consequerice than that they should in some way
think upon them, know, that they are there,
believe that they can be reached with prayers
and offerings ; that by sacrifices their anger may
be averted and their favor secured. We may
call this superstition, but there are worse things
than superstition. To see gods everywhere is bet
ter than to see God nowhere. Superstition is a
perversion, and its forms are often degraded until
the truth which is in them is well-nigh beyond
recognition. But there remains a point, a germ,
of which something can be made. God has not
left Himself without witness, nor limited this to
"rains and fruitful seasons." Whatever has been
the influence of these rehgious systems, they offer
no reason for withholding a f uHer revelation ; nay,
they declare a reason for presenting it, in their
insufficiency, and in their witness to the ability of

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 107
men to be religious. Let us recognize the uni
versal religious principle in man. When a ship
is at the pier, you do not know that she will
move. When a ship is a hundred miles at sea, it
is safe to infer that she will go farther.
Roswell Hitchcock truly said : " Even if religion
were altogether a superstition, it is an inevitable
and an indispensable superstition." The worship,
however poor, of nature, or the power or powers
whose form is nature, whose dwelling is in the
Hght of rising and setting suns , — the endowing
of nature with personal qualities to which men
can address themselves , — are a witness to the far
away origin of the mind to which such conceptions
are- possible and natural. It is the stifled cry of
men upon a raft in mid-ocean, when the ship
has gone down and no land rises from the many
billowed waters, and therje is no bread on the un-
planted sea. It may be dreadfully low, this super
stition of the world. If there was " no gentleman
on Olympus," what can be said of the Pantheon
of savagery? The likeness of the gods to those
who made them is too sad for anything but pity,
unless it be hope. We are upon the lowest plane.
There are better things farther up. There are
noble thoughts, beautiful sentiments, worthy aspi
rations, brave attempts at a truer and happier life.
What revelations the Father of all men has made

108 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
as the centuries have roUed on, we may not be
able to tell. He has not separated Himself from
the world, nor Hghtly regarded any one's need.
There is a true light " which lighteth every man
that cometh into the world ; " a saying as simple
and natural as it is riel| in promise, and worthy
of the place in which it is recorded. The appeal
is not to credulous charity and amiable desire,
but to a broad reason, a discerning vision, and
to our faith in God, the riiaker of the heaven
and the earth, and the man. In the study
of our fellow-men, it is required of us that
we make the most and the best of all that
we discover. It is not strange that when we
wander beyond the domain which we have in
herited we find httle which pleases, and nothing
which contents us. The sad, unmistakable fact is
this, that the religions, and forms of rehgion, upon
which we are lingering for a moment are not good,
even for those who have nothing else. They do
not give them the light and Hfe which every man
must need ; they do not meet the wants of those
who chng to them, nor do they promise ever to do
this. There is too little truth, and too much
error ; too little which strengthens, and too much
which enervates ; too little from above, and too
much from the earth. We may regard it as
proven, that no religion made by men can do for

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE109
men that which must be done. Let us not
blame men for not doing what is beyond their
power. Let us, ' rather, look up to the hills
from whence came life in the beginning. If
God is our Father, as we say, He will speak to
us. " Adam, where art thou ? " when we hear it,
summons us to God. I do not see why we may
not take life at first hand. God is more easily
reached than men ; and there is satisfaction when
one is learning from Him.
Think what it is which needs to be effected.
It is the renewing of a man's life ; of his
conduct, but more than that — of the stream of
life upon which conduct is borne. Life itself
must be made pure, godlike, as it was when
it came with the breath of the Eternal, with
the being of the man. A change so deep
and thorough and essential can only be
wrought by Him who first created man. I am
carrying Virchow's words farther than he in
tended, but the analogy is close, and analogy in
this is not far from argument. Life can come
only from life, he said. The Hfe of the soul, the
spirit, can come only from the living and eternal
Spirit. Here the rehgions of the world fail.
They lack the creative power. Something of
truth, of virtue, of spirit, they may have. But
not the divine, spiritual vitality, cleansing and

110 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
quickening the thoughts and desires of the soul.
The facts are before us. Efforts at reform are
made, notably in India, and by men who .are in
earnest, and who have apparently rays from the
Light of the world, if I may change the figure. But
they do not bring their own life or the nation's
life to the new Life itself, the Life which is fuUy
the light of men. Religion should be Simple,
dignified, exalted, evoking the homage which it
fosters and rewards. It should promote human
hfe, sanctify the home, enlarge virtue, quickefr
ambition, promote enterprise, secure knowledge,
make the man more and more conscious of himself,
and awake to his divine lineage. Little of this do
you find where men have been left to themselves.
Is there a better test of a religion than the place it
gives to woman? Doubtless there are pleasant
homes, sacred loves, happy mothers and children,
where men have wrought out their own faith.
Find as many as you can. Unless our standards
are local and inadequate, such things are very far
from the rule. Those who have looked longest
and most carefully bring the report of little glad
ness and hope, little liberty and promise ; much
of sadness turning to despair. I need not here
call to mind the Pundita Ramabai whose pitiful
tale of her countrywomen has been forgotten by
no one who heard it a few months ago. She gave

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 111
but a ghmpse of her India, but it was a native
woman's look, and from it came a sister's plea.
Only a little of India she disclosed, only pieces of
real Hfe. Many remember the prayer of the
child-widow which she repeated: " O Father of
the world, hast Thou not created us ? Or has
perchance some other god made us ? Dost Thou
only care for men ? O Almighty One, hast Thou
not power to make us other than we are, that we
too may have some part in the blessings of life?"
I beheve there is still an association in Boston
which sends New England pity and money for the
succor of imprisoned Hves in India. Ramabai
was seen only a little time ago in the white,
graceful dress of her country, with her face
radiant with thankfulness, and the inspiration of
truth and Hght covering her. Her tender, elo
quent voice was heard in Channing Hall, begging
with resistless confidence for a " Faith, Hope, and
Love Home" for the women and girls of India.
Must it be proved that the misery she asks us to
reHeve is the result of the religion of the land ? I
but remind you that the religion Of the land has
aUowed it, and has not removed it,, and does not
expect to remove it. ShaU I say, does not know
how to remove it?
To study the world's religions one by one, and
with comparison, is of Httle more than historic

112 COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
use, unless we can discover some principle which
pervades them and consents to the varying forms
in which it is embodied. The forms are not acci
dental, but come readily into the character and
condition of different peoples. If there should be
found a common principle in them, this would not
be accidental, but must arise from a common
source. I do not think the one principle is hard
to find, or to comprehend. It is the recognition
of powers beyond men, invisible but real, with
which men are in actual personal relation. This
belongs in human nature, and can be traced to
the origin of the human nature in the divine
nature from which the Hfe of man proceeds.
With the fact of creation by one Creator out
of his own life, beside which there is no other,
comes as a simple consequence the consciousness
of that life, and the feeling toward its origin.
Kept in life by One who gave him his being, what
is more likely than that man wiU feel the presence
which surrounds him — a presence uninterrupted
since the beginning ?
The unity of feeling is of vaster moment than
the diversity in which it finds expression. The
thinking of the world has not been clear or con
stant. Behind gods often may be discerned one
supreme presence, and through forms grotesque
may be dimly detected a thought better than

COURSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE 113
its images. Fetichism has been described as " a
superstitious veneration for rubbish." Whence
does the veneration come ? Even if it be utterly
useless, and sometimes much worse, what is
its meaning? Is it all the degradation of a
better thought ? Or is it the blind, very blind,
long blind, and blinded instinct ^of the soul
which perforce sees a somewhat past itself? It
sees it so very dimly, and expresses its feeling so
rudely, that it does not hesitate to wreak its dis
appointment upon the image before which, when
things go well, it is ready to pay homage. Still,
a feehng is there which witnesses to somewhat
outside of the body.
Some may remember a visit made to us
not many years ago by the Zuni Indians. We
heard their long, stories, translated by their white
brother, Cushing, who had learned many things
of thern. But what was of the highest interest
was a sail down the harbor, that they might
worship. We landed on an island, and were
f uH of curiosity. The Indians disappeared for a
time, and on their return they walked into the
sea, and then with a solemnity I have never seen
surpassed, under the open sky, careless of all
around' them, they sang their mystic chant, and
threw out upon the air from their uplifted
hands, the grain they offered to the god of the

114 CO URSE OF MAN IN OLDEST LITERATURE
waters, and let it float away, whithersoever, he
would, for it was his, and he had taken it. That
was worship. I do not know, by what name they
called their divinity. We call Him God.
If we pass to higher forms of religion, we see
men turning to the heavens from which come the
names of the divinities, and the figure of their
quality. There is a beauty in a faith Hke this,
which associates with the sun and the dawn, with
fire and light, the powers to which reverence and
prayer are due. The divinity is above, out of
reach, never fashioned by the hands of men, re
maining for ages, and boundless in its riches. Or
there may be a larger view which includes the
partial visions, and thus stands nearer to the
truth. Different divinities may stand for one
God. This was at times the thought of the
Brahman ; but it did not prevent caste, nor with
hold its sanction from vice. Against this Buddh
ism rebelled, with its insistence upon morality
and humanity. But all this, and all which we
name paganism, cannot dishearten me so much as
the poor, broken thought of unseen spiritual, forces
gives encouragement. It is sad that a man should
bow before his idol : it were worse if he did not
bow at all. You can take away the idol, and
leave him kneeling, and that is a good posture in
which to see God and worship Him.

Ill
THE SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE

THE SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITER
ATURE

This is 1898. The fixed point "in the files
of time " from which the years are reckoned was
found in a small and remote province of the
empire, and in the night when, in the house
hold of a village carpenter, far from his home, a
child was born. Strange things are told of this
by men who were near when it occurred. A
writer of scientific pretension, then a well-known
physician, has related that on that night, while
shepherds were watching their flocks, an angel
bright with celestial glory appeared, and told
what had happened in the town beside their field ;
and that presently a heavenly host was heard
singing into the silence the Gloria in Excelsis.
This was certainly remarkable, and the narrative
separates itself from common legends, not only
by the fact that it was written by that man and
at that time, but by its position in a biography
whose events are presented in prosaic simplicity
and directness, to the intent, as the author states,

118 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
that the friend to whom he was writing might
know the certainty concerning the things wherein
he had been instructed. The whole memoir is an
excellent piece of literature, and the beautiful
beginning will keep its place in the hearts that
are young. Let us , hope that we may never be
old. I do not see anything in the account of that
night in the fields of Bethlehem more astonishing
than the very commonplace circumstance that our
morning newspaper, on its own showing, went to
press eighteen hundred and ninety-eight years
after the birth of that child. Reference to that
event was made in the same terms this morning
in London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg,
and in every place which has a daily paper. This
is not all. For every constitution which shall be
adopted through the year, every treaty which
shall be formed, every ordinance which shaU be
issued, every bill of sale that is written, every
compact for a game of ball, every letter of the
school-girl, will carry those four figures which
define its place and measure its distance from
that child's birth, of which, outside a few peas
ants, the world was unaware, and to which it
would long be indifferent. Herod the king
heard of it and was troubled. Wise men
came from the East to worship the new king.

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE H9
The world was to know Him, and to take that
night into its life, and to arrange its affairs
around it. Here is something to be thought
upon. Learning, intelligence, must make account
of the fact which is so firmly and generally
established that it passes without observation. I
have sometimes said that every candidate for a
college degree should be required to give a
scholarly statement of all the causes which have
worked together to produce the date upon the
diploma which he seeks, and of the events which
have immediately attended the bringing in of
this result. I am inclined to think that, for the
first degree at least, this requirement, given in
the largest way, would be sufficient. A hasty
answer, an ill-considered explanation, could be
easily given. But scholars are held to accuracy
and completeness. This demand would call fox
knowledge of history; of discovery and the
making of nations ; of the change in boundaries
and governments ; of political and military
affairs ; of science and its annals ; of philosophy
and its records ; of art and its influence ; of educa
tion and its methods ; of language and its exten
sion ; of men and their careers which have been
set into the movement of the world ; of philan
thropy and reform; of morals and religion; of
missions and their results ; of the Church and the

120 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
churches. Every department of the University
Library would be laid under tribute, and proposals
to shorten the years of study would be delayed.
After all this, the real explanation might not be
discovered. It is evident that I cannot answer the inquiry
which I have started. Nor can I trace the steps
by which our chronology has been established.
The fixed point is an intrusion, but one that has
justified itself. The whole matter of the calendar
is both interesting and curious. There are cer
tain natural divisions of time, made by the change
of day and night, the course of the moon, and
arrangement of the seasons. Yet there were diffi
culties enough on every side, while the great
thing was to find a starting-point. Each nation
could easily select one for itself, but this was too
provincial to last; and to find a day for two
nations, or three, was not easy.
It would seem well-nigh impossible to find any
man of whose life any one day could be agreed
upon by the people of other nations whose own
heroes were thus openly passed by. Imagine
such an attempt to be made now ! Yet that was
done. The Hebrew counted the years from the
beginning of the world, a convenient place, to
which no one could object on the ground of sec
tarianism, if the time could be discovered, which

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 121
seems more difficult now than it was then. The
Roman counted from the founding of Rome,
which was a natural assertion of his national
importance. The Greek was of a differerit temper
and began with the Olympic games, or with that
one in which Corcebus gained the first recorded
victory, which was a little earlier than the start
ing-point of the Romans. There are various Ori
ental methods of arranging the years, as from
the flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina,
or the accession of Yezdegird, or the Council of
Tiben. These we need not consider. Nor need
we linger upon smaller calendars which were
based on various local events. To the system
of his country, wherever that might be, the
Christian conformed. It was his way, and he was
not so presumptuous as to think that the events
which were most significant in his thought would
work a change so stupendous in the affairs of the
world as to displace the systems of time by which
they were arranged. It was certainly not to be
expected that the Roman government, under
whose decree Christ had been crucified, would
place him- at the beginning of its history. It was
long in doing this, but it was done at last. It
seems to have come about in this way : The
Emperor Justinian had directed that all public
documents should be' dated by the year of' the

122 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
emperor and the name of the consul ; but in our
year 541 he gave up the practice of nominating
consuls, and it became necessary to fix upon some
new point from which time could be measured.
The Justinian code of Civil Law, which had just
been published, made it, perhaps, seem more iuapef-
tant that the matter of dates, with which the laws
would have much to do, should be adjusted in a
rational and permanent way. Since the Roman
law was to be so widely extended, and furnish
principles of jurisprudence for many countries
and many centuries, it was fitting that the initial
point of the new chronology should be of uni
versal value. I do not know that all this was
thought of, but it might well have been regarded.
The fact that such a point was found and adopted
shows that in their action the Romans were wiser
than they knew. Now it happened — if we may
use such a term for a course of events worthy
of wiser direction — it happened that a Roman
abbot, who bore the not unusual name of Diony-
sius, but was distinguished by the epithet
Exiguus, probably because he was small of stature,
had begun in his tables for Easter to count the
years from the birth of Christ. Among them
selves Christians had before reckoned from their
Lord, but from Iris crucifixion; now the Incar
nation, as it was regarded, was to make the begin-

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 123
ning of a new era. This Dionysius was a man of
high standing; a Scythian, but renowned in the
Latin church for his great learning, which
appeared in his collection of ecclesiastical laws,
of canons and decretals. But his larger work
and extended fame were in this simpler matter
of the calendar, in which his thought was to have
a far wider and larger range than any one on earth
could have imagined. He could not tell with
precision the time when Christ was born, and in
his computation there is an error of four or five
years. That is of no importance here, although
it would need to be taken into account in the
College examination. But the idea of the abbot
was at once popular. The time had come for it.
It met a want, and under conditions which com
mended it. That was in the sixth century, as
we now count. The idea kept its place and grew
in favor. It was taken into the learning of Bede,
or Beda, and advanced with it. Charlemagne gave
his influence to its extension, and by the eighth
century it was very widely in use, and was still
advancing, until it has become established as the
fixed point of the world's chronology. I do not
mean that there was anything mysterious in this,
but that it was very remarkable ; an impressive
fact of which account should be made. Such
facts are of consequence as expressing truths and

124 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
tendencies in clear and compact form. This was
of that nature. The prominence to which Chris
tianity had attained, and the recognition which it
had acquired in the empire, prepared the way for
this act of homage.
Of course the date has moved with events.
But how did it get among the events, and belong
with them ? It moved with law, language,
custom, and it remained when these had been
driven back. It stayed wherever it went. Other
things changed, but this was as fixed as the course
of the planets. We do not need to trace it hi
scattered syllables and obscure usages ; it stands
in its own right, and is conspicuous in its dignity
and authority. In its universal use it is the per
petual memorial of Him whose birthday it records.
No man can date a letter, and think what he is
doing, without bringing Christ before his mind.
What other fact, in the entire history of the world,
is constantly mentioned, and kept in connection
with the life of men throughout its whole extent,
from centre to circumference ; in politics, science,
business, religion ; in the birth of the child, the
movement of the man, the government of the
nation? Shall we ask the reason for this ? I do
not wish to force the evident truth beyond that
which is just. But when I regard .it as I would
any. fact of nature, any other fact of history, I

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 125
cannot avoid the behef, which to me is most
grateful, that herein is a divine thought, and that
this is one sign of the divine purpose, one witness
to the mission of Him who was born at Bethlehem,
one promise that his work is to be worldwide and
enduring. We have here the life in which the recovery of
man is to be fulfilled. The world has decidedly
and permanently made recognition of its opening
day. It is a singular fact, to be Carefully regarded.
My present proposition is this : As the Creator
gave to man of his own life in the beginning, and
that life has lost its virtue while in man's pos
session, the Creator has again, in these last times,
and by a man, given his life to the world.
We have lingered at the birth of the new man.
We are to move on for thirty years and mark his
life. Let us remember the simplicity of the event
from which we start, and the glory connected
with it. Its light is shining upon our path all
the day. The record of the life is in books held
in reverence in many lands. Special divine illu
mination and guidance have been claimed for their
writers ; and in the minds of wise men the claim
has been well sustained. Such assistance could
readily be given. But the books have their own
claims upon our attention and confidence. They
offer unusual advantages for the study now before

126 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
us, in that they contain four separate biographies
of Him whose birthday we all regard. There is
no parallel for this. There are these sufficiently
complete narratives, written independently, after,
but not too long after, the life which they present.
They were written under different conditions, for
different immediate purposes, and with consider
able intervals. It is not exaggeration to say that
no one living in that time, or within many cen
turies of it, can be so weU known as He whom we
have to know if we are to be well informed. Not
only the incidents of his career, but his spirit,
his intentions, his methods, his character and
assertions, his deep thoughts and. purposes, are
placed before us, in many lights, with varied
illustrations, with many repetitions, with an
honesty and simplicity which are riowhere ex
celled. If it is possible for scholarship to deter
mine the- importance of any ancient literature,
then it has been done in this instance. No effort
has been spared, no test has been denied, no re
search hindered. Reverence and irreverence, the
desire to believe and the readiness to doubt, have
done their earnest work here. It is a rare tribute
to the worth of these biographies that they have
been able to draw to themselves the attention of
such men as have been enlisted in their study.
Think when they were made, to what writers

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 127
they were assigned, in what land they had their
origin, to what subjects they relate, and see that
here again is testimony to the value and the in
tegrity of these books. We have no autograph
manuscripts, and fortunately none which claim
such distinction. But we come near to them,
and may come closer. There are tales now and
then of antique fragments found in convents
and other ruins. But as it is, we come near to
men who saw Christ. I do not wish to claim too
much, and I am quite ready to accept the conclu
sions of sincere, painstaking study on all literary
questions. The conclusions should be in all
respects scholarly ; thorough and thoroughly fair,
and in the interest of truth alone. But we -may
well despair of knowledge of the early days if,
after aU that has been done, these simple treatises
are not to be confidently regarded as the trust
worthy record of the events in which they claim
to have had their origin. I do not care to insist
that at every point and in every word they are
rigidly exact, but that they are true, as we use
-that term, and give the truth in simple forms.
Their contents might well make us unusually
careful, but they should not alter our canons of
study, nor invalidate the processes of our reason,
nor make us unreasonable in our demands'. We
may aUow for .difference of conclusion upon

128 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
special questions. But when all has been said,
the conclusions of scholarly thought find in these
pages the true presentment of the Hfe of Him who
moves in them.
I speak of these writings as literature. That
the books have special quahties, which raise
them above other books, I firmly believe. But
I do not wish to contend' for all which person
ally I hold to be true and proven. For my
purpose it seems best to regard them as the writ
ings of men honest and intelligent, and to read
them with the same openness and readiness of
mind which we should give to them if they were
not concerned with such things as fill their pages.
In referring to these writings I have used the
convenient term " biographies." This is not en
tirely correct. In the best sense they are not
biographies, with a definite beginning, and a clear
and connected account of events, with names and
dates, and all the framework of a life. They are
such writings as you would expect from un
lettered, intelligent, honest men. There is no
sign of art, no pretence to literary skill, no ob
truding of the authors: Each writer presents the
statement of that which he knew, and thought it
necessary to preserve and circulate, concerning
One who had claimed and received his homage.
This is fine, this personal interest and freedom, in

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE: 129
which four men prepared four accounts of the one
Hfe. Neither wrote a complete memoir, but each
did better in describing the life itself ; the spirit
and purpose which were in more deeds than have
been recorded. They wrote from their personal
recollection, from common memories of words and
deeds constantly recalled, perhaps in some portions
from separate records of special events. Their
design was to tell as clearly as they could the
truths which had become a part of their life, and
concerning which error was unreasonable. They
did not shut out the light which according to
the promise had come to them. They may
have. learned new words, but they had also learned
how to employ words not new. Thus it is said
that one of the writers borrowed the term Logos,
which he appHed to the Master. He was at
Hberty to do this, if he found the word con
venient. The natural question is,. not what the
word meant where he found it, but what use he
made of it in describing the Hfe of One who was
the subject of his writing. Read it in its place,
as you hear an instrument in an orchestra.
It is a life which is given to us. , We find it
moving quietly, steadily forward, not more inter
rupted by Hnes between events than is the course
of a ship by the meridians it crosses. We feel
its presence. , We are conscious of an idea, an

130 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
intent, possessing the years, and going constantly
on to fulfil itself. Incidents attract and interest
us, but it is the life and the purpose incarnate
in it which take the strongest hold upon our
thought, upon our admiration and confidence.
Yet the forms in which the thought was embodied
are of great value. We feel the spirit ; but the
spirit must be manifested in order to be known.
But these records do not stand by themselves.
They can be read alone, with nothing before and
nothing after them. Even thus they would be
instructive beyond all other literature. But no
one can read them intelligently without perceiv
ing that they are the extension of writings which
were before them, . Not to read the entire litera
ture is as if we should study the Puritans without
regard to the English history in which they come
to light and do their first work. Of aU the lives
that have been lived, the life of Christ can least
afford to be studied in sections, which are re
garded as complete. I think that everything
which bears the name of heresy rests upon pieces
of truth, and not upon truth in its wholeness
and variety.
We are chiefly concerned with the modern
Testament, properly called New, the New
Covenant. ; All along the way. this turns us
back to thd earlier stages of the thought. The

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 131
Master was constantly referring to the Hebrew
Scriptures, and showing the vital connection of
his life with that which had been written. He
could do this, for with the exception of names
and dates, the story of his life can be read in
the OM Testament almost as well as in the
New. His biography was given in advance, even
as He said, and his purpose was to complete it.
Biography usually follows the life : his also pre
ceded. The tables of his genealogy present an
unbroken line, reaching into the earliest days.
There is no instance in which this vital connec
tion with the past is more marked than when at
the close, at the time when He wished to give to
his friends a clearer conception of Himself, and
of the work which seemed to be terminated by
his death, which had surprised them with its dis
appointment and startled their faith, He turned
their minds back to Moses and the Hebrew proph
ets and the Psalms, that they might see that all
which had happened to Him had been anticipated
and intended, arid had been carefully written
down long beforehand. We comfort the friends
whom we are leaving with the future. So did
He, indeed ; but He encouraged them also with
the past, and there He established their knowl
edge and faith. He appealed to history to con
vince them of Himself. He took their ancestral

132 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
hope and gave it back to them alive. To bind
together the Old Testament and the New Testa
ment is one of the best things which bookmakers
have ever done. They made a blunder when
they put blank leaves between them. However
convenient these may be for a family record, the
story of our family life, there is danger that they
will interrupt our thought of the one life which
it most concerns us to know.
In the same way it is necessary that we read
forward beyond the memoirs, if We are to under
stand them. What He had taught was treasured
in the minds of men who became the teachers
of others. Their teaching became another biog
raphy, if I may retain that word. They did not
invent or discover truth; they repeated it, as
they were called to do. One wrote in this way :
" That which was from the beginning, which we
have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked Upon, and our hands
have handled of the Word of Life. That
which we have seen arid heard, declare we unto
you, that ye also may have fellowship with us."
The teaching of another, often .thought of as
a leader among the disciples, was in Hke manner
the telhng of the things which he had seen
and heard. In the second letter which bears
his name he asserts his authority to declare the

'SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 133
power and coming of the Lord : " We have not
foHowed cunningly devised fables, but were eye
witnesses of his majesty." Here -is the memoir,
declared in the Hves of men who knew it, who
knew it so thoroughly and believed in it so
utterly that it made their life, and commonly
their death. The men and the word agree.
The Gospel, as we have come, to call it, is
not a matter of manuscripts alone, priceless and
satisfying as they am It is a matter of life,
active, intense, devoted, at once a passion and
a faith. Then, the career of the first apostles
was written out by one who was with them.
It is not a history : it is a series of annals,
the simple narrative of important events; It is
the. common belief that this man had written one
of the accounts' of Christ's life, and his warrant
for this was in the fact that he "had perfect
understanding of all things from the very first."
But the Book of the Acts of the Apostles is the
extension of the memoir of Christ. It is the
story of men who had learned of Him, and were
now, in fulfilment of his instructions, teaching the
world. It is a declaration of the facts which were
afterward written in the Gospels, and were then
held in the devoted memories of men who had
given their life to the work of teaching them.
But there is more than this, for a man comes

134 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
forward who is to be chief in the new work
for the world. He had been slow to beHeve
the new teaching. He saw the peril of the
old Church, in which survived all the liberty
which his people retained. He resisted stoutly
all the advances of the Christian faith. He
persecuted with extreme severity those who
belonged to it. At length this was all Changed.
It is said- that every man goes, at some time
in his life, to Damascus — the. place of the last
decision. Mahomet looked on its dehghts and
sought another paradise. This man feU blinded
at its gate and in the darkness found the eternal
Hght ; and found himself. He was drawn to the
cause he opposed, and became its foremost friend
and apostle. The story is told more than once.
But besides all that was written, there is the man,
a force in the world, a person for history, with
a life which compels attention. He was taught
the word and work of Christ, and he became him
self the teacher of this truth. Opinions were
exchanged for verities, and the verities put in
command of life. We have his letters, practical
letters of instruction, encouragement, reproof, the
expression of his great heart, informed by his great
purpose. He was stoned and imprisoned, but he
never faltered in his understanding of Christ and
his words and his life, nor hesitated to tell all that

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 135
he knew, and he held himself ready to die in this
faith, even as it was appointed unto him , to do.
Beaten three times, stoned once, thrice . ship
wrecked, a night and a day in the deep, pursued,,
tormented, he kept to the faith he found at
Damascus, proving it in all its promises, and set
ting his influence deeply into the life of the world.
Few men, I do not know that any men, have con-
troUed the world's religious thought more than he.
His memoir is in the New Testament. But it is
also written with the thinking of the centuries.
Here again is the story of Christ's life, writ
ten and Unwritten, embodied in the biography of
a man, and in the churches which he founded;
made a part of the history of the world ; the lit
erary, poHtical, religious history of the world. We
have the Hfe of Christ when we have the life of
Paul, and his addresses and epistles ; and the life is
the same that is described by the men who saw it.
This man, strong in his character, mighty in
his deeds, stands as the permanent witness to
the truth to which he gave his life. He was a
teacher of religion. Nevertheless, he must be
understood by every one who would have a clear
knowledge of the course of events in the world.
Paul must be recognized. But every thought
of him is a thought of One concerning whom he
said, "I do not live; but He liveth in me."

136 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
But the life of Christ does not stop here. The
pervasive principle which marked it was its con
tinuance. It promised to remain with men, to
become a part of their life, blending with their
thoughts, guiding their conduct; strengthening,
inspiring, comforting, without limitation of time.
Its influence was of that kind which could be put
to the proof, whether Christ was seen or not. I
wish to call attention to a fact of the greatest
significance. The religion taught by Christ we
call Christianity. If Christianity was ever true,
it is true to-day. It can be, seen at work now,
and studied with all care, and without the
charming distraction of the Master's presence.
He claimed the future. He sent forward his
influence. The end of the world, of which
He taught, meant both time and place. This
forward looking ' was one of the most marked
things in all his teaching. " I am with you to the
end of the world," He said. More than that, He
commissioned men to go into all the world and
offer to every man what He had offered in the
three years He spent in Palestine. This was
begun while his disciples lived, and has been
going on ever since ; is going on to-day here and
in every land, on almost every island and patch
of coral in the seas. Yet if we could gather up
the teaching, of these messengers it would be

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 137
found in its essential truths to be the same which
is recorded in the New Testament. Indeed, we
do gather it up ; we know what they teach ; and it
is what they like to call " the old, old story." It
has expressed itself in many tongues and with
many forms, but the underlying truths have been
the same.
We can find in their words the account of
Christ's Hfe ; and more than that, the continuance
of his life. We can trace the effect of listening to
Him, believing in Him, following his instruction.
A multitude which cannot be numbered, compris
ing men distinguished for learning, prudence,
carefulness, moderation ; for skill in affairs ; for
generalship and statesmanship ; for high thoughts
and great achievements ; with many of less rank, of
plain minds and common lives, give their witness
to Him.
There is more than the evidence given in the
Hves of men. The story of Christ has self-evidenc
ing power. It gains the approval of the reason and
the heart. Men feel that it is true. Paul was
able to appeal to this and write that by mani
festation of the truth he commended himself to
every man's conscience, when the conscience was
in the presence of God. I have no doubt that
there were persons in Corinth who smiled as
they heard this daring appeal. But the saints in

138 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
Achaia knew that he was right. The knowledge
of one man is of more authority than the ignorance
of several men.
Nothing that we know is more beautiful than
this assurance. Men learn to speak of Christ as
a present friend. It does not occur to them to
doubt his word. They are simple as children.
When one remarked on David Livingstone's lone
liness in Africa, he answered that he was not
alone. "Christ said that he would be with me
always. It is the word of a gentleman of the
strictest honor, and there's an end of it." When
he fell upon his knees in an African hut, and
threw his arms forward on the couch and rested
his head upon them, he believed that the promise
was kept. The candle burned low at his side, and
his heart ceased to beat, but he kriew that he was
not alone. His weary body lies under the pave
ment in Westminster Abbey. He won the place.
There is no truer shrine among the monuments.
Why should he not be believed when he speaks
of that which he knew best and cared for most ?
Unbehef may go a long way and be respected;
but there is a limit which it has no right to pass.
I may add that in institutions Christianity has
preserved the record of itself. The societies,
formed in the name of Christ and around his
teaching and Himself, are called ¦ churches. I do

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 139
not mention this as information, but because it is
sometimes fancied that there is something myste
rious about a church. It is a society of men and
women, with its own purpose and endowment,
and is as good as the men and women who com
pose it. It has the highest sanction, and quite as
much authority, as would be for its advantage.
The churches made the New Testament, as a
book or a collection of books, containing truths
which they knew, and they have preserved it.
Their strength to a great extent has been in their
adherence to the historical documents of the faith.
When their regard for these lessens, there is real
and evident danger that teaching will become
mystical and sentimental, and decrees oppressive.
It is an obvious safeguard to faith and practice,
that every man can read the charter for himself
and protect his own liberty. Of this independence
there . is no serious lack in this neighborhood.
We might have learned the words of Christ
from, a society which transmitted them without
writing. But we are more confident that the
words are correctly given to us when we have
also the ancient records.
The churches have, also taken special events in
the history of Christ and embodied them in forms
which have preserved >them. Thus the churches
are an early witness to the Resurrection of Christ.

140 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
His Resurrection is the vital fact, without which
there would have been no churches, and the assur
ance of this fact has not grown less. They have
Baptism, by which from the first his friends have
been marked as his own. Each instance of this
Baptism points back to the earliest. They have the
Eucharist, which could never have been devised
by men, which has gone everywhere with his name,
which his friends keep in remembrance of Him ;
and this reaches in unbroken succession to his own
guest chamber in Jerusalem. Here are great truths,
which live by their own force, which are imbedded
in the cause of civilization, which owe nothing to
history, or to the act of man, save for transmis
sion, and which are only explained by seeing them
in their origin. If we question concerning them,
we get a variety of explanations ; but we always
get this, that they are the things to which Christ
gave being, and which He committed to his
friends, that they might give them to the world.
The churches themselves in their existence and
their meaning, even in their divine claims, are a
witness to Him and to his life ; and whatever of
usage they have added, they have held Hiin
supreme, and have preserved the knowledge of
his word and work.
I wish to call attention again to the surpassing
amount of the knowledge of Jesus Christ which

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 141
is in our hands. Whose life is prolonged as his has
been, and shown in so many ways? We have
incidents, addresses, conversations, meditations,
and prayers ; questions and answers ; revelations
of the heart* of emotions, purposes, desires.
More than this, let me repeat that we have the
words of Christ ernbodied in the lives of men,
and in their institutions ; put to all conceivable
test in the heart and the home ; in the closet and
on the house-top. We can see Christianity in
action. The testing is severe. If it cannot
make itself known and approved in this way,
there is small encouragement in resorting to any
other. But who besides Christ has made . men of
many centuries live around his teaching, more
than content to have it the soul and passion of '
their years ? I think that no one has ever lived,
even of the men of our own time, of whom we
can have this interior knowledge, till not even the
beating of the heart is concealed from us.
Think again who He was at his birth and what
the chances were that He would ever be known
beyond the neighborhood of Nazareth, and say if
there be not in this unexampled, unapproached
career a purpose which intelligence must appre
hend. Thus far, for the most part, we have gone about
the Hfe of Christ. Let me ask you now to look

142 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
within it, to the end that we may know Him more
fully and accurately. The times were ready for
his coming. The world was at peace. The
nations which were consolidated into the empire
offered a fine opportunity to Him and to the work
which He was to do. Men were tired of the
religions which were unequal to the demands
fairly made upon them. The religion of Judea
had reached the point where it could pass into
larger truth. The period has been well named
"The fulness of time."
The place was suitable. Palestine was smaU
and of slight influence. While central among
the nations, it was isolated by its position, and by
the traditions and the temper of its people. But
noted cities had been upon its coast, and there
men famous, in commerce and the arts had their
homes. It had been rich in strong men and great
events. The land even now illustrates the New
Testament, in mountains and seas, in customs
and habits, in food and dress, in ploughs and
boats, in the events of nature. It had felt the in
fluence of other countries, at whose hands it had
suffered, whose armies had traversed its roads, on
their way to conquest and defeat. It knew the
world, for the world had touched it on every side.
It was a persistent, stubborn country, which could
be cast down, but not destroyed. Its people could

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 143
be killed, but not conquered. It considered its
own history religious and looked proudly through
its misfortunes to its glory. Its rehgion kept it
apart from its neighbors. It worshipped one God,
who shared his authority with no divinities, to
whom no image could be erected, whose altar no
graving tools could touch, whose statutes remain
until this day the expression of the duty of man.
It had a grand array of prophets, men who stood
for Jehovah. Its Scriptures are our own religious
books, which is a testimony to their universal
character. We "sing their songs, and find no better
words of praise ; we treasure the comfort in their
promises, and breathe out our penitence in their
Miserere. No other land could have given such
words, over which the centuries have no power.
Think for a moment what advantage the literature
of Greece and Rome had over that of Palestine !
In their character, in the position of their people,
in the men who were interested in them, the
books of either land stood a thousand times the
chance of being the chief books in Britain, Ger
many, America. We do indeed read and admire
the literature we call classic, and shall continue to
do so, yet only the few know anything of it. The
one book of poor, isolated Palestine is the book
of the civilized world, the book of church and
home and college and school. How this came

144 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
about is a question of interest to scholars. It has
even been said, perhaps not with strict accuracy,
that if the Bible should be lost, it could be recon
structed out of the other books into which by
portions it has been copied. One thing is certain,
a few pages in the second part have carried all
the rest into the history and experience of the
world. It is to be noted that whatever estimate
we may put upon the New Testament, the princi
ples of our religion, the great truths which we
cherish, are from Palestine. All this has come to
us, not because of Moses and the Prophets, of
David and the other Psalmists, but by reason of
that Child whose birth we register every day.
He explains history, and history in its turn and
in its measure explains Him.
It was the breaking of a long silence when
there appeared in the wilderness of Judea a man
clothed in earners hair bound about him by a
leathern girdle ; who called men to repentance,
declaring that the kingdom of heaven was at
hand, and that One was coming, the latchet of
whose shoes he should not be worthy to unloose ;
who should baptize with the spirit of God. He
was the Voice. Thus he called himself, taking
his name, not from genealogies which abounded
in Johns, arid could have given him nothing, but
from his calling, wherein at that time he stood

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 145
alone. Such voices had not been strange in
Israel. The utterances of other days we are yet
studying. This Voice had itself been foretold, so
great was his significance. It was the voice of a
prophet which was again heard in the world. It
moved men. Strong, severe, commanding, it
compelled them to listen. They gathered around
the Voice and waited upon his will, which lacked
nothing of daring and directness. His words
were his own. Echoes' are interesting, but not
instructive. Such a Voice was needed, and it
came at the right time. It prepared the way for
the One who was to follow. He preached a new
life in a new name, and called men from their old
ways into the ways of God. He drew some men
closely to himself, and into a jealous friendship,
and he did not conceal the fact that he was to be
supplanted. To all questioning he gave the same
answer, There is One coming. At length He
came. It was as it had been said. The former
decreased, to find his greater renown in allegiance
to another who increased.
I only touch the years here and there, and let
the mind move over them. Of the birth of the
Child we have already thought. His home was
at the North. The house of Mary has been re
moved. This is evident. But we mark the line
between legend and history when we are told

146 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
that it was taken up by angels and carried to the
height of Dalmatia and afterward across the sea
to Recanati, in Italy, and at last to the hill of
Loretto, where it is visited by pilgrims to this
day. It is said to be " the mosffkequented
sanctuary of Christendom." Compare tms*%^ith
the memoirs, in which there is not an eccentric
line. The home was in the right place. GaHlee
was an attractive province, with its lakes and
hills, its cities and towns, its vigorous people,
"healthy as their own climate and cheerful as
their own sky," and far enough removed from
Jerusalem for the growth of strong and independ
ent character; rugged, perhaps, but free. In a
village of Galilee He grew up. It is a fair and
flourishing village now. Bethlehem and Naza
reth keep their place, while other towns have
been lost, as Cana and Capernaum. Nazareth
feels the modern life, and the tall chimney of a
factory rises above its white houses, which are
long seen as one rides across Esdraelon. There
was to be no haste, and his life was as the hfe of
other boys ; or if it were different, we have not
been told. No romance hovers around those years.
Some legends have been made, but with legends
we have nothing to do, and it is easy to know
them. We cannot err in thinking of the home
as sacredly pleasant and helpful, and of the child-

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 147
hood as beautiful in its purity and promise. We,
have allusions to games He may have played
with other boys — the wedding and the funeral.
Two lists of genealogy trace his descent, the one
from Abraham, and the other reaching to Adam
and thence to God. Great naines are in the cata
logues, and in these the boy was instructed at
home and in the village school. Teaching and
learning were not broad in Galilee, but they
included strong characters and large events.
When we limit our estimate to the things which
a man must know, the education of that people
is not to be' lightly esteemed. They knew the
better half of science — that God made all things.
The best truth of Astronomy they perceived —
that the heavens declare the glory of God. They
held in their' own literature a more accurate view
of the world and its surroundings than was else
where to be found. They had the only account
of the creation which was scientifically correct.
Of Psychology they knew nothing, under that
name ; but they understood men. Sociology was
well ordered, and was generous and humane. It
had the highest authority. There is very little
in the social science of our day which was not
recognized in the rules of the Hebrew Hfe. There
was not very' much- history, but the principles
which history describes and illustrates were already

148 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
apprehended. Their wisdom is profitable to us,
and their poetry has- not been surpassed. There
was for this boy a special charm in the literature
which was within his reach, because so much of
it related to his own kindred and the family
annals. Imagine his delight at the story of
Joseph, which has no rival to this day; and of
David, shepherd boy and king. How quickly he
learned the Twenty-third Psalm, which He was
told his shepherd grandfather had written ! Then
the matchless idyl of Ruth, the girl of Moab,
whose fidelity gave her place in Israel and raised
her to renown, — and Ruth was his grandmother.
This and many things besides, the neglected Tables
tell us.
It was with a mind well stored, and a heart
enriched, and curiosity and imagination alert,
that when He was twelve years old — and twelve
was old then as it is now — He found his long
dream fulfilled and was in Jerusalem, the city of
the great King. He saw the Temple. He knew
what it was, and that is rare knowledge for any
age. He stayed behind the company to which
He belonged, and was found among the revered
teachers of his people ; questioning them, as his
right was, and answering their questions. He
surprised them, whether He asked or answered.
He was the Teacher. He knew what they had

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 149
not learned. The familiar painting is correct in
this, that the light is upon Him, and from Him
shines upon the heavy faces which bend toward
Him. All that heard Him were amazed. He
was not. Disappointed He was, I think, that
among all the Doctors no one could tell Him
what He wanted so much to know, and explain
what He had been thinking in the fields around
Nazareth. I suppose no one thought of it that
day; but as we now see Him standing there,
and look into his eyes, and mark the dehcacy
of his mien and the fineness of his thought,
it is quite certain that painful years are before
Him, that the world will give Him no sympathy,
will not hear his word, wiU not receive his
Hght, and will try at last to silence his voice. I
know that I am reading later events into the
story, but I have the right to do this. Indeed,
one can hardly help doing it. I do not know
why the good physician who has given all we
have of this incident in the life of the boy did
not tell us more. Perhaps he wrote all that he
knew. It is best as it is. We have the few
sentences, and can think the rest. There are
tenderness and sadness and promise in the closing
words. When the Child was found by his sorrow
ing father and mother, He said, " How is it that
ye sought me ? Did ye not know that I must be

150 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
in my Father's house ? " It was a new name for
the Temple, and a new name for Him. It was an
appropriation of the name "Father" which had
not before been made. To Him it had profound
meaning, and its truth took precedence of all
other relationship. It was right, even dutiful,
that He should remain at home while Mary and
Joseph returned to Nazareth. In his own time
He would go to them. " And they understood
not the saying which He spake unto them. And
He went down with them, and came to Nazareth ,
and He was subject unto them; and his mother
kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus
advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor
with God and men."
Then followed eighteen years, of which we have
no fuller record than has just been given. No
mystery comes out of those years, no sign of
power, no presage of greatness, no intimation that
He will ever come to the place He holds to-day.
He was afterward caUed the Carpenter's Son and
the Carpenter ; it is probable that the name was
truly spoken, and that He had learned that
honorable trade, in which He would be useful.
There can be no question that Iris work was weU
done and according to his promise. We can
almost fancy that the willing wood yielded itself
gracefully to his gentle hand. Why is there

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 151
nowhere in the memoirs a hint of this ? Be
cause it never was so, and honest men were the
writers. We think of him as quiet, kind, obedient, fond
of flowers and birds ; familiar with nature ;
Knowing that Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her.
He was thoughtful, spiritual, — now we should
call him dreamy and imaginative. His mind and
heart were open to the spirit of grace and truth.
He thought most, as afterward He taught most,
out-of-doors. Thus He came to be about thirty years of age.
Doctor Luke does not give the age with exact
ness. Then He began to teach. He took leave
of hjs home, and of his peaceful days, and, with
his heart full of great desire, went down to the
Jordan, where the new and strange prophet was
baptizing. There He found, among the friends
of his forerunner, his first disciples. He was
Himself baptized, thus coming under the law of
the kingdom' which was coming into the world.
Out from his long solitude He passed quietly
into the three long years which were to complete
his life. Let me take a few events in their order,
that we may be reminded how simple his life was,
and how singular, without precedent, and never

152 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
to be repeated. Let us mark how admirably
his life and Himself were adjusted, each to the
other. In giving a title to this chapter I have
used the term " Son of Man." This name was
peculiarly his own. It was made prominent by
Himself, when He was here, but no one else em
ployed it to describe Him. It had a Messianic
reference. But I am concerned with it now
because it expresses his position so clearly. It
is impressive to mark his pains to emphasize this
relationship to men. It seems as if He was so
conscious He was the Son of God that He feared
men would not see that He also belonged to them.
That they would be impressed by his divine life,
and not regard his human condition and experi
ence. I am the Child of Man, He says ; not of
a man, but of mankind. I am the Son, not a
Son, the Son, standing by myself. The Child of
the race ; The Man, the true man. Thus He con
tinually identified Himself with men, intending in
this way to bless mankind. It was only a few
days after his baptism, and when He was frill of
the Holy Spirit, that He was " led by the Spirit
in the wilderness during forty days, being tempted
by the devil." Who shall venture rudely into
those strange weeks ! Two accounts are given of
them, and one which is very brief in addition.
The impressive, point is that He knew Himself

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 153
and the work which He was to do. The tempta
tion was in the line with his work. It was in
telligent, and was directed against the purpose1
which ruled Him and the way of its accomphsh-
ment. The temptation was the disclosure of his
plan. We see what thoughts were in his mind
and what purposes engaged Him. He felt his
power. He knew that the kingdoms of the world
were to be his. Otherwise the temptation which
related to these would have had no meaning.
Why should it have been suggested that there
was an easy way to authority if He was not seek
ing authority, and bent upon taking the way that
was hard, but which must be trodden if his life was
to be fulfilled? As history can be traced in laws,
so desire and purpose can be found in this proof
of his constancy. One point of contrast should
be noticed here. In describing the work of the
Son of Man, St. Paul gave him a name not before
spoken, but of large significance. He called Him
Adam, the last Adam; meaning that He also
stood at the head of a race. Let us notice here
that under temptation the second Adam, unlike
the first, kept Himself down and adhered to the
will of God ; kept his integrity ; held to the work
and the way for which He had been given to the
world. Compare the trifling in Eden with these
words in the wilderness, words of loyalty and

154 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
victory : " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and Him only shalt thou serve."
Pass on a few days. There was a wedding in
Cana, and his disciples were there with Him.
Perhaps it was their coming which brought dis
may to the house, for it was found that the wine
had failed. Though He was a guest, He came to
the relief of the household and provided wine.
Thus He saved the wedding feast from lasting
discredit. It was his blessing on the bride. He
was a Man, the Son of Man, rich in gentlest sym
pathies, courteous and kind. The story is told as
simply as if He had brought the wine from the
neighboring vineyard. It is told only by that
one of his biographers who wrote most fully of
the spirit of Christ, of his deeper thought and
word. This was the beginning of his signs, some
times called miracles. There is no mark of
wonder. " He manifested his glory, and his dis
ciples believed on Him." As they were on the
spot, they had the 6pportunity to know what was
done. Luke does not give this incident, for he
was not a disciple, nor was Mark, and Matthew
had not then been called. They could have told
it from the report of others, but they did not. It
was overshadowed in their minds by greater
events. It was left for the only annalist who was
. an eye-witness to describe what he had seen. He

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 155
wrote like an old man, remembering small things,
the number of the waterpots, and their capacity.
A Httle later He drove the traders and money
changers from the Temple, which again He called
"My Father's house." Another could have
cleansed the sacred courts. It was a patriot's
right. Yet it was remarkable that this young
Galilean should take upon Himself such author
ity in Jerusalem. Only John describes this. I
suppose that he was there, and remembered the
scourge of cords and the sheep and doves. When
there was a similar act three years later, Matthew,
Mark, and Luke write of it, but John is silent.
He had told his story. It was at the first cleans
ing that the words were spoken which long after
ward were called to mind : " Destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up." John under
stood Him to speak of "the temple of his body."
He was in Jerusalem, and was winning the
belief of many by his signs, when at night a man
of prominence and of wealth, a teacher and ruler,
came to Him to inquire concerning the kingdom
of heaven. Why did the ruler come to Him, a
carpenter? It was a flattering attention, and
would be made the most of by one who wished to
be approved that He might gain the people. It
was of little use to converse upon the ways of God
until the man's heart had entered them. He had

156 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
to tell him that the kingdom of heaven was not
to be reached by the road on which he was trav
elling. He was kind, but decided.
Quietly and with skill the ruler's inquiry was
met and his mind diverted : " Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, except a man be born anew, he cannot
see the kingdom of God." It must be entered
by life, a new life. Three years afterward this
Jewish ruler came again to Christ, who had been
crucified, and brought a hundred pound weight
of myrrh and aloes for his embalming. Only St.
John mentions this, as he only told of the former
coming. But see what a place the young Naza-
rene was taking, what words He was speaking, in
all simplicity, but with strange authority and im-
pressiveness !
A few days after the night with Nicodemus
He was in Samaria, passing through, as the Jews
were not accustomed to do, and wearied at noon
He rested at the well which one of his ancestois
had dug, and which still bore his name, as it does
to this day. A woman of the country came to
draw water. He asked her to give Him to drink,
for she could draw from the deep well. She
jested with Him, and soon, as if He had made no
request, she heard such words as she had never
listened to before. Forget how familiar they are
and hear them for the first time, with Ebal and

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 157
Gerizim towering' over you, and the quiet of a
Syrian nOon brooding upon the plain., "Every
one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again ;
but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall
give him shall never thirst ; but the water that I
shall give him shall become in him a well of water
springing up unto eternal Hfe." Soon the well
and the water had passed from their thought.
She had drawn Him away, and He said, " God is
a Spirit; and they that worship Him must wor
ship in spirit and truth." " I know that Messiah
cometh," she answered : " When He is come, He
will declare unto us all things." " I that speak
unto thee am He." She left her water-jar beside
the well. Her errand was forgotten. A few
drops of the true water had reached her lips. She
hastened back to the town and bade the men she
met come and see Him. They came and begged
Him to remain with them, and He did. This
was at the beginning of his three years of min
istry. In these instances see his consciousness of
Himself, his perfect confidence, his clear knowl
edge of the truth He was to teach, the work He
was to do ; and of the final result in the accom
plishment of his purpose. He was constant,
determined. He knew Himself, and, understood
the life He was to live.
I cannot follow the incidents farther in, this

158 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
manner. Yet they need to be read together, that
we may feel their unity, the one purpose which
they disclose, the steady movement of the desire
which nothing can interrupt. It is a stream of in
tention flowing to the sea, widening and deepening
as it runs. Let me name a few points, stiU tak
ing them in their order. In Sychar He said : " My
meat is to do the wiU of Him that sent me, and
to accomplish his work." At Nazareth He went
into the synagogue, where He had Hstened from
his boyhood, and when He had read from the
scroll of Isaiah of One who was to come, who
should do for the world what no one was do
ing or could do, because the Spirit of the Lord
should be upon Him, He said : " To-day hath this
Scripture been fulfilled in your ears." His old
neighbors, his mother's friends, all bare Him wit
ness, and wondered at the gracious words which
proceeded out of his mouth. He moved on,
teaching, and giving signs of Himself, — thus
it is written, — giving sight to the blind and
strength to the lame, quieting the storm, filhng
the net, calling back into the world those who
had left it. Even more remarkable were his
declarations concerning Himself. Such words
had never been spoken, and have not been spoken
since his lips were closed. We have heard them
so often that we cannot see how wonderful they

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 159
are. Others have wrought miracles, but no other
has ever asserted such greatness of being and
authority. " I am the Truth." " I am the Life."
" I am the Resurrection." " I give unto men eter
nal life." Eternal life is to know the Father aihd
Me — this He taught in his prayer. Hence He
caUed men to Himself. Only by having Him could
they have his real gifts. " Come unto Me, and I
wiU give you rest." "Because" I live, ye shall
live." " He that f olloweth Me shall have the light
of life."
Notice in what strong and varied and unprec
edented terms He declared his mission to the
world. It was to give life. What life? The
Divine life — there was but one, that which was
given in the beginning ; Hfe with its Divine virtue
in it.
This consciousness of Himself, this Personal
ity, is most manifest at the end. Before this, and
as if He recaUed the family Psalm, He named
Himself the Good Shepherd, and added new
words to the name : " The Good Shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep." From any one else this
would have been prophecy: with Him it was
intention. He did not speak often of his dying,
but it was always in his mind. His friends Were
not able to hear much concerning it, and it was
not in their thought as it was in his* Once He

160 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
spoke of the serpent that was lifted up in the
wilderness, and applied the words to Himself.
They did not then know all that He meant.
He told his disciples that He must go nnto
Jerusalem and be rejected and killed. He was
transfigured, his face and his raiment glistened,
and Moses and Elias appeared and talked with
Him of his decease which He was about to
accomplish at Jerusalem. He charged the three
friends who Avere with Him to say nothing of
this until He was risen from the dead. On
another day He took his twelve disciples apart
as they were on their way to Jerusalem, and told
them that He should be crucified, and on the
third day would rise again. He made this into
a sacrament of remembrance, and broke bread and
poured wine into the cup, as his body was to be
broken and his blood was to be shed. That
night He was betrayed, and the next day —
There is a green hill far away,
, Without the city wall,
Where the dear Lord was crucified.
This was surprising to his friends. They had
seen his power and were not prepared for his
submission. They knew that every road out of
Palestine was open to Him, and they saw Him
move steadily to the only dangerous place in the
world. They thought that He was to restore the

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 161
kingdom to Israel, and erect the throne of David;
and they saw Him consent to the cross, They
did not conceal their disappointment, and had to
learn when all was over that He had done as it
had been written of Him. Only a day or two
before the end He said in the most impressive
tone, " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men unto Myself."
It was a sublime confidence. There was a new
view of death. It had been looked upon as the
defeat of hope, the setting aside of plans, the
breaking of life. To Him it was the fulfilment
of hope, the advancing of plans, the expanding
of life. Where men looked for nothing He saw
everything. He kept his assurance. to the- last.
Even on the cross He drew one man to Himself.
He died as He had lived, calm, resolved, faithful,
committing his spirit to the Father whose wiU
had formed his Hfe.
I have given to this much thought for many
years, I do not know it well. The facts are
plain, but there is over them a thin veil which
has never been lifted. I cannot clearly explain
aU these things. I am not surprised nor grieved
at this. Should we be able to enter into the
deepest counsels of Divine Love ? The Love it
self passeth knowledge, we are told, and we hold
it true. Should it not be so in its deepest works?'

162 SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE
Explanations are not wanting. But he cannot
have thought deeply who is content with them.
It is a place for stillness and reverence. The
blessing is readily, taken. The full reason we
must leave with God. We know in part. Let
us be glad that all we know and think and trust
is but a part. I mark this, the special, profound
meaning of his death, in many ways asserted.
He had suffered before. No man can know the
burden of the years of sacrifice. His soul was
exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, before the
cross was reached. But not in this was He to
give his life for his sheep, save as this was the
inseparable prelude to the end on Calvary. I am
glad for my own sake that I do not understand
this. I am glad for the sake of others that I do
not think I understand it. We can, at least, be
sure that He was crucified, even as He said, and
that He rose from the dead, and ascended from
the sight of men.
I have tried to present in a few lines the Hfe of
Christ as it is seen in his biographies. I have
yet to speak of the life within this, and of its
manifestation in word and deed. I do not need
to repeat that in Him we have the divine way of
accomplishing the Creator's purposes regarding
men ; of giving life, a new Hfe, to the world. At
least, that is my contention. Whatever else He

SON OF MAN IN EARLY LITERATURE 163
does for us, He has done this. Whatever other
forces work for this end, this is the appointed
power whereby we are to be raised to ourselves
and our true destiny. Man is to have a new gift
of Hfe, in which all he has learned will have its
place ; his affections, his virtues, his accomplish
ments, his earnings, all that is good. We have
gone far enough to see the grandeur of this Divine
presence ; the greatness of its Personality ; the
unprecedented claims and proffers which attend
it; the unfaltering purpose which rules it, con
sents to death and conquers it ; and all that it
may glorify God upon the earth, and finish the
work He has given it to do.

IV
THE PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST

THE PURPOSE AND METHOD OF
CHRIST •

It is in Jesus Christ that the Creator has given
to the world a new and personal force for its re
covery ; that man may regain himself and secure
the Hfe of honor and strength for which he was
designed. In studying this Divine purpose it has
seemed best to dwell upon the life of Christ and
that which it contained ; to the end that we may
be impressed with its eminent fitness for the mis
sion to which it was appointed. I have already
presented his Hfe in some of its incidents and
relations, and I desire now to enter it more
deeply. He desired to have this revealed to men ;
that even his heart should be open before them.
His nature was disclosed in acts. The Word
unveiled Himself in words ; in thoughts, too ;
intentions, emotions, which He would not con
ceal. Even his prayer at the foot of his cross
was heard of men; his cry in the agony of
Gethsemane ; his thought and feeling in his
crucifixion. AU that his friends could receive

168 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
He gave to them, and as He went away He
promised even more knowledge of Himself, and
this they have given to us.
And so the Word had breath, and wrought
With human hands the creed of creeds
In loveliness of perfect deeds,
More strong than all poetic thought ;
Which he may read that binds the sheaf,
Or builds the house, or digs.the grave,
And those wild eyes that watch the wave
In roarings round the coral reef.
The study of the life of Christ in recent years
has brought Him nearer to us. We have seen
Him among men, reveahng Himself, letting us
look upon his design as it touched the Hves
which were around Him. We have made use of
the privilege afforded us to know Him, and in
this we have lost nothing of reverence and admira
tion, and have gained something in obedience and
love. In all that we see and hear there stands forth
the Personality which calls for homage^ He is
above all which He does. He is greater than
his life. To judge what He did and said apart
from Himself can only result in confusion and
misconception. Let us not fail to mark his con
stant pains to have us comprehend the truth of
his being. He is grieved when men are content

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 169
with what He does, and do not take Him ; when
they want loaves in the wilderness, but do not
care for Himself, the Bread from heaven. " I "
is of necessity the most prominent word in all the
accounts of his life. He knows and asserts his
relation to God, whom He calls "The Father,"
and "My Father." He knows that He has come
from Him. There are no terms which describe
this perfectly. It is plain that every time He
speaks of it his words mean too little. There is
a mystic tone which reminds us of their insuffi
ciency. " BeHeve Me that I am in the Father,
and the Father in Me." "That all men may
know the Son, even as they know the Father."
" I do nothing of Myself, but as the Father taught
Me, I speak these things." " I and my Father
are one." " My Father is greater than I." " All
things that the Father hath are mine." "And
this is life eternal, that they should know Thee,
the only true God, and Him whom thou didst
send, even Jesus Christ." " That they may all
be one ; even as thou, Father, art in me and I in
Thee." Let me read one more sentence, and this
from the first of the Gospels. "All things have
been delivered unto Me of my Father: and no
one knoweth the Son, save the. Father ; neither
doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he
to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him."

170 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
These things were spoken, were written, were
believed, and they are in keeping with the life
into whose years they are set. They are in place
in one life, but not in any other of which we have
knowledge. I pray you to mark the presence of
this consciousness of oneness with God. Even if
the words are not given precisely in the form in
which they were spoken, syllable by syllable, I
cannot doubt that they present thoughts which
He expressed, and which are so impressive that
they could not readily be changed, or lost.
I do not wish to speak of this now. But if we
are to study the life of any one, his words are a
large part of the material at our command. With
thoughts like these in his mind, how could it be
otherwise than that the whole life should be per
vaded by them? Thus we find it in its entire
course, and it is never so manifest as in his last
hours with the friends whom He is to leave in the
world to teach the things learned of Him, and to
advance the work for which He has given Him
self. We shall do well to read these verses with
this intent, that we may mark his consciousness
of the life of God. It was of this that He was to
give to men. I have no theological phrases or
purposes ; for it is only the fact in its simpHcity
which is now before us. Gratitude and hope hail
this coming of life to give life to the world, and

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 171
may weU be satisfied. If life is to come it must
be from above." As it was the first time, so must
it be the second time. The Creator must be- the
Saviour for his own sake and for our sake. Who
shall presume to rescue and restore the work of
God ? If one may compare two things which are
impossible to men, it would seem to be easier to
create the world than to save it; once to make a
man in the divine image tl^an to make him the
second time when the image has been broken and
its value lost. The good intention it may not be
hard to discover. It is the power which is lack
ing. Hence we rejoice with great joy, not merely
over this life of wonderful beauty and lofty desire,
but over a life which has come out of heaven,
and whose sources of strength are in God, and
are exhaustless.
In what terms shall I describe the relation of
Christ to God? I have studied his life, consid
ered his words, observed his influence, marked his
place in the world, felt his presence, and received
the witness of those who in special intimacy have
walked with Him. My own conception of the
Person of Christ is as exalted in form as I can now
have it, while I am assured that He wiU be more
and more glorified in my thought, as the centuries
grow. Personal interest is not to control one's judg-

172 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
meat of truth. But it is to me a cause for profound
gratitude that here my belief and my interests,
my desire and my conviction, are entirely in accord,
I am speaking for myself, and not another, and not
venturing to measure any one's contentment. It
may at least be said that the greater Christ is, the
richer are those who call Him friend. I ought in
honesty to present' this result of my own study,
attended with the prolonged testing of confidence
and experience.
Yet for my design in these pages, I prefer to
give you the statements of others, and of those not
of my own theological school, but of the wider
fraternity of Christian men. I think I can do no
better than to repeat the words of the late revered
preacher to Harvard University, whose life was
so strong that many churches desired it, whose
spirit was so gentle that many churches claimed it.
If any one can mediate between variant opinions
and expressions, it is Dr. Andrew Peabody. These
are his words, spoken in King's Chapel : " We
have in Jesus Divine humanity, God manifest in
the flesh, God in Christ, all of God that can be in
carnate, all of God that we can fully comprehend,"
" all of the Divine that is communicable." " God
in Christ is the only God that the Christian
knows." To this I may add the remark of Presi
dent James Walker : " We see in Christ what we

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 173
worship in God." The Greek Fathers with their
insight saw in Him the " intensified presence " of
God. But the hfe of Christ is not related to the
Father alone. It is in vital relation to men also.
The life is in a man. He carries the Hfe of man
through to the end. The man is born, he lives,
he grows, he dies, and is entombed. The eternal
Word became flesh, and dwelt among men, and
they beheld his glory. This is written. Living
thus among them. He blessed them. He gave
Himself and his own life, in sympathy, guidance,
comfort, Hght, and life. He was so near to them
that He could touch them. Men touched Him,
and drew away strength. Virtue came forth from
Him. Light flashed from his fingers into nighted
eyes, and health was plucked from the fringe of
his garment. When his bidding fell upon the
Storm it dropped into quiet. Thus it is told by
men who were there. He was the Good Shep
herd, who must be with his flock, where they can
see Him, and know his voice; where He can
defend them, and if need be give his life for them.
He must be able to go up the mountain if one
Has strayed, and take it upon his shoulders, and
bring it home where He can rejoice over it. All
this He was. Indeed, He asserted a more inti
mate relation with men, whom He called sheep.

174 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
It was an old name for them, and in that land
an affectionate name. Strangers blamed Him
because He extended his favors to men whom
they disapproved. "You would do the same,"
He answered. " If one of your sheep was lost,
you would go after it." "Yes, my sheep," they
thought. "Well, these are my sinners and iriy
pubhcans." Thus He claimed men, as if they,
were his. Were they not his? But He went
farther than this. The shepherd is, after all,
external. " I am the vine," He said ; " ye are the
branches." This was to his friends, but it was the
word they were to pass on. Now, the vine gives
its own life to the branches. The branches are
the vine, extended, multiphed. If its life is
Divine, their Hfe becomes Divine, for it is this
which it has to impart. An ItaHan monk, a poet,
has called attention to the fact that this is aU the
vine can do. It cannot give beams for a house,
nor timber for a ship. It can only give its Hfe,
that is, itself. This may be pressing the figure
unduly. But it is certain that it was this which
He gave, and, in comparison with this, He gave
nothing beside. For what were bread, and eyes,
and health to be mentioned with his own life !
Indeed, He left all illustration when He said,
" Because I live, ye shall live." See where in his
consciousness He stood, bringing from the Father

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 175
the life which was his own, and bestowing it upon
men, that they might live as the children of God.
I wish that I knew of some stronger terms in
which to describe his devotion to men. The facts
exceed all statements. We need to avoid all
thought of otherness, as if He was between God
and the world. We are not to regard Him as sep
arate from us, standing apart, near but remote ;
only a messenger from heaven, or, perhaps, the very
grace of heaven. He was in the Father and He
was in the world. He believed in the world. The
earth itself He had made — thus the New Testa
ment teaches. In our statements creation is often
ascribed to the Father Almighty ; but the Gospels
and the Epistles present the Son as the Maker of
all things. He would be interested in the world
which He had made and was holding together, and
in the events which were wrought out upon it from
the beginning. There was nothing here which
did not in some way touch Him, because of his
relation to the Father of men and to the men
themselves who were his kindred, both in their
Divine nature and in the manhood which was his.
In Him the Father came to men and was among
them. In Him men came to the Father, com
mended by his brotherhood. For thirty-three
years He lived among men. One who knew Him
well applied to Him the words of the prophet

176 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
regarding the Messiah — " Himself took our
infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." Another,
whose name we do not know, wrote that He
was "in all points tempted like as we are, yet
without sin." Indeed, his connection with man
was all his own. It has been truly said that He
was the only man of the race who chose to be
born into it. He came for a purpose. Mark
how thoroughly He was involved with the world,
carrying it always upon his heart. He longed
to see it at peace with itself and its Maker. He
rejoiced over every good man, over the return of
every wanderer, and every sign of better things.
He was grieved over its "wrong-doing, its insincer
ity, its selfishness. He knew that He had come
to set it free from the evil, and to estabHsh it in
righteousness. He knew that this would cost Him
his life, but He was willing it should be so.
To die, and yet to fail among his own people
was hard, for his love and desire were strong.
He loved the city and wept over it — " If thou
hadst known ! " " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how
often would I have gathered thy children to
gether, even as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and ye would not ! " He held
men in his heart and named them with Himself.
He taught them to say, " Our Father which
art in heaven," and if, for Himself, He never said

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 177
"Our Father," still after his resurrection He
did speak to his friends of " My Father and your
Father," as of "My God and your God." This
is more than " Our Father " would have meant,
in its disclosure of a special power to be used for
man's advantage.
The name Jesus was a personal designation.
It is found in the Annunciation to his mother,
and was appointed because of its appropriateness.
" For it is He that shall save his people from
their sins." The name Emmanuel was recalled
from Isaiah, but was not afterward apphed to
Him, so far as we know. In the Gospels Christ
is an official name, and is more precisely rendered
" the Christ," or the Anointed. He seldom used
this name. He said, " One is your master, even
the Christ." The two are weU joined in this
passage ; Simon Peter said, " Thou art the Christ,
the Son of theliving God." And Jesus answered,
" Blessed art thou." They are found in another
form in the Prayer : " This is life eternal, that
they should know Thee, the only true God, and
Him whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ."
When we pass to St. Paul's writings Christ has
become a personal name. In this the office takes
the place of the man, who is known by his mission
and work. To be the anointed of God is evidently
much more than to be the Son of Mary. Which

178 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
name we shall use is chiefly a matter of personal
preference. It is natural to retain the name in
the Gospels. But we are more accurate, histori
cally, when we call Him Christ, and this is more
in keeping with the name uniformly given to his
friends. Yet both names are to be regarded.
For Jesus, with all the glory of his birth, the
beauty of his youth, the strength of his man
hood, the sublimity of his death and resurrection,
was the anointed One. Upon Him descended
the Holy Spirit, in Him dwelt grace and truth.
When we have Jesus clearly and permanently in
our minds we are prepared to see Him "The
Anointed," at once the Son of Man and the Son of
God. The influence of Christmas will preserve
in a delightful way the Child Jesus. Our elder
knowledge, treasuring the tender faith of child
hood, must see Him who was born in Bethlehem
anointed with grace that the world may be blessed
with the peace of God.
It was in the fulfilment of his mission as Christ,
the anointed, that He preached the Kingdom of
God, or the Kingdom of heaven. He knew well
what the Kingdom is. It stands in the will of
God., It is the extension of the principles by
which heaven is constituted. When these are
established on the earth the Kingdom of heaven is
here. It is in. its last analysis the nature of the

PURPOSE AND- METHOD OF CHRIST 179
Eternal expressing itself for the governance of
those who have his Hfe, and responded to by their
nature which is of his. Whether in heaven or on
earth this is its essential character. The Kingdom
of God among men was meant to be as simple,
natural, constant, as among trees and stars. As
it was preached by Him, it was to be composed
of men who had received the Divine life and were
to keep it in the rule of heaven. When one
man, or one company of men, is placed under
these rules, the Kingdom has come. It is within
a man when he brings his thoughts under its con
trol. It is among men, wherever there are those
who live in the obedience of God. Many do this.
More will do it. It is the consummation of
human hopes. In it is the magnificent expression
of Christ's desire. There is no hindering mys
tery. There is no difficulty, no complication,
when men desire this. It does not involve dis
organization, but purification and uplifting. It
is not meat and drink ; yet it requires the indus
try which covers the fields with grain, and brings
streams of water from the hills. It is " righteous
ness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."
That was the definition which St. Paul sent into
the Empire. It requires kings and all who are
in authority to fashion their laws after the will of
God. It would bring all business, and all social

180 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
relations, under the Sermon on the Mount. It
requires honor, service, charity. All are called
into it: the poor, the prodigal, the rich, the
prudent, the near and the distant. It is every
man's kingdom and country. This He taught.
He was plain, but patient. He sought the be
ginnings and then would trust them as leaven
and seed. It was thus in nature, and this was
nature. That which He wished to .secure would
be gained if men would obey Him. He would
have it begin with his own people, but it was
to fill the world. No countries are named in
the Lord's Prayer. In the Beatitudes those
whom He blesses possess both heaven and earth.
It was an eternal Kingdom. To leave the world
could not remove one from it, for in his thought
heaven and earth are one. The citizens of the
Kingdom would all be brethren, possessing the
Divine life, knowing a common descent and cher
ishing brotherly sympathy and affection. They
would be united by blood, and this would be
thicker than anything else that flows. The
world would be really the Father's house, or a
portion of it, and the family life would grow
within its walls. He taught the prayer which
we stiH repeat, not always realizing how deep are
the words we say, and perhaps not always con
senting to them for ourselves, -- "Thy Kingdom

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 181
come, Thy will be done." It is the divine sum
mons to loyalty* Is not this the purpose we have
traced, to bring men to God, to give the second
time the Divine life?
" The Kingdom of heaven is at hand " was the
cry which preceded his appearance. The King
had been sung by psalmists and announced by
prophets. He accepted the royal office, declared
the royal authority, set up the Kingdom in his
own name. Abraham had begun a nation. Moses
had restored it. David had given it soHdity and
extension. But the kingdom of God was not then
in the earth, save in a few devoted hearts, and in
a purpose which could not be disturbed. The
herald had declared his approach, but had dis
turbed nothing except the wrong-doing in the
lives of men. He said no word of politics, re
moved no business, left men to plant the field
and sail the sea, to collect tribute and defend the
country as before. But He called for unselfish
Hves, for integrity, and quietness, and content
ment. He would break up all shams, demolish
insincerity, and by making the hearts of men clean
prepare them for the coming King, in whose rule
they Would find uprightness and all good. No
one could be in it who was not loyal, and no one
was loyal who was not good.
The King came. The Psalm had. announced, •in

182 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
Him as afterward the Epistle named Him and
described his rule — " Thy throne, O God, is for
ever and ever ; and the sceptre of uprightness is
the sceptre of thy Kingdom. Thou hast loved
righteousness, and hated iniquity."
There were upon Him none of- the signs of
royalty, though his birth was with more than regal
splendor. But its reality was there and He soon
made this felt. For He was anointed with the
oil of gladness above his fellows. He asserted
authority over the minds of men arid over their
hearts, and made their destiny turn on their loyalty
to Him. " Ye did it unto Me." He ordered their
lives, instructed their thoughts, diverted their pur
poses, changed their beliefs, startled their rehgion,
revealed their life to come. He began his new
Constitution with the Beatitudes, as the Ten Com
mandments called to remembrance the favor of
God; but He ended with a standing or a falling
house ; standing or f aUing as it obeyed or neglected
his teaching. He gave honor to those who had
been before Him; from a child they had been his
heroes. But, when He would, He boldly set aside
their words ; " Ye have heard . . . But I say
unto you." He took two commandments from
their obscurity, covered with a mass of regula
tions, and gave them spirit and life for all time.
He stretched his rule into eternity. With the

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 183
wealth, and power, and virtue of a king He be
stowed his impartial benefits, and made men feel
even here the blessedness of a reign which should
be forever, in "the city and commonwealth of
God," — "a community whose service is simple
righteousness, and whose patriotism is an inex
haustible love of perfection."
There was no display. He moved quietly
through the few months which were allotted
Him. At the close He came from Bethany into
the Capital, the city of David, as He had never
come before. A great company attended Him.
A multitude frOm his own North country, who
had come to Jerusalem for the feast, went out to
meet Him, and hailed Him with their hosannas.
They spread their garments in the way, and cast
in his path branches from the trees. They cried
as He rode on, " Blessed is the King that cometh
in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven and
glory in the highest." He came as a king, because
He was a King. Only once, and it was Sunday,
He let the world see his royalty. So once He
had stood on Hermon, and. his face shone and
his garments glistened. That this was but once,
arid, that never anything resembling it came at
another time, is a witness to its truth. If any
writer had desired to clothe Him with splendor
it would have been done twice. The restraint is

184 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
testimony. At all times submissive, meek, -and
lowly, He consented to be transfigured ; He con
sented to be enthroned. It was enough for reve
lation, and it was soon over. Then He wept
before the city, and the people cried, " Crucify
Him ! " The world crucified Him. Europe, con
demned Him to the cross. Asia furnished the
cross to which He was nailed, as it had desired.
Africa, land of servants, gave a man to bear the
cross when He sank under it. The inscription
in three languages proclaimed Him King of the
Jews. The title pleased no one. If aU after
King had been omitted, the writing would have
been with dignity. Pilate answered to the men
who complained, " What I have written, I have
written.!' , That was evident, but he had not
written anything, except Jesus of Nazareth.
The crucifixion was thought to be the end.
The multitudes who had been brought together
by the spectacle went their way, sfniting their
breasts. Priests and rulers breathed more freely
when, his reproving presence was at length with
drawn. The hearts of friends were in despair.
The mother had given herself into the keeping of
the disciple whom Jesus loved, and they lived in
the affection of the Cross. The new tomb re
ceived its earliest tenant. It was in a garden, as
it, was in a garden that the need of a sepulchre

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 185
began, even as it had been foretold. The stone
kept the door, and the seal kept the stone, and
the guard of soldiers watched before the deserted
house. " Make it as sure as you can " was the per
mission and command. But nothing was ended,
save -that the method of the life which moved
among men was changed. Its works were not
undone : the blind retained their sight, the lame
walked ; the young man was seen on the streets
of Nain, and the ruler's daughter gladdened her
father's house; while Lazarus passed when he
would between Bethany and Jerusalem. The
words lived in the fulness of their truth — com
mandments, promises, revelations. The Lord's
Prayer, the Beatitudes, the Ten Commandments,
parted with nothing of their force. The air was
full of the life He had breathed into it.
In his thought there was no change, no rest,
as his purposes, often declared, went on to their
accomplishment. More firm than heaven and
earth, his sayings could not pass away. The last
night with his disciples, the night of the Passover
and the Eucharist, was glorified with his unfalter
ing, increasing design. Never had He spoken so
fully of Himself and his intent. He knew that a
few hours would bring Him to the cross. But with
a confidence unparalleled; clear, steady, gener
ous, loving,' Divine; He looked through the clouds

186 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
of death and saw his Hfe in its Divine and eternal
triumph. " I have overcome the world." " O
righteous Father, the world knew Thee not, but I
knew Thee ; and these knew that Thou didst send
Me ; and I made known unto them Thy name, and
will make it known; that the love wherewith
Thou lovedst Me may be in them, and I in them."
Here was more than submission and more than
courage. Here was the clear consciousness of
his life and its design, and the certainty that these
would pass victorious through all which awaited
them ; nay, more, that they would be fulfilled in
the very events which to the world appeared to
thwart them. His confidence remained through
all the dreadful hours. It was perfect, even upon
the cross.
He was the King, and He knew that his king
dom was coming, and He knew the way of its
approach. It was as plain as the road over which
He passed on the day when the inconstant world
hailed Him with its hosannas. When his king
dom covers the earth, the needed restoration of
man to himself and to his Lord wiU be estab
lished. For this the world waits, It is wise only
when it, beholds the method of God, and sees in
his Son the King whose reign is in righteousness^
and mercy. Whatever agencies may serve his
thought, whatever kings may move in his train,

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 187
by whatever influences He may be assisted, in
nature and in the will of the world, He alone
draws men to the Divine life which is life indeed.
His force is even now bringing in this result.
1 have allowed myself for a moment to an
ticipate that which is to come. I have done this
lest in studying the life of Christ as it was
upon the earth we should lose sight of the mean
ing of it, and of the end toward which it is
advancing. Iii returning to the history, itself, it is evident
that the teaching of Christ and his -life are
adapted to aH times arid all lands. This is seen
to be true in the nature of things, but it has also
been abundantly proved. In his Personality He
is at home anywhere, while his words are readily
applied wherever they are taken, and they have
been taken into all the world, There are no
marks of nationaHty. The illustrations, as given
in the parables, are appreciated everywhere. Even
while He speaks so often of a kingdom, He does
not give his approval to any particular f orm of
government. Every land has its political Hfe and
institutions and will understand tiie terms He uses.
But He does not disturb the sovereignties. of the
nations* His kingdom might be in a repubhc, or
in a monarchy, Under emperor or czar, or the head
of an island tribe'. ' He would bring the emperor or

188 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
the chief under his rule and thus administer the in
terests of the nation. This has been found practi
cable, for the kingdom is already established under
every form of pohtical arrangement. It embraces
all sorts of good men and all kinds of honest and
useful work. It needs every man, and offers to
every one a chance to earn the daily bread, for
which He prays, and doubles its value with the
sweetness of industry and honesty. He gave broad
principles of living, wherein class would not be at
variance with class. Differences of judgment, ap
parent differences of interest, would be referred to
the king, and would be settled under his direction;
His rules honestly administered would be found
adequate to the work required of them. It is
true that He once refused to be a judge or adviser
when two brothers quarrelled over an inheritance.
There was no need of his interference, and if the
men knew his teaching they knew the rule by
which their dispnte should be settled. He is
really a Prince of Peace wherever men and na
tions order their ways by his principles. The
highest arbitration makes Him the King and his
laws supreme.
An eminent judge has recently said: "A very
perfect administration of justice would be found
where the courts had no contested litigation to
decide, because their counsellors and attorneys

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 189
were so learned, so assiduous, so disinterested, so
frank, so fair, and so faithful as to induce all clients
to do justly and to submit to right." This was in
recognition of the virtue of a lawyer of high rank
Of whom it was more directly said, " He sacrificed
himself, he labored for others, not as in obedience
to a stern law-giver, but with the sweetness as
of a Catholic saint." A character like this of my
friend and classmate, Christ would create in every
lawyer and in every man.
His rule enlarges manhood and extends freedom.
He would break all chains and have men free
indeed, Hving in intelligence and uprightness.
Hence He fosters schools and churches, and pro
motes all useful learning. He is true to his own
nation in this, for there were schools for educa
tion in Judea " long before Plato had gathered his
disciples round him in the olive grove, or Zeno in
the Portico."
His rule encourages art, which had warrant in
tabernacle and temple, and all which belonged to
them, and still more in the world which had given
its imagery to the Scriptures. He let men see the
world* and know it, and He nurtured their love of
the true and beautifuL More than all, He
furnished in the incidents of his own life the
choicest themes for music and painting. It is not
by chance that the art of Christian lands is most

190 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
prized, both for its skill and that which it
portrays. The head of his kingdom is the ideal King,
sovereign in authority, righteous and generous,
living without fear and ruling without compul
sion. His banner over us is love. Patriotism is
a department of religion, for the King is Divine.
Citizenship is worship. In a republic voting
is religious. The holy city rises from the earth
to meet the holy city descending out of heaven.
He enjoined no form of speech. The tongues of
Babel were not to be one tongue, but the hearts of
Babel were to be one heart. Many tongues were
heard at Pentecost, and the Bible is already writ
ten iri the languages of the earth. Learning has
done some of its best work in translating his
words, and in this has honored them and exalted
itself. His teachings are not affected by the advance
of learning. He gave ho opinion and no instruc
tion upon any question of science. The recent
advances do not affect any truth He taught.
There is something fine in the serenity, the delighjt,
with which the Christian watches the study of
nature, joins in it himself, finding in it more and
more of the thought of God. One of the leading
scientific men of our time, who had once been' con
fused in his faith, has said to me, " My study of

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 191
nature made me a Christian." He wrote also, " In
my own mind, the doctrine of Christ is the sum
mit and crown of the organic 'series. It expresses
the final result of that directed striving which
began millions of years ago." It may be remarked
farther that Christ gave no instruction upon lit
erary questions. He knew the Old Testament
Scriptures and gave them his sanction. But He
did not give instruction regarding authorship,
dates, and places. He did indeed refer to Moses
and the prophets and the Psalms, and show that
these spoke of Him, and He pointed out things
concerning Himself. But He did not name the
authors of the Psalms, or explain the composition
of the first books of the canon. There is room
here for our highest scholarship, and when its
work is done there will remain unanswered ques
tions. Yet we shall continue to find the wisdom
which Timothy found, and to know that every
scripture inspired of God is profitable.
Take the teachings of Christ where you will,
into any school, into any land, and they will keep
their place. Light may break forth from them,
but it will only bring out their truth. If a fire
should burn within them, the bush will not be
consumed. They have the permanence which is
needed in the prolonged work which they are to
do, if they are to help recover the world. His

192 PURPOSE AND. METHOD OF CHRIST
thought and intent, his precepts and promises,
were independent of all boundaries;. The new
idea of God was final. The centuries of study
have added nothing to it. God is love, and He is
our Father. Worship was enjoined in the only
needful way and has never been improved upon.
The words at the well of Samaria stand as its
highest and broadest exposition. The law was
universal. There was no fixed series of rules, no
tabulated directory of conduct.. Life was to be
natural, and the nature was to be love; For
method it was taught that the rule of life is, " Not
to be ministered unto, but to minister." He went
so far as to add what was recorded long after his
ascension, that " It is more blessed to give than to
receive," — a truth whieh we may yet come to
accept. We are complacent because we think
that the .rule of service, ,of finding our good in
another's good*, is of our invention. In a lapse
of memory we have gone so far as to give this
a new name. It is simply a principle taught by
Christ. His statement is stronger than ours, and
larger. For the service is to be of' the heart. ' It
is the second Commandment which is like the
first; . The love of man in the order of duties
comes next to the love of God. It could not
come first,: for' it has its origin and support in
that which precedes it. It was needless to caH

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 193
it altruism .when it is merely a department of
Christianity. One of the disciples challenges all
our thoughts of humanity in writing that he who
does not love man does not love God. Christ's
definition of neighbor is large. He is the man
who needs you. He may not be of your town*
or nation, or able to make return. He is per
haps lying by the roadside between Jerusalem
and Jericho. He may even be one who has
robbed you, and left you to die by the wayside.
How puerile our modern notions of philanthropy
appear when we read the New Testamerit ! That
man who turned from the persecutor to: the
apostle explained the Christ law of love. It hopes,
beHeves, . endures ; it never fails ; it surpasses
learning and sacrifice ; it is greater than faith and
hope, as the tree is greater than the seed. If we
are learning this, our teachers are Christians and
they learned of Christ.
His teachings concerning money disclose his
method. He had no one rule for this. He held
money in high esteem, as every honest man does';
Some should have it, for its uses ; others are called
to service in which they do not need it; A young
man who was very rich came to Him asking after
eternal life. His conduct in general was admira
ble, and drew out commendation. Two things
were required of him, and the two stand together :

194 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
"Go, sell that thciii hast, and give to the poor;
and come, follow me." Perhaps the man's heart
was hampered by his wealth, and he needed to be
freed ; or it may have been only that he was
caHed to close discipleship, and, as a rich mari,
would be out of place in the little company of
those who walked with .Christ. He could hardly
attend the Master in his walks, and become an
apostle of his kingdom, while he was engaged
with real estate at Perea. The young man heard
the reply, and was offended- He had discovered
himself, and he went away sad. Whether he re
turned is not told. He was disappointed, for he
did not like the man whom he had found in him
self, to whom his property beyond the Jordan was
worth more than eternal life.
Thus Christ met one case in which money was
involved. But to a man who had acquired wealth
by dishonorable means Christ gave no direction
like this. He was content that the pubhcan should
make fourfold restoration of that which he had
wrongfully taken ; and for what was left, let him
use it as a Christian. One principle covered all
cases. On his last visit to the Temple, He saw a
woman casting two mites into the treasury. It
was a large gift, for she had nothing left. The
measure of a gift is in what is kept. Christ com
mended her. ', Would He then have every one cast

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 195
all his property into the church treasury? By
no means. A man has no right to throw the care
of it upon others, or to deny himself the blessed
ness of giving with his own hand. Let the man
devote himself, which includes all that he has, to
God and his guidance, and give and keep accord
ing to his will.
He gave a high value to everything which was
done in love. I have never heard of any one who
appreciated every favor, however small, so much
as He. You give a cup of water to a man in his
name, and it will appear to your credit in the Day
of Judgment. His memory of love holds every
loving thing we do. " Inasmuch " has become
the chain by which reluctance is drawn into
Christly service.
The whole Hfe of Christ was healthful, simple,
— natural. I confess that I like the word. He
was thorough, yet we do not call Him an extrem
ist, or think Him radical and visionary. He
beheved in life, and enjoyed it. He was not an
ascetic in any degree. He did not seclude Him
self from men, but walked among them, and sat
at their tables. His herald in the wilderness had
a Hfe of austerity. This weU became him. But
Christ began his miracles at a wedding, and saved
the marriage feast. His works took a common
form. He fed men with. bread; He saved the

196 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
fisher's boat ; He gave the palsied man strength
to carry home the bed he lay upon. They called
Him the friend of publicans and sinners, and the
name pleased Him. He always liked the truth.
His parables interpreted common things ; spar
rows, grass and .flowers,, leaves and seed, money
and pearls. He gave a new value to all which
men handled. There is no great teacher who
approaches Him in this use of common things, in
the hallowing of the ways of men, in the ennobling
of our daily life. He made nature a constant parr
able, and the pursuits : of men were continual
object lessons. No thoughtful man could fail
to be reminded of God and his ways with men.
The world of nature and life is an illuminated
manuscript written over with the truths of the
Spirit. Plainly all this is suited to the world. There
is nothing , which belongs in one chme and not
another. No age lessens the value of his words.
Our advances in the principles . of living are
nothing more than learning of Him and consenting
to live by his precepts. We do not always con
fess this, but it is always true. We do not
always know this, but we could know it if we
would. It is evident that here were wonderful
truths with which to go into a restless, discon?
tented, disappointed world.

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 197
I have often spoken of the teachings bf Christ.
It has not been common to regard Him as a
Teacher. It is remarkable that while the Greek
word Didaskalos is used • nearly fifty times in the
Gospels with reference to Christ, our ' English
revisers only twice translate it Teacher — when
He Himself says, " One is your Teacher," and
when Nicodemus calls Him " a Teacher sent from
God." In all other places it is rendered Master, a
definition not given in the best Lexicon. This is
in accordance with the- English use of Master,,
which is higher than that which' prevails in' this
country. Yet very frequently in • the Gospels
Christ is spoken, of as teaching. "He opened
his mouth and taught them " was true every day.
His teaching -is spoken of j fey that name in the
Revised Version of the Gospels, although this
before was rendered doctrine. After a time the
thought of . Christ as the Teacher lost its position
in the minds of men, and his work as Saviour
was made more prominent. . The Teacher dis
appeared from the ranks of ministers and the
priest came forward. This, was long- ago, but the
influence has remained. In our own time, when
some insisted that his chief work was as a teacher,
and that to follow his instruction was all that
any one needed, those who believed that his work
as Saviour was of infinitely larger moment pre-

198 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
sented Him as the Redeemer of the world, and
denied to his instruction in itself any such value
as was claimed for it. As we see now, the true
way was to receive Him as Teacher, and then to
receive the teaching. We seem to be recovering
our ground. Our conception of his work and its
result rests mainly upon Him and his words.
We shall give Him his place as Teacher and
from Him learn the Truth that He is. His teach
ings have the personal character of which I have
already said so much. They are the expression
of his thought, but more than that, of Himself,
and his interest in them is original and strong.
Every parable that He gave to the people was of
greater concern to Him than to them. They
might disregard his words, but to Him they were
full of feeling. The Kingdom, which He de
scribed was his own Kingdom. Yet He valued
it for this less than for the benefits it would have
for those whose happiness was of more account
than his own. The Father would be pleased and
men would be pleased and men would be blessed,
and no desire of his was to be in comparison with
this. I have spoken of the profound significance
which He gave to " My." We know how much
the word means to us. My country, my friend,
my child, — the chief value is in the two letters

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 199
which stand for myself. We blend our separate
interests, and say " our," " ourselves," and we
have the society with whose well-beirig our own is
involved. One of the most suggestive sentences
in the New Testament is in the Good Shepherd's
words, spoken of Himself, and containing his
whole heart, — " Rejoice with me, for I have found
my sheep which was lost. I say unto you that'
even so there shaU be joy in heaven." Even so, as
the joy of the Shepherd who has found his sheep ;
the one, not the ninety and nine.
We miss the meaning of his words and the
deeds which attended them if we do not see how
much they meant to Him; that they were not
things said and done in fulfilment of a mission,
but were his own life, with its passion and desire.
This was more evident at some times than at others.
There was a day when the house in which He was
most at home was darkened by death. He came at
the call of his friends, and as He stood with them
his sorrow was too great for control. He was
troubled in spirit and He wept; not because this
man only was dead, but because aU men were dying
and dead. The great soul sought the relief which
nature gives. The Jews said, " Behold, how He
loyed him." They had no conception of the love
which then held all sorrowing hearts in its compas
sion, and kept their sorrow for his own* He said in

200 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
words which are simply like Himself, " Come unto
Me, and I will give you rest." One may be par
doned for thinking of the young Buddha, and
remembering how tenderly the way was prepared
for him when he would walk abroad. No cripple
should show himself out of doors lest the prince
be grieved. No fallen leaf should remain upon
the ground ; there should be no hint of pain and
death. " Come unto Me all ye that labor and are
heavy laden." The rest He gave was his own.
He went without it that He might bestow it. I
suppose if we were all asked what is the deepest
and strongest teaching He gave to weary, suf
fering men, we should answer, "The parable of
the prodigal son." The name is of our mak
ing, not his. Rutherford called it " The forlorn
son." Both names are true. I think it might well
be called " The recovered son." But whatever
name best pleases us, the parable itself expresses
on the Father's side the feeling of Him who
taught it. Over the wandering He sorrowed in
great sadness. The affliction in a far country lay
upon his heart. He waited and watched for the
return. Nay, He did not tell it all. He went
down where the boy was, and entreated him, and
brought him home, and gave to him the ring and
the shoes, and another chance to live. Every line
is full of his feeling. This is his life. He seeks

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 201
and He saves. Not one only, but all wanderers,
all prodigals, He takes upon his heart, and He
clothes them at his own cost, with the best robe,
for He has no other. Every prodigal is called and
shall be welcomed. His arms are strong enough,
his heart is large enough, to hold every one of
them. He is wiUing to be lifted up from the
earth, if He may draw all men to Himself. The
reason of his delight is in Himself, and it speaks
in the same two letters — " This my son."
In all his life Christ is the reality. He does not
declare it or represent it. He is the real. He is
divine wisdom and love. We have the verities
when we have Him. They show themselves, not
becoming, but coming where they can be known
of men. They are substantial and permanent.
They are not handled, although the forms they
assume may be touched. Christ was continually
presenting the reality, and letting it be seen in
contrast with that which had borne the name.
One day men spoke to Him of the manna, and
called it bread from heaven. He replied that was
not real bread. It seemed so to your fathers, but
bread itself is very different from that. " My
Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. I
am the bread of Hfe." It is as if He had said,
" The manna is an imitation." Again He spoke
of the vine. Vines were to be seen everywhere ;

202 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
possibly they ran over the window of the room
where He was, or chmbed beside the outer door.
These are not real, He said, they are iUustrations ;
they are like the carvings on the wall and about
the pillars. " I am the true vine." The purpose
of a vine He alone could fulfil. The grapes men
plucked might indeed be refreshing. But He
would give the true refreshment which the souls
of men could receive. The sun was in the heav
ens, but He was the true light. " I am the Truth,"
He said. He was "full of grace and truth."
" Grace and. truth came " by Him. But there was
more than this. He was more than true, even
" the Truth." He said that He did not know the
day or the hour when the Son of Man should
come. That was a matter of knowledge which
here He did not need to have. But the coming
itself, the truth within the time, He knew. He
said, " I will come again." " Heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away."
The distinction between teaching the truth and
being the Truth is not one of words. He meant
to assert the completeness of his being, its suf
ficiency, its finality. It was not a representation,
but that which other things represented. He
would have approved the words written long after
ward by one of his friends, "The things which
are seen are temporal ; but the things which are

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 203
not seen are eternal." Truth is spiritual. The
true things are everlasting. It is only when we
keep this in mind that we understand Him. The
truth which God is stands in Him, that it may do
the work of God. It does not throw off a portion
of itself and give this a man's form, and name. It
reveals itself, and there is no break between the
truth here and that which is beyond our sight. It
has been well said that " you cannot draw a fence
through the great ocean of infinity." You can
not divide the truth. We may attempt this by
our definitions, but it must always fail. We are
fortunate if we are not drowned in the effort to
set the posts ! Truth is one and eternal ! " I
am the Truth," He said.
His life becomes simple when we receive his
own account of Himself, and see that He is con-
troUed by the life which He is. " I am the Life,"
He said. " I give eternal life." There is but one
Hfe. It took his Personality with it, and around
it, so far as this was possible. He Hved therefore
in two worlds ; or, rather, He Hved in both parts
of the one world, in the seen and the unseen.
There is no line between them in his thought.
He lived among men, sat at their table, sailed
in their boat, rested in their tomb. He talked
with men, blessed their children, filled their nets.
This was evident and actual. Yet He told them

204 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
this : " The Son can do nothing of Himself, but
what He seeth the Father doing ; for what things
soever He doeth, these the Son also doeth in like
manner." If once we can receive such words as
these, and not be offended in them, we shall know
that here is the presence of the Truth which is
recalling and regaining the world.
How very simple the works of Christ become
in the presence of his reality ! The most strik
ing of them we call miracles, which is a poor and
misleading name. They are described as " signs,"
and this suggests their character. They were,
works performed for the profit of men.. But they
did more than secure the immediate advantage,
for they bore witness to the power which wrought
them and was not exhausted. As they are often
regarded, they lack the true element, for the
power does not begin nor the result end as we
suppose. Each sign comes out of the past and
is the beginning of a series of benefits to be given
and received. In each one He strives to get such
hold upon a man that He can help him thoroughly,
and in any world, and forever. He could always
do more and greater things. The works bear
the marks of self-restraint. Why was there any
pause ? They were entirely natural to Him, be
cause He was in nowise limited by the regula
tions of the world. He was spirit and life, and

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 205
things and forces must consent to his control.
Physical nature was under the power of the Spirit.
It had been so in the creation and always after
ward. It was of importance then, as it is to-day,
that this should be asserted. Men needed to
know their independence of tije world. They
needed to see about them, and. to feel within
them, a power greater than that which prevailed
in the course of nature. Even if they were
obHged for a time to submit to the forces around
them, it was well to feel that they might be
come free. Men had been known to worship the
forms and powers of nature. It resulted in evil;
The best way to break up this custom was to
show the subjection of these divinities of the air
and the sea. Here was one who could govern
them, and He spoke in the name of God. It was
an advance for men to find themselves greater
than their divinities, because they were spirit.
This had been said before, but. Christ told it
again, and repeatedly, and in many ways, that
men might see the greater power, and seeing it in
Him find it in themselves. Because He belonged
to both worlds, especially to the world of the
Spirit, all his works were simple, and readily
performed. They were signs of his own nature.
They were samples, specimens, of the real work
which He was to do. They were his assurance

206 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
of a time when there would be no men blind, or
lame, or dead. If the small acts convinced them
of his truth they could trust Him for the more
important works which were needed, which should
entirely deliver men from the world and the flesh
into the liberty of the sons of God. The words
of the Gospel are thorough and vigorous. " As
many as received Him, to them gave He the right
to become children of God, even to them that be
lieve on his name ; which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the wiU of man,
but of God." This was to be here. The two
worlds were together, the world of the seen and
of the unseen ; or, in terms which were afterward
familiar, the world of nature and of grace.
A miracle comes from the influence of the spir
itual world, when it is brought to bear upon the
world of things. It has been said that it " stands
for the mystery of human existence," and is " the
symbol of the preeminence of spirit over nature."
Christ would have preferred to have men know
Him without these signs ; for spiritual discern
ment was higher. Yet it is doubtful if they
could have known Him but for such works as
arrested their attention, and made them believe
that He was from God. They believed because
of the things they saw, though1 these were of
less account than his. own Truth. "Beheve Me

PURPOSE AND METHOD' OF CHRIST 207
that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me ;
or else beHeve Me for the very works' sake."
The miracles were on a lower plane of evidence
than the Truth to which they gave witness, but
they were effective. How much higher our Lord
rated his work upon the spirit is shown in a very
striking way in the startling assurance He gave
on his last night — "He that believeth on Me,
the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater
works than these shall he do." He meant that
to open the eyes of a man so that he should see
his father was less than to give him the vision
of God ; that to enable a man to walk the streets
was less than to persuade him to walk with God ;
that even to raise one from the dead was less than
bringing a man into the eternal life of the Spirit.
So far from encouraging men to wonder at his
power in the world, He taught that they should
do works of surpassing value.
He required faith. This was not needed for a
common miracle. But common miracles He did
not care to work, unless by means of them He
could find the soul and make it whole. This
needed the soul's consent, and this was faith. He
was not here to be admired, but to be known.
He did not care to give a benefit which could
be acquired in some other way, and would come
to an end. Every work of- mercy' was,, in his

208 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
intent, the seed of another, and this process was
to be endless. I think that we make less account
of Christ's miracles than has been made at. other
times. The attention has been more upon Him
and the truths which He taught. Still, we ought
to regard his works carefully; not with a view to
their repetition, but as the disclosure of his
spiritual place and dominion. We could prove his
acts by surpassing them. Those who have done
the " greater works " of which He spoke appear
to have no trouble with the miracles of the
New Testament. Perhaps confidence in ourselves
would have been fairer than our doubt of Him.
Many are the wonderful works which are men
tioned, though not all are told, and they are in
entire keeping with his words. They were so
numerous that it > was thought needless to make
the record of them. Thirty years afterward they
stood before the memory of men who saw them
like a forest of trees one cannot think of count
ing. The latest of the writers went so far as to
say that if all the things which Jesus had done
should be written, he supposed that the world
itself would not contain the books. Reading the
memoirs as one reads any book, it is more than
difficult to ' regard these unnumbered signs as
the invention of. such men as were his friends,
and gave their life to Him whom they knew

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 209
as Truth; who told what they saw and heard,
as one of them said, that others might have
fellowship with them. Such signs need very
clear evidence, and we should question the
witnesses, their truthfulness and intelligence.
This is the part of prudence. But when all the
testimony is given which the nature of the case
makes possible, and when the evidence is sure
enough to be accepted in regard to events less
unusual, something better than denial, or incre
dulity, may fairly be asked of us. We have
come to believe too many things which at first
seemed beyond belief to be hastily turned from
anything which brings to us reasonable creden
tials. There have been too many surprises in
our time to warrant a careless unbelief. The
scientific method and spirit are alone proper.
Look, question, decide, search, find, determine.
To settle it beforehand with ourselves that cer
tain things cannot be done is not the road to
knowledge. The time for that conceit has gone
by. The unusual is not of necessity the difficult.
The quality of a miracle is in its strangeness, not
in the force which it needs. It requires no more
of wisdom or skiU than a hundred things to which
we are accustomed. If it needs our effort to be
lieve, it should need effort to rule the miracle
out of ¦ the works of God. It is hard to believe,

210 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
when one thinks upon it, that the Almighty has
done his last work, and that thenceforth aU is
repetition ; that the world, and the universe, are
but a mechanism, which is to pursue only its
unvarying round. Who shall say that God has
thus mortgaged Himself to his past, and denied
Himself the pleasure of doing a new thing, of
using a new method, of meeting any event of Hfe
in any way which He chooses ? To deny the
possibility of a miracle is strangely to Hmit the
Almighty. We talk of the laws of nature as if
they were statutes. Nature does not legislate.
What we thus name laws are but the Creator's
methods, and these are forces, not fetters. Be
very sure that when the Maker of heaven and
earth wishes to work in a new way He will do it.
It is at great times, at some eventful point, that
history has the record of such variation from his
custom. The creation was new. Strange works
attended the delivery of Israel from Egypt. They
marked the coming of the Lord and the coming
of his Kingdom. They were not more grand or
more divine than the events they stood among.
I have lingered upon the works of Christ longer
than I intended. I leave them as a part of the
fourfold record of his life. The story is simply
told, as if the writers had long since ceased to
be surprised by them. In the thirty years which

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 211
preceded the writing they had come to know
Him better, and their increased knowledge shows
itself in their steadiness of mind and their as
sured confidence. Long and full of events yere
the years between the day when St. John took
the mother of Jesus to his home, and the day
when as an old man he wrote out his remem
brance of One who loved him. Time may have
had something to do with the quietness and
naturalness of the narrations of the three years
which Jesus spent among men, going about' doing
good. The works are incidents in the life. They be
long in a life which moves with even flow from
the beginning. Let them be judged in their
place, and with the company they keep; by the
reason for them and the result from them. The
works confirm his authority and establish his
teaching. They are the signs of larger gifts.
Before we leave this simple account of the life
of Christ it is necessary that we dwell for a mo
ment upon two facts which have a place of impor
tance in his teaching. The" first is prayer. It is
true that this did not begin with Him. It is em
bodied in the entire system of religion which is
taught in the Bible. He found it. He learned
it in his home at Nazareth. He taught his dis
ciples to find comfort and strength in it. There

212 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
were times when He spent a whole night in
prayer. It is clear that He depended upon it.
It is equally clear that He expected his apostles
to depend upon it. He would not have made
them his messengers save as He knew that they
would pray, and in prayer obtain the grace and
light they needed. But what was prayer as He
taught it ? It was a spiritual act. It was the in
tercourse of the soul with God. There was asking,
but there was much more. There was the being
consciously in the presence of God. The voice
presents requests ; but there is more than requests.
If I may quote my own words, " The better part
of prayer is not the asking, but the kneeling where
we can ask, the resting there, the stopping there,
drawing out the willing moments in heavenly
communion with God, within the closet, with
the night changed into the brightness of the day
by the light of Him who all the night was in
prayer- to God." Surely, the soul would have
strength which should thus wait at the source of
strength. Requests are made and answered; sometimes
as We wish, and sometimes with changes and de
lays. But there is no delay in blessing the soul
which, at leisure from itself, waits with God;
and He knew that with it men could be trusted to
do all which He would have them do. This is an

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 213
essential part of his teaching, and cannot be taken
from the truth and duty which He gave.
More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of ; for what were men,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend ?
!For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.
The second fact to which allusion was made is
the Sabbath. This also did not begin with Him.
It is conspicuous in the religious life of his people,
from a time before the giving of the Law on Siani.
He found the day, and kept it holy when a boy
in Nazareth, and in the years which brought Him
on to manhood. When He began his teaching
the day which was made for man had become
oppressive. The rules and customs which had
gathered about it would have seemed ludicrous
had they not been so heavy a burden at a time
which was meant for gladness. He did not abol
ish the day, or release men from a saCred regard
for it. But He set the day free. He deHvered
it, and restored it to its own meaning. In all
this He made it plain that He did not intend
to do away with the Sabbath. A man does not
restore a building which he intends in a few days
to destroy. The changes which Christ wrought
are a witness to his purpose to have the day kept

214 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
after its original design. Under the direction of
his apostles the first day of the week took the
place of the seventh, and was the day of sacred
delight, the "sweet day of rest," the weekly
Easter with its celebration of the Resurrection of
Christ. It may be regarded,- then, as having a
fixed place in the teaching of Christ. It is to be
a day of rejoicing. We are released from work ;
we are set free from the round of daily duties,
that the soul may have its opportunity, and that
we may quietly foster and enjoy our faith and
love in worship, in meditation, in communion,
in aU which makesus more spiritual, more Divine.
This is Christ's intent. It is obvious that the
more nearly we can keep the day according to his
desire the richer its hours will be ; the closer our
walk with God, the firmer our purpose to be like
Him ; the more nearly perfect our peace and joy,
the sanctity of our spirit, the divinity of our Hfe,
It was in the knowledge of Himself as the
Truth, as belonging in two worlds, that we have
the explanation of his life. It is in this that
its peculiar value consists. It is vain to compare
Him with others who have lived, and to find re
semblances to his teachings and his works. The
more resemblances of this kind which we can dis
cover the better is it for the world. But He stands
alone, in his own consciousness, and in his constant

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 215
teaching, and in the purpose of his Hfe as He de
clared it. He alone lives as the embodiment of
the love whioh God is. His first relation is with
God, and this is never changed. Keeping this, He
comes really info the world, that the love which
He is mav become life for men. It is thus that
He teaches and helps ; thus that he gives his life
— "I have power to lay it down, and I have power
to take it again." It is thus that He claims all
sheep, aU sinners, as his own, and seeks them
that He may save them ; thus that He goes into
the far country that He may bring home the prod
igal, his own prodigal. All this God would do.
It belongs in our idea of God. It is in his Son
that He does it. The great desire, full of pity and
love, the great longing for his own ; the Divine
goodness and grace which encircle the earth and
sweep through the ages ; the almightiness which
is informed with compassion, and cannot rest,
but will have its own, — all the heart of God
finds men where they are, and is faithful to love,
mighty to save. " He will abundantly pardon."
But the heart of God among men bears the name
which was given by the angel — "Jesus;" and
the other, which is " God with us." We are out
of the range of philosophy. This is Truth. He
does not simply reveal God. He is really the
Love of God.

216 PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST
Of course the world did not receive Him. He
was despised and rejected by those who saw only
their own disappointment in Him. At last He
was crucified. But He said repeatedly that He
should not be holden of death. He was the
stronger. On the third day He appeared among
men. They saw Him and knew that it was He.
Many saw Him. The faith which had been
rudely shaken was quickly restored. For a few
weeks He remained among his friends, then He
returned into the skies. The account is given
with brevity and simplicity. Upon the fact of the
Resurrection his disciples rested their Hves and
based their ministry. They lived in the knowledge
of it, and many sealed their devotion with their
lives. To the closing events of Christ's life his
disciples attached the chief significance. These
stand highest in their thought. They preached
them as the centre and heart of their message to the
world. It is evident that there was a profound
meaning in the death of the Truth and the Life.
I know that Life and Truth cannot die. But the
body in which they lived could die. For Him,
then, to consent to be obedient to death* when He
could have avoided it easily, was a fact before
which it becomes us to be still. It is clear from his
own teaching that He intended to find his sheep
and his sons by the way of the cross. This He

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF CHRIST 217
haa~daoe^ "Mar"w7ar^Ee rnrdeis Cairtrrrrg- of the
apostles, and by this rule they ordered their min
istry, and gained the world for Him. As often as
we contemplate the close of his life, let us find the
meaning of it in Himself; not in the cross, but
in the Truth which uses it.
I am the Truth, He said.

V
THE CAUSE OF CHRIST IN THE HANDS OF MEN

THE CAUSE OF CHRIST IN THE
HANDS OP MEN

I have, written at length of the Person in
whom the Creator and Father of men seeks to
recaU them to their true life ; to give them again
of his own Hfe. Has his purpose been accom-
phshed? As we advance, arid see Him in the
world and mark his influence, is it clear that
the Divine thought is being fulfilled ? While his
work is not completed at any point, it has gone
far enough for an intelligent opinion of its ' merit
and promise. It is not possible to see all that He
has done, because much of it is in the hearts of
men, in their character, their motives and inten
tions, their inclinations and affections, and the
disclosure of these is imperfect. We know what
He has done for us, and in some measure what
He has done for others. With the necessary
Hmitation of our knowledge, there is abundant
and conclusive evidence regarding the effect of
Christianity upon men; upon society and its
institutions; upon literature, science, art; upon

222 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
the home and the school ; upon the woman and
the child ; upon charity and ail the virtues ; upon
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In
tracing the course of his life upon the earth we
are to keep always in mind the Personality of
Christ. It was this which He gave to the world
— Himself. " I am " stands before his teaching
and the works which attended it. He was in the
gifts which He bestowed. Buddhism could live
without Buddha. Christianity is impossible with
out Christ. He is the breath, the soul, the Hfe,
of the truth. He is the Love which loves men
into love.
The men whom He caUed to be disciples and
then Apostles were held to Him by personal
devotion. The readiness with which they left aU
to follow Him is a witness to the power which
was his. He had nothing to offer them of earthly
reward ; He insisted upon their humihty ; He
told them that they could not be his disciples
unless they denied themselves, and took up their
cross ; He spoke to them of his own death, and of
the tribulation they would have in the world ; at
last He gave Himself to the cross, and died, and
was entombed. But they were not moved from
Him, save one, who in a " desperate self-respect "
fled from the world where there seemed to be no
place for him. Confused they were, the eleven

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 223
men who were the disciples ; disappointed, deso
late, stricken ; but they kept their faith in Him
and waited for that which was to come. What
held them ? The Love which drew them. It was
a wonderful power which Christ had. I do not
call it supernatural, for it was of Himself. He
called them and there was power in his words.
The voice, the look, the whole presence, drew
them to Him. They were not poor men, weak
men ; but men well-to-do, substantial citizens of
the North country, who proved afterward that
they could teach their own people and the world ;
and their word has gone out into all the earth.
Nothing in our libraries is so precious as their
writings. They could bear all things, even to
martyrdom, and die in exultation, and leave their
names for adoration. It was the perfect Love
which caUed them ; the Love which is the strong
est, Divinest thing known in heaven, and which
was incarnate in Him. It attracted, persuaded,
compelled, the men whose hearts it reached, whose
love could recognize the eternal Love and be
taken into it and held there, so that the power of
the Divine Love should be around them, keeping
and guiding ; inspiring them for the life of love
which was to follow his, and be his and theirs.
If I knew what the perfect Love is I could
better tell how it found these hearts which

224 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
Love had made, and pleased itself . and them.
Were! they not of one nature with Him who came
to their boats, and , filled their nets, and . made
them, fishers of men?, They loved because they
were first loved. The Love of Christ constrained
them. It made them the . , men whom Christ
needed, whom the Love of God needed, for a
ministry which must begin and end in. love. We
like the answer of these men to the call of Christ.
It was so hearty? aml simple, and trusting; not
hindered by question, or despoiled by delay. "And
He called them. And they immediately left the
ship, and their .father, and foHowed Him." It was
great confidence in Him. But this is not more
to be. admired than his confidence in them.
Let us think of the meaning of his life ; of the
magnificent purpose and expectation in which He
was to give his Hfe, to be Hfted up . that He
might draw all men to Himself. Yet after his
crucifixion He went no more among strangers,
and soon He returned to heaven. Who were to
take( up his ministry and carry it. through the
lands which had not heard his name? These
men, who for a. few months had walked with Him
and learned of Him, — by these his word and
work were to be preserved and extended till every
man should hear of Him. They knew Him, and
they were ready to do anything at his bidding.

»'
CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 225
He knew them and He trusted all to them. I
think this is the largest instance of faith in the
history of the world. If they failed Him, his
cause was at an end. The cross would he the
headstone at its grave. He knew they would not
fail Him, for his love held their hearts. I think
of Nelson's signal as the battle of Trafalgar was
to begin — " England confides that every man
will do his duty." — "I have no signal for con
fides," the officer said. " May I not say expects ? "
Nelson consented, but his own word was the
better, with more heart in it, — "England con
fides." The words express as well as words can,
fittingly, beautifully, the thought of Christ when
his hour had come. He confided that every man
would do his duty. Every man did. It is a tes
timony to them, but even more to Him. It was
weU written by one who joined tiiem — " The
greatest is love."
After his resurrection, and a little time before
his withdrawal from these disciples, Christ met
seven of them by the sea of Galilee, where He
helped them fill the nets which all the night had
been spread in vain, and gave them a lesson in
trust which could riot be forgotten. When He
had given them to eat of fish which had not been
brought in their net, — the one hundred and fifty-
fourth, — He asked one of the little group, who

226 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
had been in some degree a leader among them, if
he loved Him. Three times He asked. He was
asking all the men through one. It was the ques
tion of the future. Everything depended upon
the answer. There was nothing to hold them but
Love, their love living in his. The reply contented
Him, and He ordained them to the care of his
sheep and lambs ; for He was the Good Shepherd,
and a shepherd King, as his ancestor had been.
After this He was with them in Jerusalem where
He bade them wait till they should receive power ;
for they were to be witnesses to Him " in Jeru
salem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto
the uttermost part of the earth." It was a con
fidence in the truth, and in these men whom He
loved, which was like Himself. At last He led
them to the mount called Olivet, and from there
ascended to the glory which He had before the
world was. The end was in keeping with the
beginning. The friends returned to the city, as they had
been told to do. They were but few in number,
and were unnoticed. They would have been
oppressed with a strange loneliness but for the
assurance that He would be with them still. He
would be close enough to help them, while they
would be allowed a true liberty. They had the
promise of the Holy Spirit whom He would send.

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 227
They waited by themselves, Hving over the three
years of their discipleship, and the last days of
sadness and triumph. In an upper room, where
their home was for a time, they turned their
minds heavenward and prayed for the power
from above. They needed it. There were a few
who shared their hope, and among these was
" Mary, the mother of Jesus," " blessed among
women." Think on the course of the world
since that time ! Has there ever been gathered
council or congress which, for dignity and solem
nity, could compare with that? They waited.
It was like a ship with her sails set, watching for
the breeze. The world was waiting for the com
ing power, though it knew it not. It was waiting
for those unregarded men — men of faith, with
a history ; men firm by nature and training ;
holding to the ancestral belief and hope ; mem
bers of a religious nation. They had not been
asked to change their faith, and they were not to
ask their countrymen. Judaism had not pro
duced Christianity, but it was fulfilled in it. The
Gentile religions, which were as little able to
produce the new faith as thistles to bear figs,
were to part with all which was untrue and to
receive the Truth which was from heaven-
Christ was Himself, and there was no one be
fore Him who was like Him, as there has been

228 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
no one after Him. These Jews who had become
Christians were to announce that the Messiah
had come. He was not the desire of the world,
but He was infinitely more. This was to be said
everywhere, beginning at Jerusalem where He
had been crucified. The Truth must go forth
from the Cross. Out from that narrow door
which was not far from Calvary was to issue the
Love of God, to seek and find its own. The
Kingdom of heaven was in that upper room, wait
ing. The disciples Were indeed in the presence of
the King, who had called them friends. They had
no chief, save as strength of character asserted
itself. They were not organized, save as a globe
stands about its centre. They had no forms, but
the form of spirit and of truth. The precepts of
their Teacher were their laws, and these could
never lose control. They had Christ, and his
Love held their love, and what God had joined
together could not be put asunder.
Their time came. For designation it is called
the Day of Pentecost, the time of the first
fruits, and the name was well chosen ; but Pente
cost had come a thousand times before, and this
day alone is remembered. Strange things were
seen and heard in Jerusalem. The promised
power descended upon the disciples and those
who were with them. It rwas a spiritual power,

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 229
giving vigor to their minds and hearts, and ena
bling them to speak with a wisdom and force
which made their words effective among the lis
teners. This was entirely simple, for it was the
gift of the Spirit who is God to the kindred
spirit who is man. In this ' power the disciples
preached. The result was that rhany, being per
suaded and enabled by the Spirit, believed the
Word which was preached ; three thousand in
one day, and others' afterward. It was the first
attempt of Christianity to get into the world and
become its life, and it was Signally successful.
This- was weU called "Power from on high."
Under its influence" "the Lord added to them
day by day those that were saved " — for this was
the designation given them. It was- in this form
of the Holy Spirit that Christ was henceforth to
he with his disciples. It Was expedient that Jesus
of Nazareth should go away. There was need of
a presence more widely diffused, in all places at
all times, which could readily enter the spirit of
man: and abide there, aiid direct his thoughts and
enlarge his life. " They had now the completion of
the baptismal Creed and confession' — the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The order is plainly
declared' in the New Testament. First the eternal
Father whom no man hath seen ; then the Son in
whom God is revealed' to men-; then the Holy

230 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
Spirit in whom the Son is revealed to the world ;
and there is one God. I do not enter upon the
theological bearing of these truths. The mission
of the Holy Spirit is definitely set forth. It con
nects itself immediately with the work of Christ,
and so with the Love of the Father. It is neces
sary at this point that the words of Christ
concerning the Holy Spirit should be carefully
marked — " When the Comforter is come, whom I
will send unto you from the Father, even the
Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father,
He shall bear witness of Me." " He shall guide
you into all the truth." " He shall glorify Me,
for He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it
unto you." " He shall teach you all things, and
bring to your remembrance all that I said unto
you." It is evident, therefore, that this Divine
Presence is to carry forward the Love of the
Father and the mission of Christ in which that
Loye is fulfilled. The Holy Spirit is to be in
men, the presence of God, the Love of the Son
of God, quickening and renewing their hearts,
creating them anew with a new life. Hence we
have the strong words of the chief Apostle : " As
many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are
sons of God." This is the day of the Holy
Spirit. Thus at Pentecost men received life. They

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 231
came fully under the first Commandment, and
under the second, for every man's need became
another's opportunity. There was a quick test.
None lacked, for none owned. Many tongues
were heard, but they spoke in the one language
of brotherhood.
The new gift went farther. It was to be help
ful at once. One of the Apostles, who had come
to the knowledge of his power, in preaching,
attempted his first independent sign, that which
we ineffectively call a miracle. Some experience
had been granted him before, in an apprentice
way, but he was now to work by himself. A man
lame from his birth lay at the Beautiful Gate of
the Temple, and he looked, as his wont was, upon
this disciple and another Galilean, that he might
receive alms. The Apostle seized and held him
with his eyes, raising the confidence which he -was
to disappoint. "I have no silver and gold," he'
said, "but I will give you what I have." This
was one of the marks of the new faith. Its min
isters made no pretence and offered no excuse.
What they did not have was of no use to them or
to the world. Taking the cripple by the hand, he
lifted him, and for the first time the man stood
upon his feet. The surgeon who reported the
case said that his feet and ankle-bones received
strength, Things looked well for the new cause.

232 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
One thing was wanting, and that was soon sup-;
plied, when Herod slew an Apostle with a sword,
and proposed to send another to the same fate.
Earlier than this, a man who had been called to
office in the society was stoned for his boldness
in the faith. The cause was now well- on its way.
Could it continue? As long as those who be
lieved in it remained true.
But it had the world to gain. The world knew
nothing of it ; or, knowing, was hostile to it. The
Jews had not swerved ,from their opposition,
neither the leaders nor the people. Persecution.
grew more severe. In this, is a sign of the force'
in the new faith. Strange that all the authority
which remained to the nation was turned against
the carpenter's son ! The Nazarene had made Him
self feared in high places, and He had not lifted
a hand, and only one of his foHowers had drawn
a sword. Here was a growing influence which
could not be reasoned down, and thus far there
had been no force which could resist it. Observe
its vitality and the method of it, and think what
this signifies. It was a notable event when from
its enemies came its stoutest friend. He was not
of Jerusalem, which was in his favor. GaHlee
gave the first Apostles. This man came even
farther. The comparative largeness of provincial
life was on his side. He had grown up among

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 233
men. He was a Roman, and this gave him posi
tion and daring. He was religious, and his relig
ion was a reality, He was a Jew, and loving his
people he sprang to the defence of the poor rem
nant of their liberty. Fearless, determined, ag
gressive, he found his passion enlarged as he saw
a good man stoned, who died in triumph under
the open heaven. He kept the clothes of the
murderers, and when, they resumed them he took
up their work. He could do nothing in a small
way. He was mad exceedingly, and he thought
the cause justified his violence. It is some wit
ness to the strength of the Nazarene, as He was
described, that He made Saul of Tarsus angry
through his whole being. His madness is as good
as a day's miracles, for evidence. The conver
sion of the High Priest would have meant less.
He consented to be taught, and to be enrolled as
a disciple. The name he had hated became at
once his glory. He waited that he might find him
self. He meditated in Arabia where only God
could teach him. He learned from those who had
walked with the Master of his life and his word.
He confirmed his faith, we may suppose, by visit
ing the places where the Lord had suffered and
died. He promptly and publicly declared him
self a believer in the risen'Lord, and then abandon
ing his profession went forth to be the preacher.

234 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
The more he taught the more he believed. As
there is nothing succeeds like success, so there is
nothing believes like belief. A zeal for Christ
possessed him, greater even than his madness had
been. He cared for nothing beside. He was ab
sorbed in his devotion. His feeling was long
afterward expressed by his Moravian friend : " I
have one passion, and it is He, He only." He
went to his own people. He went beyond them
to the excluded nations. The door for this was
opened by a Divine hand when the word was. car
ried by another Apostle to a Roman soldier at
Cesarea who had commended himself by his
prayers and gifts. Then the work spread. Men
believed wherever they heard. They were caUed
and called out, and by this word were known.
We have translated it, which is a pity. The faith
was taking on more of form. The adjective
which had described the Teacher became a proper
name, and those who belonged to Him were caUed
after it, not by any appointment, but for con
venience. They were called Christians as their
Master was Christ. The name given by others
grew in favor. The Apostles went through their
own land and beyond it. St. Paul went far abroad,
carrying the Good News of God, as the Word
came to be described. Churches were formed of
Jews and Gentiles, and were fostered with apos-

CAUSE OF CHRIST. IN HANDS OF MEN 235
toHc care. St. Paul visited them in repeated
journeys, and when absent, wrote to them. His
letters make a large and important part of the
early and the later Christian literature. They
were letters, not doctrinal treatises. They estab
lished no schedule of belief, after the manner of
later times. He taught doctrine, indeed, but not
a system. All his letters enforced the Christian
teaching. He wrote one letter which is in the
largest sense theological, and which is a strong
statement of his belief. This was to a church
which he had not visited, which needed a formal
statement of the Christian faith that should serve
as a constitution at Rome, and wherever the new
church at Rome had influence. This letter by
no means contents itself with belief, but makes
conduct of essential importance. In his letters
St. Paul stated in his own terms that which
he had learned, with confirmation out of philos1
ophy, and history, and experience. He added
nothing to the teaching of the Master. He did
not teach by parable, but in a more immediate
and direct manner. That he gave form to the
teaching of Christ is evident ; but they are mis
taken who think he altered the teaching itself.
He expanded the central teaching of Christ, that
He had come to seek and to save that which was
lost ; and he defined the loss, and the seeking,

236 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
and the saving. He taught in what way and for
what reasons the Good Shepherd gave his life
for the sheep. He declared the resurrection of
the dead in words which remain the clearest
exposition of Immortality. He exalted love and
enforced it in the finest sentences ever written
concerning it. One phrase has become in our
time almost a definition. Not content with such
themes, he guided the churches in their affairs,
and in the behavior of their members. There
was need of this, for many had brought the vices
of their old religion into the new faith. They
needed rebuke, warning, entreaty, if any good
was to come to them under their new name,
and it was to be commended by their lives. The
best proof of Christianity must be the lives of
those whom it controls. It must show its power
to save by saving, its ability to create by creating.
The teacher of this faith can never attach too
much importance to the conduct of those who
hold it. This is not a large fraction of Hfe:
it is the whole. The act of the wiU is as real as
the act of the hand. This is not to be forced
for the sake of evidence ; but the religion is to be
unhindered and obeyed. Let it show what it can
do. Some of the things about which the Apostle
wrote may seem small for a man to be concerned
with who more than any other had the Kingdom of

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 237
God in his charge. But it is the peculiarity of
the Kingdom of God, that it concerns itself with
small things, with unimportant men, and with the
actions which are their character. It is a mark
of Christianity that it makes the man of large
moment, and if the man then his conduct. Let
us remember the words of the herald of the King
dom : " He that hath two coats, let him impart to
him that hath none; and he that hath food, let
him do likewise," " Extort no more than that
which is appointed you." There is a majesty in
St. Paul's great pages ; but I mark also the divin
ity of his small sentences whereby he seeks to
persuade men to live in truth, and purity, and
.charity. He had learned the mind of Christ.
This was his claim for himself, and he had need to
assert it, for his right to preach was not unchal
lenged. That he had learned some things of St.
Peter, and James the Lord's brother, he declared.
But with all the force at his command he asserted
that the Gospel which he had preached he had
not learned of man, but had received it " by
the revelation of Jesus Christ." It was this
which made the tremendous energy of his Hfe, and
made him one of the two or three most influential
men whorfi the world has known, The facts of
the new faith, the incidents in Christ's life, the
teaching Which He gave, could be readily learned

238 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
from his friends. It was quite as simple that the
spirit of this should be given into his spirit by the
Spirit of truth to which it was akin; that the
meaning should be thus bestowed, and direction
for the employment of the teaching, the right
adjustment of it within itself and in the minds
of men, and all which we mean by inspiratiori,
which is entirely simple when one knows that he
too is spirit. This did not teach him everything,
but it did furnish him generously and truly for
the work, the large work, which he was to do.
It left him a free man, even under the teaching
of the Spirit of God. Every one who prays for
guidance prays for inspiration. When the reality
of this is perceived, its extent offers no difficulty.
Here was St. Paul's authority with himself and
the world. He had not grown into the Christian
faith. He had been stopped on his way, and with
his consent, which was promptly given, had been
taken up into the Way — for by this name the
new faith was soon called. This was the place,
this was the time, from which Christianity was
reaching out on its mission. Let it be noted
that Christ was directing it still. The assertion
of this abounds in the records.
' We must not fail to ask what Christianity was
at that time. What did St. Paul and the others
teach ? They repeated the teaching of Christ in

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 239
addresses and in letters. The Apostles did more
than recite his words. They preached Christ
Himself. They did not merely commend Him
to the admiration of men, or his teaching to
their belief. They preached Him. They did
not teach a system of Christian philosophy, or
present a scheme of Christian conduct. Every
thing was to be practical and thorough. Christ
did not come to set an example in Himself, nor
to give to the world a series of patterns. Ex
amples are very well in their way, but not inter
esting, and not very effective. In giving life
He provided for conduct, and He sent men
out to live and give life. They did not talk
about Him, they presented Him. They sought
to bring men under his control. They knew
that if men consented to this, He would cleanse
their hearts, inform their minds, direct their
lives. They sought to unite each man to Him,
vitally, spiritually, for wisdom and life. It was
personal on both sides. Christ and the man
were to be joined as vine and branch.
We can come nearer. While they presented
Christ, the Person, they laid the chief stress on
the close of his life. This held the force of all
which was before it, yet this stood out by itself in
their minds. St. Paul said, " We preach Christ
crucified." His resurrection completed the work

240 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
of the Cross. But it was the Cross to which they
drew the minds of men ; to Christ, who by means
of the Cross, in a special manner and degree, gave
his life for the world. It was in this form that
the life of Christ passed out among the nations.
It is not likely that Constantine saw the Cross in
the sky. But the early Apostles of Christianity
saw it always before their minds, and by this
sign they thought to conquer the world. The
truths preached by the Apostles and beheved
by the first Christians are believed and preached
to-day. The Christian minister of last Sunday,
if he had missed his way to his own door, and
had found himself in one of those early assem
blies of disciples, which had prolonged its meet
ing, would probably have left his sermon in its
case, but could have talked with them on equal
terms, gaining from them something of vividness,
and giving to them something of experience, but
concurring with them on all the truths which
are essential to a Christian life, I wish I might
have been that erring minister .!
Was the world prepared to receive this new
teaching ? It needed it. The religions which
had held the ground had lost their force, cer
tainly in the lands around Palestine which would
first be reached. Think as weU of these as you
will. It cannot be very well, and their time was

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 241
over. There was no reason why they should Hn-
ger. The characters which had been fashioned
under the ancient faiths were not often to be ad
mired. At last not even the gods could have
been respected by high-minded men. The lan
guage of one of our American scholars is to the
point when he writes of the elder Cato, that he
possessed almost every virtue not specially blessed
by Christ, but that there was not one of the Beat
itudes of Christ in which he, the best of the Ro
mans, could have claimed a part ; and that there
are none of the Roman divinities who possessed
any of these virtues. To come down a hundred
years, even Marcus Aurelius, philosopher and
saint, who has reached renown as one of the best
men those times can present, and because of whom
we are bidden admire the times in which he was
possible, " obtained the apotheosis of his profli
gate wife and of his dissolute colleague, building
temples for their worship, instituting priesthoods
in their names, and in all. respects yielding them
divine honors." It is not strange that Chris
tianity suffered under his rule. This has been
termed "a tragical fact." If his. religion was to
keep its place, there was no room for the new
faith of Judea. But the need was there. "I
apprehend," said Vespasian, as death came close
to him, — " I .apprehend, that. I. am going to be a

242 CAUSE OF CHRIST, IN HANDS OF MEN
god." Was the way then open for the Son of
God ? To find the people ready to throw off the
forms which remained, and to accept another
faith, coming from a Jewish province, and one
whose history, so far as it was known, had little
to commend it, was more than prudent men, re
lying on their own judgment, were entitled to
expect. It was a bold "intent, to present a re
ligion which forbade many things to which the
people were accustomed, and which they held
right and even essential ; whose spirit was char
ity, in that age, and whose deeds were service;
which made all men brethren, the children of
one Father, who was the one God ; which ac
counted it profitable to give up the world for
the soul's sake, and to lay up in heaven that
which had beeri earned upon the earth; which
had no altars or images, and enjoined worship
only in spirit and in truth ; ¦ where priests
would lose their office and become suppliants
for mercy by the side of the king and the slave.
Could the attempt succeed ? The Athenian had
graved" upon one of his many altars, " To an
unknown God." When St. Paul declared the
Unknown, and in the same breath bore witness
to the resurrection of his Master, the most
courteous response he received was the promise
to hear him at another tiipe. If there was ever

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 243
an apparently wild, desperate enterprise Under
taken in the name of religion, it was in the pur
pose to establish through the Roman Empire the
teaching of Christ and Him crucified. This was
attempted. This was done.
It is not difficult to perceive the moral deso
lation of the period when Christianity first vent
ured abroad. Historians have not measured their
words, and excess is easy. But there can be no
doubt of the social and moral ruin which was
everywhere to be found. In the words of Pro
fessor Jowett, "To see the world in its worst
estate we turn to the age of the satirists and of
Tacitus, when all the different streams of evil,
coming from East, West, North, South, the vices
of barbarism and the vices of civilization, rem
nants of ancient cults, and the latest refinements
of luxury and impurity, met and commingled on
the banks of the Tiber." I have said enough to
those who know more. Of course there were
good men and women. There were sincere
worshippers. There were defenders of the faith,
and even trials for heresy. Anaxagoras was
"banished for suggesting that the god Helios
was a mass of molten iron." There was relig
ion which had control of certain Hves. Indeed,
the very word religion suggests a belief in unseen
powers, and with this points of contact might be

244 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
found. There may have been sincerity even in
persecution, as there was when Saul of Tarsus
was on the other side. The ethical standards
were different from ours and lower than they
have since become. Let all this be acknowledged,
and the extreme difficulty of passing just judg
ment on the religion of another nation. We sel
dom do it on the religion of another man, even.
StiU, making all allowances, it was a very un
promising field for missionary effort. But upon
it the young faith was to enter. The reasons of
its triumph have been stated by Gibbon, and
Merivale, and others, and are too famiHar for repe
tition. There is not a little truth in their words.
The forces they describe must have had their
effect, but they were not sufficient for the results.
Perhaps history did not feel warranted in going
to the under-current of influence. History is
always in danger of coming upon reHgion. Re
ligion gets wonderfully involved with the affairs
of men, and moves along in every advance. But
it is quiet and unobtrusive. Writers sometimes
overlook it. It was by virtue of the spirit which
was in it, of the thought of God and the steady
movement of his intention, that the Christian truth
went forward to do what it had been appointed
and foreordained to do.
The men who were to change the world had

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 245
little learning or position. They had seen their
-Master crucified, and had seen Him afterward
living. With entire devotion to his service they
went out with their spiritual weapons. They
were tolerated as harmless till they came to be
feared. Paganism desired them as allies, and
was quickly refused. The force which sought to
compel the aUiance was cruel to no purpose. The
messengers of the faith could not be conquered.
The first witnesses died, but others entered into
their work. They made converts among the com
mon people, and gained some of higher rank. At
length the Emperor extended his favor to the
Christians,, and they had the formal right to be.
" The religion of the despised Nazarene,. against
the most savage and persistent resistance ever
known in the world, had .conquered the em
pire." It " had transformed the world's history."
Paganism had by no means been removed, but
Christianity had not been destroyed. That de
creased, this increased. The statue on the Bos-
phorus with the head of Constantine and the
form of Apollo, with a piece of the true cross, has
been thought a fit image of the time — a heathen
body with a Christian head, and Christian life at
the heart. On his death-bed the Emperor sought
baptism and said, " Now all ambiguity vanishes;"
Julian strove in vain to bring back the fallen

246 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
divinities. The words put upon his lips may
never have been spoken ; but the Nazarene had
conquered. It is not for me here to trace the extension of
this work, to which the name Missions has been
given. It was, of course, inevitable that these
should be carried on by men who saw their title
to discipleship in the obedience of Christ who had
bidden them go into all the world and preach the
Gospel to the whole creation. There was only
one thing to be done in the presence of their
" marching orders." Within them was the very
spirit of the Gospel, that is, Love. Love insisted
on sharing every good with every neighbor. The
greater the good the greater the duty. The great
leader was not of the first company ; but aU the
disciples, save one, were missionaries of the faith.
Those of the multitude assembled at Pentecost
whom the faith won to itself became missionaries
as they returned to their scattered homes. The
power of the truth was in it. Let it touch Hfe,
and it would make itself felt. The early successes
were encouraging. It is not possible to determine
their extent with accuracy. When all allowances
are considered, it is clear that Christianity was
acquiring strength . and influence. The world
could have been offered no other religion which
could thus make itself regarded. Each new con-

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 247
vert was a new witness, and converts multiphed.
We find Pliny writing that around him men of
every rank were turning to the new religion ; in
city and country the " superstition " made its
way, and the temples were almost forsaken. The
emperor replied to him that if the Christians re
fused to honor the gods they were to be punished,
but that otherwise they were not to be interfered
with. They did refuse homage to the gods, and
they were ready, more than ready, to seal their
testimony with their life. Strong men and gentle
women died in triumph, by the forms of death
which cruel ingenuity could devise. This helped
where it was meant to hinder. They lived with
their hearts upon the cross of Christ, and coveted
the cross for themselves. Tertullian wrote to the
persecutors : " All your refinements of cruelty can
accomplish nothing : on the contrary, they do but
serve to win men over to this sect. Our number
increases the more you persecute us." Again, he
asserts their right to live because of the truth they
were teaching. " Every Christian mechanic has
found God, and shows Him to you ; and can teach
you all in fact that you require to know of God ;
even though Plato says that it is hard to find out
the Creator of the universe, and impossible, after
one has found Him, to make Him known to all."
The conviction is to me unavoidable as I study

248 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
these events, that there was here the light and life
which the world needed; and that they were
offered by the Creator as his new and special
gift. This is the meaning of it all. The new
faith was doing an indispensable work which
nothing else could attempt. There is much beauty
and force in the saying of Augustine, "Christ
appeared to the men of a decrepit and dying
world, that, while all around them was decay
ing, they might through Him receive a new and
youthful life." To this the German historian
adds, "And the higher life which Christianity
came to impart required no brilhant outward
splendor for the manifestation of its glory."
In every direction the new faith was spreading.
It usually reached the cities first, and there it was
more likely to be received than among the ruder
people of the country, whose language it would
often be difficult for strangers to speak. With
this diffusion of the Christian faith we are not
now concerned. It is certain that this came out
of Jerusalem, made its way through neighboring
and distant lands, going farther and farther until
it has gained recogriition around the globe, and
stands to-day wherever civilization flourishes, with
commerce and the arts, with' learning, liberty,
opportunity. By its own force, that is, the Divine
force embodied in it, it has quietly pursued its

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 249
way, and now it holds the world, arid holds the
future. But what has been the influence of Christian
ity ? Let it be remembered that the work is very
far from completion. Yet something cari even
now be required of it. Its advance is evident.
But what has it done as it has moved on from
the land which knew it first ? I cari readily give
you a good answer, but I must give it in a book.
Some fourteen or fifteen years ago a course of
lectures was deHvered before the Lowell Insti
tute, and elsewhere, by' one of the most eminent
of our scholars, who is both theologian and histo-1
rian. His lectures were entitled " The Divine
Origin of Christianity indicated by its Historical
Effects." With a profound admiration for Chris
tianity, in whose service, under whose command,
he had spent many industrious years, he declared
his beHef, and I think he made those who heard
him in three cities believe, that the work which
Christianity has done proves its divinity.. His
feehng had been well expressed in the words 6f
an illustrious man, honored in many lands, " The
thorough interweaving of all the roots of Chris
tianity with the history of the world out of which
it has sprung is at once a source of its power arid
an assurance of its divineness." AbOut the same
time another valuable book, appeared, written by

250 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
a man abundantly qualified for the work. It was
called " Gesta Christi ; or, A History of Human
Progress under Christianity." With these works
in your hands there is little for me to say. But
I may mention by title some, of the results of, this
movement whose beginning was so very simple
and unpromising, and the vast meaning and reach
of the words .should be noticed. These facts
were enforced ¦ and illustrated in the lectures :
Christianity has , given a new conception of God,
finer, higher, diviner, as Father and Love ; not en
throned on inaccessible heights in'^.a chilling and
cheerless solitude," but where the cry of a child
can reach Him. It has given a new conception of
man, exalting his nature, raising him to his place
in the world, •; endowing him with liberty and
honor ; making the lowest of account arid the poor
est rich. It gave a new idea of the duty of man
toward God ; of man's duty to man, in pohtics
and society; of the duties of nations toward each
other. It has affected the mental culture of man
kind, and its effect can be seen in the world's
hope of progress. If this list of chapters can sus
tain itself, as it was thought to do, Christianity
has indeed moved on by a Divine force for the
advancement of the world. Imagine any one
attempting to demonstrate in ten hours that any
other rehgion the world has ever known has been

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 251
able or desirous to carry man upward and forward
along these Hnes ! " You have heard of the ten
great religions of the world," remarks a brilliant
preacher and a teacher of history. " Of these only
three have been expansive and conquering relig
ions. . . . And as between the three, .. . .
the hard, historic fact is, that Christianity is cer
tainly carrying the day."
Let me extract a few words from the other
work. The influence of Christianity, has been
greatly helpful in the home ; it is " pure rehgion
breathing household laws ; " for the father and
his authority, for woman and he£ child. It has
made law wiser and more humane over life and
property, and over the slave. (It has affected
public and private war. It has advanced and
created education and promoted . reform. It has
favored science and art. There was need of all
this, else it could not have been done. There
was need of a great deal more. We can at least
appreciate the effects which we can trace to the
faith from Jerusalem.
' One' could hardly help . being aware that it is
charged Upon the Church that it opposed scien
tific study and its results. This would not be a
fatal charge, if it were true. But it is a matter
with which I am not concerned, for I am not pre
senting the Church for your confidence, but Chris-

252 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
tianity. The scientific method does not confuse
terms so distinct. They are related, but they are
not the same, and have never been the same.
The Church has had its own work, and it is
not surprising that in its devotion to this in the
past- it had little interest in scientific studies,
or even feared them and opposed them. The
Church was young, inexperienced, foolish. But
it lived and learned. It has certainly learned.
The Church of necessity felt the influence of
Rome and received of its spirit, and Rome was not
in sympathy with scientific inquiry. " The spirit
of the naturalist did not exist among the Romans
any more than it did among the Hebrew people."
Whatever may have been the hesitation of the
Church, no system of religion has looked with
more favor upon scientific inquiry, or given it
richer reward. Paganism certainly has not evoked
or fostered it. What was the science of the best
of the ancient nations in extent, method, accuracy,
as measured by the standards of our time? I do
not refer to. modern discoveries, but to spirit
and promise. As for opposition, is not that the
fault of the times rather than the ecclesiastical
authorities? Did they object to the conclusions
which" alarmed them because they belonged to the
Church, or because they belonged to a benighted
world not yet able to recognize its prophets ?

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 253
Was it because they were Christians, or because
they were men, that they cherished the supersti
tions which now amuse us? There was Roger
Bacon in the thirteenth century, a Franciscan
friar, but a seer, who saw the coming of science
and foretold its work ; the precursor, he has been
called, of Francis Bacon, and Newton, and
Erastnus, and Bentley. Yet he told of flying
dragons in Ethiopia, which men saddled and
bridled, and killed when they had ridden the
flesh tender, and then ate that they might ward
off the accidents of age. "They prolong Hfe
and refine the intellect beyond all belief." I do
not know that he opposed any one in his dis
coveries. But he lets us see the confusion of the
time, in which even a minister might be mis
taken ; a time where were wild superstitions, law
less vagaries, with fear and resistance when new
theories threatened those which held the ground.
That was not the spirit of the new faith, but the
disposition against which it had to contend.
Lecky tells us that " the belief that the king's
touch can cure scrofula flourished in the most
brilliant periods of English history. It was as
serted by the Privy Council, by the Bishops of
two religions, by the general, voice of the clergy
in the palmiest days of the English Church, by
the University of Oxford, and by the enthusiastic

254 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
assent of the people." This was the delusion of
the period, not the teaching of Christianity, which
at length put an end to the superstition.
Christianity desires to appropriate all that is
good, and can use it in the service of mankind.
Whatever advances the material well-being of man
works in its behalf. It requires good government,
it fosters learning; it must employ wealth, and
lOoks with favor upon the industry which pro
duces it; it seeks the best literature ; it encour
ages science -, it depends upon art for its temples
and their adornment, and through forms of beauty
it presents the truths of the Spirit.
I cannot do better than repeat the recent words
of a most accomplished Church historian : " Science
only exists where Christian institutions have pre
pared the way for its advent ; and it builds upon
the conviction which the miracle has aided to
develop, that nothing is impossible to man in his
struggle with nature in order to clothe himself
with its power and to subdue its forces to the con
trol of the human will." If Christianity quickens
the mental powers, promotes discovery, enlarges
knowledge, why should it not do the same work
in regard to the spiritual faculties, and quicken
and elevate the life? If this is what comes of
falling under Christ's control, reason compels us
to yield ourselves to the influence so long as there

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 255
is more good to be received. On- the other hand,
Christianity is to be benefited by all. the advance
of learning and science. What has not been done
oppresses us. What has been done immediately
concerns us.
I claim, in my turn, that the work of Christian
ity is evidence of its Divine character-and. mission.
One thing is certain : this is the religion to which
the world must look. There is no other quarter
which gives the promise of light. Is not this
evidence? The work before us is immense. Esti
mates in such matters are not of much account.
But if I may express an opinion, the work which
Christianity has yet to do is less difficult, than that
it has already done ; and the way before it is less
uncertain, and its resources of wisdom are larger
than it has used in the past..
The beginning of . Christianity when it set out
upon its work was very natural. Those who- were
next to the Master began this ministry to the world.
We have very brief accounts of their journeys
and experience. The New Testament chronicles
teU us nearly all we know. For the greater part
they Were soon lost to sight, though their light
was shining in dark places. St. Peter and St.
John we know, and their work. They had a
preeminence which has . given them the title °f
Saint. Saint Paul was the chief missionary, but

256 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
helpers were given to him, and upon these passed
the great name of Apostle. They worked with
order and prudence, and with an aim at stability.
Everywhere men believed. After -a time they
became formally organized, with all the appoint
ments for work and worship. The manner in
which this was effected is not known, but it was
done. Apparently it was not done at any one
time, but by degrees. Methods were hidden in
the life. More care was taken to do the work
than to transmit an account of it. It was natural
that the early churches should be affected by the
life around them, and under its influence should
fashion their own methods. The institutions of
the Empire might be expected to give the idea
of government. The literary and philosophical
spirit of Greece, in whose language the New Tes
tament was written, gave forms of thought and
expression to the new faith. " The Roman genius
for government and administratioriy Greek phil
osophy, and the ancient mysteries -of Oriental
origin . . . constitrited, as it were, the lan
guage which Christianity must adopt, if it was to
make the conquest of the Empire for Christ."
Great good was accomplished by means of organi
zation. But it was not all good. A way was
opened for ambition and contention, and we come
very soon upon dark pages of history.

' CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 257
The churches grew in dimensions and impor
tance. If the new companies gained anything by
taking on dignity and claiming a share in national
affairs, they certainly lost very much in parting
with their simpHcity. Their real force was spirit
ual, and this is seldom aided by arms and, author
ity, by wealth and rank. As one wittily said, the
time came when the Church was not forced to
confess that it had no silver and gold ; but it was
able no longer to bid a lame man rise up and walk.
The croziers became golden and the persons who
held them wooden, it was remarkpd. Then came
divisions, tyrannies, persecutions, and a host of
confusions and oppressions. It is sad reading ;
and all the worse that a splendid opportunity was
misunderstood. The spirit of the first days was
lost or lessened. Not all consented to unchristian
deeds, There were protests, efforts at resistance,
separations, reformations. The Hfe and. the truth
were never disowned, never lost. Through the
strife we hear the voice of charity and peace. In
the worst times there was a " Remnant " of the
good and true. It is some credit to the Church,
some witness to its vitality, that it survived the
conduct of its friends. Its enemies were less
dangerous. Let us accept the testimony of his
tory to the indestructibility of the Christian
Church. It has moved with unbroken life from

258 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
its simple beginning, through all changes within
it and without it, through national revolutions
and social transformations. The globe has been
shaken, but the Church has not been shaken off
nor shaken down. It has stood at the centre of
tumult, and in it all has been firm. The gates of
hell have not prevailed against it ; — that was the
assurance once given in Galilee. If I may change
the figure, the ship has come through the storm,
with her rigging worn, her masts strained, and
her rudder twisted, but with her hulk seaworthy;
leaking here and there, but on the whole sound.
There are bright places all along the way of the
years. There are many saintly lives and many
Christian deeds; with wise administrations, fa
mous schools, devoted missions, a gracious spirit.
We mark a generous hospitality, a blessed charity,
a love of books and a fondness for making them
beautiful, with patience and taste which have won
admiration ; many stately buildings, treasures of
learning, and hymns which it is still a delight
to sing. The churches have preserved for us the
Bible and the sacraments. The gracious, helpful
influences which have been named have come
down with the sadder events which could not
prevent therh, which even give them lustre by
the contrast. It is a troubled story. It shows
what can be expected of men, and makes us

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 259
more sure that if we are to make a great advance
we must be helped from above.
In describing the early Christian life, let me
copy a few sentences from an anonymous writing
of the second century, a mere fragment, which
gives a picture of the life of that time. " Chris
tians are not distinguished from the rest of man
kind either in territory or in speech or in habits
of Hfe. What the soul is in the body, this
Christians are in the world. The soul dwells in
the body, but is not of the body ; so Christians
dwell in the world, and are not of the world. They
share every duty as citizens, and they suffer every
indignity as foreigners. Every foreign country is
a fatherland to them,, and every fatherland is for
eign to them. . . . Christians, when punished,
increase more and more from day to day, so noble
is the post which God has assigned to them, and
which it is not lawful for them to decline."
We must turn our thoughts forward. Certainly
the new faith has proved its virtue. The mission
ary idea which was essential in Christianity has
remained in the churches. It could not be lost
unless the very spirit of Christ and his teaching
disappeared. The attempt to localize or nation
alize his religion would be a heresy for which
there could be no excuse. To claim that we alone
need ify or we alone could receive it, were not

260 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
becoming. The expectation cherished by the early
Christians was in keeping with their instructions,
and they saw in Christianity the religion for the
world. They believed that it would meet every
rriari's wants, and protect and guide his life. This
was their confidence in their Lord, and it was
very early justified, as the men of many nations
foUnd in the riewiaith' that which they required.
They knew that Christ was to conquer and reign.
Their zeal held its force for century after century,
though with irregular control, and often with no
movement forward. To say that they had misap
prehension concerning times and means, and that
they made -serious mistakes, is only to confess
their HmitatiOns. The more we think upon their
shortcoming, the more must we magnify the
wisdom which employed the men, and with their
imperfectness wrought out better results than
could be found anywhere else. Their work was
not to be done speedily; nOt so speedily as some
thought. ¦ The ways of Providence are often slow.
Perhaps , their errors were allowed to stay the
wheels of the chariot lest they should roll too
rapidly. What we are to mark now is the increas
ing purpose, venturing from the Paschal chamber
at Jerusalem, to win the world for Christ, and to
give Christ to the world as its Redeemer and
King. It. was a magnificent intention, even as

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 261
they held it, arid there was leagued with it ah
imperial hope which has never ceased.
But what is the condition of the world to-day
with regard to its religions ? At the time when
these Apostles entered on their work all the Chris
tians there were could have lived in a small town.
Now it is estimated that the world has a popula
tion of not far from fifteen hundred millioris, of
whoin about one-third, or four hundred and ninety
ririlhons, calfc themselves Christians. Of course,
millions of these are not Christians in the real
sense of the word ; that is, they are not personaUy
devoted to Christ. But the vast numbers mark
the extension of the name, and in this is a stupen
dous truth. At that time no Gospel had been
written, with the story of Christ's life and his
words of instruction and promise. Now, the
Gospel can be placed in the hands of three-fourths
of the people .of the globe. In three hundred and
twenty languages some portion of the Bible is now
printed for the advantage of the world, that men
may have the knowledge of God and his. redeem
ing love.
Can we estimate the Christian forces ? Every
Christian is a force in the service of Christ. It is
the condition of discipleship. By him others are
to be won, arid every man who is won is a new
soldier of the Cross. It means this to be a Chris-

262 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
tian, as Christ bestows the name. The order is
this : the Creator ; the Son of Man with new Hfe
for men; multitudes of Christians in life and
under the sway of the Holy Spirit to give life to
the world. There are certain organizations of
Christ's men which are to be regarded. There are
churches, colleges, Hbraries, hospitals, brother
hoods, charities, in almost endless variety. The
work for the world goes on, sometimes with obser
vation, and sometimes in secret. The hope which
rules is unabated. It cannot be removed until
faith vanishes away. After years in the wilder
ness the churches have found themselves, and
have regained the meaning of their life. Figures
easily slip from the mind, but I use them to
give some impression of the forces now engaged
in this part of the service of Christ. The sta
tistics are recent, but no longer exact. There are
eleven thousand six hundred and fifty-nine men
and women who are by special appointment teach
ing the good news of God in countries which are
not their own. There are sixty-four thousand two
hundred and ninety-nine who are reported as
native laborers, that is, persons who have them
selves been taught, and are, in their turn, teach
ing their countrymen. The annual income of the
voluntary associations which direct this enter
prise 4s nearly thirteen million dollars,

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 263
Let it be remarked that this money is cheer
fully given without thought of return, and to those
who have never been seen by the givers ; to people
of strange lands, whose history and ways of life are
separate from ours ; as the free-will offering of
faith in Christ and his teaching, in the glad obe
dience of his command ; and that those who have
given their Hves to this service, becoming exiles
from Country and home, and the things we value
most, have done it in their devotion to Him, their
knowledge of his truth, their experience of his
love, their longing to have his name and grace
made a blessing in all the earth. It is a splendid
testimony to the reality of the Christian life.
All this is but a portion. These are the mis
sions of Protestant churches. These are modern
and recent. Let it be remembered that all which
Protestant Foreign Missionary Organizations have
done was begun in the lifetime of men who live
to trace the work from its beginning. The first
of these is but eighty-eight years old, and the
next but sixty-one. A century is a short time
for large results in an undertaking of this nature.
To these results should be added the extensive
missions of the Roman Catholic Church. The
record of. the devotion, heroism, sacrifice, of
the priests who have carried the Cross into the
wilderness that they might by means of it save

264 CAUSE OF CHRIST JN HANDS OF MEN
the souls of men is unsurpassed. It is a noble
army which under these names has gone forth to
seek and to save.
Comparisons are out of place. But the roll of
our thirty-six hundred American missionaries is a
list of noblemen. They > are college men, select
men, who could fill the places here quite as well
as those who stay at home. With them are women
of high attainirient, of beautiful culture, of serenest
courage. They are good men and women, and
good-natured; able to work, and able to work with
others ; with a conception of their enterprise which
is a constant- inspiration. . No civil-service rules
are so strict as those under which these Christians
pass. It is nbt to learn their belief more than their
health, and disposition, and desire. . It must be
clear , that they understand themselves, and are
fitted to carry out the purpose of those who send
them and support them. It is a serious matter to
send missionaries abroad, to sustain them while
they learn a strange language, and to invest a large
hope in them, and those who do this have a right
to know whom they are taking into partnership.
The entire management of this enterprise is in
the hands of strong men, men of business, lawyers^
clergymen ; and of women wise to .plan, skil
ful to discern, patient and brave ; who bring all
their wisdom to bear upon the religious, social,

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 265
arid (financial questions which press upon them.
The dignity of the work is in keeping with its
importance. It is impossible to give results with
an approach to fulness, and they are of inferior
moment while the- work is steadily going., on.
But I find that the Protestant societies count
up four thousand six hundred arid ninety-four
mission stations, with fifteen thousand two hun
dred out-stations, over a million communicants,
and nearly a million persons under instruction.
What is sought is that every person in the world
shall know Christ and receive his help ; shall
learn of Him to know the Father, to do his will, to
live in his favor, to have eternal life which can
readily be extended to the world that comes
next. The design is broad. ' It is not to seize
a savage and snatch him from endless death;
but to find the savage, or the sage, and tell him,
what no man knows till he is told, at home or
abroad, that the Love of God is in the earth
seeking its own, that it may give them a right
spirit and persuade them, into life, which is the
gift of Love.
This Christian enterprise recognizes whatever
good it finds, whatever of truth and faith, and
making the most of this, in an economical spirit,
adds to it more truth, higher truth, the Truth.
These men have not consecrated themselves -to a

266 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
wearisome failure, and they intend to deserve the
success for which they strive.
They know what they beheve, and they be
lieve that it is worth any man's knowing. They
work rationaUy and discreetly. It is not proposed
to transplant our Western system of thought and
of life, and our institutions as they have been
made for ourselves ; but in their own language
to present to men the Son of Man, and to persuade
them to acknowledge Him as Master and Lord ;
and to make their own philosophy and set up
their own organizations, and to order their affairs
after their own judgment. New England Chris
tians are in place here. But we cannot expect
the Chinaman to become a New Englander. Let
him retain his Oriental habit of mind and hold it
in allegiance to the one Teacher. The design is
to build up a kingdom on the earth, including aU
nations and peoples, where the will of God shall
be done as it is in heaven.
It is not proposed that all this shall be accom?
plished by missionaries. Their work is to begin ;
to teach what they have learned, and to let this
do its own work. They are to raise up in every
country men of the land who shall minister to
their own people. They are to make Christians
of the New Testament order, in which every
man who learned was to repeat the truth to his

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 267
neighbor. Let me remark again, it is literally
the method of the leaven and the seed. There
is a natural Hmit, therefore, to the undertaking,
and one which need riot 'be far away.
We may not overlook the variety of the benefits
which these men confer. They are by no means
confined to things unseen and eternal. They are
students and teachers. Geograpby, ethnology,
history, sociology, philology, every department
of knowledge, is indebted to them. They repre
sent their country, and with honor. Their ser
vice to the people whom they seek, given in
their dany Hfe, is manifold and inestimable.
There has recently died in England a Christian,
a Prussian by birth, who had expended seven
million doUars in the care of orphan children,
for more than forty thousand of whom he had
provided a home, and this large amount of money
had been given to him by Christian men and wom
en, without solicitation, in their knowledge and
approval of his work of faith and charity. This
is an instance of one man's usefulness through
a free and bold Christian confidence. The method
and result are altogether in keeping with the
spirit which controUed the enterprise. The whole
design is distinctively Christian. It may be seen
aU along the centuries since Christ blessed the
children. That which we caU Christianity would

268 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANI'S OF MEN
forfeit its right to the name if it did not seek to
bless men in this present world as the accompani
ment of endless blessing. It was a beautiful
testimony which the simple islander gave to the
spirit of the missionary Patteson when his life had
been taken from him by the mistaken savages for
whom he lived : * He loved them all alike." . I
do not know of better reading, than the memoirs
of our missionaries, for those who would see a
really Divine, Christ-like manhood in its grandeur*
They give life and give it abundantly. They
count nothing dear unto themselves if they can
help others with it. They carry the wealth of the
richest lands into those which are poorest. They
create manhood. They teach law and Hberty, good
order and safety.
They make homes, elevate women, gladden efril-
dren, save life and make it worth saving. They
carry medicine and surgery, and aU the useful
arts. The African chief who exulted when .he
saw a plough, because it would save him five
wives, offers a gross type of a man who feit
better off. Imagine the advantage to. the Dark
Continent of having David Livingstone within
it! We need not inquire too carefully for the
consequences. . Duty does not depend upon that.
But in any case no one can doubt the .worth to
a land of having, the men and women whom we

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 269
caU ririssionaries live in it, with no other design
than to do the people good.
Great things have been done. But let me re
peat, much more has been effected in taking, up
the work, getting it in hand, learning how to do
it, getting established on the ground. The day
of experiments is over. Investments are made,
in men, in buildings, in churches and schools, in
methods, in brave Hves which have remembrance.
It was the thoughtful staterhent of one of the
scholarly leaders in this movement, called early
from the work which needed him, and which
he needed, that " Christianity has now become
naturalized everywhere among the most diverse
nations," and "everywhere demonstrates its char
acter as the one religion for the1 human race."
It has reached the highest and the lowest; and
has proved its grace and truth. Tt is a pleasant
picture which Drummond gives of an African
who had become Christ's man : " He was neither
bright nor clever ; he was a commonplace black ;
but he did his duty and never told a lie. I
looked out of my tent; a flood of rnoonlightlit up
the forest, and there, kneehng upon the ground,
was a little grorip of natives, and Moolu in the
centre conducting evening prayers." His " life
gave him. the right to do it. I believe in missions,
for" one thing, because I believe in Moolu."

270 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
But religion does not work alone. It is in the
world where national changes may combine to its
advantage. Nothing is too great or too small for
its use. Greece gave to the Good News a lan
guage, and Rome a world. The finding of this
Western Continent gave a new place to the
young life, a new vantage-groUnd from which
to reach over the earth. In "rectifying boun
daries " more may be accomplished than is de
signed. We cannot look upon the devious ways
of nations with an intelligent confidence. StiU,
changes are certain, and change suggests oppor
tunity. Where it has a chance, the Hfe proves its
power beyond all question and does aU it is asked
to do. But, unfortunately, for the most part the
great advances are not at present in the most
important sections of the world. In the Turkish
Empire its way is blocked by Mohammedanism,
which never yields an inch, where cruelty has
been written in blood, as it will be to the end.
The red hand on the waU of St. Sophia is the
seal, it stamps on everything it touches. But as
civilization advances even Turkey may feel it and
modernize its life. Much is already being done
by these men and women; by Robert CoUege on
the Bosphorus, with the American flag waving
above it; and the Girls' College at Constanti
nople, chartered by Massachusetts ; and other

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 271
kiridred institutions. We are making headway
even there. The best friends Turkey has had
are the Christian missionaries who have been
found heroes in the sad days which are not yet
over. It looks as if only compulsion can effect
the freedom of Christianity ; but in the clashing
of the powers even compulsion is possible.
There have been notable successes in India.
Western influences have been felt. But India
has not become Christian. Its religions have lost
much of their authority, but no other has taken
their place. Reforms have come, but the greatest
reform is from without. We are told upon the
highest authority that extraordinary changes are
quietly taking place in India, in the political,
social, moral, and religious life of the people.
The difficulties are evident and serious. India is
old. She is proud, and with reason. She has her
own faith. Christianity is the religion of foreigri-
ers, and foreigners who have taken away her lib
erty. It interferes with venerated customs and
prejudices.. Its method of thought is different
from hers. But in all this there is nothing which
must be permanent. Christianity stands with far
more promise on the borders of India, and the
great countries beyorid, than it had at Antioch
when it looked out upon the world. Sudderi
changes may come, are quite certain to come if we

272 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
deserve them. India is under British rule.' Ships
froin - other lands are in her ports. Railroads
traverse her territory. Schools are giving out
their light.' Christian voices from the West are
eagerly heard, and books are read. It is much to
look for, yet it does not seem too much, the day
when India, not along her coral strands alone,
but far among her hills, shaU know the Hfe of the
world. Certainly, these great nations; as they
starid, are not the final- outcome of the purposes
of Providence. Nor can we detect a nearness
to what by courtesy could be caUed the Kingdom
of heaven.' Nor are there living signs of its ap
proach. The ages must be long which unaided
will bring it in. Ages will never bring it iri. It
is -proven that this whieh -we name Christianity
wiU' do for Iridia and Turkey all they need, if
ever it is allowed to do it. This is the affirma
tion of history.
I am entirely willing to present the results of
missionary effort. They have been as large as
we have ariy right to expect, when we consider
how half-hearted and half-handed we have been
even in these, years of opportunity. It is doubfr
ful if any effort could have completed the work
rapidly. It i£ often thought that the first preach
ing and teaching were' much more remunerative.
Probably we overrate those early, efforts. There

CAUSE OF CHRIST. IN HANDS OF MEN 273
were great difficulties then; as .there: are now.
Triumph and defeat marked those days as they
do these. "History has been called an excellent
cordial for the drooping courage;" ¦¦ It was a
splendid service which was rendered by those
first soldiers of the Cross. But they could not
cover the world, nor completely gain that which
was. open to them. After a hundred years at
Rome, Christianity was still " a foreign supersti
tion;," "destructive," "new and- noxious," per
verse, and extravagant." I take Bishop Light-
foot's estimate, that in the third eentriry scarcely
more than a hundred and fiftieth of the human
race were Christians, There were rapid gains
foUowing the conversion of Constantine, but there
is nothing to make us feel that our spirit and our
ways are inadequate to our task. If we could
part with out differences, and unite our forces
in a common advance, the reward would soon
come, and there is nothing which could perma
nently resist the army which has never been
conquered. It is well for us to remember what we are.
We are proud of our descent. Among our ani
cestors " each freeman . . . was his own house-
priest ; and English worship lay commonly in the
sacrifice which, the house-father offered to the
gods of his hearth." "Life was built with them

274 CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN
not on the hope of a hereafter, but on the proud
seltconsciousness of noble souls." The Christian
faith early made its way to Britain, but was
driven into obscurity by the invaders ; and as the
sixth century was closing an ItaHan monk with
his companions landed on the island of Thanet,
and Christiariity began to be the religion of the
realm. Iri the open field, for safety, the king
received the strangers. In their behef they were
not strangers to Bertha, his queen, whose faith
commended them. England has owed much to
women. "You can speak freely to my people,"
said the king. Presently the king was baptized,
arid to-day the whole world feels his faith. He
did not know that he was touching the whole
world. That was one of the few great events.
The faith of those rude Christians was not very
intelligent or very profound. But it was a
beginning. A thousand years later it crossed
¦the wide sea and established itself permanently
on these shores. Hence the Republic. Every
American believes in foreign missions, so far
at least as his own history is concerned. Our
schools, colleges, churches, governments, we owe
in this measure to Italians ; they are the fruit of
our religion. The grateful intelligence of Amer
ica is committed. I ask to have it noted, that
this colossal event in the political history of the

CAUSE OF CHRIST IN HANDS OF MEN 275
world, the forming of this Republic, without
paraUel or precedent, had its beginning in the
name of Christianity and under its inspiration.
The influence of these two English-speaking
nations increases. If they will move together,
in the obedience of faith, they will make a way
for the Augustine of our later time, and he will
walk by the Bosphorus, and along the streams
of India, and over the mountains of China
and Japan, bearing always the Cross of light
and Hberty, and everywhere Angles shaU become
angels.

VI
THE CHRISTIAN FORCES

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES

The forces which are to make the world the
world it ought to be are now within it. Some of
them have been here from the beginning, and
have worked on patiently for the improvement of
society and those who compose it. We have
come recently to make account of these inherent
powers more than in the past. Every sign of the
presence of God in the world is of help to us.
The tendencies of life are to be searched out,
and we are indebted to those who work in that
domain with fidelity and skill, and make the re
sults our common property. I wish that they
could give us " more encouragement. Perhaps
they wiU do so, for science is young. Fortunately
it is daring, and boldness is another name for
promise. It must be confessed that these natural
processes are very deliberate. They are altogether
too 'slow for the individual, who properly objects
to being absorbed in the race, and to find the ful
filment of his life in a congeries of strangers ; to
be lost in the crowd. This is not selfishness nor

280 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
egotism. It is self-respect. It can be cherished
without compunction, seeing that it takes noth
ing from the well-being of remote- descendants.
Under the rule of Providence every one has the
right to look for hjs own advance, and every one
thinks he has fitness enough to warrant his sur
vival. One thing is evident, that these natural
forces are not accomplishing the work which
needs to be done. We are by no means sure of
their continuance and the happy completing of
their effort. Even now they do not bring men
to the knowledge of God, their Father, whose
life and law are Love, and to the estate of Glory,
Honor, Immortality. They do not give that new
principle of life which contents a man before his.
own conscience and the intelligent thought of
his Creator. In a word, they, do not give life
and renew the first creation. One speaks with
caution when he alludes to the possibilities of the
ages. We are soon carried to the realm of con
jecture and expectation. Under other conditions
we might have been glad even of hope. But we
have no need to resort to it. We can keep it as
a solace for imaginative hours. It is plainly not
substantial enough for daily use. Happily we
have a way of Hfe which is entirely definite, and
is open before the feet of every man ; so narrow
that no one need miss it, so wide that good men

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 281

can walk abreast. The presence of God is in
the world ; in it, but not held to it or lifnited
by it ; in it to use his Love, wherein is the whole
range, of fatherly thought and desire, for the
regaining and perfecting of his children. This
presence of God was in its fulness manifested in
his Son, the Son of Man, who has given his life
for the world. The Spirit of God, that is, God
who is Spirit, is in the world to persuade rrien
into the Divine grace of the Son of Man. This is
distinct. Resting here, one can welcorne all
additions to knowledge, every disclosure of the
thought of the Creator, every bestowment of his
spirit in the lives of men. His ministry of Hfe
our Lord committed to his friends, that through
them aU might learn of Him. On the largest
scale all things would be made to work together
for their good. It is not difficult to see that the
teaching of the Son of Man has advanced with the
course of events. We boast of the age we are
Hving in, and not without reason ; and I presume
we should agree that Christ and his teaching
have never been so well understood and appre
ciated, and never had so great influence as in this
remarkable century. "There is no romance so
marvellous as the most prosaic version of his
history," whether this be read in the Bible or in
the later chronicles of men and nations. I use

282 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
the word influence in a large way; for this is
felt in many places where its authorship is not
confessed. Irideed, it is impossible to separate
the influence of Christianity from any virtue, or
any good work, which we find here. We have
inherited something of its method and spirit,
perhaps through generations. If we give it no
personal heed, we are not free from its control.
It is in the home and the school. It is in our
blood, our nerves, our habit of thought and work.
It is in customs, in literature, in institutions.
We cannot take it out of the air we breathe.
There are disciples who are unaware of their
discipleship. It is like the breaking of the day
when one of them finds Him in whom he has
beheved, and finding Him believes the more. ,
I am to mention one event which finds its
beginning in this control, and in accomplishing
the Divine purpose has the intent and honor
of its being. The past and the future meet
within it, and on equal terms. I have already
named the formation of this RepubHc as an
event ordered of God for the bringing in of his
Kingdom upon the earth. I have no declamaT
tion upon our national greatness and honor, but
history cannot be trifled with. If the presence
and direction of God in the affairs of men are
to be recognized, if, they are a reality,- it should

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 283
'be an easy thing to see them. In our idea of
God, He is a very present help, working out the
counsel of his own will. If the presence and
work of the Son of Man are as real and Divine as
I have claimed, then nothing which ; can be done
among men, among nations, is' too great to' be
made tributary to them. How can we sever
such things from the thought of the Creator?
The child's question was a natural one, "What
does God do all day ? " For myself I reply at
once : God is carrying forward the ministry which
entered the world when Christ was born in Beth
lehem. It was by Divine guidance — . this seems to me
the only rational explanation — it was by Di
vine guidance that Spain was , warded off from
this Northern coast. The continent was in
deed " picked out of the ocean on the point of a
needle ; " but it was not brought from the obscur
ity of centuries for her possession. The treasure
of the new continent was a sorry prize for Cas
tile and Aragon. But it was made to serve the
interest of freedom beyond all desire of its pos
sessors. I believe the Netherland school of lib
erty was reaUy founded by American gold.
A Republic is the highest form of pohtical
institution, so D'Tocqueville wrote, and we
assent to it. The highest form of Republic is

284 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
one made of different nationalities, brought under
one government and one flag. Such a Republic
was unknown, and the time came for it. Where
should it be ? Asia offered no field, Europe was
crowded and committed, and Africa was hardly
the place for an experiment so grand and diffi
cult. This was the, only land where a nation of
this kind was possible. This continent had been
concealed until the right men, rightly trained,
could build their houses in the wilderness and
hold the ground for a purpose larger than they
knew. Let me give out one verse of the Boston
Hymn:
The word of the Lord by night
To the watching Pilgrims came,
As they sat by the sea-side,
And filled their hearts with flame.
It was at .that time, and with a clear under
standing of all which was involved, that John
Winthrop wrote for the " encouraging such whose
hearts Gods shall move to joyne " in " the in
tended Plantation in New England." " It will
be a service to the Church of great consequence
to carry the Gospel into those parts of the world,
to help on the coming of the fulness of the Gen
tiles." If these words of the early statesman, and
missionary, with the verses of the New England
poet, truly record the. suggestion and the intenr

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 285
tion which brought Englishmen to these shores,
the historical spirit leads us to look for the con
tinuance of the inspired and exalted purpose. I
have no thought of tracing our jiational life. It
has not been altogether according to our mind.
But it has never lost the way or the course. In
nearly three hundred years we have not made a
serious mistake, an error of imperial proportions.
Our line has wavered and been irregular, but
we have gone forward. The Colonies have be
come a RepubHc, the first empire of its kind. " E
pluribus unum " means of many nations one State.
The RepubHc has cast off slavery and now stands
in its strength. Perhaps this has a sound of brag
ging, but never mind. We have a chronic habit
of living up to our boasting; and something
must be pardoned to the exuberance of youth.
In aU parts of the land many are working to
gether for the preserving, the strengthening,
the completing, of the Republic which demands
more the more it receives. But no men are
doing better work than those who are in direct
Christian service, and notably those who in the
West and South are teaching the religion which
includes virtue, industry, patriotism ; and, fol
lowing our own experience, are building into
the nation the intelligence and piety which
WiU be security and strength. Let us be mind-

286 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
ful of the good which we have, and cleave
to it.
Here in name, to a large degree in truth, the
Creator is confessed. His law is authority, and
his Providence is trusted. The name of the Son
of Man and his teaching are honored. The day
of his birth and of his rising from the dead are
regarded. On the first day of every week his re
surrection is commemorated. There is much of
formality and informality in this, but it is signifi
cant that opinion and feeling are thus expressed.
The events have a permanent record, though their
meaning may not be considered, and the form may
recover the spirit.
The influence of this country is increasing. The
influence of England is everywhere felt. The
two nations have one history and one language ;
one mission and opportunity. They reach the
'iwhole earth, and are able to extend the teaching
of Christ and to present his life for the Hfe of men.
At present the hope of the world is, in good
measure, in these nations, while others bear his
name and pray for his Kingdom, that it may come
upon the earth. We do well to remember that the
latest proposal of peace was from the land of Peter
the Great, who built a city on the sea to bring his
people closer to the world. Still, for the present,
the main dependence for leadership must be upon

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 287
the English lands. Liberty, knowledge, righteous
ness, must go from their doors. Religion can bej
found everywhere ; it is Hfe the world needs. '
Life and Hght dwell together; where the free
school and the free church stand in increasing
strength ; the right to think and the intention,
the liberty, to speak, and the determination to
make use of it. When we reckon numbers and
count our gains we may be despondent. But
when we observe where Christianity is, and with
what energy it is aUied, we have new hope. But
the great thing is to feel that the Creator is at
work, that the intention which gave Christ to the
earth abides in all its strength. It is in the
world, and while this is true
To doubt would be disloyalty.
In place of any prediction of my own, or my
countrymen's, let me read these generous words
of an English scholar: "In the centuries that
lie before us, the primacy of the world will lie
with the EngHsh People. English institutions,
English speech, English thought, will become the
main features of the poHtical, the social, and the
inteUectual life of mankind. ... In the days
that are at hand the main current of that pecn-
pie's history must run along the channel not of
the Thames or the Mersey, but of the Hudson

288 THE CHRISTIAN, FORCES
and the Mississippi." I supplement the promise
of the English historian with the words of the
American statesman. The late Secretary of State
said at Cambridge : " Our mission is to act. We
must advance the cause of Christian charity by
deeds as weU as words. There is a patriotisrri of
race as well as of country. The Anglo-American
race should not forget this: They should stand
together if necessary against all the world, for in
their closer union lies the best type of aU Chris
tianity." Thus we send out our voice "To a
people proud and free."
And it says to them : Kinsmen, hail !
We severed have been too long';
Now let us have done with a worri-out tale,
The tale of an ancient wrong;
And our friendship, last long as love doth last,
And be stronger than death is strong.
What we term missionary work is not Hmited
to personal effort. The enterprise is organized
and known, in the banks and by the government
of every State. But besides this, nations are
missionaries. The ships from Christian countries
carry at least the name of Christ, and their move
ments pay heed to his life. Oirr navy floats the
Sabbath flag in the harbors of the world. I wish
I could say all this with more confidence.
I have spoken of the hope of the world and its

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 289
place in a young nation. We have little in the
past, but no one can measure the years to come.
To be alive and increasing, to be young and
awake, this is to order the future. It cannot be
constructed out of the days which are gone, or by
those whose chief faculty is memory and chief
pastime the admiration of ancestry. The heroes
and divinities of distant periods have their place,
but the present must have its own leaders.
Christianity belongs in this day as truly and
HteraUy as in any period of its history. No mark
of age, no sign of change, has passed upon it.
The most important thing it has done in the latter
half of this century is the summoning to its ser
vice the young Hfe which has responded eagerly.
On the Day of Pentecost, when the new faith
started forward into aU neighboring larids, it
was announced that the words of the Hebrew
prophet were fulfilled. They began to be ful
filled ; but so far as we have any account a very
important part of them was not at aU regarded.
The time had not come. There is perspective in
propheey. The Prophet had said, " Your young
men shall see visions." " Your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy." That was twenty-seven
hundred years ago, but not till our own time has
this been true- Now it is superbly true. A new
page is written into theannals of the faith. , Young

290 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
men are seeing visions and declaring them. To
enlist youth in the service of the faith is to make
its advance certain. Young men and women in
the light of the vision are united for this purpose
under various names, all of which are Christian. I
make no distinction between these organizations.
But since I cannot describe all, let me state a few
facts regarding one, and the oldest. These can be
readily extended to the others. I speak now of the
Young Men's Christian Association, with which
should be associated that of the young women.
The first association of young men was formed in
London in 1844. The first in Boston was formed
in 1851. Since then they have swept over the
globe. In 1897 buildings were purchased for
their use in Rome, Madras, Calcutta, Tientsin, Rio
de Janeiro. The last report which I have gives
fourteen hundred and twenty-nine associations in
America, with a membership of two hundred and
forty-eight thousand, seven hundred and thirty-
four ; with buildings and other real estate valued
at seventeen million, seven hundred and seven
thousand, nine hundred and fifty dollars, and with
an annual expense list of more than two miUion
and a half dollars. The figures give some idea of
the dimensions to which this work has attained.
All this force is for manhood, good citizenship, in
dustry, generosity, godliness. Here are a few

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 291
figures from one of our younger American cities.
There are five buildings, valued at one million,
eight hundred and thirty-two thousand dollars;
and five thousand, nine hundred and thirty-two
members. The receipts for 1897 were eighty-seven
thousand, eight hundred and ninety-six dollars,
and forty-two cents, a gain of more than eighteen
thousand doUars over the preceding year.
This is only one department of the enterprise,
which has also taken its place in coUeges. The
seventy thousand young men in our colleges and
universities are a power which is equal to any
thing rational which they attempt. These asso
ciations are permanently established in about five
hundred and fifty North American institutions for
higher learning, which is nearly the whole. It is
reported that more than one-half the students
are enlisted under the name of Christ, that He
may win the world. These associations are
leagued together for the enhancement of their
strength. President Roswell Hitchcock was so
impressed with what he saw that he said, " The
omnipresence, and I had almost said the om
nipotence, of the Intercollegiate Young Men's
Christian Association is the great fact in the
religious Hfe of our colleges to-day." A union
similar to this holds nearly every great institu
tion in England and Scotland. The wisdom and

292 THE CHRISTIAN ' FORCES
the spirit are erilarged within each body of young
men, while combined effort employs and increases
the separate force. With the spirit rich in cour
age, deep in devotion, young men have looked
abroad, desiring to make the most of their life
and to help the world. With only one opportu
nity, they have resolved to make the most of it.
Another world may offer exalted employment;
but this chance comes but once.. They are under
the vows of knighthood to be aU they can, and to
do all they can, "In His Name." Thousands in
the United States and Canada have banded them
selves together for what was once foreign work.
It looked like the enthusiasm of youth. I pre
sume that almost every person has so regarded it.
It was the old-fashioned way of judging, young
men. This is all recent, but under this Student
Volunteer movement, more than eleven hundred
have already gone, as the time came when their
training was complete, and the number ready to
go is in excess of the means to send them. Over
four thousand are now enrolled as volunteers. In
view of this enrolment President McCosh ex
claimed, " Has any such offering of Hving young
men and women been presented in our age,
in our country, in any age or in any country,
since the Day of Pentecost ? " Last year the col
leges and seminaries gave forty thousand doUars

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 293
for the promotion of the work. The intention
is — and it is not . unreasonable — that in the
lifetime of this generation the whole world shall
know the name of its Lord and Redeemer. They
expect it. . Meantime missionary literature is re
ceiving systematic study, that men may know
the work to which they are setting their hands.
General Armstrong said, with his usual sagacity,
that it is easier to get men than money. But for
this enterprise the money will come. We are pre
paring a generation of givers. I mark that the
Day of Pentecost, which promised the young men,
culminated in money enough for aU the wants of
the new community.'
There is more to tell. The Christian Associa
tions have established themselves in all larids,
and are in feUowship, nation with nation. They
are in the colleges of the world, and these are
now united. In August, 1895, at the old Castle
of Vadstena, on Lake Wettern, in 'Sweden, there
was a conference attended by men from America,
Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, and from mission
countries strictly so called, to consider the union
of the unions of the world. The result was the
World's Student Christian Federation. Seven
hundred student associations are included in this
union, which reaches India and Ceylon, China and
Japan, Australasia and South Africa. Its design

294 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
is to unite the Christian students of all nations,
and so far as it is possible to win all other students,
and by this means to give Christ and his teaching
to the world, in the confidence that if He is Hfted
up He will draw all men to Himself. Universi
ties have often been the source of reHgious Hfe,
the centres of religious, movements, and it will
be so again. Students are accessible to students.
There is a fellowship between coUege men which
is natural and practical. They are a guild. A
student in India or China is the friend of the
student from England or America. The thought
and life of the newer world wUl reach the older
lands through the doois of the college, and by the
hearts of young men which have felt the hearts of
their fellows. A recent foreign tour in the interest
of this movement led to twenty-two countries and
a hundred and forty-four schools and colleges.
More than fifty-five hundred delegates were met,
of whom thirty-three hundred represented three
hundred and eight higher institutions of learning.
At a Christian conference in India there were
fifteen hundred delegates, and they were keen,
bright men. Let it be understood that this band
ing and enlisting of students has for its immediate
end the extension of Christianity over the world.
It is Home Mission work. Christian students are
to evangelize their own countries. It is the work

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 295
of men who have an inherited respect for all that
is good in their national faith, who are in sympathy
with their people and devoted to their country.
The work is entirely in unison with that which
has prepared the way for it. The veterans wUl
see their labor rewarded. Sowers and reapers
will rejoice together. The undertaking is vast
and difficult, but the power which moves in it is
patient and resistless. There is here an advance
which dignifies , the century. Its look is forward.
It has time in its hand and courage in its heart.
It holds the future.
It may be asked if Christian work is needed
abroad where nations have their own religion. It
is reported that there are fifty million slaves in
Africa to-day, held by savages. Five hundred
thousand die each year under this cruel Hfe.
They are taken in battle, and in trade. Slaves
are current money. Parents barter their children,
and children provide for their parents by selling
them. The owners are religious. They give their
slaves in sacrifice to their gods. When they are
hungry they eat them. Oh, yes, they have a re
hgion of their own ! What right have foreigners
to meddle with it ? Some young Americans,
without much regard for the religious privileges
and pleasures of the slave land, have gone out
there to make their homes, thinking to Ghange

296 THE OHGISTIAN FORCES
the social customs of the people. Conscious of a
divine life within them, they propose to impart it.
A small piece -of leaven goes a long way when
once it gets into the meal. A thousand nriles off
its influence is less evident. If suffering is the'
same thing in Africa as in Cuba, just now we
favor this intervention, and aU the more that it
goes with the Cross, and not the sword.
How noble is all this uprising of young .Hfe !
Every profession here is full, and wiU easUy be
kept full by those who have no call to go abroad;
But it is a fine ambition which ranges beyond a
pent up Utica. , These young men and women
are free. No traditions detain them. They are
committed to nothing but the Truth. They have
one Lord, and Him alone they caU Master. They
bear many names, but one is supreme. They have
the ardor of youth, with the discipline of study.
They are the soldiers of a young leader. The
world is theirs if they want it, and they do want
it. . They follow the cross in the sky, and wiU
conquer. My Knights are sworn to vows
Of utter hardihood, utter gentleness,
And, loving, utter faithfulness in love,
And uttermost obedience to the King.
President EHot explains the concern which
universities feel for the permanence of religious

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 29T
iristitutions : '* Uriiversities exist to advance sci
ence, to keep alive philosophy and poetry, and to
draw out and cultivate the highest powers of the
human mind. Now, science is always face to face
-with God, philosophy brings all its issues into the
one word — duty ; poetry has its culmination in a
hymn of praise, and a prayer is the transcendent
effort of intelligence." It is admirably said. The
well-chosen words ask of us an unhmited exten
sion. It is in the Christian life they will have
their liberty. If.it is well to be face to face with
God, then is the science which Christ taught,
wherein men see God, of inestimable worth. H
duty is a supreme word, duty as Christ taught
it, with his precepts and in his life, comes with
prOfoundest meaning and authority. If praise is
comely and to be everywhere rendered, the gift
of Christ, of his love, of Himself, is the inspira
tion of the loftiest and sweetest songs. If prayer
is the "transcendent effort of intelligence," then
it is to learn of Christ, and to take to itself the
deepest emotions of the soul, in penitence, thank
fulness, faith, and the desire for God.-
Christianity would breathe through the uni
versity, through the soul of every teacher and
every scholar, "the power of an endless life."
Knowledge would be higher, ambition nobler, life
more Divine. The glory of scholarship is in its

298 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
use ; the highest glory is the highest use. Noth
ing wiU " draw out and cultivate the highest
powers of the human mind " so weU as the Spirit
and the teaching of the Truth and the Life, who
brings to the mind the largest incitement and up
lifting, and makes known the highest knowledge,
not otherwise attainable, and gives to all knowl
edge the delight of holy service. Christ takes away
nothing good, and withholds nothing which is to
be desired.
All this which has been said enters into the
thought and plan of the young Christians who
have devoted their life to the service of Christ
in the world for which He gave Himself. One
part of their work has been presented. There
are many other parts under different names, but
with the same design. The men are well known
and highly esteemed. By business methods, by
enterprise, by sincerity, by hard work, by faith
and love, they have made themselves a power in
the world ; a power which increases from year to
year. Think how very largely the young men and
women, the boys and girls, of the land are united
for Christian service. They are trained in this.
I do not know that everything they have done
has shown the wisdom of age. That would not
be desirable. It is the privilege of youth to have

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 299
a hopeful daring in feeling and action. They
study and are taught, but the grand aim is the
Christ Hfe, and He pleased not Himself. To
morrow they will be men and women. They are
the future. They cannot be counted ; they can
not be diverted. One could almost smile at fears,
and warnings, and sad prophecies, and the proffer
of strange beliefs, imported dreams, exhausted
mysteries. The men of to-morrow hear nothing,
care nothing, for all this. Why, the future is
here ! Christianity moves quietly, steadily for
ward. It has already taken possession of the next
fifty years. The boy can be trusted. We re
member how finely he came to the rescue when
the hungry multitude gathered around Christ and
there was no bread to give them. When He
worked one of his signs He had something to
begin with. That day He had nothing. A boy
was there, with a few barley cakes and small
fishes, which his foresight had brought for his
ever-recurring condition. He gave them up, —
I do not know why except that he was a boy,
— and in the Lord's hands they became a feast,
and more. It is true still; the boy holds the
loaves. By his wealth and his consent the
world is to be fed. Already he has placed his
gift in the Teacher's hands. The bread is pro
vided. The people will not be sent into their

300 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
villages. The proportions are not discouraging1
¦s— one boy, five barley loaves, two fishes', and five'
thousand men, beside women arid children. I
think the terms are not against us, even with the
twelve men added. We, too, have Christ. ¦
If the ¦ claim for Christianity which has beeri
asserted is weU founded, if it is the Divine method
for the recalling of men, then it must prevail.
We need energy, enterprise ; to invest ourselves
in our plans ; to vitalize our forms ; to prove that
the new is more efficient than the old. When this
comes the world will feel it. Of one thing we
can see the evidence at any hour : the power of
the faith by which the man is brought into contact
with Christ, so that the Divine life is breathed
into his Hfe. This is the work of the Holy Spirit,
and by his grace the taking possession of the
Hfe of God. That this may be done, Christ should
be known; that the soul may be opened before
Him, and that He may impart his own nature.
" With a vital warmth which is ascending " the
new life is taken, and lived into clearer light.
The one essential thing is, that the life of the'
Son of Man be given to men by the Spirit of Hfe.
What is claimed for this faith is found in it.:
It wiU take a man who is selfish, without regard^
for God or man, and will make him thoughtful,
generous, -upright, with a prayer in his heart and

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 301
a song upon his lips. It is not his own work,
though it is with his desire. It comes with his
submission to the'wiU of Christ. But it is the
work of the Divine Spirit in his spirit. There is
another man, with a new Hfe, arid one which lasts.
I give this at the best ; but it is the best which it
is prepared to do. All this has been done. It is
the commonplace among men who teach the way
of Hfe in the cure of souls. There are variations,
but the method itself, and the result itself, are the
same the world over. It would be safe to assure
any man who wiU thus commit himself to Christ
and his Spirit that he will become what has beeri
termed " a new man." If this can be effected, as
it. has been, what remains but that every man be
taught these things, and brought where they wiU
become true in his own experience ? The work
Of recovery which is riecessary is already accom
plished in myriads of souls. What shall we
strive for but its completion? The work needs
to be done. Nothing else is doing it. This is
doing it. The future is provided for. What do
we. need more ? Force.
It is not designed to put man back where he
was. These years have been too costly, and we
must have the good of them. A man is taken in
his strength, with all he has acquired, with all he
has learned, and whUe he bows before the incar-

302 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
nate Love he is invested with new energy, a new
purpose, a true heart, a new commandment, a clear
light; and thus purified, invigorated, directed,
he is set in the right path and led down the ages.
In this world, in any world, he Hves in the new
ness of Hfe. If this is the Divine way, this
should be the result. If this is the result, it
sYhould be the Divine way. It is the result.
It is a matter of quantity now. The problem
is no longer difficult, and it is not beyond our
reach. The loom which wUl weave a piece of
cloth can cover the globe. It is a question of
power, not of looms. What has been done in
Jerusalem can be accomplished in Galilee. Naza
reth can witness the works of Capernaum. We
have finished experiments. These are the days
of repetition.
If I were preaching, I should urge some points
more strongly. Even now, let me add a few con
siderations which may enforce what has been
written. In this day when the scholarly and
scientific spirit prevails, if a free and generous
temper is to rule, Christianity deserves the honest
thought of every man. It has its philosophy,
which is entitled to respect. It is not a matter
of emotion, though it engages the deepest feel
ing. It is not an experience alone, though it
enters into all life. It has its history which is weU

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 303
defined," and its rational principles which are
readily discerned. It reaches into the unseen and
infinite. It must do this, or stop. But it is
concerned with the. present, its duties, relations,
necessities, opportunities. It offers itself to this
world and here makes proof of its strength. Any
appeal can make promises and safely postpone
the day of payment. If it puts this far enough
off, it can maintain its credit. Any system of
religion which expects to be believed should begin
all its work at once and where it can be tested.
For it is in this, as really as in any sphere, that
rehgion is needed. Christianity begins here, and
at a moment's notice- It does not complete its
work, for that stretches on forever. It gives
to-day what to-day requires, and never ceases to
give. We do not know all it means perfectly.
That were too much for the first hundred years,
but the Divine care which seeks us and receives
us. never gives us up. It does not supplant our
energy, but employs it. It permits and encour
ages our personal intercourse with the Creator.
There is more in religion than being blessed :
there is God. Our spiritual nature is enlarged
and elevated as we walk With Him. The mercan
tile considerations which at times enter into our
views of religion are not creditable. If we are
true men we desire to be with God, with our mind

304 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
and heart fixed on Him'. When we are there we
breathe Out our desires arid construct our life in
the simpHcity of ehildreri.
The philosophy of the Christian Hfe requires
that we live in the thought of the Son of Man ; in
his thought of us, which is certain, and in our
thought of Him ; and that will keep the steady
inflowing of the Divine Hfe'. Thiscannot be taken
once for all. The prayer is exact when it says
"our daily bread." The true bread from heaven
must be " daily bread." It is never to leave our
mind that the Christian is one who belongs to
Christ ; who draws his life from Him ; who believes
Him and believes in Him ; who finds freedom in
obedience. " Where the Spirit of the Lord is there
is liberty."Many excellent traits belong to the Christian,
but are not .confined to him, and do not describe
him. He is more, in that he is the disciple and
apostle of Him from whom the name comes. To
use the name Christian without reference to Him
is to break the laws of language. There is no
narrowness in defining the term, for any one can
bear it who wishes. Christianity embraces aU the
virtues and holds them in one design. Life is not
made in sections. Its method is simple, beautiful,
Divine. Our Father is spirit, and we are there
fore spirit. This is our lineage. Then comes the

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 305
honest Hfe, true to itself and its source in the
Spirit, constantly coming to us, constantly rer
ceived and Hved. To teach the Divine goodness
and merey to every man in the world is the privi
lege of those who have learned the truth. Thus
the kingdom of heaven is coming on the earth.'
For themselves and for the world men are to live
in Christ, 'because the Divine life in the fulness of
its grace and truth is his. ¦ Let it be remembered
that it is Himself Christ gives, not his influence.
It is himself the man gives, not his confidence*
Two Hves meet and the one -prevails over the
other and persuades it into a new nature. The
union is for life, and Hfe is endless. An English
writer calls it " the essential weakness of all mere
systems of moraHty, and of most, if not all, other
rehgions, that they confine themselves to pointing
out what the facts of life ought to be, and make
no provision whatever for dealing with facts as
they are." The Son of Man came into the world
knowing it perfectly and longing to serve it. He
came down from his home among the : hills and
dealt with the facts which surrounded Him. He
went into the misery and sin of the earth, into its
hypocrisy and oppression. He offered freedom.
He gave the Truth. He taught righteousness. He
told men that" He had come to save them and that
He must die in doing HV This-was- his passion,

306 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
and He never faltered. There is no explanation
of this life but his own, and He explains the
thought of the Father. One is startled at Doctor
Holmes' cry, " How can God bear it ! This ball
of anguish forever spinning before Him, and the
great hum of its misery going up to his ears."
He does not bear it. In his Son He comes into
it, and offers to every man his hand to bring him
out of it, and every man shall speedily escape
from it who wills to have it so. The pain at the
world's misery is lightened by the joy of taking it
away. Already where his mercy has been carried
we account it a very pleasant thing to live, and
heaven itself rarely attracts one away. The world
is not a " ball of anguish ; " and it can have less
misery any day it decrees it. We are standing in
the' love of God when we believe in a highway
out of sorrow and sin. " I am the way," He said.
I have presented to you the purpose and prom
ise of Christ. I wish to give a resistless influence
to all I have written by letting other men say it.
This truth must have its proof in the life, and it
may be seen in life which we honor even now that
it is removed from our sight. I name two or
three men of exalted character, whose sincerity
and wisdom are Unquestioned, whose philosophy
is in the foremost thinking of scholars ; who were
sagacious* careful, scientific, critical, and who

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 307
could not well be mistaken in questions of per
sonal experience, and to whom pretence was im
possible. The religious principles of such men
deserve respect because they are such men. There
are many of whom my words are true who have
tested Christ and his teaching under varied con
ditions, and whose faith in Him dignified their
noblest years. I think of the president of a great
coUege, Theodore Woolsey, a man whose presence
was a benison as he crossed the yard. He was
weU trained in life, a lawyer, theologian, profes
sor. He was an eniinent Greek scholar, and one
of the revisers of the New Testament. He lived
in the present, familiar with all times. He wrote
on international law, political science, civil lib
erty, socialism. He kept his life young among
young men, and he built no wall around his
thought. He believed in his soul. He kept it
open before spiritual light and grace. He let it
range the ages. He was an old man when he
reached his " time of graduation," as he gently
called it. Then, honored by a countless number
of scholars, he ascended to other, perhaps not
higher, service. Was the opinion of this man on
subjects with which he was well acquainted of
decided value ? Now, this man believed, on liter
ary and personal grounds, that the four biogra
phies of Christ are trustworthy. He was probably

308 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
uncertain oVer some poult iri a Greek manuscript^
but he believed the record. He went much far
ther. He believed this so thoroughly that he ac
cepted the teaching of Christ, and held it to be
the Truth. He looked to Him for guidance, for
knowledge, for righteousness of life. He trusted
the promises he read, and believed that Christ
would win the world. He did more, than this;
much more. If he had been asked — he said it
without being asked — what highest desire he
had for the thousands of young men who revered
him, and whose lives were for four years and
longer in his keeping; he would have replied with
all the solemnity which many and industrious
days could impart : I would that every young man
who enters the gates of this college should be the
thorough-going disciple of Jesus Christ, receiving
his words as they are written in the New Testa
ment, and seeking his Spirit as the only inspira
tion. Change' the form, but not much, and this is true
of our Harvard saint, whose thought Of Christ has
been already told. To him were given a lofty
character, wide learning, broad influence, a large
part among men. He was called to be the teacher
of young men ; and from his words, even more
from the man hirnself, they took lessons in life,
and they desired to Hve. To talk with him was

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 309
to respect him and to respect yourself. He ear?
ried many in his sympathies, and all the long way
he was telling men to be the scholars and the true
friends of Christ ; to trust Him perfectly j and to
make up life entirely by his rules.
With him stands my own President at Harvard,
James Walker ; the wise man, the great man ; -the
writer and teacher Of philosophy; the vigorous
preacher ; who made the reading of the Bible at
morning prayeis something to be talked about
when we had left the chapel ; Who adorned the
truth he taught. I can hear to-day the impressive
roll of his strong voice, . intense in its honesty :
" Young men, you have much more heed of religion
than. religion has of you." Those who recognize
the man will mark how well he described himself
in these words : " There is no ignoring, there is
no Concealing, the inconveniences, the infirmities,
which steal over us as we descend into the vale of
years. . . . It is a great* thing to be surrounded
by kind friends and all the endearments and apJ
pliances of a happy home. But greater than all;
' to know Christ, and the power of. his resurrec
tion,' as a hope full of immortality." With this
hope an old man still has " sofaiething to live for,
and something to die for."
The men come rapidly when we start to think
Upon them- It was riot lorig ago — it was very

310 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
long ago — that one walked among us whom all
men honored. It was a stately presence. It needed
to be for the soul it sheltered. What man has
drawn to himself the homage of the place as did
he who never sought applause? He knew no
boundaries of heart or help. He was the minister
of Trinity ; but no church could confine him. He
held the souls of men in thrall. Every one knew
the way to his open door. His years were not
many, but they were large. His words were in
all lands, his voice at the ends of the earth. Yet
chiefly here where we saw him every day was he
honored and loved. It was a rare fame, unsullied
as he rose to high station. How great he was !
How good ! What made it all ? Was it learning,
eloquence, kindness, humanity, a large manhood
in rare opportunities? These indeed were his.
But these were not the man. No one knows him
who has not gone beneath all this, and found him.
He was a Christiari. He profoundly believed in
Christ. He lived with Him, in Him. He walked
in his light and worked in his strength. He was
large-hearted, but there was not a desire in the
whole range of his feeling which was so strong,
persistent, universal, as the longing that every man
whom he could by any means persuade should live
in the grace of Christ's words, and be guided, puri
fied, ennobled-, by his indwelling Spirit. If he could

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 311
consent to any honor, arid could choose what it
should be, he would place above all other distinc
tion the glory of standing before the world a wit
ness to the truth of the religion which he taught
and Hved.
I do not claim that Christianity is true because
these men believed it, and in their lives' put it
to the proof. But I do claim that it is entitled to
reverent and hopeful study, and to personal alle
giance, when it has commended itself to the con
science and the life, as these teachers say that it
will. I could enlarge the catalogue of names
almost without bounds, and from all the ways of
Hfe. But what need of this?
These witnesses, multiplied by thousands of
intelligent and honest men, encourage the confi
dence which comes with the very presence of
Christ and in every word He taught, that this
religion wiU meet men in their want, teach them
what they need to learn, empower them for
that which they have to do. No want has yet
been discovered to which Christianity does not
effectively address itself. It is distinctly ethical,
and the principles of morality are the same the
world over. The Ten Commandments, the two
commandments, are valid on every spot the sun
shines upon. There is no place where they do not
make for virtue, happiness, peace, helpfulness, and

312 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
length of days. It does more than teach duty.
It provides the motive and desire to do it, and
it furnishes the moral strength. It is life. Be
yond the doing, this religion is religious. It
knows God. We cannot fail to notice the virility
of this religion. This is found in its spirit and its
requirements ; it is seen in the practical evidence
of its power which is everywhere. It makes men.
There is not a dreamy, speculative line in all its
precepts. It is gentle and kindly, but rugged
and solid. Its moral and spiritual energy is man
ifest. Everywhere it gives vigor to the will, force
to the affections, temper to the soul, and makes
the conscience robust. It excepts nothing from
its authority, not even eating and drinking. It
excludes nothing from recognition, not even a cup
of water or a drop of oil. In its idea all of life
is sacred. It writes on the bells of the horses the
' inscription on the high priest's helmet. It finds
room in its service and its records for St. Paul
and Dorcas both* All this is religion, but it is
not the whole of religion, which must stand in
the thought of God, in unity with Him, in love,
in trust, in the desire and intent to do the things
which please Him, and because they please Him.
When conduct parts with God, it is no longer
religious. Thus religion makes life more inter
esting and honorable at the same time that it

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 313
unites it with the Divine life ; and it makes the
thoughts and feelings more exalted when it en
shrines them in the common duties which it
requires and rewards* and which the world needs.
To make all this real and assured the Son of Man
lives in men. They know his presence and they
offer it the love which fosters piety and yields
obedience in good works. In his own words of
friendliness, they sup with Him and He with
them. Faith, Hope, Love abide. They have
immortahty and more. Eternal life is more. It is
offered to every man, forced on no one. Christ
did not come to destroy, but to save, and He does
not destroy life in the act of saving it ; removing
its liberty to secure its happiness. His gifts are
from freedom to freedom. Life is to live. The
breath of the Almighty was not given to be with
drawn. Our days are not to end in a vanishing
point. We do not hold them at the will of change
and chance. The Son of Man gave Himself, not
to perfect seventy yeais, but to perfect life. He
restored man because man was to live. We take
the grandeur away if we think this is not so. For
the Creator to withdraw man to Himself is to lose.
From everlasting He had the life and He added
man. By this personality He gained. To bring
this to an end would be to cancel his own thought
and destroy his own work. He would lose a child.

314 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
If He takes the man's life back into his Hfe, there
is no more life than before, and the man is gone.
There is less to love. " Not vitahty, but person
ality, is the witness for immortality," Asa Gray
wrote. Christ came to make pure the enduring
heart of man, and to make his life like God's.
There was inducement to this in the endless years.
All the way the scale is Divine. We think we
were " not made to die," and God has made us.
He will make life a blessing in the Sori, There
is a tradition that St. Paul wished he had met
Virgil. We may share his regret. I wish that
Christ could have met Buddha. He would have
enlightened him, fostered all that was noble and
kind in him, lifted his burden of sorrow and his
pain for the world, carried him in heart and hope
past Nirvana into Paradise. Life would have
been a blessing to be cherished, and immortahty
an unspeakable joy. I wish He could have seen
the man so greatly loved, and have taken him for
a disciple and apostle !
We have a natural interest in the world, and in
whatever will help it to know itself and enjoy its
life. It is not a deserted world. If we caU it
lost, as there is warrant for doing, we must also
call it found. If we think it prodigal, and well
we may, it has not wandered out of the care of
Him who made it. The work of the Divine Hfe

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 315
in the world has gone far, but it is far frorri com
pletion. Many difficulties are surmounted, but
others remain, and they are real, whatever be their
form, however slight they seem. If the coral in
sects built the Dolomites, it is only good climbing
which surmounts them. We say that the world
is open before the messengers of God. Not quite.
They can go into any land, but not into every
heart. The call "From Greenland's icy moun
tains " is not more strong than when Hans Egede
answered it two hundred years ago. Nevertheless
the Divine faith is advancing, and the Divine
presence moves before it, cloud by day and fire
by night. We plan for the wOrld, but we cannot
forget the need along our own streets, in our
hovels and palaces, on the hills and by the
streams. If the result were better here we should
have more readiness to extend the good. There
is a serious thought in the questions of an Ameri
can historian : " Christianity has conquered all
the best races in history thus far. Now, can it
conquer to the bottom, as it has already conquered
to the top ? Can it bring the whole human fam
ily, its lowest peoples with its highest, into one
common fold ? Can it evangelize its own cities,
going down into the cellars, up into the garrets,
of its own heathens here at home ? Hard as the
task may be, Christianity stands squarely com-

316 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
mitted to it. What it can do may be known from
what it has done."
If things have been done by those bearing this
name, which have had little of the spirit of the
Teacher, we knew they were not of his bidding.
We said the treasure is in earthen vessels, but we
knew that the treasure was true. If we had con
fused vessel and treasure we had been careless, or
worse. But always the faith itself can be found.
The treasure is not to be hidden in vessels. The
broken alabaster is to let the spikenard send out
its fragrance. The box needs no cover, and the
world needs the perfume. One may see at
Naples a joint of pipe from Pompeii with the
water still within it. You shake this and the
water answers, but it cannot escape. It is a curi
osity, but not a benefit. Let the faith escape
from men and schools and it will live. To live is
the normal state of life, to live and to give life.
The life of the Son of Man has not entrenched
itself in castles and palaces, claiming regal honors,
asserting political authority, and subduing kings.
It has lived in meekness and gentleness ; teaching
good-will, breathing out charity, heahng, com
forting, restoring ; revealing God and calling men
home. Whatever else appears, this reveals itself.
It lives in this grace now. If we could agree to
take this as the rule of life, the world would feel

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 317
its power. The world, which gets too little help
from stately institutions, would find its streets
Hghted by his presence and its waters levelled
under- his feet. I beg that Christ and his truth
may not be judged by the things which men have
done against which our humanity cries out. Let
not those be overlooked in whom the spirit of
Christ has done a more perfect work. There are
men on whom the name of saint is not unbecom
ing; men and women in whom a high-minded
charity has lived, who have made the world beau
tiful, and have lived in the presence of the Lord,
hi the power of his Spirit. May not Christianity
be judged by its best ? It has its best, of whom
the world was not worthy, and they were its light
— often soHtary, as beacon lights are wont to be.
The best is the real. There have been brave
deeds, easily recalled ; great thoughts and forces.
There was wonderful strength in the old forms of
Christian behef which have lessened their power.
They made God great and his sovereignty strong,
and we need that work to-day. Calvinism " set
its face against illusion and mendacity," as
Froude says ; and it produced vigorous characters,
equal to large achievements. That system will
not return, but the virtue which was, in it cannot
perish. Who shall call men and churches to the way of

313 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
Hfe, and bring us in contentment around the one
name? Perhaps no one. Yet in some form the
truth of Christ is to find men and to save them. I
sometimes fancy that such a man is coming. Not
yet. The time is not ready for him. If he comes,
it will be in Spirit and in power ; he will find the
good and value it; he will give honor to the
churches and their service; he will be tolerant
and generous ; he will not strive nor cry, but
quietly, with Divine power, he will persuade, and
the conscience of men will approve, and they will
receive the Divine life for themselves, for the
country, for the world. He shaU Hve. In his
heart " shall dwell visions of a world redeemed,
and the divine passion to redeem it." High au
thority bids us " Beware when God lets loose a
prophet." Beware when God does not let loose
a prophet! Ecclesiastical matters are shaken ; but
much order abides in strength. Of late there has
been quick and bold thinking; but we know
where we are. This is all preparatory, not final.
I see no reason why we could not reconstruct our
forms of belief. Such work has been done many
times. It can only be done by men in whom the life
lives. We have quantities of material : gold, sUver,
precious stones ; and perhaps the rest. But the one
foundation standeth sure. We ought to be able
to build anew. Perhaps we ought to be wilHng.

THE. CHRISTIAN FORCES 319
But what the world needs first, and to the end,
is God. Not God in the heavens, and in the past,
alone. But God here, and ready by "the man
whom he hath ordained " to repeat and enlarge
the work recorded in Genesis, and many times
promised in the New Testament, and to create
a man in his own image, with his own heart, a
new man in the Son of Man. A revolt against
things we do not esteem is of little value unless
it leads us from fretting to faith, and brings us to
the real life. The appeal to the past needs to
reach to the beginning. What did they know
who stood near the Apostles which is not in our
hands? The years since have added little but
experience, with reasoning, defining, asserting. Of
the merits of their work we are judges. The New
Testament is in our hands and we can read it in
English and Greek. We do well to preserve our
respect for the Christian thinking which has pre
ceded us. There is wisdom so old that we are chil
dren in its presence. Solid, substantial, scholarly,
scientific thought distinguishes the Christian cen
turies, and is nowhere more marked than in the
domain of religious truth. We do well to keep
before us the learning of other days, and then do
our own thinking. These years with their- in
crease of all knowledge must have given light to
the .truths. It would .be strange if religious truth

320 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
alone were excluded from the learning. It is not
that new facts have been added, but new light
through Hfe. The truths need to be stated in
the terms of the present day, and in the propor
tions which life now requires. This wiU keep us
in sympathy with the saints, in their feehng if not
in its expression ; and soon there will be a re
sponse in our own hearts. This personal study
of the truth we shall not deny to those who in
herit our words, and we may ask the same free
dom for ourselves.
I have one thing to add in the way of corrfirma-
tion by personal witness. I have many times said
that the Divine force, the Divine life, is now given
to men through Jesus Christ, — " j am come that
they might have life," — that whosoever consents
to receive this from Him shall have it. Is this
true? It is an interesting question, even aside
from its importance, else I should, not set it here.
It is more than thirty years since it became my
daily life to serve under this behef. As the min
ister of a large parish, in close connection with the
world, and especially with colleges, I have had
what seems to me an ample opportunity to deter
mine whether the Divine Hfe is reaUy bestowed in
this way. I have now to say- to you that I am
certain it is bestowed in this way ; that whoever
opens his heart to the Sou of Mali, and goes on to

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 321
obey Him, receives life, with Hght and strength ;
a new and living force, which shall make his life
true, generous, Divine. This is more than the
imparting of a new purpose, a noble desire, a long
ing for an ideal. It is the giving of life ; life for
the heart, the conscience, the will ; the Hfe which
makes a new man. It does not make a full-grown
man ; but a child rather, whom it brings up into
manhood. Bear with me for a moment. In these
years which are no longer few I have many times
seen the spirit of a man opened quickly before the
Son of Man. He has always come in. He comes
in whenever the man opens the door. It is as
sure as the coming in of the outer air. I have
never known it otherwise.
I am wilHng to trust to this any one whose well-
being is of infinite worth in my thought. I am
rejoiced when any young man whose heart I have
reached goes out from Harvard or Yale with this
truth to inspire his life and to be his message to
the world. Here it is, so far as I depend upon
the warrant of experience, that I have justified
myself in writing of the Divine force in the life
of the world. The force which reaches a new
man, and by repeating this reaches a new world,
may well be called Divine. I believe in the Son of
Man. Before me He stands, the Man of history,
young, erect, brave. He wears no halo but his

322 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
manly love ; with form well defined, the outline
sharp against the sky, and the whole being rounded
with grace, with the eye clear and gentle as the
light, the ear sensitive to a child's thought, a sin
ner's sigh, the hands strong enough to turn a
world, .- gentle enough to wipe away a tear. He
stands the real man, the perfect man, in whom is
the fulness of the Divine life, so that the willing
man He touches lives, and bears his image and
likeness. If that prophet should ever come his word would
be simple, but forcible. He would open the New
Testament and read of the Son of Man ; and he
would call us to devote ourselves to Him ; to be
lieve his words, and to take them as the rule of
our life ; to receive his spirit, that it may control
our feeling and thought. He would bid us to
trust in Him and in his grace to have eternal life.
More than this he would say for enforcement.
But the one thing from which he would never
swerve is this — that Jesus Christ is the Love of
God, in the world redeeming and in heaven en
throned. " I determined not to know anything
among you, save Jesus Christ and Him cruci
fied," were the words of a prophet, wul be the
words of the coming prophet, if he comes. The
world will hear and beheve, and will find itself
and its Creator.

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 323
Does all this seem far away ? No, this has be
gun. It was finished that night at Bethlehem, for
a divine purpose has its fulfilment in itself. We
have seen the end, and now wait for its unfolding.
These dull days cannot last much longer. The
former times are not better than those which are
at hand. We are slowly regaining the spirit of
Christianity in our abounding service. Useful
ness ranks higher than ever, or anywhere, before.
Men are thinking of Christ, talkirig, writing, read
ing of Him. He is in the mind. ReHgious truths
are a common theme, and diversity is a hopeful
sign of life. Christianity is young and the cur
rents of its Hfe are strong. It was never so great
in confidence as in these earnest days. It has
broadened with all knowledge. It keeps pace with
discovery and geography. It intends to bring the
world to its Lord. Its Uncompromising faith is
pledged to this. It works in the power of the
Holy Ghost, the Eternal Spirit. It devotes to
this divine end its best treasure, the young life in
which to-morrow lives. It will disown itself and
its origin when it contracts its design. We have
made proof of Christianity, and we know that it
can do all that is needed in New England and
South America, from Great Britain to Melanesia.
David Livingstone and Coleridge Patteson died in
full knowledge of its way and work, and an utter

324 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
belief in it. John Paton among the Christians
whom he made from cannibals, by this grace,
knows and believes. The knowledge of such men
is worth tons of opinion. Theories must make
obeisance before results. Things seem to be ready
for the spirit of truth and life. In the coming of
Christ is the Divine pledge of the completion of
his redemptive purpose. That we shall see greater
things than these is still his word. He is the liv
ing promise, and He will be kept. Not in what
men are doing, but in what He is doing, is our
confidence. No one versed in his teaching can
fail to be brave. Who love Him best, best love
their fellow-men, and are bold for their sake. His
work is not to be done in a day. It is not the
transfer of an outward allegiance ; the changing
of a banner for the cross. It is deep, in the heart
of a man ; the overturning of his purpose, the con
trolling of his Hfe. Every man created anew be
comes the minister to his neighbor somewhere.
God is in it all. This is his will. Our rehance
is on Him. The Son of God is " the transcendent
Person of history ; and to be transcendent here is
to be transcendent everywhere, for rehgion is the
supreme factor in the organizing and the regulat
ing of our personal and collective life." The past
inspires us. Lecky had studied the course of the
world when he wrote of the three years of Christ's

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 325
life, that the record of them " has done more to
soften and regenerate mankind than all the dis
quisitions of philosophers, and than all the exhor
tations of moralists." The historian of morality
gave his testimony, that "It was reserved for
Christianity to present to the world an ideal char
acter, which through all the changes of eighteen
centuries has filled the hearts of men with an im
passioned love." It is a glorious consummation to
which we look. What is it? The answer is con
tinually upon our lips. The air is hallowed with
the promise which answers to our request. We
speak in f amihaf words the end and glory of crea
tion. We say The Lord's Prayer. The end is in
it. He taught it, we learned it, long ago. It is
the cry of the centuries ; in many tongues, in one
desire. The child bends at his mother's knee or
ever sleep touches his innocent eyes, and lisps as
she has told him,i " Thy kingdom come." In every
college the student as he closes his books to-night
and calls home his thoughts, and in manly pur
pose feels the meaning of his life, finds no truer
expression of it than the prayer of his boyhood,
" Thy kingdom come."
The priest chants it at the altar. It is spoken
by the merchant who has commerce with eternal
things ; by the lawyer who knows the holiness of
law, aware of one Law-giver ; the physician whose

326 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
ministry is health ; the man of science whose un
fettered thought moves in an open world; the
mother, kinswoman with her of Bethlehem, who
would extend the sanctity of her hOme ; the sol
dier without fear and without reproaeh ; the sailor
who roams from clime to clime with merchandise
which cannot be valued with silver, exchanging
thought for thought and adding Hfe to life. " Thy
kingdom come," they say. " Thy will be done ; "
and in the space beneath the heavens the words
gather in a cloud of desire ; floating quietly above
us, illumined, shaped in a holy city with jewelled
walls ; and under the cloud, here upon the earth,
moves on the life, with its word, its touch, its
breath; praying, and bringing nearer and more
near the longed-for consummation, the crowning
of all hope, the passion of the saints, the fulness
of life, the new creation perfected, the marriage
of the Son of Man to the New Jerusalem. We
said it when we were children, we are doing it now,
— " Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done."
No better words were found to write upon the
wall of Harvard, the mother's blessing for her sons
as year by year they go out to do their manly ser
vice in the world ; against the names of her sons
who glorified their learning with devotion, and
gave their lives for the country, — there were
found- no better words than these from one who

THE CHRISTIAN FORCES 327
knew duty and held it more than length of days ;
" They that be wise shaU shine as the brightness
of the firmament; and they that turn many to
righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."
We are working for this. Many things are
ready. The wedding only waits the guests.
Blessed is he who summons them ! The house is
builded and furnished. Our preparation is on a
goodly scale. Temples, cathedrals, churches invite
worshippers. The kingdom will find its palaces
prepared. The stupendous temples of India are
ready for the Son of Man. The gods of many
arms will give place to Him who held children
against his heart, and blessed them there. The
walls of Egypt's sanctuaries can quickly be re
stored. The land of the Nile sheltered Him
when He was a child. He wUl reward it with the
goodwiU of a man. At Philse already the cross
is cut into the door-post. There has been Chris
tian worship at Luxor, and there might be to-day.
Prayer might even now be said among the piUars
of Karnak with the majesty of their memory, the
heaviness of their silences. I noticed that when
the Moslem tore the cross from the door of St.
Sophia he left the marks of the nails, and they can
go back into their old places.. They are to go
back. The powers of heaven will restore the
cross. It has been needed in these suffering

328 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES
months. It will shed its light upon aU the Ori
ent and beyond, circling the globe. It will never
fall Upon a man whom it cannot help. The light
is spreading, slowly. The sun is in it. Let us
wait ; but let us look. The dawn reaches toward
the day. The day will be forever, but the morn
ing will be here. We close our eyes and have the
vision :
Where faint and far,
Along the tingling desert of the sky,
Beyond the circle of the conscious hills,
Were laid in jasper-stone as clear as glass
The first foundations of that new, near. Day
Which should be builded out of heaven to God.

INDEX.

Page
Agassiz, Louis.
his prayer at Penikese ... 45
Altruism. a name for Christian service, 192
Angels. their place  56
Apostles, The.
their devotion  245.
the later use of the name . 256
Aryans. their idea of creation ... 89
Associations, The Young
Men's Christian.
their strength  290
in colleges  293
international  293
Aurelius, Marcus.
his character ....... 241
Bacon, Roger.
his ability  253
his superstition  253
Bible, The.
regarded as literature . . 6, 129
the earliest chapters . 6, 18-22
harmopy with science, 17, 19, 20
a book of nature  18
high estimate of man ... 58
value of, as authority . . . 126
the New Testament .... 132
Brace, C. L.
Gesta Christi  250

Pago
Brahma. his time  98
his teaching  98
Britain. early religion of  273
Brooks, Phillips.
his testimony  309
Buddha,
his birfh  99
his life  99
protected from evil .... 100
his view of life  100
Nirvana  100
his view of man  100
Buddhism  101, 102
Bushnell. on the dignity of human
nature  62
Calendar, The.
Dionysian  123
its relation to Christianity . 123
Calvinis^c. its strength  317
Caste. ¦ .
in India  99
Cato, The Elder.
his character ....... 241
Causation. continuity of  35
Christ. his birth usedin the calendar, 118

330

INDEX

Page
Christ. biographies of  126
in the Old Testament . . .132
in the lives of bis friends . 133
in the Book of Acts . . . 133
known by St. Paul . . . . 134
to be known now  137
witness of the churches to . 139
time of his coming .... 143
his home at Nazareth . 146, 151
his childhood  . 147
his education  148
first visit to the Temple . . 149
his baptism  152
his first disciples ..... 155
his temptation  . 152
the second Adam  153
his miracle at Cana .... 154
the cleansing of the Temple, 155
interview with Nicodem'iis . 155
with the woman of Samaria, 156
at Sychar ,.;'.:... 158
at. the synagogue of Naza
reth  158
his personality  159
his mission  159, 161
his transfiguration .... 160
his crucifixion .... 160, 184
his death  160, 185
his relation to the Father . 171
to men . . . . 173
as the Shepherd ..... 173
his use of "My" . . . 174, 198
as the vine  174
as the Creator . . . ; . 175
the name Jesus  177
Emmanuel . . . 177
Christ .... 177
bis Kingdom ..... 178, 187
his entrance into Jerusalem, 183
his teaching ... .190,197

Page
Christ. his teaching of service . . .192
money . . . 193
the prodigal, 200
was the reality  201
his miracles  202
required faith  207
required prayer  212
required the Sabbath. . .213
effects of his life  221
the power of his Love . . 223
' his confidence in his friends, 225
the close of his life .... 239
present preparation for . . 327
Christianity. its meaning  136
to be known now  136
the spread of  247, 257
its influence  249, 268
present condition  261
organizations  262
effect of national changes, 270
proof of its worth . 307-311, 320
Christians. persecutions of  232
teaching by the Spirit . . . 238
their character described . 259
eveiy one a force  261
the name  304
Churches. their testimony to Christ . 138
Clark, N. G.
his testimony to Christianity, 269
Conscience. its witness to God  48
Creation. a new word  9
the act of creation . . . . 9, 33
eternal  12
a beginning needed . . . . 13

INDEX

331

Page
Creation. Plato's account of  15
God's delight in  .16
various accounts of . ... 21
spiritual in its origin . . . . 26
of man  26, 30
Death. its meaning and place ... 89
Design. argument from  24
Asa Gray on  44
Dionysius. his calendar  123
Disciples, The.
their devotion to Christ . . 222
their fidelity  228
Disobedience. its beginning  81
reason for  86
Duty. the ground of  65
love is  67
under evolution  69
Hooker on  74
Edwards, Jonathan.
his consciousness of God . . 40
Eliot, C. W.
interest of universities in
religious institutions . . 297
Emerson, B. W.
on duty  74
England. influence^ of  286
Erskine, Thomas.
his consciousness of God . . 41
Fetichism. defined  113
Francis, Saint, of Assisi.
his preaching to birds - . . .72
Gop. in the beginning . . . 6, 8, 11

Page
God. , fellowship in his being . . 9
self-revelation of  12
his relation to creation . 14, 35
a supreme moment with . . 16
the only life . . . . .34,63
universal idea of . . '. . . . 43
witness of conscience ... .48
not the author of evil . . .91
Gray, Asa.
the design in nature . . .44
Hindoos. Maurice on  102
Hitchcock, fi. D.
on superstition in religion, 107
on the conquests of Christianity, ' 315
Holmes, O. W.
on suffering in the world . 306
Holy Spirit, The.
at Pentecost  -228
his place and work . •- . . 229
Hooker, Bichard.
on duty  .74
Humming-bird. the life of .'  32
India. the land  . 98
Brahmans  .98
caste  ...... 99
Buddhism . ... . . 99, 101
has no light for the world . 104
Japan. Buddhism in  103
Jesus Christ.
(he name ..... .¦;. ¦ . ¦ 177
John the Baptist. "'''.., \ ,
his coming  144
his preaching . '. . . . . 145
Jowett, Benjamin.
on the state of the world ' . 243

332

INDEX

Page
Kingdom of Heaven.
described  178, 187
Lecky, W. E. H.
on the king's touch .... 253
Life. continuity of  11
forms of . .  13, 26
first living creature . . . . 20
mystery of  32
of a bird  32
the only life  34, 63
lower and higher . . . . 34, 72
Livingstone, David.
a witness to Christ . . 138, 323
Love. in creation  16
called for man  27
interprets life  31
is duty  67
Man. the first  26
a living soul  30, 69
his creation  30
made religion possible ... 33
his double relation . . .34, 53
lightly regarded  57
dignity of  62
to be like his maker . . . . 64
his Edenic happiness . . 68, 70
lame or halting creature . . 68
connected with lower forms of
life  71
transition from obedience, 76,
79, 85
his slow ascent ...... 77
his "fall up"  80
in the garden of Eden ... 80
out of the garden  88
the problem of recovery . . 95
Maurice, F.D.
his consciousness of God . .41

Page
Maurice, F. D.
on the Hindoos  102
Miracles. at Cana  ' . '. . 154
described  ¦ . • 204
on the lame man at the Tem
ple  231
Missions. essential to Christianity . . 259
theirforces  262
their results  272
to Britain ........ 274
well established . ... 288
still needed  295
MULFORD, E.
on the belief in God . . . . 41
Muller, G.
his orphanage  267
Nansen, Fridtjof.
reasoning from driftwood . 94
Nature.
its permanent meaning . . .16
its early records  23
Nazareth. its synagogue visited . . . 158
Nelson, Horatio.
signal at Trafalgar .... 225
NlCODEMUS. his interview with Christ . 155
Obedience. the nature of  67
the ground of  66
transition from  76, 79
Palestine. a fitting place for the life of
Christ  142
Parsees. their stories of creation ... 90
Paton, J. G.
his witness to Christianity, 324

INDEX

Page
Patteson, J. C.
his witness to Christianity . 323
Paul, Saint.
a witness to Christ .... 134
his conversion  232
his ministry  233
his authority  237
Peabody, A. P.
on the person of Christ . . 172
his testimony  308
Penikese. Agassiz's prayer on .... 45
Pentecost,- Day of.
its importance  227
Peter, Saint.
his miracle at the Temple, 231
Plato. describes creation  15
on the soul  39
Pliny. on the spread of Christianity, 247
Prayer. a part of Christianity . . . 212
the Lord's Prayer  325
Prophet. the one coming  318
Bamabai, Pundita.
on the women of India . . 110
Religion. separate from preaching ... 3
reality of  5
variety in  5
confesses a supreme will ... 7
is personal  7
source of  8
universal  8
without science  13
became possible  33
demanded by men  94

Page
Religions. of tlj,e world  103
insist on morality  105
rev$$l man  105
superstition in  106
insufficient .  108
a common principle in . . . 112
Republic, The American.
formation of ...... . 282
its influence  286
Robertson, F. W.
it is right to do right . .^, . 66
Sabbath, The. *^
a part of Christianity . . .213
Samaria. Christ at the well of . . . 156
Science. without religion  13
confirmed by the Bible . 17, 20
opposition to  251
formed by Christianity . . 252
Serpent, The.
in the garden  83
Soul, The.
what it is  33
is the man  36, 69
origin of  36
Plato on  39
Spencer, Herbert.
on the being of God ... 42
Stephen, Saint.
his martyrdom  233
Stobrs, R. S.
his lectures  249
Superstition. in religions  106
Hitchcock on  107
Temptation, The.
in the garden of Eden ... 87
not of God  91
temptation of Christ . . . 152

334

INDEX

: Page
Tradition. source of  19
Truth. independent of form .... 4
Virchow, Professor.
pnlife  '. . . .11
Walker, J.
the gospel of encouragement, 59
on the person of Christ . . 172
his testimony  309
Winthrop, J.
on the design of the Puri
tans  . . 284

Page
Woolsey, Theodore.
his testimony  307
Worship. by the Zuni Indians . . .113
of the heavens . . . . 114
Young Men's Christian Asso
ciations.
their purpose and strength . 290
in colleges  293
international  293
Zuni Indians.
their worship  113